Were they also the ones who designed in the feature that every fucking install of an application requires a reboot?
Most applications worked fine if you'd click "No" when it asked you to reboot. The reason for most applications asking for a reboot is the way installer tools like InstallShield work under Windows 95/98/NT At the end of an InstallShield script one can insert a statement that handles te reboot. IIRC the Installshield manual suggested a number of cases in which case you will need a reboot (some of these cases did not in fact require rebooting).
So what happened? Most developers did not bother finding out whether their install process requires a reboot at the end; out of lazyness they just assumed it always does, and they made the user reboot every time "just to be safe".
from a reliability standpoint, XP is noticably inferior
Is it? I haven't noticed a difference, and I have used both systems heavily (though not in an office or large networked environment). I'd say XP pro is the most reliable OS to run on my (non-server) home machine to date.
Someone said that Windows 2K and Windows XP are "Microsoft killers". They have finally come up with an operating system that works reasonably well. Sure, these latest Windows flavors have their problems, but nothing that would make one want to upgrade.
And that is the nub. In the past, people snapped the latest Windows version like they were hotcakes, in hopes that this would finally be the Windows version that would solve all their problems. This is Microsofts problem: not the fact that there is something in XP that people would want, but the fact that Win2K is already doing a fine job.
The only reason people will buy newer versions of Windows would be Microsoft forcing them to. Witness this move, and the recent "upgrade or pay triple for your licenses" extortion.
The first plans for the new alloy are to be used in golf clubs, baseball bats, skis, and cell phone covers
Truly a magnificent discovery that will bring untold benefits to the human race!
But seriously, this looks very interesting, I imagine car and aircraft manufacturers could use a metal such as this. A lot depend on the cost to make and machine it though.
Perhaps... though long manuals tend to scare off people. Often there is no "basics" chapter; all the technical info is scattered through basic operating instructions.
A good example is the little booklets that most GSM operators give out with the phones (or at least used to; I haven't bought a phone in ages). These are perhaps 15-20 pages, and cover everything: making a call, roaming, SMS, accessing voice mail from abroad, battery care, it's all there. No technical details are provided, it's all in layman's terms.
There is a reason the providers went through the trouble of making such a booklet; they realised that most phone manuals are too confi\using for non-techies. If you want technical details, buy a book on GSM.
I'll say it again: manuals need to be shorter! I see absolutely no need for a cellphone to require a manual of 200 pages. 20 pages sounds more like it.
A common complaint I hear from non-tech folks, especially when it comes to cellphones or other relatively new technology, is that there is so much information in these manuals that they cannot find what they want, and they are confused by all the terminology. "But I don't want to know about base station controllers, attenuation, control channels or IMSI's! I just want to know how to make a damn call from my new cellphone!".
Windows XP and Mac OS X both automatically get a time stamp from MicroSoft and Apple respectively.
Yay. So next time I am late for a meeting I'll just say "Sorry boss, the Microsoft clock is on the blink again".
Speaking of being on the blink... if someone would, say, drop a bomb on the MS headquarters and wipes out the master XP clock, would all our XP boxen show a blinking 12:00 in the taskbar?
If you visit the area, small chance that you will come away with only "some" electronics. They have some unbelievable stuff there, and the things that are sold in the West will be unbelievably cheap sometimes. Oh, if you forget your passport, ask for the taxfree deal anyway. Some shops are not too particular about giving you the discount slip anyway. Also, the sales staff in many shops in Akihabara will on demand whip out their PDA's with wireless internet conn, and find out which DVD model can be made region free and how.
That is what I miss most from Japan. Hassle-free wireless Internet, anytime, anywhere, at ISDN speeds and at very decent rates. The best we can do with GSM, after all this time, is GPRS, which is (in the Netherlands anyway) 56K max (if you're on top of the antenna and no one else is around), and is charged at a whopping 2-5 euro/$1-$2.5 per MB.
