I love to program - it is a craft and I love to do it well. I started with BASIC and FORTRAN in a high school computer club (with time donated by the local technical college), and I wrote FORTRAN for most of the '80s.
The thing was, even in the late 80's, to mention that a particular approach would be 'elegant' was the kiss of death; it meant that you were amusing yourself at the company's expense rather than doing
your job. There was still a strong desire in big companies to control programming with methodologies and basically attempt to do things in such a way that talent was not required. It was like the military - they don't/didn't want talent; they wanted interchangeable programmers that could be put onto any job.
This is undoubtedly still true today in many cases.
But, more and more, companies want senior talented people. And more and more, companies realize that when a talented programmer claims to have an elegant solution, it means simple, reliable and fundamentally sound.
More and more, companies are realizing that any idiot can write complicated software; it takes a really good programmer to write a simple, sound solution.
Of course, I am talking about real programming here, not dragging boxes around on a form and putting 2 lines of code behind a button.
The twentieth century already looks good by comparison.
How about intersecting patches of carbon lace?
on
Yarn Spun from Nanotubes
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Yeah, it's not clear to me how nanotubes could ever be used to make a strong macro material. Aren't these things slippery? Unless the nanotube is as long as your rope (or whatever), how do you make the rope stronger than however you hold together the nanotubes? Epoxy is not going to do it.
How about branching networks of nanotubes? Has anyone made branching nanotubes? Tiny patches of carbon lace that intersect multiple other patches might be strong on a macro scale.
I guess today is my day for admitting ignorance. I
was always under the impression that punk music
embraced a negative, nothing-is-worth-it view of
the world. If I am wrong, or at least violently
over-generalizing, I apologize to anyone I have
offended.
Oops... My mistake. Not being interested in that style of fiction, I wasn't aware the word had that particular meaning. I thought it meant a cyber..
uh... punk.
Oddly enough I got this impression from one of ESR's essays about advice to hackers... He said something like "And don't call yourself a 'cyberpunk'". I wonder what he meant by that.
By 'street smarts' I refer to a certain level of
understanding about how the real world works. We
are drawing a distinction between 'kiddies' and
people who know enough to have considerably more power in their ability to cause harm.
Isn't 'cyber punk' pretty much what we are talking
about here? Someone with some actual power and
'street smarts', but still, essentially, a punk?
(Not to be confused with 'punk rock', the style of music that embraces the point of view: "This is shit, everything is shit, life is shit, you are shit, I am shit".)
I am running Oracle 9i on my Red Hat 9 box. Oracle supported Red Hat 9. Now, it seems, that Oracle is not supporting any workstation versions of Linux - only server versions.
If I want to stay with Red Hat, I would have to run Oracle on a separate box and pay for the server version plus the workstation version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Plus a router (or something) and security issues that are much more complex.
I want to run Oracle on my Linux workstation. I don't think Fedora is the answer here.
There must be slashdotters out there running Oracle on their workstations. What is a good Linux distribution for this?
I was paying $60/yr for RedHat 9 for my single home/office box.
I just got 'RHEL WS Basic & Management Serviced System' for $137.50. Now I can upgrade to RHEL when I have the time. (That price is the 50% off deal, I think, but I can supposedly get that price for two years.)
For someone who wants a good, stable Linux platform and all the updating, this seems like a pretty good deal.
What?! The guy bought fertilizer and electic wire on the same day, AND the guy owns a diesel powered car? The only known use for fertilzer and electic wire by people with access to diesel oil is.... Oh my God!!
Off to Cuba!
something the government should guarantee by passing more laws
I have always felt that privacy is something the individual does by keeping his/her private affairs private. Anonymous e-money would help.
Another reason I don't like getting into a lot of databases is that the more info there is floating around out there about someone, the more chance there is that some 'clever' analyst will discover 'correlations' that inappropriately result in the person receiving free room and board in Cuba.
When I am out shopping, I like to use cash because it is anonymous. It is possible for emoney to be effectively anonymous... you know, something to do with giving them a 100 digit number that can be verified without revealing your identity; the only party you have to trust is the financial institution that you have created the account. I imagine that there are already schemes for doing this.
So, I am suggesting that anonymous e-money might be what really makes e-money take off. On the other hand, most web-sites' first interest is getting me into their database; anoymous e-money will only happen because consumers want to be anonymous, not because the web-sites/.coms favor it.
I am not sure why I find it so offensive but I don't like the idea of people building a database about my habits, but some of the aspects are:
I never know who will see the info
the companies you give it to can use it to lie to you - they tell me the specialize in because they know that is what I want to hear
whatever the hell they are doing, they are trying to tell me what I want to hear, which feels to me like lying, in itself
ads can be interesting as a view into how a company views what the world wants; that info is gone if the ad is aimed at me, telling me what (they think) I want to hear
This may not apply to this study, but I saw something similar where the basic story was that, if you already have Windows developers and admin people, then Total Cost is lower because you won't have to go out and hire expensive Linux people. For many shops this is true because there are a zillion Windows people out there.
BUT... As Linux becomes more popular and there are more Linux people out there and maybe you already have Linux people in your shop, Linux becomes cheaper.
