I've started to do some free lance computer work for small businesses. I promote linux by using it. When I built an application for a local mechanic I used an Apache/Linux webserver with a MySQL database and I installed Mozilla on his windows clients.
He very happy with my software, Mozilla, and the server. He is also happy with the overall performance and the fact that the server has not crashed. Of course I also gave him an estimate of how much everything would cost without open source. Needless to say he likes open source now. Not only does he like it, but his employees see the benefit and they learn that free doesn't mean worthless.
Even getting a small business to use open source helps a lot to promote it because every employee that uses it gets comfortable with it and has some exposure to generate marketing buzz.
Oh come on its not at all about money, but control.
This is a part of it. But they can also exploit their employees more. They are not paying healthcare benefits, they do not have to deal with OSHA, the Americans with Disabilities Act(ADA), Environmental laws, or any fair workers compensation laws. In other words big corporations can piss on their employees and if they complain there is another person willing to take their place.
As proof, does anyone remember the Union Carbide Disaster in Bhopal, India, that killed 8,000 people immediately and injured at least 150,000.
Just because the technology is there does not mean people will want to use it.
Yes it can happen. Even though the average person may not like it, Business people will push if forward because of the cost savings. Customer satisfaction is not as important as cheap labor in the mindset of corporations.
Also, I believe that the proposed timeline in the article of 50 years is a very good possibility.
What if SCO runs out of money and then allows itself to be acquired by Microsoft. Microsoft buys all of SCO's assets and continues the legal battle with Microsot's huge reserve of money and full-time lawyers.....
I live in Atlanta, GA. I would be a lot thinner if I biked to work; that would happen after the dozen cars ride over me. Biking in Atlanta is suicidal. People drive like idiots, and there are very few areas where the road is wide enough for a car and bike to ride parallel.
1-2G hard drives were the norm once CD-RW became the "norm" and you could do a lot of damage with 600 or 700M CD's. DVD's are barely usable (today) for backup needs and the speed still stinks for all flavors (+/-RW or RAM).
BLUE LASER with +20G is worth waiting a bit longer for, IMHO. That's large enough to be useful for movies (easily) and backing up data in chunks as needed. SPEED will be key or else it'll take too damn long. 4x at a minimum to start.
The problem is when BLUE LASER comes out we will all have 200GB hard drives to back up instead of 80GB. This will still cause a full backup to require multiple DVD's.
The solution is to just back up your data files. If your hard drive crashes, you will have to re-install the OS on a new drive, then you will have to re-install the programs you own from the original media. Today, very few programs will work just by restoring the original directory. Some update system files, others require registry entries, etc... You need to reinstall them. Why waste backup space on the program files; just backup your data.
It would be a lot better IMHO if the drive contained a much simpler circuit and much more of the clever stuff was done by the motherboard. At least then the circuitry could be cooled easier and if the controller died you could change motherboard.
That would be a step backwards. After all, it used to be that way and we had to program our bios with the correct #heads, #cylinders, sectors, etc... I remember looking through 50 or 60 settings to find the right one or I had to enter all the values manually. Now I set the bios to Auto, the Bios talks to the drive and everything is set properly.
Actually, you are right. I create web applications for intranets. I only worry about what my client uses because the application is not available to the general public.
He's also obsessed with CSS, like that's the only point you consider when picking/develpoing for a browser.
As a developer (including some web development), I can understand his obsession. Knowing which CSS properties are supported are essential to designing a good web site. If you use styles to highlight certain parts of your web page tehy won't be highlighted if the browser does not support the CSS properties you are using.
Personally, I will either a) develop a web page based on the standard PC configuraton at my client's business, or if there is no standard, B) I will write for mozilla and install mozilla on all the computers that need it.
BTW: I did not like the article either. I thought that his topics wandered and that there was not a clear structure to his article.
Actually, according to the same PDF file you mentioned, Blue Dragon will escape quotes for values placed in CFQUERYPARAM tags.
One a the reasons I enjoy Blue Dragon is the license allows for free development use. Admittedly, it is only compatable with CF 5.0 tags, but that is all we use in the office; we currently do not have a compelling reason to upgrade to CFMX.
