I've never seen anything like this. I go to Oracle's website, log in to OTN, and try to download R5U5 x86_64-bit DVD image. My DSL modem craps out it's connection.
So I reset the modem, and try again. As soon as I try to refresh the Oracle page, the modem craps out.
This time when the modem recovers I try going to a number of other websites -- SlashDot, New York Times, PostgreSQL. No problems.
Try the Oracle download again and *POOF*, there goes my modem link again.
I have no idea how they're doing it, but Oracle is poisoning my 2Wire DSL modem!
Hundreds of thousands of people hunched in front of glowing monitors, clicking their mice and banging their keyboards. Not one of them actually talking to each other, just posting game-generated messages about game progress, wishlists, and canned in-game requests.
Where is the "social" aspect of such games? Even FPS games with voice headsets are more "social" because they allow/encourage the players to yell at each other!
I've yet to see a VM implementation that properly supported hardware-accelerated graphics. While there has been some good work done on sharing disk, memory, and network resources in a VM, the general assumption is that a VM doesn't need accelerated graphics or sound. The result is that performance of such applications is absolutely abysmal.
Yeah, he really put his money where his mouth is this time. Snapping up an experienced CEO and creating a new position for him just shows how much he is impressed by the guy.
The fallout over at HP is well-deserved. You don't let someone go because of allegations -- you let them go because of convictions. Letting them go because of allegations is playing politics, not running a business.
Personally I've thought HP/Compaq have been on the way down for some time now. While they used to build solid hardware, we've had no end of reliability problems with this past year's models. It's gotten so bad that we're actively seeking other hardware vendors.
Actually I volunteer for the projects that are going to expose me to something new, rather than only taking on projects where I already know how the solution will work. The latter are bread-n-butter to the company, the former are the future of the company.
For example, I've spent the past year on a Freeswitch project rather than on the older Asterisk based code. Freeswitch scales better, is better architected, and is more flexible. The downside was spending 3-6 months working with the Freeswitch team to resolve issues with the code.
In the end, Freeswitch is where we are going; Asterisk is where we were. At the time that the Asterisk code was started, Freeswitch hadn't even reached it's first release, so Freeswitch wasn't an option back then.
Next up is a rework of the database IO codebase so that it becomes feasible to plug-n-play different databases. We could do it with the existing code base, but it would be very painful, kludgy, and difficult to maintain. Instead we're going to make a clean break on our next release to a new architecture for the database code. Sure it'll take longer at first -- but by the time we're on to our third database we should be well ahead of the curve and saving time.
The truth is that the "hard" way of doing things is often more fun, because you have the challenge of learning a new tool or API. Plus sometimes it's actually easier in the long run because you've engineered a solution for the outer bounds conditions of scalability, so if your application takes off, it can handle the load.
I guess the real issue is that you have to engineer a "good enough" solution rather than a "worst case" solution.
I don't think it's at all fair to compare prices based on average monthly income in a country. If the average income is mere dollars per day or per month, how can you possibly expect internet access to be within means? It's like complaining that the average New Yorker/Manhattanite can't afford a car because the parking costs almost as much as their rent!
Our boss is happy to see people using Open Office because it saves him a license fee, but if you want Microsoft office instead, it gets approved. It's about a 50-50 split in our office between people who find OO "good enough" vs. people who want the extra bells and whistles of a full MS Office installation.
When I mention self training, I am always asked, "How much on the job experience you have with that?"
I think that has a lot to do with how you spin it. People and companies are interested in how you've used your self-training -- whether you've done some volunteer work with it or worked on a pet or open-source project using those skills.
It's not enough to say "I taught myself Foo." You have to be able to say "I used Foo to develop Bar."
In Canada a fee is levied on all Audio CDRs. Data CDRs don't have the fee levied. However, good luck finding "Data" CDRs nowadays -- seems everyone has switched over to the new-fangled "DVD+-R".
