you should read something more about chernobyl before writing something like this
of course, RBMK reactors do have some fundamental problems, but even these were not the real reason
primary cause of of the chernobyl accident was mismanadged experiment, if i remember it right, couple of engineers without knowing physics of the ractor, has been trying some new stuff and shit happend
what i want to say is that no matter how good your reactor is from the technological point of view, if you use it as a playground, someone will find a way how to blow it up
terrorists are not that dumb to send unencrypted emails about their plans
they can use web sites, ssl connections, etc
noone is able to monitor (and decrypt) all ssl connections, but if they can get an access to the site itself (when it is running on ISP's server) they can easily get all the information they need
on the other side, i'm running smtp server and web server on my own pc at home
so i'm lucky that i'm not an US citizen, otherwise i would be probably accused of terrorism because FBI cannot get access to my web site just by asking my ISP
who is writing open source ? people who know how to code, and have some income how is it possible ? because they are good in something, yet have enough time to work on opensource
if you have comparable abilities in writing code and it is the only thing you know, then you'd better start learning something else, because there are already people doing it for free
if you are better then that, you can analyse, you can design, you can think, then someone will pay you for that
if you want to get more money then someone else, you have to be better, or to sell yourself better if someone else is doing the same for free, you have a problem
but this is not about open source, this is about capitalism, isn't it ?
i don't think that BFU should be expected to download source archives and do configure/make/make install by himself
that's what we have distributions for, isn't it ?
whether it is rpm based, debian, gentoo and its emerge, there are ways how to install software for linux just by simple clicking in the fact, it is even easier then with windows sometimes, because you have a specialized tool to browse through available apps for your distro, you just need to select, click, wait
as for the product compliance -> this can be again enforced by your distro, it is up to them which selection of packages they offer you to install; and it is up to them to make sure that it will work
of course, nothing stops you from doing configure/make/make install by hand if you want, and that's what i find nice
i like that fact, that i was able to run one command to install nut (network ups tools) with all dependencies, yet at the same time, i has been able to hack the source and make driver for my own ups which was not supported at that time
the nice thing about this is, that you don't need to leave 'free' world in order to start selling it
as you have mentioned that guy offering free hamburgers, you could take 10 hamburgers from him and start selling them behind the corner
and what's even nicer, as long as you don't claim these hams to be your work, and you are willing to tell your customers how they (hamburgers) can be made, the guy won't be angry !
i can sell you the leading web server technology -> apache cd -> for 500 eur if you want and that's not all, i will give you the source code as well ! as a bonus, for free !
hm.. thinking about the development during last 5 years...
i believe that in another 5 years, i will only need to call a special, toll free, number and THEY will tell me where i am, where do i go, and what i think
you know what's funny ? why should you copy at all ?
is everybody developing the same software all over the place ? or what ? i mean, when i need a hint, i'm looking into open source; but i know that i can never copy a line of code ! not because it is not allowed; but because i'm working on a different problem ! if it would be the same problem, then it would be already solved !
if some looks at my code, has an idea, and then implements it, it is ok if someone tries to steal my code and tries to sell the same product as my company does, he is a thief i would say: shoot him but if you want to know how it works, you have a questions; come to my place and have a drink with me, and we can talk about these things
you know, as long as you are a visitor, i like you but if you want to use ME to make your bloody money, then be aware, that i'm not scare of having blooded hands
i haven't said that i'm against fighting the spam i just don't like the idea of having spam filter at ISP which can have several false positives a day !
if there are some open standards for fighting/tracking spam on a global level, great, i will implement it on my side, no probs !
but until then, i will rather do filtering on my side, where i can define whitelist, where i can check for false positives, etc...
