Really... how this article got on slashdot beats the hell out of me. I hate to tell the author but perhaps his biggest problem is more a matter of age then anything. Authors of the digital generation are comfortible with word processors as much as anything... as are many authors from the pre-digital generation for that matter. Douglas Adams pops immediatly to mind, and im assuming this is an author most slashdotters are familar with.
So in the end... this boils down to an article about a guy who doesnt like progress, or is too damned lazy to dedicate himself to learning something new. Dont get me wrong, these people are everywhere... I have hundreds of people ( mostly 45+ years of age, btw... ) who would just love to see computers go away, email to burn in hell... and for everybody to have an in/out set of boxes sitting on their desks. Why? Because they grew up using a different system and never felt comfortible in the end.
So, as it stands... this particular fellow settled on VI, as its the most basic interface he could find. If he found most GUI word processors too convoluted... I guarantee you, he didnt get much into the advanced features of VI either. Christ, he could have gotten by using notepad... or DOS EDIT for that matter... if there wasnt a 64K file limit.
But there are two morals to this story I suppose... Perhaps the default install of office suites should be more.... um basic in the feature department... You turn things on as you need them. Then again... novelists arent exactly the default target that {hint,hint}OFFICE suites are aimed at anyways, now are they?
The second possible moral... perhaps there is a target afterall for tablet PC. All these people that thing the pen is king and the computer is evil... well... perhaps they have the compremise they need. I have tested out two tablet PC's to date, and I have to admit, they are pretty slick. My three biggest complaints sofar are 1) it doesnt have the tactile feel of paper... not even close... so your writing at least till trained, is a bit altered 2) they are fairly slow, when compared to a comprable laptop. Must be alot of software overhead... 3) too damned expensive... but this will solve itself in time ( in fact, already has started to ).
Although, except perhaps as a niche market... that last thing I ever *EVER* want to see, is developers start targeting for the luddite markets! Its bad enough our education system already caters to the lowest common denominator!
Thats rather strange, as most corporate CIO types are thoroughly in bed with Microsoft. Sending money to microsoft doesnt normally bother them... well... much more then sending money to anybody that is...
That said... I wish my company bought me a sweet ass gaming laptop every year aswell:)
I think you misunderstand me here. You say you shudder to think of the pre-XML days... well, the pre-XML days, well... they were CSV.
Now... the thing is, many of the things you have mentioned are already expressed by Relational databases, which is generally what the CSV file is generated from in a batch based system. In alot of ways, that stuff already existed... just not in the file format, but in the process of creating said file format!
Dont get me wrong, im not saying that XML is shitty... im just saying that XML is way over hyped. For a replacement for a system that has been around for 20 years... is XML really that special? Does XML really grant us that much beyond what CSV and good databases behind the scenes really help that much??? The proprietarity of XML schema's really dont make the standard just that open, now does it? It has the capacity of being an open standard, but on the whole, you often need to know the format in advance... how is that much different from CSV's and standard batch outputs have already presented?
XML is not much of a step forward really... it is a step forward no doubt... but perhaps the best solution would be to make the data self enacting. Namingly, couple the logic to the data... so that code and data can exist as one.
Actually... in my case, it was a ColdFusion based system... and I havent a clue how you fit powerpoint into all of this. As to "It would have cost much much more"... gee... I would have loved to have seen how... Most enterprise type environments already have either A) bought licenses for all vital employees requiring MS office or B) have a MS site license.
If the origional poster was talking about development costs... I would love to see numbers to back that up. I hate to say it, but for the most part, Windows based programming seems to be as affordable as it gets... with the exception of the initial compiler costs. Now... if you are in a enterprise environment, where 1000$ is too much for development tools... or, even more appropriate, if 3000$ for a MSDN license is too much, perhaps its time to polish your resume... since your 50,000$ per year or greater salary, must seem oftly expensive to them!!!!!!!
Depends on how you do it... basing an enterprise system around Excel is hacky as shit... Ill give you that... Might as well build your system from popcicle sticks and bubblegum. That said... exporting output to excel, if written correctly, its a perfectly fine thing to do.
Hey... personally I hate excel itself, but then again, im not a bean counter. But, meeting customer requirements is perhaps the most important thing you do. As an analyst... its your job to contrast proper solutions vs customer requirements. You dont often get to make all the decisions yourself... and if you are making all the decisions yourself, you probrably arent serving your customer properly!
