running OS X on x86 hardware can benefit you thusly: killer OS, inexpensive hardware.
On the other hand, there is no benefit at all (none, zero) to running any version of Windows on an Apple chip. Windows would be equally as bad running on an expensive G5 as it would on any other chip.
This is like asking "Would people buy a Jaguar designed and built in Detroit even though they remain as expensive as ever?". The answer is no, not many will, and fewer will like it.
...violates this patent when Java byte code uses the Java engine to run the code
I don't see how the byte code does anything at all in that relationship, it's just a file. I'd like to see the patent and their argument showing that the way the JVM interprets byte code is in violation. Given this description, do html pages use a web browser to parse and display their contents? Software patents are teh suck.
Not to toot this article's horn or anything..
I built an application which eventually was sold as an SOA platform, so maybe I can shed some light on the convoluded subject.
SOA=Service Oriented Architecture
There are probably a million or so articles just like this one, evangalizing SOA. I regretfully admit that I probably had a hand in writing some of them, if indirectly and unwillingly. Briefly, SOA describes an architecture for building flexible, loosely coupled, integrated applications using Web Services. There is nothing very new about it if you are familiar with web services, but still the number of 'SOA experts' grows exponentially. I should know, because I became one of them purely for marketing purposes, at them whim of a CEO caught up in the SOA hype wagon. After meeting and planning and getting all wild about SOA, the upper echelon folks stepped back, came to me and asked, 'Quick, what is SOA, without getting all technical about it?'. I said 'Its a Service. Oriented. Architecture. An Architecture for applications that is based on Services.
I'm pretty sure they suspected I was BSing them.
I will not bother to read the article, I've seen enough SOA hyperbole in the last 6 months. Most of the time articles like this are written with the intent of establishing the author or the company he works for as an SOA expert (or THE expert) so that they can drum up some business as you aptly put it.
Web Services are great, simple, flexible, hooray.
Connect a few applications with web services, and pow! You have an SOA. There is not much to say about it, but people will find a way to make it a big thing marketing wise.
I get about 30 penis enlargement spam per day, I'd say that is a pretty accurate number for this week. Stephenson has a finger on the pulse of technology all right.
(the other 60 were for misc discount drugs and cracked microsoft products)
I'm on the second chapter of 'Confusion' after just having read 'Quicksilver'. I will put these up there with some of the best fiction I've ever read. And it's a great deal more informative than most of them, which is a plus. I find accurate and interesting historical references tied into the story on almost every page.
Microsoft is all about agile development these days, what's with the lengthy release cycles? Do they not drink the kool-aid they have been pushing to.NET developers? I know XP and Agile development are not Microsoft ideas originally, but I thought they had adopted it fully.
This seems to be one of those necessary operating system design patterns. Any operating system with authorization would want to incorporate this functionality as it is a common use case. Do all operating systems from now on have to achieve this in some way that does not violate the patent or be force to pay licencing fees to Microsoft? I wonder how much of the software I have written violates Microsoft patents in some way? Is the goal there to try to 'own' the best solution to any given problem? They could start patenting things we think of as common software design patterns in general.
I agree. You could do lots of cool stuff with Java, but most of the jobs out there for Java programmers are on the boring side of IT. I interviewed a programmer the other day who was the classic example of a not-cool Java developer. He started out his career as a COBOL programmer for a financial services company. His last job was dealing mostly with EJBs. When asked what the most interests him, he replied that he liked working closely with the data itself - JDBC,databases,XML etc. Just like a COBOL programmer.
I like SpamAssassin as well, but under heavy load it gets to be a bit slow. It runs outside of the mail server in it's own process, one process per message. That can hose a server pretty bad when thousands of messages are being processed. The alternative is to waste a whole lot of my time deleting spam, which is worse, or buy a commercial solution, which is not much better.
