I recently ditched my iPhone for a Nexus S; which was purely because I was so fed up with my old carrier that I was willing to "downgrade" my phone to switch companies.
I was shocked to find that Android is just a better system. Sure there are things that iPhone wins on, but overall Android takes the cake.
Consumers don't give a **** if it's open, or about the business strategy. Android is winning because it's better.
Maybe you haven't tried 2.3... it's leaps and bounds ahead of 2.1.
As an interesting aside, this is from the FAQ page:
On July 14th 2008 Ixquick received the first European Privacy Seal from European Data Protection Supervisor Mr. Peter Hustinx. The Seal officially confirms the privacy promises we make to our users. It makes Ixquick the first and only EU-approved search engine. Both EU Commissioner Viviane Reding and Dr.Thilo Weichert, German Privacy Commissioner complemented Ixquick on its privacy achievements. You can find the press release here.
So... the EU wants privacy, but also wants to monitor everything you do? What a strange place.
- It has been in development for almost 5 years, the team is completely different than Champions - Character animation looks pretty good to me, but what a minor thing to complain about. It'll get better over time too. I could personally care less if it uses ASCII graphics, as long as the gameplay is solid - Klingon faction is currently mostly PVP -- they want to add more content later. Big deal! In fact, some players will like this. - There's a lot more going on than just tank / healer / etc. You can equip modules in any way you want to give your ship a versatile configuration. Seam with team members for away missions. It may not be the most revolutionary game around but, it does do something different. I for one look forward to trying out the strategic space combat. - It's only microtransaction in the same way that WoW is. You can buy items that don't really affect the gameplay. - Initial reviews and impressions are much more positive than with Cryptic's previous offerings. . Who knows, maybe it will suck, maybe it won't. We don't know yet.
Wrong. I can do with C++ the same design flexibility, including "dynamic" programming ala Java (that's what C++ was before templates) or dynamic programming ala Objective-C.
You can not, with C++, add functions to classes at runtime like you can with Objective-C. You can not, with C++, change the access properties of a particular class instantiation (ie change a method from public to private) at runtime like you can with Java.
You're clearly a C++-centric programmer who fails to understand that the more tools in your belt, the better. Every language has its use. C++ is an awesome language, for specific purposes, just like Java is (for specific purposes), same with Python, and Ruby, and many other languages.
No language is without its faults either.
Go is not interpreted.
That doesn't mean anything. Neither is Java. And neither is obj-c. Yet they're both languages that can be compiled to machine code, are dynamically bound, and are capable of providing runtime reflection. It's all about how it's implemented and the runtime.
Your queue class is of no relation to Gochannels whatsoever. You're omitting the Goroutines, which you simply can not ignore. They do not equate to simple threads. Take a look at the Go channel source and you'll understand better what they're actually doing.
not enough to justify a shift to Go.
Runtime reflection, true closures (something not offered any very many other compiled languages), array slices, and a built in parallel programming paradigm certainly justify at least giving it a thought for a very select category of problems.
I'm up for considering anything if it will save time / money / hassle. If it doesn't, oh well, move on to the next tool. Whatever fits!
I should also mention that I'm no Google or Go fanboy. I'm actually a C++ compiler developer by trade so I've no beef with C++ either. In fact I love C++. I love many languages. My thesis was written in D, for example. I've also written commercial applications in Python, Ruby, Erlang, etc, etc.
For me, the jury is still out on Go. I'm not convinced the world needs YAL (yet another language), but I'm open to the idea. If they find a niche for it, great.
I agree with all your "negatives", but you clearly have a C++ centric viewpoint on Go. I think it's more valuable to look at it without bias.
While it's true that the dynamic binding has a negative performance impact, it's also true that this offers some design flexibility that you can't get in C++.
It's clear that performance isn't the key concern of Go; it seems like they're aiming more for convenience and rapid development speed.
Sometimes it's hard for C++ programmers to think beyond type safety but once you shift your mind into say Python or Ruby mode (languages even more dynamic and less type safe than Go), you can still write safe code.
But like I said I do agree with you, that your negatives are indeed negatives. I just want to point out that there are positives there too, and we should be looking at every language with an eye of "what specific problem can this tool be used to solve." rather than "how can I use tool X to solve the same problems I solved with tool Y" -- which is something C++ programmers can fall into easily since it's without a doubt one of the most flexible, powerful, and multi-paradigm languages out there.
As for your 30 LOC Gochannel... don't forget that a Goroutine is not just a thread. Multiple Goroutines are multiplexed across many threads and the Gochannel.
I should also like to point out that the C code for _just_ the platform agnostic channel code (after all the os specific threading functions have been abstracted away) in Go is 1035 lines long as of changeset 3975. Nor does this include the Goroutine code.
C++'s templates offer a lot more than just generics (which is what you're talking about when you say "type safe containers and reusable algorithms"), however Go does, in fact, provide for this with its "interfaces." The Go interface affords for both data abstraction (akin to C++'s inheritance hierarchy), and generic programming. Go provides an "Any" container, which "may be used to implement generic programming similar to templates in C++".
It's worth noting though that this is a dynamically bound language feature, which means it is checked and enforced at runtime rather than compile time -- both a positive and a negative depending on how you look at it. It provides for some more interesting programs to be written that do fun things at runtime, but on the down side it means you lose a lot of the compile time type-checking that C++ provides and can save a lot of debugging time later on. It also means that you can't do any template metaprogramming with Go -- again which can be viewed as a positive or a negative.
