You claimed.. You should look at England where since the total ban the crime rate has skyrocketed. Infact the per capita rate of crimes involing guns is higher than in the states
None of the links you quote support that claim. I'd be fascinated to see how anyone could prove a link between the post Dunblane restrictions and any increase in gun crime. One thing is for sure, there hasn't been another Dunblane.
I agree. Since I got ADSL in May when my PC is swithched on I'm online. Even if I'm not browsing, Eudora is checking my email every 10 minutes.
I would never have done this on dial-up even if it was unmetered because it would have tied up our one phone line. The ability to be on the net and on the phone at the same time is one of the major benefits of ADSL. It stops those;
"will you get of the phone?"
" but I'm just in the midle of a long download! Oh shit..."
How so? BT have just dumped their Anytime unmetered dialup service. AOL had to switch theirs off for some customers. While freeserve reserve the right to disconnect their 'anytime' users after 2 hours.
Broadband hasn't been without its problems but unmetered dialup was never a great success in the UK.
They didn't choose it over IE5.5 - we went with NS4.79 about 3 years ago and just haven't upgraded for a variety of reasons. Like I said we are going to IE in the next few months.
I had no involvement in either decision. I work in a UK goverment agency and I think you would be surprised how difficult it is to get burecracies like this to keep up with technology - we are still on Word 6.0!
but there really is no reason to be using a 5-6 year old browser with substandard (to put it mildly) CSS support.
I use NS4.79 at work because thats the only browser we are allowed to have. The company chose not to upgrade to NS6 when it came out as it was buggy - looks like we are now moving to IE!
Take a look as the google zeitgeist page NS4 is still a small though significant proportion of their hits.
One if the nominations for the prestigious (or facrcical depending on your POV) Turner Prize was a video taken with a camera strapped to a toy helicopter which buzzed BBC Broadcasting House in London. According to The Guardian it 'had at least two art world glitterati spluttering on their Jimmy Choo shoes'
Maybe the Gates Brothers should try for next years prize?
Similar story about a British explorer who didn't make it to the Pole but emailed a picture of his location to get himself rescued. ( articles are a bit low on techie detail)
..the image of a huge wall that separates a handful of elite technologists from people who live in such abject
poverty and squalor that they use this vacant lot as an open-air toilet is incredibly disturbing.
But elite technologists in the west and poverty in the Third world isn't disturbing? Get real, didn't you know there was poverty before you read this? Why is it worse for people in third world countries to be (relatively) wealthy?
instead of sticking Web terminals into walls to see how the local troglodyte children react to it
while standing ankle-deep in human waste.
I think you have completely missed the point of what he did and why he did it Try reading the Greenstar Article. Describing these children as troglodyte (literal meaning 'cave dweller' so inaccurate ) is more offensive than anything about this project.
So you will be selling your PC and all your other possessions and donating the money to help starving kids I presume?
This project will have done far more for those kids than the relavively small amount of money involved in setting it up could have done, and hopefully will also educate a few westerners about the abilties of these 'slum' kids. I don't think this project is 'frivolous' at all.
I have travelled a bit in India and the advice given, which I followed, is not to give money to kids because it doesn't help them.
If you are really concerned about these kids try learning a bit more about development issues http://www.oxfam.org.uk/development.htm would be a good start.
I'm a Govt tech worker in the UK and I'm pretty sure I'd come back;
Current job; * 35 hour week with flexi time * 30 days paid annual leave
Private sector * 40 hour week, no flexi time and expectation of unpaid overtime * 20 days annual leave
OK so the private sector would probably give me more £s, but it would have to be lots to make up for the above. I also think my current job is more secure than in the private sector.
I've been here 9 years and seen booms and busts come and go. Ok at the peaks I could have earned a lot more in the private sector, but when the going got tough my salary didn't get cut and I still had a job.
Final perk of working where I am is knowing that what I do contibutes to some social good. I wouldn't neccesarily get that in the private sector.
I wouldn't mind the opportunity to do a job swap just for the extra experience, but I am pretty sure I'd come back.
I'm an IT team leader so I guess this book is aimed at me but I won't be rushing out to buy it.
Firstly there is the stupid title (the cover is even worse) - as an ex-geek (or should that be lapsed?) I think it is midly insulting. I'm sure no programmers were involved in writing the book -
Secondly it doesn't seem from the review to be saying anything new. Most of this has been well covered in a variety of books and articles.
For instance there is a section in Steve McConnels Software Project Survival Guide which covers many of the points mentioned in the review.
The 'herding cats' anology has been used a lot - I first picked up on it in Close to the Machine by Ellen Ullman 5 years ago.
The bottom line is applying the title of Einstien to most tech workers is such a stupid idea that only a management consultant could have come up with it.
