The first thing that came to my mind when I read this was: "What about IP theft?"
That is a very 'the glass is half empty' mindset. You wont get very far in business if you are always thinking about how people are gonna rip you off.
If you destined to become a multi-millionaire entrepreneur you wouldnt be thinking about how is going to steal your ideas, you would be thinking about which ideas you can steal;o)
You are totally right about swearing. Never swear, shout, or do anything aggressive.
I used to believe this too, however, a year or so back I purchased a fridge from Comet in the UK. When I brought it home, I followed the instructions carefully (dont plug in for 8 hours etc), but when it was turned on, it was clear the refrigeration unit was faulty. I took it back...
At first I was quite polite, but the customer service guy really didnt want to know. When he said "How can you know its faulty, are you a qualified fridge engineer?"... I snapped, and boy did I snap.
Some of the other customers in the shop left due to the commotion and others were gathering to observe the fireworks. This was clearly costing them lots of money in custom, and it didnt take too long before I was offered a full refund complete with apology (although I was politely asked never to return to the shop... which wasnt a huge problem for me... and it made this quite clear!).
Sometimes, being a bit of a yob can work, it is unfortunate, but if your complaints fall on deaf ears, turning up the volume can prove quite fruitful.
Wow! Im America politics are complicated!! Here in the UK they just promise to lower taxes and then raise them, promise to improve the NHS and then make it worse etc...
Also, during the realitvely long time our parliment has existed we have been working on the very advanced political tactic of shouting and a group of guys facing you hoping to make your guys laugh of shout "HEAR! HEAR!"...
sorting algorithms in most big databases are highly optimized
Efficient sorting algorithms are hardly a closely guarded secret, it is possible to implement the exact same 'optimized' algoritm in any of the tiers. With this in mind, the performance costs of the two sorts cancels and you are left with the additional cost of the SQL parser. So assuming the programmer is capable of either A) writing an efficient sort or B) using the efficient sorts provided in the libraries that are supplied with most mainstream languages this option will always be more efficient.
the cost of ordering a recordset will almost always be minimal compared to the cost of generating that recordset
Exactly! So request the record set once, load it into memory and do whatever sorts are required. If I need to sort the data on different columns for different reasons the costs of generating the record sets begin to multiply. Maybe the data is in the database cache after the first query, but maybe its not and needs to be regenerated.
'Order by' has been useful to me in situations where the query is combined with another clause such as one that limits the size of the dataset. Something like 'load the top 10, highest priority bug reports'. If I did this in code I would need to load them all then sort and discard, which is clearly not very bright, but using 'order by' just to sort data has always proved problematic in my experience. YMMV I guess.
i noticed that the "order by" clause made it into EJBQL 2.0 as well, despite the howls of protests from object purists.
The howls of the object purists tend to go beyond this and recommend against EJB altogether. Even so, I dont see any reason for not including it in the EJBQL spec, I am sure there are cases where it can be very useful. Its a feature that is provided by the database and not including it 'on principal' would be pretty daft, but using it 'because its there' doesnt constitute a strong argument in my book.
Here's one that'll make you howl: "sorting is a presentation-tier concern"
Largely it is. If the user hits a table header to sort on the selected row, are we are supposed go back to the database and do a different 'order by'?... I dont think so!
If the sort is required purely to provide the user with a list in 'alphabetical' order then sorting in the presentation tier tends to be smarter because it reduces the 'bug-space'. That data generally passes through several levels of indirection, at any time someone may decide to replace an ordered collection with an unordered one and by the time it reaches the screen... it all out of sequence. Also, its very possible that while the data needs to be sorted to give users that 'fuzzy feeling' the same API can be used to provide a SOAP/XML-RPC/CORBA interface that doesnt require sorting (or rather, let the consumer decide). Why do this, fairly expensive, operation on a tier that doesnt always require that it is done?
