Damn. Who on/. gave mod points to a bunch of Windoze fanboyz? Any bets the negative mod points came from Micro$oft sheeple who probably don't even know what dBase was let alone have used it?
Vista is to Microsoft as dBase 4 was to Ashton-Tate, a stinking turd. dBase had competition from alternative database vendors and paid the price for producing a turd. Microsoft has almost no competition and can effectively extort money from users for a downgrade as they try to escape this turd.
Microsoft can spray all the marketing turd polish they want on Vista but it will still stink. Hopefully, enough people will migrate to Linux or Apple that Microsoft will go the way of Ashton-Tate (I'm hoping but I'm not holding my breath).
I'll also recommend Peopleware and follow the advice in the "Oh for crying out loud" post that this reply is under. I was going to post essentially the same advice.
I once managed a software development group that had several Ph.Ds, some people with Masters degrees (I have an M.Sc. in Math) and most of the rest with B.Sc.s in computer science. We were developing software for a radar project and most of the Ph.Ds had degrees that were applicable in fields like high energy physics and atmospheric physics, etc. They all came to the same conclusion that they couldn't do what I did which was serve as the communications channel between my group and upper management. All I had to do was make sure thet they knew that I knew that they had the answers. They even had to help me with the questions some times.
The key was that I didn't have a problem with this situation. It would have been a problem if I had pretended to know or had ignored the fact that they knew more about the subject than me. Instead, we became a team that solved the problem (almost on time and very close to within budget on a cost plus contract).
The people working for you (hopefully) want to solve the problems you bring to them. Work with them to understand the problem and keep the part that they are trying to solve within the realm of technology. Do your best to keep company politics from disrupting them. Likewise, learn to spot when someone is trying to have your team create a technical fix to what is essentially a political problem. That's usually a recipe for disaster. The better you are able to keep your team focused on technical issues, the happier, more successful and more productive they will be.
One last thing to remember. You mentioned that your team is older than you. Keep in mind that most if not all of them made a conscious decision NOT to go into management at some point in their career. They don't want to deal with management/company politics stuff. That's your job and they will be happy to let you do it so long as they can keep coding.
Replying to both comments regarding APL. Actually I used APL briefly during my days as a math grad student. It kind of got lost back with all the other things I've forgotten from thirty years ago. Once you jogged my memory at least a few bits and pieces came back like "domino A" (where A is a square matrix) was how to get the inverse of A. What isn't intuitive about that?
Oh yeah, I was using APL on an IBM 5100 desktop computer. Never used it for anything more than a big calculator when my abstract algebra class was delving deeper into linear algebra and doing things like getting eigenvalues. It definitely made the computations a lot easier instead of doing that sort of stuff by hand.
I'd say perl since they're going to end up cranking out garbage code anyway once they get hired. They may as well get used to the world's first "write only" programming language.
On a serious note, I vote for C as the first programming language. It has the ability to express high level abstractions while also letting the students do things like arithmetic on characters. It's critical for a first course that students at least begin to understand both extremes. They need to understand that computers work on bits and they need to understand how a program can still present an abstraction.
Languages that hide too many of the underlying details leave students with the impression that the computer is doing some of the thinking for them. They don't understand that everything the computer does boils down to pushing bits around. At the other extreme, assemblers mean the students spend way too much time mastering arcane syntax while learning very little of what a computer can do. The students understand the bits but then switch to a petroleum engineering major that pays well and they can understand why it's important.
Of all things, I actually RTFA and it's The Register's fault:
Italian president and media baron Silvio Berlusconi said today that he would use his country's imminent presidency of the G8 group to push for an international agreement to "regulate the internet".
Sadly, all too many people in the U.S. are lucky if they can find Italy on a map let alone know who is currently Prime Minister, etc.
I remember when my university (Ohio State - Go Bucks!) switched their instructional computer (IBM S/370) to running MVS in the late 1970s. That was about the time many of the non-Unix vendors started offering a virtual address operating system (e.g., DEC with the VAX and VMS). The consistent explanation at the time was to allow programs to swap to some form of less expensive, non-RAM storage. On Ohio State's system, this was drum memory at that time.
