they know that the engineers strive to make it safe but the management strive to make it profitable; I don't even blame them for that, that's their job and even one could say their duty. But this means that accidents, leaks and spills are bound to happen, and the problem with radioactivity is that once it's there it's here to stay, people understand that pretty well in my opinion.
I think, an additional factor is that nuclear reactors require a huge infrastructures and are operated by huge hierarchies. I would think a small team of experts might be trusted with the inherit risks, because the channels of communication are short. But as is, nuclear power is unsafe -- not because it is technically risky, but organizationally risky. The same applies to all the other examples mentioned.
Bull. If you think SQL Server, Exchange and Sharepoint aren't huge for them, you're nuts, and they're positioned to grow. Sharepoint is growing quickly, and within a couple of years will be really, really hard to dislodge. The number of new installations in corporate and education would make the Open Office folks giddy. Everyone here focuses on Windows and Office, trust me, Sharepoint and Exchange are a huge, huge deal.
You are mostly right about Sharepoint. However, I see it as a defensive product (to protect the Office revenue). And while its quality is just terrible, it is still a major threat to Open Source in SMB.
However, Alfresco is a company by people who really know how to do content-management (ex-documentum guys), not just one guy (Ozzie) who needs to change momentum and mindset in a 95000 (wait, 80000 by now) employee gorilla. And Alfresco is open source and very visible from the start.
Sharepoint adoption is very slow for a Microsoft product, esp. one that is so critical for Microsoft. In addition, its integration with Microsoft Office is a much, much weaker leverage than the ones Microsoft used before (Windows-Office, Windows-IE, Windows-DirectX).
The few useful cases of integration between a CMS like Sharepoint and a Fat Client Office are easily replicated for OOo.
So, yes, if Sharepoint works out the way Microsoft hopes too, that would block any meaningful competition for another ten years and slow down progress. However, it didnt look like that would be the case in early 2008 and the recession/depression we are heading into will make decision makers much more leery and rigorous about infrastructure decisions.
Microsoft isn't going anywhere. Let's review which market segments they are involved in:
* Productivity Software (...)
* Workstating (sic) Operating System Software (...)
And without those two, MSFT is dead. On the other markets they are either way too small (database servers), or their operations are just burning money.
Sharepoint's a piece of garbage. Horribly implemented, poorly laid out, a pain in the ass to navigate, and slower than shit. You'd be better off with...
So its not different from any other early implementation of Software that MS created a monopoly off (Windows, IE, Office).
You feel old, right?;-)
If you wonder about real-world experience: Im currently working as a fulltime software engineer in a big and old C++ project (~10000000 SLOC, at least 15 years of history).
Summary is wrong. There is nothing from BS about "too much Java" in TFA.
Yet while Stroustrop agrees that Java has been used to dumb down CS programs, ultimately, âoethe problem is one of attitude, more than an issue of programming language.â
He is not dumb enough to claim C++ superior to Java. After all it is an C++ is so aweful "designed" that if you are not completely sunk in C++-think, you spend more time fighting the language and its warts than actually do useful stuff (like thinking about algorithms and what the machine does like Don Knuth taught us).
While Java is very high level it at least got rid of some of the ugliest and worst mistakes that C++ made. Everyone is way better off with C (for systems stuff), Java (for "enterprisy" stuff), Python (for frontends) and sh (for quick and dirty hacks) than with any C++(*). http://yosefk.com/c++fqa/ /End Rant
(*) And dont tell me its because of the age of C++. Objective-C and Lisp are way older and way better designed than C++ for example.
"Actually, that is far and away the best reason to not mess with it. The user experience is paramount, and when you mess with that, you have failed."
Here is news for you: Every use of a browser has two users - one providing the content, one recieving it. MSIE has constantly failed the first half until IE8.
Ok, I didnt mean to write "some sense", but "a bit more sense". And California has a size and population density that is at least very roughly comparable to Germany. Same for the GDP (California: 1.7 Trillion USD, Germany: 2.9 Trillion USD as of 2006).
Anyway, my original point was that the comparison of the OP didnt have any relevance whatsoever (apples and oranges).
So your point being? Comparing Germany and California actually makes some sense as they have a roughly comparable population density and size. Comparing Germany to the US (as the parent post did) does not.
How about some useful data? Like economic output per capita of the US, Europe and BRIC and their ratio in 1966, 1976, 1986 and 2006.
Germany alone has enough economic power to compare well to California. And all other states of the US wont be able to compare as well. So much for meaningless numbers.
Few could tell you why you necessarily want to make your destructors virtual, why not doing "delete [] array" is not necessarily a memory leak, where must references be initialized, why it's good practice to use (at the time) the new cast notation... the list went on. This exactly highlights the problem of C++:
Either you are doing low-level system programming in which case C++'s OOP abstractions wont help you anyway.
Or you are doing high-level coding in which case C++ doesnt help you because its abstractions are so leaky, they arent making stuff easier but unfortunately even more complex (manual management of virtual/nonvirtuals, memory/resource management, etc.).
