I consider compilers and interpreters harmful. Programmers write a line of code and test it to see if it works without understanding what happens inside the computer. This "write - observe - fix" cycle gets repeated many times until the most visible bugs are fixed, but nothing guarantees that the system does not contains hard-to-detect bugs deep internally. We need more software engineers, but most people who use this title in companies are either normal programmers or systems analysts, or project managers. When was the last time you used non-deterministic finite state automata, Z notation, or even basic flowcharts at your company? Never used such methods? That's why your software sucks and you need a year to write simple applications that could be written in a month if you used a proper methodology and good methods.
Its sad but doesn't really have much to do with how good your resume is. Its all about just getting your resume clicked on in someone's email. The best times to send a resume are:
Sunday 12:01am
Mon-Thurs 12:01am
Friday 3:30pm
I used to average 2-3 months for a job but lately its been a week between jobs! You would think there is another bubble out there or something Mod parent up! I believe the best to send an email CV is Sunday or Monday very early in the morning (before 9am). This tactic works best with small companies that have an ad-hoc interrupt-driven business culture. However, unpredictable hiring managers who hire whoever sent their CV last may not be the managers you want to work with, and they are also the ones who could fire you for no reason. Bureacracies were developed for a reason.
From a business perspective, Fujitsu-Siemens would better advertise their hidden fully-functional USB ports rather than keep them secret: This laptop was advertised as having 3 USB ports, and if at that time I wasn't in a hurry I could have preferred another laptop with 4 ports. As a customer I generally prefer lots of USB ports, so from a marketing perspective Fujitsu-Siemens fails to advertise a feature of their laptops that could potentially be good for their sales.
The USB port, by the way, is accessible by the use of a screwdriver, but without the need to open the whole laptop (just in my case I discovered it when I opened the laptop, because it is my habit as a curious nerd and inquisitive customer to closely inspect what I buy even internally when I don't care about the warranty and I am confident I can open and close it without damaging it). Therefore, the normal user is, I believe, still able to use this USB port without much hassle. The USB port is inside a small compartment near the HD (but you don't have to remove the HD to access it) and there is ample space in there to attach a USB key drive on the port (which is what I did). Furthermore, apart from flash media, users could also install USB RF receivers for their cordless mice or keyboards, or even their own Bluetooth, or even some clever form of anti-theft protection.
Not advertising this as a feature means that they are either too stupid, too busy to document their own systems, or too secretive. The scary thing is that such a USB port in that place could potentially be used for spying or tracking laptop usage. Sure, it may be useful if I am a business and I want to track how my employees use the company's laptops, but one could also use such a "secret" USB port for attaching an antenna or keylogger on it and then selling or giving the laptop to a victim, and then collecting credit card numbers and passwords. In fact, with such a laptop, anyone who gains physical access to it can install a permanent device on your laptop without your knowledge (you could find out, in the end, by using diagnostics software, but few users are that smart), and remember that 500mA is enough power to run a large range of devices including transmitting antennas. I may be somewhat paranoid, but technically such a scenario I describe could actually happen.
For all these reasons, it is a good idea to let customers know all the features of the systems they use. A hidden USB port may be seen as a feature or a threat, and users have a right to know of the features and potential threats of their products. Just like in Acer's case.
We bought it, we paid for it, so we want to know what it can do and how to protect ourselves from its misuse.
You can make money in Second Life. Most (all?) people wish they were rich. Therefore Second Life has the theoretical potential to be used by most (all?) people. The learning curve isn't much a problem when you can make money afterwards: Lots of people go to university to study for many years just in order to get a better paying job. Surely a game like Second Life is not totally irrelevant when you can make money by playing it well.
I once bought a Fujitsu-Siemens laptop with 3 USB ports, but when I opened it I noticed it had a non-visible 4th USB port near the hard disk that you needed a screwdriver in order to access. No mention of it in Fujitsu-Siemen's manuals and other documentation that I got with the laptop, and no mention of it on their website. Although visually hidden, the port was visible via diagnostics software. I thought that this could be one way to put a spy antenna or other device on a laptop (a USB port provides 500mA of power which is enough to power a large range of antennas and electronics). It could be used to put an anti-theft antenna revealing the laptop's location, to put a keylogger, or to put a backup device. In the end I just put a permanent flash key drive in it so I had a laptop with permanent flash storage in addition to the hard disk.
I am studying for an MSc in Management and I believe that you should not automatically rule out late candidates or people who aren't dressed nicely.