If you want to find out how to manage programmers read books written by (ex)programmers.
We use our source code repository for documents as well as code, keeps everything in the same place. The repository is split by project with the relevant documents for each project in that projects area. People check docs in and out in the way they would source code and you can always track down the latest version of the documentation
As for the format and content of the docs you really have to think about what they are for, specifiactions for users to comment on and specifications for programmers to code from need to be different. Documentation also becomes useless if you can't keep it up do date so keep it at an appropriate level of detail.
One example is to think about a new programmer coming onto the team will the documentation help them get up to speed quickly?
As for document formats there are lots of examples of standard docs on the web. Check out Steve McConnels company Construx
Both the project survival guide site http://WWW.CONSTRUX.COM/survivalguide/
and there methodology templates http://WWW.CONSTRUX.COM/cxone/CxOneBasicDocumentMa p.htm but there are lots of others around
1. It is impossible to provide "conclusive evidence" for (or against) Global Warming without a number of earths on which we could experiment in accelerated time. Climate models are after all only models and imperfect. In the end it is about assessing the evidence and making a judgement.
2. If you really believe big business won't trade long term social costs for short term bucks just look at the tobacco trade.
3. How come everyone else on this thread gets modded up apart from me!
I am happy to look at this with a open mind. I have no particular axe to grin on this. You on the other hand keep quoting partial sources as if they were idependent.
www.national.org is a conservative think tank therefore why shouldn't I conclude that the statitics it quotes are carefully selected and partial?
Just to retierate the 17,000 scientists you keep banging on about include anyone with (or claiming to have)a science degree and is based an a paper written by some one with no qualification in climatology. I see no reason why this petition should influence my thinking at all.
I am not a climate scientist and, unlike many > greenies, I don't pretend to be one.
I will, however, defer to the 17,000 scientists [oism.org] who have signed the above petition that states that global warming does NOT appear to be linked to human activity.
We use Websense as well and I have the same problem - Websense blocks sites I want to get to (though interestingly not Slashdot!). However it doesn't block the various anonymising services so subscribe to one of these and you can get unrestricted access to the Web.
On email almost all attachments except Word Documents and PDFs are blocked which limit both personal and business use.
We are allowed 'reasonable' personal use of both Web and email thought I have never seen a definition of what that is, and never heard of anyone being picked up for 'unreasonable use'
Basically I couldn't do my job (IT Project Manager) without access to the Web and email and I'm sure that applies to lots of people out there. I have no real problem with our set up apart from Websenses apparently random blocking of sites, e.g www.laplink.com is blocked - do they think it has something to do with lapdancing!
I am amazed by companies that offer completely unrestricted web access - seems to me to be asking for trouble.
"All the "don't use this because it doesn't work in all browsers" is crap, IMHO. Know who your users are/will be. Know what they use/will use. Know what their skill level is/will be. Then design your site based on those guidelines."
Exactly right, if you have an identifiable use community knock up a few prototypes and ask them what they like.
On the other hand if the site is principally for your own pleasure then do whaterever you like!.
Whatever you do make sure you design it in a way that is easy to maintain - you could even consider a good content management package like CityDesk http://www.fogcreek.com/CityDesk/index.html - the worst website are those that aren't kept up to date.
I don't think its a troll, just a corporate point of view.
Where I work we currently use the Centurasoft toolset, good but not widely used. If and when we decided to move to another language we will look at.Net vs Java not C, C++ or anything else.
Legacy stuff isn't going to dissapear there is still lots of COBOL around (we only got rid of the last of ours a couple of years ago). However for new projects - which will be web based - corporates will be making a choice between.Net & Java.
I switched from Seti to the UD Cancer research project http://members.ud.com/projects/cancer/ as soon as that started. It just is seemed a much more worthwhile cause than Seti with a much higher likley hood of success.
Re:The first Slashdot troll post investigation
on
KaZaa Suspends Downloads
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
All very interesting (though I might suggest that you get a life) but WTF has it got to do the the topic of the article (Oracle security) ? Yet it gets scored 5!
The CCTA, a govt agency and the previous host ( they hosted all the.gov.uk sites) - is stopping hosting websites in Jan 2002 so lots of UK govt site are currently looking for new webhosts.
I am sure The Royal Family don't pay for the website out of there own pocket let alone care how much it costs!
Slashdot Mirror
You claimed..
You should look at England where since the total ban the crime rate has skyrocketed. Infact the per capita rate of crimes involing guns is higher than in the states
None of the links you quote support that claim. I'd be fascinated to see how anyone could prove a link between the post Dunblane restrictions and any increase in gun crime. One thing is for sure, there hasn't been another Dunblane.
