Tim Bray wrote about this situation years ago: http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/07/12/WebsThePlace (and I think I heard the "sharecropping" term used from earlier, too). Essentially, when developers work on a platform owned by someone else, you are fully at their mercy.
I originally read that as "America is a set of subhumanity", which seemed a bit harsh.
Take control of your brand
on
Linked In Or Out?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Having some sort of online presence is a great way to control (or at least influence) the image about you online. There's a heap of stuff on google about personal brand management. This one looked like it had a lot of relevant points regarding why you should consider this to be important: http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/archives/2008/04/building_personal_brand.html
I'd be more interested in how much income a link in a slashdot post makes.
£0.00;-)
What do you think the overlap is for "People who read Slashdot" and "People who buy children's shoes online"? Hint: not much.
Which leads on to another reason why the Google ads are so effective. By choosing the keywords carefully, the ad only really gets shown to people who are already looking for what we're selling. Ads that are relevant to what the person is actively looking for can get a lot of interest.
...built on a business model that is not sustainable (in Google's case, online ads, which I honestly believe are going to tank hugely when advertisers finally realize the true value of online advertisements such as those sold by Google - and it ain't alot in my opinion)
Regarding the true value of online adversing... In my case, I can say that the advertising I put onto Google is worth it. I've just enabled the online store at http://www.lillifoot.co.uk/ and started advertising on Google. It's very easy to track the metrics of how much I spend versus how much income it brings in. If the advertising wasn't covering costs, I would be looking elsewhere to spend advertising money.
I find UML very useful when I'm thinking about some classes I'm about to write. I can draw out a few rough boxes to represent classes, and get a view of how my various classes can interact. The way I do this is a very quick processes, but it helps get a view of the way that some software components can fit together before I jump into coding. The sketches can often help initiate design discussions. In this way, I'm a using UML as a sketching tool.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, you can buy some very expensive tools that let you try to capture every single nuance of the software in the UML diagram itself, and the code is generated directory from the UML model. This Model Driven Architecture (MDA) approach tries to treat UML as a programming language, and I think it fails horribly. I think writing code by manipulating boxes and arrows in an MDA tool is a terribly inefficient way to develop software, though there are many vendors who will try and tell you otherwise.
In summary, I think using UML as a rough way to sketch out software design is still a good way to go. Using UML as a programming language has never been a good idea, and probably should die.
The file is indeed Javascript and it's called "urchin.js" (nice name eh?). "urchin.js" is the old name for the script. Google encourages webmasters to upgrade to the new ga.js, which has pretty much the same functionality, but some other enhancements. Both those scripts feed data into the same reports. If you're interested, you can see what the scripts is doing by looking at http://www.google-analytics.com/ga.js. It's pretty compact JavaScript, and I haven't gone through it to work out what it's doing.
Personally, I use it on the website for my wife's children's shoe shop. From my point of view, the reports I get out of Google Analytics are excellent, and really help me optimise the website for keywords and navigation. I will admit though, that it is a little creepy about Google capturing the surfing habits of people in that way.
The only reason, ONLY reason, to use Java is because you are psychotic and have a deep, long standing hate for your users and wish to inflict some of the most insidious pain and torment upon them.
I think that the statement needs to be qualified someone: I think it's perfectly valid for anyone developing desktop GUIs written in Java hates their users. The startup latency is painful, and long running GUIs will sometimes be hit with long GC pauses. I admit that it's much better now than in previous years, but it's still a dog.
Java on the server side, however, is a great fit. In this case the user doesn't wait for the JVM to start up, and the Hotspot compiler can get things running very fast.
Sure: it's Montana. I didn't originally post the link because I'm not sure I'd fully recommend them at this stage. We've found the barcoding not quite up to scratch, minor usability issues with the UI, and I'm not fully happy with the support. Nevertheless, when I asked them to change their terms to allow open access to the database, they were happy to comply.
I had the same problem a few months ago. I really wanted an open POS system for the children's shoe shop my wife opened last year. We wanted a better system of managing inventory than the manual spreadsheet we were using.
