I used to use Norton AntiVirus religiously. I recently uninstalled it and I won't be going back unless something drastic changes. Every new release lately has more and more popups which are seemingly impossible to disable. The thing basically spams you with messages and it's pretty clear they're intended to bring your attention on the program so you'll be more likely to pay for your yearly update. They're afraid antivirus has become something that sits in your tray and you ignore all year while it does its job silently... and that software that behaves like that doesn't inspire users to shell out their yearly upgrade / subscription cash hastily enough. So they make all sorts of blinky popups to remind you that you're using Symantec Norton AntiVirus and it is Monitoring Your Computer and Status is Green and all sorts of shazz I really don't need to know. Tell me when there's a virus and shut up otherwise.
SLOC is only a good measure of SLOC. A "project's size" can be very large in scope, requiring a lot of research and a lot of very smart people working for a long time -- and the end result may be a few thousand lines of code that is extremely well written/optimized.
Granted, SLOC is probably "somewhat indicitive" of a project's size 80% of the time. But can you make generalities about such an exceptional (and not just in a good way...) piece of software as Windows?
What exactly does "the Microsoft of..." mean? Does it mean you own IP rights to all of your major product lines? Does it mean you are the driving force behind the look and feel of your products? Does it mean you are the only one who decides what features go into your product? Or does it simply mean you have the biggest share of your particular product?
It's a common denominator (email your co-worker across the hall and CC someone halfway across the world and they see the same thing)
It's not just a replacement for phones, it has other features: phones serve a great purpose for real-time collaboration. Email works very well for give-and-take correspondence. The two styles of communication have different strengths and weaknesses, and it's nice to have both at your fingertips.
The "inbox" information focus point: it's a hassle if I have to go look at my New Fangled Collaboration Tool's multiple points of data entry to figure out what information someone is trying to convey to me. I don't want to check the Virtual Whiteboard, the Virtual Voice MailBox and the Virtual My Documents Sandbox for new information. I want to open my Inbox and see what the world has to tell me, and go from there. That's what hyperlinks are for: referencing information.
I think the reviewer's point was: I'm a knowledgeable Java lead. I know almost all of the core Java 'cookbook' recipes by heart, or I have them in a book already on my shelf. Where can I find a compilation of some of the more risque, edge-case type usages of Java? How can I continue to fill up my bag-o-tricks when I already have so much core knowledge about the language?
Not every cookbook has to be core, or even based around a common subject. Your conclusion that the book is "not much good to learn from" because the examples "rarely apply" is surely subjective. It depends on the kind of work you do. If you're R&D and your company looks to you for new solutions to new problems, your entire job may be made up of tackling problems that that "rarely apply to the real world."
Oh, LOL. A windows-bashing comment by an Anonymous Coward on Slashdot. How singularly unique and entertaining. I believe I'll go stick my finger in an electrical socket now to complete the experience.
That, my friends, is $407,482 dollars in hardware alone during 2005. That's in addition to the $50,000 they spent on hardware in 2004.
A decent 42U rackmount costs $2,000. A decent server costs $2,500. A friggin' half-terabyte hard-drive only costs $400. Unless Wikipedia has started indexing porn, I think Wikipedia might need a few lessons in frugality more than they need handouts. And yes, I've donated in the past.
And why should we use spreadsheets either! I mean I'd choose a solid graphite pencil connected to a a ledger pad above excel/open office, no matter how reliable!
Maybe because a spreadsheet crashing never killed anyone. =P
Well there's some new information in the article, I think. Of interest to me:
The rule of thumb suggested by researchers at Boston Children's Hospital is to hold the volume of a music player no higher than 60 percent of the maximum, and use it for only about an hour a day.
I often listen to headphones at work for the entire day (I'm a software engineer and I find music less distracting that people chattering around me. A 60 minute limitation to prevent hearing loss would mean a big change in my routine -- and I don't listen to music very loudly -- probably around 50% of the volume, about what the article recommends.
