As far as I'm concerned, Israel is one of the most belligerent and violently oppressive regimes on the planet. I couldn't give two squirts of piss if they're "upset" about Palestine being properly named.
I don't think age really has all that much to do with whether someone is an effective programmer, but rather the types of experiences they've had over the years and whether they've learned from them. This goes hand in hand with keeping an open mind and being open to criticism, and even admitting mistakes and failure when appropriate.
Debugging is the most important skill that older programmers often excel at. They've run into similar problems in the past, and those who've learned from those problems and mistakes are quicker to spot the issues even with newer tools and technologies.
Perhaps it's better to ask if people are set in their ways or open minded to learning rather than how old they are.
Install Ubuntu server and then "apt-get install kdm" and you're good to go with KDE. I realize it's easier to install kubuntu, but then you're not running an "official" release.
I had an ATM have trouble reading my card, so it resorted to using the magstripe. However, when in magstripe mode I was limited to withdrawing only $20. So the magstripe is pretty much useless nowadays, at least up here in Canuckistan.
Software has a limited lifecycle. It's limited because it's not updated. It's limited because the OS changes. It's limited because it was never intended to be used forever.
Companies who didn't plan on buying replacements for their core software every 5-10 years are incompetent. I feel no sympathy for them.
Seriously. Most jobs in the programming industry (including offshore consulting) have customers and partners who use English for documentation, requirements, and code. While it may be "neat" to program in another language, if you try to do so in the real world, you're probably going to get spanked and told to use "comprehensible names in your code."
I realize that might sound bigoted, saying you have to learn English to program, but it's a simple fact of the modern world. The user interface for applications needs to be localized, but the code is written to be read in English in most cases.
One can hardly apply for jobs as "C programmed in Dansk" and "C programmed in German", so on. Maybe if you're looking only at the local market, but I assume you're trying to help your daughter build skills for a future career. That's going to mean learning English.
No parts have failed. Everything works. The keyboard is just fine. This crap about "good build quality" is just that -- crap.
No, it doesn't have a brushed aluminum or forged titanium case. It doesn't have that little rubber nub instead of a trackpad (which I wish it did.)
But there is nothing wrong with the "build quality" of the machine I bought. It's cheap. It has a plastic case. But I'm not planning to sit on it or drop it, so good enough.
I don't know what they might have done to their ThinkPad line, but the IdeaPad I bought from Lenovo a few months back has proven to be rock solid, reliable, and fast. It runs on batteries longer than I need, and it has more bells and whistles than I want or need.
Methinks people are just yearning for glory days that weren't as great as they remember in the first place, much like any other reminiscing people tend to do.
Or if they are a reboot happy user (I've seen that, if the browser gets slow they power off) then that user may reboot when you're out of the room, and they may now boot into your main system and continue along, without you even knowing it, until much much later.
So you're saying you don't have passwords to keep them from logging back in if they reboot?
The same as with children, watch what they're doing!
I have one friend who is notorious for surfing "questionable" web sites while visiting friends. I simply tell him "nothing but YouTube and Facebook", and watch from the couch to make sure he complies. Sitting and watching someone Facebook isn't particularly fun, but it beats the heck out of having to reinstall a system.
I can empathize with these "retro" developers. There is nothing so satisfying or rewarding as working on something you love doing.
I've often said I'd be programming for fun if I weren't programming for pay. Nowadays, living on disability, that has become true. I spend hours on my pet project without schedules, overhead, meetings, or hassles, and it's an absolute joy to do so.
While it's nice to have a large resolution monitor, or maybe even two, I find it equally useful to have my 15" widescreen laptop next to my main machine (1600x1200 -- yes, an old CRT.)
I use low-overhead tools like gvim for editing, not IDEs with their umpteen panels. All I use Eclipse or VisualStudio for is debugging, not authoring code. As a result, I can get a good chunk of work done even on the 1280x1024 monitors that used to be the norm at my last job, while co-workers were constantly complaining that "the screen is too small."
The screen isn't too small. I grew up with 80x24 character terminals. Your work habits are too big!
I am perpetually amazed by the blinding stupidity of people who think that if only you move "to the cloud" there is no more configuration or maintenance to be done for applications.
Just who does this fellow think maintains those cloud services?
