> It doesn't matter if we evolve, because we change the environment around us as opposed to adapting to it.
This would not be a valid point even if we uniformly changed our environment in a manner beneficial to us - pollution, anyone?
No matter what the environment is, it is still subject to external changes beyond our control - ice ages, etc. - and, even in a stable environment, there is still competitive pressure through sexual selection for cultural reasons.
Also, the environment is different on different parts of the planet. Some evolutionary adaptation will result from groups seeking under-exploited niches, like deserts or rain forests.
For at least one domain - say graphic arts - beginning students might get more out of comparing two software approaches and learning about good versus poor design.
One reason we're stuck with so much crappy software design is that most people seem not to know or care what is good and what isn't. As a design guru said:
The phrase "computer literate user" really means
the person has been hurt so many times that the
scar tissue is thick enough so he no longer feels the pain.
- Alan Cooper, The Inmates are Running the Asylum
Or
Computer Literate, adj.: Tame, tractable; willing
to compensate for software deficiencies.
- Gerald Weinberg
Competition judge Charles Elkan at the University of California, San Diego, agrees that the method could work if enough Netflix users also use IMDB, but he believes it will be possible to detect and disqualify cheats when they submit their computer code. Narayanan and Shmatikov aren't convinced. "There are techniques to obscure how data is introduced within the thousands of lines of code you'd submit," Shmatikov says.
Yeah, someone's going to hand over a million dollars after you tell them "here's the algorithm, just ignore that large chunk of hex over there."
I have an even better system: I don't play 10 tickets every week so I win $10.
Someone I told this to asked how I'd feel if one of the numbers I didn't play was the winner.
I have that all figured out. Every week, I pick 10 sets of numbers but I don't look at them.
I don't suppose many of you young fellers are old enough to remember bank tellers.
Poor things - not many of them left now that these new-fangled ATMs are all over the place.
I pity the youth of today who don't have the thrill of remembering to take out enough cash on Friday to last the weekend and being very thrifty on Sunday when you mis-calculated.
Of course corporations should be allowed to do whatever they want because they are always good and fair. Like the company that fired my father-in-law shortly before he vested in the corporate pension plan so they wouldn't have to pay what they owed him after years of working there. This was before age discrimination laws and are part of the reason we now have them.
I just want to see one of these bible-thumpers be more consistent and also cite it in support of their efforts to legalize slavery. Why don't they ever do that? There are many more pro-slavery statements in the Bible than anti-gay ones.
Apparently, use of the Dvorak keyboard hurts math skills. Looking for evidence of the assertion
The Dvorak keyboard is more efficient by a factor of 10 I found this site http://www.theworldofstuff.com/dvorak/ which starts with a similar assertion about the Dvorak keyboard:
It is estimated to be 12 to 20 times more efficient.... and followed it with several statements that don't add up, like
Some have seen a 200-300% increase in their speed. and
A Dvorak typist typically makes half as many mistakes.... and
...in school. I could only do about 30 WPM.... Now I'm typing over 60 WPM.... and
...typing 57 to 62 WPM in comparison to typing 45 to 50 WPM....
A better illustration might perform something other than scalar operations on the items, but here is a specific example of what this means using the functional language J http://www.jsoftware.com/; lines prefixed by spaces are user input, un-prefixed lines are the interpreter's response; comments begin with "NB." and go to the end of the line.
NB. First, define G and F:
G=: 1&+ NB. Add 1
F=: *: NB. Square
NB. How each one works separately:
G 1 2 3 2 3 4
F 2 3 4 4 9 16
NB. How they work together:
F G 1 2 3 4 9 16
NB. Working together using explicit composition:
F@G 1 2 3 4 9 16
Also take a look at "Code Complete" by Steve McConnell and "Peopleware" by DeMarco and
Lister. Actually, I've seen credible estimates of a factor of 25 times productivity between
best and worst programmers. Given the negative productivity I've witnessed, even this may be an under-estimate.
This should be a well-known fact but it isn't. A major part of the problem is
cluelessness by the people doing the hiring. You probably can't scale salary by productivity
but how about something like the square root of productivity? Of course, the hiring of
Bob Nardelli, the mediocre CEO who did nothing at Home Depot, by Chrysler shows how unrelated
salary and effectiveness can be.
Let's spend a lot of money developing a very complicated technology that won't actually accomplish what it's supposed to and make it available to a bunch of people who don't even know how to set the time on their VCRs!
I prefer trackballs to mice because I prefer the keyboard to either.
I have my trackballs at home set to "fast" (=sensitive) settings so,
when I'm forced to take a hand off the keyboard, I often can just "hit"
the trackball in the general direction to send the cursor zooming near
where I want it. It seems like I can target what I want more quickly
than with a mouse and get my hands back on the keyboard where god intended
them to be.
The trackball also takes less precious desk space - I live in a small apartment -
and it's always in exactly the same place so it's easier to grab without looking.
Slashdot Mirror
Hey, it's big news when a popular talk show host gets all geeky like...Oh, sorry, I thought it said "Oprah".
> It doesn't matter if we evolve, because we change the environment around us as opposed to adapting to it.
