Well, whenever I've done anything with the "right people", it's always been a breeze. The problem is that those projects are few and far between. The methodology that will eventually work the best is one that takes the wrong people and makes them productive. (Like assembly lines making cars - if you had a bunch of skilled mechanics, they could make a good car, but if all you have is a bunch of high school drop outs, and you want to build good cars, you need an extremely rigid process to make them useful.)
Nope. The sooner we getting out of the idea that anyone that wants to be a computer programmer can be one the better. I'm not a musician, I'm tone-deaf, so I don't pretend that I can be a rock star. Why do we spend ages trying to get those people with a talent for coding to help people to whom its just a job and have no talent for it? All it does is generate mediocrity.
Apple isn't denying Pystar business by suing them on grounds of copyright violation, they are denying you the right to purchase hardware supported by another vendor to run an operating system of your choosing.
So when it sends reports following crashes where do they go? Apple.
When someone files feedback or some such where does that go? Apple.
When something doesn't work as expected who gets the blame? Apple.
Apple gets bad rep and no financial recompense from Psystar's business model. Why is this something that should be allowed?
how many people do you know that skip going to the cinema because some shitty rip is available? The only people I know who watch rips is because they can't physically go, and the rip is better than nothing)
Sadly quite a few. Its not that they can't go, or that they can't afford to go, its that the rip is cheaper. Would they go if the rip wasn't available? Probably not to every movie that they watch the rip of. There would be some though.
Play it more. Seriously. CoD4 rarely left my Xbox since I bought it, purely for the multiplayer, and when I first played WaW I was underwhelmed. Its different to CoD4. It looks different. The weapons are different. I went back to playing CoD4.
Then I thought I'd give it another go. I remembered how badly I sucked at first at CoD4 and wondered if I'd forgotten that when playing the beta. I started again, determined to see what could be done. As I improved, so did the experience, and the feel came. There is no doubt that it feels different to CoD4 but that's not a bad thing, just different. Once I got used to it I liked it.
The electorate don't understand the issue. They, in general, will believe the spin of it being necessary to stop terrorism/paedophiles/generic bad guys. The education system has been so devalued so that people aren't taught to think anymore, just remember what their teachers tell them. What happens when these people leave school? They need to find people to interpret things for them. Who better than the government?
There is a 'debate' about ID cards on the BBC news site at the moment. Most people don't understand what would be possible with the database that would lie at the back of the ID card system proposed. They believe the lies about it stopping terrorists, or the spin that other countries have them and they are okay. They don't understand that if the scheme becomes compulsory that every request for ID will be stored. It could then be used to validate access to services.
"Hello there, welcome to the hospital. Could you just insert your card so that we can confirm your identity?"
"Ah, our records show that you've bought more than the recommended alcohol level for the past few months. You've also bought cigarettes and eaten fast food too often. I'm sorry but as you aren't trying to look after yourself we aren't able to help you today."
Seconded the above. At the time of the dotcom boom my uncle had a new filling machine ready for manufacture. He had orders. He just needed some additional money to build it. He tried banks, VCs, every one he could think of and drew a blank.
Will all due respect to you uncle, your understanding about how such things work is a little incomplete. Having orders isn't enough - you have to have enough orders. And a viable business plan. And be entering a viable market. Etc... etc... It's complicated, and banks/VC's aren't stupid.
He had enough orders to cover the investment that needed to be made, and a viable business plan. It was going to be a solid return though, not spectacular. At the time the money was chasing the promise of a great return on finding the next dotcom success. Look at the money that was thrown at boo.com.
Yet at the same time VC threw countless money at any proposition that ended '... and its on the internet'.
That's the conventional wisdom... But it's not true. I know of half a dozen internet ventures in that era that failed because they couldn't get funding.
And I worked contracts at a couple that had loads of VC money and frittered it away. Sometimes conventional wisdom is called that because its true. Just because all internet ventures didn't get funding doesn't mean that many completely unworthy ones didn't. The problem at the time was that the presentations to the VC just had to be viable and done in the right way. The prospect of rewards was huge, all that was needed was one big success and all of the gambles were covered.