> You're like the anti-immunization whackos that > talk up about how unnecessary vaccines are
i simply don't consider 'global spam' as a solution
if there is a filter at ISP and has a false positive, i have no chance of finding it out
if it is my filter giving false positive, and i'm expecting an email, i can search through spam filter, etc...
i can also train my filter to work well for me, while ISP would have to use 'generic' filter
i had already a problem with filter at ISP; i have won one auction on ebay, the person was using AOL and AOL was reufsing my emails (i don't know why, my smtp server was definitely not a spam relay, never !) they refusal message told me that i should call somewhere, etc... i have really no interest to that
once there would be an open standard of a kind, which should help finding (or tracking at least) spam; i will implement it on my side, no problem
but having an ISP with a spam filter is imho worse then 100 spam messages dail
and frankly... i don't know your situation; but who is making the living (income) ? if it is your wife, then take your chance and do something what you like to do, since she is going to give you a back up
if it is you, and you still have to make a decision like this, then you have a problem which can't be solved by moving to another place
if you want to send your data encrypted, you don't use zip, winzip, or whatever you call it; you can use some real encryption for the stuff
spam ? what is it ? my email addresses are publicly available and my email client is getting a lot of spam messages i don't get almost any of this shit i see 3-4 of them a day 3-4 spam messages a day are not going to affect my productivity, they are more like 'funny examples' of what has got through the bayesian filter
of course, there are people who do not have corporate filter and not even a personal one -> it's their problem
you don't jump out of a plane without a parachute, and you don't plug in to internet without having a protection
it is like sex
if you really do, it is your problem, not internet problem
if you don't like something (spam) -> it is up to you to make something about it there is no anti-spam angel, so wake up and stop complaining !
just a thought what about file formats which are not understood by the sharing program ? will it block all such files ? or if you have sharing program which understand wav and mp3 but not ogg, can you easily share pirated ogg music ?
what about zipped/gzipped/bzipped music ? what about encrypted music ?
and what if this 'central database' is down ? will it completely shut down p2p ? nonsense, this goes against the true nature of p2p !
or can i simply block it on my firewall ?
and will there be an open source version for linux ? you know, there are people who won't put any trojaned binary software on their systems
Do you know perl ? It has some kind of a support for OOP. There is no real OOP there, but you can reasonably easily (i.e. much easier then in C or pascal) 'simulate' inheritance and polymorphism.
I was a 'heavy' perl programmer in the past, and now most of my work is in java. I feel like i can compare these two approaches a little bit ('simulated' OOP vs. strict OOP)
My feeling is:
- if you know java basics, you will (in most cases) write a terrible code; it may work as you expected but the structure will be poor, it will be hardly understandable for the other people and every new change will cost you more time then the last one.
- if you know java well, your code will be good (if you have enough time to write it...), it will be easily understandable by other developers and the changes will be maintanable.
comparing to perl (i mean, writing OOP-like code in perl):
- if you know perl basics, your code will be simple, easily understandable, only extending/changing it will take more and more time with next every change/request.
- if you know perl well, well... it gets down to your 'programming' behavior - but in general, your code will be complicated, hardly understandable but easily extendible.
Similar differences can be found (IMHO) when comparing between small vs. big projects in java vs. perl.
What i want to point out is that the difference between strict OOP and OOP 'simulation', between experienced and unexperienced programmers, and between team-work-capable and team-work-uncapable programmers is much more subtle than what you've said.
Strict OOP can be better as the designer, and at the same time it can be also worse. 'Simulated OOP' follows the same pattern.
If I should start a development on a single application (i.e. one set of GUI screens, well defined interface to the 'outer world') I would still choose perl. If i should start a development on a framework, on a set of components which should be reusable, which I'll need to combine in every possible way and which should turn into enterprise level app, i would choose java.
Even if i could write the first third of this in perl in 50% of the time. It is the next 2/3rds which would take me 500% of the time.
