As a consultant, part of your standard contract should include Project Risks. Amongst those risk it's typical to list things such as "Client provides timely access to data" and "Client provides timely access to Subject Matter Experts" and then you can track this on a risk management plan and identify mitigation strategies - which in this case could involve having a backup (or backups) of the "Expert" that can be called on.
You'd want to word it carefully in a way that doesn't scream "Expert is an Idiot!", but it's pretty standard and I'm sure you can find examples out there.
I just wish someone would re make the HP programmers calculator. I need the Binary/hex/octal stuff more than anything else and all the calculators today just slap it on as a last minute extra buried in the settings.
That would be the HP-16c. Having misplaced my original (which I used all the time when I was hitting the metal in my assembly programming job), I picked up another one on ebay about 10 years ago. Definitely a good candidate for a re-issue.
For the UK version at the Open University the exams are held at a local college and proctored in the normal way. Presumably this could operate in a similar fashion.
The big issue with gambling sites is that you have no way to confirm the risks.
I could create a poker site to use an algorithmic that favors the house. How would you know? I can have my friends playing at tables and when they are logged in, it tilts the deal into their favor.
These, and other, cheats only require temporary and slight changes to have a bigger long term impact. You can also use social engineering.
Online poker sites are full of geeks. There are well documented cases where said geeks have analyzed millions of hands of data to prove that cheating and fraud was occurring. Google "Absolute Poker" for one such example.
How do you even send a text message to your entire address book? This sounds more like the guy used some very poor judgement, but I doubt it was accidental.
The guy sent the same message to his family members:
Agreeing and allowing the appeal, Lord Justice Elias said: "The facts of this case are rather unusual...messages reading 'Would you f**k me? Fast or slow? Skin on skin' were sent to every single contact in his phone, including members of his own family."
Agreed. Quality work is made by following processes and using checks and balances, not by trying to patch holes with someone who doesn't understand the whole picture.
...Wrong. I was called in as a hacker to a fortune 500 (at the time, but no longer) manufacturing company that had an emergency. Their WAN connection was down which took out their VPN connection to their corporate offices which housed a lot of their IT equipment. It essentially left them dead in the water. To the tune of losing about $100,000/hr (not including employees lazing about with nothing to do). Their proprietary firewall failed. The cold spare turned out to be dead. The firewall vendor said they could have one next morning at 8 AM. I told them I could have them back up in about an hour.
In the context of the article, the 'hacker' needs to be your 'go to guy' when you are looking for a brilliant solution to a tough problem. (And I'm not saying pfSense was some sort of 'brilliant' solution--I'm saying that it was 'brilliant' and a bit 'magic' to the IT-types at this company....which is why they are no longer Fortune 500)
Sounds like you're wrong about processes. Many people assume a process == bureaucracy. In all the large companies I have worked with, what you describe is covered by an Emergency Fix process, which basically will let someone dive in and fix things as quickly as possible without the usual chain of command overhead. However, once in place, there will be checks and balances applied after thee fact to ensure the implemented fix won't cause any security/maintenance.performance etc. issues in the future.
One thing that gets much better results then emailing each other is walking up to their desk (without sending a meeting request, mind you) and talk to them. Yes! In person.
Instead of doing the 20 questions (meaning 20 mails) I have a conversation. Sometimes people are too far away (e.g. in another country) and then I call them. On the phone. We have a conversation of 5-15 minutes and we are BOTH clear what we want and need.
Right - BOTH clear. And then you go off and do it only to be told "That's not what I agreed to..."
"But, but.....", you splutter, "you said it was!"
Meanwhile, I have a few notes captured in email along with an electronic agreement from my co-worker, and my work is not only complete, but correct.
That week is critical to not seeing spoilers online, we live in an international community, forums inhabited by users all around the world, if half of them can't see the episode for a week+ that doesn't work.
Really? I do subscribe to HBO which is also available On-Demand. It's usually around Wed/Thu before I get around to watching the previous Sunday's 'new' episode, and somehow manage to avoid all the spoilers. It worked for Boardwalk Empire too.
In fact, I don't know of too many non-management salaried fields, period, that match what a decently-paid IT "veteran" can earn that do not absolutely a degree in the field. (As in, accountants, lawyers, certain kinds of engineers, and the healthcare profession can make serious coin, but it takes years to make that switch.)
This is true in my experience, but the good news is there are many IT related jobs that can be rewarding. I moved from software development to a client facing role responsible for system configurations and deployments. Now I still get to work on problem analysis and technical designs, but am freed from some of the external forces from my code monkey days.
I would say that testing your own code is the worst thing to do, as you know how it works and will (possibly subconsciously) input data which will either work, or bomb out gracefully.
Testing your own code should *always* be the first step in the testing process. Ideally, stepping through it line by line. It's precisely because you know how it works that you are the best person to do this. Knowing it will soon be handed over to a testing team can help eliminate any inherent bias you may have, but even if it doesn't, it should increase the quality of code that is being tested later in the process.
