Yes, but doesn't it make a difference that WxWindows is:
Open Source. You can fix it, or ask someone else to fix it if something
goes wrong. If Bill Gates makes an anti-customer decision (Would Bill Gates do
that?), you are protected. If Bill Gates decides to quit Microsoft and become
a wind surfer, you are protected. A downturn in the fortunes of Microsoft does
not become a downturn in the fortunes of your company.
Cross Platform. It is impossible to predict how popular other operating
systems will be. You may want a Linux version of that Windows product.
If necessary you can always make a call to MFC. Using WxWindows does not
stop you from using MFC for some special need.
What has been your experience with WxWindows? The web site says that WxWindows provides a native look and feel on Windows, Unix, or Mac. There are IDEs and other tools.
It seems to me that RFID tags are like GPS: They are a voluntary technology. GPS is easily jammed, and RFID tags are easily destroyed by overloading them with energy at their resonant frequency.
So, if they present a privacy invasion, they will simply be destroyed.
RFID tags could be jammed, also. Your Honda could be rigged to say it has 34 tires purchased in Brazil.
I like the science stories, too, and I said that. However, I think there should be more stories about computing. I can go elsewhere for my news on other topics; I need Slashdot for news about computing.
It does not work to turn off science stories, because that eliminates science stories about computing.
Did you notice that the stories are dominated by those entered by Timothy? Did you notice that Michael rarely enters a new story now? The character of Slashdot has changed.
It is interesting reading about fungi. However, isn't Slashdot a little bit off topic these days? Is there anyone out there who is still interested in computing?
I question whether Mozilla is ready for general use. See this Bugzilla report:
189778. Mozilla is wonderful software, but it crashes a lot when stressed under Windows XP.
People vastly underestimate how much leadership is necessary to make something
good happen. It regularly happens that customers do something self-destructive
or ignorant. The main job of a consultant is not to write good code, it is to
provide excellent guidance.
A common answer to this observation is, "I'm a programmer. I just want to
program. They should do the management." This makes sense, but doesn't seem to
be the way the world works. The reality is that there is a severe shortage of
management, especially technical management. You will be expected to provide
some. It is like a party held during a famine; everyone is expected to bring
food.
Leaders are people who try to resolve conflict. It is the job of a consultant
in the situation you mention to understand the customer, including the
customer's psychology, and provide whatever is necessary to do a good job. If
you know better than the people around you, you are the leader, even if you
are not the acknowledged leader. If the customer is self-destructive, that
means that you are the leader. Otherwise you are just accepting craziness and
filling your life with it.
Often an impossible deadline is just an expression of hidden fears that
programmers cannot be trusted. Often an impossible deadline is a symptom of
ignorance about how to manage a technical project. Sometimes people think that
by encouraging other people to work 12 hours per day they will get more useful
work for their money; that is not actually true because of mistakes and
fatigue.
Underestimating the need for leadership is a symptom of a larger
misunderstanding about life. People regularly underestimate the minimum
complexity of life. In actuality, people are usually doing crazy things;
craziness is happening all around you. If you look closely, it is very likely
you will see that the example you gave is just one of many crazy things
happening at the company that is suggesting the impossible deadline.
The day will come when some people will record 360 degree video and every sound that happens around them all the time. No need for discussion about what happened, just replay it.
"Many of my worst alcoholics tend to be sociopathic (though not necessarily
outright sociopaths), noticeably more selfish than average, unable to
take/admit responsibility, lack real insight into their own condition, and
often have coexistant personality disorders. They often refuse to even
consider stopping their drinking."
As you know, there many alcoholics whose condition is less severe. They are
often able to make their actions look as though they are completely functional
to those who have never known an alcoholic. However, there are common
characteristics of being an alcoholic:
Polarized thinking (Bush's "you are either with us or against us" is an
example. Another example is his statement, "Look my job isn't to try to
nuance. I think moral clarity is important... this is evil versus good.")
Obsessive repetition (On August 7, during his "working vacation" at his
Crawford, Texas, ranch, Bush used the word "home" six times in a minute of
conversation with reporters: "It's nice to be home... This is my home...
It's good to be home... This is where you come home... This is my home,"
etc. In a five-minute speech later in the month, Bush mentioned values at
least seven times and "neighbor" or "neighborliness" or "neighborly" six
times. In a twenty-minute speech the next day he used "character" eleven
times. -- Some of the examples here are drawn from a September 6, 2001 article
in The Atlantic magazine, The Bumbling
Communicator. Not only was Bush repetitive, he was lying. The article
says, "Bush lived in the Texas governor's mansion and vacationed in swank
resorts and at Kennebunkport before the campaign began.")
