The reason most project managers don't do this is because they have the title "manager". They feel they're supposed to manage. Unfortunately, they try to manage the programmer, not the project. They also don't understand the development process. Frankly, the problems lies with upper management who've never written a line of code. Maybe the project managers should be given the titles of sales consultant or customer handler. Heck, the best project managers I've seen refer to themselves as "fecal matter" handlers. Okay it's been sanitized for the kiddies.
Business majors don't want to think of themselves as equal with the people who develop the product. Heck, they certainly don't want to be seen as doing some programmer's busy work. Why we all know that programming is "blue collar" work anyway. It probably doesn't help that the average programmer really can't relate to the issues of sales either.
I faintly remember that the US Gov't subsidised Amtrak routes that weren't profitable. Routes between NY, DC, and Philadelphia were very profitable. However, the routes between places like Boise and Pierre just weren't making money. Trains cost a lot to maintain. Trains are great MASS transportation. However, trains just don't justify their operating cost in rural areas. When the gov't subsidized the trains, Amtrak didn't have to optimize or cut their losing routes. It's a lot like what happened to the Auto industry when they had problems competing with foriegn imports. So, yeah trains are fast, they cut down on pollution, and are very convient in big cities, but I don't know to what extent the US Gov't should subsidize this. Maybe some state gov'ts could try to find a few companies to start a joint venture.
Capitalism usually has a solution. I know some people may take offense to that remark. However, look at Walmart or UPS. Both deliver/cater to rural parts of the US. They do quite well because of it. Somehow they've streamlined the process enough to make money.
So my point is gov't subsidies may be the wrong way to go. Either way, if you're interested in this subject, you should really google Amtrak and subsidies. You'll find a lot of editorials for both sides of the subject.
Plus, there is the point to be made that not every American wants or needs trains. Should the tax dollars of someone in Idaho go to pay for trains in New York?
I know this is going to get flamed, but what the heck.
One of the things I noticed about the Bolshevik revolution and other intelligencia movements in Russia, was the fact these movements thrust their beliefs upon everyone else. These people believed they knew what was best for everyone else. It is the ultimate example of hubris. I'm so right and I care so much I'm going to thrust my ideas upon you even if it hurts. Safe to say, these entire attempts failed, until Lenin and his followers, inspired more by greed than altruism took over. Look, the market has responded to Linux fairly.
I'm a programmer/administrator and I love using *nix on servers and for my development. Yes, I use it at home too. However, if I want to set my friends up on the web, I'm not going to give them a copy of Steven's Unix programming book and a copy of FreeBSD. People want easy to use software. Frankly, the learning curve of open source products is high. Some of the software out there is great and some of it is horrendous. I don't like having to muck through complex config files. Have you ever shown a non-geek friend regex in Perl? Most people don't GET the line noise that is average Perl code. As an administrator I need the power and flexibility of *nix. However, if I were a soccer mom, I wouldn't want to muck with ipchains or cronjobs.
Don't tell everyone what is user friendly. Try to be more accommodating. If Linux is such hot stuff, it will sell itself (unless it's marketed by Amiga). Embrace true anarchy, read "Wealth of Nations".
So maybe that's why people keep likening the OSS movement to communism. It's not so much because of the philosophy as it is about elitism.
In Soviet Russia, the computer programs you! Nyet, comrade, don't bring our glorious mother Russia into this.
Have you ever seen Bertrand Russell's autobiography? It's 2 volumes. Talk about pompus. There's more detail in there than I ever wanted to know.
Incidently, Mr. Wolfram has preserved his life story for us on the web as well. With PDF files and everything.
Frankly, "A New Kind Of Science" reminds me of the "Principia Mathematica". Both have good ideas, are notoriously long, invented their own notation for no good reason, and try to solve the existing problems of the foundations of math with pure hubris.
Incidently, I actually have some respect for both of these men. They just got a little carried away.
Unfortunately, when you deal in the area physics Dr. Hawking deals with, you don't make big breakthroughs every day. That's why logicians and astronomers tend not to find work in their field. What you haven't rectified quantum mechanics with relativistic views of gravitation? Oh, well, then you're an idiot. Gee, give the guy a break. Is he the best physicist alive? Probably not. Neither was Feynman. Yet I like his books. It's not like I can read the Fermi lectures on introductory physics.
What? Einstein didn't like to teach introductory material? Gee, he'd find a job at my school real quick:) So what? Oh, and here's a little secret, most of the geniuses out there where either tortured internally or just plain pompus jackasses.
People like to complain about overrated geniuses. It's like gawking at Bennifer. Same thing.
I've created a shorter [uhm... canonical] (err... less creative??) crackpot index to be applied to mathematics...
5 Constantly ramble about the works of Gerdel, Gousse, and Von Newmann
10 Tell people you know all about logic and computability because you read Godel, Escher, and Bach
15 Proving statements true that have been proven false (1+1=3 or 1=0 etc [utilizing a standard arithmetic operator, not mod 1 etc]
extra 5 points: Naming the theorem after yourself
20 Tell people you're a mathematical philosopher
25 Tell people you've discovered a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem in your spare time (yeah I know)
30 Make a deep pronouncement about a philosophical aspect of mathematics and state that it couldn't be proven because it cannot be expressed mathematically
35 Tell everyone all the good physicists were really mathematicians...
40 claiming that your theories were developed by an extraterrestrial civilization (with good evidence)
45 Suggesting you deserve a Field's medal (yeah I know)
50 Making long tedious lists trying to quantify that which can't be quantified
Why do we require all convictions to be within a reasonable doubt? I think this should translate into punishment as well. If we can't reasonably guarantee that we will only punish those who deserve it by some method, we shouldn't use that method of punishment.