Idealism is one thing... reality is something completely different!
Of course, those people think Word/PowerPoint run the world, and the file format is all but a mystery to them. Hence having something generated on the fly via a webpage has its cool factor, and not to mention it was a good chance to introduce this free word processing suite to them.
One thing that everyone seems to forget ( or is un-aware of... ) is that Microsoft provides API's for the creation of Office documents via code or script aswell. In the past, due to the bean-counters dependance on Excel spreadsheets, I have have had to generate XLS files from a web interface. Trust me, if you are willing to work within the Wintel platform using MS tools... its very very very easy to do!
First Off
Microsoft did not drop the ball with XML. Microsoft disappointed the slashdot crowd by not going completely open... geee...... big shock there. Microsoft maintains dominance to their office suite by controlling the file formats behind it. Opening that up, without reason would be absolutely stupid from a business point of view. Granted, its an un-popular stance, but that doesnt make it any less true. MS played along with the XML game to be able to use XML as a buzz word... and in some ways, they truly have embraced XML... just not in their holy cash cow called Office. Take a look at Visual Studio (dot) Net, and you will see how strongly MS has infact embraced XML.
Secondly...
XML is perhaps one of the most over hyped technologies ever. Self describing datatypes are nothing new. The only really remarkable thing about XML is how embraced by the industry it was. In all honesty... the difference between XML and CSV files really isnt that signifigant. Granted... XML is far beyond anything a CSV ever did, but they all present the same result. In the current work environment I am in, all our enterprise systesm support input/output now via CSV. In addition, im in the auto industry, so the whole hype of Webservices+XML really isnt that special either. RIght now, they have ANX and EDI... granted... XML + Web Services would be much more straight forward... but in 20+ years of evolution... has it really come that far?
Sorry for the anti-status-quo opinion, but I cant help but believe that XML is way overhyped. Useful... sure... but definatly overhyped!
That makes sense Egro98, as I am in london as well. From what I understand... Shaw or McLean Hunter used to be in London aswell and offered cable internet service before Rogers bought them out. From what I understand... all the existing cable customers that got "forced" over to rogers, watched their previously great service go down the toilet.
Only a few things I can think off... first off, I subscribed for a year in advance ( aka, paid upfront ), bought the modem myself, and at the time I signed up, I signed up with 5 other people. ( A bunch of us from work ).... so that leaves two possibities...
1. The price has gone up
2. We negotiated a better deal
Truth is, its probrably a bit of both. I highly recommend the service though... sorry about the inaccuracy there. The strange thing is... a few months back GTN and NutNBut.net merged... so its basically the same service now... if you check NutNBut it shows dynamic 3meg as 59.95$ a month and static service as 64.95$ a month... which is closer to my origional pricing. I can comment on their service ( as GTN and NutNBut use the same backbone ), but I cant say anything about their support personally.
Regardless, its still a nice price, and im sure GTN would sell at the same prices as nutnbut... so, im not sure what the hell is going on with the price discrepancy!:)
Yeah, Eastern Canada has a similar system but different companies... We basically have Bell ( your Telus I believe ) selling DSL service and Rogers selling cable internet. I was with Rogers for the longest time and what a ripe set of bastards they were. Uptime was laughable... my "always on" internet connection was on maybe 80% of the time... I was down once for 3 days straight... then on top of that when they started over selling the number of users on a local loop ( causing it to slow down MADLY ) they start coming down HARD on people running servers and lots of bandwidth. Finally they started implementing two teir billing... where in basically you can buy a few packages, depending on how much traffic you generate... One is for the occasional surfer/email reader... the other is for the more avid user. Problem is, they never offered a truely unlimited service for the power users. Oh yeah, and their billing department was as bad as their tech support!!!!!! Watch your bill with rogers... they screw up constantly... and never in your favour I might add!
The other choice is Bell... grrrrrr... not much better actually. DSL service in this case... basically they offer a always on low bandwidth DSL service and a full out service with rumour of a cap coming soon. Thing is, I have cell service with bell, and I know damned well they are a bunch of idiots to deal with!!! So I tried to stay away from bell as much as possible. Oh yeah... and no static IP's unless you want to pay something like 15$ extra a month.
