Slashdot should do this for the same reason I should call ahead if a party of me and 5000 of my friends decide to eat at the same restuarant. I mean, where not talking commerical sites here. If slashdot is bringing Dell traffic -- great. Good for them. However, if some artist, student, or activist has a little site somewhere, why should we slashdot it to oblivion.
Oh, I love your work so much, let me take|borrow|steal|freely distribute (with implied verbal, not expressed written consent) your content and end up charging you a lot of money.
We live in a world of all you can eat, do as you please, gimmie-gimmie daddy gov't society. It's just common courtesy. Oh, and the bittorrent solution is free, but since when has the internet community been thoughtful. (Heck, it gives P2P a legitimate excuse.)
You know, the Slashdot editors need to think about this. If these guys see a story linking to a page with a 100 MB file, email the site owner first. How about Slashdot offers to mirror his page? Why doesn't Slashdot do this? Heck, think of the cool Perl code and hardware you'd get to configure when you try to find an automated way to mirror his site. Or better yet, download the file and place it on a Slashdot server with a bit-torrent link. Gee, I've spent all of 2 minutes thinking about this, and I've come of with a couple of solutions.
It's pretty easy to take existing data and fit it into an evolutionary theory, but it's very difficult to find data that proves that the behavior does not come from evolutionary factors.
I think that's a really interesting point. Can somebody recommend a paper or source on the subject?
I've worked with all the major RDBMS(s). Yet, I've never really worked with Access. However, let me throw out a few possible deficiencies. I think MS Access falls short (especially from an educational standpoint) in several categories.
Transactions and the ACID test Extensive log files (for debugging) Replication Query Tuning (Performance Tuning)/reading query plans Indexing (yeah, I believe Access has this) Table Statistics native libraries/APIs that talk to the database, aside from ODBC Embedded SQL (packages)/SQLJ/Pro*C etc stored procedures/triggers backup and recovery strategies (online backups) How does MS Access handle table locking? Tons of front-end/built in app server stuff (WebDB/Site Server etc)
Look, I'm absolutely clueless about Access. However, I doubt MS Access supports most of this stuff. This is the stuff that separates a programmer from a database developer/DBA. Frankly, I think MySQL is a great database to learn on. Also check out MaxDB. Heck, I'm sure DB2 probably has some sweet educational licenses. If you're a big department, I'm sure IBM would love to make inroads there.
Before I get flamed about MySQL. I think it's great that you can download and play with almost every aspect of the system. Ever try to muck with Oracle's or DB2's files. You can, but it's much more complicated. You can easily learn about every aspect of MySQL in about a month or two. Then translate that knowledge to a real RDBMS.
Please feel free to correct any of my incorrect statements. Could you tell me what school thinks Access is a good educational database so I can avoid them like the plague? Oh yeah, and what's the IP address of your department's server?
First, I agree completely with the parent post. However, I think it's worth pointing that you can take real world examples and place them in a theoretical, yet industrial aspect. For instance, I think "Unix Systems Administration Handbook" by Evi Nesmeth is a great textbook/industry book. I think the Steven's books are great examples as well. So, if this is a class in relational algebra, (I doubt it) then maybe pencil and paper is called for. However, I do feel the general day-to-day operations of a database translate from one platform to another.
There's also a difference between design optimizations and code-level (specific) optimizations. Design optimizations are something that trancend any given product. For instance, using stored procedures to cut down on communications between your app and the db is a design optimization. However, how to configure bufferpools or what tuning paramters to change tend to be specific optimizatoins that don't trancend products.
You got it right on the nose! "Buy American" crap is just racist protectionism. When a job goes to India, it still goes to a human being, and one who currently doesn't get to live the bloated American lifestyle. If Americans (in general) didn't have the need to lead such bloated lifestyles, they could get by on a lower salary, which would allow the company to keep its employees in its own country.
It boils down to two words. Corporate greed. Companies aren't exactly struggling. They trying to maxmize profit. They don't care about producing the best product or even making the most money in the long term. They care about stock prices.
Look, I'm willing to put in long hours if necessary. I just want some loyalty and fair compensation. I'm not a slave or a tool. I guess in reality I am...