Another note on difference in how toys and electronics fit in their culture: it is not just the younger male population that craves toys. A stroll around Akihabara may reveal: - A 65 year old guy playing a playstation 2 on a display stand, fanatically fighting a younger boy in some fighting game. - 2 Girls in a high-school uniform, in the process of buying a CD rom burner, with the intent of building it into their machine themselves. - A boy taking his girl out to an arcade, or even groups of girls visiting an arcade to play the games. - An older executive type frantically whacking away at some game in the same arcade, briefcase on the floot next to him. - When an office computer, copier or whatever fails and the user happens to be lady, they don't run to the nearest male crying for help like they do in the west (well, mostly), they start whacking it or taking it apart like most men would.
To say that the Japanese are more toy-minded does not even begin to describe the cultural difference.
Yes, FUD is what we would call this story if it had come from the "enemy" (like the RIAA writing a story about a future without music or arts, because pirating has made it impossible to produce music for a living). Typical Stallman stuff. The truth, as always, will lie somewhere in the middle.
And yes, we should be ever vigilant about how our rights are possibly infringed by such technology, and Stallman does fight for a worthy cause. But personally I think the cause would be better of with the likes of him and their shrill protests.
Just this morning I downloaded some CVS stuff there, for free, as we needed some version control software in a hurry (do not ask why). The work others have done saved my employer money and loads of my time.
Some IT security officers / Internet admins do have a clue. Then again, we generally do not need a diversion, like working on an OOS project in company hours, as our work is mostly fun.
then again, we already knew that it will look similar to the 1st one, and most of us know the story already as well.
Another thing, I get the distinct feeling that/. readers who do not have Quicktime, often advertise the fact in a way that suggests they are proud of it. Why is that?
Everyone of course knows how ridiculous this claim is. And yet somehow a few lawyers will make good money from this, and waste the time of the already overburdened legal system.
How about: One nation under (check one)
[] God
[] Allah
[] Jaweh
[] Buddha
[] Satan
[] Linus
[] Other ____________
Seriously... let anyone call upon the deity of their choice, or not utter the "One nation" bit at all suring the pledge. Of course it'll sound less cool, with people reciting different phrases all at once.
I remember when the Euro was in the "design" phase, and Dutch people wondered what was going to happen to the words "God is with us", etched in the rim of the old Guilder coins. Some were upset over losing those words on our currency. (Side note: the Dutch 1 and 2 Euro coins still carry those words, but who cares?).
Those were fun discussions! Arguments about our multicultural society, and separation of state and church, were all swept aside with counterarguments about cultural heritage and such. But those in favour of those four words would look quite shocked when one would suggest to replace the word God with Allah. Funny how such things work two ways...
Anyway... is this even worth being upset about? As someone rightly said, the children in school mostly cannot grasp the significance of these words, so them saying "under God" isn't a big deal. If you're not religious, you can deal with saying God, right? If you are religious, will God suddenly smite the US in wrath because the two words are removed? If you are of another persuation, will you go to hell for saying this?
get a real issue to concern yourself with, people.
This is the most important difference of collectivism versus individualism (what some wrongly define as left and right): after all other differences are dismissed as subjective values, what remains is choice. A collective forces all involved to participate; individuals have freedom of choice to follow their own beliefs, even the freedom to form a collective with other individuals who choose to do so. A collectivist society does not offer that choice.
This freedom of choice is what puts me firmly in the individuals' camp. Free speech is fundamental to this. You refer to "others" when you say we should let them do as they please. That sounds worthy, yet it is a false presentation of reality. In many cases "others" are a collective, which means it is the rule of the majority or the mob. The minority, individuals with the same rights as all of us, get the short end of the deal. If everyone except one person in a country decides to curtail speech on a certain subject, should that speech be curtailed? I think not. Should the country's newspapers and news services offer that single person a platform for his beliefs? No, no one, not even news agencies, should be forced to follow or propagate another persons views. Should the rest of the country be allowed to shun that one person for his beliefs? Of course: they are all individuals entitled to their own beliefs, no one should force them to like someone. Should that single person then be jailed for airing his beliefs, to bring peace to the rest of the populace?
