Don't you know that taking a copy of something isn't stealing?
That's something about my father I never understood. He taught me about not stealing and got pretty angry one time, as a teenager, that I stole a candy bar from a store (hanging around with other teens who were regular shop lifters).
But when it came to software he'd get upset that I wanted to buy it, "can't you copy it from somewhere?".
I guess it's the difference between taking a physical item and a non-physical one. And to a nontechie, it's clear stealing a candy bar means the store can't sell it to someone else. But copying software, the vendor can still sell it to customers willing to pay for it...
To me TDD binds hands just as effectively as the miles of design and requirement docs did
In some ways yes, and in some ways, no...
Unlike miles of design and requirements docs, the test code is more "alive" and if the TDD approach is followed closely, stays in sync with the code. The tests also tell you as you're modifying the code what other changes need to go with the ones already know about. Developers are more likely to maintain the test code than the documentation, which is more likely to be "I'll update it later, after the deadline."
My previous two projects were a waterfall one and an Extreme Programming one. The difference between them was like night and day... In the first it was weeks or months of functional specs, every static screen shot pixel perfect or the boss wouldn't even look at the rest, only to spend weeks or months writing the code and have the boss say "this is crap! and you're idiots!". The second one everyone expected things to change as we developed and as the analysts worked with customers and the XP approach really kept us on top of it, with all the TDD tests helping us be more thorough as we modified existing code and wrote new code.
Sure, it was more than just waterfall vs. agile, the attitude of the project owners made a huge difference, and a small team weighed with more experienced developers overall did better than a gigantic team with mostly junior ones...
I'm sure someone sent me a link to a video around two years or more ago that looked almost exactly like that. Same shape, same blue shoulder strap, everything...
...so I can communicate with my pals while fixing a sandwich in the kitchen or (I usually don't announce this over comms) sit on the toilet...
You might not realize it, but you probably are announcing it...
I hate talking to people on the phone or things like that when they're doing their business in the bathroom. Often those sounds, where splashing or tinkling water is involved, come through loud and clear...
the 'clouds' are made from a lightweight carbon structure carrying a giant envelope of material containing helium gas
Looking into my crystal ball I can see this. I can also see an opportunity for them to use rows of lights on it for advertising... Wait, wait, I see, automotive, yes, tire companies doing this... (or there it'd probably be tyre companies...)
I am curious, how is it that people in US get worse treatment from call centers in India, than people living in India itself. Personally I have not really had any bad experience with Indian call centers
Do you actually get help from call centers in India? I lived in India for ten years recently, and I didn't get better help from Indian call centers than Americans report from in the U.S. Most of my calls were for banks or mobile providers, not technical support, and I would rarely describe the people I talked to as competent.
Or maybe as an American, I expected good answers, not simply "yes sir, yes sir" for any question...
Although I'd got great service from a BPL Mobile call center, especially when I called my then-girlfriend there who was their manager...
Indian call centers for "customer service", I come away aggravated. They can't imagine any problem that isn't on their fucking script, they have no idea what to do when the problem isn't on the script, and when you ask to speak to their supervisor they either lie and put the guy from the next folding-table over
Actually, they don't use folding tables much in India that I've seen... Since labor is so cheap there, most of the call center offices I've seen actually have pretty fancy, albeit cheap quality, wooden and glass desks custom built right in place. It's kind of fancy that way, but on the other hand, what we found is when small rodents get into the backs of them and die, the office can stink for months since there's no way for a person to dismantle the desk and clean the far recesses...
Otherwise, in other parts of the offices, like the cafeterias or terraces, they have cheap plastic outdoor types of tables and chairs as regular seating... But not folding tables, those are quite rare in offices.
As complicated as that process can get, I'm surprised we don't see an MS Divorce 2011 suite available. They can even have a Professional and Ultimate edition depending on if you have kids and/or wealthy.
Professional and Ultimate? I think in this case it'd have to be more like Mobile, Home and Gold editions...
The iPad was introduced as a revolutionary device that covers the space between a phone and a laptop. In reality is a device that's not appropriate for either purpose, with non or little actual space to cover in between (at least for the moment). If you really think about it, there's nothing that you do with an iPad that you couldn't do on a laptop. By extension I think this applies to any kind of tablet.
You're right, in terms of function there's really not much you can do with a tablet you can't do with a laptop, and a tabet isn't really a phone or a laptop...
But where a tablet is nice, is doing some of the same functions with a different form factor. Like someone else pointed out above somewhere, I can take my tablet on the subway and read things on it, where I'd find it extremely difficult to do the same with a laptop, especially if I'm stuck standing, holding on with one hand.
It's nice, too, that it's a well sealed package, so if I take it to a restaurant, I can use it without worrying about getting food or drink in the keyboard.
Wait, what are you talking about? I always take my cash and my card to a friendly neighborhood merchant who puts the money on the card. He says he has a machine in the back room that does it, so he takes both and after a couple of minutes he returns and gives me the card back.
