That's great and all but.NET is a library, not a language. It sounds like the fact that you enjoyed IronPython after coming from a C# background really has nothing to do with Python as much as it does the fact that you already knew the.NET library.
If you don't know.NET? Well, thats another library to learn, and is no better or worse than anything else.
"In addition, Eigen's name is linked with the theory of the chemical hypercycle, the cyclic linkage of reaction cycles as an explanation for the self organization of prebiotic systems, which he described with Peter Schuster in 1979."
Evolution doesn't require DNA, and the theory is like 40 years old at least.
Oh, wait, it wasn't an article. It was a 2 paragraph blog post that someone crapped out with some random anecdote and zero facts, figures, or research.
This is also known as the No Free Lunch Theorem and traces right back to Godel, Turing, and the foundations of all mathematics. You are right, it certainly isn't going anywhere.
Efficient software maintenance is directly related to the Halting Problem. I'm sure you could figure out a thesis about it. Or at least a proof.
Besides, "business programming" involves many things, some of which includes problems (for example, my field, aerospace) that are ridiculously complex, certainly at least as much as a good 80% of any CS degree or thesis.
I agree that users tend to find it useful and easy to handle. That's what it's really for, anyway---when you get into more complex situations the whole mass blogs down and we use other software. But it is not bad for what its used for, by and large. It's just a more friendly file share with calendars and lists and stuff. It's more descriptive and useful than a file share and it's no more complex than one.
That being said, as a programmer and IT person I hate it. I don't administer any but the documentation and webservices are absolutely atrocious. It's like pulling teeth to do the most basic thing.
I wonder how IBM arrived at the result of $2000. Because I'm pretty sure that out of the 150k people that I work with that 3/4 of them will take months to adjust to Linux and be completely pissed off the entire time. At an internal rate of $100-$150 per person per hour... uh... lol, right.
This is what most of the company uses: Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint. Project. File shares. Blackberry/Phone. Online web conferences. PDF. That's about it. Everything else is either a back-end system specific to the business or a program (i.e, drafting, manufacturing, etc) for the specific business at hand.
And don't give me crap about open office solutions. It took most of these people 10 or 20 years to just get by with Office, you really think they are going to want to essentially re-learn everything? $2000 is only relevant if the people are actually fairly computer savy, which pretty much everyone everywhere is not nor do they care to bother.
You should try out a Kindle for a month. I think there is a no-questions return policy anyway within 30 days.
I have always been a big physical book person and was worried about buying the Kindle but I have to say it was worth every cent.
The thing is that the screen used (via eInk) is completely different from any other screen you're used to. It has high contrast, the rough color of a page of paper, and, most importantly, low glare and eye strain. I've taken my kindle on the beach, full sun, and it was actually easier to read than your usual magazine. It was even nicer given that the wind was kicking up and i didn't have to screw around with trying to hold my pages down. You can read it for hours with no problem, the battery life is incredible, and you have the ability to just go on and download any kindle book in the store (provided you have mobile reception)... which was fantastic when I was about to board a flight recently and realized I didn't have anything to read.... in the time it took them to call boarding and give them my ticket (5 minutes) I had gone online, download a book, and was set for the 4 hour flight (with a book selection that is obviously > airport bookstores). Things like that are priceless.
The reason there are no dirt-cheap readers out there is that the eInk screen is still pretty brand new. Eventually it will cost pennies, so relax (and, yes, it beats the shit out of your typical screen).
Also, I have no idea what your point is about dirt-cheap if your examples are a $300 iphone (with subscription costs), your $300-$500 netbook, your $1000-$2000 desktop, and your $200-$500 palm. The kindle is $300 and provides exactly the exactly the screen you are looking for so... you're an idiot.
It is also a stawman argument to state that because a bunch of people believe that something is true it obviously is.
And that's before we even get to the fact that just because x% thinks something that doesn't mean the truth or validity is proportional to x%. Not everything is linear you know.
If you're so smart and the world's climatologists are so dumb, for the love of god stop yammering about it on Slashdot, publish, and collect your Nobel Prize.
I tried. I'm actually just shy of the Nobel Prize. Only problem is that every time I suggest in my grant proposal that I'm going to attempt to prove that the earth isn't warming due to mankind I never get the funding.