Look, I think everyone here would agree to sex registries IF we could guarantee only to punish those who deserved it (say child molesters). However, I think we think we all know that the logistics are a nightmare. Are we going to update the address database often enough? What if I happen to "look" like a sex offender? What if we have the same name? What should happen if I'm an innocent person wronged by the system? We can't even fix the voting machines that screwed up the last presidential election. How hard is that? Anything would be an improvement to punch cards and chads!
If Kobe Bryant is convicted, does this mean that he would be a sex offender? For some reason, I don't see us alienating him. Heck, we pay good money to watch a cannibalistic rapist fight in the ring. How many people argued Mike Tyson should be allowed to fight because "he's paid his debt to society". Oh, we say these women should have known better. Heck, they led this guy on. They should have known better that go to his room.
Here's what I've learned about life. If I'm going to convict a crime, I'd better be rich and famous. I should immediately hire Johnny Cochran as my attorney. Cheating and plagiarism are part of my college education. I should get my Harvard MBA anyway I can. Manipulating my company's stock price (especially for my personal gain) is good business. And if I'm going to lie, I need to be a politician.
Before we try to tag every child molester, let's fix the easy stuff first.
Unfortunately, as long as everyone has rights to post on the internet (in one way or another), somebody is going to abuse that priviledge. Since when are HTTP Referrer logs considered good content. You don't really have control over what goes into those logs anyway. We need to find more ways of filtering out bad content. It's like free speech. Ham radio and usenet have their share of nuts. Most people don't turn to those places for news. We tend to filter information on our own.
You can prove that given certain inputs you achieve certain outputs. However, so much can go wrong with the average application (i.e. database connectivity, resource issues, memory leaks), you'll never have error free code. Most of the errors I see exist because of complexity and scope creep (management issues). So, program verification still won't catch all of the "errors" in our code. Not to mention that proving a verification is impossible. You're dealing with self-referential stuff here. Proving you're method of proof. Proving you're method of proving you're proof. Etc...
I still have issues with the terminology as well. You're not proving your code. You're VERIFYING it. The fact it compiles should be a proof (i.e. it's a valid production of the language). You're just seeing if there's a 1-1 mapping between the verification and the actual code. It's more like an isomorphism.
No, I'm obviously not an expert in program verification.
I'm not trying to knock program verification. Heck, it may be our only chance at a real silver bullet of software development. Now if I could only fit the term XML in this post....
I don't want to play games anymore because their so violent. Okay so this game isn't the most violent, but they're advertising is over the top. Games are dark. I feel depressed after spending hours killing stuff. Maybe I'm getting old, but I like a little bit more in my entertainment.
I was just killing some time at the mall yesterday. I start to overhear (she was hard not to hear) a mother getting upset about the ratings on a video game. She was worried that "Syphon Filter" was too violent a game. She started asking some of the salespeople (read saleskids) if they had played the game. She asked them if the game was violent. Hmm. Let's see, your a trained killer sent by the government to kill. Geeze, I don't know if the guy carrying a gun on the cover is any clue. I guess in the world of video games it's not as bad as that new serial killer game or the naked bike riding game or the anarchy game. I know it's easy to code the hunt and kill AI. It's hard to parse out text. And we all know games can't pass the Turing test. MMORPGs are still young and we just aren't all that creative. Trust me, hackers are smart but they're just not creative. Most games looks like a cross between Snowcrash and the Evil Dead.
You know I heard a story about Nero once. People around him were starving yet he would hold these massive feasts. There would be too much food for even Nero too eat. The party-goers would gorge themselves until they became full. Then they would proceed to vomit the food they ate so they could run back to the dinner table and gorge some more. They became addicted to the pleasures of life. So much even the simple act of eating became unhealthy.
Look, I'm going to do more than boycott this game. I intend on personally blacklisting Acclaim and the designer. Any other game that this desinger(s) or Acclaim puts out, I won't buy. I'm going to write them an email telling them this. I don't want Joe Lieberman to create a new law. I don't want Phil Mushnik to write a bunch of articles about this. I want to boycott Acclaim. I'm part of their prime demographic. I'm a young male who writes code for a living and can afford to buy such a game. We've got to let them know. Frankly, the game industry is worse than the music industry. There aren't any legitimate artists making games. John Carmack can code, but he couldn't design his way out of a paper bag. He's got the creativity of a 13 year old hopped up on Ritalin.
Frankly, he's (sorry "she's") dead on. All of your suggestions are probably too complicated for grandma. Frankly, Windows is probably too complicated. What grandma needs is an iMac. Something you really plug in and play. I'd love to see the results of a usability test with Linux. I think we'd all know the results.
Incidently if a good open source project for installation/UI comes along, I'd be willing to help.
While the media lab (at MIT, yeah I know it's at UCL but loosely related to MIT) does some of the most interesting CS/EE research, it also seems to engage in some of the dumbest.