Is it time to pay more attention to end-users?(who aren't geeks)
Nope. End-users who are not geeks have very few interesting needs to develop software for. All the very interesting problems have been put forth by 'geeks'. Everything else is pretty much novelty or IT. Oh, we are mostly talking about IT here, right? Never mind. Forget I mentioned it.
End users almost always want things which are bad in the end, and will not pay any attention when you tell them why these things are bad (the customer is always wrong). Developing software for end users can get very tedious and boring. It's a lot more fun to find your own problems and solve them by writing software. Of course, it's not likely that anyone will pay you for this kind of work.
Ah, got me the same way, and for the same reason. Watching the doe-eyed nurse in training fence with my veins for a minute or two was not unpleasant, I do love when pretty nurses lean against and administer pain in the way that only nurses can.
Last time I had blood taken, they let the trainee practice on my arm. She managed to spear through a major vein a few times, but never actually got in there. After making that vein completely useless, the head nurse came over and tried on the other arm. The trainee was still shaking, I'm not sure if she was nervous or just a shaker.
Right on, on. An extensive OO background in C++ and Java did not impress this company looking for a 'software architect' to do, ahem, PHP stuff. The company was offering a pretty good salary, was within biking distance, but err, what exactly do you want me to us PHP for? It's not as if they had a huge existing investment or anything. I was saying 'hello, who is telling you that you need to hire a PHP expert for this project? How did PHP get written in stone into the requirements?'.
They had someone there who was a PHP guru who just wanted a buddy, not someone who was going to come in and throw a wrench in things. I guess sometimes the investment in skills that a company has can determine the language of preference. I figure this guy would be out of a job before long if someone with a strong software engineering background came along and wanted to start talking in patterns... Probably not a good match.
Most of the really good software development houses are very factory-like. You have a system architect, who describes the system to be developed in terms of patterns using a modelling language. The components of the system are implemented by competent junior developers. The architect keeps watch over the code as it is developed, refactoring and reorganizing as necessary. Developers work in pairs on important code, sometimes with the architect when they are not sure how to solve a problem. Everyone at every level can be happy in this situation, generally as long as the company is stable and making money, most people are satisfied. As the developers gain more insight and experience, they can move up to the architect level and start thinking more abstractly, stretching their brains a little. The more experienced architects spend more time experimenting with new ideas and passing them on to the team to improve quality and re-use, and take more of a mentor and R&D role. Nobody works extra hours or gets burned out on a problem, no one is blamed for failures because A: there are few critical problems; B: no one person is responsible for any of the code.
The opposite to this would be a company where the system architect is also the lead developer, quality assurance, manager, and support team. This person is probably on the brink of total burnout 90% of the time, as are his fellow programmers. The company's focus changes almost every week, as do the names of the CEOs/CIOs, etc. Nothing is documented, there are no standards, no one is learning anything, and people quit any chance they get. Management plays the blame game with the developers over suffering software quality, and the developers are engaged in constant infighting. This is what happens when managment does not understand modern software development, which is a common problem. Look around. Are people happy? If not, something is wrong.
The software 'factory' can be a reality, and it is not as bleak as it sounds. The bleak vision would be Neal Stephenson's 'Snowcrash' future where software developers are about as valuable to a company as burger flipping minimum wagers. Looking at how common offshoring is becoming, it's probably not too far off down the road. Languages and frameworks are becoming more abstract, but the need for abstraction and re-use is less critical when you have 5 times the development staff at half the cost. Hopefully software development will go the way of the ultra-efficient factory and not the ultra cheap sweatshop.
2 year fast-track C(I)S degree: $60,000
Black Wall Mart suit and tie for job interviews: $75
Figuring that working in IT sucks while you're still young: priceless.
Really, I don't think a degree is even necessary for smart kids. Others, well, they will need to get a degree at least. If someone really wants to get into computer science and eventually do something a little more interesting with computers, then they should think about spending some time in school. I'd like to be in grad school right now, it's not like I can do endless theorizing and R&D at my job, what with the company needing to show some profits and all.