I can deal with corporate greed, but I can't deal with people telling me I should be happy with a modest lifestyle. How wrong I am for wanting some corporate loyalty. I want to be paid fairly. I don't expect dot com wages. However, I'd like to think that if I can do my job well, I won't get screwed. The thing I've learned is that you should work for yourself.
Hey, I use the AOL disk as a coaster and the tin box holds my burned CDs.
No, in all seriousness, I have to agree that the lost jobs are no joking matter, and AOL wasted their money. Oh, and the landfills are overflowing with those damned CDs. I'm not sure what's worse, all of the spam I get in my email or all of the AOL CDs I get in my mailbox.
I've lived in Blacksburg myself. It's really a great little college town. Ironically, there are quite a few little tech businesses in the area. Most are offshoots of the massive research facilities.
Most people make fun of Blacksburg because the town is non-existant (it's basically a bunch of restuarants and hotels that surround the school), but it has all the essentials, and is suprisingly well wired (a town of 40,000 locals and 15,000 engineering students will do that). It's also one of the few places you'll go where you'll see a cow standing next to a multi-million dollar research facillity.
Although as we all know Charlottesville is clearly the better city.
Frankly, I hope jobs at that level (i.e. Raytheon??) held by PhD scientists wouldn't be so dependent on bullet points in resumes. Also, do people still submit resumes at that level? Heck, I'd probably hire all my people by looking at their research.
I would agree it takes years to really know a language like C++. However, sometimes you have to tailor you're resume to HR. Apparently college grads (along with other applicants) are supposed to know everything. Gee, you've got 10 years of experience writing in assembly. I don't know, where looking for a geewhiz JSP developer. I don't think you know/could learn JSP. That's the problem. If I knew my resume was always going into the hand of an engineer, and that engineer would also consider the fact that some skills translate (i.e. C++ for Java, etc) I wouldn't have to put every langauge I've ever written some code in. Frankly, it's better than the manager's resume that reads "McDonalds: progressively grew company assets to billion dollar status while supervising department of 10 people in the quick-serve industry". Resume are bull, everybody knows it. Heck, when I am honest (don't know why I try), I'm the one who gets screwed.
I read an article about these two. I really haven't done a survey of nobel Laureates.
My favorite quote about the first one was: Years later, when Caltech was offering me a faculty position, I confided that I did not have a very illustrious career as an undergraduate. To this remark the division chair replied "That's OK Doug, we are not hiring you to be an undergraduate."
The latter spent a few years in the army before returning to grad school. Actually, he even considered going to get an MBA before deciding to return to school to finish his PhD. Apparently, he ended up going to Duke for his PhD, because his grades weren't good enough for the "good schools".
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth"
We've been having this 20-something, moral relativistic, why are humans animals, why are corporations greedy discussions on Slashdot for a while. Why are corporations greedy? Because it's easy and fun. Either you believe in absolutes and a higher power or you don't. It's that simple. If you don't believe in a higher power, than why should you act ethically? Especially if you can legally do so? You say you care about other people? So, what. That only will go so far. I might care so much that I'm willing to help you out if I can afford it. However, will I help you out at my own cost? That is the question. Some people consider religion for the weak. However, I've learned that when man is at his weakest is when religion is at it's most powerful.
I've always thought Nintendo's games were creative. Mario and Zelda 64 were classics. I'm not a stock holder in a video game company, so to be honest I don't keep up with the cashflow of big 3. However, I can tell you that in a world of overly violent and sexual video games, Nintendo offers a welcome alternative. Of course most of this is due to Shigeru Miyamoto. He's perhaps one of the most creative game designers in the business. If more games were designed by people like him, I believe gaming would become as mainstream as most game developers pretend that it is.
I'm not sure if continuing with a thread is considered offtopic but since I've got a little karma to burn...
Actually, I would agree that Gore was a quite skillful and ruthless politician. He's the kind of guy you'd want running everything in the background. He should have stayed a senator.
However, I don't think President Bush lied. He was dead wrong. Perhaps quite literally. I think the White House really believed weapons of mass destruction (i.e. nuclear) existed in Iraq. We know that Saddam had chemical weapons. We knew that long ago. He used them in Iran and against his own people. He's also had loose connections to terrorism. Abu Nidal (formerly the most wanted international terrorist before 9/11) resided in Iraq. The Iraqi government provided him safe harbor. Interestingly enough, he quickly ended up dead after 9/11.