Translating appropriate acronyms:
MVS - Machine Virtual System VAX - Virtual Address eXtension VMS - Virtual Memory System
Having worked on a number of different hardware platforms over the years (the above mentioned IBM S/370 running MVS, CDCs running NOS, DEC VAXen running VMS, HP/9000s running HP-UX, a number of different SUN platforms running SUNOS and Solaris, Windoze starting with Windows/386, OS/2 and now Linux), I have always referred to swapping and "virtual memory" synonymously.
Back to the original question: it depends on how gracefully your operating system handles an out of memory situation. I look at it that having swap is like having a parachute on an airplane or a lifeboat on a ship. You hope you never have to use it but it's nice to know it's there given the alternative. If your OS handles out of memory gracefully or you don't mind if it doesn't, go ahead an run without swap. IF your OS doesn't handle the situation gracefully or you can't afford to find out how badly it does due to the up time requirements of the system, allocate some disk space to swap.
You can cut down on the noise by just moving your ssh port to something other than port 22. Such a move won't stop a serious cracker who will do a port scan, etc. However, since it seems to be sufficient to keep the script kiddies and similar types from doing the sort of stuff described in the article, it means you're far more likely to notice when someone with a little higher skill level tries to crack in.
Best bet if you have a small user base is to only allow public key authentication and move the ssh port. I did that a while ago and now no noise and a good level of security. I've got a full write up on "Securing Secure Shell" at my blog:
I spent 12 years working for a defense contractor (TRW Defense Systems Group where I wrote several B5s, C5s, PPSs, SRSs, SDDs and a SDP and a SSS) so I agree that there was probably an ICD that specified the units. Unfortunately, nobody seems to have verified that the code matched the specification which is exactly my point. The code that didn't match the ICD was probably absolutely correct for the wrong units of measure. Only a person reviewing the code against the ICD would have seen the flaw. That is, it would take a code review to notice the error.
The original article argues that great programmers don't need code reviews and, worse, code reviews bring their code down to the level of the mediocre code. My point is that there is a level of correctness outside of just the code executing correctly. The code has to match some outside expectation of what it is supposed to do and how it is supposed to behave. I've seen some really good programmers miss on that. They produce absolutely perfect, elegant code that does not do what the customer wants. Thus my argument in support of code reviews for everyone.
The appropriate question to ask is would a thorough code review of the Mars Climate Orbiter software have prevented its loss? The problem was one of units (metric vs. English) which means the code on either side of the interface was absolutely correct. Only a live person looking at both pieces of code could realize that one piece of code used metric units while the other used English units.
Likewise, the code on either side of the interface may have been a paragon of software virtue. The "quality" of the code was not the problem that needed to be found. The problem was one of human understanding. Only a human reviewing the code could have seen it.
It's nice that code reviews frequently find trivial bugs that would have later been found during test. There is also a certain amount of weeding out of substandard code (obscurely written, poorly commented, bad design, not compliant with group standards for naming and such). Such code will also be found and excised when it passes from the developer to those who must maintain it. That is, the bulk of the things that most people see as the purpose of code reviews are actually a very superficial and unnecessary result. It's finding the design and requirements bugs like using incorrect units that are really the pay off.
... No, you can't always get what you want. But if you try some time, you just might find you get what you need...
Suck it up and either pay for the treeware book or don't read it. If you have to buy it used, that's a message to the publisher that they should consider a reprint or an electronic edition (yes, publishers watch the used book market for out of print books to determine if it's economically viable to do a new printing). If you have to pay more for an unused copy, that's because (as your question implies you also feel) people prefer new over used. You're paying extra for a copy that no one else has written in, torn, etc.
If that isn't good enough, do without. Just because you want it doesn't mean *anyone* is under any obligation to make it available to you. It isn't ethics; it's the free market, stupid. There are lots of books from those in current publication to those written by authors long dead that aren't available as an eBook. Just because you want one of those in an eBook format doesn't somehow justify pirating a copy; nor does it justify pirating the book in question.
Grow up and quit whining that the world doesn't give you everything you want.
Cheers, Dave
BTW, the above lyrics sample is from memory which should be a hint as to which generation I fall into.
