The vast majority of planetary missions have been orbital in nature, with a number of landings. IIRC, the last "grand tour" mission we had before New Horizons (not counting cometary exploration) was Voyager 2 almost 30 years ago. I'm kinda disappointed that New Horizons wasn't called Voyager 3, given the mission profile.
Additionally, you don't have to pay a monthly fee just so some company can make money collecting and selling data concerning your viewing habits, and you can skip commercials to your heart's content without anyone giving you grief about it, or having to press a half-dozen buttons to do it.
I wasn't flaming Linus or trying to put him down in any way - I merely was saying that what the engineers at NASA do and what Linus & company does are not comparable. The same is true of the entire Windows development team and just about everyone else that does PC software, myself included.
The remainder of the Linux fanboy rant wasn't really necessary - I've worked with Linux long enough to know what it's good at, what it isn't, how much work has gone into it, and the total crap that often has gone into it as well as the occasional brilliance.
Astrophysicists don't do software for space missions, software engineers do. My point was that the caliber of the engineering work done for these missions is far and beyond what you'll see pretty much anywhere in Linux.
And actually, the argument isn't at all about Linux per se, it's about an AC that thought he/she would be clever about taking a pot shot at the competence of those working for/with NASA by making a childish snipe about the infamous metric/English trajectory calculation error but obviously didn't know shit about the mission to begin with.
Nor should an AC that claims a $125 million mission is a "several billion dollar project". I daresay that the folks that worked on the Mars Climate Observer mission (as well as NASA's other projects) have a lot more on the ball than Linus & crew does.
I understand the Ocho is going to be running an hour-long documentary on the remarkable life of Patches O'Houlihan sometime next month. I'm looking forward to it.
I can't speak for the original poster, but I can't believe that the parent poster and I are the *only* people that believe that LOC is a poor metric.
I won't say that it always is, but I think it often is. LOC measurements can't take into consideration situations like those where your productivity as defined by LOC is only 1/3 of your cubicle-mate's, but the code that you spent three times as long on will save 10 other coders from having to write an assload of additional code, simply because you took the time to think things through and came up with a better design. In this situation, how does LOC square with actual productivity? In addition, with fewer LOC you also have probably reduced the potential for failure that all that other code would have introduced.
Formal specification still isn't a silver bullet. Much of the software I write depends on output from other third-party systems, and that output is often not clearly defined to me, and can occasionally change without me or the customer being advised of it. I don't know what those changes might be, and neither does the customer, so they really aren't able to be spec'd properly. Just the same, if my code doesn't work in a manner that the customer expects it's still considered a bug.
I give Praxis props for their efforts, and definitely appreciate what they're trying to do and the results they achieve, but in my experience it's uncommon to be able to get sufficient customer cooperation to properly define requirements, and even more uncommon to get the customer to adhere to said requirements over the life of the project. I think every coder on/. would agree that their code would improve by at least an order of magnitude if they could simply get decent specifications and the time to properly code to them. While Praxis offers workable solutions in the engineering domain, most of the problems I encounter are practical issues that come from the business domain.
1) Rely on existing libraries and hardware as black boxes
Don't forget tools - I have to do the majority of my work in C++ with Visual Studio, and there has been more than one occasion where I had to look at the generated assembly code to figure out what was going on when VC++ screwed something up ("WTF - where'd that JMP come from?!?"), and then spend a little more time coming up with an alternate way to express the same logic that the compiler wouldn't fuck up. You can mathematically prove the correctness of your code all you want, but if the compiler is not going to faithfully produce machine code that exactly mimics that behavior, you're still going to have issues to deal with even though your logic is impeccable. Being able to truly prove correctness means being able to account for every single machine instruction that will be executed, and every bit of data those instructions operate on. I can't do that with any system in the commercial marketplace right now, so while I perhaps can guarantee *my* code, I can't guarantee bug-free or uninterrupted operation.
You can't expect to build something solid if your foundation is made of quicksand.
Some customers of Zend (the company behind PHP) include Deutschen Bank, Lufthansa, EA Games, Disney, and MIT.
