If you find and enjoy Hardy's A Mathematician's Apology go on to Robert Kanigel's The Man Who Knew Infinity, A Life of the Genius Ramanujan next.
I also recommend Timothy Ferris' books, like Coming of Age in the Milky Way and for history of technology, James Burke's The Day the Universe Changed and Connections. I have heard him speak in person and if you appreciate humor, he is your author.
Another winner is James Gleick's Chaos, Making a New Science.
Don't forget periodicals, like Scientific American which convey the excitement of discovery that drives most practicing researchers while still being accessible.
Chances are that casual PC owners who just do a bit of browsing, a bit of emailing and type the occasional letter will have not even considered that anything other than IE exsists.
Given that "casual users" dominate the mass market and don't do a lot of research (how many do you run into who believe that the US Government has selected Microsoft Windows as the standard) and adoption (== buying) is based on:
what has prominent space in discount stores
what is on sale (cheap) today
what the person ahead in line selected
comments by any anyone who sounds like and expert (== say words they recognize)
perhaps Peter-Paul's tactic making Browser Wars the most exciting thing since Star Wars is the best hope for web developers.
Re:The real deal with ageism
on
Ageism in IT?
·
· Score: 1
When hiring cheap doesn't work, sometimes 3 or 4 times, they figure out they need to hire someone with more experience. I learned to program in 1969 and find that in recent years I tend to be hired for projects where several other people have burned out or failed to produce the desired result.
Between specialization (programmers aren't expected to understand how hardware works, let alone understand each other's code) and proprietary systems that have to have new releases to sell, it gets to be difficult to learn the ways of bugs and develop strategies to deal with them.
Back in DOS 3.2 and BASIC days, I needed to write code that didn't crash to control an analytical instrument. A crash could require repeating two hours work, plus the machine produced ionizing radiation, so safety was also a factor.
It took a long time, but between snooping around and testing, I found clearing string space regularly worked. I would like to be able to say that methodical research lead to the answer, but actually I was killing time in a bookstore while on a visit to Chicago and happened to open the right book to the right page. 8^)
I am grateful for the break, but that is no way to build reliable software!
Pauling's group had the bases on the outside and the chain on the inside - essentially a "decorated" rope instead of a ladder. They probably would have gotten it right eventually, but sure bought some time for Watson and Crick.
And don't forget Linus Pauling's son who on a visit spilled the beans that the California group which had already discovered that proteins were an alpha helix was on the wrong track.
Another big factor was that Microsoft Works documents were not compatible with Office. I used to run into this when I worked at a university help desk. People just heard "Microsoft" and assumed that Works and Office were the same thing until they brought a term paper to school (standardized on MS Office) and couldn't print it on a PC (but you could on a Macintosh with MacLink translators).
The problem I had was that Safari downloaded and installed just fine as the admin user, but the application crashed each time I tried to launch it. It would make an empty ~/Library/Safari folder, but nothing else. So the suggestions to delete ~/Library/preferences/com.apple.safari.plist were totally useless. When I logged on as another user, it worked just fine.
Someone on the Apple discussion boards mentioned deleting ~/Library/preferences/com.apple.security.plist which allowed Safari to launch. When I entered and saved my password for POP mail, the problem returned.
I use OS X most of the time on a two year old G4 Desktop, but am holding on to a 6100 DOS Compatible, Powerbook 520, and Classic II for compatibility for older applications. It keeps them out of the land fills and third world countries.
Although the study identifies Macintosh users as a market for upscale goods, I think it ignores the fact that many people choose a Macintosh because they work hard and want a productivity advantage. When I am on a computer eight or more hours a day, I will pay extra for equipment that is a joy to use. This would not be a factor for a casual PC user who will put up with discomfort if the price is right.
I forego automobile ownership and a lot of other consumer goods rather than work on a junky computer. I am writing this from a G4 computer running OS X 10.1.5, my fifth Macintosh. It is wonderful for writing Perl scripts to run servers, MySQL database management, web design, and producing documentation for my products.
I wonder about the significance of Macintosh users being more highly educated as well. I work at a university and my personal experience is that the majority of highly educated people buy PC's for the same wrong reasons as everyone else because computers are outside their area of expertise. The only difference that I see is that they tend to use a better vocabulary when commiserating with each other about Klez, crashing, etc.
I worked for the Omnifest Community Network in Milwaukee WI starting in 1993 and still maintain a rudimentary
web site
about it.
We offered dial-up service, email, interactive bulletin boards using CIX bulletin board software (developed by Tristate Online in Cincinnati OH) on a DEC workstation housed at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. In the pilot stage it was only open to local high school teachers, librarians, and UW-Milwaukee alumni, then it was opened to elementary and secondary schools, then the public.
Because there weren't a lot of other ways for non-university people to get onto the internet, the services were much in demand and we had a loyal following. For instance, the text-based interface enabled visually impaired people with screen readers to participate and we had bulletin boards sponsored by the Badger Association for the Blind. Many volunteers moderated bulletin boards and posted community information as well as providing technical support for users. I helped train volunteers and provide phone support and will attest that there was a real spirit of community service.