This discussion is strictly for ranting about copyrights, ethical dilemmas, the inequity of intellectual property (IP) and IP laws, etc. How dare you provide a perfectly legal and legitimate answer to the problem at hand. Obviously, the person who posted the original article just wanted slashdotters to give him permission to snag a copy of a book and still feel good about not paying for it. If he had wanted a way to actually pay for the book, he wouldn't have posted his question here; he would have researched possibilities such as you mentioned.
Sad that I had to scroll down this far to find someone who wants her to find what she enjoys.
In my college days the number quoted was 2.5 for the average number of major switches per student. I doubt if it has decreased. Whatever she starts out on probably won't be what she finishes. Also, college is so different from high school that she may find that she likes math or science once she gets out of the public baby sitting service that passes for public education. On the other hand, she may find something else she really loves and that's what she should do.
Bottom line is to get her into college and open to seeing what career possibilities are out there. Just because she got a high ACT math score is no reason to cram math and science down her throat. Let her find it.
I just watched Windows 3.1 start up a couple of weeks ago. The town where I live had an e-cycling day where you could recycle a variety of electronics for either free or only a nominal fee. So, I fired up my old 80386/25 DX (with an installed 80387 co-processor) just long enough to do a "format/u c:" and then dropped it off for recycling along with a bunch of other old computer junk I had accumulated over the years (full length, 8bit monochrome video cards, lots of various ISA cards, a few 10-base T NICs along with some co-ax cable and such).
I still have a "true blue" IBM PC/AT (6MHz 80286) with a full height 30 MB hard drive and dual 5.25 inch floppies that I decided to hang onto just in case it actually becomes a collector's item. And, in the same vein, a still shrink wrapped copy of Windows/386 (5.25 inch floppies for installation media).
So, what part of believing in only rational, objective reality is a "quaint relic[s] of the Cold War?"
It seems that you think Rand's ideas are only the plots of "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged." Those were novels to illustrate her ideas; nothing more. Read some of her essays on rational objectivism before you dismiss her ideas. You might be surprised.
1) You can rewrite/code from scratch and spend your time finding the stupid, trivial bugs that you will invariably code, or
2) You can reuse someone else's well used code and spend your time finding the really nasty, non-obvious bugs that remain in their code. It should be noted that several bugs similar to but probably not exactly the same will remain to be found in your code AFTER you have found your trivial bugs.
And what's truly side splitting are all of the people who take the campaign promises regarding such matters as gospel. Either candidate can propose a tax plan to Congress once elected but what comes out the other end of the "legislative process" (Congresscritters looking out for their vested interests) will not look at all like what was proposed; let alone what is now being promised now.
Oh well. I guess that's why enough of the Nigerian 419 scams are successful that someone keeps trying them. Lots of people think they can get something for nothing.
The folks flaming each other over, "My guy is better than your guy," should consider Ambrose Bierce's observation regarding politics:
"Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles."
Neither party has any interest in anything but getting and maintaining power. That some spoils go to their duped supporters is just part of the price of obtaining power.
See today's other article regarding the capacity of a steganographic channel. My guess is that we'll hide in plain site.
As for me, the first thing I'll do if Obama wins is research how to "offshore" our savings. I just want to make sure we don't get caught in the "you're too wealthy" trap just because we've lived within our means, saved, managed our debts, etc.
Not the clearest map but it looks like I need to check how things are going tomorrow evening before I walk the dog. I could be wrong but it looks like the most likely place for it to come down is over the central U.S. and I live near Denver, CO.
It's not a true table but it gets the idea across. The old "code" tag used to use a monospace font so you weren't stuck using monospace for the whole post. Unfortunately, ecode just alters parsing but uses a proportional font. I wonder who the idiot is who came up with that.
Slashdot Mirror
I just inherited an M-1 Garand rifle (WWII U.S. infantry standard rifle) and have a pile of old hard drives the need to be wiped. This could be fun.
Cheers,
Dave
Damn. Who on /. gave mod points to a bunch of Windoze fanboyz? Any bets the negative mod points came from Micro$oft sheeple who probably don't even know what dBase was let alone have used it?
Oh well. Looks like I started a good discussion.
Cheers,
Dave
Vista is to Microsoft as dBase 4 was to Ashton-Tate, a stinking turd. dBase had competition from alternative database vendors and paid the price for producing a turd. Microsoft has almost no competition and can effectively extort money from users for a downgrade as they try to escape this turd.
