Remember the quote -- "To make a pie 'From Scratch', first you have to create the Universe."
Each programming tool you use (even assembly language), uses a tool the somebody else wrote. The real question for this article should be -- "What level of abstraction are you comfortable with coding?" - OR- "Which tool most closely addresses your problem space without undo limitations and has the least amount of bugs?"
Personally, I have wandered through the various levels of tools. I have made my own web server (really weak, but functional for ONE purpose), my own web crawler, my own search engine, and then I have used tools that do it all for you -- WSDLs are so darn easy, using any DB beats making your own, embedded browsers, its all a mash-up, but, you get the idea.
Do whatever is best for the specific project, if you find out you were wrong, fix it. You just learned a great lesson, there will be many more, -- and a test at the end.
Lets go to New Delhi, India and pick the first 550 or so people off of the street, give them each H1-B VISAs and replace all of congress (House and Senate) with them. I bet we would get more work for less pay, better ethics, and even better family values (whatever that means). Let out present congressmen can find jobs overseas -- if anyone will have them.
Lets see, I was fired from a job at the mall when I was 16 years old, for enrolling in a night school class that conflicted with my job.
Since then, I have always fired my employer. I can tell when things aren't going right at a company. When the layoffs come around (again) and you get to work more for the same amount of pay. I have warned fellow employees that they are next and to look for a job NOW. This has saved some people -- as they had a job lined up right when they WERE fired. I was once on a six month temp to perm, and at the end of six months they started drawing up the permanent contract, I told them not to bother. It is a two way street, you can fire your employer anytime. I just cannot imagine not seeing the writing on the wall before they get ready to fire you. I have always moved on before my ire (or my employer's) reaches a breaking point. Also, I have left the employer on good terms and got a better job each time.
Go to Cornell University in Ithaca NY.
Go to Rhodes Hall.
Outside of the big lecture room, in the hallway,
actually behind where the lecturer would stand are two counter tops.
Leave your computer hardware, software or books there.
If you see anything you like, take it with you. This is the sacrificial altar to the gods of geekdom. All are welcome to take or remove and tech/geek item you want. Much of it is reused by students making insane projects.
But when PHP5 came out, I downloaded it and
spent about a week going through all of our PHP4
specific code and changed it to PHP5. Just like I did
years before that when PHP3 became PHP4.
Granted it was only a couple thousand line of code,
but you gotta bite the bullet once in a while and it
hurts a lot less to do it early instead of late.
A can of beans cost 30% more at the Publix in poorer neighborhoods, less in more affluent neighborhoods.
Why? ---- Captive audience.
People with more money drive more and are willing to shop "over there" if necessary. People with less money do not drive "over there". Publix and all grocers know this and they price accordingly.
Is that why software costs more in Europe? I really haven't got a clue.
Comcast does filter by MAC Address. But not continuously.
When I moved across town, I brought my modem with me --my connection worked for about a week and died. Called tech support and they said they periodically balance the MAC Address against the list they have and disconnect those not on the list.
They added me to the list for this side of town and all is well.
So this means that you CAN hook up ANY cable modem and it will work -- for a short period of time.
Not only would this force most Americans to educate themselves on issues (hey we might get a more informed populace), it would cause more Americans to discuss the issues.
Have you EVER voted? You CAN submit a BLANK ballot when you vote. For those that remain uninformed, they could always vote "None of the above".
People aren't as stupid as you think. And random idiots tend to exactly cancel each other out.
Who are the Geeks that are going to prevent cheating? (I want names.)
If you have been to high school or college, you know, this country is full of cheaters. Even the Geeks. Only real geeks (of which I am one) would be able to police this system and keep it from being taken over by private interest hackers.
If we could design a bullet proof polling system (tra-la-la), I think it should be MANDATORY that EVERY citizen vote on EVERY issue. (No notes from Mom saying you were sick.) We could tell most of the politicians to take a hike, and largely remove graft from the political system.