Seconded the above. At the time of the dotcom boom my uncle had a new filling machine ready for manufacture. He had orders. He just needed some additional money to build it. He tried banks, VCs, every one he could think of and drew a blank. Yet at the same time VC threw countless money at any proposition that ended '... and its on the internet'.
Its about differentiation between the consumer and pro laptop ranges nothing more. I've not used the firewire port on my original Macbook Pro except for the initial installation when I connected my old Powerbook to pull the information from it. I can now do that via Time Machine backups so won't need it in future.
The thing that all of these 'angry' users never seem to grasp is that there is no real reason to replace their current Macbook that does have firewire. Shocking though such a statement is its true. If you've already got an Intel Mac stick with it. There is nothing here worth getting angry about.
How is the parent labelled insightful? Oh I understand, its the usual FOSS love in. Android will be open and succeed in the same way that Linux has replaced every other OS on the planet. Oh, it hasn't? That would be my point then.
This sort of post is typical of slashdot in that it shows that there is a basic lack of understanding of the wider world. Non-geeks don't care what XXX is running. They just want it to be able to do what they want. They want it to be as easy as possible to use and anything else is a bonus. Apple get this. In general Slashdot users and FOSS advocates don't.
Put it another way. There are many digital music players on the market with more features than the iPod. Why does the iPod continue to dominate? Its easy to use. On the Gadget Show on UK TV this last Monday they did a comparative test between three portable video players. One was a the iRiver Clix 2, one the Archos 5, the final the iPod Touch. They had a BBC Radio 1 DJ help choose between them. He went for the iPod Touch despite it not having the best sound because it was the easiest to use and looked good.
there's no way in hell i'd ever visit the USA under the current regime. the same goes for the UK. detain without charge or trail indefinitely, government sponsored theft of your property. fuck that.
My sentiments exactly. Sadly I live in the UK and know first hand the change, for the worse, there has been in the last 5 years. I've no intention of visiting the Land of the Free whilst it continues to be able to steal my belonging and place my fingerprints on file indefinitely. We can't be the only ones taking this stance, how long before it has a real impact on the US economy?
I'm not sure that Apple willfully bricked unlocked iPhones. Couldn't it be that Apple found that the update that they developed had a chance of bricking phones, told people, then released it. What were they supposed to do, cope with every hack that people has done on the phone?
It's true people base decisions on their beliefs rather than facts. You've only got to look at pretty much any discussion on Slashdot that includes Microsoft or Apple to see this. Tired old, disproven, beliefs get trotted out as fact over and over again.
Look at Vista as an example, and I'm the last person I'd expect to back MS. The belief here is that its the biggest pile of c%^p out there. Having used it its not as bad as people make out. For the average user its usable, if the hardware can handle it.
Another belief is that Apple hardware is expensive compared to Wintel hardware. If you compare the entry price for each you can make an argument for this. If you start to compare systems with equivalent specifications from well known manufacturers the picture is less clear and has been for a while.
Would the world be better if belief systems were ignored and only the bare facts used to make judgments? I'm not so sure about that.
The issues around the App Store and rejected applications are, largely, due to stupid developers not bothering to read the agreements that they have signed and then complaining loudly when their App gets rejected.
The developers signed up to the NDA and the terms and conditions when they joined the programme. This notice is just Apple restating what was already in the agreement.
If it wasn't for the Apple hatred that abounds within the FOSS hive mind this wouldn't be a story. There are plenty of people developing within the terms of the agreement and bringing new and innovative applications to the iPhone/iPod Touch. Why is the focus on the few that can't comprehend what they have signed up to rather than the many success stories?
What a load of BS. Its a matter of liability. By saying that the products are still in 'Beta' they have a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card if there are any problems. Its odd that the G1 phone is tied to using services that are still labelled as beta.
