And there's a shortage of companies that still has a decent moral compass.
If you want to improve and attract coders then it's important to provide a platform that is usable and cheap and that provides tools that are useful when you actually learn to code. For example you need Visual Studio Premium or Ultimate in order to get the Code Metrics feature - something that is really useful to those that aren't professional coders.
Another problem is as mentioned - the inability to pay for skills - many organizations hires developers for the same amount of money per hour regardless of skill, but a skilled person may produce result a lot faster and with higher quality than someone fresh from education.
And 1 in 700 is the statistical figure, you can have one every year for 10 years and then no serious storms for the next 7000 years.
What is important is to realize that humans don't have much to put up against nature when it's doing the worst it can. The only thing to do is to be prepared for bad events. Construct a survival kit that you can use when the time comes. At least if you live in an area where nature can make a serious impact.
I have already noted that laser prints can come off in flakes from the paper it's supposed to be attached to leaving unreadable text, and that's only after a few years.
And as long as a decent font for OCR is used - like OCR-B then it should be feasible.
The reason for doing it - well, if you want to preserve something for a few decades then it's printing on lint paper and using ink that can survive a long time. The latter is probably the hardest since nobody really knows which kind of ink used in computer printers that's able to survive for centuries.
My suspicion is that the dot matrix printers are better off than lasers and inkjets.
Most of the information we have is actually not very significant. If there comes a time when we need to get back to where we had a decent civilization and knowledge it shall be on printed form, not electronic. There are too many examples already where electronic data is unreadable because the hardware to read it no longer exists and has been replaced by more efficient means. Of course - it's not very hard to re-create punched card readers and punched tape readers, but how many have the means to read 8" floppies today?
When I refer to information that isn't significant - then I think of all the tax records and statistics accumulated. It's numbers, but you can't really do much from them. Engineering handbooks on the other hand are very useful when rebuilding. Metallurgy, chemistry, mechanics, physics are all things that are good to know in order to be able to rebuild. Medicine is of course also useful. It is probably enough with information to fill a few bookshelves. Historic records can be added as a secondary set of items, but they are harder to use if you lack the references, and how can we know what is real and what is fiction?
And if you create printed material that shall survive a cataclysm - use the Rosetta Stone technique - same message in multiple languages/writings. And lock it up into vaults spread over the world that requires skill rather than brute force to open and access. Place them in geological stable and dry places that are rarely accessed by humans today. Punch it on stainless steel sheets or something.
Even worse - when you have multicore nodes in a distributed system over CAN and LIN buses with random gateway latencies and different suppliers of every node in the network. It's quite "interesting" when you have some 70 nodes in the net. Add to it that not all nodes may be up and running in some cases.
The internet today is what was the motorway system in the later half of the 20th century, the propagation of telephone net in the early half and the railroad in the 19th century.
Or if we go back further - the invention of the printing press was a revolution where the hand-copying of books suddenly became obsolete.
Either you adapt or you will be another victim of the steamroller of progress.
Slashdot Mirror
Seems to me from the comments over at "isdownrightnow" that this isn't the only outage they have had this year.
One outage is bad for a service like that, repeated outages is killing that kind of business that has to be based on being reliable in all weathers.
No need to make mass arrests - just set up a draconian organization that follows rules that would make the world of Kafka seem mild.
Freedom is an illusion.
Purchase - or outright steal.
If someone complains - then the workforce of lawyers starts to move.
And there's a shortage of companies that still has a decent moral compass.
If you want to improve and attract coders then it's important to provide a platform that is usable and cheap and that provides tools that are useful when you actually learn to code. For example you need Visual Studio Premium or Ultimate in order to get the Code Metrics feature - something that is really useful to those that aren't professional coders.
Another problem is as mentioned - the inability to pay for skills - many organizations hires developers for the same amount of money per hour regardless of skill, but a skilled person may produce result a lot faster and with higher quality than someone fresh from education.