The unfortunate souls that have to work with Disney's central reservations system probably would recommend you take Disney off the list if you're trying to be supportive of Zend.:-)
Yes, how silly of you. Corporations are able to amass vast sums of money mostly because they aren't held responsible to society's laws in the same manner that an individual is, and the risk to individual shareholders in a corporation is generally limited to their investment, regardless of what the corporation may do. That grant of immunity from liability comes from the government, and no one else.
When charters start getting revoked and assets seized, then maybe I'll start shifting more of the blame towards the corporate world, but as it is they're just taking full advantage of the situation that was handed to them by the government.
I wasn't suggesting that governments be eliminated, but rather to point out that corporations are a construct of said government. Eliminating the government is no doubt a bad idea, but overhauling the legal framework in which corporations exist and operate might be something worth looking into.
The original poster implied that corporations would have unchecked power without the government to limit them, apparently not noticing that corporations derive most of their power from the government to begin with.
Governments are the only form of "checks and ballances" strong enough to stand up to corporations.
Governments are also the means by which the aforementioned corporations come into being, and through which they get their power. Government also was responsible for the "legal person" fiction corporations enjoy, without the pesky responsibility to follow the laws that real people have. Heaven forbid the shareholders might actually held responsible for the company's actions...
I think he meant it in the sense of "to be stigmatised by something"
Then it should have read, "Although Cydoor had cleaned up its act considerably since its earlier days, the stigma associated with the adware product doomed eXeem before it was ever released."
With editing skills like that in evidence, Slashdot should give him a call.
Just an idea - back-order the domain name through a registrar that allows you to do that, then submit the appropriate information to http://wdprs.internic.net/ with the hope that when InterNIC determines that the WHOIS info is invalid, they'll revoke the domain registration. I've not ever had to do that, so I can't speak as to how well it would work.
If you're in the U.S., register the domain(s) with a P.O. box for the address and a cellular phone number. I've been doing that for years, and have had exactly zero problems with people harassing me in any way. Of course, it means that you have to periodically go to the P.O. box to pick up any domain-related mail, but I already was having a fair bit of mail delivered to the box anyway.
Then you have zero sympathy for somebody who was young and made a stupid mistake
Perhaps that's one way of seeing it. I see it as having zero sympathy for a thief that got caught while stealing from the same store for the second time in two weeks. The items he stole were both fairly large-ticket items, and I doubt he would have stopped with only two items had he not gotten caught. This was not a "stupid mistake", it was a willful and premeditated act of theft, and I don't believe for a moment that he didn't know there were serious consequences to his actions. I'm sure he's only sorry he got caught, not that he actually took that which he had no right to. He should consider himself fortunate that he lives in the United States and not some other areas in the world, where in addition to having a criminal record he'd also be missing a hand.
I don't consider that his life is ruined - he *will* be able to find work somewhere, but if this incident sharply limits the work available to him, that's his own fault and I won't shed a tear for him. He was old enough to know that it wasn't right and was against the law, but that apparently wasn't as important to him as scoring some sweet iPod accessories. As regards a "conditional discharge, community service, and maybe a small fine" - those are likely options that will be available to the court when sentencing time rolls around, and I seriously doubt he'll get the maximum sentence allowable under law. As I said before, the law respects that there are different levels of criminal behavior, as will the court. That doesn't mean that he shouldn't be punished for what he did in accordance with Colorado state law, however.
I'm sorry if I don't share in the common and widespread liberal mindset that doesn't approve of people actually being held responsible for their actions, but I believe that the lack of accountability in people bears a lot of blame for the state our society finds itself in today. The mindset this young man has is quite similar to that held by such men as Kenneth Lay, Bernie Ebbers, and Scott Sullivan. None of those three caused any physical harm to anyone, either - should they be simply let go with a scolding too?
You shouldn't have the ability to do this without getting punished -- I'm just saying that compared to say kicking the shit out of me and then raping me with a toilet plunger it's fairly mild by comparison.