You seem to be arguing with yourself here. Personally, I consider MP3 support to be all I need on any digital audio player. Some Slashdotters would probably prefer Ogg Vorbis support. But if you absolutely have to be able to play iTunes downloads, well, iPod shuffles are really cheap.
One of the point of an integrated device is so that you only have to carry a single device, and associated cables, around with you. I waited and went for an iPhone. It does what it says on the tin. The G1 looks like a surefire seller to those people that run Linux at home. The lack of desktop integration will hurt in the long run.
If you read the article it has been updated to explain what the Day One Advantage is. Its just unlocked content for pre-orders or collectors edition. This isn't anything new, or sinister. As usual though people on here have run off without being in possession of the full facts.
I initially read the article title as The Fedora Hat Crisis. I was wondering if there was a hat shortage brought about by FOSS people wanting to Cosplay. I now realise my error but have this mental imagine of people walking into a Linux conference all bedecked in red Fedoras.
Car designers hate having to have boots (trunks) which can hold a set of golf clubs, because it means cars have to have high, fat arses. They hate having to cater for tall people in the back seats because it ruins the roof line.
Going off-topic a lot Rover made a car called the Rover 600 that didn't comply to the tall people in the back rule, I am 6ft tall and couldn't sit up straight in the back. It was one of many decisions that saw the company go bust.
There, that's a troll laden title that should get people to read it. Anyway onto the point. It seems that the majority of people complaining about the 'DRM' on Spore either a) haven't played it or b) don't understand the game. I'll expound.
I got Spore at the weekend and installed it on my Mac. It prompted for an EA account to connect the game to. This allows you to download other peoples creations or upload creations of your own. In order to do this it logs in. I guess if you had a certain slant on the world this could be seen as 'phoning home'. To me its no different than playing any game that has associated online content.
I just disconnected from the Internet and tried starting and playing Spore. It worked. What's the deal. According to what I've read its supposed to explode or something if it can't phone home. Oh, that's right. It doesn't, its just a rumour put about to forward a political viewpoint. Facts are optional.
Last point. It plays without the DVD in the drive. So install it, take the DVD out, and play. No problems there.
So what's the beef? Ah, its probably that there is a serial number to activate the game. The manual says that you can use this to install on multiple machines. No problem so far. Ah, perhaps if you try and play the game, on two machines simultaneously, whilst connected to the internet, it'll notice and fail to run on the second one. Right, so its not DRM as such but an anti-piracy measure. How does anyone think that being able to pay for a game once and run it on multiple machines at the same time is valid?
They are using an act of parliament that was passed in the glare of terrorist threat to deal with such. The measures being used were not intended for the trivial things that they are being used for. In a word the government conned Parliament into passing a law that was far more wide-reaching than they thought. The measures used involve much more than simple CCTV monitoring. They also include a degree of electronic snooping.
The argument is always "I don't see the problem", or "if you've done nothing wrong why worry". The worry is when the state, and its agents, has control of what is wrong and can change it retrospectively.
Perl doesn't help but its not the problem. The problem falls on the people writing the code and the demands made on them.
My current berth is typical of this. We've been given a 'system' that requires a degree of scripting to be done to glue the various discrete parts together. A combination of Perl and Ksh has been chosen to do this. Why? No idea, those choices were made before I joined the project. Looking at the people writing the code, none of them have any sort of development background. Add to this the demands from the business that the 'system' has to work yesterday, means that a lot of hacking together of scripts has gone on.
The result is that some of the code is practically unmaintainable by anyone but the person that wrote it. This isn't the fault of the language though, its the fault of the developers. With a framework of modules in place the newer code is readable and easy to maintain. Its the older stuff that we just poke with a stick. No Perl doesn't stop you writing bad code, it doesn't make you write it either though.
Getting back to the original topic. A lot of Perl code was written around the time of the dotcom bubble, when there was a shortage of IT staff. The result was that if you could spell Unix and Perl you could get a job. Everything was fast paced, had to be first to market. Corners were, frequently, cut. The result was people with inappropriate skills developed systems without spending the necessary time spent in the design phase. Corporates have had to deal with the fallout from this when people have said "I can't fix that, I'll have to rewrite it". Instead of looking at the bad practice that generated the code they are blaming the language. Other languages may protect, somewhat, against these bad practices, I doubt that they instantly make code maintainable though. I can write bad code in any language, its experience and professionalism that means that I chose not to.