Except that one guys defacement could be another man's legitimate posting. Take a look at the average message board. People make trolling, yet related comments everyday. Who is to say that is or isn't vandalism? Perhaps a better course of action would be to limit the number of posts in a given day. I would think 10 wiki posts (they should be insightful) would be more than enough. Sure bots could trash the site, but it would be too slow and painful for the average spammer.
I find that college computer labs are good places to work. Take a class so you can use the labs. Don't use the general labs. Try the CS or engineering labs. First, all of the cool stuff is there (or the art department, maybe). Secondly, you'll often find that they run linux/unix machines or some sort of non-windows environment. They may possibly offer free printing (depeding on your school and/or ethics). Set up a LAN at home, (with a cable modem etc) and SSH into your local development environment. Or travel with a laptop. Work at a cafe. Start work early or work late and take in the OCCAISIONAL movie. The better the college, the more interesting the environment. A good state school (you know which ones) can be pretty interesting (i.e. Madison, Berkeley, Urbana etc). Or if you got the money, a good private university. If you take classes (even grad school courses at a bad school, you MAY be disappointed). I've worked in college towns, so I know.
Plus, the bonus of taking a class (grad schools often offer late afternoon or evening classes for TAs and working people) is that you get to work on that MS in whatever, or just take a class because it's interesting. Make sure it's an upper division course or a grad course. You probably don't want to hang around the younger kids. Incidently, if you are taking a lighter load and enjoy the subject matter, you'll probably get good grades.
Personally, I found that the conversations I've had with grad students in the sciences (not engineering/CS!!!!!!) are pretty interesting. Oh, and seriously don't spend to much time on Slashdot. The guys here are way to cynical and depressing:)
Frankly, video games will never grow as a medium until it learns to stop marketing to geeks. Oh look, another anti-social, misanthropic game where a woman with large breasts and a big gun kills people. Gee, how original. Oh, it was an elf with a sword, my fault.
You know, Chris Crawford wrote an article about the state of the game industry. In short, he said that the industry was run by 13 year old prepubescent boys with no social skills whatsoever. Of course, I'm paraphrasing (not by much). It's true. I like video games and I write code for a living. I'm sure I'm knee deep in the geek factor. However, the industry is stagnant. It's just like Hollywood or big movies. Unfortunately, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to hold a video camera or play a guitar (especially if you do it badly). There isn't a solid indie gaming scene.
Here is a link to Chris Crawford's article: http://www.erasmatazz.com/library/Game%2 0Design/Ga meStatistics.html
If it's good for a laugh, I originally read socialization as socialism, which gave a much different connotation.
Actually I've been interested in such analysis of internet postings in general. I love analyzing random bits of information. It's a wierd hobby. IMHO, Slashdot's comments aren't all that bad. Frankly, the fanboy/poser/activist (i.e. IMDB, comic book, video game, political, music, etc) message boards postings are much worse. Yeah, there is some predictability in Slashdot comments. However, given the general anonymity, and occaisional trolling nature of the articles, the responses are pretty mature and respectful.
Is this because the Slashdot readership is that might more intelligent, or is it because of the moderation system?
Incidently, here is a sample of what any random thread on IMDB looks like:
-A sample thread-
I think this movie sucks! Dude, I've seen better acting from a wooden plank. Frankly, I think the director could have saved a lot of money by going to his local hardware store and painting an angry face on a 2 by 4.
Man! You suck!
What? I just hate the movie?
Well, you still suck!
Well, you really suck!
You know what... John Smith at 111 Brown Street in Smallburg, PA sucks! You can call him and tell him he sucks at: 888-555-1212! Please make sure to call him late!
What!!! Dude, I just said the movie sucked!
France sucks! The economy sucks! The world sucks!!!! This sucks!
My favorite color is blue!
I'M TYPING IN ALL CAPS.
Doodz, just chill!!!!!! Man, this movie rocked! I love the actor and his imitiation of a 2 by 4. That was so cool.
You're just a dumb*ss!
I think the movie is the best ever made! Even an idiot can see that. So why can't you. Oh yeah, it's because your dumber than an idiot. John Smith from Smallburg, PA is a BIG DUMB IDIOT.
Dude, you're like so redundant!
No, you are.
No, you are.
This movie reminds me of Citizen Kane!
No it doesn't.
I believe the movie serves as an allegory for the relationship between man and society. I think the sociological manifestation of the main character. Clearly the pendantic diatribe falls flat at the beginning. However, I believe a clear turning point in the pace of the picture can be found at the point when the main character (a wooden plank) engages in a monosyllabic philosophical solloliqy. This revitalization of the plot drives home the point of deep seeded resentment for the entire industrial lumber complex and big timber in general. Clearly the movie is a homage to the work of the likes of Samuel Fuller and Orson Welles.
Yeah, ditto. But the movie still sucks! Oh and I'm not redundant!
Does anybody know when they are going to make a sequel?
This is the dumbest parody I've seen. Gee, I'm an uberhacker like Neo, cus I know VB.NET. Actually I'm ashamed I know VB. Is this the worse casting since Gigli? Can I give Bill Gates a -1 Troll/Flamebait? Maybe next year Gates and Balmer can play the crew of the USS Enterprise while Linus is the Borg. I'd love to see a counter parody starring some of the open source crowd.
Incidently, I think we all know Bill Gates is some combination of Agent Smith, Kaiser Zozeg, and Darth Vader.