Of course if it's a business expense, you just include the cost of a bunk-bed coach. Room for 1-2 people, bathroom, chair, everything you need to be comfortable (if cramped) for a day or two. I imagine any new rail system will also provide WiFi or equivalent with a coach in the future.
I've only travelled once by VIA (Canada) and once by Amtrack (US) each. It was a pleasant experience, though a lot of people are pissed off that VIA travels through the Rocky mountains at night so you can't see them. I expect they've got some sort of premium "Rocky Tour" package by now.
Re:Interesting that you mention teachers
on
Child Porn As a Weapon
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
My friend isn't a "quick learner"? How is he supposed to "learn" how to keep kids from bald-face lying about where he was and what happened while he was supposedly there?
You're right about the crushes, though -- all three accusations were from girls who had a crush on him and wanted revenge for him "rejecting" them.
Interesting that you mention teachers
on
Child Porn As a Weapon
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
A friend of mine is a high school teacher, and has been accused of abuse 3 times in 10 years. No truth to the charges, just vindictive kids trying to get revenge for imagined injuries, but each time was extremely stressful for him.
It's amazing how many people will believe the worst of someone they don't know just because some a-hole has laid false charges.
Amen to the self-taught. With pretty much anything, cracking open some books and software (where applicable) will teach you through experience. There's not much point to going through the motions just for a piece of paper if you're truly self-taught already. The only problem is that businesses want that piece of paper in greater and greater numbers. It's been a long time since I worked with anyone who didn't have a university degree of some sort, even the sysadmins are educated nowadays. It's become a profession, even if there is no global overseeing body of accreditation like the Engineers have.
Personally I'd prefer someone self-taught if their interests happened to coincide with a university degree, but having that degree guarantees you have a certain minimum education. With a highly competitive workforce, I'd have no option but to give the job to someone who has proven their willingness to put 4 years and significant money into a degree. Believe me, my first 2-3 years of university were boring because I was self taught from the age of 14. It wasn't until the 400 series classes that things got interesting and new (and fun!)
While it's true that open source does not mean free as in beer, it's pretty damned hard to lock out a segment of the user community (i.e. non-paying users) when the source code is released, allowing anybody to build the "missing" feature.
If that source code isn't made available, then you're not an open source company.
I just can't believe the egos of the Apple cognoscenti who think that their share of the mobile market is enough to drive a technology into "obsolescence." Mobile devices with much smaller slices of the pie continue to attract custom software developers, never mind cross-platform developers that get support of their platform for "free" if they work with Adobe.
Personally I've never run into a company that didn't log the bugs encountered during development and testing. The question was whether they were considered high-enough priority to fix before release.
Canada has a flamboyant pro-cannabis activist named Marc Emery who's going through a similar extradition process and some outrage about loss of sovereignty if he's extradited.
Call centers are our main customers at my current job. You wouldn't believe how creative people get, trying to bypass the laws that restrict use of certain dialing technologies (robo-dialers, predictive dialers, progressive dialers, etc.) As a software provider we have to implement options that support those legal restrictions, but a huge number of clients want to know how to disable those features because they've come up with a creative reason why the law doesn't apply to them. We advise them not to do it, but in the end, it's the call center that's in control.
You go where the work is. If you pick an area and wait until you get employment in that area, you could be years between jobs. For IT work, metro centers and restaurant selection are pretty much a given. Except for Cajun. Tough to find good Cajun out of the south.
I've been working with Erlang for about 9 months now. It's an interesting language, but prone to some of the most bizarre runtime problems because it doesn't do type checking (for example if you typo a "+" instead of "++" when concatenating strings it'll defer the error to runtime, when it reports an "arith error".)
One thing that really impresses me about Erlang is how tight the code is. We've been working on a PBX application (with Freeswitch and PostgreSQL) and it's not even 30,000 lines of code in Erlang, including database I/Os and client/server GUI access. C++ would have weighed in at around 100,000 lines for the same functionality.
Slashdot Mirror
I've never seen anything like this. I go to Oracle's website, log in to OTN, and try to download R5U5 x86_64-bit DVD image. My DSL modem craps out it's connection.