Yes, there is a difference, and the state recognizes that. That's why where I live sexual battery is a first-degree felony with a minimum 30-year to life prison sentence, but forgery (what the felony charge actually was for) is a third-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of only 5 years, and of course the court can impose a shorter one.
Do you really think that he deserves a felony conviction and the lifetime of disenfranchisement that will entail over something as petty and stupid as this? For a first time offense that didn't physically harm anyone?
Yes, absolutely I do.
If I beat the shit out of my wife in a lot of states that's only a misdemeanour. How the hell does this kid get charged with a felony?
I'm not aware of any states that treat aggravated battery as a misdemeanor offense.
I just read the police report on the incident, and the dumbass wasn't charged with felony theft - he was charged with two misdemeanor counts of theft, and the felony charge was for forgery. The linked article didn't make that clear.
I merely refused to submit to the search in a tone of voice that indicated I didn't want to be bothered with it. At no time was I rude, nor did I use profanity or cast aspersions on her familial heritage in any way.
There's a reason why it's usually a misdemeanour. I'm not saying it shouldn't be punished -- but let's put it into perspective. Do you really think he deserves a felony conviction on his record for the rest of his life?
Whether it's a misdemeanor or felony usually relates to the amount of the theft. For instance, where I live most thefts under $300.00 are first-degree misdemeanors, but go over the magic $300.00 mark, and it becomes a third-degree felony. It wasn't like this guy lifted a pack of gum.
Theft *does* directly harm someone, in that deprives them of their property. Whether the victim is a person or a corporation doesn't matter. This "kid" was older than 18 years old, and being an adult, I don't see any reason why he should be cut slack on this. He was old enough to know better, and should bear the responsibility for his actions. Had he done it when he was a juvenile, I might agree with you somewhat, but he knew exactly what he was doing, and it speaks very strongly toward his character (or lack thereof), as does his feeble whining to avoid responsibility for what he did.
Slashdot Mirror
The vast majority of planetary missions have been orbital in nature, with a number of landings. IIRC, the last "grand tour" mission we had before New Horizons (not counting cometary exploration) was Voyager 2 almost 30 years ago. I'm kinda disappointed that New Horizons wasn't called Voyager 3, given the mission profile.
Additionally, you don't have to pay a monthly fee just so some company can make money collecting and selling data concerning your viewing habits, and you can skip commercials to your heart's content without anyone giving you grief about it, or having to press a half-dozen buttons to do it.
I wasn't flaming Linus or trying to put him down in any way - I merely was saying that what the engineers at NASA do and what Linus & company does are not comparable. The same is true of the entire Windows development team and just about everyone else that does PC software, myself included.
The remainder of the Linux fanboy rant wasn't really necessary - I've worked with Linux long enough to know what it's good at, what it isn't, how much work has gone into it, and the total crap that often has gone into it as well as the occasional brilliance.
Astrophysicists don't do software for space missions, software engineers do. My point was that the caliber of the engineering work done for these missions is far and beyond what you'll see pretty much anywhere in Linux.
And actually, the argument isn't at all about Linux per se, it's about an AC that thought he/she would be clever about taking a pot shot at the competence of those working for/with NASA by making a childish snipe about the infamous metric/English trajectory calculation error but obviously didn't know shit about the mission to begin with.
Nor should an AC that claims a $125 million mission is a "several billion dollar project". I daresay that the folks that worked on the Mars Climate Observer mission (as well as NASA's other projects) have a lot more on the ball than Linus & crew does.
I understand the Ocho is going to be running an hour-long documentary on the remarkable life of Patches O'Houlihan sometime next month. I'm looking forward to it.
I can't speak for the original poster, but I can't believe that the parent poster and I are the *only* people that believe that LOC is a poor metric.
I won't say that it always is, but I think it often is. LOC measurements can't take into consideration situations like those where your productivity as defined by LOC is only 1/3 of your cubicle-mate's, but the code that you spent three times as long on will save 10 other coders from having to write an assload of additional code, simply because you took the time to think things through and came up with a better design. In this situation, how does LOC square with actual productivity? In addition, with fewer LOC you also have probably reduced the potential for failure that all that other code would have introduced.