Anger ("... why is Bush so eager to engage in violence and so incapable of explaining why?" See the Sept. 24, 2002 American Politics Journal article Dry Drunk.)
Inability to perceive the needs of others, inability to understand someone
different from oneself
Grandiosity, believing that one's own ideas are all-important. (Bush, and
the oil and weapons people who support him, say the U.S. has the right to take
military action before the adversary even has the capacity to attack.)
Impatience ("If we wait for threats to fully materialize," President Bush
said in a speech he gave at West Point, "we will have waited too long.")
Incoherence. Things don't make sense in the mind of an alcoholic. An
alcoholic's pattern of speech sometimes reflects his or her inner chaos.
"The first step was to change the VNS board of directors. Before the 2000 meltdown, the board was composed of representatives from the election units of each network. After the 2000 fiasco, a vice president from each network was on the board."
"That new board took bids from computing companies to completely rewrite the VNS system. One stipulation: That the new system use more flexible and current programming languages-- Java and the Extensible Markup Language-- rather than OS 390 to gather, compute and deliver data to the media outlets."
The results were exactly as should have been expected. People who don't understand what they are doing cannot manage highly technical projects.
This is EXACTLY what I thought until I began talking to alcoholics. They told
me over and over: Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic, even if the person
never drinks alcohol again.
A friend of mine who is a recovered alcoholic (but relapsed once for 4 years)
told me that I did not understand the issues. I talked to many alcoholics
after that. Many said what you said, and I agree. Almost all told me that you
should not depend on an alcoholic not to take another drink; an alcoholic
might drink again in a stressful situation. What could be more stressful than
being president of the United States?
My friend said, "Being drunk 24 hours per day is a very intense experience. I
know alcoholics. They are all like me when I am drinking. Bush has an
alcoholic personality. It's obvious."
Another alcoholic said, "It takes about 4 to 6 years of driving drunk to get a
DUI." I found this shocking, but other alcoholics said this, too. Apparently
people who are new to alcohol are often very careful when they drive drunk.
They don't do anything which would cause the police to stop them until they
have a strong habit of drinking. Having two DUI convictions, as did Vice
President Cheney, indicates a long history of drinking heavily. Someone who
traveled in his social circle told me he had a reputation of being a heavy
drinker.
One quality of Bush's personality that is identical to an alcoholic
personality is unwillingness to think deeply about things. Another thing you
should know: Alcholics are often very likeable people. My friend has an
incredible ability to get women interested in him, for example. Alcoholics
deal with conflict in a primitive way; one requirement of being a good
President of the U.S. is being able to resolve conflict in a sophisticated
way.
Bush has never shown anything but the most simple ability to analyze
situations. If you know of any examples counter to this, please tell me. Bush
is not actually president except in a very limited sense; he merely speaks the
speeches written for him. He is not able to understand most of the issues.
People who want to use the power of government to make money want someone who
is inattentive like Bush.
Bush was twice governor of Texas, but in Texas it is the Lieutenant Governor
who has most of the power.
There is a VERY big difference between Bill Clinton and George Bush, Junior.
Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar. Bush never left the U.S. until he decided to run
for President. One of Bush's three arrests was for destructive behavior at
college; he was never a serious student.
Both Clinton and Bush are heavily influenced by alcohol. Clinton's parents
were alcoholics. In Bush's case, he is the alcoholic.
The show on CNBC, "The Big Heist: AOL Took Time Warner" was excellent. Best quote: "AOL was a beneficiary of a once-in-a-lifetime bubble that soon came to an end".
I was surprised at how many top executives were interviewed for the show. Sumner Redstone of Viacom and Michael Eisner of Disney are just two.
The show came to no conclusions, however.
What could have stopped Time Warner from making such a self-destructive merger? Ethics. If the TW executives cared about people and what AOL was doing to its customers, if they had cared about other people and not just money, they would have been protected from making the mistake.
Under Steve Case, AOL was a company that took advantage of its customer's ignorance. Under Steve Case, pushed its customers in every way possible to get money from them.
Someone said, "AOL was founded on the idea that users of the Internet need training wheels to get started." Using AOL says, "I don't have any friends who understand computers." As users get smarter, they realize they don't need AOL.
