But you can't do auto-updates of Java, otherwise other stuff on your machine stops working.
Java is sufficiently flaky that it's very common for particular applications to need particular versions very carefully installed and configured, so you end up with several versions on your machine - allowing auto-update is a recipe for utter chaos.
About a day and a half's income for a decent programmer. I hope it didn't take them any longer than that to write the app (including, of course, share of setup costs and training time.)
When I choose somewhere to live, right at the top of my list is that it must be somewhere where nobody will have any reason to drive past unless they live in the same street.
(1) Well, people have certainly paid me to write software that runs on Linux, but it's always been proprietary stuff that runs on servers in turnkey systems and suchlike (in fact I'm doing one such project right now), never shrink-wrap desktop stuff for sale to end users.
(2) Erm... I'm afraid that my hobby is flying little aeroplanes... and my other hobby, being an elected politician, is even more expensive.
(3) Don't have sufficient marketing skills and expertise, in that I can make more money by writing C++ for Windows and being paid by the hour.
(4) I really hate that business model, where you can download the source code for something for free, but the only way to find out whether it will do the job you want or not is to pay a consultant hundreds of dollars to tell you, ie to answer your pre-sales enquiries (or spend thousands of dollars worth of your own time trying it out)... I much prefer the alternative, where the pre-sales support is free (eg there are decent specs and other documentation) but the software costs a few tens of dollars.
(5) I realise that that does work for some people... but it can't be that easy to get it right. I think I have never paid the extra for any such software (or service). If the free version is too crap to be useful, how can you trust that company with your money, as your only experience of them is that they produce crap software? On the other hand if the free version is wonderful there's no need to pay for the extras.
What people are hiring in a freelancer is experience and skills and experience and ability to hit the ground running and experience. Oh, and experience.
Do ten years in a proper job first to learn this stuff.
The problem is of course the current namby-pamby nanny-state commie liberal president you've got, who insists on signing every drone death warrant personally.
A real red blooded conservative president, who upheld the US citizen's right to bear arms properly, would allow users of the app to kill foreigners with drones as easily as they are currently allowed to kill fellow Americans with handguns.
This IT contractor would have a "major medical emergency" dealt with for free.
(OK so I am actually covered by some private insurance that goes with my wife's job and I do use it from time to time, but in the UK this mostly only covers elective stuff as the private sector isn't set up to cope with emergencies.)
Not everybody needs to use a nondeterministic finite state machine every day, and not everybody needs to calculate the transitive closure of a sparse connectivity matrix every day, but these are (simple) examples of reasonably commonplace algorithms that you can't really understand without being able to do the maths.
As an even simpler example, you can't really use SQL effectively without understanding the maths behind a relational database. I know this for sure, because I keep coming across SQL applications that were clearly written by people with no understanding of the maths, and I get paid lots of money to fix them up properly.
... myself in these days is the front left hand seat of an aeroplane. Not a lot of scope for taking notes there, you just have to learn and remember. (Though it does help to have a pencil and paper, to write down clearances and suchlike.)
... a number of years ago the City Council offered to provide a CCTV service to the taxi trade, which was at the time somewhat concerned about the level of bad behaviour from punters, including assaults on drivers. But the trade didn't show any interest in the idea - or, at least, not in contributing to the cost! - so it was dropped.
It never occured to us to make it compulsory, I cannot imagine a rationale for that.
Slashdot Mirror
But you can't do auto-updates of Java, otherwise other stuff on your machine stops working.
Java is sufficiently flaky that it's very common for particular applications to need particular versions very carefully installed and configured, so you end up with several versions on your machine - allowing auto-update is a recipe for utter chaos.
... is, as we say every time this comes up on /., paper ballots marked by the voter with a pencil.
Are there any cars that *don't* achieve 30mpg??
Hmm, maybe in America perhaps.
... for elections observers to be sent to Afghanistan.
Oh Yes They Do
I've done OSCE election missions, and if I proposed going to Afghanistan my wife would most certainly have something to say about how dangerous it is.
About a day and a half's income for a decent programmer. I hope it didn't take them any longer than that to write the app (including, of course, share of setup costs and training time.)