I also challenge you to come up with a solution that equates to Go's built in Channel's in less than 100 lines of C++. What you're actually saying is you "can implement Go's Goroutine's AND Channels in less than 100 lines of code in portable, cross platform, C++". But, let's give you the benefit of the doubt and say that you've already go some mechanism for emulating a Goroutine (which by the way allows one to "mutiplex independently executing functions onto a set of threads"). I think _just_ the thread safe code that would implement all the necessary locks and barriers for a _single_ platform would probably be more than 100 lines, and would not be portable (ie, it would be pthreads, or win32 specific).
I am open to being wrong about that, but I really do believe that you haven't spent much time investigating Go, and are therefore spreading FUD. For example your assertion that "in Go, a List class would have to use void* types, throwing type safety out of the window" is just plain wrong.
I should also point out that I am in no way a Google Go fanboy. I see it as a pseudo-interesting low-ish level language that I haven't quite been able to envision the proper use for yet. I don't really buy Google's claim that it's a system level language (I can't see myself wanting to write an OS or device driver in it). To me it seems more like a great way to rapidly build efficient client / server type applications.
The reality is you spend all your time fiddling with it and cursing at it until your head is so bloody from banging it up against a brick wall that you give up and decide to give up TV altogether.
Close. The reality is that you spend so much time banging your head up against a brick wall that you just think you're watching TV.
I know that these are funny, but just so people know, it's really not true. Setting up MythTV is really quite easy, and if you're building a box specifically to run mythtv hardware support is a complete non-issue. Get one of the better capture cards (check the support list), and everything Will Just Work.
I've been running Myth for years, and there was a time when installing it was problematic to say the least, but seriously, setting up MythTV these days is no harder than installing an app from your package manager, running through a few configuration screens, maybe signing up for a listing service. That's it!
Anyone else think this is strangely similar to the Deathstar? Who builds multibillion dollar device that can be destroyed a bird and some bread? Surely they might have thought to protect critical areas that can overheat? No wonder the project hasn't been off to a good start.
You usually can't get food past security... And you certainly don't want to have any left when you land in a foreign country or you could face stiff fines for illegally importing food. This is also why the food is overpriced, since you have no other alternative.
Not sure what countries you are flying to and from, but I've done a fair bit of air travel in my life to varying countries around the world, and I've never once had a problem bringing my own food.
Of course you can't bring your own water (that must be purchased after the security check point), but as long as you're okay with your food being pelted with x-rays (which is undoubtedly healthier than the food typically sold in most airports), you should be fine.
Of course there are restrictions on certain types of edibles, mostly fresh fruit and other things with seeds. Just pre-package a meal with your fruits in it all cut up, and they won't say anything.
I think it's a valid extrapolation to apply such logic to nuclear weapons, since world leaders are pretty much like children (but with infinite money, power, and weapons).
Simply put the more of these we have, the more chance we have of using them. And no I am not happy the US has a ton of them, but it's a lot better to have as few countries as possible with the ability to destroy the planet, rather than the other way around.
In some fields, but not in CS. A masters doesn't get you more money. What gets you more money is experience, especially experience in the field you're looking for work in, and the ability to negotiate. There's just no point to extra years of school in CS, you learn on the job or through self study everything you'd learn in the masters courses.
Untrue. As someone who has (in the past 3 years) both tried to find a job with a Bachelor's degree and then with a Master's degree, I have personal first hand experience on this.
First of all a job will never teach you what you learn in a Master's program and vice versa. The experience of focusing on one problem and becoming a world expert on it is hugely different that working in a commercial setting. Unless your job is working in R&D and doing academic research, the two things are pretty polar.
Which brings me to my next point. In computer science _especially_ not only will a Master's degree open up doors that would have never been there if you simply had a Bachelor's but the pay will be higher.
This is a world where every one has an undergrad degree, and it's also a world in an economic recession. The best way to differentiate yourself from your peers is to spend the two years, and prove you that you can focus on one thing and become super knowledgeable. You'll have your undergrad degree to show you can learn a breadth of topics, and the Master's will be something that sets you apart from the other applicants.
I do agree that spending the time on a PhD is a complete waste, unless you want to go the pure academics route (and become a professor, etc). The pay over a Master's degree is negligible, and it may actually close some doors since the perception is there that you'll want a lot more money.
That being said I also agree that experience matters more than anything. Spend every summer working in your field. Take advantage of co-op and internship programs. Work part time doing anything related to the job you eventually want to get.
And absolutely yes, if you want a Master's degree, get one. It will help significantly, and it will also get you more money.
Should I suck it up and learn to do all my programming in C++/Java/(insert other well-supported, popular language here) and unlearn ten years of philosophy, or is there hope for the multi-language development process?"
What you should do is suck it up and learn a modern build tool like CMake (which you even mentioned in your question).
I have successfully and painlessly used CMake as a build tool for multi-language projects. It's actually quite trivial -- you don't even need to do that much. For example, one source dir might use C++, another C, another D, etc, etc. It's no problem! CMake does all the hard work for you.
The whole question is actually moot to me. Multi-language development is alive and well and has been going on for a long time. It's not even a problem that really needs solving anymore.
I work for IBM, and we have a bunch of PS3's, ping pong, pool tables, shuffle board, fooseball, etc., that people can play whenever they want.
No it doesn't hurt productivity, in fact quite the opposite. Sometimes you just need to decompress, go do a few laps around a track, shoot a few balls, or get in some socializing with co-workers over a friendly game of ping pong.
The motto at IBM is that management trusts their employees. As long employees get their work done who cares what people are doing or when they're doing it!
You can just as easily slack off at your desk as you can in front of a game console. What people notice is results, and happy people produce better results.
I don't think you need to give every developer a console, and I think that would ruin a perfectly good opportunity to create more social interaction. Put all the games in common areas where people can gather.