Swallowing Time-Warner was a way of bailing out from a company on the way down, at the last moment possible.
People who are motivated by nothing but money reduce the quality of our lives, and, unfortunately, we don't have sophisticated social responses against this kind of abuse.
It amazes me how little Al Gore understands about politics. Like George Bush
Junior, he is a politician because it was expected of him when he was younger,
not because he had an intense desire to take on a huge challenge. I would have
thought someone who had spent 8 years around Bill Clinton, who truly loves
politics, would have learned something.
But there is a difference between the two. Bush Junior spent a large part of
his life drinking alcohol. Bush Junior has apparently never shown any interest
in thinking deeply about anything.
Several years ago, people were saying that Vint Cerf was the "father of the
Internet". I found Vint's email address somewhere and wrote to him. He said
that it was true that Al Gore was an originator of the Internet; Al was the
first government leader to support making the old DarpaNet and the old,
largely proprietary Internet into a public utility. Vint was one of the
technical fathers of the Internet, but Al Gore was the father of the public
utility we know today.
It is difficult to imagine now, but those who were on the Internet before it
became a public utility often did not want it to be public. That was in the days before spam email and pop-up ads.
Bill Clinton's negative behavior, such as foolish involvement with women,
seeming like he was lying even when he wasn't, and acting out anger, are all
characteristics of a child of alcoholics. Bill Clinton's mother and father
were both alcoholics.
But Bill Clinton is so interested in government that he was called a "policy
wonk". This is a negative term used by people who believe that governing
doesn't require understanding of government.
In contrast, Bush Junior does not have the mental capacity of understand much
of the job of being President. (If anyone knows of any evidence to the
contrary, please write to me.) Bush Junior is stumbling over speeches less now
than before, but the speeches are entirely written by someone else. Bush
Junior's mental capacity is only enough to sell parts of the government to the
highest bidder. Those who spent millions to put him into power want that.
The U.S. political system is not bringing forward adequate leaders. Part of
the reason is the constant hostility aimed at U.S. government leaders. There are not many people who would like to have a very difficult job at low pay in which they will be attacked. The U.S. government spent $57,000,000 attacking Bill Clinton, and found nothing. It was state-supported Republican destructiveness.
P.S.: I hope that U.S. voters begin to realize that being a senator or
representative or other government leader is a big intellectual challenge. I
hope the voters will start voting for people who are mentally capable of being
a government leader. Those who have a history of excessive drinking (Bush and
Cheney), are very sick (Cheney), and those who have never thought deeply about
anything (Bush, and apparently Tauzin) should not try to be a leader of
anything.
Here's my contribution to the U.S. government's new surveillance initiative,
TIA (Total Information Awareness):
President of the U.S. George W. Bush DUI Arrest record #1. (Bush's
Date of Birth: 07/6/46. The DOB on the record is in error.)
I saw Billy Tauzin talking about this in a congressional hearing on CSPAN satellite channel. He was embarrassing himself. He obviously had done NO homework. His questions were of a very general nature.
Slashdot Mirror
Sun controls Java. No one controls Unix work-alikes.
Yes, but doesn't it make a difference that WxWindows is:
Trolltech's QT costs $1550 each, per developer, for commercial use on Windows and Mac.
QT versus Java (PDF file)
QT versus MFC, in English (See the French below.)
QT versus MFC, in French (MFC contre Qt)
It seems that a fancy name for user interface design is "Information Architecture".
Usability Links
More Usability Links
Site Critiques
Swing and AWT often provide poor GUIs. Java is often slow. Sun involvement makes Java a proprietary technology. Is Java dying?
What has been your experience with WxWindows? The web site says that WxWindows provides a native look and feel on Windows, Unix, or Mac. There are IDEs and other tools.
It seems to me that RFID tags are like GPS: They are a voluntary technology. GPS is easily jammed, and RFID tags are easily destroyed by overloading them with energy at their resonant frequency.
So, if they present a privacy invasion, they will simply be destroyed.
RFID tags could be jammed, also. Your Honda could be rigged to say it has 34 tires purchased in Brazil.
I like the science stories, too, and I said that. However, I think there should be more stories about computing. I can go elsewhere for my news on other topics; I need Slashdot for news about computing.
It does not work to turn off science stories, because that eliminates science stories about computing.
Did you notice that the stories are dominated by those entered by Timothy? Did you notice that Michael rarely enters a new story now? The character of Slashdot has changed.
