I boycotted cable after my apartment burned down last year. After about 6 months of nothing but youtube and crappy low quality internet streams, I finally caved and got DirecTV. I still hate paying for the service, but it is really nice having the option of not having to 'digg through the crates' in order to find something to watch, when I feel like being spoonfed by the programming networks.
The fact that I had bought a 1080p LED samsung TV, and was subjecting it to nothing but netflix via netbook or xbox, sure was visible once I plugged-in my DTV box and got actual HD video. HUGE difference, I don't care what any stream-only advocate says. The bandwidth and programming simply isn't there just yet.
This is the decade of death for the big broadcast networks and providers though, I can safely say (as I said in 1998 about the record industry).
My point is that media distribution models can co-exist and offer a much better "I'm in control" experience for the user, rather than being subjected to one or the other, or being constantly spoonfed, if you can afford it.
Did anyone notice that there was not one reference point to any of the claims or stories mentioned in the article? or were you too busy reacting in a rage of fury by posting some 'Orwellian police state' comparison? 1000+ comments so far? I guess the social engineering aspect of the article worked, and even duped the slashdot crowd. Not surprising, these days, especially coming from a gawker site. What a loathsome bunch of mudslingers.
I had been one of those mislead skeptics and paranoid anti-radiation-braintumor cellphone conspiracy theorists until I actually worked around some radiology detection systems and began randomly testing things, like cell phones.
I never got to test an iphone, which is what I have now, but my old Samsung A90 from sprint, never set off any of the detection systems, unless I had just walked-in from the outside during day time, which was due to residual radiation from just walking outside. So I quickly realized that just walking around outside in the sun, exposed me to far more radiation than my cellphone alone ever would.
It was most interesting, though, when my old CTO went in for a CT scan and was tripping-off the radiation detectors for 3 days straight thereafter.
I seem to have bad luck with the one I named Alderaan, though. It seems to either disappear or blow up randomly when I plug my laptop (deathstar) on to the network. I don't get it either.
There are many reasons to chose to create your own framework, just as there are many reasons why you may choose not to.
Personally, I avoid mainstream OSS frameworks because of the security implications involved. Not that writing your own framework will reduce security implications (technically), but if you look at wordpress or joomla, both of which had a number of security exploits that targeted and penetrated millions of web sites that were using them, begs the question: would you want to be another one of those 'stunned' victims?
There are 'robots' crawling the web specifically programmed to root-out targeted exploits within specific OSS web apps, such as wordpress and joomla. The chances of someone writing a bot to exploit your (1 and only) framework, that nobody else uses, is a LOT less likely, albeit still possible.
There are also code-control issues to consider. As someone who has written PHP for years, and had to work with other people's code as well, I find it far less aggravating to work with my own code base, especially considering it takes about as long to adapt to someone else's code, as it does to simply write your own.
Originality is another big issue as well. If I have to look at one more mucked-up wordpress, drupal, or joomla site again, I think I'll stop browsing the internet entirely. Blogs have ruined the Web Application Ecosystem, imho./digress
"What kinds of companies hire programmers with no prior experience?" Generally, companies being started by ambitious programmers with no prior experience, during the 'start-up' process. It worked for Google!
You're not going to get a rewarding "entry-level" programming position anywhere, afaik. You may get a *tolerable* position, but depending on your level of tolerance, you may want to consider a different approach.
I'd continue to work in QA and learn as much as possible, while doing web programming projects on the side. Try Craigslist, perhaps.
By the time you get good enough to walk-in, get hired, and make decent money, you'll have already X years of experience in 'software development', since doing SQA (efficiently) does require knowledge of programming (fundamentals, methods, processes, etc.). Mix that with your contract projects (they are applicable on resumes, you know), you should have more confidence in yourself. =p
Do they realize there is an entire industry of audio/video editing applications that will essentially be buried?? This is why I don't sell my analog synthesizers to replace them w/ virtual synthesizers. Digital software and technologies come and go, but my old Arp still sounds great.
Just add an exception. Then, you'll get an encrypted connection to the self-signed site. What's the problem?
I agree it's annoying, but this is not 'bad' for the web or it's users, this is good. I'd like to know if I'm being connected to a potentially malicious SSL site that uses a self-signed cert. For instance, if my browser was encountering a URL hijacking attempt to a site like my bank, and it's using a bogus cert, I'd like to know. Otherwise, I'd most likely not know I'm being hijacked.
Some IT jobs are very boring. Some Web jobs are also boring. I'd much rather be bored, sitting in front of my computer w/ headphones and good coffee, w/ a nice looking secretary, than waiting tables, serving coffee, or being an annoying salesmen.
Some IT jobs are challenging, which can be interesting, depending on what challenges interest you. If you're not interested in being challenged, then I guess, I'll take fries with my burger, thanks.
