From TFA "I applaud the passion of the software developers and I.T. administrators who pour their time, effort, energy and enthusiasm into their work. But I abhor it when the passion disintegrates into mudslinging and counterproductive internecine warfare."
My complaint about this article is that she attempts to say that a purely technical debate, wether emotionally charged or not, is mudslinging.
This is a loser's ploy, admittedly, but it is also a disservice to try and dismiss much of the heated debate because of the emotion involved.
Attempting to get the reader to block their minds to arguments in a debate is a last ditch effort but still just as biased as her previous articles.
As a support for the parent a capital markets (financial trading) bank I worked in had 144 unix servers and desktops (yes desktops) and close to 250 windows servers and desktops. there were 5 unix admins and 1 manager and 15 windows admins and 5 managers. the unix stuff was what pushed all the real money and rarely had outages, and the admins worked 8:30 to 4:30 on the dot if that. Windows guys were so overworked that it was hard to get them to make improvements..
every other place I have worked, if it had windows which wasn't many, was the same.
every place I worked, when millions of dollars were on the line it was *nix.
I would add three more Mac anooyances:
1) can't use tab key to toggle through all elements of HTML forms in any browser (try drop-downs, radio, and checkboxes) this is a big deal when developing and testing web apps.
2) the "X" doesn't kill the app, just kills the window. Then you click on the app launch icon and it doesn't open a new window, just brings the useless instance to foreground.
3) overall interface design approach of _forcing_ the user to use both mouse and keyboard for almost all tasks. Even on winblows I can unplug my mouse or keyboard and still use 95% of apps.
the argument could be made that its hard disagree with assumptions if you don't understand them.
without delving into philisophical territory too much, the parrallel may be that both physical and spiritual laws could be absolute and that both science and religion are the methods we use to understand them.
einstein didn't create relativity, he found a way of understanding it and explaining it. It may likely be proven incomplete. the same description could be made of jesus, buddha, muhamed, aristotle, the pope or even your local priest for that matter.
I would say that might be slightly over simplified. Most of the more intelligent religious people that I have spoken with recognize the gaps in humans ability to understand the teachings correctly, including clergy. They have a general and firm faith in certain aspects that have withstood scrutiny over time the same way they have a general and firm faith in relativity and thermodynamics.
I wouldn't say that religion is solely defined by fundamental freaks just as science is not defined by only one set of theories (quantom vs. relativity?).
actually his point is still valid in that to work with the output of auto index you have to basically do screen scraping or weakly typed parsing. and that would work with apache but what about IIS, netscape, etc.
An HTTP specification for format (well structured xml) and a truly supported command (method INDEX). would allow for client applications to be developed more easily.
I would love to be able to drop FTP access and hacks like WebDAV or PHP/perl file manager scripts for customer file management. HTTPS,.htaccess, and a Location Allow INDEX, PUT, DELETE, and you are done.
I am sure much of the slashdot community meant to offer their thoughts and prayers (of whatever type) to the people and families hurt there rather then bicker about politics.
I personally feel a great deal of sorrow and hope that some lives can be saved by medical staff there.
I read this with fear because, after looking at the long, self-destructive history of Apple and Jobs' ego and the "i-love-it-when-apple-beats-me" following they have survived off of, I see no reason why they would do anything logical or good for developers.
I have just started developing on and using the Mac and have no interest in "emulation modes" as they transition, legacy baggage, and the whole array of vendor apps that will never get upgraded for the new arch.
If they go this route it will be the nail in the coffin for many of us unix types who are on the fence with them now.
I think what you are describing is actually a problem in input design. If you look at some of the ideas the future gnome filesystem desktop is toying with (among others) it shows some a few examples.
As you create or manipulate files, having a system be able to tag them with more context and provide multiple heirarchal views (as well as more search parameters) will provide a more managable system.
I am a software guy and can vouch for the fact that its easy to pick up. Hardware is not and requires a lot more formal training and equipment experience.
Your degree wont really matter much in what you end up doing anyways and you can learn software easily. So go for the one that gives you options.
