Years back we needed people for a project involving formatting documents in Word and some scripting. We started out with requesting for peple that know office and did some programming. these people were more expensive and were mediocre at best. We dropped them all, and requested some random people with 'computer literacy', we requested 3 times as much as needed, with the understanding that we would drop 2 thirds within a week.
We did a day training and let them work on the most simple documents, we sifted through a third within 2 day's, most of them just finished students that were looking for a job, but were not able to find a job in their field (mathematician, chemists), and some high school dropouts. At the end of the week we had 10 people we did the project with, a few of them stuck around after the project for several months or years to become projectleaders, surprising programmers and 'MSWord Wizzards'. The students were afaik able to get a job in their field of choice after working with us.
And the best part: It was a sound business decision.
Sorry, i seem to have given the wrong impression.
The trap part is to lock developers and by extension users into the Windows environment.
Someone else said it better: You can get away with some horrid stuff in.NET and it still looks like you made a nice program.
It comes with the my nephew made our website kind of thinking. Programming, like all other creative processes, is part skill, part Art. The tools can sometimes hide or compensate a lack of skill. But at the end it comes down to the Art.
For some reason I can not get my head fully around Microsofts programming platform. I like the small tools approach, creating independent (more monolithic) stuff that rests only on the Win32 API. This approach makes it work for all Win32 platforms. The stuff i made from scratch with.NET are not working any more, but my old Delphi stuff is still going.
sorry that you think that, mightbe that I’m just a slow learner, I never did enough work in the MS environment to get the hang of it.
Somebody else said it much better that i can :.NET lets you make stuff even when you are an horrid programmer.
I might be such a horrid programmer, but it never bothered me, or the functioning when I was using Delphi, and as the stuff still works....
but what am I arguing an abusive AC for ?
I'm still not sure with the whole.NET thing. What I see is that everybody seems to be putting it on their resume, but fail to read a small program. Also it does not really mean anything, what do you mean by.NET ? C++ J# C# VB.NET. I can only see it as a nice marketing trick from Microsoft.
I find the library that comes with.NET interesting but rather fickle, it listens to the windows policies way too much.
When I code something in my (rather archaic) Delphi environment it works from Win2000 up to 2008R2x64 without a hitch.
The stuff I made in.NET needs to be recompiled sometimes when a new platform needs to be supported. The MS compiler is updated and it works again for all designed platforms.
I know this is good for business for most.NET devs (keeps them coming back) but I find it a terrible sign of moving goalposts. I still can make stuff quicker in Dephi than with the MS environment.
I have seen people say it before, but if you buy a more serious barcode printer than a Dymo thermo printer; like an Intermec, Zebra or Monarch they support (their own flavour) of an ascii based printing language.
The downside is lock-in. once you got it working for intermac's (IPL) it probably will not run directly on Zebra's (ZPL).
These printers are made to Always work, and in general kan handle quite a lot of physical abuse. You can most of the time put in special labels or ink transfers to make the label work in the crasiest of circumstances.
These printers most of the time support stuff like Maxicode, PDF417 or Qcode becides some easier codes as Code128 and 3of9.
The advanced ones let you even 'print' RFID's
Spoolfiles tend to be extreemly small (like 200-400bytes for a label without an image, packed with barcodes)
The downside is that you will not get a nice looking GUI, and that creating a label is like creating a dialog in Clipper. (does my age show ?)
and for people who actually believe this, it would be a good thing, assuming they are recognized as non believers.. Qu'ran 009.005, 009.030, 009.034.
Hoping the bigots also remember 009.006. - the reason it is claimed to be a faith of peace:)
That was exactly what scared me to bits. They are currently claiming that it was some kind of test, but I find that a bit hard to swallow.
The chances that she will become president (if, if,if) are scaringly high.
You see it from the same perspective as I see it. we probably look at the same Âbiased Press. As I responded above; There is a good law preventing a real theocracy. Now we have to wait for Americans to recognize why this is again, and live up to it.
And Christoper was equally clear as you about that. That is why he has become American I think. The trouble you (I'm not American) currently have it that there is erosion from all sides. It is true that you hear about their views from others, but i also have seen some interesting video's where they say it themselves. And that they are Âdesperately trying to look religious is because there is no other way to get elected currently.
Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Carl Segan and many others have been trying to tell everybody.
Keep this in mind when going to the poll next November.