Any one who is genuinely interested in learning about how and why complex systems change catastrophically should read "Limits to Growth" - the classic by the MIT team headed by Donella Meadows.
Yes, let's all jump on the 1970s Club of Rome fad and do exactly what they suggested---controlling the reproductive and development rights of third world countries while amassing all of their resources in the first world. Then we will all bask in the wonders of the United States empire while masturbating to Kissinger porn while the neutered africans can stick to their caves where they belong. All for the sake of Malthusian paradise, of course.
As far as your economics analogy, it is pretty poor. No one agrees that economic law is a natural science or that it's entirely accurate or even measurable. Do you not know follow the ten trillion debates that follow every data collection technique and every data series, nevermind the models upon which the data is based? Do you not wonder why companies spend hundreds of billions a year publishing and researching economics studies? You might have caught a bit of it if you, uh, ever read the newspaper in the past 100 years.
But to suggest that it is possible that the data collection techniques and models of such an exacting "science" such as climate change might be off? Why that's a Limbaugh conspiracy!
You people are funny---for some that always harp about complexity and exponential feed back loops you sure have a hard time thinking that it's remotely possible you've missed any exponential feedback loops in the opposite direction and the resulting massive change that would have on your predictions.
I like how helping poor, sick bastards is now considered "redistribution". Last I checked that was just being a decent fucking person.
Oh, and btw, you can be working and not pay income tax. It's called being POOR AS SHIT.
Mr. Obama's plan also calls for giving a $500 tax break to Americans making $75,000 a year or less, and rebates to those who don't pay income tax. Mr. McCain's campaign calls that "welfare." But unlike welfare -- payments to people who aren't working -- Mr. Obama's rebate would go to people who are. It would essentially beef up the earned-income tax credit, a policy that originated with Republicans. And even those working Americans who don't earn enough to owe income taxes pay Social Security and Medicare taxes. Mr. McCain himself has proposed a $2,500 health-insurance credit that would be available to individuals who don't pay income taxes.
Mr. Obama also has been accused by Mr. McCain of advocating a government takeover of the health-care system. It's true that five years ago, before he was a U.S. senator, Mr. Obama endorsed a government-run system. His current plan, however, would bolster the private employer-provided system of health insurance. It would require larger businesses to provide coverage or pay a fee to help finance a plan with the options available to federal employees and members of Congress. Small businesses would be exempt from the requirement, but would receive tax credits if they cover their employees. Existing government programs for low-income Americans would be expanded.
Mr. Obama's plan takes a similar approach to the one adopted in Massachusetts under former Republican Gov. Mitt Romney. Somehow, Mr. Romney has escaped the socialist label.
This is an odd time for the Republican ticket to accuse Mr. Obama of socialism. Mr. McCain, along with Mr. Obama, backed the Bush administration's $700 billion bailout of the financial system -- the biggest government intervention in the economy in decades. Mr. McCain suspended his campaign to work for the plan's passage, and blasted Mr. Obama for not doing the same.
There's no question there are fundamental differences between Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain on economic policy. Misleading labels are a poor substitute for an honest discussion of them.
Yeah, because obviously dollar bills that have been through a plane crash and sitting around at 10k feet in the open for 1.5 years would totally be in good enough condition to use at the grocery store.
Because that's better than requiring professors to constantly publish publish publish even if it's crap? Even if it's not understandable to more than a few people? Even if they're spending all their time making up new fields of math because they don't have anything better to do, instead of addressing the fundamental problems?
Because that's better than having a fucked up education system that kills student interest in math in K-12 by focusing on grinding out problems that people already know the answer to rather than exploring things more exciting than geometry and long division?
Because even at great universities you still have to spend 4 years going through the motions before you can even get to the interesting and important things? It's hardly any better than K-12: "Do this problem set, they all have unexciting answers that are about 200 years old to make it easy for me to grade, and if you're late or miss a class I ruin your grade."
Sorry, but your grand idea of mathematics died a long time ago. Blaming the NSA, DARPA, and Wall Street for something that is just the fault of the Great Academics of Mathematics is just dumb. You and your peers fucked this one up at least a century ago in the rush to be published and preen about how smart you were.