If I was right out of school, I'd want to partner-up w/ some people close to my age, start a small venture, and learn to make it a fun place to work. It may not be google, but it doesn't have to be a mortuary, either. One of the coolest jobs I had was working 2 doors from the beach, writing code, and watching all the hot women roll around all day. Very distracting, but also very motivating to get my work done and get out of there. =-p
"A 'working' committee of China's State Intellectual Property Office"
When did China get a 'State Intellectual Property Office'? and at what point was it decided that it was 'working'? and, just what has China contributed to Intellectual Property, anyhow, aside from espionage or piracy?
All client-side scripting languages, embedded objects/plug-ins, and table-less CSS should be avoided, if at all possible.
Now, I will say that the CSS rendering engine in modern browsers is a LOT better than say, 8 years ago. However, the rest of the facts remain the same, imo.
The Web2.0 era (read: error) has yet to accept these realizations, and continues to resist the reality. I'm all for user experience and interactive dynamic content, don't get me wrong, but the manor in which these technologies overlap and compromise security, as well as performance, really should be addressed further, before branching-out and extending such problems.
I can just see it now... poor unsuspecting windows user with an idle-bandwidth-consuming rootkit installed on their computer, gets charged $10k for a month of internet usage and sues ISP. ISPs won't care until this is the case w/ > 20% of their customers, and it leads to major class action lawsuits.
There are so many problems with this form of service delivery for the consumer, that far outweigh the benefits for the provider. Unfortunately, competition is limited (in most areas throughout the US) and consumers are really at the mercy of these corporations and their greedy business practices. If DSL and Cable Providers gang-up and gauge prices like this, then really, depending on where you live, you may have no choice.
Congrats. You've just re-invented the wheel, with shiny hub caps.
It's pretty obvious...
* these developers are jaded 17yo ex-gentoo users, or equivalent. * they really are more control freaks, than skilled linux engineers. * this distro probably won't see the light of day, much less the darkness of a cvs repository. * it just might be the geek-cred these guys have been looking for, but still have yet to deserve.
Either our AFCYBER brigade is light years behind, or we're finally willing to publicly disclose this information due to some 'other' undisclosed reason...??
Anyhow, I've always assumed that our Military and other various agencies have control of some rather large botnets, but after working around such networks, it would actually surprise me more if they did (intentionally) run a botnet, than not (or unintentionally/unwittingly). I hope AFCYBER
...for 'hacking' into the redflag-linux.com mysql database (which had no root passwd, btw), and defacing their site to say "Hacked by America". It's just been tit-for-tat ever since. =/
Well then, if google says it's true, then I better go out now and buy that Google Postini Subscription so they can protect me from all the evil in the email world.
I've worked in various companies who have migrated platforms for various reasons.
I'll use 1 former employer as an example here...
This organization had taken-over another organization that had biology and computer science students and PHD graduates develop an application using X platform, for over 6 years. This application was rock-solid, covered all the requirements, but the CIO who was in charge of the take-over, had no skill or understanding of the platform it was developed on.
Instead of keeping the developers and enhancing this existing application, they decided it was cheaper to let them go, hire a whole team of (Y platform) developers, and begin to re-create the application in the new ("latest and greatest") platform.
When I started, the organization had been in this process for about 4 years, and still had yet to fully re-create the application that was originally developed on X platform (which they hired me to now maintain), and 2.5 years later when I left, they still hadn't made much progress. This was 6+ years, 30+ employees, and $20m+ (tax payer) dollars later. The original app could have easily been updated and maintained by 3-4 'skilled' X platform professionals, rather than 30+ not-so-skilled Y platform professionals, and would have saved at least $15m in expenses (of tax-payer funds).
Part of the motivation behind such ineffective decision making:
1) The justification to secure ridiculous amounts of funding so the CIO could pad his pocket
2) The inexperience in dealing with X platform
3) The false notion that hiring 30 Y platform developers to reinvent the wheel would be cheaper than hiring 5+ (harder to find, but far more skilled) X platform developers to simply wax the rims....just something to consider before scrapping an application, or entire platform, due to 'talent shortage'. Chances are, you're simply not looking in the right places to find the right people, imo.
the only other alternative in my area, is DSL, and the ISP that provides that (AT&T) has the same problems I experience on my cable connection, but doesn't offer nearly as much bandwidth for the price. If timewarner/roadrunner starts capping me, then I may be motivated to switch. I really don't want to switch to DSL though, and I sure as hell don't want all my unencrypted data passing through the AT&T 'tubes' (if I can help it). Not that I have anything to hide, it's just the principle. *monoliths* meh...
Slashdot Mirror
I boycotted cable after my apartment burned down last year. After about 6 months of nothing but youtube and crappy low quality internet streams, I finally caved and got DirecTV. I still hate paying for the service, but it is really nice having the option of not having to 'digg through the crates' in order to find something to watch, when I feel like being spoonfed by the programming networks.
