As if peer reviews don't happen in closed source development?? You have never had a job, have you?
The real benefit of peer review and configuration
management in closed source is that you are
usually all within the same building and can do
walkthroughs in person.
That said, unless a group of developers on a team
take it upon themselves to do code walkthroughs,
the vast majority of code is never seen by
anyone but the code owner.
I've been wondering about this. SCO is wandering
around muttering "gonna sue you so bad" about lots
of people - including MS and BSD.
AT&T is probably
the only company that could have won a lawsuit
against Berkeley or BSDI or Windriver, and they
got their head handed to them. SCO has to
realize that their claims are much weaker than
AT&T's.
Now to be fair to SCO, I haven't looked at their more recent offerings.
It's been 6 years since I worked with OpenServer
or
UnixWare, but both were pretty miserable at that
point. The only reason companies ran UnixWare was
for the Netware integration, the only reason
anyone ever ran OpenServer was for a specific
app otherwise unsupported on x86 (a couple
network monitoring tools and older versions of
ACE come to mind). No one I came across
was doing new installations of either
product, they were in maintenance mode while
evaluating NT, Solaris, or Linux.
I'm not sure why I get so many telemarketing calls.
I know of at least three people who dislike me
enough to sign me up for junk lists
who might be giving out my
information. Many of the telemarketing calls I get
are illegal or shady in some way: they use
automated systems (which I understand are illegal)
to place the call, or are for contests that require
I buy something (also illegal). I also receive
calls from legitimate businesses or charities
despite the
number being a mobile or in do-not-call registry.
When I had a mobile they would often claim they
did not know the number was for a cell phone
because of the way numbers are assigned in my
area.
I sometimes get very rude with the people on the
other end (especially when they call early on
the weekend) and always insist that they never
call me
again, but there are continually new people
to take their place. Maybe I need to start
making legal threats, it just seems like so much
bother.
I'm sure that this 'irritation threshold' that
causes people to turn their back on technology is
what is driving Microsoft's battles against spam.
Maybe I'm overly sensitive or some kind of spam
magnet, but the number and nature of interuptions
I suffer from advertisers makes me less likely to
use technology that is susceptible to spam.
Because of a problem with SMS? Is this a real problem, or just a hypothetical that you've thought up? I've never received an SMS spam.
I never received an SMS spam either. My trouble is
telemarketers. I've had three mobile services in
the last several years and on each one received
calls
from telemarketers. It makes having a cell phone
more trouble than I'm willing to put up with. My
home phone is even worse. I'm in the do not call
registry for Colorado, but I get calls anyway.
I hate telemarketers almost as much as I hate
spammers. SMS spammers combine to form a super
scum with the worst attributes of both.
I'd rather have it free and receive spam once in a while.
The problem is that you receive it live. I have my
morning "update the junklist, delete the spam"
ritual in the office for email, if I receieved
that crap as it was sent I'd have 20 little
interruptions instead of just one large one.
I screen all calls on my home phone and don't
have a mobile because of this very problem.
Re:Mensa is right based on Ockhams razor
on
Pure Math, Pure Joy
·
· Score: 1
Actually, Occam (who was religious) was the first to show that God cannot be proven, you have to believe.
Once you believe in God he is always the simplest
explanation.
Occams razor cannot allow any real
progress in knowledge, and cannot choose from
alternates with any real ambiguity.
Also, the fact that he was a medieval fart does not make everything he said wrong...
He lived in the medieval worldview and the
fracture points for the razor were simpler ones.
Medievals lived in a world of superstition and
black and white. So rotting meat produces flies,
the bible is true because God caused it to be
written and God is real because the
bible says so, disease is caused by bad blood,
heavier things fall faster, and so on.
...(if it did, medival farts would be extremely useful in predicting things).
Which is true. The renaissance and enlightenment
were both reactions against earlier world views.
Once people began to question medieval and
classical thought the scientific method could
really be applied. Some knowledge of older
thinkers turned out to be useful, but most was
not.