In my nearly 20 year career, I've never gotten business cards. At first I wanted them but my employer didn't offer me any. Then I realized it would be more of a fun challenge to see how far I can get without them being forced on my by my employer... So far, so good...
My previous company offered to get them for everyone, and maybe we were even required to get them with the company logo and all that, but I never filled in the forms and no one told me I had to...
In any case, I've never really worked in a position with much interaction with people at other companies where exchanging cards would be really useful, and I don't think I ever want one of those sorts of positions. I prefer to focus on just technical work in-house...
As an Irishman, I don't know how anyone can drink Guinness.
Though a non Irishman (never mind my Irish first name or my high school sports team being the Waldport Irish) I agree... Guiness is close to one of my last choices in stouts... My preference runs towards some of the Portland, Oregon microbrewery stouts, especially the cask conditioned ones...
That's my attitude, too... I got my cell phone for me, not for everyone else.
I simply don't bother to answer it if I don't feel like it, and much of the time I just keep it on silent because I'd rather pay attention to other things than be disturbed by the phone. Unless I'm expecting a particular call, I often don't even carry it around the apartment with me.
I long ago gave up any idea that my writing would be very anonymous...
As an American working in software companies in India for ten years, whenever managers sent out surveys they said would be "totally anonymous" I always figured with my American writing style (complete sentences, very few typos, no "spel it like u sa it", active voice, writing out our product and company name in full) everyone would recognize it was my writing anyway... And that was usually the case, as people who weren't supposed to know who wrote what would invariably reply to me, "hey, why did you write that?"
Anyone know of anyone replacing front facing staff at fast food places with touch-screen terminals yet?
For a long, long time there were Horn & HardartAutomats in New York City. My mother used to talk about what a treat it was for her family to go to them in 1950's.
Slashdot Mirror
In India they also sell single cigarettes at all the tapris for a few rupees...
Don't you know that taking a copy of something isn't stealing?
That's something about my father I never understood. He taught me about not stealing and got pretty angry one time, as a teenager, that I stole a candy bar from a store (hanging around with other teens who were regular shop lifters).
But when it came to software he'd get upset that I wanted to buy it, "can't you copy it from somewhere?".
I guess it's the difference between taking a physical item and a non-physical one. And to a nontechie, it's clear stealing a candy bar means the store can't sell it to someone else. But copying software, the vendor can still sell it to customers willing to pay for it...
If demand is below the price set by the seller, the buyer will acquire the item through alternate channels where available.
Or not bother acquiring the item at all...
suggests that one keep extra copies of this book in their briefcase at all times
I've never owned a briefcase, you insensitive clod!
The pet rock.
Don't knock it, "the guy made a million dollars." Or maybe that's just jumping to conclusions...
Yeah, they should be punished for it...
To me TDD binds hands just as effectively as the miles of design and requirement docs did
In some ways yes, and in some ways, no...
Unlike miles of design and requirements docs, the test code is more "alive" and if the TDD approach is followed closely, stays in sync with the code. The tests also tell you as you're modifying the code what other changes need to go with the ones already know about. Developers are more likely to maintain the test code than the documentation, which is more likely to be "I'll update it later, after the deadline."
My previous two projects were a waterfall one and an Extreme Programming one. The difference between them was like night and day... In the first it was weeks or months of functional specs, every static screen shot pixel perfect or the boss wouldn't even look at the rest, only to spend weeks or months writing the code and have the boss say "this is crap! and you're idiots!". The second one everyone expected things to change as we developed and as the analysts worked with customers and the XP approach really kept us on top of it, with all the TDD tests helping us be more thorough as we modified existing code and wrote new code.
Sure, it was more than just waterfall vs. agile, the attitude of the project owners made a huge difference, and a small team weighed with more experienced developers overall did better than a gigantic team with mostly junior ones...
News?
I'm sure someone sent me a link to a video around two years or more ago that looked almost exactly like that. Same shape, same blue shoulder strap, everything...
Same speculation that it's coming right away...
...how would you transport it?
... I know that if I put it in my laptop bag, I'll just forget it half the time, and I don't always have it with me...
Well, if you forget it half the time, maybe it's not really all that important...
...so I can communicate with my pals while fixing a sandwich in the kitchen or (I usually don't announce this over comms) sit on the toilet...
You might not realize it, but you probably are announcing it...
I hate talking to people on the phone or things like that when they're doing their business in the bathroom. Often those sounds, where splashing or tinkling water is involved, come through loud and clear...
the 'clouds' are made from a lightweight carbon structure carrying a giant envelope of material containing helium gas
Looking into my crystal ball I can see this. I can also see an opportunity for them to use rows of lights on it for advertising... Wait, wait, I see, automotive, yes, tire companies doing this... (or there it'd probably be tyre companies...)