Now I'll be able to fly that airship I've been trying to build. Well, the smaller version anyway. I don't think my floating taj-mahal airship plan will qualify as a 'light sport plane'.
I prefer the WASD keys and a 2D mouse for moving about the digital ether. A step up from there is a joystick and a good sized track ball. While working at Midway games I got to mess with all kinds of 3d input devices. A few accellerometers can make a pretty cool/accurate input device.
I be a software engineer, yeaaarrrgh.
Classical (brahms and beethoven esp.)
Electronic (kraftwerk to aphex twin)
Rock (metal and punk)
You wont find listening to much Britney or any other radio/top 40 garbage. I have grown to dislike hip hop over the years, although I still like the old school stuff.
Paintball or airsoft is better for outdoors than lasers. Lasers are kinda gay. Projectiles are sooo much more fun. They are also expensive and require more care than cheap plastic laser guns. You get what you pay for.
Make weapons using PVC pipes wrapped with insulation and duct tape. If you get bored with shooting at your enemies, try beating them with a large, blunt object. You can make short swords, long swords, two handed swords, rapiers, pikes, poles, pole-axes...
I don't mind going off topic a little if it means I get some tax advice:
I invest in 2 small business using my income, and write off all the expenses. I get a big tax return and roll it into an IRA every year. I've never heard that owing the IRS is good position for a tax payer to be in. I really don't mind if the government makes a little money on the taxes I overpaid, as long as I get them back. After all, they can't tax you on your tax return. (but they can tax you on the interest you make investing your tax return...)
5 per game would be good, 10 would be marginally acceptable, $15 would be the maximum.
Now, if only I could take the train to work instead of driving, I might have some time to play them.
Slashdot Mirror
running OS X on x86 hardware can benefit you thusly: killer OS, inexpensive hardware.
On the other hand, there is no benefit at all (none, zero) to running any version of Windows on an Apple chip. Windows would be equally as bad running on an expensive G5 as it would on any other chip.
This is like asking "Would people buy a Jaguar designed and built in Detroit even though they remain as expensive as ever?". The answer is no, not many will, and fewer will like it.
...violates this patent when Java byte code uses the Java engine to run the code
I don't see how the byte code does anything at all in that relationship, it's just a file. I'd like to see the patent and their argument showing that the way the JVM interprets byte code is in violation. Given this description, do html pages use a web browser to parse and display their contents? Software patents are teh suck.
Not to toot this article's horn or anything.. I built an application which eventually was sold as an SOA platform, so maybe I can shed some light on the convoluded subject.
SOA=Service Oriented Architecture
There are probably a million or so articles just like this one, evangalizing SOA. I regretfully admit that I probably had a hand in writing some of them, if indirectly and unwillingly.
Briefly, SOA describes an architecture for building flexible, loosely coupled, integrated applications using Web Services. There is nothing very new about it if you are familiar with web services, but still the number of 'SOA experts' grows exponentially. I should know, because I became one of them purely for marketing purposes, at them whim of a CEO caught up in the SOA hype wagon. After meeting and planning and getting all wild about SOA, the upper echelon folks stepped back, came to me and asked,
'Quick, what is SOA, without getting all technical about it?'.
I said 'Its a Service. Oriented. Architecture. An Architecture for applications that is based on Services.
I'm pretty sure they suspected I was BSing them.
I will not bother to read the article, I've seen enough SOA hyperbole in the last 6 months. Most of the time articles like this are written with the intent of establishing the author or the company he works for as an SOA expert (or THE expert) so that they can drum up some business as you aptly put it.
Web Services are great, simple, flexible, hooray. Connect a few applications with web services, and pow! You have an SOA. There is not much to say about it, but people will find a way to make it a big thing marketing wise.
