Aye! I hear you brother! I can't remember the last time I just had a pure programming job. (I'm a contract Java programmer). I always end up using more skills than what the job description would lead to believe is required.
Of course its in places where they expect the magic to just happen. Like expecting me to create and edit images with windows paintbrush and the like. And I always, always do administration and the like to make things work. However I do sincerly believe that developers should know how to administrate the systems that they are developing for (perhaps minus full-on database administation, just the basics) so that they can understand the impact that their design decisions have. And so that they don't come asking me for help every 5 minutes:)
But my current Inbox shows that this approach doesn't work effectivly. Has the SPAM epedemic been stopped? No we have SPAM. A country gets blacklisted, the citizens can't send email, there is a momentary lull and the spammers move somewhere else and the whole process starts over again, leaving ruin it is wake. There are now networks of zombies within our own systems sending out SPAM because of these blocades.
In stead of ostracising countries from communication with email, they should be helped with stopping SPAM traffic from their network and helped back onto the internation email sending stage. If nothing else the UN could at least help with that. Not just punishing a whole country of innocent users with the few bad apples in them.
Again and again we see examples of the thought process that maintaining a blockade against a country will force that country to comply with international demands, and again and again we see years and sometime decades of suffering by citizens before a resolution is actually reached.
I may be sounding like I'm taking this a little out of perspective, but how quickly citizens from the so called developed countries with this attitude would cry out that their freedoms are being stepped upon if someone dared to blacklist them.
In my former full time job, I got to visit a company that specialised in tempest shielding and the like. After I finished the job I was doing there, they showed me around, showing how they could read a remote monitor, tv, cable, all sorts of things. They even jammed my mobile phone for me, so I could see how such things worked in action.
Oh yes I remember this! A supposedly high security installation and there are USB ports on the keyboard! Puhhhlease! In high security environments where it matters, there aren't supposed to be disk drives and USB ports, or a easily accesible means to get data off the network.
Calling Gmail a spyware app is hardly appropriate or warranted. If you don't wan't targeted adds being created from your email, then don't use it. Thats right, no laws needed, no software uninstalls, make a choice!
Gmail doesn't get installed into your browser when your not looking;) Besides not every email actaully gets linked to adds.
If companies wan't to start ranking their customers then they should be prepared for a backlash, because as so many companies seem to forget, the buck stops here!:)
My bold statement came from personal experience and from being subjected to too many bad slow swing applications. SWT was a breath of fresh air in a slow Java GUI world. I did actually try to find some benchmarks but I didn't find anything that actually compared the two. I have read that the performance of Swing has improved signigicantly over the course of time.
When I'm sitting around waiting for a GUI to repspond not matter how long it is, I get frustrated and then my productivity can decrease.
Personally (and this is an opinion not a fact) I do not think that Java is a good language for doing graphical applications in. Perhaps its from too many bad experiences I say this. I certainly understand why its popular to use in this way since it is supported on multiple platforms, by I have never considered Java to of delivered on the write once, run anyware mantra that used to abound with Java advocates. We are a few releases into Java now, and what with all the different JDK's on different platforms with different API version numbers and such, getting one Java app to run on another system can have its moments.
I think its important for apps to have a native look and feel so that they respond in a way that a user expects on the particular OS that they are running on. I have had countless frustration trying to do windows like things in Java GUI apps and not having the apps respond as they would if they were nativly implemented. Again more frustration. By trying to implement a common set of functionality across all platforms you can loose the things unique to each platform along the way that make using that platform easier.
Why the compounding of a task into another task to achieve the same result. Running the scripts I require to run through Java adds another step to running them that I do not require. Therefore it is a solution to a problem that is more complex than alternate solutions that exist to the same problem.
How is that complex?
It is more complex than what I require. Since you do not know what I do, you are hardly in a position to judge. I on the other hand can readily judge whether running my scripts through Java is something that I require. Believe me, its not.
Is that complex?
No, and this is where things get delicious, I'm talking about scripting, you know, writing text files with commands in them that you launch using a command interpreter of some kind. Not running a command prompt that the so called "Examples" of yours show. Its actually more complex to call a script from Java than your poor examples reflect. How about a link to demonstrate: BeanShell Example - Calling scripts from Java
If it is, I think you should be careful about what problems you are trying to solve. Stick to simple ones.
I think that you should perhaps take some of your own advice. I know how to run a command prompt, I know how to run a script, I know how to run Java. Some other advice I would offer would be to actually not insult people in a public forum. You might not be prepared for the consequences.
