probably would totally spazz out over fabrics and probably can sew, quilt, cross-stitch, make their own yarn outta goat's hair, develop patterns, etc.
programming competitions = quilting bees. m.
ps on the subject, "google hacks" by Tara Calishain is worth it's $15 price tag. "Quimby the Mouse (ACME Novelty Library)" by chris ware owns... great to have that all collected in one piece.
When Clinton was pres, the general perception was that there was a serious drought of talent needed to fill the tech boom. Why do you think so many of us got paid so much and treated to such excesses? We were valuable because there was a perceived need that we were scarce.
Inviting h1-b's into the country might have brought salaries down a little, but ultimately the tech bust is what killed thinks. The reality of millions of venture capital dollars drying up and disappearing without any kind revenue is what killed jobs.
Blame Clinton? That's like blaming the weather for losing a chess game.
I bought my wife an ibook and she loves it (cause it's pretty) and i like it a lot (cause it's got perl on it), but it's still not a flawless machine. we've encountered several little buggy points and strange behavior from the mail programs and msie and safari, etc, etc. the office apps aren't as perfectly compatible with our windows office apps as you might think. etc etc.
Linux sure isn't flawless either. there's still plenty of work to be swept up and i still wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wasn't decently computer literate or wasn't interested in becoming so.
The notion that switching to mac or linux is going to completely help your family and friends isn't entirely true.
As long as personal computers (of any flavor) can be reprogrammed by users, there will always be these buggy, virus and ad laden behaviors. you don't see too many folks reaching into their toaster to remove the flashing adware LED arrays cause there isn't a way for wal-mart or dell to plug that in. likewise, an automobile is very similar. only those with education and know-how get in there and replace parts around and actually mod.
It's the small price to pay for such modular devices. we have to educate ourselves and toil. all three platforms provide reasonable ways to avoid the pitfalls and to be productive in just about any way you'd like to be, it just takes effort.
office software for console game machines anyone?
m.
Re:5 years in the business...
on
Effective XML
·
· Score: 1
1) i've worked on a custom xml-based programming language. it's actually be really useful for our situation. we didn't have to write our own parser. the runtime isn't time dependent. the users of the language are moderately technical psychologists, but not programmers. they've been able to use the xml-based language to change AI rules for the larger piece of software without having to recompile anything or understand too much or pay developers to change that logic. i completely disagree that it's harder for people to understand. it depends on the language you've created.
2) i won't go there.
3) but soap could be used all over the place. should what it does be hard? didn't you rant against "consultants that push a market to create demand for themselves"?
well said. contract flexibility has meant that i have had to program very similar solutions in perl, php, java, asp.net, asp, and even cold fusion and they're all the same at the end of the day. sure, there's differences. there are some tools that are more helpful to certain problems but they all can roughly pull the same tricks and all have their nasty hurdles.
everybody will always be touting The Next Big Thing (tm). that's marketing. and it works. if it didn't, they wouldn't do it.
remember, nicotine supposedly helps your memory, so hopefully you won't forget that you're likely to get lung cancer. m.
online music stores/programs. plenty of them don't have all the coverage. if you want to get all the music you're looking for, you have to be sub'ed to several different services.
sometimes you buy records and you buy cds and sometimes you listen to tapes.
until these services standardize on a format, you'd hope they'd at least play nice. m.
if you want to wreck on your boss or your company, you send anonymous email people!
send the photo to a popular blog or site with a little blurb.
i don't care who the company is or what the circumstances are, if you publicly bad mouth your company, you're asking for it.
we do have free speech, but we also have to be prepared to recieve the consequences of that speech. do you tell your spouse they're as sexy as rotting milk and not expect a negative reaction?
where you PAY to go and learn about what's coming up. this isn't a public roll out. it's an alpha preview for those developers who actually program on the platform.
i'm sure if you're AT THE CONFERENCE, it feels very professional.
i'm sorry if it's true because to me it just sounds completely unbelievable. even the guy with the call center story below sounds ridiculous. it reeks of FUD...
"know thine enemies" so that you can defeat them. you don't encourage ignorance about the competition. this is pretty much common business sense. it's common competition sense. i have hard time believing that's a policy that extends into the halls of microsoft but maybe since your talking about partners that can be exploited and you pretty much don't want them to think... you just want to soak up their technology and leave them a dry husk.
The idea that you might be fired for knowing a lot about linux is freakin moronic! I work for a microsoft solutions provider and I also develop for linux for work from time to time.
Now I could see maybe where someone who worked for a solutions provider could be discriminated against if you spent all your time whining and moaning about using microsoft products and flat out refused to become good at developing with them. If you refuse to learn the development environment, I'd be pretty inclined to stick you on a layoffs list as well.
On the other hand, if you're doing your job well, who cares what you know? These days successful contracting means being super flexible and knowing three or four languages well, not just one or two. Any employer encouraging lack of knowledge in their employees is a moron.