I've solved more problems while chatting with colleagues on a break than I could begin to count.
The security mindset can definitely do long term harm, in my opinion, assuming you're not careful that is. In order to be really good at it you need to be thinking about new potential exploits all the time, and it's really easy to let that rub off in your ordinary life.
I started seeing trivial security holes everywhere... everything from what's wrong with security labels, and tabs, on food products, and "tamper-proof" pharmacy jars to flaws in ATM vestibule security... you name it.
Honestly I kind of started developing mini-phobias or something about things like, take the security labels on food items. Let's look at a plastic mustard dispenser. Underneath the screw on top it comes with a little tab that you rip off, and somehow this keeps it safe from tampering during the period between when the manufacturer creates the product and when you purchase it.
It's absolute nonsense, and does NOTHING to stop anyone from doing anything to the contents of the mustard dispenser. Should someone want to insert a harmful substance into the bottle it could still be done with a very thin needle. It's really there just to appease the masses into thinking the product is somehow made "safe" by the introduction of that little security tab.
So I think about that, then I start to think... oh man, even my mustard's not safe, what if someone did something to it!?!?
It's ridiculous, and completely irrational. I don't think in the history of the modern food distribution system has anything ever happened to anyone's mustard. We all hear horror stories about Halloween candy, and over the counter medicine but I think in large part that stuff is all urban legend.
I think absolutely, yes the security mindset can cause mental health problems, in minor ways for some, and for others who are more prone to thinking negative thoughts perhaps in major ways.
The key, I think, with the security profession is that in order to stay on top of the game you need to always be thinking about how the next attack could arrive. Criminals are creative, and so must be the security people as well. In training your mind to think this way I can see how people would find it easy to become unhappy in other areas of life too.
I no longer do security work, but it's not because of finding it difficult to keep that work / life balance alive (I just got another better opportunity in a different sector). Still to this day I have some lingering security thoughts about things, but all I can do is try to think logically about them.
Just because something is insecure that doesn't mean it's worth worrying about. There's a big incentive for criminals to find any way possible to gain access to a sensitive or desirable computer system, but there's very little gain in tampering with a bottle of mustard;).
As you stated in your question, it sounds more like you're starting to see the pessemistic side of things everywhere. Everyone's a potential threat. I think no matter what it is it's a similar expression of the same issue: security people get paid to do nothing but worry.
It's not a totally correct analogy, but I think it serves well enough. Now that I'm out of the security business I am pretty thankful. I never realized how much of a burden it was until it was gone. The less time I spend thinking about potential security holes the better I feel in general:). I think it's safe to say security pro just isn't the job for me... perhaps others are made for it.
Seriously though I don't know how people do it. How DO you do that job and not immediately size up threats? How do you not instantly look for the gaping security hole in the access panel on the ATM you're using? How do police men not become jaded and see the potential crime in every situation?
I think some people don't... they do become jaded. But others, the ones who stay happy, they just fight through it. I honestly think it's a choice. You are in control of your mind, and you choose what you le
I'm in agreement that an rsync based offsite backup solution is always a great idea. rdiff-backup or duplicity is the way to go.
That being said, proper backups is a must that any web host should provide. I used to use dreamhost and they did incrementals and gave you easy access to them. Some time ago I outgrew shared hosting and went to slicehost which offers absolutely awesome service and although backups cost extra, they do full nightly snapshots, and it's all easy to manage (restore, take your own snaps, etc) via a nice web interface.
Seriously, take your money where your mouth is: find a better host -- AND do your own offsite rsync based backups.
Not necessarily. If they did their jobs correctly then the "check" wouldn't be in the dtrace app itself. It would be at the operating system level... an app would designate itself not debuggable, then the kernel api calls that dtrace uses to enumerate the list of running apps it can investigate simply wouldn't return the non-debuggable apps.
Although I've no idea if this is the case, or what they've done, I suspect they simply fixed the underlying calls that dtrace uses to report on non-debuggable apps, while still leaving those apps unable to be debugged.
It's also important to point out that just because it only saves a single user 10 watts, that doesn't mean it's not a worthwhile endeavor. The post text suggests that this could add up for datacenters, but datacenters are nothing compared to the number of home computers our there, just imagine the impact on our global electricity infrastructure if every single computer's power consumption dropped by 10 watts. That's huge! Then think about the impact that would have on the environment (ie using less non-renewable resources). I think it would surely be noticed.
So yeah it's unrealistic to believe that every person is going to swap out their drives to use these, but when thinking about environmental issues it's important to put yourself in that frame of mind. I try do what I wish everyone would do. If everyone thought that way we'd get there eventually.
That being said I'm not going to swap out all my drives for these babies, but next time I need to buy or replace a drive, yeah for sure I'll cough up a little extra cash. As long as it's not just a marketing gimmick, and the price increase isn't too much, I'd be willing to take a slight loss on the principal alone. It's not just our pocket books that needs protecting.
But, as someone pointed out already, these drives are only a few bucks more than their non-green counterparts, so not only will they eventually save some cash, but they have the ability to make a difference too.
As a final thought, another thing that's important is make a point with manufacturers (through your wallet) that environmental issues matter. The more we think about it, and the more we get in the habit of making the small choices that all add up to a larger statement, the better off we all are.
First of all this isn't really comparable to time machine, as it's just another rsync based backup system. That being said there's ext3cow that's been available for Linux for some time.
It's a work in progress, but it's already quite stable. Maybe if more people get into it, development speed will increase. There's even a simple GUI available.