You should have taken the calculation further. That works out to $180/year plus your $50 for the stick itself. I hate to burst Dell's bubble, but at $230 you can get a cheap desktop computer from any number of suppliers (think office machine with minimal 3D support) and own it. By the time you're into the second or third year, you've paid for a pretty nice machine compared to Ophelia.
I'm sure Dell's executives cream their pants when they think about raping the population for $15/month or more, but as Microsoft's earlier efforts with web-enabled software show, most customers aren't willing to sucker in for monthly fees unless they can write it off as a business expense.
And businesses don't want you stuffing their PC in your shirt pocket and taking it home with you for an untold number of legal, ethical, and control reasons.
I'm not so sure about that. The article seems to describe yet another thin-client solution, only this time it uses the buzzword "cloud" to describe the servers. The only real difference between it and older thin-client solutions is that it uses the equivalent of a Raspberry Pi in a USB form instead of bulkier old technology built into the monitor itself.
Game changer? I doubt it very much.
Most people who buy internet-enabled TVs don't even use the internet capability for anything more than playing YouTube videos and NetFlix, and some of those have way more processing power than what the article describes, without the inconvenience of having to plug it in.
I know bio-diesel requires oil-producing crops vs. sugar producing crops, but other than that I'm curious how this fuel might be "better" than bio-diesel. Given that bio-diesel can be produced using hemp seed oil (a plant that literally grows like a weed in the worst of conditions), I'd think the hemp alternative would be better.
The milled hemp kernels left behind by the oil extraction provide a high-protein animal feed, and the stalks produce fiber that can replace a wide number of products.
I'd guess the remaining hemp stalk material after the fiber has been extracted could still be put through this fermentation process.
So enlighten me.
Why aren't we pursuing hemp-based bio-diesel instead?
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As far as I'm concerned, Israel is one of the most belligerent and violently oppressive regimes on the planet. I couldn't give two squirts of piss if they're "upset" about Palestine being properly named.
I don't think age really has all that much to do with whether someone is an effective programmer, but rather the types of experiences they've had over the years and whether they've learned from them. This goes hand in hand with keeping an open mind and being open to criticism, and even admitting mistakes and failure when appropriate.
Debugging is the most important skill that older programmers often excel at. They've run into similar problems in the past, and those who've learned from those problems and mistakes are quicker to spot the issues even with newer tools and technologies.
Perhaps it's better to ask if people are set in their ways or open minded to learning rather than how old they are.
Install Ubuntu server and then "apt-get install kdm" and you're good to go with KDE. I realize it's easier to install kubuntu, but then you're not running an "official" release.
I had an ATM have trouble reading my card, so it resorted to using the magstripe. However, when in magstripe mode I was limited to withdrawing only $20. So the magstripe is pretty much useless nowadays, at least up here in Canuckistan.
Software has a limited lifecycle. It's limited because it's not updated. It's limited because the OS changes. It's limited because it was never intended to be used forever.
Companies who didn't plan on buying replacements for their core software every 5-10 years are incompetent. I feel no sympathy for them.
Hyundai. :P
Seriously. Most jobs in the programming industry (including offshore consulting) have customers and partners who use English for documentation, requirements, and code. While it may be "neat" to program in another language, if you try to do so in the real world, you're probably going to get spanked and told to use "comprehensible names in your code."
I realize that might sound bigoted, saying you have to learn English to program, but it's a simple fact of the modern world. The user interface for applications needs to be localized, but the code is written to be read in English in most cases.
One can hardly apply for jobs as "C programmed in Dansk" and "C programmed in German", so on. Maybe if you're looking only at the local market, but I assume you're trying to help your daughter build skills for a future career. That's going to mean learning English.
No parts have failed. Everything works. The keyboard is just fine. This crap about "good build quality" is just that -- crap.
No, it doesn't have a brushed aluminum or forged titanium case. It doesn't have that little rubber nub instead of a trackpad (which I wish it did.)
But there is nothing wrong with the "build quality" of the machine I bought. It's cheap. It has a plastic case. But I'm not planning to sit on it or drop it, so good enough.
I don't know what they might have done to their ThinkPad line, but the IdeaPad I bought from Lenovo a few months back has proven to be rock solid, reliable, and fast. It runs on batteries longer than I need, and it has more bells and whistles than I want or need.
