Whats actually happening today is more scary than these infamous lines spoken in WWII era movies. And we look back at those and sigh in relief that we don't live in that time period now, while allowing the TSA to do what they do...
this must have been pretty upsetting for everybody who erroneously got the message (I have to wonder how many people actually got to the point of turning all their stuff in and walking out the door before the error was corrected..).
But the ultimate humility would be for that one person who was the intended recipient of that email. Because you know, the first thing that will happen is the news spreads around that it was all a big mistake, so that one person probably sighs in relief. And then shortly later that person finds out that they really were getting fired. Furthermore, probably everybody in the whole company will know who that person is now, where if he had been fired correctly the first time it probably would have been pretty low key and no big deal.
In fact I wouldn't be surprised if this one person could suffer from emotional damage as a result of all this.
Changing title to: "The dumb get dumberer since the 1970's"
I think it is due in large part to the easy access to vast amounts of information due to electronic distribution (faster, easier, cheaper). While this allows smart people to become more informed than ever before, it also allows dumb people to collect more dumb and incorrect "information" and become dumber while at the same time thinking they are in fact smarter. And that's a dangerous combination.
My first thought was, is it that women are potentially better managers or is it that people (and at that, maybe more for men or women?) like being managed by a woman regardless of her methods. IE, given a male and a female manager with everything else being equal, would the managed people act differently and thus be better employees?
I would be interested in testing what would happen if people were managed blindly, by someone who you dont know what sex they are. That of course would require some setup, as I dont think you could just study existing businesses...
In other news, Polaroid has purchased Smith Corona and will be merging instant film cameras with the venerable typewriter to create a new streamlined company and product, the PhotoWriter!
I've been waiting for traits in php (and thus php 5.4 when they finally decided to put traits into it) for some time now.
Think of traits not as really an extension to the object oriented features (alternative to multiple inheritance..) but as a kind of language assisted cut and paste with conflict resolution.
Because that's what it is. Traits are "flattened" at run time. Their methods become methods of the class where the trait is used, and work exactly like they were defined there to begin with. If there is a collision in the naming, you can specifically resolve that with language syntax.
What strikes me though is the stuff about ORM and how this isnt ORM, like its some new fangled way to use a database that nobody did before.
Here's the thing. You can do this in any language. yes this opa language has some simple syntactic sugar to make it super easy to use a database (as long as its a NoSQL one like mongo). But you can access a database without an ORM layer in any other language too.
Thing is, with OO languages, people assume you have to do everything with objects. Its there, I gotta use it! Right? I have this lovely hammer and it smashes real good, therefore I will smash screws with it! And I will smash apart wood sheet into sections! Never mind that screwdriver and saw over in the corner.. I have hammer!
So somebody makes a non-oo language that accesses a database with simple records and everybody thinks its a new and novel thing..
(don't get me wrong, the language looks interesting, I just think its funny how people look at things and run off half cocked without thinking first)
I think the idea of space battles being something like submarines is pretty close. All the claims that space battles and ships are pointless when you can just lob stuff at the target and its impossible to stop in space I think is short sighted. If we can achieve any kind of reasonably fast space travel and be able to lob objects big enough to harm a planet or fast enough to not be able to be outmaneuvered by a spaceship you're already assuming energy sources beyond anything we know currently, maybe even physics (FTL?) that we don't have yet. Assuming that, then its reasonable to assume we could also use that energy source to create powerful energy shields (magnetic, gravitational, hot plasma, who knows) to deflect dumb projectiles.
somebody beat me to the perfect opening line, but I'll use it again anyway..
I'll probably get flamed for this, but, don't even try!
That is, don't look at it as a transition. They are not used for the same things. Javascript is interesting yes from the perspective of just learning something different from what you are used to. I personally love learning new languages even if I don't ever use them.
I would recommend you play around with it, check out some of the libraries like jQuery or Prototype which make Javascript much more fun. But don't think you're going to transition away from Java any time soon, or at all. My recommendation? As a web guy originally (well, C and Assembly really, but web professionally) who's moving towards Java, I would say look into mobile app development on android. I have quite more enjoyed Java and Android dev than I ever did Javascript. But maybe I'm just too nostalgic for my Amiga C programming days..
and now I'm sporting a new android phone. Because I had no choice after HP killed webos and the hardware.