Remember that when you are interviewing someone, you ask them to give you their time without any form of payment. Unless they need the job or you are a very reputable employer, people have absolutely no reason to spend time (and perhaps money too) dressing well to appeal to your tastes, or to get an expensive taxi to get on your premises on time. They may have other things to do, they may have been asked to attend 50 other interviews, and they may see no reason why they should spend considerable time to prepare for you.
Suppose that you were to hire Einstein in his 20s. You have asked him to come by 1400, but it is 1345 and he is still busy doing his math computations for his new theory. If he stops now he will go out of his "flow mode" so he continues until 1355. At that time he walks out of his home and gets the bus to your office. So busy with his maths, he had forgot to change clothes and he is in his pyjamas, reaching your office at 1415. You rule him out immediately, he finds better employment elsewhere, and your company loses a bright nerd. You see his name in the newspapers 10 years later, but your company, staffed by incompetent monkeys, fights to remain out of bankruptcy.
Hire brilliant people, motivate them and convince them to work with you, and you will never lose.
I am a Computer Science graduate now working as a programmer while studying toward an MSc in Management, which includes a good deal of HRM, and I can say this: HR drones that use lengthy questionaries are incompetent. You do not need to complete a full MBTI test to get hired. A good HR manager can understand your personality very quickly by having a look at your face, your CV, and your website or blog if you have one. Also, there is just no logic in preferring outgoing personalities for technical positions: Programmers and sysadmins work with their brains, and outgoing people aren't famous for their intelligence. Outgoing people tend to socialise, and I think a company should prefer its programmers to spend time with computers rather than with that nice new female coworker on the next cubicle. Perhaps I would prefer an outgoing person for customer service, but I think programmers and sysadmins should be allowed to work in a quiet environment without interruptions so that they can achieve "flow mode" or "hack mode" and be more productive.
I personally always post under my real name or a screen name which is based on my real name. Unfortunately this does have some security implications. Sometimes we may risk our lives for what we say on our blogs, but I do not think that it is a right thing to censor yourself too much, because, after all, you are and must feel like a free individual with no fear of others discriminating against you (and you shouldn't discriminate, either). People must grow up and be more tolerant toward others.
When I want to beat procrastination I cut down the task in smaller sub-tasks with their own deadline.
For example, if it is 1 January and I have to write a paper until 31 December, then I will try to estimate how long the paper should be and of what parts it should be composed. If I find that I need to write about 10000 words and that the paper should be divided in 6 parts, then I will try to estimate how long each part ought to be. Suppose I find out that 1000 words should go in part 1, 3000 in part 2, 1000 in part 3, 2000 in part 4, 2500 in part 5, and 500 words in part 6.
Then I will attempt to guess the requirements that should be met before writing each part, for example part 2 may require some extensive research before I sit down typing, and part 4 may need to wait until the results of a computer simulation are available. The research may require some reading on my part, so I will have to know how many books I must read and how long or difficult these books are.
If I can calculate the prerequisites for writing the different parts, then I assign deadlines to the completion of each part. I continue breaking the subtasks into smaller and smaller tasks, until I can create weekly or daily schedules. Then I use my PDA, timesheet software, or a personal wiki for tracking my progress.
Another important technique for cutting down procrastination is to minimise startup time/costs. If I need to power up my laptop before typing my essay, then I just leave the laptop open at all times.
Finally, for people who have to spend their days in multiple locations within each day, it is imperative to maximise your mobility. For example, I want to learn some Python, but I have little formal time for investing in it. What I did was to load PythonCE on my HTC Universal PDA (which, by the way, has a QWERTY keyboard and broadband Internet access), so while I commute to work and university I spend the time reading Python tutorials over the Internet and typing programs into the Python interpreter. The fact that this runs on an always-on PDA (with an extended 8h battery and nearly always-on Internet connectivity, too) means that it is very easy to start from where I left even between days (there is no frequent shutdown-bootup cycle in PDAs).
Another example I can give for increased mobility is with e-mail: I was using a POP email server which made life difficult when I couldn't access my mail which was stored on my home's hard disk because I was away from home. What I did was to switch to using my own IMAP server. Combined with RoundCube Webmail software, this really created an environment where I can access my email, including my drafts, from anywhere in the world and with any IMAP client I have in hand.