He's claimed the title of "revolutionary" enough times that my stigmatism is out of control from rolling my eyes so much....
It only seems that within the last few years have they actually started to earn that title.
I still like eMusic way better than iTunes and it's been around for a lot longer. m.
on a raised floor surrounded by vax terminals...
on
The Bionic Office
·
· Score: 1
that's where most of the 99.9%ers i've had the pleasure of knowing preferred to spend their time.
that's the kind of place where office ambience means that the whirl of fans is so loud that you sometimes have to shout. with so much white noise eminating from everywhere, you could listen to your music without headphones and not bother the guy on the other side of the racks...
yeah, i can't see a 99.9%er giving two bits about windows... (pun intended?) m.
flashy offices == wasted capital....
on
The Bionic Office
·
· Score: 1
i've got to agree here... these days, if looking for a job, cool offices is about 12th on my list of importance. i might even find cool offices to be a source of concern.
"I have to show a how"
but you can structure a SliderBar (patent now pending) description such that you describe the interface and not necessarily the under pinnings ("i set i=0 here.") and still get a patent.
witness the amazon one-click purchase fiasco. anybody with any reasonable experience in web programming could code a one-click purchase feature into a online store. but the patent was still granted. the idea was stupidly obvious to anyone with the skills to implement it but amazon owns the rights.
software patents suck.
m.
in theory you'll be able patent the small, novel ideas that make up every piece of software we use. like a patent on software than can display information greater than the screen size through the use of user interface devices to scroll the page left and right and up and down (slider bars).... or software that can retrieve a document from a server.....or allow one-click purchasing...
Slashdot Mirror
Aren't they?
Verizon + Tennis Gossip = Alternative Fuel Source!
m.
it's flopping and flopping badly. of course, all those pictures of the president falling off of one were worth all the effort.
m.
"Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" by Cory Doctorow is a nice, short read. concept rich.
m.
probably would totally spazz out over fabrics and probably can sew, quilt, cross-stitch, make their own yarn outta goat's hair, develop patterns, etc.
programming competitions = quilting bees.
m.
ps on the subject, "google hacks" by Tara Calishain is worth it's $15 price tag. "Quimby the Mouse (ACME Novelty Library)" by chris ware owns... great to have that all collected in one piece.
if a CEO makes $2M a year, let's say.... at fifty 40-hour weeks, that's an hourly wage of roughly $1000.
hire 5 people at $50 an hour, which is still a great wage, and you get way more brainpower, and you save $1.5M a year!
that's a lot of bbq.
m.
When Clinton was pres, the general perception was that there was a serious drought of talent needed to fill the tech boom. Why do you think so many of us got paid so much and treated to such excesses? We were valuable because there was a perceived need that we were scarce.
Inviting h1-b's into the country might have brought salaries down a little, but ultimately the tech bust is what killed thinks. The reality of millions of venture capital dollars drying up and disappearing without any kind revenue is what killed jobs.
Blame Clinton? That's like blaming the weather for losing a chess game.
m.
I bought my wife an ibook and she loves it (cause it's pretty) and i like it a lot (cause it's got perl on it), but it's still not a flawless machine. we've encountered several little buggy points and strange behavior from the mail programs and msie and safari, etc, etc. the office apps aren't as perfectly compatible with our windows office apps as you might think. etc etc.
Linux sure isn't flawless either. there's still plenty of work to be swept up and i still wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wasn't decently computer literate or wasn't interested in becoming so.
The notion that switching to mac or linux is going to completely help your family and friends isn't entirely true.
As long as personal computers (of any flavor) can be reprogrammed by users, there will always be these buggy, virus and ad laden behaviors. you don't see too many folks reaching into their toaster to remove the flashing adware LED arrays cause there isn't a way for wal-mart or dell to plug that in. likewise, an automobile is very similar. only those with education and know-how get in there and replace parts around and actually mod.
It's the small price to pay for such modular devices. we have to educate ourselves and toil. all three platforms provide reasonable ways to avoid the pitfalls and to be productive in just about any way you'd like to be, it just takes effort.
office software for console game machines anyone?
m.
1) i've worked on a custom xml-based programming language. it's actually be really useful for our situation. we didn't have to write our own parser. the runtime isn't time dependent. the users of the language are moderately technical psychologists, but not programmers. they've been able to use the xml-based language to change AI rules for the larger piece of software without having to recompile anything or understand too much or pay developers to change that logic. i completely disagree that it's harder for people to understand. it depends on the language you've created.
2) i won't go there.