Re:Mensa is right based on Ockhams razor
on
Pure Math, Pure Joy
·
· Score: 0, Flamebait
Well, according to Ockhams razor I would argue that Mensa is right. The concept of symmetry is much simpler than the concept of prime numbers.
Occam was a medieval old fart. The simplest explanation that fits the facts is always, God did it. Or maybe - that old woman down the road is a witch. She did it.
If you actually take advantage of the NWScripting abilities to build your world you can basically create a campaign as detailed as one you can build on paper as well.
For whatever reason the pre-fabs and scripts and
sites for building NWN never appeared at anywhere
the level that they did for Half-Life, Quake, or
UT.
I'd love to put together a game of NWN, but there
is not enough readily available information to
get started easily.
Multiplayer with strangers is impossible because
of the widespread cheating. Bioware should have
provided some tools for character signing and
server stored characters. That would at least give
you some information to decide if a game is worth
joining.
I resent any company beaming electromagnetic fields into my house and telling me that I can't do anything with them unless I pay them.
You honestly believe that any broadcast is fair
game for anyone who can receive it? Tell
prospective employers that when you interview.
Make sure you explain that to Comcast when you
sign up for service.
I never asked for them to beam radiation into my house.
Well your government, in the form of the FCC, did.
True, but he went after the guy twice. He should
have been tried for manslaughter rather than
unintentional manslaughter. Six years is a
ridiculous sentence for beating someone to death.
And yes, I know, Costin was a piece of shit himself,
but that changes nothing about the crime.
People who can't afford to pay for legal satellite should just do without. We're not talking about food or medicine here. Anyone whose moral code can justify stealing a blatant luxury like satellite TV has the moral code of a thief.
Very well said. That is exactly why the "it's okay
because I'd never pay for such a thing" argument
falls flat.
I mean, isn't the 5 years in prison enough?? murderers get less time!!
This statement sounds like a ridiculous exaggeration
until you remember that Thomas Junta got six years
for beating a man to death over a children's hockey
game.
Re:The problem is people take jobs just for the mo
on
Working Hard?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
He makes about $60-75K a year and has a great house and three kids. A very typical American if you ask me.
I believe he is also referring to something we may see more of in the future -- commercial developers repacking open source software, or just taking the underlying design, and calling it their own.
This probably already happens. I know that I often
spot a nice technique in GPL or BSD code and use
the idea (not the code) in my own programs. Seems
perfectly legitimate. I also pick up ideas
from co-workers, magazine articles, books, and so
on. As long as you are not outright copying the
code why would that be considered a problem?
I think that more and more that OSS is being used
as an 'open university' where ideas are tested and
played with. As long as no patents are involved
the ideas and designs do not belong to anyone.
I'm sick and tired of people saying this crap about "use the right tool for the right job". It's like a geek mantra or something. I'm a geek but I don't subscribe to this theory that a computer or software or a programming language is a regular tool to be confused with a hammer or something.
Treating software as a job specific tool is often
very useful. 'wc' is an excellent program for
counting text, not so hot at anything else - and
why would it need to be. At a higher level, do you
use 'Excel' to do your taxes. And, as the
wise Chris Rock
said: "You can drive a car with your feet, don't
make it a good fuckin' idea!".
Computers, software, and programming languages are tools, I'll give you that. But they are not single purpose tools like a hammer or screwdriver. A computer can do a multitude of tasks. It's malleable and can do just about anything.
This only holds of PCs and workstations, and
even there only partially, at the high end and
low end it is not at all true. When a computer is
used as a transaction manager, telephone switch,
or in a cheap toy you want a machine that is
optimized for the task - a tool with specific
capabilities and specific uses.
I've got boxes running 10.1 Server around here because no one "forced" me to run 10.2 Server.
It's a bit different for a desktop though. Want
the newest games? Upgrade. Newest office app?
Upgrade. Sure it is not a forced upgrade, but you
get left out on the newest apps if you don't
upgrade.