Actually, I have used Cold Fusion for some major in-house applications and it works very well. CFML is easy to learn and quick to develop. (especially if you know HTML well.) Coldfusion integrates well with all of the major databases. It is also easy to add javascript to the code (for the few things that CFML doesn't do) and there is a product called Blue Dragon that integrates CFML with JSP at half the cost of Macromedia's Coldfusion.
I was outsourced and I went from a job without the "Capability Maturity Model" (CMM) to doing the same exact job on the same internal system with CMM. The biggest difference was that there was a lot more useless documentation with the projects and they took a lot more time to design/build/implement. (Which I am sure the outsourcing company loved because it meant a lot more billable hours.) Overall, the real quality and down time of the system did not improve.
Documentation is essential for maintaining good systems. This includes documentation internal to the source code and written documentation about what the system does and why. However, The way my previous company implemented CMM was a waste of time. It literally turned a job that would have taken 32 hours (including some good documentation) into an estimate of 240 hours. My theory is that if it takes longer to document than it does to code something isn't right. After all, when something breaks it makes it quicker just to rewrite everything than to read all the documentation.
Here is how to fix the problem:
Get rid of the idiot programmers. Anyone that has worked on a development team in a corporate environment has met them. (I know, this is easier said than done.) At the top of this list are the ones that copy code from a similar function and leave in all of the code that is not relevant to the current function because they don't understand exactly what the code does.
Don't have separate New Development and Maintenance groups. Require that people that build a system maintain it for a period of time. This forces the people with the most knowledge of the system to provide support. Also, as they work maintenance they learn the coding practices that allow this and future systems to be easier to maintain.
Don't overwork the developers or set unrealistic development schedules. As was mentioned in the article: "Don't rush bad software out the door." If someone has not had enough sleep because he just pulled 5 or 6 - 12 hour days he is not going to be very good at programming. People need some mental relaxation. Also, if you force them to work horrid schedules (weekends, holidays) to keep up with an unrealistic release date they are not going to be happy campers and this will also affect the code quality.
When a user asks for some useless feature, instead of adding it explain to them why it won't do anything or how they can accomplish the same thing in the system a different way. This will either A) Keep a useless feature out of the code which will keep the complexity lower, or, B) Lead the user to better explain what he wants to you allowing you to have a greater understanding of what he wants and it gives the programmer a better insight of what needs to be done.
Last, Remember the KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid. A programmer's code should be clear and simple. He should realize that someone will have to maintain the code(maybe even himself) and that he should use good programming practices and documentation and not to use some obscure procedure call that no one has ever heard of in order to show off.
Non technical people have no way to judge the ability of programmers
You are absolutely right. They do not know how to tell who is good and who is bad so the base people's performance on office politics.
If I lost my job, I feel confident showing my skills to any technical person. I only fear the HR people that toss out my resume because it is not a carbon copy of the requirements.
And that is why they believe that offshoring works. It doesn't
How about one bullet point that just says "faster" and another that says "more stable." That'd tickle me just right. But I don't see it happening anytime soon.
Actually most Microsoft products I have seen say faster, more stable, and more secure then the previous version. What that means to me is that they admit the prior versions are slow and buggy when they want you to pay big money to buy a new version.
Actually, I think we are gaining. After all, AOL is losing a good programmer, and the world is gaining a programmer that is not bound by corporate interests.
Dan Kusnetzky, an analyst at market research firm IDC in Framingham, Mass., said the Novell letter now widens the battle.
"It's a food fight" among several parties, he said. "As an industry analyst, I'm sitting back and watching. This is a set of intriguing developments that stands to only help one company, and it's none of the companies that are participating now."
The beneficiary would likely be Microsoft Corp., because the legal squabbles could hurt the Linux market and turn businesses against even thinking about additional Unix deployments, Kusnetzky said, adding, "Where would companies turn?"
(a) Many people who like computers that suck at working with them;
I would wager that the people that generally like computers take the time to learn how to use them properly and end up working well with them
(b) Many people who don't particularly like computers that don't suck at working with them;
There are people that learn to work with computers out of necessity, but they stop learning when they can do what they need to do; only people that enjoy working with computers will go the extra mile and learn more.