No. That is what oppression of minority viewpoints really means, and what freedom of speech means. It is a universal ideal. Each person is an end in him/herself, each individual is their own answer to the meaning of life. Free speech allows (but is not sufficient in itself) each human being to find their own purpose and happiness. Curtailing free speech turns individuals into sacrificial lambs
...the one issue I have with DRM is that, once it is in place, publishers can and will use it to take away rights that we currently enjoy. Just like Macrovision restricts our right to make copies for our own private use, and region coding prevents free traficking of goods.
"Piracy" is wrong any way you slice it, I welcome measures that will put a stop to it. I also welcome technology that gives the consumer more choice, like the options of downloading a movie for viewing once at $3 or downloading it for $15 for unlimited viewing. But I will oppose any measure that will take away rights that I already have, in the name of opposing piracy.
People can be producers without aving upstream bandwidth. Hell, many companies don't host their own websites, for a bunch of really good reasons. Likewise many ISP accounts I see allow for hosting along with your e-mail, so they can still be producers. It ain't hard.
Many ISP's and even webhosting services have rules about what you can host on their sites. The most common rule is: no pr0n. The point is not just being able to publish, but also the ability to publish whatever you want to publish. Put up a page on your AOL webspace about how badly AOL sucks, and see how long it stays up.
Companies are indeed inhibiting innovation y limiting upstream bandwidth, but I think this is just an unintentional result of certain technical decisions they made when setting up their network. When bandwidth is limited, downstream has always (remember 1200/75 modems?) been favoured over upstream, and rightly so, as the majority of people pull in more than they send out.
What I see as far more detrimental to consumers becoming producers, is all the limitations ISP's place on their services. Again, all in the name of bandwidth preservation, but in this case they are far less subtle. Things like not giving fixed IP addresses, port blocking, not allowing people to run services, not allowing people to hook up multiple computers. All these are examples of ISPs meddling with how you use the bandwidth they sell, and prevent you from becoming a publisher as well as a comsumer.
I'm glad my ISP is one that provides me with bandwith, and nothing else. Barring a few provisions about not using my account for spam or resell the bandwidth, and a (generous) monthly data allowance, I am free to do whatever the hell I want with my connection.
Funny that many people are so concerned over how their money looks. Never mind the reasons for not changing it, everybody seems to have their own. Then again, there are not that many reasons to change sizes and colors either.
In my experience project managers like to have a technical team member whom they can trust.
A sparring partner (might as well stick with PM lingo) who can be trusted to see beyond the technical side of the project and understands the importance of budgets, client needs and so on. Project managers are like most professionals; they don't necessarily want an easy job, but they want to be succesful.
Don't reject your PMs bollocksy timelines out of hand, but work with him to show what the result of following that timeline would bring. If your PM thinks to skip testing of the product, it's best not to act like the haughty technical prima donna who refuses to release anything untested. Instead, talk about risks and alternatives. If you know of any past famous projects that failed for poor planning, show him what he is getting into.
Do this well, and PMs will start to know you for someone who helps them rather than someone who'll dig his heels in. Perhaps at some point you'll be asked to be technical manager for alarger project. That's the perfect job for those who are thinking about a management position but not ready to give up on technology.
I mean, sure there's a market for a high end tube amp in cars. The car, that rather noisy accoustical nightmare that, no matter how you try, you will never ever be able to fit good speakers in. Oh well... but why does the thing have to look so damn.... tacky? Come on. Analog VU meters and the tube exposed, combined with what looks to be a gold finish. Almost as ugly as a Marantz set.
Not that I think modern car stereos look good... give me those they made about 5-10 years ago: decent button layout, single color displays, and no frigging light-shows. *sighs*
Testing rigs that generate random input or, if feasible, go through all possible inputs, are a good idea and relatively cheap to do.
Testing input/output, or the application's functionality if you will, is important, but do not forget to test your application on all the different platforms the users will run this on. You may run into missing DLLs, incompatible versions of ODBC drivers. Your application is only part of a greater whole, and often you have only limited control over components outside your application. This is a great source of bugs for programs that are meant to run on many workstations.