Other tips for mobility that I know from experience is using laptops with cellular Internet access such as Flybook, and using Web-based tools on your own Web server instead of desktop applications (sometimes I had to write my own Web tools in PHP) so that you are not tied to one particular machine. Use of SSH/VNC with an always-on broadband connection at home is also useful if you need to access your home PC when you travel (assuming you do leave your PC open 24/7 as in my case).
Of course, in actual practice, procrastination still occurs and the planning isn't always reflective of reality, and sometimes you just need to accept this fact and stop worrying too much (especially if you are a Type A personality).
A very good tablet that can run GNU/Linux and Windows XP, and has an internal 3G antenna for Internet access on the go, is Flybook. I own two. The only problem with them is their price (up t0 4000 EUR for a fully equipped top model with accessories, etc.). The old models I own, A33i, also had that Transmeta CPU that slowed down the machine a lot, but the new models, V33, have a Pentium M at 1.1 GHz which ought to be enough.
What a wonderful notebook. Unfortunately, I see no GPRS/UMTS/HSDPA antenna built-in. I wonder why notebook manufacturers keep releasing subnotebooks with no built-in Internet capability. An innovative company has released Flybook which can connect to the Internet with up to 1.8mbps speed through HSDPA 3G networks. While it's true that you can just put a PCMCIA card and have 3G in every laptop, I think that the internal antenna worths the extra money. All high-end PDAs, like HTC Universal, have 3G connectivity nowadays, but few high-end laptops have it. In this sense, PDAs seem to be more advanced than laptops. I just wonder when manufacturers will wake up and understand that built-in GPRS/UMTS/HSDPA connectivity in a laptop multiplies its value to the user more than one hundred times.
My IBM laptops last about 4 hours, and my HTC Universal PDA with broadband Internet and Opera browser lasts up to 8 hours. Manufacturers often sell extended batteries, and if not then you can always carry with you more than 1 battery and change.
Microsoft is known to have hired some open-source people, maybe either because they wanted to silence them with dollars or because they needed good developers. I argue, however, that if they want good developers they ought first to get rid of their inefficient organisational structures. Top talent may not be very productive in an incompetent organisation, and the code coming out of a software company reflects not only the personal abilities of the developers but also the quality of management, organisational efficiency, level of communication, and work ethic of those higher up in the hierarchy of the company.
The British government, though, is seeking to change the law in order to lock up people with personality disorders that are thought to make them likely to commit crimes, before any crime is committed. Sure. Lock up all anti-Bush politicians by 'diagnosing' them as disordered personalities, just 'in case' they commit any crime. Nazi Germany lives strong and well... in New World Order's Britain coming somewhere near you in a Diebold-run election!
(I just hope the reporter posted an erroneous article summary)
I am very happy that Sun Microsystems open sourced its Java and OpenSolaris products. If I buy my own server hardware, I will certainly prefer Sun. Contrast this with Microsoft, which is known for its Embrace-Extend-and-Extinguish practices, its preference to its own shared source licences for the very few lines of code that they ever made public, their aggressive hiring of some open-source people (why? to silence them with dollars?), and shadowy agreements with GNU/Linux vendors. Sun initially tried to use CDDL, but now took a bold step by adopting GPL and releasing actual, useful, working code under it. This means that Sun has open-minded people in its management.
Perhaps we should look into ant colonies to imagine the future of humanity, but this future may never come as we may destroy ourselves with nukes before we develop an ant-like social structure. Of course, I would personally die from depression as an ant, as I value my individuality and healthy competition, so I only hope that human societies continue to value individuality.
the number one cause of poverty is lack of capital. Of course lack of capital can be disastrous and create serious barriers to entry for wanna-be capitalists. However, I argue that the main cause of poverty is lack of skills, intelligence, imagination, and ability. Lack of capital and the existence of a non-free market only amplify this problem (but I agree that they amplify it a lot). It is still possible for a poor person to become rich through hard work, luck, intelligent choices, and determination. Very few poor people can do it, unfortunately, but some do have the ability to break all or most barriers and project their will to the world without a starting capital. In fact I think that the presence of capital only allows you to build wealth without improving your skills a lot. In this sense, capital may "help" you to be lazy, which may be a bad thing in the long run.