Microsoft can spray all the marketing turd polish they want on Vista but it will still stink. Hopefully, enough people will migrate to Linux or Apple that Microsoft will go the way of Ashton-Tate (I'm hoping but I'm not holding my breath).
Cheers,
Dave
I'll also recommend Peopleware and follow the advice in the "Oh for crying out loud" post that this reply is under. I was going to post essentially the same advice.
I once managed a software development group that had several Ph.Ds, some people with Masters degrees (I have an M.Sc. in Math) and most of the rest with B.Sc.s in computer science. We were developing software for a radar project and most of the Ph.Ds had degrees that were applicable in fields like high energy physics and atmospheric physics, etc. They all came to the same conclusion that they couldn't do what I did which was serve as the communications channel between my group and upper management. All I had to do was make sure thet they knew that I knew that they had the answers. They even had to help me with the questions some times.
The key was that I didn't have a problem with this situation. It would have been a problem if I had pretended to know or had ignored the fact that they knew more about the subject than me. Instead, we became a team that solved the problem (almost on time and very close to within budget on a cost plus contract).
The people working for you (hopefully) want to solve the problems you bring to them. Work with them to understand the problem and keep the part that they are trying to solve within the realm of technology. Do your best to keep company politics from disrupting them. Likewise, learn to spot when someone is trying to have your team create a technical fix to what is essentially a political problem. That's usually a recipe for disaster. The better you are able to keep your team focused on technical issues, the happier, more successful and more productive they will be.
One last thing to remember. You mentioned that your team is older than you. Keep in mind that most if not all of them made a conscious decision NOT to go into management at some point in their career. They don't want to deal with management/company politics stuff. That's your job and they will be happy to let you do it so long as they can keep coding.
Cheers,
Dave
Replying to both comments regarding APL. Actually I used APL briefly during my days as a math grad student. It kind of got lost back with all the other things I've forgotten from thirty years ago. Once you jogged my memory at least a few bits and pieces came back like "domino A" (where A is a square matrix) was how to get the inverse of A. What isn't intuitive about that?
Oh yeah, I was using APL on an IBM 5100 desktop computer. Never used it for anything more than a big calculator when my abstract algebra class was delving deeper into linear algebra and doing things like getting eigenvalues. It definitely made the computations a lot easier instead of doing that sort of stuff by hand.
Cheers,
Dave
I'd say perl since they're going to end up cranking out garbage code anyway once they get hired. They may as well get used to the world's first "write only" programming language.
On a serious note, I vote for C as the first programming language. It has the ability to express high level abstractions while also letting the students do things like arithmetic on characters. It's critical for a first course that students at least begin to understand both extremes. They need to understand that computers work on bits and they need to understand how a program can still present an abstraction.
Languages that hide too many of the underlying details leave students with the impression that the computer is doing some of the thinking for them. They don't understand that everything the computer does boils down to pushing bits around. At the other extreme, assemblers mean the students spend way too much time mastering arcane syntax while learning very little of what a computer can do. The students understand the bits but then switch to a petroleum engineering major that pays well and they can understand why it's important.
Besides, we need a new crop of kernel hackers.
Cheers,
Dave
Have you watched any "reality TV?"
Cheers,
Dave
Of all things, I actually RTFA and it's The Register's fault:
Sadly, all too many people in the U.S. are lucky if they can find Italy on a map let alone know who is currently Prime Minister, etc.
Cheers,
Dave
I remember when my university (Ohio State - Go Bucks!) switched their instructional computer (IBM S/370) to running MVS in the late 1970s. That was about the time many of the non-Unix vendors started offering a virtual address operating system (e.g., DEC with the VAX and VMS). The consistent explanation at the time was to allow programs to swap to some form of less expensive, non-RAM storage. On Ohio State's system, this was drum memory at that time.
Translating appropriate acronyms:
MVS - Machine Virtual System
VAX - Virtual Address eXtension
VMS - Virtual Memory System
Having worked on a number of different hardware platforms over the years (the above mentioned IBM S/370 running MVS, CDCs running NOS, DEC VAXen running VMS, HP/9000s running HP-UX, a number of different SUN platforms running SUNOS and Solaris, Windoze starting with Windows/386, OS/2 and now Linux), I have always referred to swapping and "virtual memory" synonymously.