But thats just my opinion. I could be wrong. (Who said that?)
Have you considered how the world/society would change if you were successful?
Would treatments be available to all people, not just the rich?
If many, many people could live long fruitful lives, what about population and earth's limited resources?
What about evil men? Isn't it great when the Hitlers and Stalins and Pol Pots of the world leave us? If you are successful, we could look forward to despots that are around for millennia.
I am not saying that I hope you aren't successful, just keep it a secret between me and you.
Wind, sure, whatever. I do not care if it is vertical turbines or cloth covered windmills out of Don Quixote.
Alcohol made from corn/hemp/recycled waste sounds good too. As long as the money goes to some farmer in Iowa rather than Big Oil, Haliburton, or some Sheik.
I am willing to pay more for everything if it helps my neighbor and not someone who HATES ME.
Someone else far more competent than me made this observation::: The truly incompetent do not know what competency is, and often they think they are the only competent person around.
People who are competent realize they do not know everything, and therefore, sometimes appear to be less competent than others.
Then the truly incompetent end up feeling that everyone else is against them and that everyone else is really stupid. When if fact, that is not usually the case.
If you have a sharp mind, and come to work, actually learn and do work while at work, you my friend are invaluable.
I have had to hire people in the past, and occasionally still do. You cannot believe how hard it is to get someone to COME TO WORK. Unskilled people start showing up for work around $15 US per hour. The less you pay the less they show up and the less work they actually perform. Skilled people on the other hand take even more money. (Results typical for Jacksonville, FL. -- YMMV)
Now there is a large caveat to this. There are people out there that just plain have a good work ethic. Whatever they are paid, they come to work, do good work, and go home. These people are who I am looking for.
I want to pay someone a good wage and have them do good work.
Sounds like you were indeed successful in that lab class.
You learned more than anyone else (including the lab instructor).
I put a curse to you and all other readers.
"May you succeed in some academic or programming project that you originally felt far beyond your capabilities. May you succeed so well that you are actually PROUD of your accomplishment. May this pride stay with you and make you try to repeat this success in all of your future projects. May you feel frustration when circumstances work against you and you fail. May the memory of your wonderful success make you quit jobs, create things, and learn every single minute you have left to you."
I have worked on government projects that included iris scanner technology.
To enter the room we worked in, you needed to iris scan.
Also the stuff we were working on incorprated iris scanners connected to PCs by a special PCI card. We played with them, wrote code that captured the data from them, and made them part of an access control system.
Iris scanners are buggy at best. Someone with the same eye color can usually fool the scanner after several attempts. Even the correct person sometimes has trouble being cleared, they have to look into the scanner just right, if their head is tilted a little or they aren't dead-on, they have to retry. So numerous retries allows the unscrupulous person many attempts to get in.
Iris scanners are always backed up by other systems. Card scans, PINs, Voice Recognition, hand geometry, fingerprint, armed guards, etc.
The point is, (unless the technology has progressed a lot), you have VERY LITTLE to worry about the FBI collecting YOUR IRIS scan.
When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed.
I taught "Advance Application Development and Design" at Senior level at a major State University. We had 13 weeks, twice a week and a few holidays. So I got to see the student who did not skip class 24 times.
In that time I gave 10 Quizzes, 2 Tests and 5 Projects to a usual 35 students.
Quizzes and Tests were pretty easy to make, grade and prevent cheating.
Projects are another thing altogether. Each student project takes about an hour to find, run, test, grade and provide feed back on. Each project can be turned in multiple time by students. When all the hours are calculated, I was making about $2/hr. Now you want me to see you separately? Sure, all you need to do is ask. No one EVER asked. I would even cruise the labs looking for my students so I could help. Only a few times was this fruitful.
Because of rampant cheating, I started giving different, but similar projects to the students. A lot more student struggled, and more assignments were late, a few more failed, and my grading time was greatly increased.