Of course, I mostly talk from a theoretical-philosophical standpoint right now. I really wish all poor people had some capital, and of course I would never, on philosophical grounds, decline some capital as a gift if I were offered any!:)
To be a successful capitalist, you need *surprise* capital to start with. Wrong. To be a successful capitalist you need to produce something of value and make people wanting to give you money. You can create the next TheMillionDollarHomePage.com without much capital. If you are wonderfully smart you can make a lot of money by contributing to open-source projects or founding your own project, and if you have the stamina you can keep a day job at the same time for security. Capitalism is about ability and skills. The more able you are, the more money you get. At least that's how it should work in a free market. Unfortunately the current world market is not a free market and is not even unified, often controlled by monopolies, governments, and shadowy interests, which is why people with ability are often ignored or left to die poor.
In socialism-communism, at least as it was implemented by Stalin, Mao, and similar power-hungry inhumane beasts, productive people not only have no incentive to work hard, but in fact they were put into prison or executed. Productive people by their nature want to live in capitalism, and therefore they are revolutionaries in a communist state, so the government went against anyone who had any ability to produce anything of value, including the business people and the intellectuals.
Capitalism is the fairest system though. If you are getting the short end of the stick, then improve YOURSELF. Go to school, change careers, make drastic life changes. Great insight. I agree with this. There are people who have to work while trying to improve themselves for their next "iteration" (better career or their own business, etc.). I would like to emphasise the fact that many corporations do not value on-going education of their staff because they are afraid that their employees will become independent contractors or move to better companies if they learn their profession well. Companies want you to work hard for them, but they won't like it if you work hard to get a degree or set up your own shop, and may actively attempt to demotivate you from investing in further education. Employees who are in such a situation should, I believe, stick to their education and ignore any coercion or overtime requests by abusive managers as much as it's practical and move to another company that values education as soon as possible.
In a true capitalistic society people would get more money according to their contribution (usefulness) to the rest of the community. Capitalism is about competition in ability. You try to improve yourself, in order to produce more, so that you can collect more money. This money is given to you by people who choose to do so in their freedom, because you provide them with useful services. This is the true spirit of capitalism, and is analogous to the struggle of life, evolution, and species in general. It would be capitalistic to learn a new software development methodology in order to be able to produce software faster than your competitors. It wouldn't be really capitalistic, in the philosophical-abstract sense of the word, to attempt to use restrictive exclusivity contracts with your customers and implement vendor-lockin strategies. From a purely philosophical standpoint, using coercion means that you are too lazy or incapable to improve yourself, and therefore you cannot be useful to society, and therefore there is no reason for your community to grant you the right of being rich and this is why revolutions happen.
Slashdot Mirror
Advanced alien civilisations are probably communicating in space using LASERs. We ought to search for lasers, not radio signals.
I consider compilers and interpreters harmful. Programmers write a line of code and test it to see if it works without understanding what happens inside the computer. This "write - observe - fix" cycle gets repeated many times until the most visible bugs are fixed, but nothing guarantees that the system does not contains hard-to-detect bugs deep internally. We need more software engineers, but most people who use this title in companies are either normal programmers or systems analysts, or project managers. When was the last time you used non-deterministic finite state automata, Z notation, or even basic flowcharts at your company? Never used such methods? That's why your software sucks and you need a year to write simple applications that could be written in a month if you used a proper methodology and good methods.
The USB port, by the way, is accessible by the use of a screwdriver, but without the need to open the whole laptop (just in my case I discovered it when I opened the laptop, because it is my habit as a curious nerd and inquisitive customer to closely inspect what I buy even internally when I don't care about the warranty and I am confident I can open and close it without damaging it). Therefore, the normal user is, I believe, still able to use this USB port without much hassle. The USB port is inside a small compartment near the HD (but you don't have to remove the HD to access it) and there is ample space in there to attach a USB key drive on the port (which is what I did). Furthermore, apart from flash media, users could also install USB RF receivers for their cordless mice or keyboards, or even their own Bluetooth, or even some clever form of anti-theft protection.
Not advertising this as a feature means that they are either too stupid, too busy to document their own systems, or too secretive. The scary thing is that such a USB port in that place could potentially be used for spying or tracking laptop usage. Sure, it may be useful if I am a business and I want to track how my employees use the company's laptops, but one could also use such a "secret" USB port for attaching an antenna or keylogger on it and then selling or giving the laptop to a victim, and then collecting credit card numbers and passwords. In fact, with such a laptop, anyone who gains physical access to it can install a permanent device on your laptop without your knowledge (you could find out, in the end, by using diagnostics software, but few users are that smart), and remember that 500mA is enough power to run a large range of devices including transmitting antennas. I may be somewhat paranoid, but technically such a scenario I describe could actually happen.