Formal specification still isn't a silver bullet. Much of the software I write depends on output from other third-party systems, and that output is often not clearly defined to me, and can occasionally change without me or the customer being advised of it. I don't know what those changes might be, and neither does the customer, so they really aren't able to be spec'd properly. Just the same, if my code doesn't work in a manner that the customer expects it's still considered a bug.
/. would agree that their code would improve by at least an order of magnitude if they could simply get decent specifications and the time to properly code to them. While Praxis offers workable solutions in the engineering domain, most of the problems I encounter are practical issues that come from the business domain.
I give Praxis props for their efforts, and definitely appreciate what they're trying to do and the results they achieve, but in my experience it's uncommon to be able to get sufficient customer cooperation to properly define requirements, and even more uncommon to get the customer to adhere to said requirements over the life of the project. I think every coder on
1) Rely on existing libraries and hardware as black boxes
.
Don't forget tools - I have to do the majority of my work in C++ with Visual Studio, and there has been more than one occasion where I had to look at the generated assembly code to figure out what was going on when VC++ screwed something up ("WTF - where'd that JMP come from?!?"), and then spend a little more time coming up with an alternate way to express the same logic that the compiler wouldn't fuck up. You can mathematically prove the correctness of your code all you want, but if the compiler is not going to faithfully produce machine code that exactly mimics that behavior, you're still going to have issues to deal with even though your logic is impeccable. Being able to truly prove correctness means being able to account for every single machine instruction that will be executed, and every bit of data those instructions operate on. I can't do that with any system in the commercial marketplace right now, so while I perhaps can guarantee *my* code, I can't guarantee bug-free or uninterrupted operation
You can't expect to build something solid if your foundation is made of quicksand.
Some customers of Zend (the company behind PHP) include Deutschen Bank, Lufthansa, EA Games, Disney, and MIT.
:-)
The unfortunate souls that have to work with Disney's central reservations system probably would recommend you take Disney off the list if you're trying to be supportive of Zend.
Yup, 1936. The Suburban has been in production longer than any other vehicle in automotive history.
Yes, how silly of you. Corporations are able to amass vast sums of money mostly because they aren't held responsible to society's laws in the same manner that an individual is, and the risk to individual shareholders in a corporation is generally limited to their investment, regardless of what the corporation may do. That grant of immunity from liability comes from the government, and no one else.
When charters start getting revoked and assets seized, then maybe I'll start shifting more of the blame towards the corporate world, but as it is they're just taking full advantage of the situation that was handed to them by the government.
I wasn't suggesting that governments be eliminated, but rather to point out that corporations are a construct of said government. Eliminating the government is no doubt a bad idea, but overhauling the legal framework in which corporations exist and operate might be something worth looking into.
The original poster implied that corporations would have unchecked power without the government to limit them, apparently not noticing that corporations derive most of their power from the government to begin with.
Governments are the only form of "checks and ballances" strong enough to stand up to corporations.
Governments are also the means by which the aforementioned corporations come into being, and through which they get their power. Government also was responsible for the "legal person" fiction corporations enjoy, without the pesky responsibility to follow the laws that real people have. Heaven forbid the shareholders might actually held responsible for the company's actions...
I think he meant it in the sense of "to be stigmatised by something"
Then it should have read, "Although Cydoor had cleaned up its act considerably since its earlier days, the stigma associated with the adware product doomed eXeem before it was ever released."
With editing skills like that in evidence, Slashdot should give him a call.It sounds to me like they're saying that this "thump" would subtly affect radio propagation in the ionosphere, which isn't subject to weather.
/didn't read the article, as it's not good Slashdot form to do so.
Just an idea - back-order the domain name through a registrar that allows you to do that, then submit the appropriate information to http://wdprs.internic.net/ with the hope that when InterNIC determines that the WHOIS info is invalid, they'll revoke the domain registration. I've not ever had to do that, so I can't speak as to how well it would work.
If you're in the U.S., register the domain(s) with a P.O. box for the address and a cellular phone number. I've been doing that for years, and have had exactly zero problems with people harassing me in any way. Of course, it means that you have to periodically go to the P.O. box to pick up any domain-related mail, but I already was having a fair bit of mail delivered to the box anyway.