Well its interesting that you bring up the phrase "Swing does not fit in the X11 word" (is that world) because Azureus uses SWT (Standard Widget Toolkit), not Swing. SWT is a thin API layer that is integrate with the native window system. It has been used most effectivly in the Eclipse Platform.
You will find that the windowing performance of a SWT Java application far exeeds that of a Java Swing application, for very obvious reasons.
Being a avid Eclipse user, I can spot SWT from 50 feet!
Thats nice of you to say, but I wasn't talking about the suitability of Java for open source projects. I was just saying what my philosphy on the use of programming languages was.
When it comes to programming, I believe in the right tool for the right job. I predominately program in Java but it doesn't mean I use it to solve every programming problem I have. I use scripting languages and whatever else is appropriate to get the job done.
I only wish more of my peers could understand this:(
Not reasonable to pay for on online service to play online games? It is a service like any other service and services cost money to run, and for many services, you pay to get that service.
For example, XBOX Live isn't sitting on a couple of PC's in somebodies basement, it is a world wide gaming service connecting approximately 1 million gamers together. That doesn't cost nothing, it takes money to run it and Microsoft asks a fee to use it, which I think is entirely reasonable.
As for monthly payments to play games, there are very few XBOX Live games that require any additional fee to play the actual game once you purchase it (however we should be keeping a close eye on EA Games). Indeed many Live enabled games come with additional free downloads (bar the cost of the bandwidth) to improve the game.
I entirely agree that Microsoft must be careful to not price the XBOX Live service too high otherwise younger gamers with limited budgets may not be able to afford the service.
I am an XBOX Live game player, as well as PC Online game player, and even with so called free PC Gaming, someone somewhere is paying for the hosting of PC game servers. Whether it be an ISP providing PC game servers to attract customers or game companies themselves to attract people to buy it, or whether a server is being put onto a corporate network without anyone knowing. Someone is paying for the computer and for the bandwidth to make that server run. There are many that are certainly free to use, there are also many that can only be used by members of an ISP. Someone is swallowing the cost to make it happen to provide fun for themselves and other people.
I very much believe that every console manufacturer is going to be going for online gaming in one form or another in the future for two very simple reasons: Online gaming is fun, and consumers will gain the expectation that games should be online capable.
Why yes what I said is a little trollish, but its merely a guilty pleasure to inspire discussion;)
I am a Windows XP user, I do not use Linux regularly though I am Unix capable. What I said is based on my user experience and that of others I have talked to. I'm sure anyone who has used Windows for a while, knows the performance benefit of doing a fresh install every now and then.
I have found XP to be very stable and I rarely have serious problems with it. About my biggest beef recently would be the way Windows kills of processes, in that if a process really doesn't want to die it doesn't have to, because Windows plays too nice.
I'm perfectly serious about what I said, I think the Windows Registry has to go. I've had too many programs fail to uninstall and leave so much crud lying around the registry and programs trying to maliciously exploit it. There has to be a better way!:)
Don't worry just give it some time, the older the install gets, the more crud will end up in the registry and little by little it will start to run slower, and some day start doing some odd things...
If there was one evil I could rid us of in this world it would be the Windows Registry... Please MS, take the hint and get rid of it!
Flash bang isn't all that good against using a electromagnetic view, not only could they target people with vidcams, but all those annoying people that keep their mobile phones on!
I have always assumed that any ISP that is on the route that my email takes can actually read it if they want and because of that, I act accordingly. I have a certificate I use to sign and encrypt email when needed.
However from a business practice point of view, reading a customers email and acting on it without their knowledge, probably isn't good for business. Once again customer service takes a back seat to profit. Some people do seem to have an expectation of privacy with email, a privacy that doesn't exist, and once that is violated, they may choose to take their business somewhere else.
The thing about the micropayment system that worries me is making sure that consumers get what they actually pay for. The internet is hardly what I would call a reliable medium for on demand payment processing.
There is always the issue that something can go wrong in between you and the merchant that can make that 1 view paid for content just disapear never to be seen again, eating your credit and not getting your content. I'm trying to strike up the similarity of like, putting your money into a vending machine and not getting what your paid for when the chocolate bar gets stuck.
Its hardly a wallet breaking scenario, but it is annoying and reduces a persons confidence in using such a system. If people are willing to use such a system with those risks its fine, but I hope that there is going to be additional effort in ensuring that these small transactions are done reliably.
and regulations require crowds to be at sufficient distance from firing sites (at least in MN) that you rarely actually hear them being shot
If only this was true where I was from sigh. There was an indicident in my city a few years back where there was a fireworks display put on and the launch platform was in a park next to a river. Normally the fireworks get launched on the river (for obvious reasons) but not this time round.