Yes, the nmo.nl (Dutch Muslim television) even agreed to put the film on show, but for some reason mr. Wilders did not want that. We will probably never know what really went on behind the scenes. As others have said, I might not agree with mr. Wilders, but as long as is is not too insulting (how could we, mere mortals, insult a big almighty anyhow). He has a nack for living right on the edge, so i do not believe he will call for the destruction of Islam, but I'm sure there are enough things that were previously on CNN or Al Jazeraa, combined with specific verses, that will do about the same.
As for giving GWB a blowjob....*sigh* I suppose I've given blowjobs for a lot less than the end of tyranny so I guess if you get him alone and hold him down, I'll take one for the geek world team, but damn, I expect a lifetime of free mp3's in return. I'd be an mp3 gazillionaire at MPAA rates. Now there's a real patriot, put it on Youtube and I'll send you an URL.
*ducks*
Just like it is in Europe, my personal information is mine and I can request removal from the database (except for some special cases) and the maintainer of the database will have to comply with a written statement within two days, and can only charge a reasonable amount (iirc less than 10Euro) for it.
Can you imagine the upset Europeans feel for the fact that almost every tiny bit of information has to be send to the government of the United States when we enter the country. (especially with the 'proven trustworthiness')
A working 'Safe' setup
I have set up a windows 2000 box about 4 years ago for my parents and put them directly in user mode. (also disallowed IE to the internet and stop Outlook Express from starting using Kerio Firewall). This fast became a problem because it was impossible to use the video grabbing software. I ended up to make an administrator account with less icons visible. In the past 4 years I have taken about 6 evenings to fix some odd stuff. And one complete reinstal because of an hardware upgrade.
I also explained that when then needed to install some software they needed to use the 'video grabbing' account for installing software if they needed to. They have installed some software for a digital camera, some tax programs and quite a lot of other tools that my father deemed to be safe. He is not prolific in eigther English or IT in general but he never managed to kill the box.
Enter 'The Expert'
Two months ago they took up ADSL with WiFi. The technical support guy installed the drivers (in user mode, because he did not recognize it) After about 2 hours he began asking my father questions about why it might not work and my father ended up giving him access to his Video grabbing account.
Then the driver did install and it worked almost immediately. The biggest trouble is that the whole freaking driver does not work in user mode. You need to be admin to use network.
The box is now in stable and I probably have to reinstall the whole thing. Using a pci WiFi card instead of the 'free' USB crap.
All in all, it seems the 'tech' had never encountered a locked down windows box and even managed to kill a perfectly working system.
That's probably what you get when you are on vacation and have to rely on 'colleagues':)
What you are proposing is installing an operating system that is completely foreign to them.
Yes, and that is exactly what i did with my 5 year old; I told him he had to press the green button to get to the games (yes, it's SuSE) and now he is MAD about 'The yellow Airplain' (GCompris) and 'The pinguin in the mountains' (TuxRacer), also like to play 'with tanks' (BZFlag) and 'game with the bombs' (Clanbomber) but I'm not quite sure about those two but I'll get in trouble if I delete them now.:)
Also he plays games using Firefox at the BBC and some dutch sites. I picked the sites upfront with a bookmark page.
It took about 2 minutes to get it into his head. What is so foreign about it ? (The language might be foreign to him but he can not read so who cares.
If you took the time to actually read the voting recommendations, you'll see that some of the proposed candidates are actually generated at random. actually encouraging to pick one of your own choice. but helpful for the decision impaired.
+1 Insigtful. I recognise the fact that advertising on tv takes longer than the length of my attention span. I usally end up annoyed to turning it off again because i just misseed the end again. I especally hate the 'news' blocks they put inbetween a film, I turn the tv off when that happens, ending up using a P2P tool to download it. It has certainly has overcome my Inertia (althoug I'm known for lazyness).
I've seen the crossplatform remarks already, but no one asked the question yet about how widespread implementations are. I currently see much more.Net implementations in Intranet environments, and java when the client is less known. my guess is that those more local implementations are much less scrutinized. opposed to the much more open and directly accesible implementations in java.
Sure this is a nice gathering point, but comparing slashdot to an 'executives primer into new Microsoft products' event is a bit off. I'm missing the fancy location, Champagne on entry, Hors d'ouvre halfway and all other kinds of mirrors and beads that 'management' (either corperate or governmental) like so much. The trouble is that in the case of goverment we have to pay for it in taxes. And if the Open standards/Open source is out of the equation (which this can possibly lead to), that money will go to a different country sometimes with strange spending habits.
Slashdot Mirror
Years back we needed people for a project involving formatting documents in Word and some scripting. We started out with requesting for peple that know office and did some programming. these people were more expensive and were mediocre at best. We dropped them all, and requested some random people with 'computer literacy', we requested 3 times as much as needed, with the understanding that we would drop 2 thirds within a week.