In the end, I went with an indy provider ( GTN. I have NO complaints sofar... 3meg DSL service for something like 55$ a month canadian... or normal DSL service for 34.95$. Plus you get a static IP, and can do WHATEVER you want. Only lame part is I have potentially the LAMEST email address possible... "myname@nutnbut.net"... glad I dont use it!:)
I gotta say though... this article is oooooooooooooooolllllllllddddd news. Some of the shit that gets posted on slashdot really shocks me sometimes.
I suppose there is some truth to your statement... Linux has become the new buzzword for moronic CIO's who really dont have a clue. ( All im implying by that is... Linux is only news to CIO's with their heads up their asses... and CIO worth his salt would have been well informed well in advance... ). In the past it was Java, XML and web services... I can see it now...
Braindead_CIO says " Hey Dave, I just read about this wonderful Linux thingy that will save us billions of dollars! Why arent we a linux company?"
Dave_Poor_TechGuy says "Thats because we are still too busy porting all our old code to Java, and rewriting all of our data to use XML"
BrainDead_CIO says " Drop all that! We need Linux everywhere!"
Dave_Poor_TechGuy says " Ok... but why?"
BrainDead_CIO says " Ummmmmmmmmm..... ( drool, spittle, blank mindless stare)... ummmmm.... just do it!"
I'd take that bet in a heartbeat... MS has zero, I repeat ZERO reasons to even think about releasing a Linux distro. If linux ever became enough of a threat that they would be willing to release MS Linux... they would just drop the price of Windows down to basically nothing.
Dont kid yourself... a good majority of the momentum Linux is gaining, is directly linked to it being cheaper... not because its technically superior! A whole bunch of wind would be taking out of Linux's sail's ( in the corporate landscape anyways... ) if MS started giving away windows.
I was thinking the exact same thing... what the hell would a book about HTTP teach you, that you cant already get for free at w3c?
That said... who really expected the book to be anything other then bad? Hell, its is SAMS we are talking about! Home of the Teach Yourself your an Idiot, in 24 Hours! series of books.
I long ago swore I would never again buy a book from SAMS press... and, unlike the time long ago when I swore I would never have another cigarette... Ive actually never bought another one of their crappy ass books! And I sleep better at night because of it.
So, in summary... if SAMS published it... it probrably sucks ass.
Cheers.
Actually, after watching the shockwave video, I got a different impression of what this product actually was. I was thinking it was more inline with CBuilder or Kylix, which truely do tie you into using one or another libraries, to truely exploit the full benefits.
My thoughts after the fact... this is a @@$@#$'ing expensive IDE in the end. It doesnt do near as much as I thought it did. $1000 for this... ouch.
I would rather spend the money of slickEdit or CodeWarrior... or any other integrated editer with debugger support.
Disregard the part I had mentioned about having to use a borland framework to get cross platform features... I mis interpreted what exactly this product was... I had thought it also included the cross platform features of CBuilder, which appears to not be the case, or at the least... is not confirmed.
Actually... from what I saw in the shockwave demo... this product is rather lame... its *JUST* an IDE, that has the ability to call out to various compilers and debuggers... Hey... thats kinda cool to be able to use the same IDE across platforms ( which Metrowerks already has... )... and it has a funky UML modelling tool included... but...
Its nice to see Borland trying to fill the niche of Cross Platform compilers... I loved Borland back in the day. I learned C in microsoft Quick C, then once I got my hands on Borland C, then C++... there was no looking back. Until windows came about that is. Up until Visual Studio 6, Borland consistantly made the better IDE. It was truely a joy developing and debugging within the Borland IDE. Even the long departed OWL was a nicer framework then MFC at the time... atleast IMHO. Then things took a turn for the worse...
I think its safe to say... since Visual Studio 6... the Microsoft product *IS* the IDE of choice to use on Windows. Actually, from what ive seen... since VS 7/.net... its the best damned IDE period! I think alot of people will agree with that... so many damned bells and wistles... its really hard to compete with Visual Studio these days. Actually... VS is the only reason I prefer programming on Wintel over linux. The linux API's are certainly nicer to work with... but from someone who got used to programming in Visual studio... going over to vi/emacs + make files is just toooooo damned painful for me.
Somewhere along the way... borland released Borland CBuilder... wow... RAD development... without having to use a hooky ass language like VB... how great! So I gave it a shot. I loved it at first... then ran into soooooooo many quirks I was pulling my hair out. Not to mention, I hated the class framework ( VCL or something similar ). It really showed its Delphi roots, and im a C++ programmer for a reason!
