I've been coding since 1973 (jr. high school). I've written a lot of programs, including one that has been in constant use since 1991 (soon to be replaced, alas).
In all this time, all I've ever done is design software to count someone's beans (money). Nobody ever asked me "write a program to save the rain forest; write a program to help save the whales". (Ok, in junior high and high school we wrote computer games.)
If someone paid me to, I would, but all I've ever done is count other people's money.
So, in answer to the question posed here, I'd write a program to do something universally beneficial for mankind that did NOT involve counting money.
Pick & Associates was later renamed Pick Systems then Raining Data and currently called TigerLogic.
Tiger Logic also bought Omnis Software, which developed and marketed a database / development environment that has been around on microcomputers from the 1970s until today.
I wrote a multiuser Omnis database application which has been in constant commercial use since 1991. This app will finally be replaced sometime early next year, mostly because I don't live in the country where they still use it. I do maintain it remotely and it still processes millions of dollars of orders every year.
I learned programming on the HP2000 Time Shared BASIC operating system, which was accessed by up to 32 terminals (teletypes) on an HP2000F Minicomputer system. This OS is still available in emulated form using a program called SIMH - which also emulates RSTS and other legacy minicomputer operating systems...
It's fairly popular now, and it was in the 60s when I was young. Computers, astronauts, rockets, all that stuff fascinated me and most of the guys I knew.
The internet has only made science more popular. Scientists, on the other hand, can be controversial, depending on what they espouse.
Robert Oppenheimer was a hero until he wasn't anymore. At one time, he was Time Magazine's Man of the Year, back when that really meant something.
Then he began espousing, and next thing he knew, he was out of a security clearance and out of a job...
You are correct - and it is a shame that NoScript doesn't have a more friendly version for novices. What I do is install NoScript and Privoxy on Firefox and leave the default OS browser (IE, Safari) untouched.
Then, if I see something that isn't "right" on Firefox I can paste the URL into the other browser and examine unscathed.
This is less technical, and I do enjoy browsing much more without ads or other noise candy...
Imagine for a moment that you are a senator or congressman in opposition to the party in power. Imagine also that you have a girlfriend / boyfriend "on the side".
Now, imagine you are at home asleep at 3am and the phone rings and you pick it up and a recording plays of a conversation you had with your significant secret other.
The message would be clear, wouldn't it? Back off or be outed.
If you don't believe that such things are possible, you are naive. If it's possible, it's happening.
I dunno - I was in San Francisco with my wife a few weeks ago, it was really beautiful, and we had a great time. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves too!
No problem driving or parking (ok California drivers in general are pretty aggro, but) and no more homeless folks than I see here in Denver...
Not gonna move there, or break into any city routers, but all in all, very pleasant.
my iPredator VPN account works great with P2P. I run at near maximum speed 90+% of the time and have never had traffic just "stop" like I did using the straight connection.
The ISP does not see P2P traffic from my connection - its encrypted...
google.com starts up in swedish, but so what? maybe this is why P2P "traffic" has "fallen off" the radar.
One of the first computers I ever saw up close was an IBM 1620 donated by Philip Morris to the Mathematics and Science Center in Glen Allen, Virginia. This was about 1970 - it had a clickety-clackety typewriter console and was attached to a rather large IBM punch card reader, and could print off cool Snoopy calendars on an IBM 1403 printer.
Around the same time, I was in a group of fifth-graders on a field trip from the Math-Science Center that was given a tour of a SAGE computer located at Fort Lee, Virginia. The entire 3-story block concrete building WAS the computer. We saw the technicians monitoring East Coast air traffic in a dimly lit room, the giant drum storage unit, and a room filled with thousands of "radio tubes" - some as big as water cooler bottles.
The technician giving the tour told us that more than a hundred tubes a day would blow, but that the technology was very reliable and this was why it was not replaced (at the time).
We toured a nuclear power plant, a chemical research lab, even a water treatment plant. There was a big motor home with 12 GE Termi-Net printers that would visit local schools (the "Mathmobile") and dial into the HP 2000 Time Sharing minicomputer system to give math and BASIC programming instruction.
For an 11 year old kid, it was all really amazing.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been coding since 1973 (jr. high school). I've written a lot of programs, including one that has been in constant use since 1991 (soon to be replaced, alas).
In all this time, all I've ever done is design software to count someone's beans (money). Nobody ever asked me "write a program to save the rain forest; write a program to help save the whales". (Ok, in junior high and high school we wrote computer games.)
If someone paid me to, I would, but all I've ever done is count other people's money.