Another "point" of the article is that if you like to listen to music a lot with headphones, but are concerned about hearing loss, considering using over-the-ear closed "muff" style headphones which can bring greater focus to the music at lower volumes.
Windows CE is actually a fairly reliable true-Real-Time OS. To be honest with you, I don't know what I'd rather drive -- a car with an open source RTOS written by dudes on the internet, or a car with a corporate RTOS written by a billion dollar corporate entity. Tough call when your life is on the line.
That's not the point you made in your OP -- the point on which I was arguing. However, I concede that an unmodified car is probably safe -- not considering that it may reinforce a kid's view of driving as a video game and that severe automobile crashes can be driven away from, at high speeds;-)
This system is as infallible as, say, a lightswitch. There's no way a bulb can be both off and on at the same time. (And nobody say Schroedinger. A bulb's too big for quantum effects to really take place.)
A better analogy would be a switch which controls two lights. In switch position 1, light A is on and light B is off. In switch position 2, light A is off and light B is on. Now I guarantee with a little copper and solder you could hack that switch so that in position 1, say, light A is on AND light B is on, which equates to the user driving physically and driving virtually at the same time.
In case you didn't notice, he made lots of other (good) arguments in his post. Way to focus only on the code sample. I suppose you wanted him to paste a full blown enterprise application into his post?
If you're talking about WebApp development then certainly, yes: LAMP, Ruby on Rails,.NET are certainly gaining traction and market share, if not just a bigger piece of the lime-light.
But...
LAMP isn't a cross-platform application development framework. It's a cross-platform **WEB** application development framework. Yes web is nice, and web is good, and Web 2.0 is coming any day now. But it's not here yet, and web applications do not cover the entire scope of computing... not by a long-shot. Now we could argue the relative benefits and drawbacks of web application development in Java vs. [insert accelerated webapp development language here] for a long time. But we won't right now, because that's a battle and this is a war.
Ruby on Rails? Tells the same story and LAMP..NET? Isn't cross-platform -- even in Billy's nightmares -- and not even by Java's flawed definition of the term.
C/C++ is a portability nightmare -- even when you're talking about the same CPU architectures. When you bring in different architectures, you can go save yourself some trouble and call ahead to your local migraine specialist. That being said, there are some good C/C++ portability resources and books that have come out lately: dulls the pain!
Java may not be the web FOTM but it is *still* serious player: seriously portable, seriously multi-threaded, SERIOUS library both packaged with the JDK, from open source projects, and from commercial vendors. And, while your web buddies may be yawning at it, there's a huge user base in the enterprise market who continue to like it and continue to use it, and continue to ask for it.
So. You can bust out a half-arsed database driven website for a small-time customer in 15 days when you're using LAMP or ruby on rails? Great! More power to you. But Java can take you places that make PHP and ruby blush.
+1 Insightful. People who scoff at alternate ideas about the history of life because those ideas go against "popular belief" (read: evolution) may join the very large and unflattering group of sheep who have, throughout history, proved that closed-mindedness is an altogether too common human shortcoming.
open minds > evolution open minds > intelligent design
Look, I baby my iPod classic by keeping it in a pocket separate from everything else -- ALWAYS -- and it's still all scratched up. If you read TFA and the thread @ apple.com you'll see that people are taking seriously good care of their iPods and they are still getting unacceptably F'd up.
From reading this thread, it sounds like Apple should bite the bullet and put a Sapphire insert over the display -- seams be damned.
If you're going to use Windows, use IIS and SQL Server, and interface with your unix systems through http/web services or some other well established common interface.
This article doesn't cast a shadow on Windows (there's plenty of other ways to do that), it casts a shadow on whoever planned this system.