I believe the White House had the best of intentions. I'm sure after going into Afghanistan, they figured toppling the Iraqi regime was no big deal. They were half-right. Perhaps they thought bringing democracy in the Middle East would bring peace to the Israelis and Palestinians. Maybe they felt justified in getting rid of such a horrible despot. I don't think it was about oil. I think it was about cold, hard foreign policy. I think it was an attempt to correct what was another mistake of the opposite nature. That was the lack of foreign policy during the Clinton administration. You know 9/11 wasn't the first time Osama bin Laden attacked the World Trade Center. The question the Bush administration forgot to ask was, "Is this worth the loss of American life?"
I only say this because I hate to see the pure ideological hatred or respect that President Bush gets. I don't agree with everything the man has done, but I don't think he's this great looming evil liberals make him out to be. Like everything else in bipolar political system, President Bush is most certainly a divider. I suppose you're either "with him or against him".
ONE VERY IMPORTANT ISSUE: How well does X software import DDL from Y database and generate DDL for Z database. This is important. This shouldn't be an issue but sometimes it can be. If you have to import data from an Excel spreadsheet, existing database (like mSQL, MySQL), or some exotic ODBC datasource, can X software handle it. Frankly, that's something a professional magazine has to test. That's were downloading said software in trial mode (should be fully-functional) becomes really important. Test this out for yourself. Don't believe the brochure. I had a couple of issues with this. You may be able to import via ODBC, but will you have to edit/grep/replace DDL before doing so. Trivial but annoying...
ERWin also allows the user to seperate the physical model from the data model by design. I don't think DeZign allows you to do this. This may not be an issue for you.
To be honest, although I really like ERWin, I can't justify it's expense unless you work for a bank. Take that however you want it. Seriously, it's expensive and definitely overkill for the simple developer/architect. However, if you're a DBA it's very useful.
I used to use ERWin, but just recently (at a new job) I'm using DeZign. It gets the job done and it's cheap.
Remember the joke, how can you tell if a politician is lying? When his lips move...
Actually, I don't find the parent's post funny either. What I really don't find funny is the fact that this man has had a history of lying/exaggerating. Of course, lying politicians are as old as well -- politics. The big problem is that Al Gore was just so bad at it. In fact, even as Al Gore ran for office in Tennessee, he began to exaggerate for effect. During one campaign stop, Al Gore made a point to a largely farming community that he himself was a farmer and he had been involved in every part of the tobacco farming process. This was significant, because even senior members of his campaign began to warn him about his tendency to exaggerate in his public speeches.
Sure, Clinton didn't exaggerate. He outright lied. He lied very well. So much so, that we elected him twice. Of course, when Bill lied, it was for a reason. Perhaps that's the big difference. Bill Clinton got away with it because he always lied in a calculating fashion. He lied about things he hid anyway, and if the bigger scandal were to come out, no one would remember the lie.
I also think the jokes are legitimate. Bill Clinton is the Nixon of my generation. Al Gore is Clinton's Agnew. I've become cynical about the political process under his watch. Maybe that's just me coming of age or maybe it was his fault. I don't know.
This Tennessee farmer lie was featured on a PBS special that covered both the 2000 candidates. Frankly, I think it was some of the best journalism on the 2000 election. It was brutally fair in a truly bi-partisan way. It was a great piece of video journalism. IIRC, I believe the PBS program was Frontline: the choice2000.
Incidentally. I've included links to some articles about Mr. Gore's questionable quotes. The "Free-Republic" article contains other quotes relating to Gore's lies. To each site's credit, they refer to the Internet quote in the proper contextual manner.
This is the best argument I've seen about the idiocy of modern day copyright.
(I found the link via google's news portal and they have some sort of agreement with the NY Times, so you shouldn't have to register to see the article.)
I agree that going into a movie theater and taping a movie is wrong. However, I don't like idea that Joe Moviegoer gets to play cop. That's scary. What happens if I go to a party and someone plays a DVD or rented movie for their friends? What if new laws get written that allow a guest to place the host under citizen arrest? Is this the future? Will the MPAA|RIAA grant them police rights as well? That's why this is a real dangerous slippery slope. Oh but wait, you say that's silly. My point is that MPAA|RIAA isn't going after movie pirates because it's morally wrong. They're going after movie pirates because of money. The movie industry threw a fit about libraries and movie rentals as well.