Operating as a non-profit organization presented problems. In addition to the obvious difficulty getting financial support, I got the idea that a lot of people didn't trust us. While members usually appreciated the low charges, we would get many calls a day asking about the service then get a lecture about how that was no way to run a business! We were charging $25 a year with even lower pricing plans for students who registered through their schools as a deliberate choice to keep the service open to everyone in the community. Libraries and community centers made computers available so that it users didn't even have to own their own computers to participate. It just didn't seem that people could grasp the idea of an organization run by a community for the mutual benefit of the members of the community rather than for profit.
Well, the inevitable happened. Omnifest closed in 1998. I feel we contributed greatly to the popularization of using the Internet in our community only to be set aside when Internet access via the WWW became commercially viable. Much of the demise was due to technological advances too, for instance, the text-based interface worked well with 2400K modems readily available then.
I was about to write the extensive community sponsored by SEFLIN in Florida as an example of a community network which had successfully evolved into a web site, but that appears to be gone too. Sigh...
The legal reason bicycles can be banned on sidewalks is that in most states in the US they predate cars, so along with horse drawn carriages, etc. are considered vehicles. The practical reason to ban bicycles on sidewalks is that mixing pedestrian traffic at less than 5 mpg and bikes at 12 mph when crowded can result in accidents. It looks like the folks at Segway did their homework well by checking the legal stuff first.
I have been using a three wheel electric scooter (PMV) in Milwaukee WI for over two years. It handles icy sidewalks quite well and will go through snow up to 4 inches. The real problem is "windrows" of packed snow from plowing the streets. The packed snow quickly turns into ice and blocks sidewalk ramps until a major thaw.
Re:NOT THEFT but something else
on
iWarez
·
· Score: 1
Perhaps poor judgment? I would respect him a lot more as a thief had he gone for an Adobe product.
Something to be careful about is how you cancel. Doing it on the web site does not count, you have to call them for the cancellation to be effective. This requires reading some fine print on the site.
A lab where I used to work actually boasted of hiring engineers fresh out of school, using them until they burned out, then letting them go. The corporate age was under 25.
Another sad practice is hiring someone with lots of qualifications and initiative even if they don't match the corporate standard, let them fix what is wrong, then let them go so that more acceptable (age, social status, educational background, etc.) workers can take over. You can tell if this is the case as typically you will be replaced by two or more workers (my record is 3.5!).
If you see yourself as having played either of these roles, the best you can do is to chalk it up to experience and look elsewhere. Even bad experience counts as experience. 8^)
I worked at a private corporation where the answer to everything was to rely on using Microsoft products and to make everything exactly the same, a copy of a "master image' that would solve all problems. As a computer professional, you need your own equipment. If your employer already has all the answers, they probably didn't need to hire you to begin with!
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, you can make a bundle at 0.4% APR.
If you find and enjoy Hardy's A Mathematician's Apology go on to Robert Kanigel's The Man Who Knew Infinity, A Life of the Genius Ramanujan next.
I also recommend Timothy Ferris' books, like Coming of Age in the Milky Way and for history of technology, James Burke's The Day the Universe Changed and Connections. I have heard him speak in person and if you appreciate humor, he is your author. Another winner is James Gleick's Chaos, Making a New Science.
Don't forget periodicals, like Scientific American which convey the excitement of discovery that drives most practicing researchers while still being accessible.
Chances are that casual PC owners who just do a bit of browsing, a bit of emailing and type the occasional letter will have not even considered that anything other than IE exsists.
Given that "casual users" dominate the mass market and don't do a lot of research (how many do you run into who believe that the US Government has selected Microsoft Windows as the standard) and adoption (== buying) is based on:
perhaps Peter-Paul's tactic making Browser Wars the most exciting thing since Star Wars is the best hope for web developers.
...yeah, that is a real problem with open source.
When hiring cheap doesn't work, sometimes 3 or 4 times, they figure out they need to hire someone with more experience. I learned to program in 1969 and find that in recent years I tend to be hired for projects where several other people have burned out or failed to produce the desired result.
Between specialization (programmers aren't expected to understand how hardware works, let alone understand each other's code) and proprietary systems that have to have new releases to sell, it gets to be difficult to learn the ways of bugs and develop strategies to deal with them.
Back in DOS 3.2 and BASIC days, I needed to write code that didn't crash to control an analytical instrument. A crash could require repeating two hours work, plus the machine produced ionizing radiation, so safety was also a factor.
It took a long time, but between snooping around and testing, I found clearing string space regularly worked. I would like to be able to say that methodical research lead to the answer, but actually I was killing time in a bookstore while on a visit to Chicago and happened to open the right book to the right page. 8^)
I am grateful for the break, but that is no way to build reliable software!
Ouch, secondary structure. Better quit while I am ahead, too late to start over. 8^)
How about "tertiary structure of proteins is an alpha helix" instead? Sorry, bad word day.
Pauling's group had the bases on the outside and the chain on the inside - essentially a "decorated" rope instead of a ladder. They probably would have gotten it right eventually, but sure bought some time for Watson and Crick.
And don't forget Linus Pauling's son who on a visit spilled the beans that the California group which had already discovered that proteins were an alpha helix was on the wrong track.