That's not to say you couldn't get their software working... it'd just take a ubergeek to get it right:P
Slashdot Mirror
*Grins* It was totally unintended but I'm sure subconsciously linked to the article. Nice catch ;-)
I used to use Norton AntiVirus religiously. I recently uninstalled it and I won't be going back unless something drastic changes. Every new release lately has more and more popups which are seemingly impossible to disable. The thing basically spams you with messages and it's pretty clear they're intended to bring your attention on the program so you'll be more likely to pay for your yearly update. They're afraid antivirus has become something that sits in your tray and you ignore all year while it does its job silently ... and that software that behaves like that doesn't inspire users to shell out their yearly upgrade / subscription cash hastily enough. So they make all sorts of blinky popups to remind you that you're using Symantec Norton AntiVirus and it is Monitoring Your Computer and Status is Green and all sorts of shazz I really don't need to know. Tell me when there's a virus and shut up otherwise.
But is he thin? : )
I think that would have to be a pretty damn big piece of a glacier dropping off to raise an entire ocean 3mm. Maybe the entire glacier fell in? :-P
SLOC is only a good measure of SLOC. A "project's size" can be very large in scope, requiring a lot of research and a lot of very smart people working for a long time -- and the end result may be a few thousand lines of code that is extremely well written/optimized.
Granted, SLOC is probably "somewhat indicitive" of a project's size 80% of the time. But can you make generalities about such an exceptional (and not just in a good way...) piece of software as Windows?
What exactly does "the Microsoft of ..." mean? Does it mean you own IP rights to all of your major product lines? Does it mean you are the driving force behind the look and feel of your products? Does it mean you are the only one who decides what features go into your product? Or does it simply mean you have the biggest share of your particular product?
I think the reviewer's point was: I'm a knowledgeable Java lead. I know almost all of the core Java 'cookbook' recipes by heart, or I have them in a book already on my shelf. Where can I find a compilation of some of the more risque, edge-case type usages of Java? How can I continue to fill up my bag-o-tricks when I already have so much core knowledge about the language?
Not every cookbook has to be core, or even based around a common subject. Your conclusion that the book is "not much good to learn from" because the examples "rarely apply" is surely subjective. It depends on the kind of work you do. If you're R&D and your company looks to you for new solutions to new problems, your entire job may be made up of tackling problems that that "rarely apply to the real world."
Oh, LOL. A windows-bashing comment by an Anonymous Coward on Slashdot. How singularly unique and entertaining. I believe I'll go stick my finger in an electrical socket now to complete the experience.
How much "hardware" does the Wiki empire need?!?!
This is Wikipedia's total expenditures per quarter for 2005 with hardware expenditures in (parentheses):
Quarter .. Ttl Exp (USD) .. Hardware Exp (USD) ....... $45,272 ........ ($23,317) ....... $130,673 ....... ($69,165) ....... $198,000 ....... ($125,000) ....... $321,200 ....... ($190,000)
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
That, my friends, is $407,482 dollars in hardware alone during 2005. That's in addition to the $50,000 they spent on hardware in 2004.
A decent 42U rackmount costs $2,000. A decent server costs $2,500. A friggin' half-terabyte hard-drive only costs $400. Unless Wikipedia has started indexing porn, I think Wikipedia might need a few lessons in frugality more than they need handouts. And yes, I've donated in the past.
And why should we use spreadsheets either! I mean I'd choose a solid graphite pencil connected to a a ledger pad above excel/open office, no matter how reliable! Maybe because a spreadsheet crashing never killed anyone. =P
The rule of thumb suggested by researchers at Boston Children's Hospital is to hold the volume of a music player no higher than 60 percent of the maximum, and use it for only about an hour a day.
I often listen to headphones at work for the entire day (I'm a software engineer and I find music less distracting that people chattering around me. A 60 minute limitation to prevent hearing loss would mean a big change in my routine -- and I don't listen to music very loudly -- probably around 50% of the volume, about what the article recommends.
