The technologies that this paper are discussing do not take away our abilities to choose who we trust, they simply gives providers of a service a way to choose who they trust. Sure microsoft and the *aa groups are providing services and will use this technology to limit the way we use their services. But that does not take away our privledge to use other services that are less restrictive. It also allows us (the OSS community) to build tools (such as P2P sharing apps) that keep them out.
So they build their network apps, we build our network apps. Ours are more fun and now can't be spammed, DDOSed, or any of the other nasty things they try.
Didn't read the article did we? The page rank process is sped up 5x. All the pages are ranked ahead of time in a multi-day process so when you do your search you are searching against those pre-calculated ranks. What this technology will do is allow Google to rank their pages every day (instead of once every couple of days) or create more special interest sites ala groups, images, news, etc. with the extra processing power.
First off I tend to think that most colleges have it right. I am graduating in may and I barely remember writing very much code. There was a lot of mathematics and all kinds of theory (hardware, software, software engineering, management, OS, etc). A computer science degree is in no way specialized and most don't focus on real world skills at all. The focus is on developing the kind of mind that will allow you to adapt to whatever speciality path you decide to go down.
I don't know if your statement on hardcore OS technology is really relevant to the article. I doubt what is needed are kernel hackers or other specialists in OS internals. At my job we have quite a few mainframes and the mainframe people mostly work on loading jobs and writing COBOL. The mainframe is a totally different beast. The concept of the file system isn't really the same. On OS/390 (the OS we use) there are all kinds of tools like FileAid to look at files. Talk about making vi look like an easy to use application. Our java application has to go through a CICS gateway to get to the mainframe (it is using sna instead of tcp/ip but that is another story). CICS is this huge complicated mess. The mainframe also has daps (Data Access Programs) and dams (Data Access Modules) that are a bit tricky. Throw in other technologies such as VSAM files (flat files) and there can be a steep learning cur ve.
When I first started working at my job I was going to convince everyone that J2EE against a RDMS or maybe a OODB was the way to go. Our app generates 200,000 transactions per second, another one generates 300,000, and yet another generates 500,000 transactions per second ON THE SAME BOX! Parts of our application need flat files because they can outperform databases on non-relational data (20:1 in a particular case in our app). I can understand why companies love their mainframes and I for one am glad there are others learning those technologies (so I don't have to).
Come on, you are going to find crap in any genre. Don't make blanket statements like that.
All fiction asks you to suspend your disbelief in order to enjoy the story. Science Fiction and Fantasy happen to be genres where the author does not need to work as hard to keep your disbelief suspended. Because an author chooses the easy way out in this department does not mean that she has skimped on characterization, plot, enriching literary devices, or any other aspect that makes a great story.
I would suggest you try a little Orson Scott Card to prove that there are good authors in these genres. To someone that is looking for a quality book I would recommend Speaker for the Dead which explores the life of a man trying to give rebirth to an alien race that he almost destroyed while trying to find where he fits into humanity. I would also recommend Earthborn which explores racism and the effect that evil leadership can have on a community. These are both part of bigger series but read just fine as separate works.
That being said, I think anyone interested in fantasy would probably love the Three Muskateers (not like any of the movies of the same name). Might want to buy a dictionary along with it if you aren't used to reading classics, but well worth the read.
It is generally perceived that the US is a capitalist country (I know its a mixed economy, but let's not get too technical). Capitalism is about markets and trusting them to regulate themselves. Right now we still look at the US as one market, Japan as another, etc. True globalization is about combining all the markets into one worldwide market. This is what is slowly happening right now. Countries fight this trend with VISA's, tariffs, etc.
I think that most people in 1st world countries look at globalization as the way for a 2nd/3rd world country employee to steal our jobs (as if they BELONG to us). We see an $80,000US job turn into a 35,000US job, whereas it just means that the smart people are free to move onto a more demanding job. This is the same fear that factory workers have when they look at machines (I am not comparing people to machines or trying to degrade 2nd/3rd world countries or their citizens).
Will engineering jobs still be around in the future? Of course! Will they look like they do today? Probably not, but isn't that what attracted us to these jobs in the first place? Globalization will change the work we do, but it will also free up brain power to invent newer things and to progress farther.
Being a programmer type who likes to think of himself as a software engineer, I took the liberty of looking up the definition of what an engineer is. When I looked up engineer on dictionary.com, I got referred to engineering, so I typed engineering and found numerous references:
The American Heritage Dictionary said this:
"The application of scientific and mathematical principles to practical ends such as the design, manufacture, and operation of efficient and economical structures, machines, processes, and systems."
I would say plenty of programmer types apply mathematical principles to processes and systems.
Webster says:
"Originally, the art of managing engines; in its modern and extended sense, the art and science by which the mechanical properties of matter are made useful to man in structures and machines; the occupation and work of an engineer."
OK, Webster agrees with you here.