The overall arc of this episode involves the way Microsoft sees Apple, Macs and related products in terms of connectivity with âoereal peopleâ. In this case, the real people, however, are represented by a family who represents Apple and a story that describes the narrow boundaries this family chose to live in.
There is the 1960s style house (an overall impression of Apple), which is old. It has wood paneling in the basement, typical 60s styling on the outside, and yet there is the fundamental belief system that what they have is very nice. This is exemplified by the fact that the family is very much focused on visuals â" they donâ(TM)t like the look of the car in their neighborâ(TM)s driveway, they keep the property clean and there is fancy (a bit too much perhaps) paint in the childrenâ(TM)s room. Message: Apple in its core is old, but has some nice, clean touches here and there.
There are also those âoefancyâ symbols that go along with the overall theme that the surface matters, not the inside. A âoeleatherâ toy giraffe, cheese on the same old potatoes that are served everyday and a limited supply of Dijon mustard to spice up your life â" a supply that Apple limits uses to lure Windows users into the Apple world. But the supply will run out eventually.
There are so many little jabs at Apple in this commercial. We originally set out to write another dissection article, but the commercial itself is 4.5 minutes long. Such a dissection would've been a dissertation and, out of respect for our readers we decided against it.
There are some humorous bits though would like to highlight. We'll go briefly through the video and bring them out for discussion. In the comments section you can relate to these parts by number.
(1) The scene has a typical, regular average income family sitting around a dinner table. Everyone is passing out food and beginning to eat when the (2) wife begins making comments about appearance. She refers to a car that's been parked in the neighbor's driveway for a while now and how it's inappropriate. After Seinfeld complains that there was some gum in his dinner roll, (3) the wife says she has mustard with white wine sauce. There's a comment made by the father after the grandmother says to Seinfeld, "You're in my seat funny man." He has an almost "please kill me now" look on his face saying, "She's been here 12 years." (4) This is a reference to the time Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1996. And finally, (5) Gates asks, "Didn't we have this yesterday" after being handed his meal. Seinfeld replies, (6) "Put some cheese on it." Note all the visuals provided in this part â" the fancy China and glasses, but missing essentials such as ketchup. Gum in a roll that can be patched with Dijon mustard and potatoes that can be fancied up with cheese. Message: Itâ(TM)s all about the facade.
When we finally see the outside of the house, (7) the yard is so full of bushes and plants that it's just cluttered and has no real practical use, just appearance. Just like the (8) pool scene with the slow flowing water that never warms up making the pool experience less than it should be and the (9) grandmother cleaning up the yard with a leaf blower, all for appearance purposes. In addition, there's a (10) table tennis set downstairs in the basement. The wife has no real ability to play as is indicated in a few scenes. Again, it's something that's not really used and is just there for appearance. The table tennis scene can also be interpreted in a way that you just can play with a Mac.
There are (11) two scenes whereby the father and son are eating the âoemustard with the white wineâ. They are doing it secretly and for âoethe boozeâ, and are trying to escape the reality of their situation, which (12) could be likened to an Apple user's limited ab
I'll take any language that can let me write, read, and understand as fast as the speed of computers is progressing, i.e., exponentially.
I don't give a crap if language xxxxxxx is more efficient, more hardcore, etc. You know why?
Because I don't want to spend a year writing an application in C for efficiency and find out at the end that for a mere $1,000 I could have written the same thing in Python in a month and just bought a faster computer 11 months later.
YOUR time is linear, while the computer's is exponential. You'd be a fool to not take advantage of that and, frankly, type safety, efficiency, platform independence, programming style, power, etc. etc. can all go to hell. Just give me a beautiful language.
Don't be an idiot. Python is used in the industry just fine--look at EVE online.
The fact that you're fixated on type safety is your limitation, not that of the language. Types are an INVENTION, not an inherent item of a programming language.
Slashdot Mirror
That's great and all but .NET is a library, not a language. It sounds like the fact that you enjoyed IronPython after coming from a C# background really has nothing to do with Python as much as it does the fact that you already knew the .NET library.
If you don't know .NET? Well, thats another library to learn, and is no better or worse than anything else.
Not new. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_Eigen
"In addition, Eigen's name is linked with the theory of the chemical hypercycle, the cyclic linkage of reaction cycles as an explanation for the self organization of prebiotic systems, which he described with Peter Schuster in 1979."