So, at 1000$ USD... does the new Borland compiler have a use? Sure it does... If I have to do cross platform, GUI based C++ applications in the future, and budget allows... Im all over this! I would much rather use a Borland IDE, then any linux build systems ( except possibly KDevelop... it might have come a far way since I checked last! ) But, this product is great, for traditionally windows based C++ developers, who have to do GUI apps on Linux/Unix. Biggest problem I see is... this isnt really a good answer for open source development. Ill explain below.
The majority of open source code, is written to support the GCC compilers, and the most commonly available Open Source libraries, such as gzip to give an example. Now... in order to get cross platform support with the Borland compiler... with all the frills anyways... you would have to use the borland libraries... this is something I can imagine most opensource projects would shy away from. Not to say, this compiler wont compile code GCC would... or any such thing... Im just saying to really take advantage of its features... you will have to use the borland libraries. This isnt necisarrily a bad thing, but I think it will be a big hangup in the open source communities. Regardless, I hope to get my hands on this product for a better look.
What I really wish for, is BorlandC# to be release, with target support for either a) Mono or b) a Borland written CLR. Probrably wishful thinking.
Actually, I didnt mention the very specific European country, as I didnt want it to be seen that all of Europe was like that... or for that matter... all of the population of that individual Country either. The culture shock difference between the two nations was massive... but, to paint all of Europe under the same brushstroke would be foolish, and I know that... but, at the same time... to say... An american in california and an american in Kentucky, are the same, is just as folly. Thats much the reason I didnt go into detail... if that makes sense.
The only reason I mentioned that it was a European country... was I had assumed in the context of the article... people would guess I was talking about India.
For outsourcing to work, you need a project that can be properly outsourced. This is the part that constantly boogles my mind, is when I see companies outsource work for perceived savings... when in reality, the product should never actually be outsourced to begin with.
Certain things can be outsourced, but the key it seems is for the item to be extremely well spec'd and self contained. If project A depends on project B being completed, and project A is done in house... project B should not be outsourced. The ideal things that can be moved over seas, are projects that can be completely managed at the other end, and have few dependancies on this end. In other words... all the design specing, etc... has been established already... the people doing the work will have *NO* questions as to what needs to be done, and what their deadlines/goals/etc... are.
Where an outsourced project seems to breakdown are:
Improperly defined specication for work needed or misunderstanding of said work
Dependancies on projects/information else
Poor communication structure between parent company, and outsourced branch
Lack of understanding of parent companies needs or function
No understanda engrish ( this one is bigger then you think )
Where I am at now, we are a manufacturing environment that is expanding. Now, we dont exactly outsource, we build new plants in other countries. As it stands now... *EVERY* time we set up a new plant... it was always a communication breakdown that was the primary problem. Also, setting up the infrastructure between China, US, Canada, etc... isnt even slightly cheap. Every new faucility costs a wack of cash. That said... not one of the expansion plants we have built overseas ( including Europe ), has approached the success level of the ones we have in North America. Additionally, local laws have all but resulted in closure of one remote faucility... and work ethic of one certain European country, is soon to result in another.
There are alot of hidden costs in dealing with countries outside of North America. Until you go down that road, you are going to be shocked to find out, just how many. ( For example... probrably 1000 man hours, atleast... and 100 cross continental flights... just for initial training/setup ).
Sadly... I think thats the problem... Most MBA programs forget to include Spotting the Obvious 101.
Actually... I would love to see them add just one more course to the MBA programs... Just Because Im Educated, Doesnt Make Me Smart: A Case Study of MBA Graduates
there is already an 'open' standard on tuning HD and digital broadcasts. without it, HD/digital tuners from several manufacturers could not exist - and seeing as how they do, it isn't something you can really argue.
See, I dont believe this is completely true. The decoder is always external to the TV. Such as the HD decoder box or HD satelitte receiver, or hell... even your DVD player. To my knowledge, to this date, there isnt a HDTV on the market, where you can just plug a single cable in the back, and get a HDTV resolution picture, without going through some kind of decoding device first. This standard will change that. If you know of such a TV, let me know.
Slashdot Mirror
Really... how this article got on slashdot beats the hell out of me. I hate to tell the author but perhaps his biggest problem is more a matter of age then anything. Authors of the digital generation are comfortible with word processors as much as anything... as are many authors from the pre-digital generation for that matter. Douglas Adams pops immediatly to mind, and im assuming this is an author most slashdotters are familar with.