Another "point" of the article is that if you like to listen to music a lot with headphones, but are concerned about hearing loss, considering using over-the-ear closed "muff" style headphones which can bring greater focus to the music at lower volumes.
Windows CE is actually a fairly reliable true-Real-Time OS. To be honest with you, I don't know what I'd rather drive -- a car with an open source RTOS written by dudes on the internet, or a car with a corporate RTOS written by a billion dollar corporate entity. Tough call when your life is on the line.
That's not the point you made in your OP -- the point on which I was arguing. However, I concede that an unmodified car is probably safe -- not considering that it may reinforce a kid's view of driving as a video game and that severe automobile crashes can be driven away from, at high speeds ;-)
A better analogy would be a switch which controls two lights. In switch position 1, light A is on and light B is off. In switch position 2, light A is off and light B is on. Now I guarantee with a little copper and solder you could hack that switch so that in position 1, say, light A is on AND light B is on, which equates to the user driving physically and driving virtually at the same time.
-p
In case you didn't notice, he made lots of other (good) arguments in his post. Way to focus only on the code sample. I suppose you wanted him to paste a full blown enterprise application into his post?
You couldn't fake a better porn actor pseudonym. Never thought about it like that, did I? Eh.
Maybe it's their built-in spell checker... :P
If you're talking about WebApp development then certainly, yes: LAMP, Ruby on Rails, .NET are certainly gaining traction and market share, if not just a bigger piece of the lime-light.
... not by a long-shot. Now we could argue the relative benefits and drawbacks of web application development in Java vs. [insert accelerated webapp development language here] for a long time. But we won't right now, because that's a battle and this is a war.
.NET? Isn't cross-platform -- even in Billy's nightmares -- and not even by Java's flawed definition of the term.
But...
LAMP isn't a cross-platform application development framework. It's a cross-platform **WEB** application development framework. Yes web is nice, and web is good, and Web 2.0 is coming any day now. But it's not here yet, and web applications do not cover the entire scope of computing
Ruby on Rails? Tells the same story and LAMP.
C/C++ is a portability nightmare -- even when you're talking about the same CPU architectures. When you bring in different architectures, you can go save yourself some trouble and call ahead to your local migraine specialist. That being said, there are some good C/C++ portability resources and books that have come out lately: dulls the pain!
Java may not be the web FOTM but it is *still* serious player: seriously portable, seriously multi-threaded, SERIOUS library both packaged with the JDK, from open source projects, and from commercial vendors. And, while your web buddies may be yawning at it, there's a huge user base in the enterprise market who continue to like it and continue to use it, and continue to ask for it.
So. You can bust out a half-arsed database driven website for a small-time customer in 15 days when you're using LAMP or ruby on rails? Great! More power to you. But Java can take you places that make PHP and ruby blush.
-M
The form itself doesn't need to be encrypted, just the action="" target behind it. But I guess Wamlart shouldn't expect people to know that. :(
Hence Usenet's heretofore popularity, and guarantee of future longevity. Long live kinky reproductive behavior! Huzah!
Clearly, real men use emacs as their operating system and a copy of vim customized so that only pico keymappings are valid.
+1 Insightful. People who scoff at alternate ideas about the history of life because those ideas go against "popular belief" (read: evolution) may join the very large and unflattering group of sheep who have, throughout history, proved that closed-mindedness is an altogether too common human shortcoming.
open minds > evolution
open minds > intelligent design
Look, I baby my iPod classic by keeping it in a pocket separate from everything else -- ALWAYS -- and it's still all scratched up. If you read TFA and the thread @ apple.com you'll see that people are taking seriously good care of their iPods and they are still getting unacceptably F'd up.
From reading this thread, it sounds like Apple should bite the bullet and put a Sapphire insert over the display -- seams be damned.
This article doesn't cast a shadow on Windows (there's plenty of other ways to do that), it casts a shadow on whoever planned this system.
That's not to say you couldn't get their software working ... it'd just take a ubergeek to get it right :P