3) but soap could be used all over the place. should what it does be hard? didn't you rant against "consultants that push a market to create demand for themselves"?
m.
in today's landscape, being able to work with the latest buzz-compliant languages and solutions is absolutely key to being competitive.
pointy-haired bosses will be wooed by clever commercials to spend money on solutions using the latest woodad.
sure, you can get a job programming foxpro. there's a guy down the hall from me that is a foxpro guru.
but... if you're a contract programmer, you can't sit on ancient tech. otherwise you'll get paid crap and be forced to take lame contracts.
at least working with The Next Big Thing (tm) gives you choices.
m.
well said. contract flexibility has meant that i have had to program very similar solutions in perl, php, java, asp.net, asp, and even cold fusion and they're all the same at the end of the day. sure, there's differences. there are some tools that are more helpful to certain problems but they all can roughly pull the same tricks and all have their nasty hurdles.
everybody will always be touting The Next Big Thing (tm). that's marketing. and it works. if it didn't, they wouldn't do it.
remember, nicotine supposedly helps your memory, so hopefully you won't forget that you're likely to get lung cancer.
m.
online music stores/programs. plenty of them don't have all the coverage. if you want to get all the music you're looking for, you have to be sub'ed to several different services.
sometimes you buy records and you buy cds and sometimes you listen to tapes.
until these services standardize on a format, you'd hope they'd at least play nice.
m.
as digital music buying consumers we are in TERMS OF SERVICE hell.
m.
if you want to wreck on your boss or your company, you send anonymous email people!
send the photo to a popular blog or site with a little blurb.
i don't care who the company is or what the circumstances are, if you publicly bad mouth your company, you're asking for it.
we do have free speech, but we also have to be prepared to recieve the consequences of that speech. do you tell your spouse they're as sexy as rotting milk and not expect a negative reaction?
?
m.
ps mod parent up! insightful!
homogenized monoculture sucks.
m.
ps mod parent up
where you PAY to go and learn about what's coming up. this isn't a public roll out. it's an alpha preview for those developers who actually program on the platform.
i'm sure if you're AT THE CONFERENCE, it feels very professional.
m.
"4-6GHz processor
...
2GB+ memory
1TB hard drive
Graphics processor 3X today's performance
1GB Ethernet, 54Mbps wireless networking"
4-6Ghz? "Trend: Developers rent meat lockers."
2GB+ memory... "our API has completely done away with garbage collection. we just periodically reboot."
1TB? are we going to support versioning of the entire hard drive? (might be an interesting way to roll back virus damage.)
m.
They're really cheap and once hdtv is a standard and stores can't sell analog tvs, it'll have to be affordable.
Also, they've got converters that take an HDTV signal and adapt it for a normal television. They should be an affordable alternative.
Broadcast flag still sucks tho.
m.
Google is good.
Google is great.
Let us thank you for our food.
By your hands we all are fed,
thank you Google for my daily thread.
Amen.
m.
i'm sorry if it's true because to me it just sounds completely unbelievable. even the guy with the call center story below sounds ridiculous. it reeks of FUD...
"know thine enemies" so that you can defeat them. you don't encourage ignorance about the competition. this is pretty much common business sense. it's common competition sense. i have hard time believing that's a policy that extends into the halls of microsoft but maybe since your talking about partners that can be exploited and you pretty much don't want them to think... you just want to soak up their technology and leave them a dry husk.
?
m.
The idea that you might be fired for knowing a lot about linux is freakin moronic! I work for a microsoft solutions provider and I also develop for linux for work from time to time.
Now I could see maybe where someone who worked for a solutions provider could be discriminated against if you spent all your time whining and moaning about using microsoft products and flat out refused to become good at developing with them. If you refuse to learn the development environment, I'd be pretty inclined to stick you on a layoffs list as well.
On the other hand, if you're doing your job well, who cares what you know? These days successful contracting means being super flexible and knowing three or four languages well, not just one or two. Any employer encouraging lack of knowledge in their employees is a moron.
m.
He's claimed the title of "revolutionary" enough times that my stigmatism is out of control from rolling my eyes so much....
It only seems that within the last few years have they actually started to earn that title.
I still like eMusic way better than iTunes and it's been around for a lot longer.
m.
that's where most of the 99.9%ers i've had the pleasure of knowing preferred to spend their time.
that's the kind of place where office ambience means that the whirl of fans is so loud that you sometimes have to shout. with so much white noise eminating from everywhere, you could listen to your music without headphones and not bother the guy on the other side of the racks...
yeah, i can't see a 99.9%er giving two bits about windows... (pun intended?)
m.
i've got to agree here... these days, if looking for a job, cool offices is about 12th on my list of importance. i might even find cool offices to be a source of concern.
let the healing begin!
m.
"I have to show a how" but you can structure a SliderBar (patent now pending) description such that you describe the interface and not necessarily the under pinnings ("i set i=0 here.") and still get a patent. witness the amazon one-click purchase fiasco. anybody with any reasonable experience in web programming could code a one-click purchase feature into a online store. but the patent was still granted. the idea was stupidly obvious to anyone with the skills to implement it but amazon owns the rights. software patents suck. m.
in theory you'll be able patent the small, novel ideas that make up every piece of software we use. like a patent on software than can display information greater than the screen size through the use of user interface devices to scroll the page left and right and up and down (slider bars).... or software that can retrieve a document from a server.....or allow one-click purchasing...
m.