I get about 30 penis enlargement spam per day, I'd say that is a pretty accurate number for this week. Stephenson has a finger on the pulse of technology all right. (the other 60 were for misc discount drugs and cracked microsoft products)
I'm on the second chapter of 'Confusion' after just having read 'Quicksilver'. I will put these up there with some of the best fiction I've ever read. And it's a great deal more informative than most of them, which is a plus. I find accurate and interesting historical references tied into the story on almost every page.
Microsoft is all about agile development these days, what's with the lengthy release cycles? Do they not drink the kool-aid they have been pushing to .NET developers? I know XP and Agile development are not Microsoft ideas originally, but I thought they had adopted it fully.
This seems to be one of those necessary operating system design patterns. Any operating system with authorization would want to incorporate this functionality as it is a common use case. Do all operating systems from now on have to achieve this in some way that does not violate the patent or be force to pay licencing fees to Microsoft? I wonder how much of the software I have written violates Microsoft patents in some way? Is the goal there to try to 'own' the best solution to any given problem? They could start patenting things we think of as common software design patterns in general.
I agree. You could do lots of cool stuff with Java, but most of the jobs out there for Java programmers are on the boring side of IT. I interviewed a programmer the other day who was the classic example of a not-cool Java developer. He started out his career as a COBOL programmer for a financial services company. His last job was dealing mostly with EJBs. When asked what the most interests him, he replied that he liked working closely with the data itself - JDBC,databases,XML etc. Just like a COBOL programmer.
Midway seems to be hiring again:j obs/process_jobsearch.asp
http://search8.smartsearchonline.com/midwaygames/
Branch to a label? like this?:
label: while(true){ break label; }
I agree, nothing gained here. I never use it, although I see folks doing it now and then.
I like SpamAssassin as well, but under heavy load it gets to be a bit slow. It runs outside of the mail server in it's own process, one process per message. That can hose a server pretty bad when thousands of messages are being processed. The alternative is to waste a whole lot of my time deleting spam, which is worse, or buy a commercial solution, which is not much better.
Until there is something to evaluate or, less exciting, purchase, it's all just vaporware. Where is the open source distribution?
Is it time to pay more attention to end-users?(who aren't geeks)
Nope. End-users who are not geeks have very few interesting needs to develop software for. All the very interesting problems have been put forth by 'geeks'. Everything else is pretty much novelty or IT. Oh, we are mostly talking about IT here, right? Never mind. Forget I mentioned it.
End users almost always want things which are bad in the end, and will not pay any attention when you tell them why these things are bad (the customer is always wrong). Developing software for end users can get very tedious and boring. It's a lot more fun to find your own problems and solve them by writing software. Of course, it's not likely that anyone will pay you for this kind of work.
Ah, got me the same way, and for the same reason. Watching the doe-eyed nurse in training fence with my veins for a minute or two was not unpleasant, I do love when pretty nurses lean against and administer pain in the way that only nurses can.
Dude, I wouldn't let the trainees do that! They could stick a needle in your brain!
Last time I had blood taken, they let the trainee practice on my arm. She managed to spear through a major vein a few times, but never actually got in there. After making that vein completely useless, the head nurse came over and tried on the other arm. The trainee was still shaking, I'm not sure if she was nervous or just a shaker.
Right on, on. An extensive OO background in C++ and Java did not impress this company looking for a 'software architect' to do, ahem, PHP stuff. The company was offering a pretty good salary, was within biking distance, but err, what exactly do you want me to us PHP for? It's not as if they had a huge existing investment or anything. I was saying 'hello, who is telling you that you need to hire a PHP expert for this project? How did PHP get written in stone into the requirements?'. They had someone there who was a PHP guru who just wanted a buddy, not someone who was going to come in and throw a wrench in things. I guess sometimes the investment in skills that a company has can determine the language of preference. I figure this guy would be out of a job before long if someone with a strong software engineering background came along and wanted to start talking in patterns... Probably not a good match.