I got tired of students who feel entitled to a passing grade if they take a class, and who feel entitled to a good grade if the attend more than half of them, so I quit.
When I was a student, I had a full time job and paid for school myself. Other student were joyous when an instructor canceled class. I, of course, was angry for not getting my money's worth.
1. Worked with Artificial Intelligence.
2. Done internet backbone programming.
3. Been an anti-terrorist (gov project)
4. Been a crime fighter (AFIS-FBI)
5. Monitored and Operated Gas Turbine and Steam turbine electric plants.
6. Created tons of web apps for the State of Florida (Y2K)
7. Worked on the National Science Foundation's - National Science Digital Library
8. Worked in the Banking/Retirement/Stock Trading industry
9. Presently work automating the work of "people on the floor" in a large company's billing department.
I know, some of these sound great, and some were great. But, not all of the jobs that sound great were, and not all of the jobs that sound like crap are. I an interview, remember, you are interviewing THEM. If you do not like what you see, save the interviewer some time, ask for your resume back, and politely leave. I have.
And if you do accept a job that tuns out to be crap, immediately start looking for a new job. As you can probably tell, I have done so on numerous occasions!
I worked on an AI project for Westinghouse from 1986 to 1997.
The project is still in operation today.
I learned that on the outset, real Artificial Intelligence is
actually Artificial Stupidity.
You start with a problem domain, say something small and simple
like, a 1000 Megawatt steam powered turbine and electric generator setup.
Then you spend years creating a knowledge base directly and indirectly from
the designers. You also create a programming language that makes easily
manipulable "piece-wise linears" and start coding.
After a few years you realize, WOW, there is a lot we didn't think of.
Then you get deep into sensors, input, filtering, deadbanding, after a while things look manageable. Now you are ready for real AI. Everything else beforehand was just getting ready. The system runs. You get data, there are "events". NOW you get the experts to look at WHAT THE SYSTEM SEES, and the AI is improved. (It is a learning cycle.)
If the system has sufficient funding, it can survive. This is where most AI projects DIE. You might not consider this "Real AI" but, let's face it, even if you have to "teach" the system, it still LEARNS. When the system can teach itself, we will no longer be necessary.
Trees do not hurt the planet, engage in war, or show hatred.
Trees live side-by-side and form communities that used to cover entire continents.
We use the skeletons of trees for our houses, decks, guitars, furniture, and we burn their bodies for heat.
Trees have orgasms that last for months. At least the darn pine trees by my house. I mean there is pollen all over everything --- eeewwww. Then again, there ARE stiff all year long.
Trees do differential calculus while we all sleep. They have been stargazing for nearly one billion years. They are pretty good at high energy physics too.
Yeah, I definitely have done it. No matter how you define it.
I CAN say that I have never logged into systems I wasn't allowed in, but I have cd/home and looked around.
However, I have never USED the information. I never really found anything incriminating, except TONS of porn. Hey, if you have a proxy server at work, all the porn you view is cached on the proxy. Our proxy used to show the file owner, ha ha, you are busted. I never busted anyone however, just backed up the porn to CDs and deleted it. Anyone want some old CDs?
Also, I used to work nights. If you just turned me down for a raise (poor-mouthing how bad the company is doing), do not leave your 6 month $14K bonus paperwork lying around on top of your desk. I was just delivering reports, but damn, I lost all respect for you. That is why I do not work for you anymore.
Slashdot Mirror
Try www.physlink.com (for physics geeks)
Their shopping link is actually www.xump.com, lots of small experiments and gadgets, would be good for grade school and high school teachers.
Never, ever had a CD die on me due to old age. I have burnt CDs that are probably older than you.
The only 2 reasons I have ever had a CD die.
1. Bad burn.
2. Dropped it/scratched it.
Okay, I really have only had one reason CDs die:
1. I can be somewhat of a dumb-ass.
Define "From Scratch".