It wasn't the sex but the going on and on about sexual organs and how much they smelled if they weren't washed *frequently*. I have never been able to finish I Will Fear No Evil, although I have tried several times.
But I loved the early stuff. I used to say that you could start reading a Heinlein story and by the end of the first line (not sentence, line) you were deeply into the story - a great story teller.
Funny thing, though. A few years ago, I learned a bit about Wicca and neopaganism (after reading Eric Raymond's
Dancing With The Gods and then, rereading some early to middle Heinlein storys, I discovered little references to paganism in a lot of the stories. Unfortunately, I can't remember a single one of them off the top of my head, but they were very obvious if you know a bit about paganism. The funny thing is that no one seemed to notice during the 40's and 50's when this sort of thing would not be considered appropriate for young people.
Has anyone else noticed this? I am not talking about Stranger In A Strange Land; I am talking about stuff before this.
Slashdot Mirror
The thing was, even in the late 80's, to mention that a particular approach would be 'elegant' was the kiss of death; it meant that you were amusing yourself at the company's expense rather than doing your job. There was still a strong desire in big companies to control programming with methodologies and basically attempt to do things in such a way that talent was not required. It was like the military - they don't/didn't want talent; they wanted interchangeable programmers that could be put onto any job.
This is undoubtedly still true today in many cases.
But, more and more, companies want senior talented people. And more and more, companies realize that when a talented programmer claims to have an elegant solution, it means simple, reliable and fundamentally sound.
More and more, companies are realizing that any idiot can write complicated software; it takes a really good programmer to write a simple, sound solution.
Of course, I am talking about real programming here, not dragging boxes around on a form and putting 2 lines of code behind a button.
Funny how many thousands of dollars those worthless peices of paper cost to acquire.
The twentieth century already looks good by comparison.
How about branching networks of nanotubes? Has anyone made branching nanotubes? Tiny patches of carbon lace that intersect multiple other patches might be strong on a macro scale.
The thing does have a "publicity stunt" look to it, however. What's with the tires?
I guess today is my day for admitting ignorance. I was always under the impression that punk music embraced a negative, nothing-is-worth-it view of the world. If I am wrong, or at least violently over-generalizing, I apologize to anyone I have offended.
Oddly enough I got this impression from one of ESR's essays about advice to hackers... He said something like "And don't call yourself a 'cyberpunk'". I wonder what he meant by that.
By 'street smarts' I refer to a certain level of understanding about how the real world works. We are drawing a distinction between 'kiddies' and people who know enough to have considerably more power in their ability to cause harm.
(Not to be confused with 'punk rock', the style of music that embraces the point of view: "This is shit, everything is shit, life is shit, you are shit, I am shit".)
So, compared to Joe SixPack, is Joe average in the direction of Joe FourPack or more in the direction of Joe EightPack?
If I want to stay with Red Hat, I would have to run Oracle on a separate box and pay for the server version plus the workstation version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Plus a router (or something) and security issues that are much more complex.
I want to run Oracle on my Linux workstation. I don't think Fedora is the answer here.
There must be slashdotters out there running Oracle on their workstations. What is a good Linux distribution for this?
You forgot the ablative coating.
I just got 'RHEL WS Basic & Management Serviced System' for $137.50. Now I can upgrade to RHEL when I have the time. (That price is the 50% off deal, I think, but I can supposedly get that price for two years.)
For someone who wants a good, stable Linux platform and all the updating, this seems like a pretty good deal.
Well, actually, it is probably more like even the most mild of viruses that you are aware of can cause serious reactions in hosts.
You aren't aware of the viruses (temporarily) in your body that don't cause reactions.
That said, having nano-devices in my body makes me feel a little queasy.
What if there was a way of getting them out of my body -- except for the ones that mutated into something less cooperative?
Is my body Open Source?
IANAFL, but, to patent a process, don't you have to be the original inventor? If you invent something and don't patent it, can someone else patent it?
Surely, you can't patent "this bit I improved plus everything unpatented that goes with it"?
Or, is this a matter of patents being granted on just about anything and then the courts decide who has the best lawer?
What?! The guy bought fertilizer and electic wire on the same day, AND the guy owns a diesel powered car? The only known use for fertilzer and electic wire by people with access to diesel oil is.... Oh my God!! Off to Cuba!
I have always felt that privacy is something the individual does by keeping his/her private affairs private. Anonymous e-money would help.
Another reason I don't like getting into a lot of databases is that the more info there is floating around out there about someone, the more chance there is that some 'clever' analyst will discover 'correlations' that inappropriately result in the person receiving free room and board in Cuba.
So, I am suggesting that anonymous e-money might be what really makes e-money take off. On the other hand, most web-sites' first interest is getting me into their database; anoymous e-money will only happen because consumers want to be anonymous, not because the web-sites/.coms favor it.
I am not sure why I find it so offensive but I don't like the idea of people building a database about my habits, but some of the aspects are:
BUT... As Linux becomes more popular and there are more Linux people out there and maybe you already have Linux people in your shop, Linux becomes cheaper.
Has anyone else noticed this? I am not talking about Stranger In A Strange Land; I am talking about stuff before this.