So, in answer to the question posed here, I'd write a program to do something universally beneficial for mankind that did NOT involve counting money.
so, will Ridley Scott get a cut from every car sold that uses his "cruise" tone?
brasilian? in Brasil, Brasil is spelled with an "s" not a "z"...
what exactly did they receive for their money...?
hard to describe one farmer as representative of "the industry"...
Pick & Associates was later renamed Pick Systems then Raining Data and currently called TigerLogic.
Tiger Logic also bought Omnis Software, which developed and marketed a database / development environment that has been around on microcomputers from the 1970s until today.
I wrote a multiuser Omnis database application which has been in constant commercial use since 1991. This app will finally be replaced sometime early next year, mostly because I don't live in the country where they still use it. I do maintain it remotely and it still processes millions of dollars of orders every year.
I learned programming on the HP2000 Time Shared BASIC operating system, which was accessed by up to 32 terminals (teletypes) on an HP2000F Minicomputer system. This OS is still available in emulated form using a program called SIMH - which also emulates RSTS and other legacy minicomputer operating systems...
pun intended
'Microsoft's Zune HD, set to go on sale Tuesday, will not feature any measurable levels of sales, unlike its competitor the iPod Touch.'
given how rarely they apparently bathe...
Reply hazy, try again.
It's fairly popular now, and it was in the 60s when I was young. Computers, astronauts, rockets, all that stuff fascinated me and most of the guys I knew.
The internet has only made science more popular. Scientists, on the other hand, can be controversial, depending on what they espouse.
Robert Oppenheimer was a hero until he wasn't anymore. At one time, he was Time Magazine's Man of the Year, back when that really meant something.
Then he began espousing, and next thing he knew, he was out of a security clearance and out of a job...
Duct Tape...
You are correct - and it is a shame that NoScript doesn't have a more friendly version for novices. What I do is install NoScript and Privoxy on Firefox and leave the default OS browser (IE, Safari) untouched.
Then, if I see something that isn't "right" on Firefox I can paste the URL into the other browser and examine unscathed.
This is less technical, and I do enjoy browsing much more without ads or other noise candy...
it will block this kind of crap - I never see it...
http://noscript.net/
For even better browsing, install Privoxy, and see no advertising, for free!
http://www.privoxy.org/
Imagine for a moment that you are a senator or congressman in opposition to the party in power. Imagine also that you have a girlfriend / boyfriend "on the side".
Now, imagine you are at home asleep at 3am and the phone rings and you pick it up and a recording plays of a conversation you had with your significant secret other.
The message would be clear, wouldn't it? Back off or be outed.
If you don't believe that such things are possible, you are naive. If it's possible, it's happening.
The FBI would love to hear from you if you ever even find the ELF's office - they've been looking for a while now...
declare war on them...it's bound to happen anyway...
why so serious?
I dunno - I was in San Francisco with my wife a few weeks ago, it was really beautiful, and we had a great time. Everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves too!
No problem driving or parking (ok California drivers in general are pretty aggro, but) and no more homeless folks than I see here in Denver...
Not gonna move there, or break into any city routers, but all in all, very pleasant.
my iPredator VPN account works great with P2P. I run at near maximum speed 90+% of the time and have never had traffic just "stop" like I did using the straight connection.
The ISP does not see P2P traffic from my connection - its encrypted...
google.com starts up in swedish, but so what? maybe this is why P2P "traffic" has "fallen off" the radar.
better to drop the cannon onto a lawyer - why, you could take out two or three this way in one fell swoop...
hopefully the kid got a bottle of Jack Daniels and a pack of Marlboros to go along with the cannon...
...bankrupt entire nations...
One of the first computers I ever saw up close was an IBM 1620 donated by Philip Morris to the Mathematics and Science Center in Glen Allen, Virginia. This was about 1970 - it had a clickety-clackety typewriter console and was attached to a rather large IBM punch card reader, and could print off cool Snoopy calendars on an IBM 1403 printer.
Around the same time, I was in a group of fifth-graders on a field trip from the Math-Science Center that was given a tour of a SAGE computer located at Fort Lee, Virginia. The entire 3-story block concrete building WAS the computer. We saw the technicians monitoring East Coast air traffic in a dimly lit room, the giant drum storage unit, and a room filled with thousands of "radio tubes" - some as big as water cooler bottles.
The technician giving the tour told us that more than a hundred tubes a day would blow, but that the technology was very reliable and this was why it was not replaced (at the time).
We toured a nuclear power plant, a chemical research lab, even a water treatment plant. There was a big motor home with 12 GE Termi-Net printers that would visit local schools (the "Mathmobile") and dial into the HP 2000 Time Sharing minicomputer system to give math and BASIC programming instruction.
For an 11 year old kid, it was all really amazing.
http://thepiratebay.org/search/stargate/0/99/200