Remember the quote -- "To make a pie 'From Scratch', first you have to create the Universe."
Each programming tool you use (even assembly language), uses a tool the somebody else wrote. The real question for this article should be -- "What level of abstraction are you comfortable with coding?" - OR- "Which tool most closely addresses your problem space without undo limitations and has the least amount of bugs?"
Personally, I have wandered through the various levels of tools. I have made my own web server (really weak, but functional for ONE purpose), my own web crawler, my own search engine, and then I have used tools that do it all for you -- WSDLs are so darn easy, using any DB beats making your own, embedded browsers, its all a mash-up, but, you get the idea.
Do whatever is best for the specific project, if you find out you were wrong, fix it. You just learned a great lesson, there will be many more, -- and a test at the end.
Lets go to New Delhi, India and pick the first 550 or so people off of the street, give them each H1-B VISAs and replace all of congress (House and Senate) with them. I bet we would get more work for less pay, better ethics, and even better family values (whatever that means). Let out present congressmen can find jobs overseas -- if anyone will have them.
Any program significantly longer than 4 simple lines of code is in Beta and always will be.
Lets see, I was fired from a job at the mall when I was 16 years old, for enrolling in a night school class that conflicted with my job.
Since then, I have always fired my employer. I can tell when things aren't going right at a company. When the layoffs come around (again) and you get to work more for the same amount of pay.
I have warned fellow employees that they are next and to look for a job NOW. This has saved some people -- as they had a job lined up right when they WERE fired.
I was once on a six month temp to perm, and at the end of six months they started drawing up the permanent contract, I told them not to bother. It is a two way street, you can fire your employer anytime.
I just cannot imagine not seeing the writing on the wall before they get ready to fire you. I have always moved on before my ire (or my employer's) reaches a breaking point. Also, I have left the employer on good terms and got a better job each time.
Go to Cornell University in Ithaca NY.
Go to Rhodes Hall.
Outside of the big lecture room, in the hallway, actually behind where the lecturer would stand are two counter tops.
Leave your computer hardware, software or books there.
If you see anything you like, take it with you. This is the sacrificial altar to the gods of geekdom. All are welcome to take or remove and tech/geek item you want. Much of it is reused by students making insane projects.
OK, maybe the stuff we had wasn't too involved.
But when PHP5 came out, I downloaded it and spent about a week going through all of our PHP4 specific code and changed it to PHP5.
Just like I did years before that when PHP3 became PHP4.
Granted it was only a couple thousand line of code, but you gotta bite the bullet once in a while and it hurts a lot less to do it early instead of late.
A can of beans cost 30% more at the Publix in poorer neighborhoods, less in more affluent neighborhoods.
Why? ---- Captive audience.
People with more money drive more and are willing to shop "over there" if necessary. People with less money do not drive "over there". Publix and all grocers know this and they price accordingly.
Is that why software costs more in Europe? I really haven't got a clue.
Not Bull.
Comcast does filter by MAC Address. But not continuously.
When I moved across town, I brought my modem with me --my connection worked for about a week and died. Called tech support and they said they periodically balance the MAC Address against the list they have and disconnect those not on the list.
They added me to the list for this side of town and all is well.
So this means that you CAN hook up ANY cable modem and it will work -- for a short period of time.
Not only would this force most Americans to educate themselves on issues (hey we might get a more informed populace), it would cause more Americans to discuss the issues.
Have you EVER voted? You CAN submit a BLANK ballot when you vote. For those that remain uninformed, they could always vote "None of the above".
People aren't as stupid as you think. And random idiots tend to exactly cancel each other out.
Sounds great. On paper.
Who are the Geeks that are going to prevent cheating? (I want names.)
If you have been to high school or college, you know, this country is full of cheaters. Even the Geeks. Only real geeks (of which I am one) would be able to police this system and keep it from being taken over by private interest hackers.