I've used to be a DBA. I still work as with databases extensively on the programming side. MySQL/PostgreSQL != Oracle. Simple as that. Maybe things have changed, but when I worked with them, the open source versions lacked (to differing degrees) transactions, triggers/stored procedure language (i.e. offering query plans/table statistics would be the first start). I can't even imagine how MySQL could be modified to even offer these features. How does MySQL handle memory managment? My experience was that MySQL's bugginess (lack of row-level locking aside) made scaling a problem. Gee, why don't you try to scale a DBM file. Trying to convert MySQL into a enterprise level database is like trying to get DOS to UNIX. Sure I could use a bunch of TSRs to emulate multi-tasking, but would I want to run DOS in a pacemaker. Look, I'm all for OSS alternatives. Heck, I always recommend MySQL or PostgreSQL as a great Access alternative. It's great for small applications. Why doesn't the open source community build a real RDBMS from scratch? Heck, that would be cool from an educational standpoint.
Which leads to the question.... What is the Minix equivalent of Oracle. I'd love to find a educational database with source code available that is as well documented as Minix.
Anybody who reads slashdot, or obfuscates their email address, is not going to buy any spam advertised product. So perhaps, it's better you don't harvest those emails.
With that said, I prefer my analog generated, random noise filtered, grayscale solution. Yes, nothing beats a black and white scan of a handwritten copy of my email address. How many shades of gray can you parse.
Every once in a while I see a professor who uses a free or low cost textbook. I've seen a few very high-quality books and problem sets available for free or dirt cheap on the internet.
Also, everytime I read a technical book in the sciences (even physics and engineering), with only a few exceptions, I buy a Dover book. They almost always the best books. Many have problem sets. Most don't have solutions sets! Is that the problem?
I've even gone as far as not using the textbook (accept when/if I do homework) and used the Dover substitute.
Why do I brag about these books. Because more often than not, they're classics in the field. More often, "college textbooks" are written by people I've never heard of (not always). Look at Courant and Hilbert's Calculus book. Who is this Stewart guy?
Niels Henrik Abel once wrote, "It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics one should study the masters and not their pupils"
Martin Gardner (in "Calculus Made Easy",another excellent cheap book although it's not quite suitable for a full blown calculus course for math majors) states that most books are so thick because writers are afraid to leave anything out, so as not to alienate their buying audience (the professors).
Ironically, despite years of education, most of what I know about Math and CS (among other things) have come from self study. Most come from slim, concise, cheap books.
The whole education system is at fault. From accrediation boards (who probably ultra-scrutinize textbook choices), university administration, lazy or greedy professors (it takes a little more effort to use cheap books and they can't make money like they would if they wrote books), and book publishers (you know what they do).
I hate to knock everybody, but if I ever teach a class, I will do everything in my power to use a Dover book or some cheaper alternative.
Here's a little background info on Adrian Lamo: http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1 377,508 11,00.html
What's the difference between Mr. Lamo and Richard Feynman. Obviously, one is willing to flagrantly break the law. However, the insatiable curiosity is the same.
I remember as a kid I used to go exploring. I was too stupid to realize this exploring was trespassing. Sometimes people suffered my curiosity. Once, a very nice older couple managed to humor such a spoiled little brat. They gave me a tour of their entire house. Incidently, they seemed to make the mundane entertaining. I'm sure I'd be labeled with ADD now. I also (like most of you) began to play with computers because I was curious. However, I don't have the patience to MISCHEVIOUSLY hack.
Unfortunately, no one managed to reach this guy before it was too late. I hope they don't throw the book at him. If you read the article, you'll realize that he isn't malicious, just stupid. I really do pity him.
I think 50 years from now, people will look back and say this moment was the beginning of the end of copyright law.
What is a copyright? Seriously. It's an attempt to protect something valuable that you have labored to produce. However, if copyright infringement is so incredibly rampant, maybe your particular work isn't so valuable. Remember, laws don't exist just to give lawyers a reason to exist. Laws aren't about morality either. Laws exist to help society function. It's all about law and order.
Have you ever drank a coke, made a xerox, or used a kleenex. How about the word spam. Corporations are constantly battling to keep their respective trademarks from entering the public domain.
Think of a future of near-infinite technology. What if some really brilliant scientist finds a way to use the technology of quantum teleportation to replicate goods (i.e. a "halfway" quantum teleportation). I know that's quite a pipe dream. But what if? What happens when I can produce goods at will. What's more important, feeding the hungry or protecting the world's economy. I do know we will run into some very ugly legal and societal issues over genomics and genetic engineering.
How much copyright law do you think you break in a given day? Okay, I'm not a lawyer, and I do believe file sharing IS wrong. However, I'm a little sick of the piousness of the record industry.
I find it quite a ironic that an industry that has spent the last 20 years ammoralizing the youth of America, is now upset at the lack of morality of the youth of America. What, you mean stealing is wrong? What's next, Keith Richards and Ozzy Ozbourne telling kids not to do drugs. (Although I believe such an ad would be so much more effective than the frying pain with the "this is your brain on drugs" spiel)
Yeah, it's a rant, but this is Slashdot and I'm complaining about the RIAA.
Slashdot Mirror
The reason most project managers don't do this is because they have the title "manager". They feel they're supposed to manage. Unfortunately, they try to manage the programmer, not the project. They also don't understand the development process. Frankly, the problems lies with upper management who've never written a line of code. Maybe the project managers should be given the titles of sales consultant or customer handler. Heck, the best project managers I've seen refer to themselves as "fecal matter" handlers. Okay it's been sanitized for the kiddies.
