To offer a slightly different perspective: If he felt that management was going to misuse the passwords to compromise the security of the network, he was best off sticking to his guns, as it would have come back on him, not management, if the security was compromised. Corruption at the top levels is not unheard-of. It just doesn't sound like that's what happened. In situations like this, people typically work out some compromise, like bringing in outside contractors with limited permissions or with a separate admin account for a limited time, etc.
Based on what we have seen, as you said, he was most likely engaged in a power struggle with management, and he handled it poorly when management could have just come in and said "you're fired, give us the passwords and leave."
My recollection is that the IBM layoffs of yesteryear focused heavily on senior staff, cutting many of their jobs to avoid paying pensions. They hired a lot of the people back as contractors afterward. I wouldn't bet on the junior staff being at the heavy end of the cut...
I think that most people want the computer to anticipate their actions and adjust accordingly - seamlessly. The context-sensitive menus and toolbars in both Windows and OSX are a move in this direction. The animated assistants can sometimes be helpful but most often they get in the way. The animated assistants also made me feel stupid if I did something to invoke them by making a mistake, and no one likes to feel stupid. I think major issues like this will prevent them from ever being widely useful until, possibly, someone can make them into a primary interface, which is a long ways off still.
Along the same lines, I don't think that people doing 10-15 MPH over the limit and suddenly slowing down to 10 under across all lanes is a good thing. This is usually what I see, and if I want to do the speed limit, and I don't normally speed, I have to slow down and get in a dangerously tight pack of traffic because of the trap. At least, that's how it usually works around D.C. Cops mostly just enjoy the power trip and fucking with people's heads. There is little in the way of civil service in the traffic policing I've seen.
If you really want to save mileage, turn the car off when coasting. If you're at speed and on a straightaway, you won't miss the power steering that much. I have a colleague who does this, people think he's weird too but he can average 50MPG if he's careful with it, in a 10 y.o. saturn. I know that idling doesn't use up much gas but pure coasting uses, well, none.
And people wonder why cars seem to break down more often
If you go out and buy a new car, don't expect to have to change the oil for 7000 miles, and don't expect to have to do anything other than change the tires, fluids, and wiper inserts up to about 70000. Any decently made car nowadays will not run into the ground until well over 200000 miles. Engines are way tougher than they used to be, they are cast better and tooled *way* better with automation. Let's not even get into all the computer systems will do for you that a car 20 years ago would most certainly not.
Try developing on it, using ASP.NET and IIS 7, and maybe developing a service or two. You'll be running as admin with UAC off in no time, it's impossible to use under these circumstances. At home though, no, it has never inconvenienced me a bit.
"The question of whether Machines Can Think... is about as relevant as the question of whether Submarines Can Swim." - Dijkstra
Would you still be you if the computer was running a simulation of your brain? If you have some sense of "self", that which is aware, how would that awareness be affected by having two or more copies of your mental processes in action at the same time? Is that awareness merely a byproduct of some mental/mechanical process or a chemical process, or is it something else still? Would your brain really be worth running in a computer?
I tend to think, and a "thinking" computer would probably agree, that the computer is probably better off doing other things than running wetware facsimilies that grew out of a willy-nilly evolutionary process over millions of years.
Silverlight or ActiveX would have been their only options for an MS-based technology for an RIA like this (or a bunch of JS, I'd like to see that). Java seems like the natural choice in many ways. If they are running windows boxes and IIS6, just throw the java applet into the aspx page and call it a day.
Very true. Plus, their company-wide sales are still very strong. They are so large and wealthy, with such a huge install base, that they will likely never go away.
I think the question of longest running line of code is a more interesting question in some ways. Otherwise, what do we consider an algorithm? The Babylonians knew the quadratic equation, I would nominate that as one of the longest "running" algorithms. What, after all, constitutes a computer, or mechanical computation in general?
Yep...too bad there's not a firehose or some other way to vote to pull existing posts. This is wrong through and through and is just confusing and misleading.
