The Jar of Marbles trick isn't new, or at least I don't think it is.
I remember hearing fourth-hand about a trick Clarence Darrow used, back in the old stogy days. When he wanted to distract the jury he'd embed a long sewing needle into the end of his cigar. The ash would burn down to the stub, but would not fall off the end of the cigar because of that invisible support. The jury, riveted to the scene of the immortal cigar ash, would completely ignore his opponent's testimony.
I know this is a true story, because my second step cousin-in-law's brother told me he could document it.
Not to mention the fact that paging in Windows is the mechanism used in your memory model to load executable images in, mapped by program sections. So you may be loading programs, not necessarily swapping portions of them out. Legacy of VMS. A flat memory model is certainly possible with today's RAM volumes, but there's still a lot of logic shared between the paging mechanism and the executable interface.
A somewhat cynical approach would be to take the shipping containers that have the stolen copper in them when you find them, then replace everything but the visual top layer with styrofoam waste. The buyers of the bulk shipment, feeling perhaps poorly used, will send back large visitors to discuss the short shipment and will convince them not to do it any more.
Boss: so, can how's that project going?
Dev: oh, I'm done.
Boss: Done? Great - what was your analysis; how can we speed things up?
Dev: No, no, I'm done with the project. The approach that team had was crap, so I just did it right. I'm running my unit test now, but it looks good so far.
Boss: -speechless-
You may not believe it until you work with someone like that, but they're out there (and large companies do a terrible job of retaining them - as Paul Graham suggests, the main thing devs like that want is to not have obstacles to their productivity).
Oh my yes, that happened to me almost verbatim. I'd outsourced 3FTE x 4 weeks to a team who let me badly down -- they spent their dev money trying to invest in their own answer to CSS, instead of what I'd contracted them to do. The aftermath of that was rather ugly (mostly for them. Let's just say not all lawsuits are frivolous.)
However, in the mean time, I took the best of our contractors and asked if he could work back a bit and see if he could bring that part of the job back in house. It was very non-trivial, many and complex functions. He worked the weekend and finished the entire piece of work and the sucker worked flawlessly. I wasn't able to bring him on full time (he wanted to remain a contractor) but we became good friends afterwards and he's seriously way up there on my anti-trouble list.
Yes, there really are people that good out there, who can generate perfect code as fast as a fast typist can type. I think he has trouble finding the right sized hats. Documentation? I didn't really care, my arse was out of the fire, and we came in just $500 under a rather large budget. I told him I would do anything possible to keep people off his back before he started, and he definitely appreciated that.
Such as refined sugar. It's amazing how hard it is to find a decent lunch in some places that isn't full of sugar. This bothers me because it did lead to a degenerative disease in me -- I'm diabetic. Didn't know any better growing up. We know better now, but there's this amazing momentum to the food industry -- will they change now that everyone knows? Without regulation? I'm not sure.
And the answer will be in what kind of life is possible in that world. It won't be as good as the one you have now, I assure you.
Ah...Ahhh.. AAAhhhCHOOBullshit.
It also means that researchers will be able to carry on their best work for more years, that you can spend years longer on that full sized carved-hardwood classic panhead Harley, and level your Orc hunter to 400. Travel to the nearest stars will be possible, craftsmen will perfect their crafts, and that $0.05 piece you invest will allow you a dinner table at Milliways.
Life is too damn short. If you have longer you'll spend more time on the things you love and the entire world will benefit from the improvement in culture.
Of course we could have other problems at the long end of it (Michael Moorcock, Stanislaw Lem visions) but we're not there yet.
Speaking as a software engineer (who has considered himself a professional at it for 38 years) it's actually all about control. There has to be a hidden lever, otherwise management will take themselves too seriously and their customers will abandon them because they are humourless and boring. Remember people buy software, not companies.
A long time ago. Dispatch system on a 16-bit GA16-440 "JumboGA". It didn't have much (32kw of ferrite core memory) but it did have a 4 digit hex display on the machine console. On alternate Wednesdays at 3am I had it display "FEED FACE DEAD FOOD DEDO DODO CACA" for 5 minutes then stop. In FORTRAN. Hey, I was young.
Creating laws to charge people with after the fact is a fast track to tyranny
True, and a principle well known to the US Founding Fathers. Article 1, section 9 US Constitution. Granted this applies to what is often referred to as "limits on the Congress" but it's a pretty firm precept in US law.