Of every passport holder in the world at all airports and processing it in real-time? At present I can get a same day passport by visiting the passport office and then use that passport to leave the country on that day. That's some pretty high powered, resiliant, system that you've got to do that. Not to mention that its got to be run by governments that all have to trust each other with the information not to mention privacy issues.
Anyone thinking that this system has a chance of faultless working once you go from design to implementation is a little naive. The theory is simple. In practice its just not going to work.
If you still believe this is possible I've something else that might interest you. I've a formula for turning base metals into gold. If you could just help fund me industrialising it you'll make a tidy profit.
How long is enough? The time limit on copyright was known by the developers. They chose to ignore it. Would it have been any different if the game had only been published 5 years ago with a 10 year copyright?
The argument that its bad because it was popular is rubbish. Lots of people liked watching a good public hanging. Should we bring that back.
[Yes that was a Strawman but it takes one to know one]
Doing anything sufficiently advanced on a Mac seems impossible (even with the unix backend, a simple task like editing/etc/hosts requires jumping through tons of hoops on the mac just because it's designed to be "easier".)
You had got some sympathy until the above statement. I don't see what's difficult in:
Launch Terminal
Type 'sudo vi/etc/hosts'
Make changes to hosts file
This doesn't seem too different to any other Unix system I've used in the last 25 years.
When I was studying CS at University, back in the mists of time, for some of the final work a working program wasn't necessary. What was necessary was to demonstrate that you understood the underlying principles and made decisions about the approach to follow in a logical manner. Implementation was important but not the be all and end all.
In my working life I've only come across a few projects that have devoted as much time to the design and approach as we were taught. Those projects were about the only ones that came in on time and on budget. The ones that concentrated too much on implementation, without spending time proving the approach, have generally been poor.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that having a working program is by the by. What's important is to show working and understanding. The only way you aren't going to be doing yourself, and potential employers, a diservice is to do it yourself.
Ironically I think that this approach to obtaining degrees will help drive outsourcing in the wider world. It doesn't take many people doing this to start to build an impression in employers minds that local degrees aren't of value. This removes one of the reasons that they might oppose outsourcing.
Over here in the UK we are in a situation where the entire education system is in meltdown due to an overreliance on the funding that follows students. From the time pupils start school through the end of first degree, at some colleges, the emphasis is on getting the maximum number of people to pass at X grade or above rather than teaching them. This has led to a number of very dubious practices including artificial grade inflation. The point of the education, to impart knowledge, has become secondary to getting pupils to get particular grades.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, whenever I've done anything with the "right people", it's always been a breeze. The problem is that those projects are few and far between. The methodology that will eventually work the best is one that takes the wrong people and makes them productive. (Like assembly lines making cars - if you had a bunch of skilled mechanics, they could make a good car, but if all you have is a bunch of high school drop outs, and you want to build good cars, you need an extremely rigid process to make them useful.)
Nope. The sooner we getting out of the idea that anyone that wants to be a computer programmer can be one the better. I'm not a musician, I'm tone-deaf, so I don't pretend that I can be a rock star. Why do we spend ages trying to get those people with a talent for coding to help people to whom its just a job and have no talent for it? All it does is generate mediocrity.
Apple isn't denying Pystar business by suing them on grounds of copyright violation, they are denying you the right to purchase hardware supported by another vendor to run an operating system of your choosing.
So when it sends reports following crashes where do they go? Apple.
When someone files feedback or some such where does that go? Apple.
When something doesn't work as expected who gets the blame? Apple.