Or be really smart and major in something brainless like business and just party, chase tail, and have fun. Thats what college is mostly for anyways.;-)
I might agree that the "proof" is less then perfect, but the conclussions of the study I think are still correct.
I may be personally biased, as I suffer from an extreme case of the symptoms they describe (albeit in broader terms), but I see it often enough.
I started my own business and the distraction, lack of focus, and other forms of brain damage that occur from the sheer volume of different things demanding your attention is staggering. I am dumber now then I have ever been in my life I think (as well as stressed and tired).
Its not too dissimilar from the switching costs in a CPU going from task to task, and paging data in and out of swap, and a number of other things that severly impact performance. Particularly when compared with real-time or dedicated systems (or people with one defined job).
I often feel like a system with too many processes and too little memory, and email is part of the problem for sure.
A while back when there was discussion about future features for mozilla I suggested something along those lines (I am a bookmark packrat also).
I think a simple extension that one could hack would be to sporadically check the bookmarks to at least see if they still exist and purge the 404's. They have a function like this now but you have to dig in and configure it for each bookmark individually (kinda defeats the purpose).
Another thought I had, along the search lines, was to add the meta descriptors to the bookmark record to help for searches.
Another google specific function could be to actually use google from the search bar but have it restrict/filter the search to sites in your bookmarks.
Well, there are a lot of ways outside of stupid blogs and lonely-heart clubs for improving bookmarks..
I had thought about doing the same thing for a while to keep access to common bookmarks from all my various desktops.
There is a Mozilla extension that can use FTP to store bookmarks on a central server which would be a good base to hack for an HTTPS POST for dealing with Proxies in copr environs.
As to sourceforge.. eh, isn't that where BSD went to die?,..
Seriously I would just host it yourself and just ref it on freshmeat.
Pardon me. Could you show me this utopic open democracy you speak of that is populated with such enlightened citizens? I know you are not talking about the US, and definitely not talking about Europe.. oh. wait.. your CANADIAN aren't you..
The trick is to have an application framework that can do content format negotiation for you so that you don't have to code multiple versions.
A clean MVC type pattern and a good framework make this pretty easy. My sites do this and I rely heavily on it for my Treo.
People questioned the market fo the internet itself until they found how convenient it was to have quick access to a lot of information. Same goes with quick mobile access to a lot of information I would wager.
A subtle point they made that I agree with is they evaluated RedHat's distro and they compared the time that it took redhat to propogate fixes to the time it took microsoft to propogate fixes.
I stopped using redhat's network update for my internet-exposed packages long ago because it took so long for fixes released from projects to make it into RPM. I used auto-updates for all the components down stream from the network daemons and their apps as no users had logins or shell access to my servers and I could afford to wait for those. I maintained my own packages and customized compiles for everything that was exposed.
You could argue that their study was comparing redhat to windows, not linux to windows. You could also argue that their scenario was a little off in common practice. But I think they may have at least exhibited the slow-down that a middle-man (redhat) interjects between maintainers and consumers. There is some value in the idea they touched on (unintentionally or not) and some areas where we could do better.
Actually, I would not be surprised at all if they decided to change a few API's without documenting it. If you are experienced enough to know that all software will have faults then you should also know that all business practices have faults as well.
I have heard frequently enough of vendors changing APIs and interfaces to keep out competitors.
Slashdot Mirror
Cant discuss.. site was pre /.ed... cant RTFA
From TFA "I applaud the passion of the software developers and I.T. administrators who pour their time, effort, energy and enthusiasm into their work. But I abhor it when the passion disintegrates into mudslinging and counterproductive internecine warfare."
My complaint about this article is that she attempts to say that a purely technical debate, wether emotionally charged or not, is mudslinging.
This is a loser's ploy, admittedly, but it is also a disservice to try and dismiss much of the heated debate because of the emotion involved.
Attempting to get the reader to block their minds to arguments in a debate is a last ditch effort but still just as biased as her previous articles.