So in the end... this boils down to an article about a guy who doesnt like progress, or is too damned lazy to dedicate himself to learning something new. Dont get me wrong, these people are everywhere... I have hundreds of people ( mostly 45+ years of age, btw... ) who would just love to see computers go away, email to burn in hell... and for everybody to have an in/out set of boxes sitting on their desks. Why? Because they grew up using a different system and never felt comfortible in the end.
So, as it stands... this particular fellow settled on VI, as its the most basic interface he could find. If he found most GUI word processors too convoluted... I guarantee you, he didnt get much into the advanced features of VI either. Christ, he could have gotten by using notepad... or DOS EDIT for that matter... if there wasnt a 64K file limit.
But there are two morals to this story I suppose... Perhaps the default install of office suites should be more.... um basic in the feature department... You turn things on as you need them. Then again... novelists arent exactly the default target that {hint,hint}OFFICE suites are aimed at anyways, now are they?
The second possible moral... perhaps there is a target afterall for tablet PC. All these people that thing the pen is king and the computer is evil... well... perhaps they have the compremise they need. I have tested out two tablet PC's to date, and I have to admit, they are pretty slick. My three biggest complaints sofar are 1) it doesnt have the tactile feel of paper... not even close... so your writing at least till trained, is a bit altered 2) they are fairly slow, when compared to a comprable laptop. Must be alot of software overhead... 3) too damned expensive... but this will solve itself in time ( in fact, already has started to ).
Although, except perhaps as a niche market... that last thing I ever *EVER* want to see, is developers start targeting for the luddite markets! Its bad enough our education system already caters to the lowest common denominator!
Sorry... im vented now...
Admit it people... the Amiga is dead... let it go!
;-)
Thats rather strange, as most corporate CIO types are thoroughly in bed with Microsoft. Sending money to microsoft doesnt normally bother them... well... much more then sending money to anybody that is...
:)
That said... I wish my company bought me a sweet ass gaming laptop every year aswell
I think you misunderstand me here. You say you shudder to think of the pre-XML days... well, the pre-XML days, well... they were CSV.
Now... the thing is, many of the things you have mentioned are already expressed by Relational databases, which is generally what the CSV file is generated from in a batch based system. In alot of ways, that stuff already existed... just not in the file format, but in the process of creating said file format!
Dont get me wrong, im not saying that XML is shitty... im just saying that XML is way over hyped. For a replacement for a system that has been around for 20 years... is XML really that special? Does XML really grant us that much beyond what CSV and good databases behind the scenes really help that much??? The proprietarity of XML schema's really dont make the standard just that open, now does it? It has the capacity of being an open standard, but on the whole, you often need to know the format in advance... how is that much different from CSV's and standard batch outputs have already presented?
XML is not much of a step forward really... it is a step forward no doubt... but perhaps the best solution would be to make the data self enacting. Namingly, couple the logic to the data... so that code and data can exist as one.
Actually... in my case, it was a ColdFusion based system... and I havent a clue how you fit powerpoint into all of this. As to "It would have cost much much more"... gee... I would have loved to have seen how... Most enterprise type environments already have either A) bought licenses for all vital employees requiring MS office or B) have a MS site license.
If the origional poster was talking about development costs... I would love to see numbers to back that up. I hate to say it, but for the most part, Windows based programming seems to be as affordable as it gets... with the exception of the initial compiler costs. Now... if you are in a enterprise environment, where 1000$ is too much for development tools... or, even more appropriate, if 3000$ for a MSDN license is too much, perhaps its time to polish your resume... since your 50,000$ per year or greater salary, must seem oftly expensive to them!!!!!!!
Depends on how you do it... basing an enterprise system around Excel is hacky as shit... Ill give you that... Might as well build your system from popcicle sticks and bubblegum. That said... exporting output to excel, if written correctly, its a perfectly fine thing to do.
Hey... personally I hate excel itself, but then again, im not a bean counter. But, meeting customer requirements is perhaps the most important thing you do. As an analyst... its your job to contrast proper solutions vs customer requirements. You dont often get to make all the decisions yourself... and if you are making all the decisions yourself, you probrably arent serving your customer properly!
Idealism is one thing... reality is something completely different!
Of course, those people think Word/PowerPoint run the world, and the file format is all but a mystery to them. Hence having something generated on the fly via a webpage has its cool factor, and not to mention it was a good chance to introduce this free word processing suite to them.