Apple gets bad rep and no financial recompense from Psystar's business model. Why is this something that should be allowed?
how many people do you know that skip going to the cinema because some shitty rip is available? The only people I know who watch rips is because they can't physically go, and the rip is better than nothing)
Sadly quite a few. Its not that they can't go, or that they can't afford to go, its that the rip is cheaper. Would they go if the rip wasn't available? Probably not to every movie that they watch the rip of. There would be some though.
Play it more. Seriously. CoD4 rarely left my Xbox since I bought it, purely for the multiplayer, and when I first played WaW I was underwhelmed. Its different to CoD4. It looks different. The weapons are different. I went back to playing CoD4.
Then I thought I'd give it another go. I remembered how badly I sucked at first at CoD4 and wondered if I'd forgotten that when playing the beta. I started again, determined to see what could be done. As I improved, so did the experience, and the feel came. There is no doubt that it feels different to CoD4 but that's not a bad thing, just different. Once I got used to it I liked it.
The electorate don't understand the issue. They, in general, will believe the spin of it being necessary to stop terrorism/paedophiles/generic bad guys. The education system has been so devalued so that people aren't taught to think anymore, just remember what their teachers tell them. What happens when these people leave school? They need to find people to interpret things for them. Who better than the government?
There is a 'debate' about ID cards on the BBC news site at the moment. Most people don't understand what would be possible with the database that would lie at the back of the ID card system proposed. They believe the lies about it stopping terrorists, or the spin that other countries have them and they are okay. They don't understand that if the scheme becomes compulsory that every request for ID will be stored. It could then be used to validate access to services.
"Hello there, welcome to the hospital. Could you just insert your card so that we can confirm your identity?"
"Ah, our records show that you've bought more than the recommended alcohol level for the past few months. You've also bought cigarettes and eaten fast food too often. I'm sorry but as you aren't trying to look after yourself we aren't able to help you today."
Will all due respect to you uncle, your understanding about how such things work is a little incomplete. Having orders isn't enough - you have to have enough orders. And a viable business plan. And be entering a viable market. Etc... etc... It's complicated, and banks/VC's aren't stupid.
He had enough orders to cover the investment that needed to be made, and a viable business plan. It was going to be a solid return though, not spectacular. At the time the money was chasing the promise of a great return on finding the next dotcom success. Look at the money that was thrown at boo.com.
That's the conventional wisdom... But it's not true. I know of half a dozen internet ventures in that era that failed because they couldn't get funding.
And I worked contracts at a couple that had loads of VC money and frittered it away. Sometimes conventional wisdom is called that because its true. Just because all internet ventures didn't get funding doesn't mean that many completely unworthy ones didn't. The problem at the time was that the presentations to the VC just had to be viable and done in the right way. The prospect of rewards was huge, all that was needed was one big success and all of the gambles were covered.
Seconded the above. At the time of the dotcom boom my uncle had a new filling machine ready for manufacture. He had orders. He just needed some additional money to build it. He tried banks, VCs, every one he could think of and drew a blank. Yet at the same time VC threw countless money at any proposition that ended '... and its on the internet'.
Its about differentiation between the consumer and pro laptop ranges nothing more. I've not used the firewire port on my original Macbook Pro except for the initial installation when I connected my old Powerbook to pull the information from it. I can now do that via Time Machine backups so won't need it in future.
The thing that all of these 'angry' users never seem to grasp is that there is no real reason to replace their current Macbook that does have firewire. Shocking though such a statement is its true. If you've already got an Intel Mac stick with it. There is nothing here worth getting angry about.
How is the parent labelled insightful? Oh I understand, its the usual FOSS love in. Android will be open and succeed in the same way that Linux has replaced every other OS on the planet. Oh, it hasn't? That would be my point then.
This sort of post is typical of slashdot in that it shows that there is a basic lack of understanding of the wider world. Non-geeks don't care what XXX is running. They just want it to be able to do what they want. They want it to be as easy as possible to use and anything else is a bonus. Apple get this. In general Slashdot users and FOSS advocates don't.