Back to the original question: it depends on how gracefully your operating system handles an out of memory situation. I look at it that having swap is like having a parachute on an airplane or a lifeboat on a ship. You hope you never have to use it but it's nice to know it's there given the alternative. If your OS handles out of memory gracefully or you don't mind if it doesn't, go ahead an run without swap. IF your OS doesn't handle the situation gracefully or you can't afford to find out how badly it does due to the up time requirements of the system, allocate some disk space to swap.
Cheers,
Dave
You can cut down on the noise by just moving your ssh port to something other than port 22. Such a move won't stop a serious cracker who will do a port scan, etc. However, since it seems to be sufficient to keep the script kiddies and similar types from doing the sort of stuff described in the article, it means you're far more likely to notice when someone with a little higher skill level tries to crack in.
Best bet if you have a small user base is to only allow public key authentication and move the ssh port. I did that a while ago and now no noise and a good level of security. I've got a full write up on "Securing Secure Shell" at my blog:
http://davenjudy.org/davesBlog/node/24
Cheers,
Dave
I spent 12 years working for a defense contractor (TRW Defense Systems Group where I wrote several B5s, C5s, PPSs, SRSs, SDDs and a SDP and a SSS) so I agree that there was probably an ICD that specified the units. Unfortunately, nobody seems to have verified that the code matched the specification which is exactly my point. The code that didn't match the ICD was probably absolutely correct for the wrong units of measure. Only a person reviewing the code against the ICD would have seen the flaw. That is, it would take a code review to notice the error.
The original article argues that great programmers don't need code reviews and, worse, code reviews bring their code down to the level of the mediocre code. My point is that there is a level of correctness outside of just the code executing correctly. The code has to match some outside expectation of what it is supposed to do and how it is supposed to behave. I've seen some really good programmers miss on that. They produce absolutely perfect, elegant code that does not do what the customer wants. Thus my argument in support of code reviews for everyone.
Cheers,
Dave
The appropriate question to ask is would a thorough code review of the Mars Climate Orbiter software have prevented its loss? The problem was one of units (metric vs. English) which means the code on either side of the interface was absolutely correct. Only a live person looking at both pieces of code could realize that one piece of code used metric units while the other used English units.
Likewise, the code on either side of the interface may have been a paragon of software virtue. The "quality" of the code was not the problem that needed to be found. The problem was one of human understanding. Only a human reviewing the code could have seen it.
It's nice that code reviews frequently find trivial bugs that would have later been found during test. There is also a certain amount of weeding out of substandard code (obscurely written, poorly commented, bad design, not compliant with group standards for naming and such). Such code will also be found and excised when it passes from the developer to those who must maintain it. That is, the bulk of the things that most people see as the purpose of code reviews are actually a very superficial and unnecessary result. It's finding the design and requirements bugs like using incorrect units that are really the pay off.
Cheers,
Dave
...
No, you can't always get what you want.
But if you try some time,
you just might find
you get what you need...
Suck it up and either pay for the treeware book or don't read it. If you have to buy it used, that's a message to the publisher that they should consider a reprint or an electronic edition (yes, publishers watch the used book market for out of print books to determine if it's economically viable to do a new printing). If you have to pay more for an unused copy, that's because (as your question implies you also feel) people prefer new over used. You're paying extra for a copy that no one else has written in, torn, etc.
If that isn't good enough, do without. Just because you want it doesn't mean *anyone* is under any obligation to make it available to you. It isn't ethics; it's the free market, stupid. There are lots of books from those in current publication to those written by authors long dead that aren't available as an eBook. Just because you want one of those in an eBook format doesn't somehow justify pirating a copy; nor does it justify pirating the book in question.
Grow up and quit whining that the world doesn't give you everything you want.
Cheers,
Dave
BTW, the above lyrics sample is from memory which should be a hint as to which generation I fall into.
This discussion is strictly for ranting about copyrights, ethical dilemmas, the inequity of intellectual property (IP) and IP laws, etc. How dare you provide a perfectly legal and legitimate answer to the problem at hand. Obviously, the person who posted the original article just wanted slashdotters to give him permission to snag a copy of a book and still feel good about not paying for it. If he had wanted a way to actually pay for the book, he wouldn't have posted his question here; he would have researched possibilities such as you mentioned.
