Also, a good overview of XP can be found on developerWorks.
I work for RoleModel Software (on the Organon Teknika Project mentioned in the InfoWeek article) with the guys who wrote the developerWorks article. I'll try to answer any questions anybody might have, and I'm sure Chris and Roy will too (their emails are in the article).
Seriously, I'd certainly agree that you need to use the right tool for the job, but it is important to consider the fact that some tools are a lot more useful than others! -----
As unpopular as it may be, I'm totally against this funding. Do I want to see science advanced? Are nanobites cool? Of course. But why in the world do we want to have them funded by the government? Why is that the government's responsibility (or privelege)?
All this is is Big Papa Clinton giving all of his children another toy to keep them happy and loyal. This country was founded on the principle that (federal) government should be responsible for a few very important things, such as national defense and commerce laws between states, but largely since the great depression and FDR, that focus has changed for some reason.
If the government is providing the money (of course, they aren't, it's really our money, but that's another issue), the government will also be controlling the results to some extent. You can argue that if you want to, but it's true.
Why is it evil for the private sector to do research? Look Thomas Edison, or the famed Bell Labs. These are not cruel, heartless researchers, but rather geniuses, wishing to advance science, who would like to feed their families at the end of the day.
The one handing out the money has the power. Why centralize the power?
A more interesting statistic (and one I haven't seen updated in awhile) would be what the information conversion ratio is between the "RealWorld" and the web - ie: how much information that you can find in a library can you also find online in it's entirety.
This is an interesting measure, but I'd say if you used it as a primary measure, you would miss a lot for two reasons. First, there is a plethora of extremely useful information on the web that wouldn't exist in written form except for the web. Take the guy who likes to make bows and arrows the 'old-fashioned way,' and wants to share his collection and how others can do it too. If the web didn't exist, he probably wouldn't ever do that, because of the prohibitive costs of publishing, and the fact that while he has a few pages worth of information, he doesn't have a books worth.
OTOH, while it would be really cool to have The Hobbit in electronic format, so I could download it onto my Palm, I personally don't want to curl up with my laptop to read a good book. The same goes for a lot of reference works, too. While it would be great to read the shop manual for my car online, if I'm going to work on it, I want to be able to turn pages without worrying about getting the keys greasy.
In the end, I think it comes down to this: the web isn't the real world, and it never will be (even if you believe Necromancer is a prophetic book;-). The uses for a library and the web will overlap, and consolidation will happen, but one will never replace the other.
Course, now that I've said that, I'll temper it by saying that personal book-binding machines will be cool. The ability to take a traditional work in electronic form off the web, and have it in a form I can stretch out with on the couch in an hour is enticing. Seems like a real waste of paper, though.
"Real life" makes a good starting line, but lets not measure the race by it.
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks a lot! Clicking on that link just crashed Safari, you insensitive clod!
...when you've got the NSA?
Check out this one at Information Week.
Also, a good overview of XP can be found on developerWorks.
I work for RoleModel Software (on the Organon Teknika Project mentioned in the InfoWeek article) with the guys who wrote the developerWorks article. I'll try to answer any questions anybody might have, and I'm sure Chris and Roy will too (their emails are in the article).
. . . unless that language is Ruby :-)
Seriously, I'd certainly agree that you need to use the right tool for the job, but it is important to consider the fact that some tools are a lot more useful than others!
-----
As unpopular as it may be, I'm totally against this funding. Do I want to see science advanced? Are nanobites cool? Of course. But why in the world do we want to have them funded by the government? Why is that the government's responsibility (or privelege)?
All this is is Big Papa Clinton giving all of his children another toy to keep them happy and loyal. This country was founded on the principle that (federal) government should be responsible for a few very important things, such as national defense and commerce laws between states, but largely since the great depression and FDR, that focus has changed for some reason.
If the government is providing the money (of course, they aren't, it's really our money, but that's another issue), the government will also be controlling the results to some extent. You can argue that if you want to, but it's true.
Why is it evil for the private sector to do research? Look Thomas Edison, or the famed Bell Labs. These are not cruel, heartless researchers, but rather geniuses, wishing to advance science, who would like to feed their families at the end of the day.
The one handing out the money has the power. Why centralize the power?
TerraAlien
-----
A more interesting statistic (and one I haven't seen updated in awhile) would be what the information conversion ratio is between the "RealWorld" and the web - ie: how much information that you can find in a library can you also find online in it's entirety.
This is an interesting measure, but I'd say if you used it as a primary measure, you would miss a lot for two reasons. First, there is a plethora of extremely useful information on the web that wouldn't exist in written form except for the web. Take the guy who likes to make bows and arrows the 'old-fashioned way,' and wants to share his collection and how others can do it too. If the web didn't exist, he probably wouldn't ever do that, because of the prohibitive costs of publishing, and the fact that while he has a few pages worth of information, he doesn't have a books worth.
OTOH, while it would be really cool to have The Hobbit in electronic format, so I could download it onto my Palm, I personally don't want to curl up with my laptop to read a good book. The same goes for a lot of reference works, too. While it would be great to read the shop manual for my car online, if I'm going to work on it, I want to be able to turn pages without worrying about getting the keys greasy.
In the end, I think it comes down to this: the web isn't the real world, and it never will be (even if you believe Necromancer is a prophetic book ;-). The uses for a library and the web will overlap, and consolidation will happen, but one will never replace the other.
Course, now that I've said that, I'll temper it by saying that personal book-binding machines will be cool. The ability to take a traditional work in electronic form off the web, and have it in a form I can stretch out with on the couch in an hour is enticing. Seems like a real waste of paper, though.
"Real life" makes a good starting line, but lets not measure the race by it.
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