If it is true that they only charge for the even
numbered releases (as another response mentioned)
then I'm okay with it and will remain a happy
customer. ~$45/year is fine (as long as the OS
keeps getting better), ~$90/year is not okay.
To say nothing of it costing $120 each time Apple upgrades the OS.
Could not agree more. I love my Mac, but the
knowledge of a forced upgrade to 10.3 in a few
months pisses me off. If they don't start giving a
discount to upgrades this will be my last Mac.
Not sure why I'm feeding the trolls, but what
the hell, I'm drunk.
There are several things God cannot or will not do. One is learn - He is omniscient, so He can neither learn nor be surprised nor disappointed in us. Another is He will never force us to love Him. He values our freedom too much perhaps, or He values love that comes freely too much.
And Hell would be a reflection of that how?
Eternal torment is too extreme a punishment for
any sin humankind is capable of committing. How
does "love me or be destroyed" fit into the plan
of an all knowing god of love?
Theocracy and Monarchy are implicit in all the
beliefs of Christianity, only God is capable of providing
rulership we can live by. So God created us
without the ability to
rule ourselves and let a vastly superior being
(the Devil) lead us into sin. What sort of father
would allow something like that to that happen to
children he loves? I don't buy it. If God exists
I certainly want nothing to do with him.
Slashdot Mirror
The real benefit of peer review and configuration management in closed source is that you are usually all within the same building and can do walkthroughs in person.
That said, unless a group of developers on a team take it upon themselves to do code walkthroughs, the vast majority of code is never seen by anyone but the code owner.
USB, DirectX 8+, Shell extensions, file location service, vastly improved PPP. Sure, nothing.
I've been wondering about this. SCO is wandering around muttering "gonna sue you so bad" about lots of people - including MS and BSD. AT&T is probably the only company that could have won a lawsuit against Berkeley or BSDI or Windriver, and they got their head handed to them. SCO has to realize that their claims are much weaker than AT&T's.
Remember the old joke about replacing a useless co-worker with a shell script? This is worse.
It's been 6 years since I worked with OpenServer or UnixWare, but both were pretty miserable at that point. The only reason companies ran UnixWare was for the Netware integration, the only reason anyone ever ran OpenServer was for a specific app otherwise unsupported on x86 (a couple network monitoring tools and older versions of ACE come to mind). No one I came across was doing new installations of either product, they were in maintenance mode while evaluating NT, Solaris, or Linux.
I sometimes get very rude with the people on the other end (especially when they call early on the weekend) and always insist that they never call me again, but there are continually new people to take their place. Maybe I need to start making legal threats, it just seems like so much bother.
I'm sure that this 'irritation threshold' that causes people to turn their back on technology is what is driving Microsoft's battles against spam. Maybe I'm overly sensitive or some kind of spam magnet, but the number and nature of interuptions I suffer from advertisers makes me less likely to use technology that is susceptible to spam.
Better information available at techlaw
I never received an SMS spam either. My trouble is telemarketers. I've had three mobile services in the last several years and on each one received calls from telemarketers. It makes having a cell phone more trouble than I'm willing to put up with. My home phone is even worse. I'm in the do not call registry for Colorado, but I get calls anyway.
I hate telemarketers almost as much as I hate spammers. SMS spammers combine to form a super scum with the worst attributes of both.
Sure, it may be another generation, but a new "next big thing" will come along and wild optimism will once again be in vogue.
The problem is that you receive it live. I have my morning "update the junklist, delete the spam" ritual in the office for email, if I receieved that crap as it was sent I'd have 20 little interruptions instead of just one large one. I screen all calls on my home phone and don't have a mobile because of this very problem.
Once you believe in God he is always the simplest explanation.
Occams razor cannot allow any real progress in knowledge, and cannot choose from alternates with any real ambiguity.
Also, the fact that he was a medieval fart does not make everything he said wrong...
He lived in the medieval worldview and the fracture points for the razor were simpler ones. Medievals lived in a world of superstition and black and white. So rotting meat produces flies, the bible is true because God caused it to be written and God is real because the bible says so, disease is caused by bad blood, heavier things fall faster, and so on.