Methinks people are just yearning for glory days that weren't as great as they remember in the first place, much like any other reminiscing people tend to do.
Win 8 is killing PC sales. My folks bought a Win 8 machine (against my advice), and they do... not... like... it.
In fact, if they could "trade down" to a Win 7 box without paying more, they would.
Funny. Calling it "Windows" wasn't a problem when they supported CPUs other than the Intel instruction set in years gone by.
But then again, those versions of Windows were marketted at Engineers, not the general public.
So you're saying you don't have passwords to keep them from logging back in if they reboot?
The same as with children, watch what they're doing!
I have one friend who is notorious for surfing "questionable" web sites while visiting friends. I simply tell him "nothing but YouTube and Facebook", and watch from the couch to make sure he complies. Sitting and watching someone Facebook isn't particularly fun, but it beats the heck out of having to reinstall a system.
Any professors I've ever known or been taught by had their grad students doing the grading, anyhow.
Besides, what exactly are the professors being "freed up" for? Isn't their JOB to TEACH?
Oh, yeah, I'm thinking old school. Nowadays a professor's job is to find corporate grants...
I can empathize with these "retro" developers. There is nothing so satisfying or rewarding as working on something you love doing.
I've often said I'd be programming for fun if I weren't programming for pay. Nowadays, living on disability, that has become true. I spend hours on my pet project without schedules, overhead, meetings, or hassles, and it's an absolute joy to do so.
'nuff said
While it's nice to have a large resolution monitor, or maybe even two, I find it equally useful to have my 15" widescreen laptop next to my main machine (1600x1200 -- yes, an old CRT.)
I use low-overhead tools like gvim for editing, not IDEs with their umpteen panels. All I use Eclipse or VisualStudio for is debugging, not authoring code. As a result, I can get a good chunk of work done even on the 1280x1024 monitors that used to be the norm at my last job, while co-workers were constantly complaining that "the screen is too small."
The screen isn't too small. I grew up with 80x24 character terminals. Your work habits are too big!
I am perpetually amazed by the blinding stupidity of people who think that if only you move "to the cloud" there is no more configuration or maintenance to be done for applications.
Just who does this fellow think maintains those cloud services?
The underpants gnomes?
As per usual, when an article asks a question, the answer is "No."
You should have taken the calculation further. That works out to $180/year plus your $50 for the stick itself. I hate to burst Dell's bubble, but at $230 you can get a cheap desktop computer from any number of suppliers (think office machine with minimal 3D support) and own it. By the time you're into the second or third year, you've paid for a pretty nice machine compared to Ophelia.
I'm sure Dell's executives cream their pants when they think about raping the population for $15/month or more, but as Microsoft's earlier efforts with web-enabled software show, most customers aren't willing to sucker in for monthly fees unless they can write it off as a business expense.
And businesses don't want you stuffing their PC in your shirt pocket and taking it home with you for an untold number of legal, ethical, and control reasons.
I'm not so sure about that. The article seems to describe yet another thin-client solution, only this time it uses the buzzword "cloud" to describe the servers. The only real difference between it and older thin-client solutions is that it uses the equivalent of a Raspberry Pi in a USB form instead of bulkier old technology built into the monitor itself.
Game changer? I doubt it very much.
Most people who buy internet-enabled TVs don't even use the internet capability for anything more than playing YouTube videos and NetFlix, and some of those have way more processing power than what the article describes, without the inconvenience of having to plug it in.
The same problem applies to this fermentation problem. It produces another form of bio-diesel, not gasoline.
I know bio-diesel requires oil-producing crops vs. sugar producing crops, but other than that I'm curious how this fuel might be "better" than bio-diesel. Given that bio-diesel can be produced using hemp seed oil (a plant that literally grows like a weed in the worst of conditions), I'd think the hemp alternative would be better.
The milled hemp kernels left behind by the oil extraction provide a high-protein animal feed, and the stalks produce fiber that can replace a wide number of products.
I'd guess the remaining hemp stalk material after the fiber has been extracted could still be put through this fermentation process.
So enlighten me.
Why aren't we pursuing hemp-based bio-diesel instead?
American's can't even spell colour properly. :P
Of course there are hundreds or thousands of native API calls made by the Java stack.
Sooner or later you have to talk to the OS.