(c) Still a hell of a lot of people who have no business looking at jobs in the IT industry that are working their ass off trying to get one.
There is still money in IT. It is harder to get it now, but it is still there. Before the bubble burst, anyone could get a job in IT, now, you have to proove yourself. If I lost my job, I feel confident showing my skills to any technical person. I only fear the HR people that toss out my resume because it is not a carbon copy of the requirements.
AOL selling customer lists?
on
I, Spammer
·
· Score: 1
Gee, AOL sells out it customers for profit? I would never believe that(sic).
I personally dropped AOL when they started with Pop-ups 7 years ago. I was annoyed that they would force a big ad as soon as I logged on and that I had to dismiss it before I could do anything else.
I just got one early last week because my last Clie just died under an extended warranty.
I do not use the remote function. I do not have any SONY equiptment for my home entertainment center. It does not come with Zenith TV codes, or Apex DVD codes and I could not get the Sanyo VCR codes to work. (up close) I have not checked to see if I could download other codes.
The lack of a graffiti area is a pain. Sony obviously expects you to use the keyboard. Unfortunately you can not tap your pen on the keyboard because it will slide off the keys and the keyboard requires the force that can only effectively be applied directly from your fingers. The number keys are a pain because there is not a separate number row and you must hold down 2 keys (Shift + number) to enter in numeric data. There is a button on the top right (which is actually designed to be tapped with the stylus) which will bring up a grafitti area over the screen, (similar to pulling up the keyboard area with a real input area) and it allows you to use grafitti on any input field. However this approach will not let you enter menu shortcuts (like "/F").
I have a 128MB memory stick so I cannot answer the question about the 256MB.
So far the battery life seems very good, but My PDA use is probably a little less than average. Also my last clie ended up with a poorly conditioned battery after only 6 months.
I do not want to sound too negative. I do like it, it has beautiful graphic capabilities, nice sound, and a few nice other features. But, you do not want this Clie if you enter a lot of data into it regularly because of the lack true grafitti. Also the price can't be justified if you are looking for a remote control.
Besides, SUVs have to live up to the same environmental guidelines as any other vehicle.
Sorry, I know this is off topic..., BUT WRONG! Suv's are classified as light trucks and have to live of to the pollution standards of trucks, not cars. I think this was only rectified last year, but manufacturer's aren't required to abide by the car standard until the 2008 models.
I did not see Daredevil, so I can't comment on that. But I agree with Spiderman. Spiderman was more sugar-coated than most Disney flicks. Spiderman reminded me of the Dungeons and Dragons movie they made a few years ago; cool special effects, but a plot and storyline for 3 year olds. It should have been darker.
Slashdot Mirror
And of course the real catch-22 is that no one will build drivers until the OS reaches "critical mass" in the marketplace.
He very happy with my software, Mozilla, and the server. He is also happy with the overall performance and the fact that the server has not crashed. Of course I also gave him an estimate of how much everything would cost without open source. Needless to say he likes open source now. Not only does he like it, but his employees see the benefit and they learn that free doesn't mean worthless.
Even getting a small business to use open source helps a lot to promote it because every employee that uses it gets comfortable with it and has some exposure to generate marketing buzz.
This is a part of it. But they can also exploit their employees more. They are not paying healthcare benefits, they do not have to deal with OSHA, the Americans with Disabilities Act(ADA), Environmental laws, or any fair workers compensation laws. In other words big corporations can piss on their employees and if they complain there is another person willing to take their place.
As proof, does anyone remember the Union Carbide Disaster in Bhopal, India, that killed 8,000 people immediately and injured at least 150,000.
Yes it can happen. Even though the average person may not like it, Business people will push if forward because of the cost savings. Customer satisfaction is not as important as cheap labor in the mindset of corporations.
Also, I believe that the proposed timeline in the article of 50 years is a very good possibility.
What if SCO runs out of money and then allows itself to be acquired by Microsoft. Microsoft buys all of SCO's assets and continues the legal battle with Microsot's huge reserve of money and full-time lawyers.....
I live in Atlanta, GA. I would be a lot thinner if I biked to work; that would happen after the dozen cars ride over me. Biking in Atlanta is suicidal. People drive like idiots, and there are very few areas where the road is wide enough for a car and bike to ride parallel.