And no, there can never be too much testing, unless your code is like one line, which i doubt...for any full blown application, there is not "too much"
Indeed. Yet, many a time have I seen projects where seemingly rigorous testing was applied: Unit testing, integration testing, FAT, and SAT are all carried out diligently, but upon closer examination all these tests were testing the same things under the same conditions. In short, a huge waste of time and effort. If your project can afford one, get a test specialist or test manager, and have him make sure each test is conducted at the proper level.
Slashdot Mirror
So what happened? Most developers did not bother finding out whether their install process requires a reboot at the end; out of lazyness they just assumed it always does, and they made the user reboot every time "just to be safe".
Someone said that Windows 2K and Windows XP are "Microsoft killers". They have finally come up with an operating system that works reasonably well. Sure, these latest Windows flavors have their problems, but nothing that would make one want to upgrade.
And that is the nub. In the past, people snapped the latest Windows version like they were hotcakes, in hopes that this would finally be the Windows version that would solve all their problems. This is Microsofts problem: not the fact that there is something in XP that people would want, but the fact that Win2K is already doing a fine job.
The only reason people will buy newer versions of Windows would be Microsoft forcing them to. Witness this move, and the recent "upgrade or pay triple for your licenses" extortion.
But seriously, this looks very interesting, I imagine car and aircraft manufacturers could use a metal such as this. A lot depend on the cost to make and machine it though.
Perhaps... though long manuals tend to scare off people. Often there is no "basics" chapter; all the technical info is scattered through basic operating instructions.
A good example is the little booklets that most GSM operators give out with the phones (or at least used to; I haven't bought a phone in ages). These are perhaps 15-20 pages, and cover everything: making a call, roaming, SMS, accessing voice mail from abroad, battery care, it's all there. No technical details are provided, it's all in layman's terms.
There is a reason the providers went through the trouble of making such a booklet; they realised that most phone manuals are too confi\using for non-techies. If you want technical details, buy a book on GSM.
I'll say it again: manuals need to be shorter! I see absolutely no need for a cellphone to require a manual of 200 pages. 20 pages sounds more like it.
A common complaint I hear from non-tech folks, especially when it comes to cellphones or other relatively new technology, is that there is so much information in these manuals that they cannot find what they want, and they are confused by all the terminology. "But I don't want to know about base station controllers, attenuation, control channels or IMSI's! I just want to know how to make a damn call from my new cellphone!".
Speaking of being on the blink... if someone would, say, drop a bomb on the MS headquarters and wipes out the master XP clock, would all our XP boxen show a blinking 12:00 in the taskbar?
Bah! Not enough coffee! I converted guilders to dollars instead of Euro's. The price in Euros is the correct one
If you visit the area, small chance that you will come away with only "some" electronics. They have some unbelievable stuff there, and the things that are sold in the West will be unbelievably cheap sometimes. Oh, if you forget your passport, ask for the taxfree deal anyway. Some shops are not too particular about giving you the discount slip anyway. Also, the sales staff in many shops in Akihabara will on demand whip out their PDA's with wireless internet conn, and find out which DVD model can be made region free and how.
That is what I miss most from Japan. Hassle-free wireless Internet, anytime, anywhere, at ISDN speeds and at very decent rates. The best we can do with GSM, after all this time, is GPRS, which is (in the Netherlands anyway) 56K max (if you're on top of the antenna and no one else is around), and is charged at a whopping 2-5 euro/$1-$2.5 per MB.
Another note on difference in how toys and electronics fit in their culture: it is not just the younger male population that craves toys. A stroll around Akihabara may reveal:
- A 65 year old guy playing a playstation 2 on a display stand, fanatically fighting a younger boy in some fighting game.
- 2 Girls in a high-school uniform, in the process of buying a CD rom burner, with the intent of building it into their machine themselves.
- A boy taking his girl out to an arcade, or even groups of girls visiting an arcade to play the games.
