You have far too much faith in the oppression that is democracy. Most people don't speak up until it's their livelihood that's being threatened. In the Kelo case, it's a small number of homeowners living in a working class neighborhood. The same thing is going on here in Colorado Springs; dozens of low-end but long-standing, legitimate businesses will be destroyed to make way for Costco and Lowes. Yeah, great idea, democracy, it lets us stomp on the downtrodden minority.
Just because it's the "means of the many" doesn't mean it's right. Unless, of course, you're a fascist. And as far as "not voting for people who will do that,"... please. Politicians are a filthy, lying lot.
If a corrupt body (read: any city council) is already elected, and your home is threatened for destruction, it's generally too late to effect anything by re-election time.
Perhaps deriving your political beliefs from Sim City isn't such a great idea.
Generally that's what "agile" says. Instead of jumping through a rigid set of hoops to prove that you can jump through hoops, the body of agile talks about how to take various proven practices and apply them to your situation.
For example, Beck's second edition of Extreme Programming Explained talks more about the underlying principles and values than specific methodology implementation details. Most agile proponents recognize that no single approach works for all shops, or even two shops.
>Democratic law is the result of agreed upon
>rules that the entire society has determined
>to be equitable.
Not "the entire society." In a pure democracy, it only takes 50.1% or more of *voters* to create law that the other 49.9% may find extremely inequitable (which also conveniently ignores the fact that only a small fraction of eligible voters help make this decision). In the United States--which is a half-assed democracy--it only takes a few powerful, crooked legislators. I mean, legislators (sorry 'bout the redundancy).
As usual, one can read the above review of Extreme Programming Refactored and the ones at Amazon, and note that the bulk of the reviews are either 5 star (like this one, claiming that the book is "wonderful"), or 1 star.
The unfortunate thing is that most reviewers have lost all sense of reality. One would think a 5-star review represents a classic for all time--maybe something on par with Shakespeare, or (dare I suggest) Design Patterns. A one-star review represents something absolutely worthless and/or dishonest, like the half-made-up Bellisiles' book "Arming America."
Extreme Programming Refactored is neither a classic, nor is it a complete waste of money. There are some good insights in the book, as it points out some of the pitfalls in the application of XP. It is for the most part well-written, but it also resorts to cheap shots and name calling. There are some serious problems with the book as well, including incorrect information and ignorant testimonials.
Most honest people would agree with this assessment of the book. Unfortunately, the bulk of the reviewers aren't. Honest, that is. XP haters rate it five stars, XP lovers rate it one star. [I fall on the pro-XP side of the fence, in case you cared.]
Even big-process bigot Steve McConnell chirps in with a 5-star review. Gosh, Steve, does that mean you think the book is a software development classic, on par or even better than your book Code Complete, which only gets 4.5 stars on average?
In any case, I did write a review of the book at Amazon, complete with quotes and such, and I didn't give it 5 stars, nor did I give it 1 star. But I guess my review sucked, because McConnell's review got more happy-popularity-votes than mine did.
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You have far too much faith in the oppression that is democracy. Most people don't speak up until it's their livelihood that's being threatened. In the Kelo case, it's a small number of homeowners living in a working class neighborhood. The same thing is going on here in Colorado Springs; dozens of low-end but long-standing, legitimate businesses will be destroyed to make way for Costco and Lowes. Yeah, great idea, democracy, it lets us stomp on the downtrodden minority.
... please. Politicians are a filthy, lying lot.
Just because it's the "means of the many" doesn't mean it's right. Unless, of course, you're a fascist. And as far as "not voting for people who will do that,"
If a corrupt body (read: any city council) is already elected, and your home is threatened for destruction, it's generally too late to effect anything by re-election time.
Perhaps deriving your political beliefs from Sim City isn't such a great idea.
Generally that's what "agile" says. Instead of jumping through a rigid set of hoops to prove that you can jump through hoops, the body of agile talks about how to take various proven practices and apply them to your situation.
For example, Beck's second edition of Extreme Programming Explained talks more about the underlying principles and values than specific methodology implementation details. Most agile proponents recognize that no single approach works for all shops, or even two shops.
-J-
Fortunately all we have to worry about is people smashing our cognac glasses.
-j-
>rules that the entire society has determined
>to be equitable.
Not "the entire society." In a pure democracy, it only takes 50.1% or more of *voters* to create law that the other 49.9% may find extremely inequitable (which also conveniently ignores the fact that only a small fraction of eligible voters help make this decision). In the United States--which is a half-assed democracy--it only takes a few powerful, crooked legislators. I mean, legislators (sorry 'bout the redundancy).
I see Vint Cerf but no Al Gore?!?
The unfortunate thing is that most reviewers have lost all sense of reality. One would think a 5-star review represents a classic for all time--maybe something on par with Shakespeare, or (dare I suggest) Design Patterns. A one-star review represents something absolutely worthless and/or dishonest, like the half-made-up Bellisiles' book "Arming America."
Extreme Programming Refactored is neither a classic, nor is it a complete waste of money. There are some good insights in the book, as it points out some of the pitfalls in the application of XP. It is for the most part well-written, but it also resorts to cheap shots and name calling. There are some serious problems with the book as well, including incorrect information and ignorant testimonials.
Most honest people would agree with this assessment of the book. Unfortunately, the bulk of the reviewers aren't. Honest, that is. XP haters rate it five stars, XP lovers rate it one star. [I fall on the pro-XP side of the fence, in case you cared.]
Even big-process bigot Steve McConnell chirps in with a 5-star review. Gosh, Steve, does that mean you think the book is a software development classic, on par or even better than your book Code Complete, which only gets 4.5 stars on average?
In any case, I did write a review of the book at Amazon, complete with quotes and such, and I didn't give it 5 stars, nor did I give it 1 star. But I guess my review sucked, because McConnell's review got more happy-popularity-votes than mine did.