...and one ripe for an "ombudsman" authority to mediate -- and where necessary, provide judicial oversight in the fair management and interpretation -- of contracts between musicians and RIAA member companies. Business may have no common understanding of the word "fair", but the courts certainly do.
The problem there being the country that occupies yours will have an army, and you'll no longer have a vote in how it's used. Everybody is a pacifist until the first time they're beaten up.
American car companies paid to destroy commuter rail in the early part of the 20th century
Yep, worst perp Big Jim Fisk, of Fisk Tires. Bought up the Red Car in Los Angeles and sold off the right of way to as many different owners as he could. His strategy was to make re-acquisition an intractable problem for anyone wishing to rebuild it, Eminent Domain or no. It worked.
Combined with balanced use of solar thermal and tapping Americas northern and offshore oil and natural gas reserves, it presents us the option of becoming completely independent of both foreign energy and dirty coal
Have a look at Geodynamics in Queensland, Australia. They're new, and they generate lots of energy from hot rocks. You could tap the hot rocks near Yellowstone and make Montana and Wyoming the energy centres for your country.
It's also interesting that this happened less than a year after deregulation. Doesn't disprove deregulation in theory, but 40 years of regulation worked great, deregulation worked less than a year, the utility companies are, as you said, crooks.
The rate to which utility companies have colluded on prices in the past is well known. In Australia rampant price fixing lead to government "ring fencing" and free market contestability regulations, and more choice for the end user. Power generation companies were no longer allowed to be power distribution companies. This was matched to an independent national electricity market and hub company that so far has done a great job as traffic cop IMHO. Have a look at http://www.nemmco.com/
Disclaimer: I was involved in the independent audit of their market settlements system design, so I have opinions.
Is having a static home address (123 Cherry Lane) preventing anonymity in the real world? Is that a valid comparison?
It certainly is. I once presented an idea that made it up to the director of letter delivery for a certain national postal service (ahh...ahhCHOOAuspost) to address (ahem) that very issue.
The idea was for a "Virtual Post Office Box". People would subscribe to a VPO Box number, which was treated as a permanent mail redirect.
You would use your VPO Box number as you would a P.O.Box number, and just keep the postal service appraised of your current street address. You could move house and your mail would follow you, without having to notify everyone else of your new address.
This would give you the flexibility to move and would provide some privacy for people who wish they were less in the public eye, such as celebrities or simply people who wanted that layer of indirection in their life.
Ultimately it was turned down, and I was told it was not for the value proposition but because diminishing letter volumes made it inappropriate to invest.
Actually the original meme "The proof is in the pudding" comes from an early use of the word "prove". Prove is also the root word of provision. A loaf of bread is "prove'd" when the dough has risen.
Words were used ambiguously for humour back in the old days, too (ask any medievalist herald, bring a bottle of port and some patience).
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it was the DOS/3.1/95/98 series of operating systems that was co-developed with IBM. From what I understand, the NT code base was basically a re-implementation of VMS. MS was unable to develop what they wanted with the staff they had, so they poached a bunch of developers from a competitor and had them re-write their competitors internals, then stick the Windows legacy and marketing crap on top.
Partially correct.
NT was a re-implementation of VMS per agreement, Dave Cutler was the architect of both operating systems, and was acquired by an arrangement between Microsoft and Digital Equipment Corp. DOS however was an acquisition from a different firm, not IBM (QDOS wasn't it?). It was definitely OS/2 that was co-developed with IBM, not 3.1/95/98. A good history of this development era can be found in "Big Blues", a WSJ columnist's long-term documentary (you'll have to search it, I lost the reference unfortunately. Library book or I would have looked it up for you). Although the book is centered on the declining fortunes of IBM during that era, as a side story it has interesting coverage of Bill Gates' tactics in securing Microsoft's independence from IBM as sole customer.
Damn....wish I'd studied to be a world famous guitarist in my earlier years....I've come to find that there are just not that many great looking chicks out there, screaming your name, throwing their panties at you yelling "NICE DATABASE".
Cayenne8, it is not nice to make a person spit coffee into his laptop keyboard just before an important meeting. Shame on you!
Oh man, laughed so hard it hurt. Especially since I moved into IT because I saw no future as a guitarist.
Slashdot Mirror
...when you work tech support for any length of time, you learn that many people utterly lack any problem-solving skills.
Which is complemented by their complete lack of patience in following the process of problem isolation.
"It's broken."
"Could you narrow that down a bit perhaps?"
"It's broken again.
The Jar of Marbles trick isn't new, or at least I don't think it is.