It is not only about the 'strict' and 'simulated' OOP. It is about the ways how you can misuse the language.
i'm not so sure unless your flier can break through the ground and concrete walls and send the pictures from underground, you probably won't see more then a couple of buildings
or do you think that they take little green men out for a one hour walk on a sunny day ? actually, my doctor says that it is healthy...
as long as they can't buy the software officialy because of export regulations; it is officialy not there and therefore BSA should not be interested in iran, should it ?;-)
as for the cost benefit -> i'm not so sure the regulations will be lifted one day; and then they either buy milions of licenses for windoze, or tell to microsoft 'no thank you, we run linux' actually, their government should start making annoucements like 'we are considering using open source, bla bla bla' it would be interesting to see how companies who can't sell the software there, becouse of their goverment's politics, would react
IF the regulations are eased and the software; then they have to make a decision (if it wasn't already done of course)
if it will be open source decision, the people will follow imho
> Deadlines. The problem is when one day becomes > thirty your employer may well find someone else > with a broader skill set. You can't look up the > syntax of a command you've never heard of, you > need to know it exists first.
i agree, on the other side, you don't need to learn the syntax in order to know that it exists so why should you learn the syntax then ? if you use it 20 times, you will probably remember it anyway; and if you don't use it at all, than you haven't 'wasted' the time by learning it
why should one day become thrity ? i'm missing the link no database course can learn you to solve every possible problem which can happen
if it learns you how to solve 20% of most common problems, than i think it is a bad course
if it learns you how to find a solution to a database problem; and if it gives you some skills/clues to find it quickly, than it is a good one
it may be that you will need more time to find a solution for a common problem (while you have it instantly after the first course); but most of the real life problems are not those from textbooks
> what is it good for to know 30 mathematical > formulas which you don't need at the moment
> It's not as if it takes space used for other > things, old stuff doesn't fall out of your brain > just because you learn new things.
but it takes time to learn it
in addition, i believe that it is much easier (and faster) to learn things which you need, then to learn them just because you are supposed to learn
> like that. You have to have some sort of clue if > you want to look up the information on how to > design the case and internals of the phone to cope > with that, which means knowing a lot of boring > little details about how things break, many of
i'm working in a different field; and because i really don't know these little details about how things break, i can't compare
of course that there are fields where instant knowledge is the only way to make instant decision; and many of them have to be done instantly but when you are talking about algorithmical development, and you measure time in days, not in hours, minutes or seconds, what is it good for to know 30 mathematical formulas which you don't need at the moment ? as long as i know that it exists, and i know how it works, i just need to take the right book and i read it once to have the knowledge temporarily in my head again
i haven't said that learning is not important, but for me, learning is about learning how the thing works and how they can be used, not memorizing them
if i use something often, i will learn it automatically; just by using not because it is a part of course xyz, but because i really need it at that time
> The object of the course/certification is not to > get a pretty peice of paper, or even just to be > able to pass the exam, but to get some > understanding that you can apply. The pretty > piece of paper is just a symbol of that > knowlege, and the last time I had to actually > show somone the degree was five jobs ago. Even
unfortunately this is not always true i've seen similar courses like these referred by the article; and some of those are not about learning, but about memorizing commands/things which nobody usually need to use of course, it is good to know that such commands are there, and how they work/how they can be used; but for knowing the exact syntax you can always consult reference manual; or even help
> Sometimes we don't have the luxury of the time > to learn new skills, which is why the exams try > to find what skills/knowlege you have.