It sounds like you've got something set wrong... I never had a problem with the default settings but, you might try turning off the plugin that completes any word. If that's the problem, then you can change the delays so that autocomplete pops up before the complete-any-word plugin does its thing. Also remember you can force autocomplete to popup by hitting ctrl-space. This should help in testing:).
Well if you actually like the way emacs tabs then yes ANYTHING will seem retarded:). I should like to point out that emacs has the most unconfigurable and absolutely silly indenting method of any editor. It's actually impossible to get emacs to tab like a normal editor (where the tab key inserts tab characters only) AND still retain syntax aware indenting. I actually asked in #emacs one day how to do it, and even with the addition of a 2 page lisp configuration file, it still can't do it properly.
If it wasn't for that I'd probably never have switched to KDevelop in the first place!
Just kidding, you're right though that there are only a few built in indenting styles (I think there's 5 or 6) and fortunately one of them is exactly the way I like indenting to work. Still, as I was comparing KDevelop to visual studio, even though it could some improving yet, it's still leagues ahead of visual studio in this regard.
I also don't believe it's correct to call emacs an IDE. Simply put you can't really use emacs for large projects. There's no class explorer, or built in debugging facility, and because it forces you to use a mixture of tabs and spaces you can't use it on projects where the indenting format is dictated to you from above (unless you want to run all your code through a source formatter before checking it in).
It's too bad, because emacs really is a good editor otherwise.
Works perfect with templates here... I make extensive use of Boost and STL as well. I've never used visual assist x, but comparing the intellisense in visual studio to kdevelop's autocomplete is a no brainer... kdevelop is leaps and bounds ahead.
If you haven't tried it in a year or so, give it another go. In my opinion it's superior to the VS IDE, in many ways. The editor is fantastic, much better than the VS IDE editor which isn't as configurable, and doesn't provide as rich of an environment. Code folding, and indenting is much nicer in kdevelop.
Also, kdevelop's autocomplete is a significant step up over IntelliSense. It works in all cases, even for add on libraries (it's very easy to build additional autocomplete databases), and parses super fast (near instantaneous) -- and actually does the right thing in all cases. I was frequently annoyed by IntelliSense when I was doing win32 programming. Not to mention that kdevelop actually autocompletes variable names as well (as you type) not just functions and their parameters.
I would say that the integrated VS debugging facility is nicer than kdevelop's, however kdevelop's debugging still works VERY well -- I think that this is just one of visual studio's strong points, and an area where the open source alternatives are still playing catch up. But seriously, a lot has happened in the past year (or so), and it's become a tool I can't live without.
I've also heard people praise Apple's Xcode in significant ways (even windows people). Not having used it though I can't comment, but it sounds to me like visual studio isn't the be all and end all of IDEs that it used to be.
A core dump does not necessarily signify a crash, or dropping "down" into a debugger or anything. In fact you can actually force pretty much any app to generate a core dump. Usually all you need to do is send a SIG_QUIT signal to the app. However, this depends on your security settings and so forth, since a core dump of a running program might reveal sensitive information.
At any rate, FreeBSD provides a mechanism for allowing core dumps of the kernel to happen whenever you (ie someone who's authorized) wish. You tell the kernel to core dump, and then attach a debugger to the image and the kernel keeps on going. Users really will never notice!
I meant to mod this insightful, but I accidentally clicked redundant. I think this is a good post, and I'm replying to it so that all my mod points for this story will be revoked.
This is so true. I LOVE movies, and I HATE going to the theatre now! It's annoying. Not only do they annoy you with commercials and other nonsense, they don't maintain the projection or audio systems, which really are the key to me wanting to pay to see a movie outside the home.
At a local theatre I used to go to, every time I went I would tell them afterward "there's something wrong with the projector, there's a really annoying bright dot on the screen" Since they never bothered to do anything about it, I've just stopped going.
And now all this stuff about HD-DVD and BlueRay... there's no way I'm buying DVDs since I'll just have to replace them when the format war is over. Not only that but now days you can download movies in HD format off the net, which is really the only place you can get them right now. The quality is better when you pirate, you're not annoyed by commercials, you don't have to drive to a rental store, wait in line, and be annoyed by shitty customer service.
Add on top of that the stupid childing antics of the MPAA and RIAA. Didn't they learn anything from MP3s and iTunes? You can't force people not to download media. We will do it. What you need to do is give us a convenient way to pay for downloads that doesn't include crippling DRM, and other annoyances. When that happens I'll be more than happy to pay for movies.
Even executing my "academic freedom" would result in instant unemployment in the private sector.
This is not necessarily true. I've actually put myself into a position where I was SURE I'd be fired for refusing to go along with a company policy that I felt to be morally (and ethically) wrong. When you have righteousness on your side you'd be amazed at what can actually happen. (I wasn't fired, and I didn't follow policy).
I'm not saying you're lying or anything, because I don't know your situation. But I do know how scary it is to put yourself out there like that, and I know that it's a lot easier to say "Ohh pfft, he's in academia so he can get away with that... I could never do that." But really that's nothing more than an excuse.
There's plenty of situations where someone in the private sector could get away with a lot more than someone in academia, and vice versa. Making an insinuation that somehow life is easier in academia is not only wrong, but it's also a little insulting to what he decided to put himself through.
I'm not suggesting that you start using Tor even if it's against company policy (that would be something entirely different than what he did), but executing your basic rights as an individual will not result in instant unemployment.
Stand up for what you believe in! If it gets your fired, you're working in the wrong place. If you worked somewhere that wasn't going to immediately fire you for doing something you feel to be just, then maybe your blood pressure wouldn't be so high!
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I recently ditched my iPhone for a Nexus S; which was purely because I was so fed up with my old carrier that I was willing to "downgrade" my phone to switch companies.