As a support for the parent a capital markets (financial trading) bank I worked in had 144 unix servers and desktops (yes desktops) and close to 250 windows servers and desktops. there were 5 unix admins and 1 manager and 15 windows admins and 5 managers. the unix stuff was what pushed all the real money and rarely had outages, and the admins worked 8:30 to 4:30 on the dot if that. Windows guys were so overworked that it was hard to get them to make improvements..
every other place I have worked, if it had windows which wasn't many, was the same.
every place I worked, when millions of dollars were on the line it was *nix.
I would add three more Mac anooyances: 1) can't use tab key to toggle through all elements of HTML forms in any browser (try drop-downs, radio, and checkboxes) this is a big deal when developing and testing web apps. 2) the "X" doesn't kill the app, just kills the window. Then you click on the app launch icon and it doesn't open a new window, just brings the useless instance to foreground. 3) overall interface design approach of _forcing_ the user to use both mouse and keyboard for almost all tasks. Even on winblows I can unplug my mouse or keyboard and still use 95% of apps.
the argument could be made that its hard disagree with assumptions if you don't understand them.
without delving into philisophical territory too much, the parrallel may be that both physical and spiritual laws could be absolute and that both science and religion are the methods we use to understand them.
einstein didn't create relativity, he found a way of understanding it and explaining it. It may likely be proven incomplete. the same description could be made of jesus, buddha, muhamed, aristotle, the pope or even your local priest for that matter.
I would say that might be slightly over simplified. Most of the more intelligent religious people that I have spoken with recognize the gaps in humans ability to understand the teachings correctly, including clergy. They have a general and firm faith in certain aspects that have withstood scrutiny over time the same way they have a general and firm faith in relativity and thermodynamics.
I wouldn't say that religion is solely defined by fundamental freaks just as science is not defined by only one set of theories (quantom vs. relativity?).
actually his point is still valid in that to work with the output of auto index you have to basically do screen scraping or weakly typed parsing. and that would work with apache but what about IIS, netscape, etc.
.htaccess, and a Location Allow INDEX, PUT, DELETE, and you are done.
An HTTP specification for format (well structured xml) and a truly supported command (method INDEX). would allow for client applications to be developed more easily.
I would love to be able to drop FTP access and hacks like WebDAV or PHP/perl file manager scripts for customer file management. HTTPS,
that is exactly how you would do it with the previous family of URL obfuscating attacks.
As well, a good majority of users _still_ have no idea what https means or when they should see it so the user->phisher link need not be SSL.
I am sure much of the slashdot community meant to offer their thoughts and prayers (of whatever type) to the people and families hurt there rather then bicker about politics.
I personally feel a great deal of sorrow and hope that some lives can be saved by medical staff there.
I read this with fear because, after looking at the long, self-destructive history of Apple and Jobs' ego and the "i-love-it-when-apple-beats-me" following they have survived off of, I see no reason why they would do anything logical or good for developers.
I have just started developing on and using the Mac and have no interest in "emulation modes" as they transition, legacy baggage, and the whole array of vendor apps that will never get upgraded for the new arch.
If they go this route it will be the nail in the coffin for many of us unix types who are on the fence with them now.
I think what you are describing is actually a problem in input design. If you look at some of the ideas the future gnome filesystem desktop is toying with (among others) it shows some a few examples.
As you create or manipulate files, having a system be able to tag them with more context and provide multiple heirarchal views (as well as more search parameters) will provide a more managable system.
And, Ford, the pinnacle of engineering prowess, will make this work because..?..
I am a software guy and can vouch for the fact that its easy to pick up. Hardware is not and requires a lot more formal training and equipment experience.
;-)
Your degree wont really matter much in what you end up doing anyways and you can learn software easily. So go for the one that gives you options.
Or be really smart and major in something brainless like business and just party, chase tail, and have fun. Thats what college is mostly for anyways.
I might agree that the "proof" is less then perfect, but the conclussions of the study I think are still correct.