BLUE LASER with +20G is worth waiting a bit longer for, IMHO. That's large enough to be useful for movies (easily) and backing up data in chunks as needed. SPEED will be key or else it'll take too damn long. 4x at a minimum to start.
The problem is when BLUE LASER comes out we will all have 200GB hard drives to back up instead of 80GB. This will still cause a full backup to require multiple DVD's.
The solution is to just back up your data files. If your hard drive crashes, you will have to re-install the OS on a new drive, then you will have to re-install the programs you own from the original media. Today, very few programs will work just by restoring the original directory. Some update system files, others require registry entries, etc... You need to reinstall them. Why waste backup space on the program files; just backup your data.
That would be a step backwards. After all, it used to be that way and we had to program our bios with the correct #heads, #cylinders, sectors, etc... I remember looking through 50 or 60 settings to find the right one or I had to enter all the values manually. Now I set the bios to Auto, the Bios talks to the drive and everything is set properly.
It sounds like this software could help sites from being slashdotted.....
Actually, you are right. I create web applications for intranets. I only worry about what my client uses because the application is not available to the general public.
As a developer (including some web development), I can understand his obsession. Knowing which CSS properties are supported are essential to designing a good web site. If you use styles to highlight certain parts of your web page tehy won't be highlighted if the browser does not support the CSS properties you are using.
Personally, I will either a) develop a web page based on the standard PC configuraton at my client's business, or if there is no standard, B) I will write for mozilla and install mozilla on all the computers that need it.
BTW: I did not like the article either. I thought that his topics wandered and that there was not a clear structure to his article.
One a the reasons I enjoy Blue Dragon is the license allows for free development use. Admittedly, it is only compatable with CF 5.0 tags, but that is all we use in the office; we currently do not have a compelling reason to upgrade to CFMX.
Actually, I have used Cold Fusion for some major in-house applications and it works very well. CFML is easy to learn and quick to develop. (especially if you know HTML well.) Coldfusion integrates well with all of the major databases. It is also easy to add javascript to the code (for the few things that CFML doesn't do) and there is a product called Blue Dragon that integrates CFML with JSP at half the cost of Macromedia's Coldfusion.
Documentation is essential for maintaining good systems. This includes documentation internal to the source code and written documentation about what the system does and why. However, The way my previous company implemented CMM was a waste of time. It literally turned a job that would have taken 32 hours (including some good documentation) into an estimate of 240 hours. My theory is that if it takes longer to document than it does to code something isn't right. After all, when something breaks it makes it quicker just to rewrite everything than to read all the documentation.
Here is how to fix the problem:
Get rid of the idiot programmers. Anyone that has worked on a development team in a corporate environment has met them. (I know, this is easier said than done.) At the top of this list are the ones that copy code from a similar function and leave in all of the code that is not relevant to the current function because they don't understand exactly what the code does.
Don't have separate New Development and Maintenance groups. Require that people that build a system maintain it for a period of time. This forces the people with the most knowledge of the system to provide support. Also, as they work maintenance they learn the coding practices that allow this and future systems to be easier to maintain.
Don't overwork the developers or set unrealistic development schedules. As was mentioned in the article: "Don't rush bad software out the door." If someone has not had enough sleep because he just pulled 5 or 6 - 12 hour days he is not going to be very good at programming. People need some mental relaxation. Also, if you force them to work horrid schedules (weekends, holidays) to keep up with an unrealistic release date they are not going to be happy campers and this will also affect the code quality.
When a user asks for some useless feature, instead of adding it explain to them why it won't do anything or how they can accomplish the same thing in the system a different way. This will either A) Keep a useless feature out of the code which will keep the complexity lower, or, B) Lead the user to better explain what he wants to you allowing you to have a greater understanding of what he wants and it gives the programmer a better insight of what needs to be done.
Last, Remember the KISS principle. Keep It Simple Stupid. A programmer's code should be clear and simple. He should realize that someone will have to maintain the code(maybe even himself) and that he should use good programming practices and documentation and not to use some obscure procedure call that no one has ever heard of in order to show off.
You are absolutely right. They do not know how to tell who is good and who is bad so the base people's performance on office politics.