Try supporting yours! Got any evidence to back up your claims?
I agree. Since I got ADSL in May when my PC is swithched on I'm online. Even if I'm not browsing, Eudora is checking my email every 10 minutes.
I would never have done this on dial-up even if it was unmetered because it would have tied up our one phone line. The ability to be on the net and on the phone at the same time is one of the major benefits of ADSL. It stops those;
"will you get of the phone?"
" but I'm just in the midle of a long download! Oh shit..."
argument follows....
type conversations
How so? BT have just dumped their Anytime unmetered dialup service. AOL had to switch theirs off for some customers. While freeserve reserve the right to disconnect their 'anytime' users after 2 hours.
Broadband hasn't been without its problems but unmetered dialup was never a great success in the UK.
They didn't choose it over IE5.5 - we went with NS4.79 about 3 years ago and just haven't upgraded for a variety of reasons. Like I said we are going to IE in the next few months.
I had no involvement in either decision. I work in a UK goverment agency and I think you would be surprised how difficult it is to get burecracies like this to keep up with technology - we are still on Word 6.0!
Considering the BBCs site doesn't or didn't display right in Netscape how can they recommend avoiding IE?
They didn't - they just quoted someone else saying it.
but there really is no reason to be using a 5-6 year old browser with substandard (to put it mildly) CSS support.
I use NS4.79 at work because thats the only browser we are allowed to have. The company chose not to upgrade to NS6 when it came out as it was buggy - looks like we are now moving to IE!
Take a look as the google zeitgeist page NS4 is still a small though significant proportion of their hits.
One if the nominations for the prestigious (or facrcical depending on your POV) Turner Prize was a video taken with a camera strapped to a toy helicopter which buzzed BBC Broadcasting House in London. According to The Guardian it 'had at least two art world glitterati spluttering on their Jimmy Choo shoes'
Maybe the Gates Brothers should try for next years prize?
Similar story about a British explorer who didn't make it to the Pole but emailed a picture of his location to get himself rescued. ( articles are a bit low on techie detail)
3 ,4 417717,00.html
3 ,4 422721,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,427
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,427
there was an article4 /01/15522 25 on Newsforge a little while back that offered some sensible advice
http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=02/0
..the image of a huge wall that separates a handful of elite technologists from people who live in such abject poverty and squalor that they use this vacant lot as an open-air toilet is incredibly disturbing.
But elite technologists in the west and poverty in the Third world isn't disturbing? Get real, didn't you know there was poverty before you read this? Why is it worse for people in third world countries to be (relatively) wealthy?
instead of sticking Web terminals into walls to see how the local troglodyte children react to it while standing ankle-deep in human waste.
I think you have completely missed the point of what he did and why he did it Try reading the Greenstar Article. Describing these children as troglodyte (literal meaning 'cave dweller' so inaccurate ) is more offensive than anything about this project.
So you will be selling your PC and all your other possessions and donating the money to help starving kids I presume?
This project will have done far more for those kids than the relavively small amount of money involved in setting it up could have done, and hopefully will also educate a few westerners about the abilties of these 'slum' kids. I don't think this project is 'frivolous' at all.
I have travelled a bit in India and the advice given, which I followed, is not to give money to kids because it doesn't help them.
If you are really concerned about these kids try learning a bit more about development issues http://www.oxfam.org.uk/development.htm would be a good start.
I'm a Govt tech worker in the UK and I'm pretty sure I'd come back;
Current job;
* 35 hour week with flexi time
* 30 days paid annual leave
Private sector
* 40 hour week, no flexi time and expectation of unpaid overtime
* 20 days annual leave
OK so the private sector would probably give me more £s, but it would have to be lots to make up for the above. I also think my current job is more secure than in the private sector.
I've been here 9 years and seen booms and busts come and go. Ok at the peaks I could have earned a lot more in the private sector, but when the going got tough my salary didn't get cut and I still had a job.
Final perk of working where I am is knowing that what I do contibutes to some social good. I wouldn't neccesarily get that in the private sector.
I wouldn't mind the opportunity to do a job swap just for the extra experience, but I am pretty sure I'd come back.
I'm an IT team leader so I guess this book is aimed at me but I won't be rushing out to buy it.
Firstly there is the stupid title (the cover is even worse) - as an ex-geek (or should that be lapsed?) I think it is midly insulting. I'm sure no programmers were involved in writing the book -
Secondly it doesn't seem from the review to be saying anything new. Most of this has been well covered in a variety of books and articles.
For instance there is a section in Steve McConnels Software Project Survival Guide which covers many of the points mentioned in the review.
The 'herding cats' anology has been used a lot - I first picked up on it in Close to the Machine by Ellen Ullman 5 years ago.