The fact that I had bought a 1080p LED samsung TV, and was subjecting it to nothing but netflix via netbook or xbox, sure was visible once I plugged-in my DTV box and got actual HD video. HUGE difference, I don't care what any stream-only advocate says. The bandwidth and programming simply isn't there just yet.
This is the decade of death for the big broadcast networks and providers though, I can safely say (as I said in 1998 about the record industry).
My point is that media distribution models can co-exist and offer a much better "I'm in control" experience for the user, rather than being subjected to one or the other, or being constantly spoonfed, if you can afford it.
"In Soviet Korea..." anyone?
Did anyone notice that there was not one reference point to any of the claims or stories mentioned in the article? or were you too busy reacting in a rage of fury by posting some 'Orwellian police state' comparison? 1000+ comments so far? I guess the social engineering aspect of the article worked, and even duped the slashdot crowd. Not surprising, these days, especially coming from a gawker site. What a loathsome bunch of mudslingers.
I had been one of those mislead skeptics and paranoid anti-radiation-braintumor cellphone conspiracy theorists until I actually worked around some radiology detection systems and began randomly testing things, like cell phones.
I never got to test an iphone, which is what I have now, but my old Samsung A90 from sprint, never set off any of the detection systems, unless I had just walked-in from the outside during day time, which was due to residual radiation from just walking outside. So I quickly realized that just walking around outside in the sun, exposed me to far more radiation than my cellphone alone ever would.
It was most interesting, though, when my old CTO went in for a CT scan and was tripping-off the radiation detectors for 3 days straight thereafter.
hmmm... cause or effect?
I seem to have bad luck with the one I named Alderaan, though. It seems to either disappear or blow up randomly when I plug my laptop (deathstar) on to the network. I don't get it either.
There are many reasons to chose to create your own framework, just as there are many reasons why you may choose not to.
Personally, I avoid mainstream OSS frameworks because of the security implications involved. Not that writing your own framework will reduce security implications (technically), but if you look at wordpress or joomla, both of which had a number of security exploits that targeted and penetrated millions of web sites that were using them, begs the question: would you want to be another one of those 'stunned' victims?
There are 'robots' crawling the web specifically programmed to root-out targeted exploits within specific OSS web apps, such as wordpress and joomla. The chances of someone writing a bot to exploit your (1 and only) framework, that nobody else uses, is a LOT less likely, albeit still possible.
There are also code-control issues to consider. As someone who has written PHP for years, and had to work with other people's code as well, I find it far less aggravating to work with my own code base, especially considering it takes about as long to adapt to someone else's code, as it does to simply write your own.
Originality is another big issue as well. If I have to look at one more mucked-up wordpress, drupal, or joomla site again, I think I'll stop browsing the internet entirely. Blogs have ruined the Web Application Ecosystem, imho. /digress
"What kinds of companies hire programmers with no prior experience?" Generally, companies being started by ambitious programmers with no prior experience, during the 'start-up' process. It worked for Google!
You're not going to get a rewarding "entry-level" programming position anywhere, afaik. You may get a *tolerable* position, but depending on your level of tolerance, you may want to consider a different approach.
I'd continue to work in QA and learn as much as possible, while doing web programming projects on the side. Try Craigslist, perhaps.
By the time you get good enough to walk-in, get hired, and make decent money, you'll have already X years of experience in 'software development', since doing SQA (efficiently) does require knowledge of programming (fundamentals, methods, processes, etc.). Mix that with your contract projects (they are applicable on resumes, you know), you should have more confidence in yourself. =p
Do they realize there is an entire industry of audio/video editing applications that will essentially be buried?? This is why I don't sell my analog synthesizers to replace them w/ virtual synthesizers. Digital software and technologies come and go, but my old Arp still sounds great.
Just add an exception. Then, you'll get an encrypted connection to the self-signed site. What's the problem?
I agree it's annoying, but this is not 'bad' for the web or it's users, this is good. I'd like to know if I'm being connected to a potentially malicious SSL site that uses a self-signed cert. For instance, if my browser was encountering a URL hijacking attempt to a site like my bank, and it's using a bogus cert, I'd like to know. Otherwise, I'd most likely not know I'm being hijacked.
This article is exceeding my noise ratio allowence.
Some IT jobs are very boring. Some Web jobs are also boring. I'd much rather be bored, sitting in front of my computer w/ headphones and good coffee, w/ a nice looking secretary, than waiting tables, serving coffee, or being an annoying salesmen.
Some IT jobs are challenging, which can be interesting, depending on what challenges interest you. If you're not interested in being challenged, then I guess, I'll take fries with my burger, thanks.