C++ always was a kludge, its only raison d'etre was that many other languages weren't there yet and others made the migration for C coders too uncomfortable.
In Hindsight, its a shame that Objective-C didnt play the role C++ did, for example.
Yes, you can be as agile as in "any" programming language in C++ - after you have the whole dev team locked in a chamber for half a year and let them fight out the coding conventions and the language subset and standard libs to use and have written extentions to your CVS to enforce the decisions (because nobody will always remember everything from the 300 page book that was agreed on). But, well, that kinda defeats the purpose.
MySQL is the missing piece. MySQL has: - a large userbase - is a decent database by now (5.0) With ZFS and Niagara 2 Sun can make MySQL scale without limits. There are a lot MySQL-user that "grew big" by now.
OTOH, Sun has also important components on the other side: - Java - Openoffice
Besides MSFT, Sun is the only company that has such a complete stack. And its all opensource: Niagara -> OpenSolaris -> MySQL -> Java -> OpenOffice
If it had 10% of the marketshare I'd be shocked- in my 7 years of professional programming, I've seen 2 Python programs. Since you are doing profesional programming so long, you have to have seen a trac installation, if you have not been living under a stone. So what was the other app? Propably anything from google with scripting in it, because at google, they standardizing on C/C++, Java and Python. Or did you play Civ IV, where the AI is written in Python? Or did you use bzr or git, the scm of the linux kernel? Dia, gnumeric, or nmap? Xfce or Gnome? Or gentoo linux?
Seven years of professional programming? What did you do? COBOL coding for a bank? http://www.tiobe.com/tpci.htm/
As for C# -- dont be so arrogant. Microsoft does a lot of stuff wrong. But Sharepoint is a killer app - although a buttugly one. And while hubris reigns about the failures of Microsoft elsewhere, they are establishing a monopoly there thats even stronger and meaner that Windows and Office ever were.
I think your perception of the market is a bit outdated: Python is at least as important for scripting as is Perl by now. C#/.Net is not even on your Radar, although it is important in webdevelopment and BI.
Of cause it is a shame that we are not using lisp for almost anything by now;-)
People might simply want download the album "for free" to decide if the album is worth it. And how much it is worth to them. Likely most people have downloaded the music first, some have decided they dont like it and yet others bought the album for what they thought it was worth.
And if the band gets more money out of this model then by a deal with a record company this is working.
Slashdot Mirror
they know that the engineers strive to make it safe but the management strive to make it profitable; I don't even blame them for that, that's their job and even one could say their duty. But this means that accidents, leaks and spills are bound to happen, and the problem with radioactivity is that once it's there it's here to stay, people understand that pretty well in my opinion.
I think, an additional factor is that nuclear reactors require a huge infrastructures and are operated by huge hierarchies. I would think a small team of experts might be trusted with the inherit risks, because the channels of communication are short. But as is, nuclear power is unsafe -- not because it is technically risky, but organizationally risky. The same applies to all the other examples mentioned.
Which in turn is only quoting "Hey Hey, My My" by Neil Young (as did Kurt Cobain's suicide note)... Kids these days ...
http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/cu104ps2.html ...
http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/cus101usenon.html
nice new "original" IBM Model-Ms by Unicomp
Bull. If you think SQL Server, Exchange and Sharepoint aren't huge for them, you're nuts, and they're positioned to grow. Sharepoint is growing quickly, and within a couple of years will be really, really hard to dislodge. The number of new installations in corporate and education would make the Open Office folks giddy. Everyone here focuses on Windows and Office, trust me, Sharepoint and Exchange are a huge, huge deal.
You are mostly right about Sharepoint. However, I see it as a defensive product (to protect the Office revenue). And while its quality is just terrible, it is still a major threat to Open Source in SMB.
However, Alfresco is a company by people who really know how to do content-management (ex-documentum guys), not just one guy (Ozzie) who needs to change momentum and mindset in a 95000 (wait, 80000 by now) employee gorilla. And Alfresco is open source and very visible from the start.
Sharepoint adoption is very slow for a Microsoft product, esp. one that is so critical for Microsoft. In addition, its integration with Microsoft Office is a much, much weaker leverage than the ones Microsoft used before (Windows-Office, Windows-IE, Windows-DirectX).
The few useful cases of integration between a CMS like Sharepoint and a Fat Client Office are easily replicated for OOo.
So, yes, if Sharepoint works out the way Microsoft hopes too, that would block any meaningful competition for another ten years and slow down progress. However, it didnt look like that would be the case in early 2008 and the recession/depression we are heading into will make decision makers much more leery and rigorous about infrastructure decisions.
Microsoft isn't going anywhere. Let's review which market segments they are involved in:
* Productivity Software (...)
* Workstating (sic) Operating System Software (...)
And without those two, MSFT is dead. On the other markets they are either way too small (database servers), or their operations are just burning money.
You know, there have been a few cases of trying to work with some Open Source software that I find the following bit of logic in there:
If (1){ do stuff } more stuff
I was confused when I first saw a
do { do stuff } while(false); more stuff
until if found out this was an obfuscated goto, because there where break; or continue; statements in the "loop".