I wasn't really that happy with any of the open source solutions I looked at (mainly LanePos and BananaPOS), mainly because I don't really have time to maintain these systems myself, and I wasn't convinced the support operations would work for us. We eventually did find a commercial provider based upon a recommendation from a friend with a small shop nearby. One of the things I really liked about this system was the fact that the vendor was completely happy for me to be able to access the database used by the POS software without any restrictions. I wasn't that happy with a number aspects of the system, but being able to access my own data was critical for me.
Heh, I haven't seen this old chestnut for a while. I wondered when someone would dredge it up. This makes it at least the 4th time I've seen it on slashdot:
Out of interest, does anyone know how stable it is to run Compiere on Postgres? The main page mentions that Oracle is the only supported database, but it will run on Postgres as an "unsupported" option.
This question is nice timing for me, too. I'm looking for inventory control systems right now. My wife is about to open a new shoe shop (see http://www.lillifoot.co.uk/). So, not really the same as computer services, but there are many other things in common. I really need something to help track orders from suppliers, current inventory levels, and sales to work out when we need more stock.
Wikipedia has a handy list of useful software at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ERP_software_ packages. I'm looking for something I can install on a Linux server, and not pay too much. I initially tried Openbravo, but the performance was atrocious. I'm currently giving TinyERP a whirl (which seems OK, but I'm unsure about integrating the POS terminals with the inventory).
I'd be really interested to hear about what people think these and other software packages which can help.
I don't know if they planned it that way, someone at Kingston Technology is happy. By sending their encrypted usb memory stick to Bruce, who then links to it from both his blog and the Wired article, when then gets linked from Slashdot, they have somehow achieved the best exposure for their product ever!
I'll throw in another vote for Trac as well. For me it hit a sweet spot of not being too complex, yet had the features I needed. I could indicate issue and priority to give an order list of things to do. The timeline and roadmap views were really useful planning tools. Also, the Subversion integration gave fantastic traceability regarding what changes were made to resolve an issue.
Compare this to JIRA, which is a much more full featured tool, yet somehow misses some of the features above that I cared most about (mainly the seamless integration with Subversion and the Wiki)
Slashdot Mirror
That sounds like pretty much every sportsing description ever!
I thought the movie was an accurate view of the book, as can be seen here: http://lotrproject.com/blog/20...
If I was looking for nits to pick, I could greater nit than this.
How many nits could a nit picker pick, if a nit picker could pick nits?
There are lots of languages that run on the JVM. At my current work, we regularly use Scala and Groovy alongside our existing Java codebase.
Tim Bray wrote about this situation years ago: http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/07/12/WebsThePlace (and I think I heard the "sharecropping" term used from earlier, too). Essentially, when developers work on a platform owned by someone else, you are fully at their mercy.
America is only a subset of humanity.
I originally read that as "America is a set of subhumanity", which seemed a bit harsh.
Having some sort of online presence is a great way to control (or at least influence) the image about you online. There's a heap of stuff on google about personal brand management. This one looked like it had a lot of relevant points regarding why you should consider this to be important: http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/archives/2008/04/building_personal_brand.html
http://parchment.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/parchment.html?story=http://labs.toolness.com/parchment/infocom/hitchhik.z5
I'd be more interested in how much income a link in a slashdot post makes.
£0.00 ;-)
What do you think the overlap is for "People who read Slashdot" and "People who buy children's shoes online"? Hint: not much.
Which leads on to another reason why the Google ads are so effective. By choosing the keywords carefully, the ad only really gets shown to people who are already looking for what we're selling. Ads that are relevant to what the person is actively looking for can get a lot of interest.
...built on a business model that is not sustainable (in Google's case, online ads, which I honestly believe are going to tank hugely when advertisers finally realize the true value of online advertisements such as those sold by Google - and it ain't alot in my opinion)
Regarding the true value of online adversing... In my case, I can say that the advertising I put onto Google is worth it. I've just enabled the online store at http://www.lillifoot.co.uk/ and started advertising on Google. It's very easy to track the metrics of how much I spend versus how much income it brings in. If the advertising wasn't covering costs, I would be looking elsewhere to spend advertising money.