If I was right out of school, I'd want to partner-up w/ some people close to my age, start a small venture, and learn to make it a fun place to work. It may not be google, but it doesn't have to be a mortuary, either. One of the coolest jobs I had was working 2 doors from the beach, writing code, and watching all the hot women roll around all day. Very distracting, but also very motivating to get my work done and get out of there. =-p
One Era's Germany is another Era's China, soon enough. Why wait? Sign me up! =)
"A 'working' committee of China's State Intellectual Property Office"
When did China get a 'State Intellectual Property Office'? and at what point was it decided that it was 'working'? and, just what has China contributed to Intellectual Property, anyhow, aside from espionage or piracy?
All client-side scripting languages, embedded objects/plug-ins, and table-less CSS should be avoided, if at all possible.
Now, I will say that the CSS rendering engine in modern browsers is a LOT better than say, 8 years ago. However, the rest of the facts remain the same, imo.
The Web2.0 era (read: error) has yet to accept these realizations, and continues to resist the reality. I'm all for user experience and interactive dynamic content, don't get me wrong, but the manor in which these technologies overlap and compromise security, as well as performance, really should be addressed further, before branching-out and extending such problems.
I can just see it now... poor unsuspecting windows user with an idle-bandwidth-consuming rootkit installed on their computer, gets charged $10k for a month of internet usage and sues ISP. ISPs won't care until this is the case w/ > 20% of their customers, and it leads to major class action lawsuits.
There are so many problems with this form of service delivery for the consumer, that far outweigh the benefits for the provider. Unfortunately, competition is limited (in most areas throughout the US) and consumers are really at the mercy of these corporations and their greedy business practices. If DSL and Cable Providers gang-up and gauge prices like this, then really, depending on where you live, you may have no choice.
Congrats. You've just re-invented the wheel, with shiny hub caps.
It's pretty obvious...
* these developers are jaded 17yo ex-gentoo users, or equivalent.
* they really are more control freaks, than skilled linux engineers.
* this distro probably won't see the light of day, much less the darkness of a cvs repository.
* it just might be the geek-cred these guys have been looking for, but still have yet to deserve.
So anyways, back to reality. =)
Either our AFCYBER brigade is light years behind, or we're finally willing to publicly disclose this information due to some 'other' undisclosed reason...??
Anyhow, I've always assumed that our Military and other various agencies have control of some rather large botnets, but after working around such networks, it would actually surprise me more if they did (intentionally) run a botnet, than not (or unintentionally/unwittingly). I hope AFCYBER
nuff said.
...for 'hacking' into the redflag-linux.com mysql database (which had no root passwd, btw), and defacing their site to say "Hacked by America". It's just been tit-for-tat ever since. =/
Is this a sperm-bank conspiracy?
Who comes up w/ these buzzwords, anyhow?
Well then, if google says it's true, then I better go out now and buy that Google Postini Subscription so they can protect me from all the evil in the email world.
omg I h@x0r3d teh www.google.com, don't sue!
I've worked in various companies who have migrated platforms for various reasons.
...just something to consider before scrapping an application, or entire platform, due to 'talent shortage'. Chances are, you're simply not looking in the right places to find the right people, imo.
I'll use 1 former employer as an example here...
This organization had taken-over another organization that had biology and computer science students and PHD graduates develop an application using X platform, for over 6 years. This application was rock-solid, covered all the requirements, but the CIO who was in charge of the take-over, had no skill or understanding of the platform it was developed on.
Instead of keeping the developers and enhancing this existing application, they decided it was cheaper to let them go, hire a whole team of (Y platform) developers, and begin to re-create the application in the new ("latest and greatest") platform.
When I started, the organization had been in this process for about 4 years, and still had yet to fully re-create the application that was originally developed on X platform (which they hired me to now maintain), and 2.5 years later when I left, they still hadn't made much progress. This was 6+ years, 30+ employees, and $20m+ (tax payer) dollars later. The original app could have easily been updated and maintained by 3-4 'skilled' X platform professionals, rather than 30+ not-so-skilled Y platform professionals, and would have saved at least $15m in expenses (of tax-payer funds).
Part of the motivation behind such ineffective decision making:
1) The justification to secure ridiculous amounts of funding so the CIO could pad his pocket
2) The inexperience in dealing with X platform
3) The false notion that hiring 30 Y platform developers to reinvent the wheel would be cheaper than hiring 5+ (harder to find, but far more skilled) X platform developers to simply wax the rims.
the only other alternative in my area, is DSL, and the ISP that provides that (AT&T) has the same problems I experience on my cable connection, but doesn't offer nearly as much bandwidth for the price. If timewarner/roadrunner starts capping me, then I may be motivated to switch. I really don't want to switch to DSL though, and I sure as hell don't want all my unencrypted data passing through the AT&T 'tubes' (if I can help it). Not that I have anything to hide, it's just the principle. *monoliths* meh...