If sorting is required in the middle-tier it is usually due to some search algorithm or something. In this case, I prefer to put the sort with the search so that it is clear. Where I have worked with pure SQL (tend to use ORM tools now) I like to put the SQL in a seperate repository that the DBA's can tweak without recompliation. That 'order by' gets dropped pretty quick when the PHB is complaining about DB performance... and WHOOPS... really weird bug in the search code.
So it seems to me, that when you factor in the real world issues around using the database as a sorting tool.... its not quite so 'howl-worthy'.
If the writers are reading this I have an idea for the pilot.
Captain Archer of enterprise saves the life of a crew mate and SUDDENLY disappears in a flash of blue. He awakes to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that are not his own...
Attending a funeral is not going to improve anyone's political position
Yet you assume that Chirac not attending the funeral was him "Sending message that he didnt like the united states". In any case, perhaps he doesnt, and would be within his rights not to. His descion to attend a man's funeral should be based on his relationship with the man not the state.
Hell, we're at war and President Bush attended the funeral.
I do hope you are kidding! You are at war and your president takes time off to play golf and go on holiday.
Perhaps Chirac realized (correctly) that a man's funeral should not be used to improve one's political position or as an international diplomatic event.
If Chirac had no strong connections to Mr Reagan it would have been inappropriate for him to attend the funeral and act like he was the man's bestest buddy.
I personally feel that beaming the images of a wife grieving for her late husband into living rooms around the world was far more tasteless than Chirac not attending the funeral... but thats me.
This issue of bleeding the defendant dry so they have to settle comes up time after time on slashdot.
IANAL... but i would be willing to play one if needs be. To be honest, I think simply quoting the contents of some of posts here would be enough to get a dismissal. You dont have to have a lawyer right?
Maybe I have a laid back-attitude to such issues, but if it were me, I think I would relish the oppurtunity to defend myself in court and win (surely I would stand a chance with a little research and facing a weak case), also this is more likely to generate some press interest.
Hell... even a few little 'mistakes' (protocol breaches) in the court-room wouldnt go amiss surely. After all, if you are forced to defend yourself you cant be expected to be a legal eagle right? I guess the Judge will just have to put up with it...
Come on my fellow geeks, join me as we descend on the legal system... thinkgeek t-shirt proudly on display and lightsabers ignited...
I wasnt aware this was happening until I work this morning and switched on the news.
It amuses me that any channel that covers these kind of events spends 2% of their times covering the basics of astronomy and why this event is quite rare.
The other 98% is spent explaining the danger of staring directly at the sun.
Then... I go to the park to eat my lunch in the sunshine (rare in the UK) only to see hoards of people doing exactly this (or thinking that cheap sunglasses will protect them). Worse is mothers trying to show their kids ("Mummy, mummy, I cant see anything... and my eyes hurt"... "Just keep looking sweety... you will see it when your eyes lose sensativity!").
So a further warning to slashdotters...
Dont stare directly at the sun...
Just get someone else to do it and descibe it to you;o)
You act like there is no middle ground between... "I write Javascripts to make cursors flash purty colors" and "I invent new programming languages with a soldering iron!".
The fact is that the majority of employment in the software development field falls between these two posts and does not generally require a degree (if some other conditions are met).
Having worked with both graduates and non-graduates (my category), I can say that there is very little distinction. I have worked with graduates that even if you explained something to them 10 times a day for 5 years they still wouldnt get it.
Infact I would even go as far to say that non-grads are generally slightly better, but generally the grads that bring the average down are those that came to CS for the money rather than talent, this is rarer in non-grads in the craft.
The bottom line seems to be that regardless of education, the most important attributes that make a good coder are a tendancy towards logic and analysis. This is a talent, not a university award.
* Waldo * The wizard * A scroll * Two mermaids pleasuring each other * Poseidon's driving license * Plato's lost map * Sebastian the crab * Cowboy Neal's bathing suit
Dont get bogged down in drag and drop, it was just an example.
There are lots of things that are difficult to implement in what is essentially a documentation format. CGI was a hack and it never really improved much from there.
Users of applications expect certain things, responsiveness being up quite high on the list. Over a congested pipe it is not always acceptable to wait a couple of seconds while your browser refreshes your page with you menu expanded rather than collapsed!