I can sympathize with the drawn out development cycle. Whenever this has happened at places that I've worked, it gets impossible to keep up with the changes. Scope creeps, because what you developed last year is no longer relevant. Plus, there's something that simply *has* to go into this upcoming release because everyone knows its going to take a while and you have told a customer they can have it. If you don't know when the current release is going out, slating anything for the next one is pretty much saying it'll never get done. These kinds of things just don't stop coming up.
The landscape changed a lot between when MS started Vista and when they released it. They were behind the times, trying to play catch-up, and they botched it. I had high hopes for Vista when they were planning it...new file system, powershell, lots of unfulfilled promises. They ended up delivering something that is passing fare IMO but is behind the times, and I don't see them changing the tune with their next release. They are wed to this beast now.
You can actually get away with inheritance using the prototyping model inherent in Javascript's "object based" programming model. There are some other strange and unusual things that can be done based on prototypes as well, like adding properties to an object or set of objects at runtime. The parent has a limited point, I would agree that Javascript is a "real" programming language as such things go. The problem in my experience is twofold. As you mentioned, the first is with inconsistent JS DOM implementations between browsers. The second is the kludgy syntax and these sorts of "hacks" to make objects try to work like they do in other languages. The C-like syntax is nice as most people are familiar with it but there's nothing I hate more than programming in javascript.
Yes they need these things, more than a computer, but 1) this is not who the computers are likely to go to and 2) it's certainly not from lack of worldwide resources that people are suffering like this, nor from lack of goodwill of your average joe, rather it's largely a problem of politics, corruption, and the realities of distribution combined with these other factors. The XO laptops will go where they are wanted and hopefully where they are needed. I hardly think this is detracting from other humanitarian efforts in any way.
I don't usually consider this type of thing a "big deal", the same way I don't see making a mix CD for a fried as a "big deal", but I will generally take the time to reimplement/rewrite an algorithm that I find in this type of circumstance. A lot of times the author will post something as a solution for the good of the many, you can usually tell from context if this is the case or not. If you're not sure, you shouldn't copy it, but it sounds like you already know that and your tech lead either does not know or does not care.
I would think that a prudent approach would be to just wait a bit and get to know the people there, unless you see large scale infringement or some gross violation of copyright law. Over time, you will probably get to know the tech lead better and may be able to approach him as a friend, without going head on about it with anyone. I suspect that is the only way you are actually going to change anyone's behavior in this matter, if that is what you are interested in doing. You have to weigh the potential damage to yourself and others caused by making a big stink about it as the new guy, vs. understanding and trying to gently correct a wrongdoing, the intention behind which you know nothing about. Illegal as the act may be, the liability to your company in this case sounds like it is practically non-existent.
It's quite simple and easy to see. Humans observe the supernova, leading us to greater space exploration and travel. 10,000 years later, we populate the galaxy and start a racial war with the Bug Creatures of Xenon 4. To ultimately win the war, we must travel back in time and destroy their parent star, thus creating the supernova that we are now discussing. Duh.
Can't agree more. Learning Perl was the only one I finished all the way through, and I have a small mountain of other books lying around that I've read greater or lesser pieces of. The Perl book was written with a narrative style, and read smoothly from cover to cover - and kept me engaged. I have never even used Perl in a professional capacity, I picked up the languages I use on a daily basis through reading the basic syntax sections of the books dedicated to them, through the publisher's documentation, and via the web.
Am currently reading the Art of Assembly Language Programming, which is also written in an engaging fashion and has kept me going through several hundred pages of chip architecture and design. Maybe I'll even finish this one, that would make #2...
I would hazard that the majority of IT related services in MD are subcontracted to some branch of the federal government. They are by far the biggest employer around these parts. Unless I'm mistaken, this is not going to have a great impact on government contractors. So it seems like it's really targeted to hurt smaller development/support shops. The entire tax hike has been geared towards smaller organizations and individuals - all the provisions for higher taxes on wealthier individuals were removed prior to the bill passing, as well. Thanks, O'Malley.
Slashdot Mirror
To offer a slightly different perspective: If he felt that management was going to misuse the passwords to compromise the security of the network, he was best off sticking to his guns, as it would have come back on him, not management, if the security was compromised. Corruption at the top levels is not unheard-of. It just doesn't sound like that's what happened. In situations like this, people typically work out some compromise, like bringing in outside contractors with limited permissions or with a separate admin account for a limited time, etc.