If we could design a bullet proof polling system (tra-la-la), I think it should be MANDATORY that EVERY citizen vote on EVERY issue. (No notes from Mom saying you were sick.) We could tell most of the politicians to take a hike, and largely remove graft from the political system.
But thats just my opinion. I could be wrong. (Who said that?)
Aubrey,
Have you considered how the world/society would change if you were successful?
Would treatments be available to all people, not just the rich?
If many, many people could live long fruitful lives, what about population and earth's limited resources?
What about evil men? Isn't it great when the Hitlers and Stalins and Pol Pots of the world leave us? If you are successful, we could look forward to despots that are around for millennia.
I am not saying that I hope you aren't successful, just keep it a secret between me and you.
Wind, sure, whatever. I do not care if it is vertical turbines or cloth covered windmills out of Don Quixote.
Alcohol made from corn/hemp/recycled waste sounds good too. As long as the money goes to some farmer in Iowa rather than Big Oil, Haliburton, or some Sheik.
I am willing to pay more for everything if it helps my neighbor and not someone who HATES ME.
This is true of all people, not just CIOs.
Someone else far more competent than me made this observation::: The truly incompetent do not know what competency is, and often they think they are the only competent person around.
People who are competent realize they do not know everything, and therefore, sometimes appear to be less competent than others.
Then the truly incompetent end up feeling that everyone else is against them and that everyone else is really stupid. When if fact, that is not usually the case.
If you have a sharp mind, and come to work, actually learn and do work while at work, you my friend are invaluable.
I have had to hire people in the past, and occasionally still do. You cannot believe how hard it is to get someone to COME TO WORK. Unskilled people start showing up for work around $15 US per hour. The less you pay the less they show up and the less work they actually perform. Skilled people on the other hand take even more money. (Results typical for Jacksonville, FL. -- YMMV)
Now there is a large caveat to this. There are people out there that just plain have a good work ethic. Whatever they are paid, they come to work, do good work, and go home. These people are who I am looking for.
I want to pay someone a good wage and have them do good work.
Sounds like you were indeed successful in that lab class.
You learned more than anyone else (including the lab instructor).
I put a curse to you and all other readers.
"May you succeed in some academic or programming project that you originally felt far beyond your capabilities. May you succeed so well that you are actually PROUD of your accomplishment. May this pride stay with you and make you try to repeat this success in all of your future projects. May you feel frustration when circumstances work against you and you fail. May the memory of your wonderful success make you quit jobs, create things, and learn every single minute you have left to you."
CURSE YOU -- DAMMIT.
I have worked on government projects that included iris scanner technology.
To enter the room we worked in, you needed to iris scan.
Also the stuff we were working on incorprated iris scanners connected to PCs by a special PCI card. We played with them, wrote code that captured the data from them, and made them part of an access control system.
Iris scanners are buggy at best. Someone with the same eye color can usually fool the scanner after several attempts. Even the correct person sometimes has trouble being cleared, they have to look into the scanner just right, if their head is tilted a little or they aren't dead-on, they have to retry. So numerous retries allows the unscrupulous person many attempts to get in.
Iris scanners are always backed up by other systems. Card scans, PINs, Voice Recognition, hand geometry, fingerprint, armed guards, etc.
The point is, (unless the technology has progressed a lot), you have VERY LITTLE to worry about the FBI collecting YOUR IRIS scan.
Obligatory Ayn Rand quote ---
When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed.
I taught "Advance Application Development and Design" at Senior level at a major State University.
We had 13 weeks, twice a week and a few holidays.
So I got to see the student who did not skip class 24 times.
In that time I gave 10 Quizzes, 2 Tests and 5 Projects to a usual 35 students.
Quizzes and Tests were pretty easy to make, grade and prevent cheating.
Projects are another thing altogether. Each student project takes about an hour to find, run, test, grade and provide feed back on. Each project can be turned in multiple time by students. When all the hours are calculated, I was making about $2/hr.