Another big factor was that Microsoft Works documents were not compatible with Office. I used to run into this when I worked at a university help desk. People just heard "Microsoft" and assumed that Works and Office were the same thing until they brought a term paper to school (standardized on MS Office) and couldn't print it on a PC (but you could on a Macintosh with MacLink translators).
Someone on the Apple discussion boards mentioned deleting ~/Library/preferences/com.apple.security.plist which allowed Safari to launch. When I entered and saved my password for POP mail, the problem returned.
I use OS X most of the time on a two year old G4 Desktop, but am holding on to a 6100 DOS Compatible, Powerbook 520, and Classic II for compatibility for older applications. It keeps them out of the land fills and third world countries.
Although the study identifies Macintosh users as a market for upscale goods, I think it ignores the fact that many people choose a Macintosh because they work hard and want a productivity advantage. When I am on a computer eight or more hours a day, I will pay extra for equipment that is a joy to use. This would not be a factor for a casual PC user who will put up with discomfort if the price is right.
I forego automobile ownership and a lot of other consumer goods rather than work on a junky computer. I am writing this from a G4 computer running OS X 10.1.5, my fifth Macintosh. It is wonderful for writing Perl scripts to run servers, MySQL database management, web design, and producing documentation for my products.
I wonder about the significance of Macintosh users being more highly educated as well. I work at a university and my personal experience is that the majority of highly educated people buy PC's for the same wrong reasons as everyone else because computers are outside their area of expertise. The only difference that I see is that they tend to use a better vocabulary when commiserating with each other about Klez, crashing, etc.
I worked for the Omnifest Community Network in Milwaukee WI starting in 1993 and still maintain a rudimentary web site about it.
We offered dial-up service, email, interactive bulletin boards using CIX bulletin board software (developed by Tristate Online in Cincinnati OH) on a DEC workstation housed at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. In the pilot stage it was only open to local high school teachers, librarians, and UW-Milwaukee alumni, then it was opened to elementary and secondary schools, then the public.
Because there weren't a lot of other ways for non-university people to get onto the internet, the services were much in demand and we had a loyal following. For instance, the text-based interface enabled visually impaired people with screen readers to participate and we had bulletin boards sponsored by the Badger Association for the Blind. Many volunteers moderated bulletin boards and posted community information as well as providing technical support for users. I helped train volunteers and provide phone support and will attest that there was a real spirit of community service.
Operating as a non-profit organization presented problems. In addition to the obvious difficulty getting financial support, I got the idea that a lot of people didn't trust us. While members usually appreciated the low charges, we would get many calls a day asking about the service then get a lecture about how that was no way to run a business! We were charging $25 a year with even lower pricing plans for students who registered through their schools as a deliberate choice to keep the service open to everyone in the community. Libraries and community centers made computers available so that it users didn't even have to own their own computers to participate. It just didn't seem that people could grasp the idea of an organization run by a community for the mutual benefit of the members of the community rather than for profit.
Well, the inevitable happened. Omnifest closed in 1998. I feel we contributed greatly to the popularization of using the Internet in our community only to be set aside when Internet access via the WWW became commercially viable. Much of the demise was due to technological advances too, for instance, the text-based interface worked well with 2400K modems readily available then.
I was about to write the extensive community sponsored by SEFLIN in Florida as an example of a community network which had successfully evolved into a web site, but that appears to be gone too. Sigh...
Kathy A. Graff
Milwaukee WI USA
The legal reason bicycles can be banned on sidewalks is that in most states in the US they predate cars, so along with horse drawn carriages, etc. are considered vehicles.
The practical reason to ban bicycles on sidewalks is that mixing pedestrian traffic at less than 5 mpg and bikes at 12 mph when crowded can result in accidents.
It looks like the folks at Segway did their homework well by checking the legal stuff first.
I have been using a three wheel electric scooter (PMV) in Milwaukee WI for over two years. It handles icy sidewalks quite well and will go through snow up to 4 inches.
The real problem is "windrows" of packed snow from plowing the streets. The packed snow quickly turns into ice and blocks sidewalk ramps until a major thaw.
Perhaps poor judgment? I would respect him a lot more as a thief had he gone for an Adobe product.
Something to be careful about is how you cancel. Doing it on the web site does not count, you have to call them for the cancellation to be effective. This requires reading some fine print on the site.
A lab where I used to work actually boasted of hiring engineers fresh out of school, using them until they burned out, then letting them go. The corporate age was under 25.
Another sad practice is hiring someone with lots of qualifications and initiative even if they don't match the corporate standard, let them fix what is wrong, then let them go so that more acceptable (age, social status, educational background, etc.) workers can take over. You can tell if this is the case as typically you will be replaced by two or more workers (my record is 3.5!).
If you see yourself as having played either of these roles, the best you can do is to chalk it up to experience and look elsewhere. Even bad experience counts as experience. 8^)
I worked at a private corporation where the answer to everything was to rely on using Microsoft products and to make everything exactly the same, a copy of a "master image' that would solve all problems. As a computer professional, you need your own equipment. If your employer already has all the answers, they probably didn't need to hire you to begin with!