Cheers,
Dave (also a boomer)
Sad that I had to scroll down this far to find someone who wants her to find what she enjoys.
In my college days the number quoted was 2.5 for the average number of major switches per student. I doubt if it has decreased. Whatever she starts out on probably won't be what she finishes. Also, college is so different from high school that she may find that she likes math or science once she gets out of the public baby sitting service that passes for public education. On the other hand, she may find something else she really loves and that's what she should do.
Bottom line is to get her into college and open to seeing what career possibilities are out there. Just because she got a high ACT math score is no reason to cram math and science down her throat. Let her find it.
Cheers,
Dave
I'll rejoice when their stock price goes back up.
Cheers,
Dave
Don't have the foggiest. The closest thing on eBay is a PC/XT for ~$300 (at the moment).
Cheers,
Dave
I just watched Windows 3.1 start up a couple of weeks ago. The town where I live had an e-cycling day where you could recycle a variety of electronics for either free or only a nominal fee. So, I fired up my old 80386/25 DX (with an installed 80387 co-processor) just long enough to do a "format /u c:" and then dropped it off for recycling along with a bunch of other old computer junk I had accumulated over the years (full length, 8bit monochrome video cards, lots of various ISA cards, a few 10-base T NICs along with some co-ax cable and such).
I still have a "true blue" IBM PC/AT (6MHz 80286) with a full height 30 MB hard drive and dual 5.25 inch floppies that I decided to hang onto just in case it actually becomes a collector's item. And, in the same vein, a still shrink wrapped copy of Windows/386 (5.25 inch floppies for installation media).
Cheers,
Dave
So, what part of believing in only rational, objective reality is a "quaint relic[s] of the Cold War?"
It seems that you think Rand's ideas are only the plots of "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged." Those were novels to illustrate her ideas; nothing more. Read some of her essays on rational objectivism before you dismiss her ideas. You might be surprised.
Cheers,
Dave
I put it this way:
1) You can rewrite/code from scratch and spend your time finding the stupid, trivial bugs that you will invariably code, or
2) You can reuse someone else's well used code and spend your time finding the really nasty, non-obvious bugs that remain in their code. It should be noted that several bugs similar to but probably not exactly the same will remain to be found in your code AFTER you have found your trivial bugs.
The choice is yours.
Cheers,
Dave
And what's truly side splitting are all of the people who take the campaign promises regarding such matters as gospel. Either candidate can propose a tax plan to Congress once elected but what comes out the other end of the "legislative process" (Congresscritters looking out for their vested interests) will not look at all like what was proposed; let alone what is now being promised now.
Oh well. I guess that's why enough of the Nigerian 419 scams are successful that someone keeps trying them. Lots of people think they can get something for nothing.
Cheers,
Dave
The folks flaming each other over, "My guy is better than your guy," should consider Ambrose Bierce's observation regarding politics:
"Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles."
Neither party has any interest in anything but getting and maintaining power. That some spoils go to their duped supporters is just part of the price of obtaining power.
Cheers,
Dave
See today's other article regarding the capacity of a steganographic channel. My guess is that we'll hide in plain site.
As for me, the first thing I'll do if Obama wins is research how to "offshore" our savings. I just want to make sure we don't get caught in the "you're too wealthy" trap just because we've lived within our means, saved, managed our debts, etc.
Cheers,
Dave
Not the clearest map but it looks like I need to check how things are going tomorrow evening before I walk the dog. I could be wrong but it looks like the most likely place for it to come down is over the central U.S. and I live near Denver, CO.
Cheers,
Dave
Use the code format Luke!
AGI %returns %income %taxes
1MM and up 0.3 15.1 26.7
500k-1MM 0.4 5.0 9.2
200-500k 2.2 11.1 17.3
100-200k 8.8 20.0 20.4
50-100k 21.6 26.4 18.0
$1 to 50k 66.7 22.4 8.4
It's not a true table but it gets the idea across. The old "code" tag used to use a monospace font so you weren't stuck using monospace for the whole post. Unfortunately, ecode just alters parsing but uses a proportional font. I wonder who the idiot is who came up with that.
Cheers,
Dave