i think that this highly depends on what are you doing if i need to spent one day reading some papers related to my work, to get new ideas, or to refresh forgotten knowldege; then it is not a luxury; i can easily take this time because it is worth it
i don't have a feeling that this works for me as you've described
i would change it into "having understood something once, reading up on it later will be much easier"
you can learn a mathematical method as a sequence of steps; and you will forgot it after couple of months without using it; and i bet that learning it the second time won't be much easier
you can understand such mathematical method, not memorizing the sequence of steps but being able to find out these steps on your own (given enough time, which is usually not a case during exam) i personally thing that this 'understanding' lasts much longer, and as you've said, learning the stuff the second time will be much easier
i don't know if it is more general, but my mind simply refuses (or makes it harder) to memorize something which is has a logic and i understand it
you have to feel like this if you are asking the question, you should try to find out 'why ?' if you want to lead a team on a technical level, you have to be able to understand what every memeber of a team is doing
i'm not saying you have to *know* it - just that you have to be able to understand it, if it is required you need to look at a 'big picture'
leader can either know exactly what to do, or ir can have only a rough idea the worst thing is if a leader has only a rough idea, but thinks that he knows exactly what to do
well... i'm doing XP of a kind however... i tell you an example
once upon a time, there was a task to solve, it was about developing of an algorithm, mix of known stuff tuned to a problem, with all the options which are needed and none of those which are useless
i faced a first set of technical questions, like which platform, which language, which methods after two days of evaluating all the options i have, i've chosen perl
i've chosen perl for implementation of an algorithm which was supposed to do milions of iterations to find a reasonably good solution in a short time
of course, it was slow, results which i needed in 2 minutes i've got in 15 minutes at the same time, i was fast as a hell in modifying, adding new features, removing obsolete ones after couple of weeks having a good feedback, i came to a point when i was able to say: well, my algo supports all what i will need for next year and still isn't bloated
this was the point when i would accept XP, to rewrite what i have, fast and cleanly i was already aware of the result, and i was able to define WHAT -> exactly, because i had perl source
what i want to say is, that with XP, or actually with outsourcing in general, you need to have a detailed plan without a detailed plan you are going to loose control over the things you need to understand the things, sometimes to the last detail; or you need someone who can do this for you -> and it has to be something whom you can really trust
if you have just some ideas, it means you have no source code, no plan the idea is somewhere in your brain and still misses some details -> this is something you can never spec out; at least that's what i think
you will need first change, then the second one, and you will already leave the safe waters of original contract
Slashdot Mirror
> and Chernobyl was due to Soviet incompetence.
you should read something more about chernobyl before writing something like this
of course, RBMK reactors do have some fundamental problems, but even these were not the real reason
primary cause of of the chernobyl accident was mismanadged experiment, if i remember it right, couple of engineers without knowing physics of the ractor, has been trying some new stuff
and shit happend
what i want to say is that no matter how good your reactor is from the technological point of view, if you use it as a playground, someone will find a way how to blow it up
i'd suggest bzflag ;-)
terrorists are not that dumb to send unencrypted emails about their plans
they can use web sites, ssl connections, etc
noone is able to monitor (and decrypt) all ssl connections, but if they can get an access to the site itself (when it is running on ISP's server) they can easily get all the information they need
on the other side, i'm running smtp server and web server on my own pc at home
so i'm lucky that i'm not an US citizen, otherwise i would be probably accused of terrorism because FBI cannot get access to my web site just by asking my ISP
who is writing open source ? people who know how to code, and have some income
how is it possible ?
because they are good in something, yet have enough time to work on opensource
if you have comparable abilities in writing code and it is the only thing you know, then you'd better start learning something else, because there are already people doing it for free
if you are better then that, you can analyse, you can design, you can think, then someone will pay you for that
if you want to get more money then someone else, you have to be better, or to sell yourself better
if someone else is doing the same for free, you have a problem
but this is not about open source, this is about capitalism, isn't it ?
i don't think that BFU should be expected to download source archives and do configure/make/make install by himself
that's what we have distributions for, isn't it ?
whether it is rpm based, debian, gentoo and its emerge, there are ways how to install software for linux just by simple clicking
in the fact, it is even easier then with windows sometimes, because you have a specialized tool to browse through available apps for your distro, you just need to select, click, wait
as for the product compliance -> this can be again enforced by your distro, it is up to them which selection of packages they offer you to install; and it is up to them to make sure that it will work
of course, nothing stops you from doing configure/make/make install by hand if you want, and that's what i find nice
i like that fact, that i was able to run one command to install nut (network ups tools) with all dependencies, yet at the same time, i has been able to hack the source and make driver for my own ups which was not supported at that time
the nice thing about this is, that you don't need to leave 'free' world in order to start selling it
as you have mentioned that guy offering free hamburgers, you could take 10 hamburgers from him and start selling them behind the corner
and what's even nicer, as long as you don't claim these hams to be your work, and you are willing to tell your customers how they (hamburgers) can be made, the guy won't be angry !