Open sourcing it is probably the best thing they could do, at this point.
If you think WebOS is dead, let me tell you, in many ways it was and is still miles ahead of android.
I severely miss the productivity of the seamless, quick flipping between running applications that even my much more modern android phone (with at least double the processor speed and memory and more than twice the screen size) cannot fathom. Yes android multitasks, but switching between apps is a pain, even with third party task switchers. And there's nothing as slick and reliable as synergy and the webos messaging UI.
Here's what I'd like to see: port the WebOS development "stack", the card GUI, and synergy (with the email, messaging, and facebook apps) to android. Find a way to get android apps to run within the webos card GUI. Thats an "app" I would happily pay good money for. I hate my android phone sometimes (in the same way I hated not having many apps on my palm pre). Lots of apps though.
I think this would be a better goal than just porting WebOS to various hardware. WebOS will probably never have the apps that android has. Eventually, I'm sure, Android will catch up in the GUI and such.
While it was certainly not the only issue, outsourcing I think is largely responsible for destroying the company I worked at up until a few months ago. They outsourced 99% of the software development (and graphic art). The only people stateside were two programmers (myself included) and a bunch of project managers, plus some marketing people, and one IT guy. The outsourcing was kept secret from our clients as much as possible.
Now, some of our outsourcers were really bad. Some were good, but slow. Some were fast but produced really insecure code. A few were good, fast, and could communicate well. All in all, not much different than what I've experienced from american coders.
The issues came with things like the time zone difference, which can make a problem that would be solved in hours take days instead. Developers would just slog on through a task and get it all wrong instead of stopping to ask questions, because they couldnt get an answer from the americans who were sleeping.
Sometimes we'd get good results when the task was clearly documented beforehand and there were no complex issues or decisions to make during the coding.
I do believe that these people know what it means to say "you get what you pay for". They know they are working way cheaper, and so they probably in many cases aren't putting that much effort into it.
Another thing is that it seems nobody ever interviews these programmers, like you would if you hired somebody in person. So of course you aren't weeding out the bad ones.
I think outsourcing can work, but it has to be managed properly. I don't think it can be looked at only as "hey its cheap!". It should be used because maybe you can scale up/down faster if needed for a project, or perhaps you can get different teams in different time zones working so that you are producing 24 hours a day.
And what about "outsourcing" to americans who simply live somewhere that doesnt have an inflated cost of living? If you lived in some state other than california or ny you could probably charge half as much.
The problem here is the same thing that is effecting all our decisions. We look at the top 1% (people, companies, whatever) and get angry because they have everything, and then look at the bottom 1% and get angry because they have nothing and think one must cause the other. And we completely overlook the middle.
Its the middle thats important. Because from there you can fall to the bottom too easily. Only from there can you typically rise to the top. The middle is the backbone. As mentioned already, that $1 billion spent on Apple's data center employed thousands of people directly and indirectly for at least a period of time. And those people and companies are probably all from the middle.
You can argue that our economic system is broken (or flawed by design) but so is our society. We pay attention only to the top and bottom and ignore the middle. We have brains and brawn but no backbone. We have the tools but no wisdom to use them correctly.
However I don't think you can control when the light is released. You don't turn the mirrors on and off, the light simply escapes when its reached a high enough intensity.
I'd like to be able to reflect something back and forth, essentially keeping it in a holding pattern until such time as I wanted to release it through one side. The length of time of course would be very very short, and the switching time from transparent to reflective would need to be fast.
I am wondering if there is any material that acts as a mirror and can be switched from reflective to transparent electronically? I assume there is not or you wouldn't have devices like MEMS displays. I'm thinking if you had such a material it would be essentially a light transistor.
Slashdot Mirror
Every time there's a story about the TSA making life unpleasant for Americans, a terrorist gets his wings..
Congratulations, the terrorists have won.
Other related titles from the "Well no duh" category:
"Why you don't want to buy on credit" and
"Why you don't want that free cell phone" and
"Why you don't want that really cheap ink jet printer"
Yep. I thought that was funny too.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainfuck
"WHERE ARE YOUR PAPERS?"