WordNet (Princeton University) says:
"the discipline dealing with the art or science of applying scientific knowledge to practical problems"
Figuring out how to manage a corporations assets, customers, and processes would fit under the category of practical problems. I'll let someone else argue whether manipulating electricity through high level geek understandable languages is applying scientific knowledge.
Q. Why are stories of this negligible intelligence appearing on slashdot ALL THE TIME now?
A. Because people are willing to post replies of negligible intelligence.
Slashdot Mirror
So they build their network apps, we build our network apps. Ours are more fun and now can't be spammed, DDOSed, or any of the other nasty things they try.
Not any scarier, just more polarized.
Didn't read the article did we? The page rank process is sped up 5x. All the pages are ranked ahead of time in a multi-day process so when you do your search you are searching against those pre-calculated ranks. What this technology will do is allow Google to rank their pages every day (instead of once every couple of days) or create more special interest sites ala groups, images, news, etc. with the extra processing power.
make it sound like you are trading vendor lock in by an "evil distribution" with selling your soul to Progeny.
First off I tend to think that most colleges have it right. I am graduating in may and I barely remember writing very much code. There was a lot of mathematics and all kinds of theory (hardware, software, software engineering, management, OS, etc). A computer science degree is in no way specialized and most don't focus on real world skills at all. The focus is on developing the kind of mind that will allow you to adapt to whatever speciality path you decide to go down.
I don't know if your statement on hardcore OS technology is really relevant to the article. I doubt what is needed are kernel hackers or other specialists in OS internals. At my job we have quite a few mainframes and the mainframe people mostly work on loading jobs and writing COBOL. The mainframe is a totally different beast. The concept of the file system isn't really the same. On OS/390 (the OS we use) there are all kinds of tools like FileAid to look at files. Talk about making vi look like an easy to use application. Our java application has to go through a CICS gateway to get to the mainframe (it is using sna instead of tcp/ip but that is another story). CICS is this huge complicated mess. The mainframe also has daps (Data Access Programs) and dams (Data Access Modules) that are a bit tricky. Throw in other technologies such as VSAM files (flat files) and there can be a steep learning cur ve.
When I first started working at my job I was going to convince everyone that J2EE against a RDMS or maybe a OODB was the way to go. Our app generates 200,000 transactions per second, another one generates 300,000, and yet another generates 500,000 transactions per second ON THE SAME BOX! Parts of our application need flat files because they can outperform databases on non-relational data (20:1 in a particular case in our app). I can understand why companies love their mainframes and I for one am glad there are others learning those technologies (so I don't have to).
All fiction asks you to suspend your disbelief in order to enjoy the story. Science Fiction and Fantasy happen to be genres where the author does not need to work as hard to keep your disbelief suspended. Because an author chooses the easy way out in this department does not mean that she has skimped on characterization, plot, enriching literary devices, or any other aspect that makes a great story.
I would suggest you try a little Orson Scott Card to prove that there are good authors in these genres. To someone that is looking for a quality book I would recommend Speaker for the Dead which explores the life of a man trying to give rebirth to an alien race that he almost destroyed while trying to find where he fits into humanity. I would also recommend Earthborn which explores racism and the effect that evil leadership can have on a community. These are both part of bigger series but read just fine as separate works.
That being said, I think anyone interested in fantasy would probably love the Three Muskateers (not like any of the movies of the same name). Might want to buy a dictionary along with it if you aren't used to reading classics, but well worth the read.
Point taken.
I think that most people in 1st world countries look at globalization as the way for a 2nd/3rd world country employee to steal our jobs (as if they BELONG to us). We see an $80,000US job turn into a 35,000US job, whereas it just means that the smart people are free to move onto a more demanding job. This is the same fear that factory workers have when they look at machines (I am not comparing people to machines or trying to degrade 2nd/3rd world countries or their citizens).
Will engineering jobs still be around in the future? Of course! Will they look like they do today? Probably not, but isn't that what attracted us to these jobs in the first place? Globalization will change the work we do, but it will also free up brain power to invent newer things and to progress farther.
The American Heritage Dictionary said this:
"The application of scientific and mathematical principles to practical ends such as the design, manufacture, and operation of efficient and economical structures, machines, processes, and systems."
I would say plenty of programmer types apply mathematical principles to processes and systems.
Webster says:
"Originally, the art of managing engines; in its modern and extended sense, the art and science by which the mechanical properties of matter are made useful to man in structures and machines; the occupation and work of an engineer."
OK, Webster agrees with you here.
WordNet (Princeton University) says:
"the discipline dealing with the art or science of applying scientific knowledge to practical problems"
Figuring out how to manage a corporations assets, customers, and processes would fit under the category of practical problems. I'll let someone else argue whether manipulating electricity through high level geek understandable languages is applying scientific knowledge.
Q. Why are stories of this negligible intelligence appearing on slashdot ALL THE TIME now?
A. Because people are willing to post replies of negligible intelligence.