Your ifs might be a workaround around compiler bugs (for example a compiler supporting variable scopes only in "real blocks" or something like that).
Sharepoint's a piece of garbage. Horribly implemented, poorly laid out, a pain in the ass to navigate, and slower than shit. You'd be better off with ...
So its not different from any other early implementation of Software that MS created a monopoly off (Windows, IE, Office).
You are young, right?
You feel old, right? ;-)
If you wonder about real-world experience: Im currently working as a fulltime software engineer in a big and old C++ project (~10000000 SLOC, at least 15 years of history).
Yet while Stroustrop agrees that Java has been used to dumb down CS programs, ultimately, âoethe problem is one of attitude, more than an issue of programming language.â
He is not dumb enough to claim C++ superior to Java. After all it is an C++ is so aweful "designed" that if you are not completely sunk in C++-think, you spend more time fighting the language and its warts than actually do useful stuff (like thinking about algorithms and what the machine does like Don Knuth taught us). While Java is very high level it at least got rid of some of the ugliest and worst mistakes that C++ made. Everyone is way better off with C (for systems stuff), Java (for "enterprisy" stuff), Python (for frontends) and sh (for quick and dirty hacks) than with any C++(*).
/End Rant
http://yosefk.com/c++fqa/
(*) And dont tell me its because of the age of C++. Objective-C and Lisp are way older and way better designed than C++ for example.
Or is C++ just as stupid as we Java developers think?
Short answer: Yes!
Long answer: http://yosefk.com/c++fqa/
"Actually, that is far and away the best reason to not mess with it. The user experience is paramount, and when you mess with that, you have failed."
Here is news for you: Every use of a browser has two users - one providing the content, one recieving it. MSIE has constantly failed the first half until IE8.
Ok, I didnt mean to write "some sense", but "a bit more sense". And California has a size and population density that is at least very roughly comparable to Germany. Same for the GDP (California: 1.7 Trillion USD, Germany: 2.9 Trillion USD as of 2006).
Anyway, my original point was that the comparison of the OP didnt have any relevance whatsoever (apples and oranges).
Why dont you just create a local folder and a rule that creates a copy there of messages incoming in the IMAP folder? That would solve your problem.
How about some useful data? Like economic output per capita of the US, Europe and BRIC and their ratio in 1966, 1976, 1986 and 2006.
Germany alone has enough economic power to compare well to California. And all other states of the US wont be able to compare as well. So much for meaningless numbers.
Either you are doing low-level system programming in which case C++'s OOP abstractions wont help you anyway.
Or you are doing high-level coding in which case C++ doesnt help you because its abstractions are so leaky, they arent making stuff easier but unfortunately even more complex (manual management of virtual/nonvirtuals, memory/resource management, etc.).
C++ always was a kludge, its only raison d'etre was that many other languages weren't there yet and others made the migration for C coders too uncomfortable.
In Hindsight, its a shame that Objective-C didnt play the role C++ did, for example.
Yes, you can be as agile as in "any" programming language in C++ - after you have the whole dev team locked in a chamber for half a year and let them fight out the coding conventions and the language subset and standard libs to use and have written extentions to your CVS to enforce the decisions (because nobody will always remember everything from the 300 page book that was agreed on). But, well, that kinda defeats the purpose.
MySQL is the missing piece.
MySQL has:
- a large userbase
- is a decent database by now (5.0)
With ZFS and Niagara 2 Sun can make MySQL scale without limits. There are a lot MySQL-user that "grew big" by now.
OTOH, Sun has also important components on the other side:
- Java
- Openoffice
Besides MSFT, Sun is the only company that has such a complete stack. And its all opensource:
Niagara -> OpenSolaris -> MySQL -> Java -> OpenOffice
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/XHIGIntro/chapter_1_section_1.html ...
Gnomes HIG is decent too. Dunno about the current state of the Microsoft HIGs
Seven years of professional programming? What did you do? COBOL coding for a bank?
http://www.tiobe.com/tpci.htm/
As for C# -- dont be so arrogant. Microsoft does a lot of stuff wrong. But Sharepoint is a killer app - although a buttugly one. And while hubris reigns about the failures of Microsoft elsewhere, they are establishing a monopoly there thats even stronger and meaner that Windows and Office ever were.
I think your perception of the market is a bit outdated: Python is at least as important for scripting as is Perl by now. C#/.Net is not even on your Radar, although it is important in webdevelopment and BI.
;-)
Of cause it is a shame that we are not using lisp for almost anything by now
This thingie is already a common "car" in major european cities.
Yeah, host it on MS Sharepoint.
Yeah, its offtopic, but I have to write it: .signature is the sexiest ever gracing slashdot.
Your
People might simply want download the album "for free" to decide if the album is worth it. And how much it is worth to them. Likely most people have downloaded the music first, some have decided they dont like it and yet others bought the album for what they thought it was worth.
And if the band gets more money out of this model then by a deal with a record company this is working.