i can sell you the leading web server technology -> apache cd -> for 500 eur if you want
and that's not all, i will give you the source code as well ! as a bonus, for free !
compare that to IIS !!!
no, not really
is it a problem ?
hm .. thinking about the development during last 5 years ...
i believe that in another 5 years, i will only need to call a special, toll free, number and THEY will tell me where i am, where do i go, and what i think
you know what's funny ?
why should you copy at all ?
is everybody developing the same software all over the place ? or what ?
i mean, when i need a hint, i'm looking into open source; but i know that i can never copy a line of code !
not because it is not allowed; but because i'm working on a different problem !
if it would be the same problem, then it would be already solved !
if some looks at my code, has an idea, and then implements it, it is ok
if someone tries to steal my code and tries to sell the same product as my company does, he is a thief
i would say: shoot him
but if you want to know how it works, you have a questions; come to my place and have a drink with me, and we can talk about these things
you know, as long as you are a visitor, i like you
but if you want to use ME to make your bloody money, then be aware, that i'm not scare of having blooded hands
wait please !
...
i haven't said that i'm against fighting the spam
i just don't like the idea of having spam filter at ISP which can have several false positives a day !
if there are some open standards for fighting/tracking spam on a global level, great, i will implement it on my side, no probs !
but until then, i will rather do filtering on my side, where i can define whitelist, where i can check for false positives, etc
> You're like the anti-immunization whackos that
...
...
> talk up about how unnecessary vaccines are
i simply don't consider 'global spam' as a solution
if there is a filter at ISP and has a false positive, i have no chance of finding it out
if it is my filter giving false positive, and i'm expecting an email, i can search through spam filter, etc
i can also train my filter to work well for me, while ISP would have to use 'generic' filter
i had already a problem with filter at ISP; i have won one auction on ebay, the person was using AOL and AOL was reufsing my emails (i don't know why, my smtp server was definitely not a spam relay, never !)
they refusal message told me that i should call somewhere, etc
i have really no interest to that
once there would be an open standard of a kind, which should help finding (or tracking at least) spam; i will implement it on my side, no problem
but having an ISP with a spam filter is imho worse then 100 spam messages dail
every sysadmin needs a trust
... i don't know your situation; but who is making the living (income) ?
remote sysadmin, needs a triple trust
do you have it ?
and frankly
if it is your wife, then take your chance and do something what you like to do, since she is going to give you a back up
if it is you, and you still have to make a decision like this, then you have a problem which can't be solved by moving to another place
if you want to send your data encrypted, you don't use zip, winzip, or whatever you call it; you can use some real encryption for the stuff
spam ? what is it ? my email addresses are publicly available and my email client is getting a lot of spam messages
i don't get almost any of this shit
i see 3-4 of them a day
3-4 spam messages a day are not going to affect my productivity, they are more like 'funny examples' of what has got through the bayesian filter
of course, there are people who do not have corporate filter and not even a personal one -> it's their problem
you don't jump out of a plane without a parachute, and you don't plug in to internet without having a protection
it is like sex
if you really do, it is your problem, not internet problem
if you don't like something (spam) -> it is up to you to make something about it
there is no anti-spam angel, so wake up and stop complaining !
just a thought
what about file formats which are not understood by the sharing program ?
will it block all such files ?
or if you have sharing program which understand wav and mp3 but not ogg, can you easily share pirated ogg music ?
what about zipped/gzipped/bzipped music ? what about encrypted music ?
and what if this 'central database' is down ? will it completely shut down p2p ? nonsense, this goes against the true nature of p2p !
or can i simply block it on my firewall ?
and will there be an open source version for linux ? you know, there are people who won't put any trojaned binary software on their systems
Do you know perl ?
...), it will be easily understandable by other developers and the changes will be maintanable.
... it gets down to your 'programming' behavior - but in general, your code will be complicated, hardly understandable but easily extendible.
It has some kind of a support for OOP. There is no real OOP there, but you can reasonably easily (i.e. much easier then in C or pascal) 'simulate' inheritance and polymorphism.