This would not be a valid point even if we uniformly changed our environment in a manner beneficial to us - pollution, anyone?
No matter what the environment is, it is still subject to external changes beyond our control - ice ages, etc. - and, even in a stable environment, there is still competitive pressure through sexual selection for cultural reasons.
Also, the environment is different on different parts of the planet. Some evolutionary adaptation will result from groups seeking under-exploited niches, like deserts or rain forests.
It's called "J": http://www.jsoftware.com/.
Yes, it does pretty pictures too: http://www.jsoftware.com/jwiki/Studio/Gallery.
One reason we're stuck with so much crappy software design is that most people seem not to know or care what is good and what isn't. As a design guru said: Or
How do you know the person who posted the code on the web didn't take it from somewhere else?
I have an even better system: I don't play 10 tickets every week so I win $10.
Someone I told this to asked how I'd feel if one of the numbers I didn't play was the winner. I have that all figured out. Every week, I pick 10 sets of numbers but I don't look at them.
How about "ICU"?
I don't suppose many of you young fellers are old enough to remember bank tellers.
Poor things - not many of them left now that these new-fangled ATMs are all over the place.
I pity the youth of today who don't have the thrill of remembering to take out enough cash on Friday to last the weekend and being very thrifty on Sunday when you mis-calculated.
The verb "to be" does not even have a unique translation in languages other than English.
In Spanish, there are two forms - "estar" and "ser" - which divide up the meanings covered by the English equivalent; see ahref=http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/to+berel=url2html-28875http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/to+be>
Scots Gaelic has a form which indicates that the existence or truth is questionable or known only second-hand.
Ah, the feckless ignorance of youth.
Of course corporations should be allowed to do whatever they want because they are always good and fair. Like the company that fired my father-in-law shortly before he vested in the corporate pension plan so they wouldn't have to pay what they owed him after years of working there. This was before age discrimination laws and are part of the reason we now have them.
I just want to see one of these bible-thumpers be more consistent and also cite it in support of their efforts to legalize slavery. Why don't they ever do that? There are many more pro-slavery statements in the Bible than anti-gay ones.
I think the time is ripe for my all-nude airline idea.
Our motto: We Have Nothing to Hide!
...in school. I could only do about 30 WPM.
...typing 57 to 62 WPM in comparison to typing 45 to 50 WPM....A better illustration might perform something other than scalar operations on the items, but here is a specific example of what this means using the functional language J http://www.jsoftware.com/; lines prefixed by spaces are user input, un-prefixed lines are the interpreter's response; comments begin with "NB." and go to the end of the line.
NB. First, define G and F:
G=: 1&+ NB. Add 1
F=: *: NB. Square
NB. How each one works separately:
G 1 2 3
2 3 4
F 2 3 4
4 9 16
NB. How they work together:
F G 1 2 3
4 9 16
NB. Working together using explicit composition:
F@G 1 2 3
4 9 16
> about six out of 10 employees in the United States acknowledged wasting time at work
So, from this we can conclude that about 40% of the people surveyed were liars?
> people are promoted to the level of their own incompetence
It's called "The Peter Principle" - it explains why managers are so often dicks.
isn't everyone much happier to have an Attorney General who can't remember rather than one who would lie under oath?
is coming out when? It will be just like the bible but with 6 different fonts, lots of screenshots, and weighing in at around 9,000 pages.
It's especially slow on very cold days.
The flip side of this is when you're an old guy like me and have too much experience: then it's just hard to get paid enough.
He's absolutely correct.
h tml.
There are numerous studies to support this. Taking about 20 seconds to look for one: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/HighNotes.
Also take a look at "Code Complete" by Steve McConnell and "Peopleware" by DeMarco and Lister. Actually, I've seen credible estimates of a factor of 25 times productivity between best and worst programmers. Given the negative productivity I've witnessed, even this may be an under-estimate.
This should be a well-known fact but it isn't. A major part of the problem is cluelessness by the people doing the hiring. You probably can't scale salary by productivity but how about something like the square root of productivity? Of course, the hiring of Bob Nardelli, the mediocre CEO who did nothing at Home Depot, by Chrysler shows how unrelated salary and effectiveness can be.
Hey everybody, I have a great idea!
Let's spend a lot of money developing a very complicated technology that won't actually accomplish what it's supposed to and make it available to a bunch of people who don't even know how to set the time on their VCRs!
Vote for me!
Oh yes, Think About the Children!(tm).
While we're at it, Blame Canada!
I prefer trackballs to mice because I prefer the keyboard to either.
I have my trackballs at home set to "fast" (=sensitive) settings so, when I'm forced to take a hand off the keyboard, I often can just "hit" the trackball in the general direction to send the cursor zooming near where I want it. It seems like I can target what I want more quickly than with a mouse and get my hands back on the keyboard where god intended them to be.
The trackball also takes less precious desk space - I live in a small apartment - and it's always in exactly the same place so it's easier to grab without looking.
It's probably nonsense, as many posters have already pointed out, but that won't stop it being used as "evidence" for more nonsense like some important South Africans' beliefs about how to stop AIDS http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,36 04,1477400,00.html .