We did a day training and let them work on the most simple documents, we sifted through a third within 2 day's, most of them just finished students that were looking for a job, but were not able to find a job in their field (mathematician, chemists), and some high school dropouts. At the end of the week we had 10 people we did the project with, a few of them stuck around after the project for several months or years to become projectleaders, surprising programmers and 'MSWord Wizzards'.
The students were afaik able to get a job in their field of choice after working with us.
And the best part: It was a sound business decision.
Sorry, i seem to have given the wrong impression. The trap part is to lock developers and by extension users into the Windows environment. Someone else said it better: You can get away with some horrid stuff in .NET and it still looks like you made a nice program.
It comes with the my nephew made our website kind of thinking. Programming, like all other creative processes, is part skill, part Art. The tools can sometimes hide or compensate a lack of skill. But at the end it comes down to the Art.
For some reason I can not get my head fully around Microsofts programming platform. I like the small tools approach, creating independent (more monolithic) stuff that rests only on the Win32 API. This approach makes it work for all Win32 platforms. The stuff i made from scratch with .NET are not working any more, but my old Delphi stuff is still going.
sorry that you think that, mightbe that I’m just a slow learner, I never did enough work in the MS environment to get the hang of it. Somebody else said it much better that i can : .NET lets you make stuff even when you are an horrid programmer.
I might be such a horrid programmer, but it never bothered me, or the functioning when I was using Delphi, and as the stuff still works....
but what am I arguing an abusive AC for ?
I'm still not sure with the whole .NET thing. What I see is that everybody seems to be putting it on their resume, but fail to read a small program. Also it does not really mean anything, what do you mean by .NET ? C++ J# C# VB.NET. I can only see it as a nice marketing trick from Microsoft.
I find the library that comes with .NET interesting but rather fickle, it listens to the windows policies way too much.
When I code something in my (rather archaic) Delphi environment it works from Win2000 up to 2008R2x64 without a hitch.
The stuff I made in .NET needs to be recompiled sometimes when a new platform needs to be supported. The MS compiler is updated and it works again for all designed platforms.
I know this is good for business for most .NET devs (keeps them coming back) but I find it a terrible sign of moving goalposts. I still can make stuff quicker in Dephi than with the MS environment.
I have seen people say it before, but if you buy a more serious barcode printer than a Dymo thermo printer; like an Intermec, Zebra or Monarch they support (their own flavour) of an ascii based printing language. The downside is lock-in. once you got it working for intermac's (IPL) it probably will not run directly on Zebra's (ZPL). These printers are made to Always work, and in general kan handle quite a lot of physical abuse. You can most of the time put in special labels or ink transfers to make the label work in the crasiest of circumstances. These printers most of the time support stuff like Maxicode, PDF417 or Qcode becides some easier codes as Code128 and 3of9. The advanced ones let you even 'print' RFID's Spoolfiles tend to be extreemly small (like 200-400bytes for a label without an image, packed with barcodes) The downside is that you will not get a nice looking GUI, and that creating a label is like creating a dialog in Clipper. (does my age show ?)
and for people who actually believe this, it would be a good thing, assuming they are recognized as non believers.. Qu'ran 009.005, 009.030, 009.034. Hoping the bigots also remember 009.006. - the reason it is claimed to be a faith of peace :)
I do not understand how the writer of that piece comes from ÂCSDÂ to the Church tax and then back to the higher taxes for the top 1% earners in America. You might read http://www.issues2000.org/Background_Tax_Reform.htm or http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/27/news/economy/obama_wealthy_taxes/index.htm but keep track of the changes, there can be changes, and the new president (whoever) is not yet there, normally stuff changes after inauguration :)
That was exactly what scared me to bits. They are currently claiming that it was some kind of test, but I find that a bit hard to swallow. The chances that she will become president (if, if ,if) are scaringly high.
You are absolutely right. I'll try to get more informed before I shoot from the hip next time :)
You see it from the same perspective as I see it. we probably look at the same Âbiased Press. As I responded above; There is a good law preventing a real theocracy. Now we have to wait for Americans to recognize why this is again, and live up to it.
And Christoper was equally clear as you about that. That is why he has become American I think. The trouble you (I'm not American) currently have it that there is erosion from all sides. It is true that you hear about their views from others, but i also have seen some interesting video's where they say it themselves. And that they are Âdesperately trying to look religious is because there is no other way to get elected currently.
It certainly looks a bit like reincarnation to me :) This time a woman though, I expected something smaller.
Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Carl Segan and many others have been trying to tell everybody. Keep this in mind when going to the poll next November.
Yes, the nmo.nl (Dutch Muslim television) even agreed to put the film on show, but for some reason mr. Wilders did not want that. We will probably never know what really went on behind the scenes. As others have said, I might not agree with mr. Wilders, but as long as is is not too insulting (how could we, mere mortals, insult a big almighty anyhow). He has a nack for living right on the edge, so i do not believe he will call for the destruction of Islam, but I'm sure there are enough things that were previously on CNN or Al Jazeraa, combined with specific verses, that will do about the same.
Just like it is in Europe, my personal information is mine and I can request removal from the database (except for some special cases) and the maintainer of the database will have to comply with a written statement within two days, and can only charge a reasonable amount (iirc less than 10Euro) for it. Can you imagine the upset Europeans feel for the fact that almost every tiny bit of information has to be send to the government of the United States when we enter the country. (especially with the 'proven trustworthiness')
A working 'Safe' setup I have set up a windows 2000 box about 4 years ago for my parents and put them directly in user mode. (also disallowed IE to the internet and stop Outlook Express from starting using Kerio Firewall). This fast became a problem because it was impossible to use the video grabbing software. I ended up to make an administrator account with less icons visible. In the past 4 years I have taken about 6 evenings to fix some odd stuff. And one complete reinstal because of an hardware upgrade. I also explained that when then needed to install some software they needed to use the 'video grabbing' account for installing software if they needed to. They have installed some software for a digital camera, some tax programs and quite a lot of other tools that my father deemed to be safe. He is not prolific in eigther English or IT in general but he never managed to kill the box. Enter 'The Expert' Two months ago they took up ADSL with WiFi. The technical support guy installed the drivers (in user mode, because he did not recognize it) After about 2 hours he began asking my father questions about why it might not work and my father ended up giving him access to his Video grabbing account. Then the driver did install and it worked almost immediately. The biggest trouble is that the whole freaking driver does not work in user mode. You need to be admin to use network. The box is now in stable and I probably have to reinstall the whole thing. Using a pci WiFi card instead of the 'free' USB crap. All in all, it seems the 'tech' had never encountered a locked down windows box and even managed to kill a perfectly working system. That's probably what you get when you are on vacation and have to rely on 'colleagues' :)
What you are proposing is installing an operating system that is completely foreign to them. Yes, and that is exactly what i did with my 5 year old; I told him he had to press the green button to get to the games (yes, it's SuSE) and now he is MAD about 'The yellow Airplain' (GCompris) and 'The pinguin in the mountains' (TuxRacer), also like to play 'with tanks' (BZFlag) and 'game with the bombs' (Clanbomber) but I'm not quite sure about those two but I'll get in trouble if I delete them now. :)
Also he plays games using Firefox at the BBC and some dutch sites. I picked the sites upfront with a bookmark page.
It took about 2 minutes to get it into his head. What is so foreign about it ? (The language might be foreign to him but he can not read so who cares.
Probably just someone stupid enough to think he can make a quick buck by downloading something from a p2p network.
Scientific American: Top Sci/Tech Gifts 2005
Holiday presents for the science- and technology-minded
Done that. Reade the voting recommendations and then do a refresh ... ...
Decisions, decisions
If you took the time to actually read the voting recommendations, you'll see that some of the proposed candidates are actually generated at random. actually encouraging to pick one of your own choice. but helpful for the decision impaired.
+1 Insigtful. I recognise the fact that advertising on tv takes longer than the length of my attention span. I usally end up annoyed to turning it off again because i just misseed the end again. I especally hate the 'news' blocks they put inbetween a film, I turn the tv off when that happens, ending up using a P2P tool to download it. It has certainly has overcome my Inertia (althoug I'm known for lazyness).
I've seen the crossplatform remarks already, but no one asked the question yet about how widespread implementations are. I currently see much more .Net implementations in Intranet environments, and java when the client is less known. my guess is that those more local implementations are much less scrutinized. opposed to the much more open and directly accesible implementations in java.
Sure this is a nice gathering point, but comparing slashdot to an 'executives primer into new Microsoft products' event is a bit off. I'm missing the fancy location, Champagne on entry, Hors d'ouvre halfway and all other kinds of mirrors and beads that 'management' (either corperate or governmental) like so much. The trouble is that in the case of goverment we have to pay for it in taxes. And if the Open standards/Open source is out of the equation (which this can possibly lead to), that money will go to a different country sometimes with strange spending habits.