Evolution doesn't require DNA, and the theory is like 40 years old at least.
That's the dumbest explanation of communism I've ever heard. You must be an academic.
Oh, wait, it wasn't an article. It was a 2 paragraph blog post that someone crapped out with some random anecdote and zero facts, figures, or research.
I don't know why /. still surprises me with this.
"and the putting green."
kind hard to hide a sensor there, dear, given how tightly shorn the grass is on the green.
First!
130KG. 45 seconds.
And, if my app requires significant bandwidth would normally be used by the user, I now have to source it all myself for every user?
That sucks.
This is also known as the No Free Lunch Theorem and traces right back to Godel, Turing, and the foundations of all mathematics. You are right, it certainly isn't going anywhere.
Don't kid yourself, genius.
Efficient software maintenance is directly related to the Halting Problem. I'm sure you could figure out a thesis about it. Or at least a proof.
Besides, "business programming" involves many things, some of which includes problems (for example, my field, aerospace) that are ridiculously complex, certainly at least as much as a good 80% of any CS degree or thesis.
I agree that users tend to find it useful and easy to handle. That's what it's really for, anyway---when you get into more complex situations the whole mass blogs down and we use other software. But it is not bad for what its used for, by and large. It's just a more friendly file share with calendars and lists and stuff. It's more descriptive and useful than a file share and it's no more complex than one.
That being said, as a programmer and IT person I hate it. I don't administer any but the documentation and webservices are absolutely atrocious. It's like pulling teeth to do the most basic thing.
I wonder how IBM arrived at the result of $2000. Because I'm pretty sure that out of the 150k people that I work with that 3/4 of them will take months to adjust to Linux and be completely pissed off the entire time. At an internal rate of $100-$150 per person per hour... uh... lol, right.
This is what most of the company uses: Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint. Project. File shares. Blackberry/Phone. Online web conferences. PDF. That's about it. Everything else is either a back-end system specific to the business or a program (i.e, drafting, manufacturing, etc) for the specific business at hand.
And don't give me crap about open office solutions. It took most of these people 10 or 20 years to just get by with Office, you really think they are going to want to essentially re-learn everything? $2000 is only relevant if the people are actually fairly computer savy, which pretty much everyone everywhere is not nor do they care to bother.
You should try out a Kindle for a month. I think there is a no-questions return policy anyway within 30 days.
I have always been a big physical book person and was worried about buying the Kindle but I have to say it was worth every cent.
The thing is that the screen used (via eInk) is completely different from any other screen you're used to. It has high contrast, the rough color of a page of paper, and, most importantly, low glare and eye strain. I've taken my kindle on the beach, full sun, and it was actually easier to read than your usual magazine. It was even nicer given that the wind was kicking up and i didn't have to screw around with trying to hold my pages down. You can read it for hours with no problem, the battery life is incredible, and you have the ability to just go on and download any kindle book in the store (provided you have mobile reception)... which was fantastic when I was about to board a flight recently and realized I didn't have anything to read.... in the time it took them to call boarding and give them my ticket (5 minutes) I had gone online, download a book, and was set for the 4 hour flight (with a book selection that is obviously > airport bookstores). Things like that are priceless.
Give it a try.
The reason there are no dirt-cheap readers out there is that the eInk screen is still pretty brand new. Eventually it will cost pennies, so relax (and, yes, it beats the shit out of your typical screen).
Also, I have no idea what your point is about dirt-cheap if your examples are a $300 iphone (with subscription costs), your $300-$500 netbook, your $1000-$2000 desktop, and your $200-$500 palm. The kindle is $300 and provides exactly the exactly the screen you are looking for so... you're an idiot.
first, give me an e-ink screen with a higher refresh rate than 0.5-1 second and color, and i'll get you your phone.
/facepalm
It is also a stawman argument to state that because a bunch of people believe that something is true it obviously is.
And that's before we even get to the fact that just because x% thinks something that doesn't mean the truth or validity is proportional to x%. Not everything is linear you know.
If you're so smart and the world's climatologists are so dumb, for the love of god stop yammering about it on Slashdot, publish, and collect your Nobel Prize.
