This is why unions were invented - to protect the folks in the middle from getting screwed by the fruits of their own labor. Sure, unions cause trouble sometimes - so does anything else , e.g., laissez-faire capitalism results in politicians for sale, Halliburton, and so forth.
In the final analysis, history clearly shows that America, and America's middle class, have done best when unions are strong.
While shared source is not nearly as good as open source, this is pretty dramatic stuff. Microsoft would only be discussing this publicly if they believe that they're getting seriously hurt by open source stuff, e.g., PostgreSQL and mySQL.
This means that open source is really and truly getting a serious chunk of the market.
Personally, I've been using PostgreSQL in situations where I'd otherwise be using SQL Server if PostgreSQL did not exist. PostgreSQL is phenomenally powerful and robust. And, for those who want to go the Windows route, its new Windows installer is so user-friendly that it approaches SQL Server in that department.
Experience indicates that people can either manage projects or they can't. But that doesn't mean that there's no use for reading on the subject. Those who can manage projects can pick up a few new tools for their PM bag of tricks. Those who can't can get good information on whether their project is likely to succeed or fail.
There are a number of books by Capers Jones which are non-trivial reads, but are very evidence-based (i.e., what really works and what doesn't, based on studied outcomes rather than theory).
Also, here is a very succinct guide to a few, mostly non-technical topics which I've found to be very helpful in the real world.
I live in Massachusetts, that most liberal of states (Barney Frank is my congressional representative) and even I don't know a single person who sees Communism as "centrist".
I don't even know more than a handful of people who are for either socialized medicine or organized labor, two bulworks of liberalism.
By either current world standards, or US standards of the last 70 years, even "lefties" in the US are very, very far to the right.
I second this. AffordableHost is superb and very inexpensive, and the online chat tech support is astonishing.
They use the cPanel web-based control panels so that I don't have to remember a lot of cryptic commands to do things. Everything is hassle free and reliable.
I'd easily pay four times the price they're charging me (shhh... don't tell them that).
(I don't work for them, etc.)
If they use Class 1 Bluetooth (100mW), it has great range: we use it and can count on >50 meters indoors in real-world conditions (walls, steel beams, and so forth). It uses frequency hopping, making it even more robust than WiFi at half the power consumption or less. Bandwidth is much lower than WiFi, but plenty for voice.
Most folks are familiar with Class 2 or Class 3 Bluetooth (2.5mW and 1mW respectively, I think) designed for cell phone accessories and so forth, which are very short-range, and would stink for this application.
I'd like to use Linux on the desktop, but it's a PITA. I try it and dump it about twice a year 'cos it's non-trivial to manage. And I'm a nerd with a 20+ year pedigree, so I can imagine what a typical user has to put up with....
This is really a shame, as it's so close to being good on the desktop - if someone with a clue and a small workgroup worked on it, within a few months it would be there.
The pay versions (e.g., Xandros) might be good enough, I haven't tried them. But why bother, when I know that Windows is quite good, and inexpensive?
Evolution is observable, and explains lots of things that cannot be explained more simply, making it a theory.
You may be of the opinion that there is a God, er, I mean "Intelligent Designer" (to use your code word) behind all of this, and you may be right - but there's no observable evidence of this, just a guess. That makes intelligent design your hypothesis, not a theory.
Sad to say, the only fellow I know who is actually gung-ho on UML writes scary code that easily breaks.
The following may seem facetious (sp?), but I'm genuinely curious: does anyone have a story involving UML with a happy ending, along the lines of "Wow, if it weren't for UML we'd have been in big trouble?"
Typical fringe-right attempt to obscure reality with facts that are irrelevant. Let's look at the big picture:
Tens of millions of dollars were wasted on this test. Since this target was lost, another will be needed, no?
Untold billions were wasted in this program. (Probably put into the Bush family's coffers.)
We were promised that this worthy successor to the equally non-functional Patriot missile would be deployed this year. As if...
This is yet another catastrophic attempt by the Bush Administration to circumvent the laws of physics and human nature. And like the other attempts, it is a (really, really, really expensive) failure. Why do we in the US put up with this? Boy, are we dumb.
The parent post says nothing whatsoever about the Bush family being the root of all evil, nor does it say anything in regard to Clinton, etc.
It simply suggests that the Bush family and their buddies are in the oil business, are extraordinarily greedy, and play hardball. All of these things are perfectly consistent with history.