Yes, I know there is a solution in Javascript but having worked with various web developers (I tend to focus on the back-end, business logic development myself) I know that Javascript is pretty much the #1 cause for complaint. Especially when it is used to provide complex functionality that should really be a part of the client container (or the browser in this case).
Anyone who has ever sat in a room with a client who is requesting features that the browsers can not easily provide should understand where I am coming from.
To the client (especially one that has seen a flash based web app interface), "The browser cant do that" doesnt cut it.
This is true currently, but it is set to change. Web based deployment is excellent for non-tech business in that there is very little support on the desktop (no rollouts etc).
The Java applet model was designed to solve this problem, but it failed. However, flash is fareing much better.
As more and more business move to 'web-deployed' business software I predict a big departure from HTML for web applications.
Joe public user doesnt want to know about "You cant use drag and drop anymore, the browser doesnt support it".
There will be a migration to technologies like Flash/Actionscript where you can get the rich client experience in the browser. Users will demand this, execs will demand this and development companies/open source groups will provide this.
Having said that, I have looked at XAML and there doesnt seem to be a reason why it could not be interpreted to build a flash GUI. Perhaps this is the true of this effort too, but to include hypertext in the title indicates a degress of shortsightedness IMHO.
Slashdot Mirror
...and just like Leisure Suit Larry, there are plenty of places in London where you can pick up a dose of the clap!
The first thing that came to my mind when I read this was: "What about IP theft?"
;o)
That is a very 'the glass is half empty' mindset. You wont get very far in business if you are always thinking about how people are gonna rip you off.
If you destined to become a multi-millionaire entrepreneur you wouldnt be thinking about how is going to steal your ideas, you would be thinking about which ideas you can steal
You are totally right about swearing. Never swear, shout, or do anything aggressive.
I used to believe this too, however, a year or so back I purchased a fridge from Comet in the UK. When I brought it home, I followed the instructions carefully (dont plug in for 8 hours etc), but when it was turned on, it was clear the refrigeration unit was faulty. I took it back...
At first I was quite polite, but the customer service guy really didnt want to know. When he said "How can you know its faulty, are you a qualified fridge engineer?"... I snapped, and boy did I snap.
Some of the other customers in the shop left due to the commotion and others were gathering to observe the fireworks. This was clearly costing them lots of money in custom, and it didnt take too long before I was offered a full refund complete with apology (although I was politely asked never to return to the shop... which wasnt a huge problem for me... and it made this quite clear!).
Sometimes, being a bit of a yob can work, it is unfortunate, but if your complaints fall on deaf ears, turning up the volume can prove quite fruitful.
my data is worth over $100,000 a month
This 'data' doesnt happen to be a large collection of email addresses does it?
Wow! Im America politics are complicated!! Here in the UK they just promise to lower taxes and then raise them, promise to improve the NHS and then make it worse etc...
Also, during the realitvely long time our parliment has existed we have been working on the very advanced political tactic of shouting and a group of guys facing you hoping to make your guys laugh of shout "HEAR! HEAR!"...
That one was on Clintons 'other list'... I think he had an Intern help him work on it...
sorting algorithms in most big databases are highly optimized
Efficient sorting algorithms are hardly a closely guarded secret, it is possible to implement the exact same 'optimized' algoritm in any of the tiers. With this in mind, the performance costs of the two sorts cancels and you are left with the additional cost of the SQL parser. So assuming the programmer is capable of either A) writing an efficient sort or B) using the efficient sorts provided in the libraries that are supplied with most mainstream languages this option will always be more efficient.
the cost of ordering a recordset will almost always be minimal compared to the cost of generating that recordset
Exactly! So request the record set once, load it into memory and do whatever sorts are required. If I need to sort the data on different columns for different reasons the costs of generating the record sets begin to multiply. Maybe the data is in the database cache after the first query, but maybe its not and needs to be regenerated.