So there we were sitting around the cordoned off area as the show went off. However the company that did the fireworks screwed up big time, and while we were sitting there enjoying the show we were suddenly rained upon by burning magnesium and other assorted burning metals, fireworks casings and other assorted debries. When a large chunk of a baseball sized burning material landed in the cordorned off area with an audible thump, it was time to get out of there.
Many parents had left beforehand with their children as we were quite literally being burn't as we sat there, having to put out burning embers that landed on our blankets and things. I still had my sunglasses with me so I put those on to protect my eyes as we made our escape.
Needless to say there was a huge backlash against the fireworks screw up with plently of angry parents wanting to know what went wrong. From memory it all got blamed on the fireworks company and that was that.
Re:The city was being reasonable, not Smirnoff
on
Reverse Graffiti
·
· Score: 1
The problem is is that permission was not sought to do this "cleaning up". It is advertising pure and simple, and the concil has a right to complain, if Smirnoff et all arn't following the rules. The advertisers can be as "indignant" as they want, but if they just played by the rules they more than likely would of been able to do this "cleanup".
Instead they have raised the hackles of the council, which will probabably not allow future advertising in this manner, and caused trouble for everyone involved, simply because the proper process wasn't involved. Most likely because they thought they could get away with it as they considered this was a loophole.
I think a bit of mutual respect on all sides of this fiasco could of stopped this blowing out of all proportion as it has now.
But it makes for some free advertising for Smirnoff.
Hopefully many tech supports are and it may just be the last kick in the pant's that they need to upgrade all their users to something other than IE so they do not spend countless hours containing this new problem.
I'm a contract programmer and OSS has saved me countless times, when working for companies that think I just wave my hands and software materializes out of nowhere. Many times the tools that I am given is a computer with Windows and thats it. I might have some remote DB or LDAP server to use or something but thats usually it.
If they don't give me internet access, then its about time to go home as I often spend the next few hours downloading and setting up a whole raft of OSS to get my job done. From applications to libraries. Plus the basic necessities so I can avoid using IE:) Bless you Mozilla and Apache Foundations.
So many companies I have worked for, rely on OSS just to get their daily development done, just because they don't want to spend the money on any tools. Admitedly these places arn't asking for the development of Windows software, mostly Web and Java and don't usually have big development teams.
I normally sit there and try to convert other people that work with me to change to OSS alternatives when I see that something that they are doing can be improved. Or when they hear me retch when I seem them using IE...
Never underestimate the power of free. Most places I work for don't have a problem with using OSS libraries at all, some are not all that keen on free server software like Web Application Servers and such due to the lack and someone to call up at 2 in the morning and panic too. And some are more then willing to use Tomcat instead of actually paying 10's of thousands of dollars for a WAS.
I've never worked anywhere yet, that has actually wanted to modify OSS code...
It is the US Senate that made this bill into law. I suggest that you first start with fixing the way that your government is seemingly bought off at every turn by political "donations". It is so easy to see what is happening I don't understand why it is tolerated. I mean its corruption isn't it? Just corruption that is deemed acceptable.
Of course a counter argument is that we can play that game as well by paying off senators to help us instead of big business, but I'm sure big business has deeper pockets from which to give. Deep pockets that we as consumers give them. I'm sure there are controls on the size of "donations" but it creates an inherent conflict of interest that, in my opinion, shouldn't be tolerated.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course its in places where they expect the magic to just happen. Like expecting me to create and edit images with windows paintbrush and the like. And I always, always do administration and the like to make things work. However I do sincerly believe that developers should know how to administrate the systems that they are developing for (perhaps minus full-on database administation, just the basics) so that they can understand the impact that their design decisions have. And so that they don't come asking me for help every 5 minutes :)
In stead of ostracising countries from communication with email, they should be helped with stopping SPAM traffic from their network and helped back onto the internation email sending stage. If nothing else the UN could at least help with that. Not just punishing a whole country of innocent users with the few bad apples in them.
Again and again we see examples of the thought process that maintaining a blockade against a country will force that country to comply with international demands, and again and again we see years and sometime decades of suffering by citizens before a resolution is actually reached.
I may be sounding like I'm taking this a little out of perspective, but how quickly citizens from the so called developed countries with this attitude would cry out that their freedoms are being stepped upon if someone dared to blacklist them.