- An older executive type frantically whacking away at some game in the same arcade, briefcase on the floot next to him.
- When an office computer, copier or whatever fails and the user happens to be lady, they don't run to the nearest male crying for help like they do in the west (well, mostly), they start whacking it or taking it apart like most men would.
To say that the Japanese are more toy-minded does not even begin to describe the cultural difference.
Yes, FUD is what we would call this story if it had come from the "enemy" (like the RIAA writing a story about a future without music or arts, because pirating has made it impossible to produce music for a living). Typical Stallman stuff. The truth, as always, will lie somewhere in the middle.
And yes, we should be ever vigilant about how our rights are possibly infringed by such technology, and Stallman does fight for a worthy cause. But personally I think the cause would be better of with the likes of him and their shrill protests.
Just this morning I downloaded some CVS stuff there, for free, as we needed some version control software in a hurry (do not ask why). The work others have done saved my employer money and loads of my time.
Some IT security officers / Internet admins do have a clue. Then again, we generally do not need a diversion, like working on an OOS project in company hours, as our work is mostly fun.
then again, we already knew that it will look similar to the 1st one, and most of us know the story already as well. Another thing, I get the distinct feeling that /. readers who do not have Quicktime, often advertise the fact in a way that suggests they are proud of it. Why is that?
Everyone of course knows how ridiculous this claim is. And yet somehow a few lawyers will make good money from this, and waste the time of the already overburdened legal system.
Heh, how can a nation be under "No deities"?
How about: One nation under (check one)
[] God
[] Allah
[] Jaweh
[] Buddha
[] Satan
[] Linus
[] Other ____________
Seriously... let anyone call upon the deity of their choice, or not utter the "One nation" bit at all suring the pledge. Of course it'll sound less cool, with people reciting different phrases all at once.
The why is it still there?? (The "Under God" bit, not the court)
I remember when the Euro was in the "design" phase, and Dutch people wondered what was going to happen to the words "God is with us", etched in the rim of the old Guilder coins. Some were upset over losing those words on our currency. (Side note: the Dutch 1 and 2 Euro coins still carry those words, but who cares?).
Those were fun discussions! Arguments about our multicultural society, and separation of state and church, were all swept aside with counterarguments about cultural heritage and such. But those in favour of those four words would look quite shocked when one would suggest to replace the word God with Allah. Funny how such things work two ways...
Anyway... is this even worth being upset about? As someone rightly said, the children in school mostly cannot grasp the significance of these words, so them saying "under God" isn't a big deal. If you're not religious, you can deal with saying God, right? If you are religious, will God suddenly smite the US in wrath because the two words are removed? If you are of another persuation, will you go to hell for saying this?
get a real issue to concern yourself with, people.
This is the most important difference of collectivism versus individualism (what some wrongly define as left and right): after all other differences are dismissed as subjective values, what remains is choice. A collective forces all involved to participate; individuals have freedom of choice to follow their own beliefs, even the freedom to form a collective with other individuals who choose to do so. A collectivist society does not offer that choice.
This freedom of choice is what puts me firmly in the individuals' camp. Free speech is fundamental to this. You refer to "others" when you say we should let them do as they please. That sounds worthy, yet it is a false presentation of reality. In many cases "others" are a collective, which means it is the rule of the majority or the mob. The minority, individuals with the same rights as all of us, get the short end of the deal. If everyone except one person in a country decides to curtail speech on a certain subject, should that speech be curtailed? I think not. Should the country's newspapers and news services offer that single person a platform for his beliefs? No, no one, not even news agencies, should be forced to follow or propagate another persons views. Should the rest of the country be allowed to shun that one person for his beliefs? Of course: they are all individuals entitled to their own beliefs, no one should force them to like someone. Should that single person then be jailed for airing his beliefs, to bring peace to the rest of the populace?