I was shocked to find that Android is just a better system. Sure there are things that iPhone wins on, but overall Android takes the cake.
Consumers don't give a **** if it's open, or about the business strategy. Android is winning because it's better.
Maybe you haven't tried 2.3... it's leaps and bounds ahead of 2.1.
Going to http://www.startpage.com/ redirects you to the https version.
As an interesting aside, this is from the FAQ page:
On July 14th 2008 Ixquick received the first European Privacy Seal from European Data Protection Supervisor Mr. Peter Hustinx. The Seal officially confirms the privacy promises we make to our users. It makes Ixquick the first and only EU-approved search engine. Both EU Commissioner Viviane Reding and Dr.Thilo Weichert, German Privacy Commissioner complemented Ixquick on its privacy achievements. You can find the press release here.
So... the EU wants privacy, but also wants to monitor everything you do? What a strange place.
- It has been in development for almost 5 years, the team is completely different than Champions
- Character animation looks pretty good to me, but what a minor thing to complain about. It'll get better over time too. I could personally care less if it uses ASCII graphics, as long as the gameplay is solid
- Klingon faction is currently mostly PVP -- they want to add more content later. Big deal! In fact, some players will like this.
- There's a lot more going on than just tank / healer / etc. You can equip modules in any way you want to give your ship a versatile configuration. Seam with team members for away missions. It may not be the most revolutionary game around but, it does do something different. I for one look forward to trying out the strategic space combat.
- It's only microtransaction in the same way that WoW is. You can buy items that don't really affect the gameplay.
- Initial reviews and impressions are much more positive than with Cryptic's previous offerings.
.
Who knows, maybe it will suck, maybe it won't. We don't know yet.
Wrong. I can do with C++ the same design flexibility, including "dynamic" programming ala Java (that's what C++ was before templates) or dynamic programming ala Objective-C.
You can not, with C++, add functions to classes at runtime like you can with Objective-C. You can not, with C++, change the access properties of a particular class instantiation (ie change a method from public to private) at runtime like you can with Java.
You're clearly a C++-centric programmer who fails to understand that the more tools in your belt, the better. Every language has its use. C++ is an awesome language, for specific purposes, just like Java is (for specific purposes), same with Python, and Ruby, and many other languages.
No language is without its faults either.
Go is not interpreted.
That doesn't mean anything. Neither is Java. And neither is obj-c. Yet they're both languages that can be compiled to machine code, are dynamically bound, and are capable of providing runtime reflection. It's all about how it's implemented and the runtime.
Your queue class is of no relation to Gochannels whatsoever. You're omitting the Goroutines, which you simply can not ignore. They do not equate to simple threads. Take a look at the Go channel source and you'll understand better what they're actually doing.
not enough to justify a shift to Go.
Runtime reflection, true closures (something not offered any very many other compiled languages), array slices, and a built in parallel programming paradigm certainly justify at least giving it a thought for a very select category of problems.
I'm up for considering anything if it will save time / money / hassle. If it doesn't, oh well, move on to the next tool. Whatever fits!
I should also mention that I'm no Google or Go fanboy. I'm actually a C++ compiler developer by trade so I've no beef with C++ either. In fact I love C++. I love many languages. My thesis was written in D, for example. I've also written commercial applications in Python, Ruby, Erlang, etc, etc.
For me, the jury is still out on Go. I'm not convinced the world needs YAL (yet another language), but I'm open to the idea. If they find a niche for it, great.
I agree with all your "negatives", but you clearly have a C++ centric viewpoint on Go. I think it's more valuable to look at it without bias.
While it's true that the dynamic binding has a negative performance impact, it's also true that this offers some design flexibility that you can't get in C++.
It's clear that performance isn't the key concern of Go; it seems like they're aiming more for convenience and rapid development speed.
Sometimes it's hard for C++ programmers to think beyond type safety but once you shift your mind into say Python or Ruby mode (languages even more dynamic and less type safe than Go), you can still write safe code.
But like I said I do agree with you, that your negatives are indeed negatives. I just want to point out that there are positives there too, and we should be looking at every language with an eye of "what specific problem can this tool be used to solve." rather than "how can I use tool X to solve the same problems I solved with tool Y" -- which is something C++ programmers can fall into easily since it's without a doubt one of the most flexible, powerful, and multi-paradigm languages out there.
As for your 30 LOC Gochannel... don't forget that a Goroutine is not just a thread. Multiple Goroutines are multiplexed across many threads and the Gochannel.
I should also like to point out that the C code for _just_ the platform agnostic channel code (after all the os specific threading functions have been abstracted away) in Go is 1035 lines long as of changeset 3975. Nor does this include the Goroutine code.
C++'s templates offer a lot more than just generics (which is what you're talking about when you say "type safe containers and reusable algorithms"), however Go does, in fact, provide for this with its "interfaces." The Go interface affords for both data abstraction (akin to C++'s inheritance hierarchy), and generic programming. Go provides an "Any" container, which "may be used to implement generic programming similar to templates in C++".
It's worth noting though that this is a dynamically bound language feature, which means it is checked and enforced at runtime rather than compile time -- both a positive and a negative depending on how you look at it. It provides for some more interesting programs to be written that do fun things at runtime, but on the down side it means you lose a lot of the compile time type-checking that C++ provides and can save a lot of debugging time later on. It also means that you can't do any template metaprogramming with Go -- again which can be viewed as a positive or a negative.