It is interesting reading about fungi. However, isn't Slashdot a little bit off topic these days? Is there anyone out there who is still interested in computing?
I question whether Mozilla is ready for general use. See this Bugzilla report: 189778. Mozilla is wonderful software, but it crashes a lot when stressed under Windows XP.
People vastly underestimate how much leadership is necessary to make something good happen. It regularly happens that customers do something self-destructive or ignorant. The main job of a consultant is not to write good code, it is to provide excellent guidance.
A common answer to this observation is, "I'm a programmer. I just want to program. They should do the management." This makes sense, but doesn't seem to be the way the world works. The reality is that there is a severe shortage of management, especially technical management. You will be expected to provide some. It is like a party held during a famine; everyone is expected to bring food.
Leaders are people who try to resolve conflict. It is the job of a consultant in the situation you mention to understand the customer, including the customer's psychology, and provide whatever is necessary to do a good job. If you know better than the people around you, you are the leader, even if you are not the acknowledged leader. If the customer is self-destructive, that means that you are the leader. Otherwise you are just accepting craziness and filling your life with it.
Often an impossible deadline is just an expression of hidden fears that programmers cannot be trusted. Often an impossible deadline is a symptom of ignorance about how to manage a technical project. Sometimes people think that by encouraging other people to work 12 hours per day they will get more useful work for their money; that is not actually true because of mistakes and fatigue.
Underestimating the need for leadership is a symptom of a larger misunderstanding about life. People regularly underestimate the minimum complexity of life. In actuality, people are usually doing crazy things; craziness is happening all around you. If you look closely, it is very likely you will see that the example you gave is just one of many crazy things happening at the company that is suggesting the impossible deadline.
The day will come when some people will record 360 degree video and every sound that happens around them all the time. No need for discussion about what happened, just replay it.
You said, As you know, there many alcoholics whose condition is less severe. They are often able to make their actions look as though they are completely functional to those who have never known an alcoholic. However, there are common characteristics of being an alcoholic:
This is EXACTLY what I thought until I began talking to alcoholics. They told me over and over: Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic, even if the person never drinks alcohol again.
A friend of mine who is a recovered alcoholic (but relapsed once for 4 years) told me that I did not understand the issues. I talked to many alcoholics after that. Many said what you said, and I agree. Almost all told me that you should not depend on an alcoholic not to take another drink; an alcoholic might drink again in a stressful situation. What could be more stressful than being president of the United States?
My friend said, "Being drunk 24 hours per day is a very intense experience. I know alcoholics. They are all like me when I am drinking. Bush has an alcoholic personality. It's obvious."
Another alcoholic said, "It takes about 4 to 6 years of driving drunk to get a DUI." I found this shocking, but other alcoholics said this, too. Apparently people who are new to alcohol are often very careful when they drive drunk. They don't do anything which would cause the police to stop them until they have a strong habit of drinking. Having two DUI convictions, as did Vice President Cheney, indicates a long history of drinking heavily. Someone who traveled in his social circle told me he had a reputation of being a heavy drinker.
One quality of Bush's personality that is identical to an alcoholic personality is unwillingness to think deeply about things. Another thing you should know: Alcholics are often very likeable people. My friend has an incredible ability to get women interested in him, for example. Alcoholics deal with conflict in a primitive way; one requirement of being a good President of the U.S. is being able to resolve conflict in a sophisticated way.
Bush has never shown anything but the most simple ability to analyze situations. If you know of any examples counter to this, please tell me. Bush is not actually president except in a very limited sense; he merely speaks the speeches written for him. He is not able to understand most of the issues. People who want to use the power of government to make money want someone who is inattentive like Bush.
Bush was twice governor of Texas, but in Texas it is the Lieutenant Governor who has most of the power.
There is a VERY big difference between Bill Clinton and George Bush, Junior. Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar. Bush never left the U.S. until he decided to run for President. One of Bush's three arrests was for destructive behavior at college; he was never a serious student.
Both Clinton and Bush are heavily influenced by alcohol. Clinton's parents were alcoholics. In Bush's case, he is the alcoholic.
I should have said,
"The foundation of AOL is the idea that users of the Internet need training wheels to get started."
The AOL software is extremely invasive. It provides multiple kinds of connections to AOL.
Can you believe it??? Someone moderated my post above as a "Troll", when it is a simple, on-topic fact.
Steve Case? Was that you?