What we see in SnarfQuest's response is the typical fringe-right tactic of attempting to refute reality by somehow changing the topic to something that they can attack. How utterly unhelpful.
Sorry to be a nathering nabob of negativism, but...
Practical nuclear fusion would be the best thing that ever happened to our planet: we'd lose our dependence on the Middle East for energy, and dramatically cut pollution. If it were up to me, I'd launch a nuclear fusion program on the scale of the Manhattan Project.
However, the Bush family and that crowd will never allow nuclear fusion to become a reality - they make too darned much money on oil, and cash is all they understand.
This is astoundingly bad. Losing the search by date is a catastrophe. They've even outdone Orkut on this one.
This is such a huge step backwards that I'm starting to think that Google is a transient lucky accident, not some sort of brain trust. Are they doomed to future failure?
It seems to me that it's pretty easy to do a better job of this already, without an actual radio.
Most good radio programming is streamed on the Internet. A lot of shows, particularly those on public radio, are even archived. And music services like Rhapsody allow one to pull up almost any tune imaginable.
A lot of this stuff is (pathetically) protected, so it can't be copied directly to a portable device: however, we all know that it's utterly trivial to use an audio-capture app (e.g., GoldWave for Windows) that will allow any protected stream to be captured. This takes a little time, but no more time than capturing a stream from radio. And no distortion from radio interference.
Can you provide any scientific evidence for what you're saying? I don't think that any exists.
On the other hand, actual studies, using actual science, have concluded the US has the worst medical outcomes of any developed nation, even after controlling for other factors. And, US healthcare is the most expensive by far.
Worst outcomes... most expensive... gee, "berocratized [sic] socialist "health care" system[s]" are starting to look pretty darned good - unless you're a doctor in need of a new Mercedes.
I'm not sure that ther's any resemblance between Spaceship One and the X planes. They were both dropped from other craft, and like Spaceship One, most X planes had wings, but that's about where the resemblance ends.
All of this recent publicity around PostgreSQL is making me nervous. You see, I've been using PostgreSQL as both a database AND a clue test.
PostgreSQL is an astonishingly great piece of software, one of the few best I've ever worked with.
Thus, if someone tells me they're using mySQL, which is not nearly as powerful as PostgreSQL , I can immediately surmise many things about them, their organization, and their code.
However, if PostgreSQL becomes well-known through all of this publicity, entities might inadvertantly start using it, making it more difficult for me to evaluate cluelessness.
I suppose that it's OK to support something like mySQL, which is so clearly inferior to PostgreSQL, if such support is demanded.
However, if clients are asking for advice, are you telling them to go with mySQL because that's what they want to hear? Or are you leveling with them and telling them that PostgreSQL is far, far better?
Programming microcontrollers is infinitely easier than it was, say, 20 years ago, but it's still extremely non-trivial.
Particularly for small projects, where R&D costs are much higher than parts costs, I'd recommend picking the controller and support tools that are best, and then running whatever platform is needed to support these.
As to controllers to use: the Atmel AVR family is very fast and clean, with low power consumption. For connection with the outside world, the EZ80 Acclaim series has a built-in TCP/IP stack and Ethernet controller, so you can serve web pages, send email, and so forth - looks nifty, but I haven't tried it. (I did use Z80s though, back in the CP/M days - the architecture was way better than the 6502, FWIW).
Good News/Bad News
on
Out of Gas
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I've been hearing about the near end of fossil fuels for most of my 40+ years. It hasn't happened yet, and I have no reason to believe that it's about to happen. We keep finding new reserves, and whatnot.
On the other hand, fossil fuels cause astonishing trouble. Most of the bad craziness in the Middle East and Africa is fueled by petrodollars. Does anyone think that we'd be quagmired in Iraq if it weren't for oil? Certainly, we'd end more suffering by going into Sudan, or other places. Why do we coddle the House of Saud after they financed al Qaeda, if it isn't for oil and the promise of growing wealth for the House of Bush and the House of Cheney?
There is also a growing body of evidence that pollution is bad (prior to recently, it was purely conjecture).
It would be great to switch from fossil fuels, and to do it quickly. A Manhattan-Project-like effort for fusion reactors would be appropriate.
Unfortunately, the average SUV-driving American pinhead will keep this from happening for a long time.
Sun should be VERY AFRAID for OpenOffice.org/StarOffice. OO/SO is a pretty good suite, with some rough edges that could be easily rounded off, and with lackluster marketing. If the new IBM offering fails to suck, and is marketed well, early-adopter types may move to it quickly, sinking OO/SO.
