"I'm working on a project that requires writing bits to a magnetic hard drive platter in a completely controlled fashion."
Are you sure?
The reason I ask is I'm working on a project that requires me to move data faster than light. At least that's what I spent last Monday working up the math to prove that data replication between our different data centers has an upper bound enforced by the fabric of the universe and that it was impossible for me to achieve the project's stated goals without essentially inventing warp drive. As it turns out after a meeting it was determined that the goal was just a stated guideline. It also turns out the price of faster data transfer rates is prohibitive and after a further meeting the stated project goal was total baloney. Yes. Baloney. We had sandwiches. It was a nice meeting.
And, yes I googled the term and can't find anything but "paradise lost" links. I'm assuming you aren't just quoting paradise lost and have some other basis...
The vaccume of space is mind numbingly boring to an organic or inorganic human... therefore faster is better. Even if it wasn't people always want to get where they are going. This is why people speed on the freeway. I predict even super human intelligences will speed.
I took a C-programming job after a decade of C++ and I've been wondering whether I'm employable in the long run. Especially so, because I'm not doing low-level stuff. I think that were I do embedded, I'd be just fine.
The decline of C++ really surprised the hell out of me.
Both the iPhone and Android platforms support C development. Since all the OSes support C your skill moves to just about every platform out there.. All you need to do is show the initiative to work on a few different platforms. As for the languages that are "safe" I'd think these would be C and Java for different reasons and different business domains. In any of these I would personally see to it that I could work in at least two domains that my language of choice could move between.
Maybe you should play around with iPhone or Android Native code for a bit to be able to say you can do either/or? It takes more than knowledge of a language to secure a job these days. Pick where you want to go next and start learning in that direction.
Overall, I think C developers will be fine for the foreseeable future. OTOH, not so for flavor of the month programming language guys. I have a hypothesis that scripting languages move in 10 year fads. Those poor guys may have to learn a new programming language ever *gasp* 10 years.
Monopoly banned for associations with bling, checkers banned due to confrontational game play, scrabble because it can be used to pass encrypted messages...
99% of all murderers ate bread in the 12 months leading up to their crime, so lets ban bread while we are here. oh, and lets ban judges because they are clearly hangovers from a rather medieval system also associated with chopping peoples heads off.
Gee whiz! Taking away all those freedoms... It sounds like prison!
Not to mention that by the time we have the tech to be able to mine Neptune diamonds we won't need to. We'll be able to *make* diamonds... or anything else for that matter.
The 18500 people quoted is not the number of people capable of breeding, but the "effective population", an abstract measure of genetic diversity in a species. According to TFA, the effective population of modern humanity is about 10000, and the argument in the article is that this much lower diversity indicates that a lot of genetic material must have been lost in a near-extinction event.
Yes, the idea that the "effective" population of today's human race is only 10,000 is the most disturbing thing in the article. If that's true then the vast majority of us are not contributing anything worth noting to the gene pool. That's not a very nice thought.
Try this when attempting to enter a club. When the bouncer denies you entry point and say, "Chuck Norris" while he is cowering for his life enter the club.
By the way, for the rest of you who never RTFA, the summary above really contains all the useful information in TFA. There isn't a need to click through in this case.
So this proves that !RTFA is a viable and profitable strategy. Why criticize?
Slashdot Mirror
I liked this explanation best:
http://www.arcamax.com/newspics/9/902/90256.gif
"I'm working on a project that requires writing bits to a magnetic hard drive platter in a completely controlled fashion."
Are you sure?
The reason I ask is I'm working on a project that requires me to move data faster than light. At least that's what I spent last Monday working up the math to prove that data replication between our different data centers has an upper bound enforced by the fabric of the universe and that it was impossible for me to achieve the project's stated goals without essentially inventing warp drive. As it turns out after a meeting it was determined that the goal was just a stated guideline. It also turns out the price of faster data transfer rates is prohibitive and after a further meeting the stated project goal was total baloney. Yes. Baloney. We had sandwiches. It was a nice meeting.
So you're saying it's really more 'clout computing?'
I'm so totally using that. *yoink*
I predict a rash of job openings that you can get hired for provided you can spell "Cloud Computing"
And, yes I googled the term and can't find anything but "paradise lost" links. I'm assuming you aren't just quoting paradise lost and have some other basis...