Er, don't you mean 70kmph? 'cause that's only about 45mph. That's not so much a big deal at all, we've got plenty of roads with 55mph speed limits that don't have any.. well, they're called on ramps or merging lanes. Slip is not a word we like to use in reference to driving except in accidents..
No, that would definitely be 70 mph; miles per hour is still the unit of choice in the UK.
I assume you're referring to the cost... In every other aspect, America has the highest overall quality health care and is always at the bleeding edge of medical technology - electronic, methodic, and pharmaceutical. This is a statistically proven fact.
You're a bunch of prissy prima donnas. Guess what, princess: coding is a hell of a lot easier to do, is simpler to test, and has less inherent risk than any other kind of engineering. Unlike a software bug, you can't put out a patch to fix a collapsed bridge, or release a service pack for a unbalanced rotor shaft that destroys a generator.
You do get the chance however to, say, recall a few million of your Toyotas. I would also argue the fact that a real-time embedded control system for a helicopter is inherently more difficult to test than a rotor shaft.
Seriously. Mod me as troll if you like, but as a Scotsman born and bred (home of many world and olympic champion curlers), I know for a fact that it is one of the few sports still played at an amateur-only level.
Some poor people are poor because of bad luck, I've never tried to deny it. However, for the majority, the reason that they are poor is because they did not work hard / make good decisions in life.
My (now) wife was poor when she was a a postgrad earning her PhD. During that time she couldn't afford health care. Using your criteria, was that bad luck, laziness or a poor life decision?
BBC is no more going to criticize the government's ideas, than would PBS criticize the Congress.
I'm guessing you live outside the UK. The BBC has a long and well documented history of complaints from all factions of UK Government. Google "Jeremy Paxman" or "Robin Day" to discover how political interviews should be conducted. Programmes like "Newsnight" and "Panorama" frequently run stories that are highly critical of government policy.
they're trying to put a kid away for ten years of his life for tinkering with a console. I'd say the moral wrongness of that is quite clear.
Just for clarification, the 'kid' is actually 27 years old. More importantly, as is often the case in these reports, the maximum penalty for the charges would be 10 years. As the case hasn't even gone to court yet, there is no indication as to what the actual sentence (if any) will be.
Not saying I agree with the charges, but at least let's discuss the facts.
When I was an undergrad in the mid-80s, Pascal was the language of choice for teaching algorithms, data structures etc. We were also taught assembler and microcode as we learned about microprocessor architecture. Once we had been indoctrinated with solid programming discipline, we were introduced to C. Pascal and assembler were a great foundation and made the transition to C very straightforward.
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As a consultant, part of your standard contract should include Project Risks. Amongst those risk it's typical to list things such as "Client provides timely access to data" and "Client provides timely access to Subject Matter Experts" and then you can track this on a risk management plan and identify mitigation strategies - which in this case could involve having a backup (or backups) of the "Expert" that can be called on. You'd want to word it carefully in a way that doesn't scream "Expert is an Idiot!", but it's pretty standard and I'm sure you can find examples out there.
Except the king can't decide it, because ex post facto laws are forbidden, and the king can't override that because of rule of law.
Except the ones regarding telecoms companies and illegal wire tapping you mean?
Wow. I have mod points and want to use them all to negatively mod the "summary" to "Incoherent".
I just wish someone would re make the HP programmers calculator. I need the Binary/hex/octal stuff more than anything else and all the calculators today just slap it on as a last minute extra buried in the settings.
That would be the HP-16c. Having misplaced my original (which I used all the time when I was hitting the metal in my assembly programming job), I picked up another one on ebay about 10 years ago. Definitely a good candidate for a re-issue.
It has never been free. It's single payer - which makes it accessible to all at no further charge.
For the UK version at the Open University the exams are held at a local college and proctored in the normal way. Presumably this could operate in a similar fashion.
"It was the day my grandmother exploded" is still my favourite opening line to a novel.
The big issue with gambling sites is that you have no way to confirm the risks.
I could create a poker site to use an algorithmic that favors the house. How would you know? I can have my friends playing at tables and when they are logged in, it tilts the deal into their favor.
These, and other, cheats only require temporary and slight changes to have a bigger long term impact. You can also use social engineering.
Online poker sites are full of geeks. There are well documented cases where said geeks have analyzed millions of hands of data to prove that cheating and fraud was occurring. Google "Absolute Poker" for one such example.
How do you even send a text message to your entire address book? This sounds more like the guy used some very poor judgement, but I doubt it was accidental.
The guy sent the same message to his family members:
Agreeing and allowing the appeal, Lord Justice Elias said: "The facts of this case are rather unusual...messages reading 'Would you f**k me? Fast or slow? Skin on skin' were sent to every single contact in his phone, including members of his own family."
So it does seem like a genuine screw up.
To be fair, he blew all his own money in the company too. $30M+. Dude's broke. He'll be living off his salary as an ESPN analyst.
Of course, there is a school of thought that suggests his claim to be broke will last only slightly longer than any pending lawsuits against him.
Agreed. Quality work is made by following processes and using checks and balances, not by trying to patch holes with someone who doesn't understand the whole picture.