That day I wanted a tin foil hat lol.
Oh yes I remember this! A supposedly high security installation and there are USB ports on the keyboard! Puhhhlease! In high security environments where it matters, there aren't supposed to be disk drives and USB ports, or a easily accesible means to get data off the network.
Gmail doesn't get installed into your browser when your not looking ;) Besides not every email actaully gets linked to adds.
If companies wan't to start ranking their customers then they should be prepared for a backlash, because as so many companies seem to forget, the buck stops here! :)
When I'm sitting around waiting for a GUI to repspond not matter how long it is, I get frustrated and then my productivity can decrease.
Personally (and this is an opinion not a fact) I do not think that Java is a good language for doing graphical applications in. Perhaps its from too many bad experiences I say this. I certainly understand why its popular to use in this way since it is supported on multiple platforms, by I have never considered Java to of delivered on the write once, run anyware mantra that used to abound with Java advocates. We are a few releases into Java now, and what with all the different JDK's on different platforms with different API version numbers and such, getting one Java app to run on another system can have its moments.
I think its important for apps to have a native look and feel so that they respond in a way that a user expects on the particular OS that they are running on. I have had countless frustration trying to do windows like things in Java GUI apps and not having the apps respond as they would if they were nativly implemented. Again more frustration. By trying to implement a common set of functionality across all platforms you can loose the things unique to each platform along the way that make using that platform easier.
Why the compounding of a task into another task to achieve the same result. Running the scripts I require to run through Java adds another step to running them that I do not require. Therefore it is a solution to a problem that is more complex than alternate solutions that exist to the same problem.
How is that complex?
It is more complex than what I require. Since you do not know what I do, you are hardly in a position to judge. I on the other hand can readily judge whether running my scripts through Java is something that I require. Believe me, its not.
Is that complex?
No, and this is where things get delicious, I'm talking about scripting, you know, writing text files with commands in them that you launch using a command interpreter of some kind. Not running a command prompt that the so called "Examples" of yours show. Its actually more complex to call a script from Java than your poor examples reflect. How about a link to demonstrate: BeanShell Example - Calling scripts from Java
If it is, I think you should be careful about what problems you are trying to solve. Stick to simple ones.
I think that you should perhaps take some of your own advice. I know how to run a command prompt, I know how to run a script, I know how to run Java. Some other advice I would offer would be to actually not insult people in a public forum. You might not be prepared for the consequences.
You will find that the windowing performance of a SWT Java application far exeeds that of a Java Swing application, for very obvious reasons.
Being a avid Eclipse user, I can spot SWT from 50 feet!
Why? Because the problems I solve with scripts do not require the complexity of running them through Java :)
Thats nice of you to say, but I wasn't talking about the suitability of Java for open source projects. I was just saying what my philosphy on the use of programming languages was.
When it comes to programming, I believe in the right tool for the right job. I predominately program in Java but it doesn't mean I use it to solve every programming problem I have. I use scripting languages and whatever else is appropriate to get the job done.
I only wish more of my peers could understand this :(
For example, XBOX Live isn't sitting on a couple of PC's in somebodies basement, it is a world wide gaming service connecting approximately 1 million gamers together. That doesn't cost nothing, it takes money to run it and Microsoft asks a fee to use it, which I think is entirely reasonable.
As for monthly payments to play games, there are very few XBOX Live games that require any additional fee to play the actual game once you purchase it (however we should be keeping a close eye on EA Games). Indeed many Live enabled games come with additional free downloads (bar the cost of the bandwidth) to improve the game.
I entirely agree that Microsoft must be careful to not price the XBOX Live service too high otherwise younger gamers with limited budgets may not be able to afford the service.
I am an XBOX Live game player, as well as PC Online game player, and even with so called free PC Gaming, someone somewhere is paying for the hosting of PC game servers. Whether it be an ISP providing PC game servers to attract customers or game companies themselves to attract people to buy it, or whether a server is being put onto a corporate network without anyone knowing. Someone is paying for the computer and for the bandwidth to make that server run. There are many that are certainly free to use, there are also many that can only be used by members of an ISP. Someone is swallowing the cost to make it happen to provide fun for themselves and other people.
I very much believe that every console manufacturer is going to be going for online gaming in one form or another in the future for two very simple reasons: Online gaming is fun, and consumers will gain the expectation that games should be online capable.
