Last year I had a client who wanted to distribute their commercial VFP application on Linux servers. The idea was to have the VFP application running on a Linux server, the the client workstations would run X server software to access it. This makes the clients very thin and inexpensive and the server easy to do version control. Much less expensive than MS Terminal services.
If the decision is final, or outside the area you were hired for, you have to assume that the decision was made with information not available to you. In business, it often important to make a decision, even a bad one, rather than endlessly debating it. The exception, of course, is if the decision would break a law. Then you have duty to point this out and be prepared to walk away from the client and inform authorities if they continue.
If the decision falls within the area you were hired for, then you have the duty to advise the company, in writing, why you think this is a bad decision. If the decision stands, then drop the issue and follow the decision. You have to assume that they know something that you don't.
For contract programmers, it is the same. Your scope is much smaller, so the issues you can comment on are narrowed to program technique. Even program design would typically fall outside the realm of issues they want to hear from you on.
Why can't we just create our own DNS. Right now everything is upd/ip or tcp/ip. It shouldn't be too hard to define the rules for a new layer and run udp/stn/ip or tcp/stn/ip (stn = something new). This stn could then capture stn requests and feed it into ip. Lots of cool things could be done with a new layer, controlled by the masses instead of the asses.
I may be wrong, but I think they are trying to prove that you can map a smooth shape into a sphere using the same number of transformation equations as there are dimensions.
For example. You can draw a smooth shape (no sharp corners, no intersections) on a piece of paper. Assume you can come up with some equation that defines that shape. Then there exists not more than 2 equations that will transform (map) your original equation into a circle. Now the problem is prooving this in 3 dimensions. You start with a blob (actually just the surface of the blob), the blob has no holes and no sharp angles and doesn't intersect with itself (just your standard blob). There exists not more than 3 equations that will map your original blob defining equation into a sphere.
I'm no mathematition, but thats how I read the description. I think where this would be useful is in manipulating very complex shapes. You start with a shape, find the transformation equations. Manipulate a shpere (easy), then apply the inverse maping back to the original, and you get the result.
Like I said, I may be way off on this, but I did pass high school.
If google singled these specific sights purposefully, then that is not fair. It might even be argued that google has special limitations on them if they are deemed in a monopoly position (they are certainly the largest, do they get over 90% of the search queries?).
I don't want sites marketed by searchking to be over-ranked because of the artificial pr boosting, but I don't want sites under rated because they chose SK to promote them instead of some other search spam company.
What happens if MS opens up their code to just enough eyes to allow someone to cut/paste ms code into OSS code? When MS yells "copyright infringment", what happens?
A comodity doesn't mean its free. Frozen concentrated orange juice is a comodity, but it is not free. It just means it is very competitive and prices are dictated by supply and demand (weather and thirst).
When you operate in a commodity market, you either accept commity prices (low margins, focus on cost of production, relatively stable sales) or you attempt to differentiate your product to increase your margin (pulp free, added sugar, reduced acid). Marketing can also help build brand loyalty by building a perceived difference (Heintz is not the only seller of thick katchup).
We already have commodity prices in the low end of hardware (Walmart?), and are quickly getting into commoditized OS (Linux, BSD...). The software that runs on these is not yet commoditized (not all software is platform independent and interchangeable) but much of that is happening as well.
Hardware companies will survive by either acecpting commodity prices (beige box computers) or by differentiating themselves (higher quality components) or brand loyalty (Dell, Compaq...)
OS organizations will have the same forces to deal with. Since the incemental cost is low (CD's and install books or bandwidth), the prices will be low. Some will try brand loyalaty (Microsoft, RedHat) others differentiation (Delivered with other software, quality perceptions).
1) All methods(functions) are named in the pattern ObjectAction (like invoice_create or InvoiceCreate if the language standards are mixed case).
2) All functions have a standard header. This includes name, parameters, return values, side effects, purpose, notes (how it gets done) and revision history (a brief one liner, the change logs give more detail)
3) All variables are declared upfront, with descriptive names, and if required a description of how they will be used.
4) All functions are alphabetically listed in the source. If you followed 1), this should put all relavent code close together.
5) All functions are fully responsible for the Action they purport to do and do nothing besides what they purport to do and their names reflect this.
6) Where appropriate, special inline comments delineate major parts of code ("Determining destination", "Calculating taxes" etc.) These sections are typically good candidates to concider for breaking out into separate routines.