From the article:
Clutching a palm-sized camcorder in one hand, Delgadillo paraphrased the movie character "Dirty Harry," portrayed by actor Clint Eastwood. "If you carry one of these into a movie theater, you have to ask yourself, 'Do I feel lucky?'"
This is the kind of bravado that scares people. I mean, why don't you take this same effort and track down some serious criminals. It's the same argument against public cameras, data mining personal info, and extensive airport security. No one likes having big brother watching them. Most people probably have been hassled by someone who has taken trivial laws too far (i.e. zero tolerance in schools run amok). Apparently, kids are supposed to run in the other direction if someone starts a fight with them in school. The school has a right, if not a "duty" to hand my a kid a condom, but if I send them to school with Tylenol well, I've practically commited a felony
The article I've linked to makes the point that the battle over copyright law is nothing new. The reason they "get away with it" is because they essentially have a special privilege/ protection to do so. There were a lot of similar arguments about VCRs destroying the future of the movie industry. It didn't.
I guess that's why I'm so conflicted about this. I agree that file sharing is wrong, but I hate RIAA|MPAA because they're lobbyists with deep pockets who have done nothing but hock extreme violence and excessive sexuality. I don't like the fact that we live in a country where corporations write law. Yet these lobbyists manage to get more legislative action than people seeking things like education reform. Sorry, if I don't feel like helping the MPAA|RIAA do it's dirty work.
You know, I imagine everyone will accuse Arnold of being in bed with MPAA, RIAA, etc. How many people accused Ronald Reagan of being a puppet of Hollywood? He was president of the Screen Actor's Guild.
Oh, but wait President Reagan was a Republican...
Oh, but wait Arnold is a Republican too...
Now throw Arnold's Kennedy wife into the mix...
Which also makes me wonder about the Hollywood stereotype. People like Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Wayne, Bruce Willis, and Mel Gibson are notable conservatives.
Frankly, the irony is that since Arnold is so well connected and can (pay for his own campaign|utilize his notoriety) he doesn't have to kowtow to lobbyists. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what he does.
Back in my day we didn't have this abstract stuff [introduction to a book]. No sir. No turing machines and no compilers. We had to hard code our algorithms. We didn't have punch cards either. I had to manipulate the very laws of physics. My computers were huge, took large grants from the government to build. Heck, one of my employees (a woman) had to pretend to be a man just to find work.
There do exist private owned toll roads in this country. Not many, but a few. No one tries to fill the void, because the governemnt already has. Not only do we often remove the inscentive, we often make it a pain in the ass to do anything.
You are right about being able to find competent system administrators. Since you know where to look for them and what to ask, you probably could find a couple hundred people. However, the meat market and HR people wouldn't know where to look and they get far too many resumes full of bovine excrement to be able to wade through them all. Secondly, you find lots of idiots that still make lots of money in IT. That's because IT is a service. IT isn't hard. Relativity and decidability are hard. Most of the "real world" stuff isn't. Heck, most of the bright people I know are too smart for their own good. I've seen too many PhD washouts (math/physics/chemistry, etc) who end up in IT not because they were too stupid, but because they thought they could hide in the hole of academia and not have to deal with people. Unfortunately, they find out in some ways academia is worse than business. Actually, it's not always the brightest who end up being successful in academics either.
(Note: most of these people have MS degrees and in my opinion aren't quite the same as "dropouts")
They don't know how to deal with people and bureaucracies. People skills have their place. Really.
So if you're a good sys admin who's a little fed up with the industry and you vent some steam, I do understand. However, if you're just a troll....
Well, there's also a steep learning curve and it's hard to find competent IT people to manage *nix solutions. I've been developing and administrating with OSS 3 solid years (plus 2 years of mixed Windows and OSS). Plus, add the fact that the HR people don't know how to fill positions properly. Oh, you've only had 10 years with Unix; sorry we're looking for someone with Red Hat experience.