I remember hearing fourth-hand about a trick Clarence Darrow used, back in the old stogy days. When he wanted to distract the jury he'd embed a long sewing needle into the end of his cigar. The ash would burn down to the stub, but would not fall off the end of the cigar because of that invisible support. The jury, riveted to the scene of the immortal cigar ash, would completely ignore his opponent's testimony.
I know this is a true story, because my second step cousin-in-law's brother told me he could document it.
Not to mention the fact that paging in Windows is the mechanism used in your memory model to load executable images in, mapped by program sections. So you may be loading programs, not necessarily swapping portions of them out. Legacy of VMS. A flat memory model is certainly possible with today's RAM volumes, but there's still a lot of logic shared between the paging mechanism and the executable interface.
A somewhat cynical approach would be to take the shipping containers that have the stolen copper in them when you find them, then replace everything but the visual top layer with styrofoam waste. The buyers of the bulk shipment, feeling perhaps poorly used, will send back large visitors to discuss the short shipment and will convince them not to do it any more.
I am in ur spectrum, steelin ur Hertz...
Boss: so, can how's that project going?
Dev: oh, I'm done.
Boss: Done? Great - what was your analysis; how can we speed things up?
Dev: No, no, I'm done with the project. The approach that team had was crap, so I just did it right. I'm running my unit test now, but it looks good so far.
Boss: -speechless-
You may not believe it until you work with someone like that, but they're out there (and large companies do a terrible job of retaining them - as Paul Graham suggests, the main thing devs like that want is to not have obstacles to their productivity).
Oh my yes, that happened to me almost verbatim. I'd outsourced 3FTE x 4 weeks to a team who let me badly down -- they spent their dev money trying to invest in their own answer to CSS, instead of what I'd contracted them to do. The aftermath of that was rather ugly (mostly for them. Let's just say not all lawsuits are frivolous.)
However, in the mean time, I took the best of our contractors and asked if he could work back a bit and see if he could bring that part of the job back in house. It was very non-trivial, many and complex functions. He worked the weekend and finished the entire piece of work and the sucker worked flawlessly. I wasn't able to bring him on full time (he wanted to remain a contractor) but we became good friends afterwards and he's seriously way up there on my anti-trouble list.
Yes, there really are people that good out there, who can generate perfect code as fast as a fast typist can type. I think he has trouble finding the right sized hats. Documentation? I didn't really care, my arse was out of the fire, and we came in just $500 under a rather large budget. I told him I would do anything possible to keep people off his back before he started, and he definitely appreciated that.
If it's out of copyright, what's the problem?
Such as refined sugar. It's amazing how hard it is to find a decent lunch in some places that isn't full of sugar. This bothers me because it did lead to a degenerative disease in me -- I'm diabetic. Didn't know any better growing up. We know better now, but there's this amazing momentum to the food industry -- will they change now that everyone knows? Without regulation? I'm not sure.
And the answer will be in what kind of life is possible in that world. It won't be as good as the one you have now, I assure you.
Ah...Ahhh.. AAAhhhCHOOBullshit.
It also means that researchers will be able to carry on their best work for more years, that you can spend years longer on that full sized carved-hardwood classic panhead Harley, and level your Orc hunter to 400. Travel to the nearest stars will be possible, craftsmen will perfect their crafts, and that $0.05 piece you invest will allow you a dinner table at Milliways.
Life is too damn short. If you have longer you'll spend more time on the things you love and the entire world will benefit from the improvement in culture.
Of course we could have other problems at the long end of it (Michael Moorcock, Stanislaw Lem visions) but we're not there yet.
Speaking as a software engineer (who has considered himself a professional at it for 38 years) it's actually all about control. There has to be a hidden lever, otherwise management will take themselves too seriously and their customers will abandon them because they are humourless and boring. Remember people buy software, not companies.
A long time ago. Dispatch system on a 16-bit GA16-440 "JumboGA". It didn't have much (32kw of ferrite core memory) but it did have a 4 digit hex display on the machine console. On alternate Wednesdays at 3am I had it display "FEED FACE DEAD FOOD DEDO DODO CACA" for 5 minutes then stop. In FORTRAN. Hey, I was young.
Creating laws to charge people with after the fact is a fast track to tyranny
True, and a principle well known to the US Founding Fathers. Article 1, section 9 US Constitution. Granted this applies to what is often referred to as "limits on the Congress" but it's a pretty firm precept in US law.
Good title, I think. Evolving does rock.