Which is true. The renaissance and enlightenment were both reactions against earlier world views. Once people began to question medieval and classical thought the scientific method could really be applied. Some knowledge of older thinkers turned out to be useful, but most was not.
Occam was a medieval old fart. The simplest explanation that fits the facts is always, God did it. Or maybe - that old woman down the road is a witch. She did it.
For whatever reason the pre-fabs and scripts and sites for building NWN never appeared at anywhere the level that they did for Half-Life, Quake, or UT. I'd love to put together a game of NWN, but there is not enough readily available information to get started easily.
Multiplayer with strangers is impossible because of the widespread cheating. Bioware should have provided some tools for character signing and server stored characters. That would at least give you some information to decide if a game is worth joining.
You honestly believe that any broadcast is fair game for anyone who can receive it? Tell prospective employers that when you interview. Make sure you explain that to Comcast when you sign up for service.
I never asked for them to beam radiation into my house.
Well your government, in the form of the FCC, did.
And yes, I know, Costin was a piece of shit himself, but that changes nothing about the crime.
Very well said. That is exactly why the "it's okay because I'd never pay for such a thing" argument falls flat.
This statement sounds like a ridiculous exaggeration until you remember that Thomas Junta got six years for beating a man to death over a children's hockey game.
Nope.
His employees, who make $19 to 30k plus the income of their working spouse, are typical Americans.
This probably already happens. I know that I often spot a nice technique in GPL or BSD code and use the idea (not the code) in my own programs. Seems perfectly legitimate. I also pick up ideas from co-workers, magazine articles, books, and so on. As long as you are not outright copying the code why would that be considered a problem?
I think that more and more that OSS is being used as an 'open university' where ideas are tested and played with. As long as no patents are involved the ideas and designs do not belong to anyone.
Thanks. I got the idea from the marketing and inventory folks at my work, they use Excel for everything.
Treating software as a job specific tool is often very useful. 'wc' is an excellent program for counting text, not so hot at anything else - and why would it need to be. At a higher level, do you use 'Excel' to do your taxes. And, as the wise Chris Rock said: "You can drive a car with your feet, don't make it a good fuckin' idea!".
Computers, software, and programming languages are tools, I'll give you that. But they are not single purpose tools like a hammer or screwdriver. A computer can do a multitude of tasks. It's malleable and can do just about anything.
This only holds of PCs and workstations, and even there only partially, at the high end and low end it is not at all true. When a computer is used as a transaction manager, telephone switch, or in a cheap toy you want a machine that is optimized for the task - a tool with specific capabilities and specific uses.
It's a bit different for a desktop though. Want the newest games? Upgrade. Newest office app? Upgrade. Sure it is not a forced upgrade, but you get left out on the newest apps if you don't upgrade.
If it is true that they only charge for the even numbered releases (as another response mentioned) then I'm okay with it and will remain a happy customer. ~$45/year is fine (as long as the OS keeps getting better), ~$90/year is not okay.
Could not agree more. I love my Mac, but the knowledge of a forced upgrade to 10.3 in a few months pisses me off. If they don't start giving a discount to upgrades this will be my last Mac.
With that title I assumed that you would write about raising little trolls up to 50 karma and selling them to the English for eating.
There are several things God cannot or will not do. One is learn - He is omniscient, so He can neither learn nor be surprised nor disappointed in us. Another is He will never force us to love Him. He values our freedom too much perhaps, or He values love that comes freely too much.
And Hell would be a reflection of that how? Eternal torment is too extreme a punishment for any sin humankind is capable of committing. How does "love me or be destroyed" fit into the plan of an all knowing god of love? Theocracy and Monarchy are implicit in all the beliefs of Christianity, only God is capable of providing rulership we can live by. So God created us without the ability to rule ourselves and let a vastly superior being (the Devil) lead us into sin. What sort of father would allow something like that to that happen to children he loves? I don't buy it. If God exists I certainly want nothing to do with him.