I tried. I'm actually just shy of the Nobel Prize. Only problem is that every time I suggest in my grant proposal that I'm going to attempt to prove that the earth isn't warming due to mankind I never get the funding.
Funny how that works.
Any one who is genuinely interested in learning about how and why complex systems change catastrophically should read "Limits to Growth" - the classic by the MIT team headed by Donella Meadows.
Yes, let's all jump on the 1970s Club of Rome fad and do exactly what they suggested---controlling the reproductive and development rights of third world countries while amassing all of their resources in the first world. Then we will all bask in the wonders of the United States empire while masturbating to Kissinger porn while the neutered africans can stick to their caves where they belong. All for the sake of Malthusian paradise, of course.
As far as your economics analogy, it is pretty poor. No one agrees that economic law is a natural science or that it's entirely accurate or even measurable. Do you not know follow the ten trillion debates that follow every data collection technique and every data series, nevermind the models upon which the data is based? Do you not wonder why companies spend hundreds of billions a year publishing and researching economics studies? You might have caught a bit of it if you, uh, ever read the newspaper in the past 100 years.
But to suggest that it is possible that the data collection techniques and models of such an exacting "science" such as climate change might be off? Why that's a Limbaugh conspiracy!
You people are funny---for some that always harp about complexity and exponential feed back loops you sure have a hard time thinking that it's remotely possible you've missed any exponential feedback loops in the opposite direction and the resulting massive change that would have on your predictions.
But what am I saying---I'm just a mathematician.
No, they don't, because unimmunized kids are a health risk for the entire community.
You mean entire unimmunized community, right?
Up next: desu desu desium
I like how helping poor, sick bastards is now considered "redistribution". Last I checked that was just being a decent fucking person.
Oh, and btw, you can be working and not pay income tax. It's called being POOR AS SHIT.
Mr. Obama's plan also calls for giving a $500 tax break to Americans making $75,000 a year or less, and rebates to those who don't pay income tax. Mr. McCain's campaign calls that "welfare." But unlike welfare -- payments to people who aren't working -- Mr. Obama's rebate would go to people who are. It would essentially beef up the earned-income tax credit, a policy that originated with Republicans. And even those working Americans who don't earn enough to owe income taxes pay Social Security and Medicare taxes. Mr. McCain himself has proposed a $2,500 health-insurance credit that would be available to individuals who don't pay income taxes.
Mr. Obama also has been accused by Mr. McCain of advocating a government takeover of the health-care system. It's true that five years ago, before he was a U.S. senator, Mr. Obama endorsed a government-run system. His current plan, however, would bolster the private employer-provided system of health insurance. It would require larger businesses to provide coverage or pay a fee to help finance a plan with the options available to federal employees and members of Congress. Small businesses would be exempt from the requirement, but would receive tax credits if they cover their employees. Existing government programs for low-income Americans would be expanded.
Mr. Obama's plan takes a similar approach to the one adopted in Massachusetts under former Republican Gov. Mitt Romney. Somehow, Mr. Romney has escaped the socialist label.
This is an odd time for the Republican ticket to accuse Mr. Obama of socialism. Mr. McCain, along with Mr. Obama, backed the Bush administration's $700 billion bailout of the financial system -- the biggest government intervention in the economy in decades. Mr. McCain suspended his campaign to work for the plan's passage, and blasted Mr. Obama for not doing the same.
There's no question there are fundamental differences between Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain on economic policy. Misleading labels are a poor substitute for an honest discussion of them.
Yeah, because obviously dollar bills that have been through a plane crash and sitting around at 10k feet in the open for 1.5 years would totally be in good enough condition to use at the grocery store.
Because that's better than requiring professors to constantly publish publish publish even if it's crap? Even if it's not understandable to more than a few people? Even if they're spending all their time making up new fields of math because they don't have anything better to do, instead of addressing the fundamental problems?
Because that's better than having a fucked up education system that kills student interest in math in K-12 by focusing on grinding out problems that people already know the answer to rather than exploring things more exciting than geometry and long division?
Because even at great universities you still have to spend 4 years going through the motions before you can even get to the interesting and important things? It's hardly any better than K-12: "Do this problem set, they all have unexciting answers that are about 200 years old to make it easy for me to grade, and if you're late or miss a class I ruin your grade."