...and one ripe for an "ombudsman" authority to mediate -- and where necessary, provide judicial oversight in the fair management and interpretation -- of contracts between musicians and RIAA member companies. Business may have no common understanding of the word "fair", but the courts certainly do.
I will come back later when you have the user interface all figured out. I can't use it like it is.
The problem there being the country that occupies yours will have an army, and you'll no longer have a vote in how it's used. Everybody is a pacifist until the first time they're beaten up.
American car companies paid to destroy commuter rail in the early part of the 20th century
Yep, worst perp Big Jim Fisk, of Fisk Tires. Bought up the Red Car in Los Angeles and sold off the right of way to as many different owners as he could. His strategy was to make re-acquisition an intractable problem for anyone wishing to rebuild it, Eminent Domain or no. It worked.
Combined with balanced use of solar thermal and tapping Americas northern and offshore oil and natural gas reserves, it presents us the option of becoming completely independent of both foreign energy and dirty coal
Have a look at Geodynamics in Queensland, Australia. They're new, and they generate lots of energy from hot rocks. You could tap the hot rocks near Yellowstone and make Montana and Wyoming the energy centres for your country.
It's also interesting that this happened less than a year after deregulation. Doesn't disprove deregulation in theory, but 40 years of regulation worked great, deregulation worked less than a year, the utility companies are, as you said, crooks.
The rate to which utility companies have colluded on prices in the past is well known. In Australia rampant price fixing lead to government "ring fencing" and free market contestability regulations, and more choice for the end user. Power generation companies were no longer allowed to be power distribution companies. This was matched to an independent national electricity market and hub company that so far has done a great job as traffic cop IMHO. Have a look at http://www.nemmco.com/
Disclaimer: I was involved in the independent audit of their market settlements system design, so I have opinions.
Is having a static home address (123 Cherry Lane) preventing anonymity in the real world? Is that a valid comparison?
It certainly is. I once presented an idea that made it up to the director of letter delivery for a certain national postal service (ahh...ahhCHOOAuspost) to address (ahem) that very issue.
The idea was for a "Virtual Post Office Box". People would subscribe to a VPO Box number, which was treated as a permanent mail redirect.
You would use your VPO Box number as you would a P.O.Box number, and just keep the postal service appraised of your current street address. You could move house and your mail would follow you, without having to notify everyone else of your new address.
This would give you the flexibility to move and would provide some privacy for people who wish they were less in the public eye, such as celebrities or simply people who wanted that layer of indirection in their life.
Ultimately it was turned down, and I was told it was not for the value proposition but because diminishing letter volumes made it inappropriate to invest.
The proof is in the tasting of the pudding
Actually the original meme "The proof is in the pudding" comes from an early use of the word "prove". Prove is also the root word of provision. A loaf of bread is "prove'd" when the dough has risen.
Words were used ambiguously for humour back in the old days, too (ask any medievalist herald, bring a bottle of port and some patience).
I think you mean politicans and criminals.
Not necessarily. Politics is just show business for ugly people.
I'm patenting the process of removing the humor from a lawyer as we speak.
I'm sorry, the humourectomy is a medical procedure. Being unqualified, you will have to slap yourself with a malpractice suit the moment you finish.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it was the DOS/3.1/95/98 series of operating systems that was co-developed with IBM. From what I understand, the NT code base was basically a re-implementation of VMS. MS was unable to develop what they wanted with the staff they had, so they poached a bunch of developers from a competitor and had them re-write their competitors internals, then stick the Windows legacy and marketing crap on top.
Partially correct.
NT was a re-implementation of VMS per agreement, Dave Cutler was the architect of both operating systems, and was acquired by an arrangement between Microsoft and Digital Equipment Corp. DOS however was an acquisition from a different firm, not IBM (QDOS wasn't it?). It was definitely OS/2 that was co-developed with IBM, not 3.1/95/98. A good history of this development era can be found in "Big Blues", a WSJ columnist's long-term documentary (you'll have to search it, I lost the reference unfortunately. Library book or I would have looked it up for you). Although the book is centered on the declining fortunes of IBM during that era, as a side story it has interesting coverage of Bill Gates' tactics in securing Microsoft's independence from IBM as sole customer.
Damn....wish I'd studied to be a world famous guitarist in my earlier years....I've come to find that there are just not that many great looking chicks out there, screaming your name, throwing their panties at you yelling "NICE DATABASE".
Cayenne8, it is not nice to make a person spit coffee into his laptop keyboard just before an important meeting. Shame on you!
Oh man, laughed so hard it hurt. Especially since I moved into IT because I saw no future as a guitarist.