Then you have zero sympathy for somebody who was young and made a stupid mistake
Perhaps that's one way of seeing it. I see it as having zero sympathy for a thief that got caught while stealing from the same store for the second time in two weeks. The items he stole were both fairly large-ticket items, and I doubt he would have stopped with only two items had he not gotten caught. This was not a "stupid mistake", it was a willful and premeditated act of theft, and I don't believe for a moment that he didn't know there were serious consequences to his actions. I'm sure he's only sorry he got caught, not that he actually took that which he had no right to. He should consider himself fortunate that he lives in the United States and not some other areas in the world, where in addition to having a criminal record he'd also be missing a hand.
I don't consider that his life is ruined - he *will* be able to find work somewhere, but if this incident sharply limits the work available to him, that's his own fault and I won't shed a tear for him. He was old enough to know that it wasn't right and was against the law, but that apparently wasn't as important to him as scoring some sweet iPod accessories. As regards a "conditional discharge, community service, and maybe a small fine" - those are likely options that will be available to the court when sentencing time rolls around, and I seriously doubt he'll get the maximum sentence allowable under law. As I said before, the law respects that there are different levels of criminal behavior, as will the court. That doesn't mean that he shouldn't be punished for what he did in accordance with Colorado state law, however.
I'm sorry if I don't share in the common and widespread liberal mindset that doesn't approve of people actually being held responsible for their actions, but I believe that the lack of accountability in people bears a lot of blame for the state our society finds itself in today. The mindset this young man has is quite similar to that held by such men as Kenneth Lay, Bernie Ebbers, and Scott Sullivan. None of those three caused any physical harm to anyone, either - should they be simply let go with a scolding too?
You shouldn't have the ability to do this without getting punished -- I'm just saying that compared to say kicking the shit out of me and then raping me with a toilet plunger it's fairly mild by comparison.
Yes, there is a difference, and the state recognizes that. That's why where I live sexual battery is a first-degree felony with a minimum 30-year to life prison sentence, but forgery (what the felony charge actually was for) is a third-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of only 5 years, and of course the court can impose a shorter one.
Do you really think that he deserves a felony conviction and the lifetime of disenfranchisement that will entail over something as petty and stupid as this? For a first time offense that didn't physically harm anyone?
Yes, absolutely I do.
If I beat the shit out of my wife in a lot of states that's only a misdemeanour. How the hell does this kid get charged with a felony?
I'm not aware of any states that treat aggravated battery as a misdemeanor offense.
I just read the police report on the incident, and the dumbass wasn't charged with felony theft - he was charged with two misdemeanor counts of theft, and the felony charge was for forgery. The linked article didn't make that clear.
I merely refused to submit to the search in a tone of voice that indicated I didn't want to be bothered with it. At no time was I rude, nor did I use profanity or cast aspersions on her familial heritage in any way.
This type of felony conviction is usually removed from the offender's record after a few years.
In what state and locality?
There's a reason why it's usually a misdemeanour. I'm not saying it shouldn't be punished -- but let's put it into perspective. Do you really think he deserves a felony conviction on his record for the rest of his life?
Whether it's a misdemeanor or felony usually relates to the amount of the theft. For instance, where I live most thefts under $300.00 are first-degree misdemeanors, but go over the magic $300.00 mark, and it becomes a third-degree felony. It wasn't like this guy lifted a pack of gum.
Theft *does* directly harm someone, in that deprives them of their property. Whether the victim is a person or a corporation doesn't matter. This "kid" was older than 18 years old, and being an adult, I don't see any reason why he should be cut slack on this. He was old enough to know better, and should bear the responsibility for his actions. Had he done it when he was a juvenile, I might agree with you somewhat, but he knew exactly what he was doing, and it speaks very strongly toward his character (or lack thereof), as does his feeble whining to avoid responsibility for what he did.
I've been asked to present my reciept when exiting both Walmart and K-mart on more than one occasion.
Me too, and I refuse each and every time.