I am curious, how is it that people in US get worse treatment from call centers in India, than people living in India itself. Personally I have not really had any bad experience with Indian call centers
Do you actually get help from call centers in India? I lived in India for ten years recently, and I didn't get better help from Indian call centers than Americans report from in the U.S. Most of my calls were for banks or mobile providers, not technical support, and I would rarely describe the people I talked to as competent.
Or maybe as an American, I expected good answers, not simply "yes sir, yes sir" for any question...
Although I'd got great service from a BPL Mobile call center, especially when I called my then-girlfriend there who was their manager...
Indian call centers for "customer service", I come away aggravated. They can't imagine any problem that isn't on their fucking script, they have no idea what to do when the problem isn't on the script, and when you ask to speak to their supervisor they either lie and put the guy from the next folding-table over
Actually, they don't use folding tables much in India that I've seen... Since labor is so cheap there, most of the call center offices I've seen actually have pretty fancy, albeit cheap quality, wooden and glass desks custom built right in place. It's kind of fancy that way, but on the other hand, what we found is when small rodents get into the backs of them and die, the office can stink for months since there's no way for a person to dismantle the desk and clean the far recesses...
Otherwise, in other parts of the offices, like the cafeterias or terraces, they have cheap plastic outdoor types of tables and chairs as regular seating... But not folding tables, those are quite rare in offices.
As a bonus feature, Steve Jobs won't be releasing a thinner version of my book next year.
Actually, publishers release smaller, thinner versions of books all the time...
As complicated as that process can get, I'm surprised we don't see an MS Divorce 2011 suite available. They can even have a Professional and Ultimate edition depending on if you have kids and/or wealthy.
Professional and Ultimate? I think in this case it'd have to be more like Mobile, Home and Gold editions...
The iPad was introduced as a revolutionary device that covers the space between a phone and a laptop. In reality is a device that's not appropriate for either purpose, with non or little actual space to cover in between (at least for the moment). If you really think about it, there's nothing that you do with an iPad that you couldn't do on a laptop. By extension I think this applies to any kind of tablet.
You're right, in terms of function there's really not much you can do with a tablet you can't do with a laptop, and a tabet isn't really a phone or a laptop...
But where a tablet is nice, is doing some of the same functions with a different form factor. Like someone else pointed out above somewhere, I can take my tablet on the subway and read things on it, where I'd find it extremely difficult to do the same with a laptop, especially if I'm stuck standing, holding on with one hand.
It's nice, too, that it's a well sealed package, so if I take it to a restaurant, I can use it without worrying about getting food or drink in the keyboard.
It's a better tool for some uses than a laptop.
Puts the term "afterglow" in a fresh context...
The money isn't stored on the card.
Wait, what are you talking about? I always take my cash and my card to a friendly neighborhood merchant who puts the money on the card. He says he has a machine in the back room that does it, so he takes both and after a couple of minutes he returns and gives me the card back.
In my nearly 20 year career, I've never gotten business cards. At first I wanted them but my employer didn't offer me any. Then I realized it would be more of a fun challenge to see how far I can get without them being forced on my by my employer... So far, so good...
My previous company offered to get them for everyone, and maybe we were even required to get them with the company logo and all that, but I never filled in the forms and no one told me I had to...
In any case, I've never really worked in a position with much interaction with people at other companies where exchanging cards would be really useful, and I don't think I ever want one of those sorts of positions. I prefer to focus on just technical work in-house...
Nah man, go for broke!
As an Irishman, I don't know how anyone can drink Guinness.
Though a non Irishman (never mind my Irish first name or my high school sports team being the Waldport Irish) I agree... Guiness is close to one of my last choices in stouts... My preference runs towards some of the Portland, Oregon microbrewery stouts, especially the cask conditioned ones...
That's my attitude, too... I got my cell phone for me, not for everyone else.
I simply don't bother to answer it if I don't feel like it, and much of the time I just keep it on silent because I'd rather pay attention to other things than be disturbed by the phone. Unless I'm expecting a particular call, I often don't even carry it around the apartment with me.
"Who's brain did you emulate?"
"Uh, Abby someone..."
"Abbey who?"
"Abby Normal...."
I long ago gave up any idea that my writing would be very anonymous...
As an American working in software companies in India for ten years, whenever managers sent out surveys they said would be "totally anonymous" I always figured with my American writing style (complete sentences, very few typos, no "spel it like u sa it", active voice, writing out our product and company name in full) everyone would recognize it was my writing anyway... And that was usually the case, as people who weren't supposed to know who wrote what would invariably reply to me, "hey, why did you write that?"
Anyone know of anyone replacing front facing staff at fast food places with touch-screen terminals yet?
For a long, long time there were Horn & Hardart Automats in New York City. My mother used to talk about what a treat it was for her family to go to them in 1950's.
I only went once, sometime in the 80's...