Most of the really good software development houses are very factory-like. You have a system architect, who describes the system to be developed in terms of patterns using a modelling language. The components of the system are implemented by competent junior developers. The architect keeps watch over the code as it is developed, refactoring and reorganizing as necessary. Developers work in pairs on important code, sometimes with the architect when they are not sure how to solve a problem. Everyone at every level can be happy in this situation, generally as long as the company is stable and making money, most people are satisfied. As the developers gain more insight and experience, they can move up to the architect level and start thinking more abstractly, stretching their brains a little. The more experienced architects spend more time experimenting with new ideas and passing them on to the team to improve quality and re-use, and take more of a mentor and R&D role. Nobody works extra hours or gets burned out on a problem, no one is blamed for failures because A: there are few critical problems; B: no one person is responsible for any of the code.
The opposite to this would be a company where the system architect is also the lead developer, quality assurance, manager, and support team. This person is probably on the brink of total burnout 90% of the time, as are his fellow programmers. The company's focus changes almost every week, as do the names of the CEOs/CIOs, etc. Nothing is documented, there are no standards, no one is learning anything, and people quit any chance they get. Management plays the blame game with the developers over suffering software quality, and the developers are engaged in constant infighting. This is what happens when managment does not understand modern software development, which is a common problem. Look around. Are people happy? If not, something is wrong.
The software 'factory' can be a reality, and it is not as bleak as it sounds. The bleak vision would be Neal Stephenson's 'Snowcrash' future where software developers are about as valuable to a company as burger flipping minimum wagers. Looking at how common offshoring is becoming, it's probably not too far off down the road. Languages and frameworks are becoming more abstract, but the need for abstraction and re-use is less critical when you have 5 times the development staff at half the cost. Hopefully software development will go the way of the ultra-efficient factory and not the ultra cheap sweatshop.
2 year fast-track C(I)S degree: $60,000
Black Wall Mart suit and tie for job interviews: $75
Figuring that working in IT sucks while you're still young: priceless.
Really, I don't think a degree is even necessary for smart kids. Others, well, they will need to get a degree at least. If someone really wants to get into computer science and eventually do something a little more interesting with computers, then they should think about spending some time in school. I'd like to be in grad school right now, it's not like I can do endless theorizing and R&D at my job, what with the company needing to show some profits and all.
Now I'll be able to fly that airship I've been trying to build. Well, the smaller version anyway. I don't think my floating taj-mahal airship plan will qualify as a 'light sport plane'.
I prefer the WASD keys and a 2D mouse for moving about the digital ether. A step up from there is a joystick and a good sized track ball. While working at Midway games I got to mess with all kinds of 3d input devices. A few accellerometers can make a pretty cool/accurate input device.
I be a software engineer, yeaaarrrgh. Classical (brahms and beethoven esp.)
Electronic (kraftwerk to aphex twin)
Rock (metal and punk) You wont find listening to much Britney or any other radio/top 40 garbage. I have grown to dislike hip hop over the years, although I still like the old school stuff.
Instead of throwing away money on a marketing blitz, why don't they fix Swing bugs/compatibility issues?
Paintball or airsoft is better for outdoors than lasers. Lasers are kinda gay. Projectiles are sooo much more fun. They are also expensive and require more care than cheap plastic laser guns. You get what you pay for. Make weapons using PVC pipes wrapped with insulation and duct tape. If you get bored with shooting at your enemies, try beating them with a large, blunt object. You can make short swords, long swords, two handed swords, rapiers, pikes, poles, pole-axes...
I don't mind going off topic a little if it means I get some tax advice: I invest in 2 small business using my income, and write off all the expenses. I get a big tax return and roll it into an IRA every year. I've never heard that owing the IRS is good position for a tax payer to be in. I really don't mind if the government makes a little money on the taxes I overpaid, as long as I get them back. After all, they can't tax you on your tax return. (but they can tax you on the interest you make investing your tax return...)
5 per game would be good, 10 would be marginally acceptable, $15 would be the maximum. Now, if only I could take the train to work instead of driving, I might have some time to play them.