Sorry, but your grand idea of mathematics died a long time ago. Blaming the NSA, DARPA, and Wall Street for something that is just the fault of the Great Academics of Mathematics is just dumb. You and your peers fucked this one up at least a century ago in the rush to be published and preen about how smart you were.
http://www.tgdaily.com/html_tmp/content-view-39294-118.html
The overall arc of this episode involves the way Microsoft sees Apple, Macs and related products in terms of connectivity with âoereal peopleâ. In this case, the real people, however, are represented by a family who represents Apple and a story that describes the narrow boundaries this family chose to live in.
There is the 1960s style house (an overall impression of Apple), which is old. It has wood paneling in the basement, typical 60s styling on the outside, and yet there is the fundamental belief system that what they have is very nice. This is exemplified by the fact that the family is very much focused on visuals â" they donâ(TM)t like the look of the car in their neighborâ(TM)s driveway, they keep the property clean and there is fancy (a bit too much perhaps) paint in the childrenâ(TM)s room. Message: Apple in its core is old, but has some nice, clean touches here and there.
There are also those âoefancyâ symbols that go along with the overall theme that the surface matters, not the inside. A âoeleatherâ toy giraffe, cheese on the same old potatoes that are served everyday and a limited supply of Dijon mustard to spice up your life â" a supply that Apple limits uses to lure Windows users into the Apple world. But the supply will run out eventually.
There are so many little jabs at Apple in this commercial. We originally set out to write another dissection article, but the commercial itself is 4.5 minutes long. Such a dissection would've been a dissertation and, out of respect for our readers we decided against it.
There are some humorous bits though would like to highlight. We'll go briefly through the video and bring them out for discussion. In the comments section you can relate to these parts by number.
(1) The scene has a typical, regular average income family sitting around a dinner table. Everyone is passing out food and beginning to eat when the (2) wife begins making comments about appearance. She refers to a car that's been parked in the neighbor's driveway for a while now and how it's inappropriate. After Seinfeld complains that there was some gum in his dinner roll, (3) the wife says she has mustard with white wine sauce. There's a comment made by the father after the grandmother says to Seinfeld, "You're in my seat funny man." He has an almost "please kill me now" look on his face saying, "She's been here 12 years." (4) This is a reference to the time Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1996. And finally, (5) Gates asks, "Didn't we have this yesterday" after being handed his meal. Seinfeld replies, (6) "Put some cheese on it." Note all the visuals provided in this part â" the fancy China and glasses, but missing essentials such as ketchup. Gum in a roll that can be patched with Dijon mustard and potatoes that can be fancied up with cheese. Message: Itâ(TM)s all about the facade.
When we finally see the outside of the house, (7) the yard is so full of bushes and plants that it's just cluttered and has no real practical use, just appearance. Just like the (8) pool scene with the slow flowing water that never warms up making the pool experience less than it should be and the (9) grandmother cleaning up the yard with a leaf blower, all for appearance purposes. In addition, there's a (10) table tennis set downstairs in the basement. The wife has no real ability to play as is indicated in a few scenes. Again, it's something that's not really used and is just there for appearance. The table tennis scene can also be interpreted in a way that you just can play with a Mac.
There are (11) two scenes whereby the father and son are eating the âoemustard with the white wineâ. They are doing it secretly and for âoethe boozeâ, and are trying to escape the reality of their situation, which (12) could be likened to an Apple user's limited ab
I'll take any language that can let me write, read, and understand as fast as the speed of computers is progressing, i.e., exponentially.
I don't give a crap if language xxxxxxx is more efficient, more hardcore, etc. You know why?
Because I don't want to spend a year writing an application in C for efficiency and find out at the end that for a mere $1,000 I could have written the same thing in Python in a month and just bought a faster computer 11 months later.
YOUR time is linear, while the computer's is exponential. You'd be a fool to not take advantage of that and, frankly, type safety, efficiency, platform independence, programming style, power, etc. etc. can all go to hell. Just give me a beautiful language.
Don't be an idiot. Python is used in the industry just fine--look at EVE online. The fact that you're fixated on type safety is your limitation, not that of the language. Types are an INVENTION, not an inherent item of a programming language.