'Order by' has been useful to me in situations where the query is combined with another clause such as one that limits the size of the dataset. Something like 'load the top 10, highest priority bug reports'. If I did this in code I would need to load them all then sort and discard, which is clearly not very bright, but using 'order by' just to sort data has always proved problematic in my experience. YMMV I guess.
i noticed that the "order by" clause made it into EJBQL 2.0 as well, despite the howls of protests from object purists.
The howls of the object purists tend to go beyond this and recommend against EJB altogether. Even so, I dont see any reason for not including it in the EJBQL spec, I am sure there are cases where it can be very useful. Its a feature that is provided by the database and not including it 'on principal' would be pretty daft, but using it 'because its there' doesnt constitute a strong argument in my book.
Here's one that'll make you howl: "sorting is a presentation-tier concern"
Largely it is. If the user hits a table header to sort on the selected row, are we are supposed go back to the database and do a different 'order by'?... I dont think so!
If the sort is required purely to provide the user with a list in 'alphabetical' order then sorting in the presentation tier tends to be smarter because it reduces the 'bug-space'. That data generally passes through several levels of indirection, at any time someone may decide to replace an ordered collection with an unordered one and by the time it reaches the screen... it all out of sequence. Also, its very possible that while the data needs to be sorted to give users that 'fuzzy feeling' the same API can be used to provide a SOAP/XML-RPC/CORBA interface that doesnt require sorting (or rather, let the consumer decide). Why do this, fairly expensive, operation on a tier that doesnt always require that it is done?
If sorting is required in the middle-tier it is usually due to some search algorithm or something. In this case, I prefer to put the sort with the search so that it is clear. Where I have worked with pure SQL (tend to use ORM tools now) I like to put the SQL in a seperate repository that the DBA's can tweak without recompliation. That 'order by' gets dropped pretty quick when the PHB is complaining about DB performance... and WHOOPS... really weird bug in the search code.
So it seems to me, that when you factor in the real world issues around using the database as a sorting tool.... its not quite so 'howl-worthy'.
If the writers are reading this I have an idea for the pilot.
Captain Archer of enterprise saves the life of a crew mate and SUDDENLY disappears in a flash of blue. He awakes to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that are not his own...
I know what you guys are thinking...
"OH.... BOY"
I think you should read the paragraph in the parent post that directly followed the quote you provided.
After you have done this, consider the irony of your 'top tip'.
Attending a funeral is not going to improve anyone's political position
Yet you assume that Chirac not attending the funeral was him "Sending message that he didnt like the united states". In any case, perhaps he doesnt, and would be within his rights not to. His descion to attend a man's funeral should be based on his relationship with the man not the state.
Hell, we're at war and President Bush attended the funeral.
I do hope you are kidding! You are at war and your president takes time off to play golf and go on holiday.
Perhaps Chirac realized (correctly) that a man's funeral should not be used to improve one's political position or as an international diplomatic event.
If Chirac had no strong connections to Mr Reagan it would have been inappropriate for him to attend the funeral and act like he was the man's bestest buddy.
I personally feel that beaming the images of a wife grieving for her late husband into living rooms around the world was far more tasteless than Chirac not attending the funeral... but thats me.
This issue of bleeding the defendant dry so they have to settle comes up time after time on slashdot.
IANAL... but i would be willing to play one if needs be. To be honest, I think simply quoting the contents of some of posts here would be enough to get a dismissal. You dont have to have a lawyer right?
Maybe I have a laid back-attitude to such issues, but if it were me, I think I would relish the oppurtunity to defend myself in court and win (surely I would stand a chance with a little research and facing a weak case), also this is more likely to generate some press interest.
Hell... even a few little 'mistakes' (protocol breaches) in the court-room wouldnt go amiss surely. After all, if you are forced to defend yourself you cant be expected to be a legal eagle right? I guess the Judge will just have to put up with it...
Come on my fellow geeks, join me as we descend on the legal system... thinkgeek t-shirt proudly on display and lightsabers ignited...
May the courts be with you!
"No more investments, please! Stop sending us money!" ...these guys remember what the dotcom boom was all about right?