Business majors don't want to think of themselves as equal with the people who develop the product. Heck, they certainly don't want to be seen as doing some programmer's busy work. Why we all know that programming is "blue collar" work anyway. It probably doesn't help that the average programmer really can't relate to the issues of sales either.
I faintly remember that the US Gov't subsidised Amtrak routes that weren't profitable. Routes between NY, DC, and Philadelphia were very profitable. However, the routes between places like Boise and Pierre just weren't making money. Trains cost a lot to maintain. Trains are great MASS transportation. However, trains just don't justify their operating cost in rural areas. When the gov't subsidized the trains, Amtrak didn't have to optimize or cut their losing routes. It's a lot like what happened to the Auto industry when they had problems competing with foriegn imports. So, yeah trains are fast, they cut down on pollution, and are very convient in big cities, but I don't know to what extent the US Gov't should subsidize this. Maybe some state gov'ts could try to find a few companies to start a joint venture.
Capitalism usually has a solution. I know some people may take offense to that remark. However, look at Walmart or UPS. Both deliver/cater to rural parts of the US. They do quite well because of it. Somehow they've streamlined the process enough to make money.
So my point is gov't subsidies may be the wrong way to go. Either way, if you're interested in this subject, you should really google Amtrak and subsidies. You'll find a lot of editorials for both sides of the subject.
Plus, there is the point to be made that not every American wants or needs trains. Should the tax dollars of someone in Idaho go to pay for trains in New York?
I know this is going to get flamed, but what the heck.
One of the things I noticed about the Bolshevik revolution and other intelligencia movements in Russia, was the fact these movements thrust their beliefs upon everyone else. These people believed they knew what was best for everyone else. It is the ultimate example of hubris. I'm so right and I care so much I'm going to thrust my ideas upon you even if it hurts. Safe to say, these entire attempts failed, until Lenin and his followers, inspired more by greed than altruism took over. Look, the market has responded to Linux fairly.
I'm a programmer/administrator and I love using *nix on servers and for my development. Yes, I use it at home too. However, if I want to set my friends up on the web, I'm not going to give them a copy of Steven's Unix programming book and a copy of FreeBSD. People want easy to use software. Frankly, the learning curve of open source products is high. Some of the software out there is great and some of it is horrendous. I don't like having to muck through complex config files. Have you ever shown a non-geek friend regex in Perl? Most people don't GET the line noise that is average Perl code. As an administrator I need the power and flexibility of *nix. However, if I were a soccer mom, I wouldn't want to muck with ipchains or cronjobs.
Don't tell everyone what is user friendly. Try to be more accommodating. If Linux is such hot stuff, it will sell itself (unless it's marketed by Amiga). Embrace true anarchy, read "Wealth of Nations".
So maybe that's why people keep likening the OSS movement to communism. It's not so much because of the philosophy as it is about elitism.
In Soviet Russia, the computer programs you! Nyet, comrade, don't bring our glorious mother Russia into this.
Have you ever seen Bertrand Russell's autobiography? It's 2 volumes. Talk about pompus. There's more detail in there than I ever wanted to know.
Incidently, Mr. Wolfram has preserved his life story for us on the web as well. With PDF files and everything.
Frankly, "A New Kind Of Science" reminds me of the "Principia Mathematica". Both have good ideas, are notoriously long, invented their own notation for no good reason, and try to solve the existing problems of the foundations of math with pure hubris.
Incidently, I actually have some respect for both of these men. They just got a little carried away.
Unfortunately, when you deal in the area physics Dr. Hawking deals with, you don't make big breakthroughs every day. That's why logicians and astronomers tend not to find work in their field. What you haven't rectified quantum mechanics with relativistic views of gravitation? Oh, well, then you're an idiot. Gee, give the guy a break. Is he the best physicist alive? Probably not. Neither was Feynman. Yet I like his books. It's not like I can read the Fermi lectures on introductory physics.
:) So what? Oh, and here's a little secret, most of the geniuses out there where either tortured internally or just plain pompus jackasses.
What? Einstein didn't like to teach introductory material? Gee, he'd find a job at my school real quick
People like to complain about overrated geniuses. It's like gawking at Bennifer. Same thing.
I've created a shorter [uhm... canonical] (err... less creative??) crackpot index to be applied to mathematics...
:) )
5 Constantly ramble about the works of Gerdel, Gousse, and Von Newmann
10 Tell people you know all about logic and computability because you read Godel, Escher, and Bach
15 Proving statements true that have been proven false (1+1=3 or 1=0 etc [utilizing a standard arithmetic operator, not mod 1 etc]
extra 5 points: Naming the theorem after yourself
20 Tell people you're a mathematical philosopher
25 Tell people you've discovered a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem in your spare time (yeah I know)
30 Make a deep pronouncement about a philosophical aspect of mathematics and state that it couldn't be proven because it cannot be expressed mathematically
35 Tell everyone all the good physicists were really mathematicians...
40 claiming that your theories were developed by an extraterrestrial civilization (with good evidence)
45 Suggesting you deserve a Field's medal (yeah I know)
50 Making long tedious lists trying to quantify that which can't be quantified
(Oh wait, that's self-referential!!