You could fix that first.
His job. It's a reporter's job to find out stuff. Some of them are better at their job than others.
"Are you the man who found the coins? Do you know who he is? Contact reporter David O’Neill on 01442 898451."
Duh! - one might have expected the journo to get the name, or even an interview!
are alternating good or crap
And Pink Floyd albums.
Er ... why, if the noise bothers you??
When I choose somewhere to live, right at the top of my list is that it must be somewhere where nobody will have any reason to drive past unless they live in the same street.
I luuuurve people who thing that efficiency doesn't matter.
I make lots of money turning their crap into something useful.
... to make sure corporates thinking of moving to web applications actually decide to stick with Office.
Thought this one was worth a try :-)
I do sometimes get things right.
(1) Well, people have certainly paid me to write software that runs on Linux, but it's always been proprietary stuff that runs on servers in turnkey systems and suchlike (in fact I'm doing one such project right now), never shrink-wrap desktop stuff for sale to end users.
(2) Erm ... I'm afraid that my hobby is flying little aeroplanes ... and my other hobby, being an elected politician, is even more expensive.
(3) Don't have sufficient marketing skills and expertise, in that I can make more money by writing C++ for Windows and being paid by the hour.
(4) I really hate that business model, where you can download the source code for something for free, but the only way to find out whether it will do the job you want or not is to pay a consultant hundreds of dollars to tell you, ie to answer your pre-sales enquiries (or spend thousands of dollars worth of your own time trying it out) ... I much prefer the alternative, where the pre-sales support is free (eg there are decent specs and other documentation) but the software costs a few tens of dollars.
(5) I realise that that does work for some people ... but it can't be that easy to get it right. I think I have never paid the extra for any such software (or service). If the free version is too crap to be useful, how can you trust that company with your money, as your only experience of them is that they produce crap software? On the other hand if the free version is wonderful there's no need to pay for the extras.
... when you have children to feed and a mortgage to pay ... ... and the users expect all their software to be free?
Better off spending one's time addressing a market where people expect to have to pay for stuff, no?
What people are hiring in a freelancer is experience and skills and experience and ability to hit the ground running and experience. Oh, and experience.
Do ten years in a proper job first to learn this stuff.
Uncollapse the *code*, I meant, of course.
Then you can read what the code is supposed to do and understand how it is supposed to work.
Next, you uncollapse the comments, see what the code actually does, and fix it.
The problem is of course the current namby-pamby nanny-state commie liberal president you've got, who insists on signing every drone death warrant personally.
A real red blooded conservative president, who upheld the US citizen's right to bear arms properly, would allow users of the app to kill foreigners with drones as easily as they are currently allowed to kill fellow Americans with handguns.
... bears shit in the woods, the pope is a catholic, ect ect.
Persuading the kids is another matter of course.
This IT contractor would have a "major medical emergency" dealt with for free.
(OK so I am actually covered by some private insurance that goes with my wife's job and I do use it from time to time, but in the UK this mostly only covers elective stuff as the private sector isn't set up to cope with emergencies.)
Not everybody needs to use a nondeterministic finite state machine every day, and not everybody needs to calculate the transitive closure of a sparse connectivity matrix every day, but these are (simple) examples of reasonably commonplace algorithms that you can't really understand without being able to do the maths.
As an even simpler example, you can't really use SQL effectively without understanding the maths behind a relational database. I know this for sure, because I keep coming across SQL applications that were clearly written by people with no understanding of the maths, and I get paid lots of money to fix them up properly.
... myself in these days is the front left hand seat of an aeroplane. Not a lot of scope for taking notes there, you just have to learn and remember. (Though it does help to have a pencil and paper, to write down clearances and suchlike.)
Eventually people will realise that employers Google these things, and that posting nasty stuff means you can't get work.
But this could take a generation to work through.
... a number of years ago the City Council offered to provide a CCTV service to the taxi trade, which was at the time somewhat concerned about the level of bad behaviour from punters, including assaults on drivers. But the trade didn't show any interest in the idea - or, at least, not in contributing to the cost! - so it was dropped.
It never occured to us to make it compulsory, I cannot imagine a rationale for that.