One thing that everyone seems to forget ( or is un-aware of... ) is that Microsoft provides API's for the creation of Office documents via code or script aswell. In the past, due to the bean-counters dependance on Excel spreadsheets, I have have had to generate XLS files from a web interface. Trust me, if you are willing to work within the Wintel platform using MS tools... its very very very easy to do!
First Off
Microsoft did not drop the ball with XML. Microsoft disappointed the slashdot crowd by not going completely open... geee...... big shock there. Microsoft maintains dominance to their office suite by controlling the file formats behind it. Opening that up, without reason would be absolutely stupid from a business point of view. Granted, its an un-popular stance, but that doesnt make it any less true. MS played along with the XML game to be able to use XML as a buzz word... and in some ways, they truly have embraced XML... just not in their holy cash cow called Office. Take a look at Visual Studio (dot) Net, and you will see how strongly MS has infact embraced XML.
Secondly...
XML is perhaps one of the most over hyped technologies ever. Self describing datatypes are nothing new. The only really remarkable thing about XML is how embraced by the industry it was. In all honesty... the difference between XML and CSV files really isnt that signifigant. Granted... XML is far beyond anything a CSV ever did, but they all present the same result. In the current work environment I am in, all our enterprise systesm support input/output now via CSV. In addition, im in the auto industry, so the whole hype of Webservices+XML really isnt that special either. RIght now, they have ANX and EDI... granted... XML + Web Services would be much more straight forward... but in 20+ years of evolution... has it really come that far?
Sorry for the anti-status-quo opinion, but I cant help but believe that XML is way overhyped. Useful... sure... but definatly overhyped!
That makes sense Egro98, as I am in london as well. From what I understand... Shaw or McLean Hunter used to be in London aswell and offered cable internet service before Rogers bought them out. From what I understand... all the existing cable customers that got "forced" over to rogers, watched their previously great service go down the toilet.
Hmmmm.... thats strange....
:)
Only a few things I can think off... first off, I subscribed for a year in advance ( aka, paid upfront ), bought the modem myself, and at the time I signed up, I signed up with 5 other people. ( A bunch of us from work ).... so that leaves two possibities...
1. The price has gone up
2. We negotiated a better deal
Truth is, its probrably a bit of both. I highly recommend the service though... sorry about the inaccuracy there. The strange thing is... a few months back GTN and NutNBut.net merged... so its basically the same service now... if you check NutNBut it shows dynamic 3meg as 59.95$ a month and static service as 64.95$ a month... which is closer to my origional pricing. I can comment on their service ( as GTN and NutNBut use the same backbone ), but I cant say anything about their support personally.
Regardless, its still a nice price, and im sure GTN would sell at the same prices as nutnbut... so, im not sure what the hell is going on with the price discrepancy!
Yeah, Eastern Canada has a similar system but different companies... We basically have Bell ( your Telus I believe ) selling DSL service and Rogers selling cable internet. I was with Rogers for the longest time and what a ripe set of bastards they were. Uptime was laughable... my "always on" internet connection was on maybe 80% of the time... I was down once for 3 days straight... then on top of that when they started over selling the number of users on a local loop ( causing it to slow down MADLY ) they start coming down HARD on people running servers and lots of bandwidth. Finally they started implementing two teir billing... where in basically you can buy a few packages, depending on how much traffic you generate... One is for the occasional surfer/email reader... the other is for the more avid user. Problem is, they never offered a truely unlimited service for the power users. Oh yeah, and their billing department was as bad as their tech support!!!!!! Watch your bill with rogers... they screw up constantly... and never in your favour I might add!
:)
The other choice is Bell... grrrrrr... not much better actually. DSL service in this case... basically they offer a always on low bandwidth DSL service and a full out service with rumour of a cap coming soon. Thing is, I have cell service with bell, and I know damned well they are a bunch of idiots to deal with!!! So I tried to stay away from bell as much as possible. Oh yeah... and no static IP's unless you want to pay something like 15$ extra a month.
In the end, I went with an indy provider ( GTN. I have NO complaints sofar... 3meg DSL service for something like 55$ a month canadian... or normal DSL service for 34.95$. Plus you get a static IP, and can do WHATEVER you want. Only lame part is I have potentially the LAMEST email address possible... "myname@nutnbut.net"... glad I dont use it!