Do you have links on "Milton's Demon" as related to any cognitive studies?
You can get anywhere in the cosmos in 5 minutes (experiential) you just have to go fast enough.
If airplane tickets worked like that I would spring for first class.
The vaccume of space is mind numbingly boring to an organic or inorganic human... therefore faster is better. Even if it wasn't people always want to get where they are going. This is why people speed on the freeway. I predict even super human intelligences will speed.
I am a strange loop.
Isn't this basically the engine inside Clippy only writ large?
I took a C-programming job after a decade of C++ and I've been wondering whether I'm employable in the long run. Especially so, because I'm not doing low-level stuff. I think that were I do embedded, I'd be just fine.
The decline of C++ really surprised the hell out of me.
Both the iPhone and Android platforms support C development. Since all the OSes support C your skill moves to just about every platform out there.. All you need to do is show the initiative to work on a few different platforms. As for the languages that are "safe" I'd think these would be C and Java for different reasons and different business domains. In any of these I would personally see to it that I could work in at least two domains that my language of choice could move between.
I do check in on: http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html
Maybe you should play around with iPhone or Android Native code for a bit to be able to say you can do either/or? It takes more than knowledge of a language to secure a job these days. Pick where you want to go next and start learning in that direction.
Overall, I think C developers will be fine for the foreseeable future. OTOH, not so for flavor of the month programming language guys. I have a hypothesis that scripting languages move in 10 year fads. Those poor guys may have to learn a new programming language ever *gasp* 10 years.
Now that I've said that it doesn't seem so bad.
Pay no attention to the FUD monster in the corner.
At some publishers I think that's an apt analogy. Some places produce real works of literature and others crank out pulp-fiction.
Monopoly banned for associations with bling, checkers banned due to confrontational game play, scrabble because it can be used to pass encrypted messages...
99% of all murderers ate bread in the 12 months leading up to their crime, so lets ban bread while we are here. oh, and lets ban judges because they are clearly hangovers from a rather medieval system also associated with chopping peoples heads off.
Gee whiz! Taking away all those freedoms... It sounds like prison!
Not to mention that by the time we have the tech to be able to mine Neptune diamonds we won't need to. We'll be able to *make* diamonds ... or anything else for that matter.
The 18500 people quoted is not the number of people capable of breeding, but the "effective population", an abstract measure of genetic diversity in a species. According to TFA, the effective population of modern humanity is about 10000, and the argument in the article is that this much lower diversity indicates that a lot of genetic material must have been lost in a near-extinction event.
Yes, the idea that the "effective" population of today's human race is only 10,000 is the most disturbing thing in the article. If that's true then the vast majority of us are not contributing anything worth noting to the gene pool. That's not a very nice thought.
Ah, should have pasted this instead:
http://www.bing.com/search?q=%22Why+is+Microsoft+Windows+so+awesome%22&go=&form=QBRE&qs=n
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Why+is+Microsoft+Windows+so+awesome%3F%22&aq=f&aql=&aqi=&oq= ... somehow the quotes fell off.
Yep. No results from Bing. So Bing doesn't think Microsoft Windows is awesome?
I wonder, what it is now... "Angelina Jolie"? "Bruce Willis"?
Obama
No, they had to change it.
and can easily be extended in length.
Are there passwords that are difficult to extend in legth?
Yes. "Chuck Norris" cannot be extended. It is long enough already.
Try this when attempting to enter a club. When the bouncer denies you entry point and say, "Chuck Norris" while he is cowering for his life enter the club.
Chuck Norris doesn't need a password, he just round-house kicks the keyboard into submission.
Interestingly.. what happens with... ... which is more relevant?
"Why is Microsoft Windows so awesome?"
http://www.bing.com/search?q=Why+is+Microsoft+Windows+so+awesome&go=&form=QBRE&qs=n
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Why+is+Microsoft+Windows+so+awesome%3F&aq=f&aql=&aqi=&oq=
I think the Google search is actually better... but I could be biased.
"Oh no, not again!"
By the way, for the rest of you who never RTFA, the summary above really contains all the useful information in TFA. There isn't a need to click through in this case.
So this proves that !RTFA is a viable and profitable strategy. Why criticize?