I find UML very useful when I'm thinking about some classes I'm about to write. I can draw out a few rough boxes to represent classes, and get a view of how my various classes can interact. The way I do this is a very quick processes, but it helps get a view of the way that some software components can fit together before I jump into coding. The sketches can often help initiate design discussions. In this way, I'm a using UML as a sketching tool.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, you can buy some very expensive tools that let you try to capture every single nuance of the software in the UML diagram itself, and the code is generated directory from the UML model. This Model Driven Architecture (MDA) approach tries to treat UML as a programming language, and I think it fails horribly. I think writing code by manipulating boxes and arrows in an MDA tool is a terribly inefficient way to develop software, though there are many vendors who will try and tell you otherwise.
In summary, I think using UML as a rough way to sketch out software design is still a good way to go. Using UML as a programming language has never been a good idea, and probably should die.
The only reason, ONLY reason, to use Java is because you are psychotic and have a deep, long standing hate for your users and wish to inflict some of the most insidious pain and torment upon them.
I think that the statement needs to be qualified someone: I think it's perfectly valid for anyone developing desktop GUIs written in Java hates their users. The startup latency is painful, and long running GUIs will sometimes be hit with long GC pauses. I admit that it's much better now than in previous years, but it's still a dog.
Java on the server side, however, is a great fit. In this case the user doesn't wait for the JVM to start up, and the Hotspot compiler can get things running very fast.
Sure: it's Montana. I didn't originally post the link because I'm not sure I'd fully recommend them at this stage. We've found the barcoding not quite up to scratch, minor usability issues with the UI, and I'm not fully happy with the support. Nevertheless, when I asked them to change their terms to allow open access to the database, they were happy to comply.
I had the same problem a few months ago. I really wanted an open POS system for the children's shoe shop my wife opened last year. We wanted a better system of managing inventory than the manual spreadsheet we were using.
I wasn't really that happy with any of the open source solutions I looked at (mainly LanePos and BananaPOS), mainly because I don't really have time to maintain these systems myself, and I wasn't convinced the support operations would work for us. We eventually did find a commercial provider based upon a recommendation from a friend with a small shop nearby. One of the things I really liked about this system was the fact that the vendor was completely happy for me to be able to access the database used by the POS software without any restrictions. I wasn't that happy with a number aspects of the system, but being able to access my own data was critical for me.
Heh, I haven't seen this old chestnut for a while. I wondered when someone would dredge it up. This makes it at least the 4th time I've seen it on slashdot:
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22as+a+record+store+owner,+my+business+faces+ruin%22&hl=en&filter=0
Nice use of prepared statements! Robert'); DROP TABLE Students;-- would be impotent against your sql-fu.
How to make money on the stock market: buy low, sell high.
Alternative strategy: sell high, buy low.
Some concept, slightly different order.
Another example of the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory in action.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19
Or even better, does it run linux?
Out of interest, does anyone know how stable it is to run Compiere on Postgres? The main page mentions that Oracle is the only supported database, but it will run on Postgres as an "unsupported" option.
Joe
This question is nice timing for me, too. I'm looking for inventory control systems right now. My wife is about to open a new shoe shop (see http://www.lillifoot.co.uk/). So, not really the same as computer services, but there are many other things in common. I really need something to help track orders from suppliers, current inventory levels, and sales to work out when we need more stock.
_ packages. I'm looking for something I can install on a Linux server, and not pay too much. I initially tried Openbravo, but the performance was atrocious. I'm currently giving TinyERP a whirl (which seems OK, but I'm unsure about integrating the POS terminals with the inventory).
Wikipedia has a handy list of useful software at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ERP_software
I'd be really interested to hear about what people think these and other software packages which can help.
Joe
I don't know if they planned it that way, someone at Kingston Technology is happy. By sending their encrypted usb memory stick to Bruce, who then links to it from both his blog and the Wired article, when then gets linked from Slashdot, they have somehow achieved the best exposure for their product ever!
I'll throw in another vote for Trac as well. For me it hit a sweet spot of not being too complex, yet had the features I needed. I could indicate issue and priority to give an order list of things to do. The timeline and roadmap views were really useful planning tools. Also, the Subversion integration gave fantastic traceability regarding what changes were made to resolve an issue.
Compare this to JIRA, which is a much more full featured tool, yet somehow misses some of the features above that I cared most about (mainly the seamless integration with Subversion and the Wiki)
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/20 07/01/concept_car.html