However, try to find a competent Unix Sys Admin. You know, somebody who understands firewalls enough to code a rule set by hand or can automate their work with cron and Perl. Heck, I'm technically a programmer, yet I still do a better job at that than most MCSEs. Most good Unix Sys Admins look like wizards to the uninitiated.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh really, how's that working out?
Slashdot should do this for the same reason I should call ahead if a party of me and 5000 of my friends decide to eat at the same restuarant. I mean, where not talking commerical sites here. If slashdot is bringing Dell traffic -- great. Good for them. However, if some artist, student, or activist has a little site somewhere, why should we slashdot it to oblivion.
Oh, I love your work so much, let me take|borrow|steal|freely distribute (with implied verbal, not expressed written consent) your content and end up charging you a lot of money.
We live in a world of all you can eat, do as you please, gimmie-gimmie daddy gov't society. It's just common courtesy. Oh, and the bittorrent solution is free, but since when has the internet community been thoughtful. (Heck, it gives P2P a legitimate excuse.)
You know, the Slashdot editors need to think about this. If these guys see a story linking to a page with a 100 MB file, email the site owner first. How about Slashdot offers to mirror his page? Why doesn't Slashdot do this? Heck, think of the cool Perl code and hardware you'd get to configure when you try to find an automated way to mirror his site. Or better yet, download the file and place it on a Slashdot server with a bit-torrent link. Gee, I've spent all of 2 minutes thinking about this, and I've come of with a couple of solutions.
Seriously, this really sucks.
I think that's a really interesting point. Can somebody recommend a paper or source on the subject?
I've worked with all the major RDBMS(s). Yet, I've never really worked with Access. However, let me throw out a few possible deficiencies. I think MS Access falls short (especially from an educational standpoint) in several categories.
Transactions and the ACID test
Extensive log files (for debugging)
Replication
Query Tuning (Performance Tuning)/reading query plans
Indexing (yeah, I believe Access has this)
Table Statistics
native libraries/APIs that talk to the database, aside from ODBC
Embedded SQL (packages)/SQLJ/Pro*C etc
stored procedures/triggers
backup and recovery strategies (online backups)
How does MS Access handle table locking?
Tons of front-end/built in app server stuff (WebDB/Site Server etc)
Look, I'm absolutely clueless about Access. However, I doubt MS Access supports most of this stuff. This is the stuff that separates a programmer from a database developer/DBA. Frankly, I think MySQL is a great database to learn on. Also check out MaxDB. Heck, I'm sure DB2 probably has some sweet educational licenses. If you're a big department, I'm sure IBM would love to make inroads there.
Before I get flamed about MySQL. I think it's great that you can download and play with almost every aspect of the system. Ever try to muck with Oracle's or DB2's files. You can, but it's much more complicated. You can easily learn about every aspect of MySQL in about a month or two. Then translate that knowledge to a real RDBMS.
Please feel free to correct any of my incorrect statements. Could you tell me what school thinks Access is a good educational database so I can avoid them like the plague? Oh yeah, and what's the IP address of your department's server?
The last line was a joke (that was a parody)!
First, I agree completely with the parent post. However, I think it's worth pointing that you can take real world examples and place them in a theoretical, yet industrial aspect. For instance, I think "Unix Systems Administration Handbook" by Evi Nesmeth is a great textbook/industry book. I think the Steven's books are great examples as well. So, if this is a class in relational algebra, (I doubt it) then maybe pencil and paper is called for. However, I do feel the general day-to-day operations of a database translate from one platform to another.
There's also a difference between design optimizations and code-level (specific) optimizations. Design optimizations are something that trancend any given product. For instance, using stored procedures to cut down on communications between your app and the db is a design optimization. However, how to configure bufferpools or what tuning paramters to change tend to be specific optimizatoins that don't trancend products.
You got it right on the nose! "Buy American" crap is just racist protectionism. When a job goes to India, it still goes to a human being, and one who currently doesn't get to live the bloated American lifestyle. If Americans (in general) didn't have the need to lead such bloated lifestyles, they could get by on a lower salary, which would allow the company to keep its employees in its own country.
It boils down to two words. Corporate greed. Companies aren't exactly struggling. They trying to maxmize profit. They don't care about producing the best product or even making the most money in the long term. They care about stock prices.