Whats actually happening today is more scary than these infamous lines spoken in WWII era movies. And we look back at those and sigh in relief that we don't live in that time period now, while allowing the TSA to do what they do...
this must have been pretty upsetting for everybody who erroneously got the message (I have to wonder how many people actually got to the point of turning all their stuff in and walking out the door before the error was corrected..).
But the ultimate humility would be for that one person who was the intended recipient of that email. Because you know, the first thing that will happen is the news spreads around that it was all a big mistake, so that one person probably sighs in relief. And then shortly later that person finds out that they really were getting fired. Furthermore, probably everybody in the whole company will know who that person is now, where if he had been fired correctly the first time it probably would have been pretty low key and no big deal.
In fact I wouldn't be surprised if this one person could suffer from emotional damage as a result of all this.
Changing title to: "The dumb get dumberer since the 1970's"
I think it is due in large part to the easy access to vast amounts of information due to electronic distribution (faster, easier, cheaper). While this allows smart people to become more informed than ever before, it also allows dumb people to collect more dumb and incorrect "information" and become dumber while at the same time thinking they are in fact smarter. And that's a dangerous combination.
My first thought was, is it that women are potentially better managers or is it that people (and at that, maybe more for men or women?) like being managed by a woman regardless of her methods. IE, given a male and a female manager with everything else being equal, would the managed people act differently and thus be better employees?
I would be interested in testing what would happen if people were managed blindly, by someone who you dont know what sex they are. That of course would require some setup, as I dont think you could just study existing businesses...
In other news, Polaroid has purchased Smith Corona and will be merging instant film cameras with the venerable typewriter to create a new streamlined company and product, the PhotoWriter!
My first thought was: UC Berkeley outsourced the development to Russians? Really?
I've been waiting for traits in php (and thus php 5.4 when they finally decided to put traits into it) for some time now.
Think of traits not as really an extension to the object oriented features (alternative to multiple inheritance..) but as a kind of language assisted cut and paste with conflict resolution.
Because that's what it is. Traits are "flattened" at run time. Their methods become methods of the class where the trait is used, and work exactly like they were defined there to begin with. If there is a collision in the naming, you can specifically resolve that with language syntax.
oh, dont get me wrong, I didn't think you guys did claim any such thing. :) opa looks pretty interesting (though I would like OO ability as an option).
I've been anti ORM for some time now.
This is interesting.
What strikes me though is the stuff about ORM and how this isnt ORM, like its some new fangled way to use a database that nobody did before.
Here's the thing. You can do this in any language. yes this opa language has some simple syntactic sugar to make it super easy to use a database (as long as its a NoSQL one like mongo). But you can access a database without an ORM layer in any other language too.
Thing is, with OO languages, people assume you have to do everything with objects. Its there, I gotta use it! Right? I have this lovely hammer and it smashes real good, therefore I will smash screws with it! And I will smash apart wood sheet into sections! Never mind that screwdriver and saw over in the corner.. I have hammer!
So somebody makes a non-oo language that accesses a database with simple records and everybody thinks its a new and novel thing..
(don't get me wrong, the language looks interesting, I just think its funny how people look at things and run off half cocked without thinking first)
I think the idea of space battles being something like submarines is pretty close. All the claims that space battles and ships are pointless when you can just lob stuff at the target and its impossible to stop in space I think is short sighted. If we can achieve any kind of reasonably fast space travel and be able to lob objects big enough to harm a planet or fast enough to not be able to be outmaneuvered by a spaceship you're already assuming energy sources beyond anything we know currently, maybe even physics (FTL?) that we don't have yet. Assuming that, then its reasonable to assume we could also use that energy source to create powerful energy shields (magnetic, gravitational, hot plasma, who knows) to deflect dumb projectiles.
We can invade a country and kill thousands and spread mass destruction in order to find and kill one bad man...
But we can do nothing to save one good man.
This is what's wrong with America.
somebody beat me to the perfect opening line, but I'll use it again anyway..
I'll probably get flamed for this, but, don't even try!
That is, don't look at it as a transition. They are not used for the same things. Javascript is interesting yes from the perspective of just learning something different from what you are used to. I personally love learning new languages even if I don't ever use them.