I was a 'heavy' perl programmer in the past, and now most of my work is in java. I feel like i can compare these two approaches a little bit ('simulated' OOP vs. strict OOP)
My feeling is:
- if you know java basics, you will (in most cases) write a terrible code; it may work as you expected but the structure will be poor, it will be hardly understandable for the other people and every new change will cost you more time then the last one.
- if you know java well, your code will be good (if you have enough time to write it
comparing to perl (i mean, writing OOP-like code in perl):
- if you know perl basics, your code will be simple, easily understandable, only extending/changing it will take more and more time with next every change/request.
- if you know perl well, well
Similar differences can be found (IMHO) when comparing between small vs. big projects in java vs. perl.
What i want to point out is that the difference between strict OOP and OOP 'simulation', between experienced and unexperienced programmers, and between team-work-capable and team-work-uncapable programmers is much more subtle than what you've said.
Strict OOP can be better as the designer, and at the same time it can be also worse. 'Simulated OOP' follows the same pattern.
If I should start a development on a single application (i.e. one set of GUI screens, well defined interface to the 'outer world') I would still choose perl.
If i should start a development on a framework, on a set of components which should be reusable, which I'll need to combine in every possible way and which should turn into enterprise level app, i would choose java.
Even if i could write the first third of this in perl in 50% of the time.
It is the next 2/3rds which would take me 500% of the time.
It is not only about the 'strict' and 'simulated' OOP. It is about the ways how you can misuse the language.
if japanese companies in US/europe can follow the rules there; why it should be a problem for US company in japan ?
actually, why it should be a problem for microsoft in japan ?
i'm not so sure
...
unless your flier can break through the ground and concrete walls and send the pictures from underground, you probably won't see more then a couple of buildings
or do you think that they take little green men out for a one hour walk on a sunny day ?
actually, my doctor says that it is healthy
as long as they can't buy the software officialy because of export regulations; it is officialy not there and therefore BSA should not be interested in iran, should it ? ;-)
as for the cost benefit -> i'm not so sure
the regulations will be lifted one day; and then they either buy milions of licenses for windoze, or tell to microsoft 'no thank you, we run linux'
actually, their government should start making annoucements like 'we are considering using open source, bla bla bla'
it would be interesting to see how companies who can't sell the software there, becouse of their goverment's politics, would react
IF the regulations are eased and the software; then they have to make a decision (if it wasn't already done of course)
if it will be open source decision, the people will follow
imho
> Deadlines. The problem is when one day becomes
> thirty your employer may well find someone else
> with a broader skill set. You can't look up the
> syntax of a command you've never heard of, you
> need to know it exists first.
i agree, on the other side, you don't need to learn the syntax in order to know that it exists
so why should you learn the syntax then ? if you use it 20 times, you will probably remember it anyway; and if you don't use it at all, than you haven't 'wasted' the time by learning it
why should one day become thrity ? i'm missing the link
no database course can learn you to solve every possible problem which can happen
if it learns you how to solve 20% of most common problems, than i think it is a bad course
if it learns you how to find a solution to a database problem; and if it gives you some skills/clues to find it quickly, than it is a good one
it may be that you will need more time to find a solution for a common problem (while you have it instantly after the first course); but most of the real life problems are not those from textbooks
> what is it good for to know 30 mathematical
> formulas which you don't need at the moment
> It's not as if it takes space used for other
> things, old stuff doesn't fall out of your brain
> just because you learn new things.
but it takes time to learn it
in addition, i believe that it is much easier (and faster) to learn things which you need, then to learn them just because you are supposed to learn
> like that. You have to have some sort of clue if
> you want to look up the information on how to
> design the case and internals of the phone to cope
> with that, which means knowing a lot of boring
> little details about how things break, many of
i'm working in a different field; and because i really don't know these little details about how things break, i can't compare
of course that there are fields where instant knowledge is the only way to make instant decision; and many of them have to be done instantly
but when you are talking about algorithmical development, and you measure time in days, not in hours, minutes or seconds, what is it good for to know 30 mathematical formulas which you don't need at the moment ?