Based on what we have seen, as you said, he was most likely engaged in a power struggle with management, and he handled it poorly when management could have just come in and said "you're fired, give us the passwords and leave."
Look on the bright side - if you're one of those few million, you won't have to worry about it...
You missed a step: ???
Buried in the Russian OS:
//WTF!
//SendSecretsToMoscow();
//WTF!
//SendSecretsToMoscow();
//NO WAI!
//SendSecretsToStockholm();
SendSecretsToMoscow();
The EU upgrade...
SendSecretsToStockholm();
The Chinese upgrade...
SendSecretsToBeijing();
SendMalwareToEveryoneElse();
My recollection is that the IBM layoffs of yesteryear focused heavily on senior staff, cutting many of their jobs to avoid paying pensions. They hired a lot of the people back as contractors afterward. I wouldn't bet on the junior staff being at the heavy end of the cut...
I think that most people want the computer to anticipate their actions and adjust accordingly - seamlessly. The context-sensitive menus and toolbars in both Windows and OSX are a move in this direction. The animated assistants can sometimes be helpful but most often they get in the way. The animated assistants also made me feel stupid if I did something to invoke them by making a mistake, and no one likes to feel stupid. I think major issues like this will prevent them from ever being widely useful until, possibly, someone can make them into a primary interface, which is a long ways off still.
Along the same lines, I don't think that people doing 10-15 MPH over the limit and suddenly slowing down to 10 under across all lanes is a good thing. This is usually what I see, and if I want to do the speed limit, and I don't normally speed, I have to slow down and get in a dangerously tight pack of traffic because of the trap. At least, that's how it usually works around D.C. Cops mostly just enjoy the power trip and fucking with people's heads. There is little in the way of civil service in the traffic policing I've seen.
If you really want to save mileage, turn the car off when coasting. If you're at speed and on a straightaway, you won't miss the power steering that much. I have a colleague who does this, people think he's weird too but he can average 50MPG if he's careful with it, in a 10 y.o. saturn. I know that idling doesn't use up much gas but pure coasting uses, well, none.
If you go out and buy a new car, don't expect to have to change the oil for 7000 miles, and don't expect to have to do anything other than change the tires, fluids, and wiper inserts up to about 70000. Any decently made car nowadays will not run into the ground until well over 200000 miles. Engines are way tougher than they used to be, they are cast better and tooled *way* better with automation. Let's not even get into all the computer systems will do for you that a car 20 years ago would most certainly not.
Try developing on it, using ASP.NET and IIS 7, and maybe developing a service or two. You'll be running as admin with UAC off in no time, it's impossible to use under these circumstances. At home though, no, it has never inconvenienced me a bit.
"The question of whether Machines Can Think ... is about as relevant as the question of whether Submarines Can Swim." - Dijkstra
Would you still be you if the computer was running a simulation of your brain? If you have some sense of "self", that which is aware, how would that awareness be affected by having two or more copies of your mental processes in action at the same time? Is that awareness merely a byproduct of some mental/mechanical process or a chemical process, or is it something else still? Would your brain really be worth running in a computer?
I tend to think, and a "thinking" computer would probably agree, that the computer is probably better off doing other things than running wetware facsimilies that grew out of a willy-nilly evolutionary process over millions of years.
Silverlight or ActiveX would have been their only options for an MS-based technology for an RIA like this (or a bunch of JS, I'd like to see that). Java seems like the natural choice in many ways. If they are running windows boxes and IIS6, just throw the java applet into the aspx page and call it a day.
Very true. Plus, their company-wide sales are still very strong. They are so large and wealthy, with such a huge install base, that they will likely never go away.
I can't recall having any managers with a short side, but have run across a few with particularly short sight...
I think the question of longest running line of code is a more interesting question in some ways. Otherwise, what do we consider an algorithm? The Babylonians knew the quadratic equation, I would nominate that as one of the longest "running" algorithms. What, after all, constitutes a computer, or mechanical computation in general?
Yep...too bad there's not a firehose or some other way to vote to pull existing posts. This is wrong through and through and is just confusing and misleading.