I also challenge you to come up with a solution that equates to Go's built in Channel's in less than 100 lines of C++. What you're actually saying is you "can implement Go's Goroutine's AND Channels in less than 100 lines of code in portable, cross platform, C++". But, let's give you the benefit of the doubt and say that you've already go some mechanism for emulating a Goroutine (which by the way allows one to "mutiplex independently executing functions onto a set of threads"). I think _just_ the thread safe code that would implement all the necessary locks and barriers for a _single_ platform would probably be more than 100 lines, and would not be portable (ie, it would be pthreads, or win32 specific).
I am open to being wrong about that, but I really do believe that you haven't spent much time investigating Go, and are therefore spreading FUD. For example your assertion that "in Go, a List class would have to use void* types, throwing type safety out of the window" is just plain wrong.
I should also point out that I am in no way a Google Go fanboy. I see it as a pseudo-interesting low-ish level language that I haven't quite been able to envision the proper use for yet. I don't really buy Google's claim that it's a system level language (I can't see myself wanting to write an OS or device driver in it). To me it seems more like a great way to rapidly build efficient client / server type applications.
Close. The reality is that you spend so much time banging your head up against a brick wall that you just think you're watching TV.
I know that these are funny, but just so people know, it's really not true. Setting up MythTV is really quite easy, and if you're building a box specifically to run mythtv hardware support is a complete non-issue. Get one of the better capture cards (check the support list), and everything Will Just Work.
I've been running Myth for years, and there was a time when installing it was problematic to say the least, but seriously, setting up MythTV these days is no harder than installing an app from your package manager, running through a few configuration screens, maybe signing up for a listing service. That's it!
Anyone else think this is strangely similar to the Deathstar? Who builds multibillion dollar device that can be destroyed a bird and some bread? Surely they might have thought to protect critical areas that can overheat? No wonder the project hasn't been off to a good start.
You usually can't get food past security... And you certainly don't want to have any left when you land in a foreign country or you could face stiff fines for illegally importing food.
This is also why the food is overpriced, since you have no other alternative.
Not sure what countries you are flying to and from, but I've done a fair bit of air travel in my life to varying countries around the world, and I've never once had a problem bringing my own food.
Of course you can't bring your own water (that must be purchased after the security check point), but as long as you're okay with your food being pelted with x-rays (which is undoubtedly healthier than the food typically sold in most airports), you should be fine.
Of course there are restrictions on certain types of edibles, mostly fresh fruit and other things with seeds. Just pre-package a meal with your fruits in it all cut up, and they won't say anything.
Are you American by chance? I only ask because I sense a hint of that "right to bear arms" philosophy there.
I'm sorry to inform you, but you've been brainwashed. There have been many studies done by reputable groups showing a direct correlation between firearm availability and gun deaths. (Staring point: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/research/hicrc/firearms-research/guns-and-death/index.html)
I think it's a valid extrapolation to apply such logic to nuclear weapons, since world leaders are pretty much like children (but with infinite money, power, and weapons).
Simply put the more of these we have, the more chance we have of using them. And no I am not happy the US has a ton of them, but it's a lot better to have as few countries as possible with the ability to destroy the planet, rather than the other way around.
In some fields, but not in CS. A masters doesn't get you more money. What gets you more money is experience, especially experience in the field you're looking for work in, and the ability to negotiate. There's just no point to extra years of school in CS, you learn on the job or through self study everything you'd learn in the masters courses.
Untrue. As someone who has (in the past 3 years) both tried to find a job with a Bachelor's degree and then with a Master's degree, I have personal first hand experience on this.
First of all a job will never teach you what you learn in a Master's program and vice versa. The experience of focusing on one problem and becoming a world expert on it is hugely different that working in a commercial setting. Unless your job is working in R&D and doing academic research, the two things are pretty polar.
Which brings me to my next point. In computer science _especially_ not only will a Master's degree open up doors that would have never been there if you simply had a Bachelor's but the pay will be higher.
This is a world where every one has an undergrad degree, and it's also a world in an economic recession. The best way to differentiate yourself from your peers is to spend the two years, and prove you that you can focus on one thing and become super knowledgeable. You'll have your undergrad degree to show you can learn a breadth of topics, and the Master's will be something that sets you apart from the other applicants.
I do agree that spending the time on a PhD is a complete waste, unless you want to go the pure academics route (and become a professor, etc). The pay over a Master's degree is negligible, and it may actually close some doors since the perception is there that you'll want a lot more money.
That being said I also agree that experience matters more than anything. Spend every summer working in your field. Take advantage of co-op and internship programs. Work part time doing anything related to the job you eventually want to get.
And absolutely yes, if you want a Master's degree, get one. It will help significantly, and it will also get you more money.
Should I suck it up and learn to do all my programming in C++/Java/(insert other well-supported, popular language here) and unlearn ten years of philosophy, or is there hope for the multi-language development process?"
What you should do is suck it up and learn a modern build tool like CMake (which you even mentioned in your question).
I have successfully and painlessly used CMake as a build tool for multi-language projects. It's actually quite trivial -- you don't even need to do that much. For example, one source dir might use C++, another C, another D, etc, etc. It's no problem! CMake does all the hard work for you.
The whole question is actually moot to me. Multi-language development is alive and well and has been going on for a long time. It's not even a problem that really needs solving anymore.
I work for IBM, and we have a bunch of PS3's, ping pong, pool tables, shuffle board, fooseball, etc., that people can play whenever they want.
No it doesn't hurt productivity, in fact quite the opposite. Sometimes you just need to decompress, go do a few laps around a track, shoot a few balls, or get in some socializing with co-workers over a friendly game of ping pong.
The motto at IBM is that management trusts their employees. As long employees get their work done who cares what people are doing or when they're doing it!
You can just as easily slack off at your desk as you can in front of a game console. What people notice is results, and happy people produce better results.