Microsoft will have a few years of lead time, but, being Microsoft, they'll start worrying right away (in fact, I think that this is what they've been worried about since the Netscape days, and is why they worked hard to destroy Netscape), and will move quickly to counter.
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This is why unions were invented - to protect the folks in the middle from getting screwed by the fruits of their own labor. Sure, unions cause trouble sometimes - so does anything else , e.g., laissez-faire capitalism results in politicians for sale, Halliburton, and so forth.
In the final analysis, history clearly shows that America, and America's middle class, have done best when unions are strong.
While shared source is not nearly as good as open source, this is pretty dramatic stuff. Microsoft would only be discussing this publicly if they believe that they're getting seriously hurt by open source stuff, e.g., PostgreSQL and mySQL.
This means that open source is really and truly getting a serious chunk of the market.
Personally, I've been using PostgreSQL in situations where I'd otherwise be using SQL Server if PostgreSQL did not exist. PostgreSQL is phenomenally powerful and robust. And, for those who want to go the Windows route, its new Windows installer is so user-friendly that it approaches SQL Server in that department.
There are a number of books by Capers Jones which are non-trivial reads, but are very evidence-based (i.e., what really works and what doesn't, based on studied outcomes rather than theory).
Also, here is a very succinct guide to a few, mostly non-technical topics which I've found to be very helpful in the real world.
I live in Massachusetts, that most liberal of states (Barney Frank is my congressional representative) and even I don't know a single person who sees Communism as "centrist".
I don't even know more than a handful of people who are for either socialized medicine or organized labor, two bulworks of liberalism.
By either current world standards, or US standards of the last 70 years, even "lefties" in the US are very, very far to the right.
I second this. AffordableHost is superb and very inexpensive, and the online chat tech support is astonishing. They use the cPanel web-based control panels so that I don't have to remember a lot of cryptic commands to do things. Everything is hassle free and reliable. I'd easily pay four times the price they're charging me (shhh... don't tell them that). (I don't work for them, etc.)
If they use Class 1 Bluetooth (100mW), it has great range: we use it and can count on >50 meters indoors in real-world conditions (walls, steel beams, and so forth). It uses frequency hopping, making it even more robust than WiFi at half the power consumption or less. Bandwidth is much lower than WiFi, but plenty for voice.
Most folks are familiar with Class 2 or Class 3 Bluetooth (2.5mW and 1mW respectively, I think) designed for cell phone accessories and so forth, which are very short-range, and would stink for this application.
Wifi is an awful battery hog.
This is really a shame, as it's so close to being good on the desktop - if someone with a clue and a small workgroup worked on it, within a few months it would be there.
The pay versions (e.g., Xandros) might be good enough, I haven't tried them. But why bother, when I know that Windows is quite good, and inexpensive?
Sigh.
Even your attribution of Harry Truman's quote was wrong. 0 for 2, my friend.
You may be of the opinion that there is a God, er, I mean "Intelligent Designer" (to use your code word) behind all of this, and you may be right - but there's no observable evidence of this, just a guess. That makes intelligent design your hypothesis, not a theory.
Sorry.
Sad to say, the only fellow I know who is actually gung-ho on UML writes scary code that easily breaks.
The following may seem facetious (sp?), but I'm genuinely curious: does anyone have a story involving UML with a happy ending, along the lines of "Wow, if it weren't for UML we'd have been in big trouble?"
This is yet another catastrophic attempt by the Bush Administration to circumvent the laws of physics and human nature. And like the other attempts, it is a (really, really, really expensive) failure. Why do we in the US put up with this? Boy, are we dumb.
A stern, candid critic or adviser.
The parent post says nothing whatsoever about the Bush family being the root of all evil, nor does it say anything in regard to Clinton, etc.
It simply suggests that the Bush family and their buddies are in the oil business, are extraordinarily greedy, and play hardball. All of these things are perfectly consistent with history.
What we see in SnarfQuest's response is the typical fringe-right tactic of attempting to refute reality by somehow changing the topic to something that they can attack. How utterly unhelpful.
Sorry to be a nathering nabob of negativism, but...
Practical nuclear fusion would be the best thing that ever happened to our planet: we'd lose our dependence on the Middle East for energy, and dramatically cut pollution. If it were up to me, I'd launch a nuclear fusion program on the scale of the Manhattan Project.