Something must have been pretty damn efficient to fit an elephant into a telephone booth.
I can sympathize with the drawn out development cycle. Whenever this has happened at places that I've worked, it gets impossible to keep up with the changes. Scope creeps, because what you developed last year is no longer relevant. Plus, there's something that simply *has* to go into this upcoming release because everyone knows its going to take a while and you have told a customer they can have it. If you don't know when the current release is going out, slating anything for the next one is pretty much saying it'll never get done. These kinds of things just don't stop coming up.
The landscape changed a lot between when MS started Vista and when they released it. They were behind the times, trying to play catch-up, and they botched it. I had high hopes for Vista when they were planning it...new file system, powershell, lots of unfulfilled promises. They ended up delivering something that is passing fare IMO but is behind the times, and I don't see them changing the tune with their next release. They are wed to this beast now.
You can actually get away with inheritance using the prototyping model inherent in Javascript's "object based" programming model. There are some other strange and unusual things that can be done based on prototypes as well, like adding properties to an object or set of objects at runtime. The parent has a limited point, I would agree that Javascript is a "real" programming language as such things go. The problem in my experience is twofold. As you mentioned, the first is with inconsistent JS DOM implementations between browsers. The second is the kludgy syntax and these sorts of "hacks" to make objects try to work like they do in other languages. The C-like syntax is nice as most people are familiar with it but there's nothing I hate more than programming in javascript.
Yes they need these things, more than a computer, but 1) this is not who the computers are likely to go to and 2) it's certainly not from lack of worldwide resources that people are suffering like this, nor from lack of goodwill of your average joe, rather it's largely a problem of politics, corruption, and the realities of distribution combined with these other factors. The XO laptops will go where they are wanted and hopefully where they are needed. I hardly think this is detracting from other humanitarian efforts in any way.
I don't usually consider this type of thing a "big deal", the same way I don't see making a mix CD for a fried as a "big deal", but I will generally take the time to reimplement/rewrite an algorithm that I find in this type of circumstance. A lot of times the author will post something as a solution for the good of the many, you can usually tell from context if this is the case or not. If you're not sure, you shouldn't copy it, but it sounds like you already know that and your tech lead either does not know or does not care.
I would think that a prudent approach would be to just wait a bit and get to know the people there, unless you see large scale infringement or some gross violation of copyright law. Over time, you will probably get to know the tech lead better and may be able to approach him as a friend, without going head on about it with anyone. I suspect that is the only way you are actually going to change anyone's behavior in this matter, if that is what you are interested in doing. You have to weigh the potential damage to yourself and others caused by making a big stink about it as the new guy, vs. understanding and trying to gently correct a wrongdoing, the intention behind which you know nothing about. Illegal as the act may be, the liability to your company in this case sounds like it is practically non-existent.
It's quite simple and easy to see. Humans observe the supernova, leading us to greater space exploration and travel. 10,000 years later, we populate the galaxy and start a racial war with the Bug Creatures of Xenon 4. To ultimately win the war, we must travel back in time and destroy their parent star, thus creating the supernova that we are now discussing. Duh.
Can't agree more. Learning Perl was the only one I finished all the way through, and I have a small mountain of other books lying around that I've read greater or lesser pieces of. The Perl book was written with a narrative style, and read smoothly from cover to cover - and kept me engaged. I have never even used Perl in a professional capacity, I picked up the languages I use on a daily basis through reading the basic syntax sections of the books dedicated to them, through the publisher's documentation, and via the web.
Am currently reading the Art of Assembly Language Programming, which is also written in an engaging fashion and has kept me going through several hundred pages of chip architecture and design. Maybe I'll even finish this one, that would make #2...
I would hazard that the majority of IT related services in MD are subcontracted to some branch of the federal government. They are by far the biggest employer around these parts. Unless I'm mistaken, this is not going to have a great impact on government contractors. So it seems like it's really targeted to hurt smaller development/support shops. The entire tax hike has been geared towards smaller organizations and individuals - all the provisions for higher taxes on wealthier individuals were removed prior to the bill passing, as well. Thanks, O'Malley.
SHA3 = SHA1(data) xor SHA2(data)
My patent trumps your patent!