Look, I'm willing to put in long hours if necessary. I just want some loyalty and fair compensation. I'm not a slave or a tool. I guess in reality I am...
I can deal with corporate greed, but I can't deal with people telling me I should be happy with a modest lifestyle. How wrong I am for wanting some corporate loyalty. I want to be paid fairly. I don't expect dot com wages. However, I'd like to think that if I can do my job well, I won't get screwed. The thing I've learned is that you should work for yourself.
Hey, I use the AOL disk as a coaster and the tin box holds my burned CDs.
No, in all seriousness, I have to agree that the lost jobs are no joking matter, and AOL wasted their money. Oh, and the landfills are overflowing with those damned CDs. I'm not sure what's worse, all of the spam I get in my email or all of the AOL CDs I get in my mailbox.
I've lived in Blacksburg myself. It's really a great little college town. Ironically, there are quite a few little tech businesses in the area. Most are offshoots of the massive research facilities.
Most people make fun of Blacksburg because the town is non-existant (it's basically a bunch of restuarants and hotels that surround the school), but it has all the essentials, and is suprisingly well wired (a town of 40,000 locals and 15,000 engineering students will do that). It's also one of the few places you'll go where you'll see a cow standing next to a multi-million dollar research facillity.
Although as we all know Charlottesville is clearly the better city.
Frankly, I hope jobs at that level (i.e. Raytheon??) held by PhD scientists wouldn't be so dependent on bullet points in resumes. Also, do people still submit resumes at that level? Heck, I'd probably hire all my people by looking at their research.
I think it would be quite ironic that a prize created by a man who regretted inventing dynamite, would be given to a weapons designer.
Secondly, take a look at this: example one
example two
I read an article about these two. I really haven't done a survey of nobel Laureates.
My favorite quote about the first one was:
Years later, when Caltech was offering me a faculty position, I confided that I did not have a very illustrious career as an undergraduate. To this remark the division chair replied "That's OK Doug, we are not hiring you to be an undergraduate."
The latter spent a few years in the army before returning to grad school. Actually, he even considered going to get an MBA before deciding to return to school to finish his PhD. Apparently, he ended up going to Duke for his PhD, because his grades weren't good enough for the "good schools".
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth"
We've been having this 20-something, moral relativistic, why are humans animals, why are corporations greedy discussions on Slashdot for a while. Why are corporations greedy? Because it's easy and fun. Either you believe in absolutes and a higher power or you don't. It's that simple. If you don't believe in a higher power, than why should you act ethically? Especially if you can legally do so? You say you care about other people? So, what. That only will go so far. I might care so much that I'm willing to help you out if I can afford it. However, will I help you out at my own cost? That is the question. Some people consider religion for the weak. However, I've learned that when man is at his weakest is when religion is at it's most powerful.
I've always thought Nintendo's games were creative. Mario and Zelda 64 were classics. I'm not a stock holder in a video game company, so to be honest I don't keep up with the cashflow of big 3. However, I can tell you that in a world of overly violent and sexual video games, Nintendo offers a welcome alternative. Of course most of this is due to Shigeru Miyamoto. He's perhaps one of the most creative game designers in the business. If more games were designed by people like him, I believe gaming would become as mainstream as most game developers pretend that it is.
I'm not sure if continuing with a thread is considered offtopic but since I've got a little karma to burn...
Actually, I would agree that Gore was a quite skillful and ruthless politician. He's the kind of guy you'd want running everything in the background. He should have stayed a senator.
However, I don't think President Bush lied. He was dead wrong. Perhaps quite literally. I think the White House really believed weapons of mass destruction (i.e. nuclear) existed in Iraq. We know that Saddam had chemical weapons. We knew that long ago. He used them in Iran and against his own people. He's also had loose connections to terrorism. Abu Nidal (formerly the most wanted international terrorist before 9/11) resided in Iraq. The Iraqi government provided him safe harbor. Interestingly enough, he quickly ended up dead after 9/11.
I believe the White House had the best of intentions. I'm sure after going into Afghanistan, they figured toppling the Iraqi regime was no big deal. They were half-right. Perhaps they thought bringing democracy in the Middle East would bring peace to the Israelis and Palestinians. Maybe they felt justified in getting rid of such a horrible despot. I don't think it was about oil. I think it was about cold, hard foreign policy. I think it was an attempt to correct what was another mistake of the opposite nature. That was the lack of foreign policy during the Clinton administration. You know 9/11 wasn't the first time Osama bin Laden attacked the World Trade Center. The question the Bush administration forgot to ask was, "Is this worth the loss of American life?"