Sounds like you're wrong about processes. Many people assume a process == bureaucracy. In all the large companies I have worked with, what you describe is covered by an Emergency Fix process, which basically will let someone dive in and fix things as quickly as possible without the usual chain of command overhead. However, once in place, there will be checks and balances applied after thee fact to ensure the implemented fix won't cause any security/maintenance.performance etc. issues in the future.
Yup. Essentially the product that they sell is their body. Guess what profession that reminds me of?
Football?
One thing that gets much better results then emailing each other is walking up to their desk (without sending a meeting request, mind you) and talk to them. Yes! In person.
Instead of doing the 20 questions (meaning 20 mails) I have a conversation. Sometimes people are too far away (e.g. in another country) and then I call them. On the phone. We have a conversation of 5-15 minutes and we are BOTH clear what we want and need.
Right - BOTH clear. And then you go off and do it only to be told "That's not what I agreed to..."
"But, but.....", you splutter, "you said it was!"
Meanwhile, I have a few notes captured in email along with an electronic agreement from my co-worker, and my work is not only complete, but correct.
That week is critical to not seeing spoilers online, we live in an international community, forums inhabited by users all around the world, if half of them can't see the episode for a week+ that doesn't work.
Really? I do subscribe to HBO which is also available On-Demand. It's usually around Wed/Thu before I get around to watching the previous Sunday's 'new' episode, and somehow manage to avoid all the spoilers. It worked for Boardwalk Empire too.
In fact, I don't know of too many non-management salaried fields, period, that match what a decently-paid IT "veteran" can earn that do not absolutely a degree in the field. (As in, accountants, lawyers, certain kinds of engineers, and the healthcare profession can make serious coin, but it takes years to make that switch.)
This is true in my experience, but the good news is there are many IT related jobs that can be rewarding. I moved from software development to a client facing role responsible for system configurations and deployments. Now I still get to work on problem analysis and technical designs, but am freed from some of the external forces from my code monkey days.
I would say that testing your own code is the worst thing to do, as you know how it works and will (possibly subconsciously) input data which will either work, or bomb out gracefully.
Testing your own code should *always* be the first step in the testing process. Ideally, stepping through it line by line. It's precisely because you know how it works that you are the best person to do this. Knowing it will soon be handed over to a testing team can help eliminate any inherent bias you may have, but even if it doesn't, it should increase the quality of code that is being tested later in the process.
Er, don't you mean 70kmph? 'cause that's only about 45mph. That's not so much a big deal at all, we've got plenty of roads with 55mph speed limits that don't have any.. well, they're called on ramps or merging lanes. Slip is not a word we like to use in reference to driving except in accidents..
No, that would definitely be 70 mph; miles per hour is still the unit of choice in the UK.
I assume you're referring to the cost... In every other aspect, America has the highest overall quality health care and is always at the bleeding edge of medical technology - electronic, methodic, and pharmaceutical. This is a statistically proven fact.
Really? And yet the World Health Organization has it ranked at a lowly 37. http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html
You're a bunch of prissy prima donnas. Guess what, princess: coding is a hell of a lot easier to do, is simpler to test, and has less inherent risk than any other kind of engineering. Unlike a software bug, you can't put out a patch to fix a collapsed bridge, or release a service pack for a unbalanced rotor shaft that destroys a generator.
You do get the chance however to, say, recall a few million of your Toyotas. I would also argue the fact that a real-time embedded control system for a helicopter is inherently more difficult to test than a rotor shaft.
Seriously. Mod me as troll if you like, but as a Scotsman born and bred (home of many world and olympic champion curlers), I know for a fact that it is one of the few sports still played at an amateur-only level.
For the record. I'm french and I don't care about cyclists which I think is the most stupid professional sport ever, save curling.
Curling isn't a professional sport.
Some poor people are poor because of bad luck, I've never tried to deny it. However, for the majority, the reason that they are poor is because they did not work hard / make good decisions in life.
My (now) wife was poor when she was a a postgrad earning her PhD. During that time she couldn't afford health care. Using your criteria, was that bad luck, laziness or a poor life decision?
BBC is no more going to criticize the government's ideas, than would PBS criticize the Congress.
I'm guessing you live outside the UK. The BBC has a long and well documented history of complaints from all factions of UK Government. Google "Jeremy Paxman" or "Robin Day" to discover how political interviews should be conducted. Programmes like "Newsnight" and "Panorama" frequently run stories that are highly critical of government policy.
they're trying to put a kid away for ten years of his life for tinkering with a console. I'd say the moral wrongness of that is quite clear.
Just for clarification, the 'kid' is actually 27 years old. More importantly, as is often the case in these reports, the maximum penalty for the charges would be 10 years. As the case hasn't even gone to court yet, there is no indication as to what the actual sentence (if any) will be.
Not saying I agree with the charges, but at least let's discuss the facts.
When I was an undergrad in the mid-80s, Pascal was the language of choice for teaching algorithms, data structures etc. We were also taught assembler and microcode as we learned about microprocessor architecture. Once we had been indoctrinated with solid programming discipline, we were introduced to C. Pascal and assembler were a great foundation and made the transition to C very straightforward.
For logic programming, we were taught Prolog.