7) Other in-line comments always exist where it is not obvious what or why you are doing something, but never exist if it is obvious.
I have been programming for about 25 years and these generic rules are appropriate for just about any language or environment I have come across. The biggest rule is if you are working on an existing application, don't change the style to suit yourself. Program in the style that has been established for that application. Nothing worse than trying to debug an application that has 15 standards because 15 programmers have worked on it.
I could be wrong, but isn't the soemthing created by you copyrighted. My surfing and shopping habits were created by me and are unique to me, therefore are protected under copyright legislation.
First, IANAL. But I do recall reading that (at least for Canada), copying music is not illegal. That's why they have the extra media charges on blank tapes and CD's. If you copy the music and transfer it to someone else, then you break the law. If you copy the music yourself, for your own use, and put the music on media for wich the tax has been levied (like a blank CD), then it is not illegal. Even if you do not own the original.
It sounds to me that with P2P, I am the one initiating the copy, therefore I am not breaking any laws. The person making the music available is the same as loaning it to a friend.
So go ahead and share, just put it on a CD.
For more info see Copyright Board of Canada
Evry time I see Americans use the "if they don't like our culture, they don't have to buy it" argument, I cringe. You still don't get it. In some countries, Sinter Clause comes on December 5th to give out candies, not December 25. Yet all the American paid advertising sets the kids up for a non-religious event on the 25th. The multi-nationals don't localize their marketing. Eventually the parents give up, and another tradition is lost.
Dressing to provoke is concidered insulting in many nations, much as me walking nude in your neighborhood would be. But if the nation is exposed to this is daily advertising, it won't be long before nothing can be done about it.
Creating a global market for goods and services is one thing, but it must be done with cultural sensitivity. Sports illustrated should not be allowed in many nations. Much American programming should be blocked from certain cultures, in the same way that pornography is restricted within the US. Just because it's acceptable for American households, doesn't mean it should be acceptable everywhere. Advertising should be banned accross borders, and advertising within a nation must be culturally sensitive to that nation!
Just my view as a non-American who has never lived in the US.
Having raised 2 kids of my own, I understand the paranoia that parents can go through. When they were about 3, they managed to let themselves out of the apartment (kids can be very resourceful). Of course we imagined the worst. A gadget like this would have helped us find them and eased our minds. Given the price, we would never have been able to afford it though.
Living in the real world the worst wasn't what happened of course. We found them exploring the stair well a few floors up on the far side of the building.
I see technology used for things like this (Young kids) as a non-issue. If you can afford it, and it gives you some piece of mind, then nothing is lost, and it sure a lot better than registering you kids fingerprints with police.
Slashdot Mirror
Last year I had a client who wanted to distribute their commercial VFP application on Linux servers. The idea was to have the VFP application running on a Linux server, the the client workstations would run X server software to access it. This makes the clients very thin and inexpensive and the server easy to do version control. Much less expensive than MS Terminal services.
Wine is free. If this caught on in the wild, the damage would be hard to measure, and more importantly, hard to control.
If the decision falls within the area you were hired for, then you have the duty to advise the company, in writing, why you think this is a bad decision. If the decision stands, then drop the issue and follow the decision. You have to assume that they know something that you don't.
For contract programmers, it is the same. Your scope is much smaller, so the issues you can comment on are narrowed to program technique. Even program design would typically fall outside the realm of issues they want to hear from you on.
Just a thought.
For example. You can draw a smooth shape (no sharp corners, no intersections) on a piece of paper. Assume you can come up with some equation that defines that shape. Then there exists not more than 2 equations that will transform (map) your original equation into a circle. Now the problem is prooving this in 3 dimensions. You start with a blob (actually just the surface of the blob), the blob has no holes and no sharp angles and doesn't intersect with itself (just your standard blob). There exists not more than 3 equations that will map your original blob defining equation into a sphere.
I'm no mathematition, but thats how I read the description. I think where this would be useful is in manipulating very complex shapes. You start with a shape, find the transformation equations. Manipulate a shpere (easy), then apply the inverse maping back to the original, and you get the result.
Like I said, I may be way off on this, but I did pass high school.
If google singled these specific sights purposefully, then that is not fair. It might even be argued that google has special limitations on them if they are deemed in a monopoly position (they are certainly the largest, do they get over 90% of the search queries?).
I don't want sites marketed by searchking to be over-ranked because of the artificial pr boosting, but I don't want sites under rated because they chose SK to promote them instead of some other search spam company.