I only say this because I hate to see the pure ideological hatred or respect that President Bush gets. I don't agree with everything the man has done, but I don't think he's this great looming evil liberals make him out to be. Like everything else in bipolar political system, President Bush is most certainly a divider. I suppose you're either "with him or against him".
ONE VERY IMPORTANT ISSUE: How well does X software import DDL from Y database and generate DDL for Z database. This is important. This shouldn't be an issue but sometimes it can be. If you have to import data from an Excel spreadsheet, existing database (like mSQL, MySQL), or some exotic ODBC datasource, can X software handle it. Frankly, that's something a professional magazine has to test. That's were downloading said software in trial mode (should be fully-functional) becomes really important. Test this out for yourself. Don't believe the brochure. I had a couple of issues with this. You may be able to import via ODBC, but will you have to edit/grep/replace DDL before doing so. Trivial but annoying...
ERWin also allows the user to seperate the physical model from the data model by design. I don't think DeZign allows you to do this. This may not be an issue for you.
To be honest, although I really like ERWin, I can't justify it's expense unless you work for a bank. Take that however you want it. Seriously, it's expensive and definitely overkill for the simple developer/architect. However, if you're a DBA it's very useful.
I used to use ERWin, but just recently (at a new job) I'm using DeZign. It gets the job done and it's cheap.
Advertiser's use these tactics because they work. Frankly, the Slashdot crowd probably isn't the GAP's target demographic anyway.
:)
You remember the Simpson's episode where everyone has to ignore the ads so they go away...
Oh wait, my best argument about ad branding comes by refering to a highly popular TV show. Nevermind
Actually, I don't find the parent's post funny either. What I really don't find funny is the fact that this man has had a history of lying/exaggerating. Of course, lying politicians are as old as well -- politics. The big problem is that Al Gore was just so bad at it. In fact, even as Al Gore ran for office in Tennessee, he began to exaggerate for effect. During one campaign stop, Al Gore made a point to a largely farming community that he himself was a farmer and he had been involved in every part of the tobacco farming process. This was significant, because even senior members of his campaign began to warn him about his tendency to exaggerate in his public speeches.
Sure, Clinton didn't exaggerate. He outright lied. He lied very well. So much so, that we elected him twice. Of course, when Bill lied, it was for a reason. Perhaps that's the big difference. Bill Clinton got away with it because he always lied in a calculating fashion. He lied about things he hid anyway, and if the bigger scandal were to come out, no one would remember the lie.
I also think the jokes are legitimate. Bill Clinton is the Nixon of my generation. Al Gore is Clinton's Agnew. I've become cynical about the political process under his watch. Maybe that's just me coming of age or maybe it was his fault. I don't know.
This Tennessee farmer lie was featured on a PBS special that covered both the 2000 candidates. Frankly, I think it was some of the best journalism on the 2000 election. It was brutally fair in a truly bi-partisan way. It was a great piece of video journalism. IIRC, I believe the PBS program was Frontline: the choice2000.
Incidentally. I've included links to some articles about Mr. Gore's questionable quotes. The "Free-Republic" article contains other quotes relating to Gore's lies. To each site's credit, they refer to the Internet quote in the proper contextual manner.
A story about Gore's lies in general
A defense of Gore's Internet comment
This is the best argument I've seen about the idiocy of modern day copyright.
(I found the link via google's news portal and they have some sort of agreement with the NY Times, so you shouldn't have to register to see the article.)
I agree that going into a movie theater and taping a movie is wrong. However, I don't like idea that Joe Moviegoer gets to play cop. That's scary. What happens if I go to a party and someone plays a DVD or rented movie for their friends? What if new laws get written that allow a guest to place the host under citizen arrest? Is this the future? Will the MPAA|RIAA grant them police rights as well? That's why this is a real dangerous slippery slope. Oh but wait, you say that's silly. My point is that MPAA|RIAA isn't going after movie pirates because it's morally wrong. They're going after movie pirates because of money. The movie industry threw a fit about libraries and movie rentals as well.