I gotta say though... this article is oooooooooooooooolllllllllddddd news. Some of the shit that gets posted on slashdot really shocks me sometimes.
I suppose there is some truth to your statement... Linux has become the new buzzword for moronic CIO's who really dont have a clue. ( All im implying by that is... Linux is only news to CIO's with their heads up their asses... and CIO worth his salt would have been well informed well in advance... ). In the past it was Java, XML and web services... I can see it now...
Braindead_CIO says " Hey Dave, I just read about this wonderful Linux thingy that will save us billions of dollars! Why arent we a linux company?"
Dave_Poor_TechGuy says "Thats because we are still too busy porting all our old code to Java, and rewriting all of our data to use XML"
BrainDead_CIO says " Drop all that! We need Linux everywhere!"
Dave_Poor_TechGuy says " Ok... but why?"
BrainDead_CIO says " Ummmmmmmmmm..... ( drool, spittle, blank mindless stare)... ummmmm.... just do it!"
I'd take that bet in a heartbeat... MS has zero, I repeat ZERO reasons to even think about releasing a Linux distro. If linux ever became enough of a threat that they would be willing to release MS Linux... they would just drop the price of Windows down to basically nothing.
Dont kid yourself... a good majority of the momentum Linux is gaining, is directly linked to it being cheaper... not because its technically superior! A whole bunch of wind would be taking out of Linux's sail's ( in the corporate landscape anyways... ) if MS started giving away windows.
Um... ok then... what then is WebSphere?
mind
I was thinking the exact same thing... what the hell would a book about HTTP teach you, that you cant already get for free at w3c?
That said... who really expected the book to be anything other then bad? Hell, its is SAMS we are talking about! Home of the Teach Yourself your an Idiot, in 24 Hours! series of books.
I long ago swore I would never again buy a book from SAMS press... and, unlike the time long ago when I swore I would never have another cigarette... Ive actually never bought another one of their crappy ass books! And I sleep better at night because of it.
So, in summary... if SAMS published it... it probrably sucks ass.
Cheers.
To watch the live telecast on ESPN!
Hey... if they will televise spelling bee's, they damned well better televise a coding contest!
Hmmmm.... ok... im a geek, and even I would find that dull as hell.
Yeah, your right... thats funny as hell! ;-) You can see it here.
I agree... if your windows only, you still cant beat Visual Studio. Its perhaps the best product Microsoft makes... except maybe Age of Empires :)
Actually, after watching the shockwave video, I got a different impression of what this product actually was. I was thinking it was more inline with CBuilder or Kylix, which truely do tie you into using one or another libraries, to truely exploit the full benefits.
My thoughts after the fact... this is a @@$@#$'ing expensive IDE in the end. It doesnt do near as much as I thought it did. $1000 for this... ouch.
I would rather spend the money of slickEdit or CodeWarrior... or any other integrated editer with debugger support.
Disregard the part I had mentioned about having to use a borland framework to get cross platform features... I mis interpreted what exactly this product was... I had thought it also included the cross platform features of CBuilder, which appears to not be the case, or at the least... is not confirmed.
.... DAMN ... how is this work 1,000$ US... wow...
Actually... from what I saw in the shockwave demo... this product is rather lame... its *JUST* an IDE, that has the ability to call out to various compilers and debuggers... Hey... thats kinda cool to be able to use the same IDE across platforms ( which Metrowerks already has... )... and it has a funky UML modelling tool included... but...
Its nice to see Borland trying to fill the niche of Cross Platform compilers... I loved Borland back in the day. I learned C in microsoft Quick C, then once I got my hands on Borland C, then C++... there was no looking back. Until windows came about that is. Up until Visual Studio 6, Borland consistantly made the better IDE. It was truely a joy developing and debugging within the Borland IDE. Even the long departed OWL was a nicer framework then MFC at the time... atleast IMHO. Then things took a turn for the worse...
I think its safe to say... since Visual Studio 6... the Microsoft product *IS* the IDE of choice to use on Windows. Actually, from what ive seen... since VS 7/.net... its the best damned IDE period! I think alot of people will agree with that... so many damned bells and wistles... its really hard to compete with Visual Studio these days. Actually... VS is the only reason I prefer programming on Wintel over linux. The linux API's are certainly nicer to work with... but from someone who got used to programming in Visual studio... going over to vi/emacs + make files is just toooooo damned painful for me.