However, the Bush family and that crowd will never allow nuclear fusion to become a reality - they make too darned much money on oil, and cash is all they understand.
This is astoundingly bad. Losing the search by date is a catastrophe. They've even outdone Orkut on this one. This is such a huge step backwards that I'm starting to think that Google is a transient lucky accident, not some sort of brain trust. Are they doomed to future failure?
Most good radio programming is streamed on the Internet. A lot of shows, particularly those on public radio, are even archived. And music services like Rhapsody allow one to pull up almost any tune imaginable.
A lot of this stuff is (pathetically) protected, so it can't be copied directly to a portable device: however, we all know that it's utterly trivial to use an audio-capture app (e.g., GoldWave for Windows) that will allow any protected stream to be captured. This takes a little time, but no more time than capturing a stream from radio. And no distortion from radio interference.
Can you provide any scientific evidence for what you're saying? I don't think that any exists.
On the other hand, actual studies, using actual science, have concluded the US has the worst medical outcomes of any developed nation, even after controlling for other factors. And, US healthcare is the most expensive by far.
Worst outcomes... most expensive... gee, "berocratized [sic] socialist "health care" system[s]" are starting to look pretty darned good - unless you're a doctor in need of a new Mercedes.
I'm saddened by Gordo's death, but...
I'm not sure that ther's any resemblance between Spaceship One and the X planes. They were both dropped from other craft, and like Spaceship One, most X planes had wings, but that's about where the resemblance ends.
PostgreSQL is an astonishingly great piece of software, one of the few best I've ever worked with.
Thus, if someone tells me they're using mySQL, which is not nearly as powerful as PostgreSQL , I can immediately surmise many things about them, their organization, and their code.
However, if PostgreSQL becomes well-known through all of this publicity, entities might inadvertantly start using it, making it more difficult for me to evaluate cluelessness.
I know I'll get modded to Hades for this, but I can't help but asking: Am I the only person who finds Mr. Nielson's site to be painful to use?
I second your plug of the Go Video device. A little clunky, but a ton of fun for $100 or so.
I'm particularly amused by it's interfacing to the Rhapsody music service. Now I can play almost any tune, any time, over my stereo system.
I suppose that it's OK to support something like mySQL, which is so clearly inferior to PostgreSQL, if such support is demanded.
However, if clients are asking for advice, are you telling them to go with mySQL because that's what they want to hear? Or are you leveling with them and telling them that PostgreSQL is far, far better?
Programming microcontrollers is infinitely easier than it was, say, 20 years ago, but it's still extremely non-trivial.
Particularly for small projects, where R&D costs are much higher than parts costs, I'd recommend picking the controller and support tools that are best, and then running whatever platform is needed to support these.
As to controllers to use: the Atmel AVR family is very fast and clean, with low power consumption. For connection with the outside world, the EZ80 Acclaim series has a built-in TCP/IP stack and Ethernet controller, so you can serve web pages, send email, and so forth - looks nifty, but I haven't tried it. (I did use Z80s though, back in the CP/M days - the architecture was way better than the 6502, FWIW).
I've been hearing about the near end of fossil fuels for most of my 40+ years. It hasn't happened yet, and I have no reason to believe that it's about to happen. We keep finding new reserves, and whatnot.
On the other hand, fossil fuels cause astonishing trouble. Most of the bad craziness in the Middle East and Africa is fueled by petrodollars. Does anyone think that we'd be quagmired in Iraq if it weren't for oil? Certainly, we'd end more suffering by going into Sudan, or other places. Why do we coddle the House of Saud after they financed al Qaeda, if it isn't for oil and the promise of growing wealth for the House of Bush and the House of Cheney?
There is also a growing body of evidence that pollution is bad (prior to recently, it was purely conjecture).
It would be great to switch from fossil fuels, and to do it quickly. A Manhattan-Project-like effort for fusion reactors would be appropriate.
Unfortunately, the average SUV-driving American pinhead will keep this from happening for a long time.
Sorry, I should have given more info.
Sun should be VERY AFRAID for OpenOffice.org/StarOffice. OO/SO is a pretty good suite, with some rough edges that could be easily rounded off, and with lackluster marketing. If the new IBM offering fails to suck, and is marketed well, early-adopter types may move to it quickly, sinking OO/SO.
Microsoft will have a few years of lead time, but, being Microsoft, they'll start worrying right away (in fact, I think that this is what they've been worried about since the Netscape days, and is why they worked hard to destroy Netscape), and will move quickly to counter.