From the article:
Clutching a palm-sized camcorder in one hand, Delgadillo paraphrased the movie character "Dirty Harry," portrayed by actor Clint Eastwood. "If you carry one of these into a movie theater, you have to ask yourself, 'Do I feel lucky?'"
This is the kind of bravado that scares people. I mean, why don't you take this same effort and track down some serious criminals. It's the same argument against public cameras, data mining personal info, and extensive airport security. No one likes having big brother watching them. Most people probably have been hassled by someone who has taken trivial laws too far (i.e. zero tolerance in schools run amok). Apparently, kids are supposed to run in the other direction if someone starts a fight with them in school. The school has a right, if not a "duty" to hand my a kid a condom, but if I send them to school with Tylenol well, I've practically commited a felony
The article I've linked to makes the point that the battle over copyright law is nothing new. The reason they "get away with it" is because they essentially have a special privilege/ protection to do so. There were a lot of similar arguments about VCRs destroying the future of the movie industry. It didn't.
I guess that's why I'm so conflicted about this. I agree that file sharing is wrong, but I hate RIAA|MPAA because they're lobbyists with deep pockets who have done nothing but hock extreme violence and excessive sexuality. I don't like the fact that we live in a country where corporations write law. Yet these lobbyists manage to get more legislative action than people seeking things like education reform. Sorry, if I don't feel like helping the MPAA|RIAA do it's dirty work.
Oh, but wait President Reagan was a Republican...
Oh, but wait Arnold is a Republican too...
Now throw Arnold's Kennedy wife into the mix...
Which also makes me wonder about the Hollywood stereotype. People like Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Wayne, Bruce Willis, and Mel Gibson are notable conservatives.
Frankly, the irony is that since Arnold is so well connected and can (pay for his own campaign|utilize his notoriety) he doesn't have to kowtow to lobbyists. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what he does.
Back in my day we didn't have this abstract stuff [introduction to a book]. No sir. No turing machines and no compilers. We had to hard code our algorithms. We didn't have punch cards either. I had to manipulate the very laws of physics. My computers were huge, took large grants from the government to build. Heck, one of my employees (a woman) had to pretend to be a man just to find work.
--Charles Babbage
Man, I thought Inna Gadda Da Vida was long.
In related news astronomers create a simulation of the universe as long and as big as the universe itself.
There do exist private owned toll roads in this country. Not many, but a few. No one tries to fill the void, because the governemnt already has. Not only do we often remove the inscentive, we often make it a pain in the ass to do anything.
I know I'm wasting my time replying to this...
You are right about being able to find competent system administrators. Since you know where to look for them and what to ask, you probably could find a couple hundred people. However, the meat market and HR people wouldn't know where to look and they get far too many resumes full of bovine excrement to be able to wade through them all. Secondly, you find lots of idiots that still make lots of money in IT. That's because IT is a service. IT isn't hard. Relativity and decidability are hard. Most of the "real world" stuff isn't. Heck, most of the bright people I know are too smart for their own good. I've seen too many PhD washouts (math/physics/chemistry, etc) who end up in IT not because they were too stupid, but because they thought they could hide in the hole of academia and not have to deal with people. Unfortunately, they find out in some ways academia is worse than business. Actually, it's not always the brightest who end up being successful in academics either.
(Note: most of these people have MS degrees and in my opinion aren't quite the same as "dropouts")
They don't know how to deal with people and bureaucracies. People skills have their place. Really.
So if you're a good sys admin who's a little fed up with the industry and you vent some steam, I do understand. However, if you're just a troll....
Well, there's also a steep learning curve and it's hard to find competent IT people to manage *nix solutions. I've been developing and administrating with OSS 3 solid years (plus 2 years of mixed Windows and OSS). Plus, add the fact that the HR people don't know how to fill positions properly. Oh, you've only had 10 years with Unix; sorry we're looking for someone with Red Hat experience.
However, try to find a competent Unix Sys Admin. You know, somebody who understands firewalls enough to code a rule set by hand or can automate their work with cron and Perl. Heck, I'm technically a programmer, yet I still do a better job at that than most MCSEs. Most good Unix Sys Admins look like wizards to the uninitiated.