If I lost my job, I feel confident showing my skills to any technical person. I only fear the HR people that toss out my resume because it is not a carbon copy of the requirements.
And that is why they believe that offshoring works. It doesn't
Actually most Microsoft products I have seen say faster, more stable, and more secure then the previous version. What that means to me is that they admit the prior versions are slow and buggy when they want you to pay big money to buy a new version.
So are we really losing bigtime here?
Actually, I think we are gaining. After all, AOL is losing a good programmer, and the world is gaining a programmer that is not bound by corporate interests.
Dan Kusnetzky, an analyst at market research firm IDC in Framingham, Mass., said the Novell letter now widens the battle.
"It's a food fight" among several parties, he said. "As an industry analyst, I'm sitting back and watching. This is a set of intriguing developments that stands to only help one company, and it's none of the companies that are participating now."
The beneficiary would likely be Microsoft Corp., because the legal squabbles could hurt the Linux market and turn businesses against even thinking about additional Unix deployments, Kusnetzky said, adding, "Where would companies turn?"
(a) Many people who like computers that suck at working with them;
I would wager that the people that generally like computers take the time to learn how to use them properly and end up working well with them
(b) Many people who don't particularly like computers that don't suck at working with them;
There are people that learn to work with computers out of necessity, but they stop learning when they can do what they need to do; only people that enjoy working with computers will go the extra mile and learn more.
(c) Still a hell of a lot of people who have no business looking at jobs in the IT industry that are working their ass off trying to get one.
There is still money in IT. It is harder to get it now, but it is still there. Before the bubble burst, anyone could get a job in IT, now, you have to proove yourself. If I lost my job, I feel confident showing my skills to any technical person. I only fear the HR people that toss out my resume because it is not a carbon copy of the requirements.
I personally dropped AOL when they started with Pop-ups 7 years ago. I was annoyed that they would force a big ad as soon as I logged on and that I had to dismiss it before I could do anything else.
Yes, I know you can use caps lock for the numbers, but doing this will cause all of the letters to be symbols which is not convienent for mixed input.
I do not use the remote function. I do not have any SONY equiptment for my home entertainment center. It does not come with Zenith TV codes, or Apex DVD codes and I could not get the Sanyo VCR codes to work. (up close) I have not checked to see if I could download other codes.
The lack of a graffiti area is a pain. Sony obviously expects you to use the keyboard. Unfortunately you can not tap your pen on the keyboard because it will slide off the keys and the keyboard requires the force that can only effectively be applied directly from your fingers. The number keys are a pain because there is not a separate number row and you must hold down 2 keys (Shift + number) to enter in numeric data. There is a button on the top right (which is actually designed to be tapped with the stylus) which will bring up a grafitti area over the screen, (similar to pulling up the keyboard area with a real input area) and it allows you to use grafitti on any input field. However this approach will not let you enter menu shortcuts (like "/F").
I have a 128MB memory stick so I cannot answer the question about the 256MB.
So far the battery life seems very good, but My PDA use is probably a little less than average. Also my last clie ended up with a poorly conditioned battery after only 6 months.
I do not want to sound too negative. I do like it, it has beautiful graphic capabilities, nice sound, and a few nice other features. But, you do not want this Clie if you enter a lot of data into it regularly because of the lack true grafitti. Also the price can't be justified if you are looking for a remote control.
Sorry, I know this is off topic..., BUT WRONG! Suv's are classified as light trucks and have to live of to the pollution standards of trucks, not cars. I think this was only rectified last year, but manufacturer's aren't required to abide by the car standard until the 2008 models.
I did not see Daredevil, so I can't comment on that. But I agree with Spiderman. Spiderman was more sugar-coated than most Disney flicks. Spiderman reminded me of the Dungeons and Dragons movie they made a few years ago; cool special effects, but a plot and storyline for 3 year olds. It should have been darker.
...Not only that, but AT&T is the one that chooses the default password
Actually, SBC is at fault here. SBC is selling the voicemail system. SBC is setting the same default password for everyone.
AT&T is at fault for allowing someone's voicemail to accept collect calls and also by billing people that never made the calls.
Last, but not least, are the people that leave the default password on something.