Why do we require all convictions to be within a reasonable doubt? I think this should translate into punishment as well. If we can't reasonably guarantee that we will only punish those who deserve it by some method, we shouldn't use that method of punishment.
Look, I think everyone here would agree to sex registries IF we could guarantee only to punish those who deserved it (say child molesters). However, I think we think we all know that the logistics are a nightmare. Are we going to update the address database often enough? What if I happen to "look" like a sex offender? What if we have the same name? What should happen if I'm an innocent person wronged by the system? We can't even fix the voting machines that screwed up the last presidential election. How hard is that? Anything would be an improvement to punch cards and chads!
If Kobe Bryant is convicted, does this mean that he would be a sex offender? For some reason, I don't see us alienating him. Heck, we pay good money to watch a cannibalistic rapist fight in the ring. How many people argued Mike Tyson should be allowed to fight because "he's paid his debt to society". Oh, we say these women should have known better. Heck, they led this guy on. They should have known better that go to his room.
Here's what I've learned about life. If I'm going to convict a crime, I'd better be rich and famous. I should immediately hire Johnny Cochran as my attorney. Cheating and plagiarism are part of my college education. I should get my Harvard MBA anyway I can. Manipulating my company's stock price (especially for my personal gain) is good business. And if I'm going to lie, I need to be a politician.
Before we try to tag every child molester, let's fix the easy stuff first.
Unfortunately, as long as everyone has rights to post on the internet (in one way or another), somebody is going to abuse that priviledge. Since when are HTTP Referrer logs considered good content. You don't really have control over what goes into those logs anyway. We need to find more ways of filtering out bad content. It's like free speech. Ham radio and usenet have their share of nuts. Most people don't turn to those places for news. We tend to filter information on our own.
You can prove that given certain inputs you achieve certain outputs. However, so much can go wrong with the average application (i.e. database connectivity, resource issues, memory leaks), you'll never have error free code. Most of the errors I see exist because of complexity and scope creep (management issues). So, program verification still won't catch all of the "errors" in our code. Not to mention that proving a verification is impossible. You're dealing with self-referential stuff here. Proving you're method of proof. Proving you're method of proving you're proof. Etc...
I still have issues with the terminology as well. You're not proving your code. You're VERIFYING it. The fact it compiles should be a proof (i.e. it's a valid production of the language). You're just seeing if there's a 1-1 mapping between the verification and the actual code. It's more like an isomorphism.
No, I'm obviously not an expert in program verification.
I'm not trying to knock program verification. Heck, it may be our only chance at a real silver bullet of software development. Now if I could only fit the term XML in this post....
I don't want to play games anymore because their so violent. Okay so this game isn't the most violent, but they're advertising is over the top. Games are dark. I feel depressed after spending hours killing stuff. Maybe I'm getting old, but I like a little bit more in my entertainment.
I was just killing some time at the mall yesterday. I start to overhear (she was hard not to hear) a mother getting upset about the ratings on a video game. She was worried that "Syphon Filter" was too violent a game. She started asking some of the salespeople (read saleskids) if they had played the game. She asked them if the game was violent. Hmm. Let's see, your a trained killer sent by the government to kill. Geeze, I don't know if the guy carrying a gun on the cover is any clue. I guess in the world of video games it's not as bad as that new serial killer game or the naked bike riding game or the anarchy game. I know it's easy to code the hunt and kill AI. It's hard to parse out text. And we all know games can't pass the Turing test. MMORPGs are still young and we just aren't all that creative. Trust me, hackers are smart but they're just not creative. Most games looks like a cross between Snowcrash and the Evil Dead.
You know I heard a story about Nero once. People around him were starving yet he would hold these massive feasts. There would be too much food for even Nero too eat. The party-goers would gorge themselves until they became full. Then they would proceed to vomit the food they ate so they could run back to the dinner table and gorge some more. They became addicted to the pleasures of life. So much even the simple act of eating became unhealthy.
Look, I'm going to do more than boycott this game. I intend on personally blacklisting Acclaim and the designer. Any other game that this desinger(s) or Acclaim puts out, I won't buy. I'm going to write them an email telling them this. I don't want Joe Lieberman to create a new law. I don't want Phil Mushnik to write a bunch of articles about this. I want to boycott Acclaim. I'm part of their prime demographic. I'm a young male who writes code for a living and can afford to buy such a game. We've got to let them know. Frankly, the game industry is worse than the music industry. There aren't any legitimate artists making games. John Carmack can code, but he couldn't design his way out of a paper bag. He's got the creativity of a 13 year old hopped up on Ritalin.
end of rant
Frankly, he's (sorry "she's") dead on. All of your suggestions are probably too complicated for grandma. Frankly, Windows is probably too complicated. What grandma needs is an iMac. Something you really plug in and play. I'd love to see the results of a usability test with Linux. I think we'd all know the results.
Incidently if a good open source project for installation/UI comes along, I'd be willing to help.
While the media lab (at MIT, yeah I know it's at UCL but loosely related to MIT) does some of the most interesting CS/EE research, it also seems to engage in some of the dumbest.
Except that one guys defacement could be another man's legitimate posting. Take a look at the average message board. People make trolling, yet related comments everyday. Who is to say that is or isn't vandalism? Perhaps a better course of action would be to limit the number of posts in a given day. I would think 10 wiki posts (they should be insightful) would be more than enough. Sure bots could trash the site, but it would be too slow and painful for the average spammer.