No. That is what oppression of minority viewpoints really means, and what freedom of speech means. It is a universal ideal. Each person is an end in him/herself, each individual is their own answer to the meaning of life. Free speech allows (but is not sufficient in itself) each human being to find their own purpose and happiness. Curtailing free speech turns individuals into sacrificial lambs
...the one issue I have with DRM is that, once it is in place, publishers can and will use it to take away rights that we currently enjoy. Just like Macrovision restricts our right to make copies for our own private use, and region coding prevents free traficking of goods.
"Piracy" is wrong any way you slice it, I welcome measures that will put a stop to it. I also welcome technology that gives the consumer more choice, like the options of downloading a movie for viewing once at $3 or downloading it for $15 for unlimited viewing. But I will oppose any measure that will take away rights that I already have, in the name of opposing piracy.
I'll be waiting for the software upgrade with dietary and hygienic advice.
- "That chicken is really going bad... remove it, now, please."
- "Chicken wings again Dave? I am afraid I can't let you have those. How about a healthy salad?"
Sad thing is, I fully expect fridges of the future telling me off for having unhealthy eating habits.
Companies are indeed inhibiting innovation y limiting upstream bandwidth, but I think this is just an unintentional result of certain technical decisions they made when setting up their network. When bandwidth is limited, downstream has always (remember 1200/75 modems?) been favoured over upstream, and rightly so, as the majority of people pull in more than they send out.
What I see as far more detrimental to consumers becoming producers, is all the limitations ISP's place on their services. Again, all in the name of bandwidth preservation, but in this case they are far less subtle. Things like not giving fixed IP addresses, port blocking, not allowing people to run services, not allowing people to hook up multiple computers. All these are examples of ISPs meddling with how you use the bandwidth they sell, and prevent you from becoming a publisher as well as a comsumer.
I'm glad my ISP is one that provides me with bandwith, and nothing else. Barring a few provisions about not using my account for spam or resell the bandwidth, and a (generous) monthly data allowance, I am free to do whatever the hell I want with my connection.
Funny that many people are so concerned over how their money looks. Never mind the reasons for not changing it, everybody seems to have their own. Then again, there are not that many reasons to change sizes and colors either.
It's hardly an important issue.
In my experience project managers like to have a technical team member whom they can trust. A sparring partner (might as well stick with PM lingo) who can be trusted to see beyond the technical side of the project and understands the importance of budgets, client needs and so on. Project managers are like most professionals; they don't necessarily want an easy job, but they want to be succesful.
Don't reject your PMs bollocksy timelines out of hand, but work with him to show what the result of following that timeline would bring. If your PM thinks to skip testing of the product, it's best not to act like the haughty technical prima donna who refuses to release anything untested. Instead, talk about risks and alternatives. If you know of any past famous projects that failed for poor planning, show him what he is getting into.
Do this well, and PMs will start to know you for someone who helps them rather than someone who'll dig his heels in. Perhaps at some point you'll be asked to be technical manager for alarger project. That's the perfect job for those who are thinking about a management position but not ready to give up on technology.
I mean, sure there's a market for a high end tube amp in cars. The car, that rather noisy accoustical nightmare that, no matter how you try, you will never ever be able to fit good speakers in. Oh well... but why does the thing have to look so damn.... tacky? Come on. Analog VU meters and the tube exposed, combined with what looks to be a gold finish. Almost as ugly as a Marantz set.
Not that I think modern car stereos look good... give me those they made about 5-10 years ago: decent button layout, single color displays, and no frigging light-shows. *sighs*
Testing input/output, or the application's functionality if you will, is important, but do not forget to test your application on all the different platforms the users will run this on. You may run into missing DLLs, incompatible versions of ODBC drivers. Your application is only part of a greater whole, and often you have only limited control over components outside your application. This is a great source of bugs for programs that are meant to run on many workstations.
Indeed. Yet, many a time have I seen projects where seemingly rigorous testing was applied: Unit testing, integration testing, FAT, and SAT are all carried out diligently, but upon closer examination all these tests were testing the same things under the same conditions. In short, a huge waste of time and effort. If your project can afford one, get a test specialist or test manager, and have him make sure each test is conducted at the proper level.