Now you want me to see you separately? Sure, all you need to do is ask. No one EVER asked. I would even cruise the labs looking for my students so I could help. Only a few times was this fruitful.
Because of rampant cheating, I started giving different, but similar projects to the students. A lot more student struggled, and more assignments were late, a few more failed, and my grading time was greatly increased.
I got tired of students who feel entitled to a passing grade if they take a class, and who feel entitled to a good grade if the attend more than half of them, so I quit.
When I was a student, I had a full time job and paid for school myself. Other student were joyous when an instructor canceled class. I, of course, was angry for not getting my money's worth.
Amazon is coded in C++ per Bjarne Stroustrup linked from recent Slashdot article.
http://www.research.att.com/~bs/applications.html
As a programmer, I have:
1. Worked with Artificial Intelligence.
2. Done internet backbone programming.
3. Been an anti-terrorist (gov project)
4. Been a crime fighter (AFIS-FBI)
5. Monitored and Operated Gas Turbine and Steam turbine electric plants.
6. Created tons of web apps for the State of Florida (Y2K)
7. Worked on the National Science Foundation's - National Science Digital Library
8. Worked in the Banking/Retirement/Stock Trading industry
9. Presently work automating the work of "people on the floor" in a large company's billing department.
I know, some of these sound great, and some were great. But, not all of the jobs that sound great were, and not all of the jobs that sound like crap are. I an interview, remember, you are interviewing THEM. If you do not like what you see, save the interviewer some time, ask for your resume back, and politely leave. I have.
And if you do accept a job that tuns out to be crap, immediately start looking for a new job. As you can probably tell, I have done so on numerous occasions!
I worked on an AI project for Westinghouse from 1986 to 1997. The project is still in operation today.
I learned that on the outset, real Artificial Intelligence is actually Artificial Stupidity.
You start with a problem domain, say something small and simple like, a 1000 Megawatt steam powered turbine and electric generator setup. Then you spend years creating a knowledge base directly and indirectly from the designers. You also create a programming language that makes easily manipulable "piece-wise linears" and start coding.
After a few years you realize, WOW, there is a lot we didn't think of.
Then you get deep into sensors, input, filtering, deadbanding, after a while things look manageable. Now you are ready for real AI. Everything else beforehand was just getting ready. The system runs. You get data, there are "events". NOW you get the experts to look at WHAT THE SYSTEM SEES, and the AI is improved. (It is a learning cycle.)
If the system has sufficient funding, it can survive. This is where most AI projects DIE. You might not consider this "Real AI" but, let's face it, even if you have to "teach" the system, it still LEARNS. When the system can teach itself, we will no longer be necessary.
Look at the facts.
Trees do not hurt the planet, engage in war, or show hatred.
Trees live side-by-side and form communities that used to cover entire continents.
We use the skeletons of trees for our houses, decks, guitars, furniture, and we burn their bodies for heat.
Trees have orgasms that last for months. At least the darn pine trees by my house. I mean there is pollen all over everything --- eeewwww. Then again, there ARE stiff all year long.
Trees do differential calculus while we all sleep. They have been stargazing for nearly one billion years. They are pretty good at high energy physics too.
So hug a tree, but don't get any on you.
Yeah, I definitely have done it. No matter how you define it.
/home
I CAN say that I have never logged into systems I wasn't allowed in, but I have
cd
and looked around.
However, I have never USED the information. I never really found anything incriminating, except TONS of porn. Hey, if you have a proxy server at work, all the porn you view is cached on the proxy. Our proxy used to show the file owner, ha ha, you are busted. I never busted anyone however, just backed up the porn to CDs and deleted it. Anyone want some old CDs?
Also, I used to work nights. If you just turned me down for a raise (poor-mouthing how bad the company is doing), do not leave your 6 month $14K bonus paperwork lying around on top of your desk. I was just delivering reports, but damn, I lost all respect for you. That is why I do not work for you anymore.