I don't think you need to give every developer a console, and I think that would ruin a perfectly good opportunity to create more social interaction. Put all the games in common areas where people can gather.
I've solved more problems while chatting with colleagues on a break than I could begin to count.
The security mindset can definitely do long term harm, in my opinion, assuming you're not careful that is. In order to be really good at it you need to be thinking about new potential exploits all the time, and it's really easy to let that rub off in your ordinary life.
I started seeing trivial security holes everywhere... everything from what's wrong with security labels, and tabs, on food products, and "tamper-proof" pharmacy jars to flaws in ATM vestibule security... you name it.
Honestly I kind of started developing mini-phobias or something about things like, take the security labels on food items. Let's look at a plastic mustard dispenser. Underneath the screw on top it comes with a little tab that you rip off, and somehow this keeps it safe from tampering during the period between when the manufacturer creates the product and when you purchase it.
It's absolute nonsense, and does NOTHING to stop anyone from doing anything to the contents of the mustard dispenser. Should someone want to insert a harmful substance into the bottle it could still be done with a very thin needle. It's really there just to appease the masses into thinking the product is somehow made "safe" by the introduction of that little security tab.
So I think about that, then I start to think... oh man, even my mustard's not safe, what if someone did something to it!?!?
It's ridiculous, and completely irrational. I don't think in the history of the modern food distribution system has anything ever happened to anyone's mustard. We all hear horror stories about Halloween candy, and over the counter medicine but I think in large part that stuff is all urban legend.
I think absolutely, yes the security mindset can cause mental health problems, in minor ways for some, and for others who are more prone to thinking negative thoughts perhaps in major ways.
The key, I think, with the security profession is that in order to stay on top of the game you need to always be thinking about how the next attack could arrive. Criminals are creative, and so must be the security people as well. In training your mind to think this way I can see how people would find it easy to become unhappy in other areas of life too.
I no longer do security work, but it's not because of finding it difficult to keep that work / life balance alive (I just got another better opportunity in a different sector). Still to this day I have some lingering security thoughts about things, but all I can do is try to think logically about them.
Just because something is insecure that doesn't mean it's worth worrying about. There's a big incentive for criminals to find any way possible to gain access to a sensitive or desirable computer system, but there's very little gain in tampering with a bottle of mustard ;).
As you stated in your question, it sounds more like you're starting to see the pessemistic side of things everywhere. Everyone's a potential threat. I think no matter what it is it's a similar expression of the same issue: security people get paid to do nothing but worry.
It's not a totally correct analogy, but I think it serves well enough. Now that I'm out of the security business I am pretty thankful. I never realized how much of a burden it was until it was gone. The less time I spend thinking about potential security holes the better I feel in general :). I think it's safe to say security pro just isn't the job for me... perhaps others are made for it.
Seriously though I don't know how people do it. How DO you do that job and not immediately size up threats? How do you not instantly look for the gaping security hole in the access panel on the ATM you're using? How do police men not become jaded and see the potential crime in every situation?
I think some people don't... they do become jaded. But others, the ones who stay happy, they just fight through it. I honestly think it's a choice. You are in control of your mind, and you choose what you le
I'm in agreement that an rsync based offsite backup solution is always a great idea. rdiff-backup or duplicity is the way to go.
That being said, proper backups is a must that any web host should provide. I used to use dreamhost and they did incrementals and gave you easy access to them. Some time ago I outgrew shared hosting and went to slicehost which offers absolutely awesome service and although backups cost extra, they do full nightly snapshots, and it's all easy to manage (restore, take your own snaps, etc) via a nice web interface.
Seriously, take your money where your mouth is: find a better host -- AND do your own offsite rsync based backups.
Not necessarily. If they did their jobs correctly then the "check" wouldn't be in the dtrace app itself. It would be at the operating system level... an app would designate itself not debuggable, then the kernel api calls that dtrace uses to enumerate the list of running apps it can investigate simply wouldn't return the non-debuggable apps.
Although I've no idea if this is the case, or what they've done, I suspect they simply fixed the underlying calls that dtrace uses to report on non-debuggable apps, while still leaving those apps unable to be debugged.
It's also important to point out that just because it only saves a single user 10 watts, that doesn't mean it's not a worthwhile endeavor. The post text suggests that this could add up for datacenters, but datacenters are nothing compared to the number of home computers our there, just imagine the impact on our global electricity infrastructure if every single computer's power consumption dropped by 10 watts. That's huge! Then think about the impact that would have on the environment (ie using less non-renewable resources). I think it would surely be noticed.
So yeah it's unrealistic to believe that every person is going to swap out their drives to use these, but when thinking about environmental issues it's important to put yourself in that frame of mind. I try do what I wish everyone would do. If everyone thought that way we'd get there eventually.
That being said I'm not going to swap out all my drives for these babies, but next time I need to buy or replace a drive, yeah for sure I'll cough up a little extra cash. As long as it's not just a marketing gimmick, and the price increase isn't too much, I'd be willing to take a slight loss on the principal alone. It's not just our pocket books that needs protecting.
But, as someone pointed out already, these drives are only a few bucks more than their non-green counterparts, so not only will they eventually save some cash, but they have the ability to make a difference too.
As a final thought, another thing that's important is make a point with manufacturers (through your wallet) that environmental issues matter. The more we think about it, and the more we get in the habit of making the small choices that all add up to a larger statement, the better off we all are.
First of all this isn't really comparable to time machine, as it's just another rsync based backup system. That being said there's ext3cow that's been available for Linux for some time.
It's a work in progress, but it's already quite stable. Maybe if more people get into it, development speed will increase. There's even a simple GUI available.