as long as i know that it exists, and i know how it works, i just need to take the right book and i read it once to have the knowledge temporarily in my head again
i haven't said that learning is not important, but for me, learning is about learning how the thing works and how they can be used, not memorizing them
if i use something often, i will learn it automatically; just by using
not because it is a part of course xyz, but because i really need it at that time
> The object of the course/certification is not to
> get a pretty peice of paper, or even just to be
> able to pass the exam, but to get some
> understanding that you can apply. The pretty
> piece of paper is just a symbol of that
> knowlege, and the last time I had to actually
> show somone the degree was five jobs ago. Even
unfortunately this is not always true
i've seen similar courses like these referred by the article; and some of those are not about learning, but about memorizing commands/things which nobody usually need to use
of course, it is good to know that such commands are there, and how they work/how they can be used; but for knowing the exact syntax you can always consult reference manual; or even help
> Sometimes we don't have the luxury of the time
> to learn new skills, which is why the exams try
> to find what skills/knowlege you have.
i think that this highly depends on what are you doing
if i need to spent one day reading some papers related to my work, to get new ideas, or to refresh forgotten knowldege; then it is not a luxury; i can easily take this time because it is worth it
i don't have a feeling that this works for me as you've described
i would change it into "having understood something once, reading up on it later will be much easier"
you can learn a mathematical method as a sequence of steps; and you will forgot it after couple of months without using it; and i bet that learning it the second time won't be much easier
you can understand such mathematical method, not memorizing the sequence of steps but being able to find out these steps on your own (given enough time, which is usually not a case during exam)
i personally thing that this 'understanding' lasts much longer, and as you've said, learning the stuff the second time will be much easier
i don't know if it is more general, but my mind simply refuses (or makes it harder) to memorize something which is has a logic and i understand it
you can't start brand new project by setting short-term goals
if you want to break your project into a short term goals, you should have more then some ideas
the sorter is a time period of your 'short-term goal'; the more precise you have to be to get into your target on time
you've forgot to add that my english is terrible as well
it is not enough that i'm willing to write
someone has to be also willing to read
you have to feel like this
if you are asking the question, you should try to find out 'why ?'
if you want to lead a team on a technical level, you have to be able to understand what every memeber of a team is doing
i'm not saying you have to *know* it - just that you have to be able to understand it, if it is required
you need to look at a 'big picture'
leader can either know exactly what to do, or ir can have only a rough idea
the worst thing is if a leader has only a rough idea, but thinks that he knows exactly what to do
all other combinations are much better (imho)
XP ? for an idea ?
... i'm doing XP of a kind ... i tell you an example
well
however
once upon a time, there was a task to solve, it was about developing of an algorithm, mix of known stuff tuned to a problem, with all the options which are needed and none of those which are useless
i faced a first set of technical questions, like which platform, which language, which methods
after two days of evaluating all the options i have, i've chosen perl
i've chosen perl for implementation of an algorithm which was supposed to do milions of iterations to find a reasonably good solution in a short time
of course, it was slow, results which i needed in 2 minutes i've got in 15 minutes
at the same time, i was fast as a hell in modifying, adding new features, removing obsolete ones
after couple of weeks having a good feedback, i came to a point when i was able to say: well, my algo supports all what i will need for next year and still isn't bloated
this was the point when i would accept XP, to rewrite what i have, fast and cleanly
i was already aware of the result, and i was able to define WHAT -> exactly, because i had perl source
what i want to say is, that with XP, or actually with outsourcing in general, you need to have a detailed plan
without a detailed plan you are going to loose control over the things
you need to understand the things, sometimes to the last detail; or you need someone who can do this for you -> and it has to be something whom you can really trust
if you have just some ideas, it means you have no source code, no plan
the idea is somewhere in your brain and still misses some details -> this is something you can never spec out; at least that's what i think
you will need first change, then the second one, and you will already leave the safe waters of original contract