I would recommend you play around with it, check out some of the libraries like jQuery or Prototype which make Javascript much more fun. But don't think you're going to transition away from Java any time soon, or at all. My recommendation? As a web guy originally (well, C and Assembly really, but web professionally) who's moving towards Java, I would say look into mobile app development on android. I have quite more enjoyed Java and Android dev than I ever did Javascript. But maybe I'm just too nostalgic for my Amiga C programming days..
and now I'm sporting a new android phone. Because I had no choice after HP killed webos and the hardware.
Open sourcing it is probably the best thing they could do, at this point.
If you think WebOS is dead, let me tell you, in many ways it was and is still miles ahead of android.
I severely miss the productivity of the seamless, quick flipping between running applications that even my much more modern android phone (with at least double the processor speed and memory and more than twice the screen size) cannot fathom. Yes android multitasks, but switching between apps is a pain, even with third party task switchers. And there's nothing as slick and reliable as synergy and the webos messaging UI.
Here's what I'd like to see: port the WebOS development "stack", the card GUI, and synergy (with the email, messaging, and facebook apps) to android. Find a way to get android apps to run within the webos card GUI. Thats an "app" I would happily pay good money for. I hate my android phone sometimes (in the same way I hated not having many apps on my palm pre). Lots of apps though.
I think this would be a better goal than just porting WebOS to various hardware. WebOS will probably never have the apps that android has. Eventually, I'm sure, Android will catch up in the GUI and such.
While it was certainly not the only issue, outsourcing I think is largely responsible for destroying the company I worked at up until a few months ago. They outsourced 99% of the software development (and graphic art). The only people stateside were two programmers (myself included) and a bunch of project managers, plus some marketing people, and one IT guy. The outsourcing was kept secret from our clients as much as possible.
Now, some of our outsourcers were really bad. Some were good, but slow. Some were fast but produced really insecure code. A few were good, fast, and could communicate well. All in all, not much different than what I've experienced from american coders.
The issues came with things like the time zone difference, which can make a problem that would be solved in hours take days instead. Developers would just slog on through a task and get it all wrong instead of stopping to ask questions, because they couldnt get an answer from the americans who were sleeping.
Sometimes we'd get good results when the task was clearly documented beforehand and there were no complex issues or decisions to make during the coding.
I do believe that these people know what it means to say "you get what you pay for". They know they are working way cheaper, and so they probably in many cases aren't putting that much effort into it.
Another thing is that it seems nobody ever interviews these programmers, like you would if you hired somebody in person. So of course you aren't weeding out the bad ones.
I think outsourcing can work, but it has to be managed properly. I don't think it can be looked at only as "hey its cheap!". It should be used because maybe you can scale up/down faster if needed for a project, or perhaps you can get different teams in different time zones working so that you are producing 24 hours a day.
And what about "outsourcing" to americans who simply live somewhere that doesnt have an inflated cost of living? If you lived in some state other than california or ny you could probably charge half as much.
The uses for an undulating, rubber robot are staggering. When it involves quadrupedal crawling, its even better.
welcome our.. oh never mind.
The problem here is the same thing that is effecting all our decisions. We look at the top 1% (people, companies, whatever) and get angry because they have everything, and then look at the bottom 1% and get angry because they have nothing and think one must cause the other. And we completely overlook the middle.
Its the middle thats important. Because from there you can fall to the bottom too easily. Only from there can you typically rise to the top. The middle is the backbone. As mentioned already, that $1 billion spent on Apple's data center employed thousands of people directly and indirectly for at least a period of time. And those people and companies are probably all from the middle.
You can argue that our economic system is broken (or flawed by design) but so is our society. We pay attention only to the top and bottom and ignore the middle. We have brains and brawn but no backbone. We have the tools but no wisdom to use them correctly.
Yes, of course.
However I don't think you can control when the light is released. You don't turn the mirrors on and off, the light simply escapes when its reached a high enough intensity.
I'd like to be able to reflect something back and forth, essentially keeping it in a holding pattern until such time as I wanted to release it through one side. The length of time of course would be very very short, and the switching time from transparent to reflective would need to be fast.
Yeah, thats the MEMS I was referring to. I was wonder if there was a purely solid state way of doing it.
Does this mean a light transistor is coming soon?
I am wondering if there is any material that acts as a mirror and can be switched from reflective to transparent electronically? I assume there is not or you wouldn't have devices like MEMS displays. I'm thinking if you had such a material it would be essentially a light transistor.