It sounds like you've got something set wrong... I never had a problem with the default settings but, you might try turning off the plugin that completes any word. If that's the problem, then you can change the delays so that autocomplete pops up before the complete-any-word plugin does its thing. Also remember you can force autocomplete to popup by hitting ctrl-space. This should help in testing :).
Well if you actually like the way emacs tabs then yes ANYTHING will seem retarded :). I should like to point out that emacs has the most unconfigurable and absolutely silly indenting method of any editor. It's actually impossible to get emacs to tab like a normal editor (where the tab key inserts tab characters only) AND still retain syntax aware indenting. I actually asked in #emacs one day how to do it, and even with the addition of a 2 page lisp configuration file, it still can't do it properly.
If it wasn't for that I'd probably never have switched to KDevelop in the first place!
Just kidding, you're right though that there are only a few built in indenting styles (I think there's 5 or 6) and fortunately one of them is exactly the way I like indenting to work. Still, as I was comparing KDevelop to visual studio, even though it could some improving yet, it's still leagues ahead of visual studio in this regard.
I also don't believe it's correct to call emacs an IDE. Simply put you can't really use emacs for large projects. There's no class explorer, or built in debugging facility, and because it forces you to use a mixture of tabs and spaces you can't use it on projects where the indenting format is dictated to you from above (unless you want to run all your code through a source formatter before checking it in).
It's too bad, because emacs really is a good editor otherwise.
Works perfect with templates here... I make extensive use of Boost and STL as well. I've never used visual assist x, but comparing the intellisense in visual studio to kdevelop's autocomplete is a no brainer... kdevelop is leaps and bounds ahead.
Go ahead and laugh but... KDevelop.
If you haven't tried it in a year or so, give it another go. In my opinion it's superior to the VS IDE, in many ways. The editor is fantastic, much better than the VS IDE editor which isn't as configurable, and doesn't provide as rich of an environment. Code folding, and indenting is much nicer in kdevelop.
Also, kdevelop's autocomplete is a significant step up over IntelliSense. It works in all cases, even for add on libraries (it's very easy to build additional autocomplete databases), and parses super fast (near instantaneous) -- and actually does the right thing in all cases. I was frequently annoyed by IntelliSense when I was doing win32 programming. Not to mention that kdevelop actually autocompletes variable names as well (as you type) not just functions and their parameters.
I would say that the integrated VS debugging facility is nicer than kdevelop's, however kdevelop's debugging still works VERY well -- I think that this is just one of visual studio's strong points, and an area where the open source alternatives are still playing catch up. But seriously, a lot has happened in the past year (or so), and it's become a tool I can't live without.
I've also heard people praise Apple's Xcode in significant ways (even windows people). Not having used it though I can't comment, but it sounds to me like visual studio isn't the be all and end all of IDEs that it used to be.
A core dump does not necessarily signify a crash, or dropping "down" into a debugger or anything. In fact you can actually force pretty much any app to generate a core dump. Usually all you need to do is send a SIG_QUIT signal to the app. However, this depends on your security settings and so forth, since a core dump of a running program might reveal sensitive information.
At any rate, FreeBSD provides a mechanism for allowing core dumps of the kernel to happen whenever you (ie someone who's authorized) wish. You tell the kernel to core dump, and then attach a debugger to the image and the kernel keeps on going. Users really will never notice!
I meant to mod this insightful, but I accidentally clicked redundant. I think this is a good post, and I'm replying to it so that all my mod points for this story will be revoked.
This is so true. I LOVE movies, and I HATE going to the theatre now! It's annoying. Not only do they annoy you with commercials and other nonsense, they don't maintain the projection or audio systems, which really are the key to me wanting to pay to see a movie outside the home.
At a local theatre I used to go to, every time I went I would tell them afterward "there's something wrong with the projector, there's a really annoying bright dot on the screen" Since they never bothered to do anything about it, I've just stopped going.
And now all this stuff about HD-DVD and BlueRay... there's no way I'm buying DVDs since I'll just have to replace them when the format war is over. Not only that but now days you can download movies in HD format off the net, which is really the only place you can get them right now. The quality is better when you pirate, you're not annoyed by commercials, you don't have to drive to a rental store, wait in line, and be annoyed by shitty customer service.
Add on top of that the stupid childing antics of the MPAA and RIAA. Didn't they learn anything from MP3s and iTunes? You can't force people not to download media. We will do it. What you need to do is give us a convenient way to pay for downloads that doesn't include crippling DRM, and other annoyances. When that happens I'll be more than happy to pay for movies.
Even executing my "academic freedom" would result in instant unemployment in the private sector.
This is not necessarily true. I've actually put myself into a position where I was SURE I'd be fired for refusing to go along with a company policy that I felt to be morally (and ethically) wrong. When you have righteousness on your side you'd be amazed at what can actually happen. (I wasn't fired, and I didn't follow policy).
I'm not saying you're lying or anything, because I don't know your situation. But I do know how scary it is to put yourself out there like that, and I know that it's a lot easier to say "Ohh pfft, he's in academia so he can get away with that... I could never do that." But really that's nothing more than an excuse.
There's plenty of situations where someone in the private sector could get away with a lot more than someone in academia, and vice versa. Making an insinuation that somehow life is easier in academia is not only wrong, but it's also a little insulting to what he decided to put himself through.
I'm not suggesting that you start using Tor even if it's against company policy (that would be something entirely different than what he did), but executing your basic rights as an individual will not result in instant unemployment.
Stand up for what you believe in! If it gets your fired, you're working in the wrong place. If you worked somewhere that wasn't going to immediately fire you for doing something you feel to be just, then maybe your blood pressure wouldn't be so high!