What happens if MS opens up their code to just enough eyes to allow someone to cut/paste ms code into OSS code? When MS yells "copyright infringment", what happens?
When you operate in a commodity market, you either accept commity prices (low margins, focus on cost of production, relatively stable sales) or you attempt to differentiate your product to increase your margin (pulp free, added sugar, reduced acid). Marketing can also help build brand loyalty by building a perceived difference (Heintz is not the only seller of thick katchup).
We already have commodity prices in the low end of hardware (Walmart?), and are quickly getting into commoditized OS (Linux, BSD...). The software that runs on these is not yet commoditized (not all software is platform independent and interchangeable) but much of that is happening as well.
Hardware companies will survive by either acecpting commodity prices (beige box computers) or by differentiating themselves (higher quality components) or brand loyalty (Dell, Compaq ...)
OS organizations will have the same forces to deal with. Since the incemental cost is low (CD's and install books or bandwidth), the prices will be low. Some will try brand loyalaty (Microsoft, RedHat) others differentiation (Delivered with other software, quality perceptions).
1) All methods(functions) are named in the pattern ObjectAction (like invoice_create or InvoiceCreate if the language standards are mixed case).
2) All functions have a standard header. This includes name, parameters, return values, side effects, purpose, notes (how it gets done) and revision history (a brief one liner, the change logs give more detail)
3) All variables are declared upfront, with descriptive names, and if required a description of how they will be used.
4) All functions are alphabetically listed in the source. If you followed 1), this should put all relavent code close together.
5) All functions are fully responsible for the Action they purport to do and do nothing besides what they purport to do and their names reflect this.
6) Where appropriate, special inline comments delineate major parts of code ("Determining destination", "Calculating taxes" etc.) These sections are typically good candidates to concider for breaking out into separate routines.
7) Other in-line comments always exist where it is not obvious what or why you are doing something, but never exist if it is obvious.
I have been programming for about 25 years and these generic rules are appropriate for just about any language or environment I have come across. The biggest rule is if you are working on an existing application, don't change the style to suit yourself. Program in the style that has been established for that application. Nothing worse than trying to debug an application that has 15 standards because 15 programmers have worked on it.
"Feel free to give this to anyone you like, Click [here] for the details". It all you really need.
I could be wrong, but isn't the soemthing created by you copyrighted. My surfing and shopping habits were created by me and are unique to me, therefore are protected under copyright legislation.
Just a thought.
First, IANAL. But I do recall reading that (at least for Canada), copying music is not illegal. That's why they have the extra media charges on blank tapes and CD's. If you copy the music and transfer it to someone else, then you break the law. If you copy the music yourself, for your own use, and put the music on media for wich the tax has been levied (like a blank CD), then it is not illegal. Even if you do not own the original. It sounds to me that with P2P, I am the one initiating the copy, therefore I am not breaking any laws. The person making the music available is the same as loaning it to a friend. So go ahead and share, just put it on a CD. For more info see Copyright Board of Canada
Evry time I see Americans use the "if they don't like our culture, they don't have to buy it" argument, I cringe. You still don't get it. In some countries, Sinter Clause comes on December 5th to give out candies, not December 25. Yet all the American paid advertising sets the kids up for a non-religious event on the 25th. The multi-nationals don't localize their marketing. Eventually the parents give up, and another tradition is lost.
Dressing to provoke is concidered insulting in many nations, much as me walking nude in your neighborhood would be. But if the nation is exposed to this is daily advertising, it won't be long before nothing can be done about it.
Creating a global market for goods and services is one thing, but it must be done with cultural sensitivity. Sports illustrated should not be allowed in many nations. Much American programming should be blocked from certain cultures, in the same way that pornography is restricted within the US. Just because it's acceptable for American households, doesn't mean it should be acceptable everywhere. Advertising should be banned accross borders, and advertising within a nation must be culturally sensitive to that nation!
Just my view as a non-American who has never lived in the US.
Having raised 2 kids of my own, I understand the paranoia that parents can go through. When they were about 3, they managed to let themselves out of the apartment (kids can be very resourceful). Of course we imagined the worst. A gadget like this would have helped us find them and eased our minds. Given the price, we would never have been able to afford it though. Living in the real world the worst wasn't what happened of course. We found them exploring the stair well a few floors up on the far side of the building. I see technology used for things like this (Young kids) as a non-issue. If you can afford it, and it gives you some piece of mind, then nothing is lost, and it sure a lot better than registering you kids fingerprints with police.