I see it, I see it....
He forgot to carry the 1!!
I wasnt aware this was happening until I work this morning and switched on the news.
;o)
It amuses me that any channel that covers these kind of events spends 2% of their times covering the basics of astronomy and why this event is quite rare.
The other 98% is spent explaining the danger of staring directly at the sun.
Then... I go to the park to eat my lunch in the sunshine (rare in the UK) only to see hoards of people doing exactly this (or thinking that cheap sunglasses will protect them). Worse is mothers trying to show their kids ("Mummy, mummy, I cant see anything... and my eyes hurt"... "Just keep looking sweety... you will see it when your eyes lose sensativity!").
So a further warning to slashdotters...
Dont stare directly at the sun...
Just get someone else to do it and descibe it to you
Which, while not ideal, is marginally preferable to cooking your genitals.
Well... if there is one thing that can be said of slashdot... we certainly know how to fix that pesky 'obscurity' problem ;o)
You act like there is no middle ground between... "I write Javascripts to make cursors flash purty colors" and "I invent new programming languages with a soldering iron!".
The fact is that the majority of employment in the software development field falls between these two posts and does not generally require a degree (if some other conditions are met).
Having worked with both graduates and non-graduates (my category), I can say that there is very little distinction. I have worked with graduates that even if you explained something to them 10 times a day for 5 years they still wouldnt get it.
Infact I would even go as far to say that non-grads are generally slightly better, but generally the grads that bring the average down are those that came to CS for the money rather than talent, this is rarer in non-grads in the craft.
The bottom line seems to be that regardless of education, the most important attributes that make a good coder are a tendancy towards logic and analysis. This is a talent, not a university award.
You just have to look harder...
Once you find try to find..
* Waldo
* The wizard
* A scroll
* Two mermaids pleasuring each other
* Poseidon's driving license
* Plato's lost map
* Sebastian the crab
* Cowboy Neal's bathing suit
No its definatly it this time. They even found an old sign on the sea-bed that read...
;o)
"Welcome to Atlantis, Birthplace of Ariel (AKA The little mermaid.
Please drive carefully, flooding possible"
Dont get bogged down in drag and drop, it was just an example.
There are lots of things that are difficult to implement in what is essentially a documentation format. CGI was a hack and it never really improved much from there.
Users of applications expect certain things, responsiveness being up quite high on the list. Over a congested pipe it is not always acceptable to wait a couple of seconds while your browser refreshes your page with you menu expanded rather than collapsed!
Yes, I know there is a solution in Javascript but having worked with various web developers (I tend to focus on the back-end, business logic development myself) I know that Javascript is pretty much the #1 cause for complaint. Especially when it is used to provide complex functionality that should really be a part of the client container (or the browser in this case).
Anyone who has ever sat in a room with a client who is requesting features that the browsers can not easily provide should understand where I am coming from.
To the client (especially one that has seen a flash based web app interface), "The browser cant do that" doesnt cut it.
Multiple document interfaces is another one that comes to mind, there are probably a few (hundred) others if I sat down and thought about it.
Basically, anything that is currently done with client scripting languages (jscript for example).
Java applets come close, Flash has come closer, I think the next one will be the winner, and its not far away.
not Office knockoffs
This is true currently, but it is set to change. Web based deployment is excellent for non-tech business in that there is very little support on the desktop (no rollouts etc).
The Java applet model was designed to solve this problem, but it failed. However, flash is fareing much better.
As more and more business move to 'web-deployed' business software I predict a big departure from HTML for web applications.
Joe public user doesnt want to know about "You cant use drag and drop anymore, the browser doesnt support it".
There will be a migration to technologies like Flash/Actionscript where you can get the rich client experience in the browser. Users will demand this, execs will demand this and development companies/open source groups will provide this.
Having said that, I have looked at XAML and there doesnt seem to be a reason why it could not be interpreted to build a flash GUI. Perhaps this is the true of this effort too, but to include hypertext in the title indicates a degress of shortsightedness IMHO.