Put it another way. There are many digital music players on the market with more features than the iPod. Why does the iPod continue to dominate? Its easy to use. On the Gadget Show on UK TV this last Monday they did a comparative test between three portable video players. One was a the iRiver Clix 2, one the Archos 5, the final the iPod Touch. They had a BBC Radio 1 DJ help choose between them. He went for the iPod Touch despite it not having the best sound because it was the easiest to use and looked good.
My sentiments exactly. Sadly I live in the UK and know first hand the change, for the worse, there has been in the last 5 years. I've no intention of visiting the Land of the Free whilst it continues to be able to steal my belonging and place my fingerprints on file indefinitely. We can't be the only ones taking this stance, how long before it has a real impact on the US economy?
I'm not sure that Apple willfully bricked unlocked iPhones. Couldn't it be that Apple found that the update that they developed had a chance of bricking phones, told people, then released it. What were they supposed to do, cope with every hack that people has done on the phone?
That part of this ruling will collapse.
Look at Vista as an example, and I'm the last person I'd expect to back MS. The belief here is that its the biggest pile of c%^p out there. Having used it its not as bad as people make out. For the average user its usable, if the hardware can handle it.
Another belief is that Apple hardware is expensive compared to Wintel hardware. If you compare the entry price for each you can make an argument for this. If you start to compare systems with equivalent specifications from well known manufacturers the picture is less clear and has been for a while.
Would the world be better if belief systems were ignored and only the bare facts used to make judgments? I'm not so sure about that.
The developers signed up to the NDA and the terms and conditions when they joined the programme. This notice is just Apple restating what was already in the agreement.
If it wasn't for the Apple hatred that abounds within the FOSS hive mind this wouldn't be a story. There are plenty of people developing within the terms of the agreement and bringing new and innovative applications to the iPhone/iPod Touch. Why is the focus on the few that can't comprehend what they have signed up to rather than the many success stories?
What a load of BS. Its a matter of liability. By saying that the products are still in 'Beta' they have a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card if there are any problems. Its odd that the G1 phone is tied to using services that are still labelled as beta.
One of the point of an integrated device is so that you only have to carry a single device, and associated cables, around with you. I waited and went for an iPhone. It does what it says on the tin. The G1 looks like a surefire seller to those people that run Linux at home. The lack of desktop integration will hurt in the long run.
If you read the article it has been updated to explain what the Day One Advantage is. Its just unlocked content for pre-orders or collectors edition. This isn't anything new, or sinister. As usual though people on here have run off without being in possession of the full facts.
I initially read the article title as The Fedora Hat Crisis. I was wondering if there was a hat shortage brought about by FOSS people wanting to Cosplay. I now realise my error but have this mental imagine of people walking into a Linux conference all bedecked in red Fedoras.
Car designers hate having to have boots (trunks) which can hold a set of golf clubs, because it means cars have to have high, fat arses. They hate having to cater for tall people in the back seats because it ruins the roof line.
Going off-topic a lot Rover made a car called the Rover 600 that didn't comply to the tall people in the back rule, I am 6ft tall and couldn't sit up straight in the back. It was one of many decisions that saw the company go bust.
There, that's a troll laden title that should get people to read it. Anyway onto the point. It seems that the majority of people complaining about the 'DRM' on Spore either a) haven't played it or b) don't understand the game. I'll expound.
I got Spore at the weekend and installed it on my Mac. It prompted for an EA account to connect the game to. This allows you to download other peoples creations or upload creations of your own. In order to do this it logs in. I guess if you had a certain slant on the world this could be seen as 'phoning home'. To me its no different than playing any game that has associated online content.
I just disconnected from the Internet and tried starting and playing Spore. It worked. What's the deal. According to what I've read its supposed to explode or something if it can't phone home. Oh, that's right. It doesn't, its just a rumour put about to forward a political viewpoint. Facts are optional.
Last point. It plays without the DVD in the drive. So install it, take the DVD out, and play. No problems there.