The bottom line is applying the title of Einstien to most tech workers is such a stupid idea that only a management consultant could have come up with it.
If you want to find out how to manage programmers read books written by (ex)programmers.
We use our source code repository for documents as well as code, keeps everything in the same place. The repository is split by project with the relevant documents for each project in that projects area. People check docs in and out in the way they would source code and you can always track down the latest version of the documentation
a p.htm
As for the format and content of the docs you really have to think about what they are for, specifiactions for users to comment on and specifications for programmers to code from need to be different. Documentation also becomes useless if you can't keep it up do date so keep it at an appropriate level of detail.
One example is to think about a new programmer coming onto the team will the documentation help them get up to speed quickly?
As for document formats there are lots of examples of standard docs on the web. Check out Steve McConnels company Construx
Both the project survival guide site http://WWW.CONSTRUX.COM/survivalguide/
and there methodology templates http://WWW.CONSTRUX.COM/cxone/CxOneBasicDocumentM
but there are lots of others around
Three comments only
1. It is impossible to provide "conclusive evidence" for (or against) Global Warming without a number of earths on which we could experiment in accelerated time. Climate models are after all only models and imperfect. In the end it is about assessing the evidence and making a judgement.
2. If you really believe big business won't trade long term social costs for short term bucks just look at the tobacco trade.
3. How come everyone else on this thread gets modded up apart from me!
I am happy to look at this with a open mind. I have no particular axe to grin on this. You on the other hand keep quoting partial sources as if they were idependent.
www.national.org is a conservative think tank therefore why shouldn't I conclude that the statitics it quotes are carefully selected and partial?
Just to retierate the 17,000 scientists you keep banging on about include anyone with (or claiming to have)a science degree and is based an a paper written by some one with no qualification in climatology. I see no reason why this petition should influence my thinking at all.
I am not a climate scientist and, unlike many > greenies, I don't pretend to be one. I will, however, defer to the 17,000 scientists [oism.org] who have signed the above petition that states that global warming does NOT appear to be linked to human activity.
Only about 2,000 of these 'scientists' could make any claim to be 'climate scientists' see http://www.prwatch.org/improp/oism.html for more details.
It is not very credible and it seems to me you are the one only listening to one side of the debate?
We use Websense as well and I have the same problem - Websense blocks sites I want to get to (though interestingly not Slashdot!). However it doesn't block the various anonymising services so subscribe to one of these and you can get unrestricted access to the Web.
On email almost all attachments except Word Documents and PDFs are blocked which limit both personal and business use.
We are allowed 'reasonable' personal use of both Web and email thought I have never seen a definition of what that is, and never heard of anyone being picked up for 'unreasonable use'
Basically I couldn't do my job (IT Project Manager) without access to the Web and email and I'm sure that applies to lots of people out there. I have no real problem with our set up apart from Websenses apparently random blocking of sites, e.g www.laplink.com is blocked - do they think it has something to do with lapdancing!
I am amazed by companies that offer completely unrestricted web access - seems to me to be asking for trouble.
"All the "don't use this because it doesn't work in all browsers" is crap, IMHO. Know who your users are/will be. Know what they use/will use. Know what their skill level is/will be. Then design your site based on those guidelines."
Exactly right, if you have an identifiable use community knock up a few prototypes and ask them what they like.
On the other hand if the site is principally for your own pleasure then do whaterever you like!.
Whatever you do make sure you design it in a way that is easy to maintain - you could even consider a good content management package like CityDesk http://www.fogcreek.com/CityDesk/index.html - the worst website are those that aren't kept up to date.
I don't think its a troll, just a corporate point of view.
.Net vs Java not C, C++ or anything else.
.Net & Java.
Where I work we currently use the Centurasoft toolset, good but not widely used. If and when we decided to move to another language we will look at
Legacy stuff isn't going to dissapear there is still lots of COBOL around (we only got rid of the last of ours a couple of years ago). However for new projects - which will be web based - corporates will be making a choice between
I switched from Seti to the UD Cancer research project http://members.ud.com/projects/cancer/ as soon as that started. It just is seemed a much more worthwhile cause than Seti with a much higher likley hood of success.
All very interesting (though I might suggest that you get a life) but WTF has it got to do the the topic of the article (Oracle security) ? Yet it gets scored 5!
If you think that is bad try the 'Ministry of Culture' - just make sure you put your shades on first!
Correct
.gov.uk sites) - is stopping hosting websites in Jan 2002 so lots of UK govt site are currently looking for new webhosts.
The CCTA, a govt agency and the previous host ( they hosted all the
I am sure The Royal Family don't pay for the website out of there own pocket let alone care how much it costs!