That is not entirely correct, it does create some problems with more modern software: Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 299958
I am a Windows XP user, I do not use Linux regularly though I am Unix capable. What I said is based on my user experience and that of others I have talked to. I'm sure anyone who has used Windows for a while, knows the performance benefit of doing a fresh install every now and then.
I have found XP to be very stable and I rarely have serious problems with it. About my biggest beef recently would be the way Windows kills of processes, in that if a process really doesn't want to die it doesn't have to, because Windows plays too nice.
I'm perfectly serious about what I said, I think the Windows Registry has to go. I've had too many programs fail to uninstall and leave so much crud lying around the registry and programs trying to maliciously exploit it. There has to be a better way! :)
If there was one evil I could rid us of in this world it would be the Windows Registry... Please MS, take the hint and get rid of it!
According to that Tic-Tac-Toe game its whoever makes the first move...
Flash bang isn't all that good against using a electromagnetic view, not only could they target people with vidcams, but all those annoying people that keep their mobile phones on!
However from a business practice point of view, reading a customers email and acting on it without their knowledge, probably isn't good for business. Once again customer service takes a back seat to profit. Some people do seem to have an expectation of privacy with email, a privacy that doesn't exist, and once that is violated, they may choose to take their business somewhere else.
A bribe here, some blackmail there and viola, a fake card or worse.
There is always the issue that something can go wrong in between you and the merchant that can make that 1 view paid for content just disapear never to be seen again, eating your credit and not getting your content. I'm trying to strike up the similarity of like, putting your money into a vending machine and not getting what your paid for when the chocolate bar gets stuck.
Its hardly a wallet breaking scenario, but it is annoying and reduces a persons confidence in using such a system. If people are willing to use such a system with those risks its fine, but I hope that there is going to be additional effort in ensuring that these small transactions are done reliably.
If only this was true where I was from sigh. There was an indicident in my city a few years back where there was a fireworks display put on and the launch platform was in a park next to a river. Normally the fireworks get launched on the river (for obvious reasons) but not this time round.
So there we were sitting around the cordoned off area as the show went off. However the company that did the fireworks screwed up big time, and while we were sitting there enjoying the show we were suddenly rained upon by burning magnesium and other assorted burning metals, fireworks casings and other assorted debries. When a large chunk of a baseball sized burning material landed in the cordorned off area with an audible thump, it was time to get out of there.
Many parents had left beforehand with their children as we were quite literally being burn't as we sat there, having to put out burning embers that landed on our blankets and things. I still had my sunglasses with me so I put those on to protect my eyes as we made our escape.
Needless to say there was a huge backlash against the fireworks screw up with plently of angry parents wanting to know what went wrong. From memory it all got blamed on the fireworks company and that was that.
Instead they have raised the hackles of the council, which will probabably not allow future advertising in this manner, and caused trouble for everyone involved, simply because the proper process wasn't involved. Most likely because they thought they could get away with it as they considered this was a loophole.
I think a bit of mutual respect on all sides of this fiasco could of stopped this blowing out of all proportion as it has now.
But it makes for some free advertising for Smirnoff.
Hopefully many tech supports are and it may just be the last kick in the pant's that they need to upgrade all their users to something other than IE so they do not spend countless hours containing this new problem.
If they don't give me internet access, then its about time to go home as I often spend the next few hours downloading and setting up a whole raft of OSS to get my job done. From applications to libraries. Plus the basic necessities so I can avoid using IE :) Bless you Mozilla and Apache Foundations.
So many companies I have worked for, rely on OSS just to get their daily development done, just because they don't want to spend the money on any tools. Admitedly these places arn't asking for the development of Windows software, mostly Web and Java and don't usually have big development teams.
I normally sit there and try to convert other people that work with me to change to OSS alternatives when I see that something that they are doing can be improved. Or when they hear me retch when I seem them using IE...
Never underestimate the power of free. Most places I work for don't have a problem with using OSS libraries at all, some are not all that keen on free server software like Web Application Servers and such due to the lack and someone to call up at 2 in the morning and panic too. And some are more then willing to use Tomcat instead of actually paying 10's of thousands of dollars for a WAS.
I've never worked anywhere yet, that has actually wanted to modify OSS code...
Of course a counter argument is that we can play that game as well by paying off senators to help us instead of big business, but I'm sure big business has deeper pockets from which to give. Deep pockets that we as consumers give them. I'm sure there are controls on the size of "donations" but it creates an inherent conflict of interest that, in my opinion, shouldn't be tolerated.
Now label me as a troll and move along.