At worst - create a hex editor and enter the binary from hand-assembled code. But then it must be desperate times.
VIM rules b.t.w. :p
Not if you have used Eclipse as much as you have used VS.
Both has some flaws - as well as advantages. But Microsoft has taken the wrong turn in usability lately.
I agree that VS2012 looks like something thrown together by an ill-tempered kid in the beginning of the 80's.
In some cases it should be permitted to shoot sellers that are getting too close. At least with a paintball gun.
And 1 in 700 is the statistical figure, you can have one every year for 10 years and then no serious storms for the next 7000 years.
What is important is to realize that humans don't have much to put up against nature when it's doing the worst it can. The only thing to do is to be prepared for bad events. Construct a survival kit that you can use when the time comes. At least if you live in an area where nature can make a serious impact.
And where I live: Detroit.of.Sweden
I agree - that would really put the focus on how hard it is for women in most of the world.
Add to it the psychological factor - if someone starts to act nervous when it shows up you have some reason to investigate further.
However in any place outside the US the "probable cause" doesn't exist, so cops can stop anyone whenever they find it necessary.
I have already noted that laser prints can come off in flakes from the paper it's supposed to be attached to leaving unreadable text, and that's only after a few years.
And as long as a decent font for OCR is used - like OCR-B then it should be feasible.
The reason for doing it - well, if you want to preserve something for a few decades then it's printing on lint paper and using ink that can survive a long time. The latter is probably the hardest since nobody really knows which kind of ink used in computer printers that's able to survive for centuries.
My suspicion is that the dot matrix printers are better off than lasers and inkjets.
Most of the information we have is actually not very significant. If there comes a time when we need to get back to where we had a decent civilization and knowledge it shall be on printed form, not electronic. There are too many examples already where electronic data is unreadable because the hardware to read it no longer exists and has been replaced by more efficient means. Of course - it's not very hard to re-create punched card readers and punched tape readers, but how many have the means to read 8" floppies today?
When I refer to information that isn't significant - then I think of all the tax records and statistics accumulated. It's numbers, but you can't really do much from them. Engineering handbooks on the other hand are very useful when rebuilding. Metallurgy, chemistry, mechanics, physics are all things that are good to know in order to be able to rebuild. Medicine is of course also useful. It is probably enough with information to fill a few bookshelves. Historic records can be added as a secondary set of items, but they are harder to use if you lack the references, and how can we know what is real and what is fiction?
Just beware us from religious extremists like Nehemiah Scudder.
And if you create printed material that shall survive a cataclysm - use the Rosetta Stone technique - same message in multiple languages/writings. And lock it up into vaults spread over the world that requires skill rather than brute force to open and access. Place them in geological stable and dry places that are rarely accessed by humans today. Punch it on stainless steel sheets or something.
Even worse - when you have multicore nodes in a distributed system over CAN and LIN buses with random gateway latencies and different suppliers of every node in the network. It's quite "interesting" when you have some 70 nodes in the net. Add to it that not all nodes may be up and running in some cases.
Well - performing an upgrade with no return and if it fails you will bring down the entire power grid of a country.
At least you can't do fork bombs in Windows as easy as in *Nix.
You must be new here.
No documentation and no test code is normal for most systems. Cost is cited as soon as someone asks why.
Better indirectly than directly.
Or three 1900x1600 displays.
This hysteria to have as wide screen as possible is limiting the usefulness when it comes to business applications and software development.
The internet today is what was the motorway system in the later half of the 20th century, the propagation of telephone net in the early half and the railroad in the 19th century.
Or if we go back further - the invention of the printing press was a revolution where the hand-copying of books suddenly became obsolete.
Either you adapt or you will be another victim of the steamroller of progress.
And why can't they transfer the salary to the bank account of the employee????
And when someone successfully hacks the system and takes over the aircraft?
Cutting the IT budget means one of two things - someone is looking for a promotion or the company is going bad.
In both cases it's time to look around for a new job.