Somewhere along the way... borland released Borland CBuilder... wow... RAD development... without having to use a hooky ass language like VB... how great! So I gave it a shot. I loved it at first... then ran into soooooooo many quirks I was pulling my hair out. Not to mention, I hated the class framework ( VCL or something similar ). It really showed its Delphi roots, and im a C++ programmer for a reason!
So, at 1000$ USD... does the new Borland compiler have a use? Sure it does... If I have to do cross platform, GUI based C++ applications in the future, and budget allows... Im all over this! I would much rather use a Borland IDE, then any linux build systems ( except possibly KDevelop... it might have come a far way since I checked last! ) But, this product is great, for traditionally windows based C++ developers, who have to do GUI apps on Linux/Unix. Biggest problem I see is... this isnt really a good answer for open source development. Ill explain below.
The majority of open source code, is written to support the GCC compilers, and the most commonly available Open Source libraries, such as gzip to give an example. Now... in order to get cross platform support with the Borland compiler... with all the frills anyways... you would have to use the borland libraries... this is something I can imagine most opensource projects would shy away from. Not to say, this compiler wont compile code GCC would... or any such thing... Im just saying to really take advantage of its features... you will have to use the borland libraries. This isnt necisarrily a bad thing, but I think it will be a big hangup in the open source communities. Regardless, I hope to get my hands on this product for a better look.
What I really wish for, is BorlandC# to be release, with target support for either a) Mono or b) a Borland written CLR. Probrably wishful thinking.
Actually, I didnt mention the very specific European country, as I didnt want it to be seen that all of Europe was like that... or for that matter... all of the population of that individual Country either. The culture shock difference between the two nations was massive... but, to paint all of Europe under the same brushstroke would be foolish, and I know that... but, at the same time... to say... An american in california and an american in Kentucky, are the same, is just as folly. Thats much the reason I didnt go into detail... if that makes sense.
The only reason I mentioned that it was a European country... was I had assumed in the context of the article... people would guess I was talking about India.
For outsourcing to work, you need a project that can be properly outsourced. This is the part that constantly boogles my mind, is when I see companies outsource work for perceived savings... when in reality, the product should never actually be outsourced to begin with.
Certain things can be outsourced, but the key it seems is for the item to be extremely well spec'd and self contained. If project A depends on project B being completed, and project A is done in house... project B should not be outsourced. The ideal things that can be moved over seas, are projects that can be completely managed at the other end, and have few dependancies on this end. In other words... all the design specing, etc... has been established already... the people doing the work will have *NO* questions as to what needs to be done, and what their deadlines/goals/etc... are.
Where an outsourced project seems to breakdown are:
Improperly defined specication for work needed or misunderstanding of said work
Dependancies on projects/information else
Poor communication structure between parent company, and outsourced branch
Lack of understanding of parent companies needs or function
No understanda engrish ( this one is bigger then you think )
Where I am at now, we are a manufacturing environment that is expanding. Now, we dont exactly outsource, we build new plants in other countries. As it stands now... *EVERY* time we set up a new plant... it was always a communication breakdown that was the primary problem. Also, setting up the infrastructure between China, US, Canada, etc... isnt even slightly cheap. Every new faucility costs a wack of cash. That said... not one of the expansion plants we have built overseas ( including Europe ), has approached the success level of the ones we have in North America. Additionally, local laws have all but resulted in closure of one remote faucility... and work ethic of one certain European country, is soon to result in another.
There are alot of hidden costs in dealing with countries outside of North America. Until you go down that road, you are going to be shocked to find out, just how many. ( For example... probrably 1000 man hours, atleast... and 100 cross continental flights... just for initial training/setup ).
Sadly... I think thats the problem... Most MBA programs forget to include Spotting the Obvious 101.
Actually... I would love to see them add just one more course to the MBA programs...
Just Because Im Educated, Doesnt Make Me Smart: A Case Study of MBA Graduates
there is already an 'open' standard on tuning HD and digital broadcasts. without it, HD/digital tuners from several manufacturers could not exist - and seeing as how they do, it isn't something you can really argue.
See, I dont believe this is completely true. The decoder is always external to the TV. Such as the HD decoder box or HD satelitte receiver, or hell... even your DVD player. To my knowledge, to this date, there isnt a HDTV on the market, where you can just plug a single cable in the back, and get a HDTV resolution picture, without going through some kind of decoding device first. This standard will change that. If you know of such a TV, let me know.