The show on CNBC, "The Big Heist: AOL Took Time Warner" was excellent. Best quote: "AOL was a beneficiary of a once-in-a-lifetime bubble that soon came to an end".
I was surprised at how many top executives were interviewed for the show. Sumner Redstone of Viacom and Michael Eisner of Disney are just two.
The show came to no conclusions, however.
What could have stopped Time Warner from making such a self-destructive merger? Ethics. If the TW executives cared about people and what AOL was doing to its customers, if they had cared about other people and not just money, they would have been protected from making the mistake.
Tonight, Sunday, 9:00 PM Pacific standard time on CNBC (Dish Network and others, re-broadcast): The Big Heist: AOL Took Time Warner.
For those for whom English is not their native language, "heist" means "theft".
Tonight, Sunday, 9:00 PM Pacific standard time on CNBC (Dish Network and other, re-broadcast): The Big Heist: AOL Took Time Warner.
Under Steve Case, AOL was a company that took advantage of its customer's ignorance. Under Steve Case, pushed its customers in every way possible to get money from them.
Someone said, "AOL was founded on the idea that users of the Internet need training wheels to get started." Using AOL says, "I don't have any friends who understand computers." As users get smarter, they realize they don't need AOL.
Swallowing Time-Warner was a way of bailing out from a company on the way down, at the last moment possible.
People who are motivated by nothing but money reduce the quality of our lives, and, unfortunately, we don't have sophisticated social responses against this kind of abuse.
It amazes me how little Al Gore understands about politics. Like George Bush Junior, he is a politician because it was expected of him when he was younger, not because he had an intense desire to take on a huge challenge. I would have thought someone who had spent 8 years around Bill Clinton, who truly loves politics, would have learned something.
But there is a difference between the two. Bush Junior spent a large part of his life drinking alcohol. Bush Junior has apparently never shown any interest in thinking deeply about anything.
Several years ago, people were saying that Vint Cerf was the "father of the Internet". I found Vint's email address somewhere and wrote to him. He said that it was true that Al Gore was an originator of the Internet; Al was the first government leader to support making the old DarpaNet and the old, largely proprietary Internet into a public utility. Vint was one of the technical fathers of the Internet, but Al Gore was the father of the public utility we know today.
It is difficult to imagine now, but those who were on the Internet before it became a public utility often did not want it to be public. That was in the days before spam email and pop-up ads.
Bill Clinton's negative behavior, such as foolish involvement with women, seeming like he was lying even when he wasn't, and acting out anger, are all characteristics of a child of alcoholics. Bill Clinton's mother and father were both alcoholics.
But Bill Clinton is so interested in government that he was called a "policy wonk". This is a negative term used by people who believe that governing doesn't require understanding of government.
In contrast, Bush Junior does not have the mental capacity of understand much of the job of being President. (If anyone knows of any evidence to the contrary, please write to me.) Bush Junior is stumbling over speeches less now than before, but the speeches are entirely written by someone else. Bush Junior's mental capacity is only enough to sell parts of the government to the highest bidder. Those who spent millions to put him into power want that.
The U.S. political system is not bringing forward adequate leaders. Part of the reason is the constant hostility aimed at U.S. government leaders. There are not many people who would like to have a very difficult job at low pay in which they will be attacked. The U.S. government spent $57,000,000 attacking Bill Clinton, and found nothing. It was state-supported Republican destructiveness.
About a year ago, I did a search for digital recorders. I was unable to find anything suitable. For example, most did not have a Pause button.
P.S.: I hope that U.S. voters begin to realize that being a senator or representative or other government leader is a big intellectual challenge. I hope the voters will start voting for people who are mentally capable of being a government leader. Those who have a history of excessive drinking (Bush and Cheney), are very sick (Cheney), and those who have never thought deeply about anything (Bush, and apparently Tauzin) should not try to be a leader of anything.
Here's my contribution to the U.S. government's new surveillance initiative, TIA (Total Information Awareness):
President of the U.S. George W. Bush DUI Arrest record #1. (Bush's Date of Birth: 07/6/46. The DOB on the record is in error.)
President of the U.S. George W. Bush DUI Arrest record #2.
Vice President of the U.S. Dick Cheney DUI Arrest record #1.
Vice President of the U.S. Dick Cheney DUI Arrest record #2.
I saw Billy Tauzin talking about this in a congressional hearing on CSPAN satellite channel. He was embarrassing himself. He obviously had done NO homework. His questions were of a very general nature.