I find that college computer labs are good places to work. Take a class so you can use the labs. Don't use the general labs. Try the CS or engineering labs. First, all of the cool stuff is there (or the art department, maybe). Secondly, you'll often find that they run linux/unix machines or some sort of non-windows environment. They may possibly offer free printing (depeding on your school and/or ethics). Set up a LAN at home, (with a cable modem etc) and SSH into your local development environment. Or travel with a laptop. Work at a cafe. Start work early or work late and take in the OCCAISIONAL movie. The better the college, the more interesting the environment. A good state school (you know which ones) can be pretty interesting (i.e. Madison, Berkeley, Urbana etc). Or if you got the money, a good private university. If you take classes (even grad school courses at a bad school, you MAY be disappointed). I've worked in college towns, so I know.
:)
Plus, the bonus of taking a class (grad schools often offer late afternoon or evening classes for TAs and working people) is that you get to work on that MS in whatever, or just take a class because it's interesting. Make sure it's an upper division course or a grad course. You probably don't want to hang around the younger kids. Incidently, if you are taking a lighter load and enjoy the subject matter, you'll probably get good grades.
Personally, I found that the conversations I've had with grad students in the sciences (not engineering/CS!!!!!!) are pretty interesting. Oh, and seriously don't spend to much time on Slashdot. The guys here are way to cynical and depressing
Frankly, video games will never grow as a medium until it learns to stop marketing to geeks. Oh look, another anti-social, misanthropic game where a woman with large breasts and a big gun kills people. Gee, how original. Oh, it was an elf with a sword, my fault.
2 0Design/Ga meStatistics.html
You know, Chris Crawford wrote an article about the state of the game industry. In short, he said that the industry was run by 13 year old prepubescent boys with no social skills whatsoever. Of course, I'm paraphrasing (not by much). It's true. I like video games and I write code for a living. I'm sure I'm knee deep in the geek factor. However, the industry is stagnant. It's just like Hollywood or big movies. Unfortunately, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to hold a video camera or play a guitar (especially if you do it badly). There isn't a solid indie gaming scene.
Here is a link to Chris Crawford's article:
http://www.erasmatazz.com/library/Game%
If it's good for a laugh, I originally read socialization as socialism, which gave a much different connotation.
Actually I've been interested in such analysis of internet postings in general. I love analyzing random bits of information. It's a wierd hobby. IMHO, Slashdot's comments aren't all that bad. Frankly, the fanboy/poser/activist (i.e. IMDB, comic book, video game, political, music, etc) message boards postings are much worse. Yeah, there is some predictability in Slashdot comments. However, given the general anonymity, and occaisional trolling nature of the articles, the responses are pretty mature and respectful.
Is this because the Slashdot readership is that might more intelligent, or is it because of the moderation system?
Incidently, here is a sample of what any random thread on IMDB looks like:
-A sample thread-
I think this movie sucks! Dude, I've seen better acting from a wooden plank. Frankly, I think the director could have saved a lot of money by going to his local hardware store and painting an angry face on a 2 by 4.
Man! You suck!
What? I just hate the movie?
Well, you still suck!
Well, you really suck!
You know what...
John Smith
at 111 Brown Street
in Smallburg, PA sucks!
You can call him and tell him he sucks at:
888-555-1212!
Please make sure to call him late!
What!!! Dude, I just said the movie sucked!
France sucks! The economy sucks! The world sucks!!!! This sucks!
My favorite color is blue!
I'M TYPING IN ALL CAPS.
Doodz, just chill!!!!!! Man, this movie rocked! I love the actor and his imitiation of a 2 by 4. That was so cool.
You're just a dumb*ss!
I think the movie is the best ever made! Even an idiot can see that. So why can't you. Oh yeah, it's because your dumber than an idiot. John Smith from Smallburg, PA is a BIG DUMB IDIOT.
Dude, you're like so redundant!
No, you are.
No, you are.
This movie reminds me of Citizen Kane!
No it doesn't.
I believe the movie serves as an allegory for the relationship between man and society. I think the sociological manifestation of the main character. Clearly the pendantic diatribe falls flat at the beginning. However, I believe a clear turning point in the pace of the picture can be found at the point when the main character (a wooden plank) engages in a monosyllabic philosophical solloliqy. This revitalization of the plot drives home the point of deep seeded resentment for the entire industrial lumber complex and big timber in general. Clearly the movie is a homage to the work of the likes of Samuel Fuller and Orson Welles.
Yeah, ditto. But the movie still sucks! Oh and I'm not redundant!
Does anybody know when they are going to make a sequel?
-End of a sample thread-
This is the dumbest parody I've seen. Gee, I'm an uberhacker like Neo, cus I know VB.NET. Actually I'm ashamed I know VB. Is this the worse casting since Gigli? Can I give Bill Gates a -1 Troll/Flamebait? Maybe next year Gates and Balmer can play the crew of the USS Enterprise while Linus is the Borg. I'd love to see a counter parody starring some of the open source crowd.
Incidently, I think we all know Bill Gates is some combination of Agent Smith, Kaiser Zozeg, and Darth Vader.
I met a guy who tried to brute force the multiple choice questions. He had to retake the class.