So what's the beef? Ah, its probably that there is a serial number to activate the game. The manual says that you can use this to install on multiple machines. No problem so far. Ah, perhaps if you try and play the game, on two machines simultaneously, whilst connected to the internet, it'll notice and fail to run on the second one. Right, so its not DRM as such but an anti-piracy measure. How does anyone think that being able to pay for a game once and run it on multiple machines at the same time is valid?
They are using an act of parliament that was passed in the glare of terrorist threat to deal with such. The measures being used were not intended for the trivial things that they are being used for. In a word the government conned Parliament into passing a law that was far more wide-reaching than they thought. The measures used involve much more than simple CCTV monitoring. They also include a degree of electronic snooping. The argument is always "I don't see the problem", or "if you've done nothing wrong why worry". The worry is when the state, and its agents, has control of what is wrong and can change it retrospectively.
Perl doesn't help but its not the problem. The problem falls on the people writing the code and the demands made on them.
My current berth is typical of this. We've been given a 'system' that requires a degree of scripting to be done to glue the various discrete parts together. A combination of Perl and Ksh has been chosen to do this. Why? No idea, those choices were made before I joined the project. Looking at the people writing the code, none of them have any sort of development background. Add to this the demands from the business that the 'system' has to work yesterday, means that a lot of hacking together of scripts has gone on.
The result is that some of the code is practically unmaintainable by anyone but the person that wrote it. This isn't the fault of the language though, its the fault of the developers. With a framework of modules in place the newer code is readable and easy to maintain. Its the older stuff that we just poke with a stick. No Perl doesn't stop you writing bad code, it doesn't make you write it either though.
Getting back to the original topic. A lot of Perl code was written around the time of the dotcom bubble, when there was a shortage of IT staff. The result was that if you could spell Unix and Perl you could get a job. Everything was fast paced, had to be first to market. Corners were, frequently, cut. The result was people with inappropriate skills developed systems without spending the necessary time spent in the design phase. Corporates have had to deal with the fallout from this when people have said "I can't fix that, I'll have to rewrite it". Instead of looking at the bad practice that generated the code they are blaming the language. Other languages may protect, somewhat, against these bad practices, I doubt that they instantly make code maintainable though. I can write bad code in any language, its experience and professionalism that means that I chose not to.
Anyone thinking that this system has a chance of faultless working once you go from design to implementation is a little naive. The theory is simple. In practice its just not going to work.
If you still believe this is possible I've something else that might interest you. I've a formula for turning base metals into gold. If you could just help fund me industrialising it you'll make a tidy profit.
How long is enough? The time limit on copyright was known by the developers. They chose to ignore it. Would it have been any different if the game had only been published 5 years ago with a 10 year copyright? The argument that its bad because it was popular is rubbish. Lots of people liked watching a good public hanging. Should we bring that back. [Yes that was a Strawman but it takes one to know one]
You had got some sympathy until the above statement. I don't see what's difficult in:
This doesn't seem too different to any other Unix system I've used in the last 25 years.
When I was studying CS at University, back in the mists of time, for some of the final work a working program wasn't necessary. What was necessary was to demonstrate that you understood the underlying principles and made decisions about the approach to follow in a logical manner. Implementation was important but not the be all and end all.
In my working life I've only come across a few projects that have devoted as much time to the design and approach as we were taught. Those projects were about the only ones that came in on time and on budget. The ones that concentrated too much on implementation, without spending time proving the approach, have generally been poor.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that having a working program is by the by. What's important is to show working and understanding. The only way you aren't going to be doing yourself, and potential employers, a diservice is to do it yourself.
Ironically I think that this approach to obtaining degrees will help drive outsourcing in the wider world. It doesn't take many people doing this to start to build an impression in employers minds that local degrees aren't of value. This removes one of the reasons that they might oppose outsourcing.
Over here in the UK we are in a situation where the entire education system is in meltdown due to an overreliance on the funding that follows students. From the time pupils start school through the end of first degree, at some colleges, the emphasis is on getting the maximum number of people to pass at X grade or above rather than teaching them. This has led to a number of very dubious practices including artificial grade inflation. The point of the education, to impart knowledge, has become secondary to getting pupils to get particular grades.