So I reset the modem, and try again. As soon as I try to refresh the Oracle page, the modem craps out.
This time when the modem recovers I try going to a number of other websites -- SlashDot, New York Times, PostgreSQL. No problems.
Try the Oracle download again and *POOF*, there goes my modem link again.
I have no idea how they're doing it, but Oracle is poisoning my 2Wire DSL modem!
Hundreds of thousands of people hunched in front of glowing monitors, clicking their mice and banging their keyboards. Not one of them actually talking to each other, just posting game-generated messages about game progress, wishlists, and canned in-game requests.
Where is the "social" aspect of such games? Even FPS games with voice headsets are more "social" because they allow/encourage the players to yell at each other!
I've yet to see a VM implementation that properly supported hardware-accelerated graphics. While there has been some good work done on sharing disk, memory, and network resources in a VM, the general assumption is that a VM doesn't need accelerated graphics or sound. The result is that performance of such applications is absolutely abysmal.
Yeah, he really put his money where his mouth is this time. Snapping up an experienced CEO and creating a new position for him just shows how much he is impressed by the guy.
The fallout over at HP is well-deserved. You don't let someone go because of allegations -- you let them go because of convictions. Letting them go because of allegations is playing politics, not running a business.
Personally I've thought HP/Compaq have been on the way down for some time now. While they used to build solid hardware, we've had no end of reliability problems with this past year's models. It's gotten so bad that we're actively seeking other hardware vendors.
Actually I volunteer for the projects that are going to expose me to something new, rather than only taking on projects where I already know how the solution will work. The latter are bread-n-butter to the company, the former are the future of the company.
For example, I've spent the past year on a Freeswitch project rather than on the older Asterisk based code. Freeswitch scales better, is better architected, and is more flexible. The downside was spending 3-6 months working with the Freeswitch team to resolve issues with the code.
In the end, Freeswitch is where we are going; Asterisk is where we were. At the time that the Asterisk code was started, Freeswitch hadn't even reached it's first release, so Freeswitch wasn't an option back then.
Next up is a rework of the database IO codebase so that it becomes feasible to plug-n-play different databases. We could do it with the existing code base, but it would be very painful, kludgy, and difficult to maintain. Instead we're going to make a clean break on our next release to a new architecture for the database code. Sure it'll take longer at first -- but by the time we're on to our third database we should be well ahead of the curve and saving time.
The truth is that the "hard" way of doing things is often more fun, because you have the challenge of learning a new tool or API. Plus sometimes it's actually easier in the long run because you've engineered a solution for the outer bounds conditions of scalability, so if your application takes off, it can handle the load.
I guess the real issue is that you have to engineer a "good enough" solution rather than a "worst case" solution.
I don't think it's at all fair to compare prices based on average monthly income in a country. If the average income is mere dollars per day or per month, how can you possibly expect internet access to be within means? It's like complaining that the average New Yorker/Manhattanite can't afford a car because the parking costs almost as much as their rent!
However, Shatner was an asshole in school, too. My uncle went to school with him and Shatner was not well-liked by most of his classmates.
That works out to $22 for a 22 episode season, vs. over $30/season to buy box sets.
Our boss is happy to see people using Open Office because it saves him a license fee, but if you want Microsoft office instead, it gets approved. It's about a 50-50 split in our office between people who find OO "good enough" vs. people who want the extra bells and whistles of a full MS Office installation.
I think that has a lot to do with how you spin it. People and companies are interested in how you've used your self-training -- whether you've done some volunteer work with it or worked on a pet or open-source project using those skills.
It's not enough to say "I taught myself Foo." You have to be able to say "I used Foo to develop Bar."
In Canada a fee is levied on all Audio CDRs. Data CDRs don't have the fee levied. However, good luck finding "Data" CDRs nowadays -- seems everyone has switched over to the new-fangled "DVD+-R".
Of course if it's a business expense, you just include the cost of a bunk-bed coach. Room for 1-2 people, bathroom, chair, everything you need to be comfortable (if cramped) for a day or two. I imagine any new rail system will also provide WiFi or equivalent with a coach in the future.