I may be personally biased, as I suffer from an extreme case of the symptoms they describe (albeit in broader terms), but I see it often enough.
I started my own business and the distraction, lack of focus, and other forms of brain damage that occur from the sheer volume of different things demanding your attention is staggering. I am dumber now then I have ever been in my life I think (as well as stressed and tired).
Its not too dissimilar from the switching costs in a CPU going from task to task, and paging data in and out of swap, and a number of other things that severly impact performance. Particularly when compared with real-time or dedicated systems (or people with one defined job).
I often feel like a system with too many processes and too little memory, and email is part of the problem for sure.
Were that the case there would never be any change or improvement.
Standards, just like most things in life, have an end-of-life. And that end-of-life can often extend past the point where it is providing value.
A while back when there was discussion about future features for mozilla I suggested something along those lines (I am a bookmark packrat also).
I think a simple extension that one could hack would be to sporadically check the bookmarks to at least see if they still exist and purge the 404's. They have a function like this now but you have to dig in and configure it for each bookmark individually (kinda defeats the purpose).
Another thought I had, along the search lines, was to add the meta descriptors to the bookmark record to help for searches.
Another google specific function could be to actually use google from the search bar but have it restrict/filter the search to sites in your bookmarks.
Well, there are a lot of ways outside of stupid blogs and lonely-heart clubs for improving bookmarks..
I had thought about doing the same thing for a while to keep access to common bookmarks from all my various desktops. There is a Mozilla extension that can use FTP to store bookmarks on a central server which would be a good base to hack for an HTTPS POST for dealing with Proxies in copr environs. As to sourceforge.. eh, isn't that where BSD went to die?,.. Seriously I would just host it yourself and just ref it on freshmeat.
Pardon me. Could you show me this utopic open democracy you speak of that is populated with such enlightened citizens? I know you are not talking about the US, and definitely not talking about Europe.. oh. wait.. your CANADIAN aren't you..
The trick is to have an application framework that can do content format negotiation for you so that you don't have to code multiple versions.
A clean MVC type pattern and a good framework make this pretty easy. My sites do this and I rely heavily on it for my Treo.
People questioned the market fo the internet itself until they found how convenient it was to have quick access to a lot of information. Same goes with quick mobile access to a lot of information I would wager.
A subtle point they made that I agree with is they evaluated RedHat's distro and they compared the time that it took redhat to propogate fixes to the time it took microsoft to propogate fixes.
I stopped using redhat's network update for my internet-exposed packages long ago because it took so long for fixes released from projects to make it into RPM. I used auto-updates for all the components down stream from the network daemons and their apps as no users had logins or shell access to my servers and I could afford to wait for those. I maintained my own packages and customized compiles for everything that was exposed.
You could argue that their study was comparing redhat to windows, not linux to windows. You could also argue that their scenario was a little off in common practice. But I think they may have at least exhibited the slow-down that a middle-man (redhat) interjects between maintainers and consumers. There is some value in the idea they touched on (unintentionally or not) and some areas where we could do better.
ah yes.. I stand corrected. thanks.
Censoring, for airing or print due to the images being excessively graphic is not the same as banning them from US borders.
There is nothing illegal acquiring those images or owning them (unlike, say child porn or classified documents).
Dont be so quick to jump on the tinfoil hat bandwagon and say that the US really tries to stop its citizens from accessing information.
Actually I was wondering what version of apache and what other apps they were running on that server and what OS.
Curious if it was a new exploit, social engineering, or operational weakness.
Also would be a lot more elegant if they were running an SCO OS and it was an OS level exploit (rather than an apache exploit).
Actually, I would not be surprised at all if they decided to change a few API's without documenting it. If you are experienced enough to know that all software will have faults then you should also know that all business practices have faults as well.
I have heard frequently enough of vendors changing APIs and interfaces to keep out competitors.
Actually, I have had the same problem as the poster and it was without exception after a recent MS update.
I think that one of the recent "security" patches may be keeping users safe from wanting to use another browser.
And it didn't matter FF1.0 or lower. It was something in the OS.