I've used to be a DBA. I still work as with databases extensively on the programming side. MySQL/PostgreSQL != Oracle. Simple as that. Maybe things have changed, but when I worked with them, the open source versions lacked (to differing degrees) transactions, triggers/stored procedure language (i.e. offering query plans/table statistics would be the first start). I can't even imagine how MySQL could be modified to even offer these features. How does MySQL handle memory managment? My experience was that MySQL's bugginess (lack of row-level locking aside) made scaling a problem. Gee, why don't you try to scale a DBM file. Trying to convert MySQL into a enterprise level database is like trying to get DOS to UNIX. Sure I could use a bunch of TSRs to emulate multi-tasking, but would I want to run DOS in a pacemaker. Look, I'm all for OSS alternatives. Heck, I always recommend MySQL or PostgreSQL as a great Access alternative. It's great for small applications. Why doesn't the open source community build a real RDBMS from scratch? Heck, that would be cool from an educational standpoint.
Which leads to the question.... What is the Minix equivalent of Oracle. I'd love to find a educational database with source code available that is as well documented as Minix.
That Turing guy reverse engineered products we haven't even invented yet! Oh, the courts already screwed him... Nevermind.
Anybody who reads slashdot, or obfuscates their email address, is not going to buy any spam advertised product. So perhaps, it's better you don't harvest those emails.
With that said, I prefer my analog generated, random noise filtered, grayscale solution. Yes, nothing beats a black and white scan of a handwritten copy of my email address. How many shades of gray can you parse.
Every once in a while I see a professor who uses a free or low cost textbook. I've seen a few very high-quality books and problem sets available for free or dirt cheap on the internet.
Also, everytime I read a technical book in the sciences (even physics and engineering), with only a few exceptions, I buy a Dover book. They almost always the best books. Many have problem sets. Most don't have solutions sets! Is that the problem?
I've even gone as far as not using the textbook (accept when/if I do homework) and used the Dover substitute.
Why do I brag about these books. Because more often than not, they're classics in the field. More often, "college textbooks" are written by people I've never heard of (not always). Look at Courant and Hilbert's Calculus book. Who is this Stewart guy?
Niels Henrik Abel once wrote, "It appears to me that if one wants to make progress in mathematics one should study the masters and not their pupils"
Martin Gardner (in "Calculus Made Easy",another excellent cheap book although it's not quite suitable for a full blown calculus course for math majors) states that most books are so thick because writers are afraid to leave anything out, so as not to alienate their buying audience (the professors).
Ironically, despite years of education, most of what I know about Math and CS (among other things) have come from self study. Most come from slim, concise, cheap books.
The whole education system is at fault. From accrediation boards (who probably ultra-scrutinize textbook choices), university administration, lazy or greedy professors (it takes a little more effort to use cheap books and they can't make money like they would if they wrote books), and book publishers (you know what they do).
I hate to knock everybody, but if I ever teach a class, I will do everything in my power to use a Dover book or some cheaper alternative.
see http://www.doverpublications.com
Here's a little background info on Adrian Lamo:1 377,508 11,00.html
http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,
What's the difference between Mr. Lamo and Richard Feynman. Obviously, one is willing to flagrantly break the law. However, the insatiable curiosity is the same.
I remember as a kid I used to go exploring. I was too stupid to realize this exploring was trespassing. Sometimes people suffered my curiosity. Once, a very nice older couple managed to humor such a spoiled little brat. They gave me a tour of their entire house. Incidently, they seemed to make the mundane entertaining. I'm sure I'd be labeled with ADD now. I also (like most of you) began to play with computers because I was curious. However, I don't have the patience to MISCHEVIOUSLY hack.
Unfortunately, no one managed to reach this guy before it was too late. I hope they don't throw the book at him. If you read the article, you'll realize that he isn't malicious, just stupid. I really do pity him.
I think 50 years from now, people will look back and say this moment was the beginning of the end of copyright law.
What is a copyright? Seriously. It's an attempt to protect something valuable that you have labored to produce. However, if copyright infringement is so incredibly rampant, maybe your particular work isn't so valuable. Remember, laws don't exist just to give lawyers a reason to exist. Laws aren't about morality either. Laws exist to help society function. It's all about law and order.
Have you ever drank a coke, made a xerox, or used a kleenex. How about the word spam. Corporations are constantly battling to keep their respective trademarks from entering the public domain.
Think of a future of near-infinite technology. What if some really brilliant scientist finds a way to use the technology of quantum teleportation to replicate goods (i.e. a "halfway" quantum teleportation). I know that's quite a pipe dream. But what if? What happens when I can produce goods at will. What's more important, feeding the hungry or protecting the world's economy. I do know we will run into some very ugly legal and societal issues over genomics and genetic engineering.
How much copyright law do you think you break in a given day? Okay, I'm not a lawyer, and I do believe file sharing IS wrong. However, I'm a little sick of the piousness of the record industry.
I find it quite a ironic that an industry that has spent the last 20 years ammoralizing the youth of America, is now upset at the lack of morality of the youth of America. What, you mean stealing is wrong? What's next, Keith Richards and Ozzy Ozbourne telling kids not to do drugs. (Although I believe such an ad would be so much more effective than the frying pain with the "this is your brain on drugs" spiel)
Yeah, it's a rant, but this is Slashdot and I'm complaining about the RIAA.
You know, how useful can a robot be for military purposes. All I need is a really big magnet.