I've only travelled once by VIA (Canada) and once by Amtrack (US) each. It was a pleasant experience, though a lot of people are pissed off that VIA travels through the Rocky mountains at night so you can't see them. I expect they've got some sort of premium "Rocky Tour" package by now.
My friend isn't a "quick learner"? How is he supposed to "learn" how to keep kids from bald-face lying about where he was and what happened while he was supposedly there?
You're right about the crushes, though -- all three accusations were from girls who had a crush on him and wanted revenge for him "rejecting" them.
A friend of mine is a high school teacher, and has been accused of abuse 3 times in 10 years. No truth to the charges, just vindictive kids trying to get revenge for imagined injuries, but each time was extremely stressful for him.
It's amazing how many people will believe the worst of someone they don't know just because some a-hole has laid false charges.
Amen to the self-taught. With pretty much anything, cracking open some books and software (where applicable) will teach you through experience. There's not much point to going through the motions just for a piece of paper if you're truly self-taught already. The only problem is that businesses want that piece of paper in greater and greater numbers. It's been a long time since I worked with anyone who didn't have a university degree of some sort, even the sysadmins are educated nowadays. It's become a profession, even if there is no global overseeing body of accreditation like the Engineers have. Personally I'd prefer someone self-taught if their interests happened to coincide with a university degree, but having that degree guarantees you have a certain minimum education. With a highly competitive workforce, I'd have no option but to give the job to someone who has proven their willingness to put 4 years and significant money into a degree. Believe me, my first 2-3 years of university were boring because I was self taught from the age of 14. It wasn't until the 400 series classes that things got interesting and new (and fun!)
While it's true that open source does not mean free as in beer, it's pretty damned hard to lock out a segment of the user community (i.e. non-paying users) when the source code is released, allowing anybody to build the "missing" feature.
If that source code isn't made available, then you're not an open source company.
I just can't believe the egos of the Apple cognoscenti who think that their share of the mobile market is enough to drive a technology into "obsolescence." Mobile devices with much smaller slices of the pie continue to attract custom software developers, never mind cross-platform developers that get support of their platform for "free" if they work with Adobe.
Personally I've never run into a company that didn't log the bugs encountered during development and testing. The question was whether they were considered high-enough priority to fix before release.
I think the Mafia should be offended at the comparison, and give the *AA, Boll, et. al. a good bitch-slapping. :)
So far 1/4 developers have installed Windows 7 at our office, one has gone with Ubuntu 10.04, and the last two are still using XP.
But yeah, it seems it's time to let go and move on -- other platforms offer the needed functionality and a better user experience.
Canada has a flamboyant pro-cannabis activist named Marc Emery who's going through a similar extradition process and some outrage about loss of sovereignty if he's extradited.
Call centers are our main customers at my current job. You wouldn't believe how creative people get, trying to bypass the laws that restrict use of certain dialing technologies (robo-dialers, predictive dialers, progressive dialers, etc.) As a software provider we have to implement options that support those legal restrictions, but a huge number of clients want to know how to disable those features because they've come up with a creative reason why the law doesn't apply to them. We advise them not to do it, but in the end, it's the call center that's in control.
You go where the work is. If you pick an area and wait until you get employment in that area, you could be years between jobs. For IT work, metro centers and restaurant selection are pretty much a given. Except for Cajun. Tough to find good Cajun out of the south.
I've been working with Erlang for about 9 months now. It's an interesting language, but prone to some of the most bizarre runtime problems because it doesn't do type checking (for example if you typo a "+" instead of "++" when concatenating strings it'll defer the error to runtime, when it reports an "arith error".)
One thing that really impresses me about Erlang is how tight the code is. We've been working on a PBX application (with Freeswitch and PostgreSQL) and it's not even 30,000 lines of code in Erlang, including database I/Os and client/server GUI access. C++ would have weighed in at around 100,000 lines for the same functionality.