For all these reasons, it is a good idea to let customers know all the features of the systems they use. A hidden USB port may be seen as a feature or a threat, and users have a right to know of the features and potential threats of their products. Just like in Acer's case.
We bought it, we paid for it, so we want to know what it can do and how to protect ourselves from its misuse.
You can make money in Second Life. Most (all?) people wish they were rich. Therefore Second Life has the theoretical potential to be used by most (all?) people. The learning curve isn't much a problem when you can make money afterwards: Lots of people go to university to study for many years just in order to get a better paying job. Surely a game like Second Life is not totally irrelevant when you can make money by playing it well.
most probably the extra port was there for bluetoth support. however, i did not like the fact that as a customer I was not told about it.
I once bought a Fujitsu-Siemens laptop with 3 USB ports, but when I opened it I noticed it had a non-visible 4th USB port near the hard disk that you needed a screwdriver in order to access. No mention of it in Fujitsu-Siemen's manuals and other documentation that I got with the laptop, and no mention of it on their website. Although visually hidden, the port was visible via diagnostics software. I thought that this could be one way to put a spy antenna or other device on a laptop (a USB port provides 500mA of power which is enough to power a large range of antennas and electronics). It could be used to put an anti-theft antenna revealing the laptop's location, to put a keylogger, or to put a backup device. In the end I just put a permanent flash key drive in it so I had a laptop with permanent flash storage in addition to the hard disk.
I am studying for an MSc in Management and I believe that you should not automatically rule out late candidates or people who aren't dressed nicely. Remember that when you are interviewing someone, you ask them to give you their time without any form of payment. Unless they need the job or you are a very reputable employer, people have absolutely no reason to spend time (and perhaps money too) dressing well to appeal to your tastes, or to get an expensive taxi to get on your premises on time. They may have other things to do, they may have been asked to attend 50 other interviews, and they may see no reason why they should spend considerable time to prepare for you. Suppose that you were to hire Einstein in his 20s. You have asked him to come by 1400, but it is 1345 and he is still busy doing his math computations for his new theory. If he stops now he will go out of his "flow mode" so he continues until 1355. At that time he walks out of his home and gets the bus to your office. So busy with his maths, he had forgot to change clothes and he is in his pyjamas, reaching your office at 1415. You rule him out immediately, he finds better employment elsewhere, and your company loses a bright nerd. You see his name in the newspapers 10 years later, but your company, staffed by incompetent monkeys, fights to remain out of bankruptcy. Hire brilliant people, motivate them and convince them to work with you, and you will never lose.
because of this real estate overhead companies, including Google, must embrace telework and telecommuting.
I am a Computer Science graduate now working as a programmer while studying toward an MSc in Management, which includes a good deal of HRM, and I can say this: HR drones that use lengthy questionaries are incompetent. You do not need to complete a full MBTI test to get hired. A good HR manager can understand your personality very quickly by having a look at your face, your CV, and your website or blog if you have one. Also, there is just no logic in preferring outgoing personalities for technical positions: Programmers and sysadmins work with their brains, and outgoing people aren't famous for their intelligence. Outgoing people tend to socialise, and I think a company should prefer its programmers to spend time with computers rather than with that nice new female coworker on the next cubicle. Perhaps I would prefer an outgoing person for customer service, but I think programmers and sysadmins should be allowed to work in a quiet environment without interruptions so that they can achieve "flow mode" or "hack mode" and be more productive.
I personally always post under my real name or a screen name which is based on my real name. Unfortunately this does have some security implications. Sometimes we may risk our lives for what we say on our blogs, but I do not think that it is a right thing to censor yourself too much, because, after all, you are and must feel like a free individual with no fear of others discriminating against you (and you shouldn't discriminate, either). People must grow up and be more tolerant toward others.
When I want to beat procrastination I cut down the task in smaller sub-tasks with their own deadline.
For example, if it is 1 January and I have to write a paper until 31 December, then I will try to estimate how long the paper should be and of what parts it should be composed. If I find that I need to write about 10000 words and that the paper should be divided in 6 parts, then I will try to estimate how long each part ought to be. Suppose I find out that 1000 words should go in part 1, 3000 in part 2, 1000 in part 3, 2000 in part 4, 2500 in part 5, and 500 words in part 6.
Then I will attempt to guess the requirements that should be met before writing each part, for example part 2 may require some extensive research before I sit down typing, and part 4 may need to wait until the results of a computer simulation are available. The research may require some reading on my part, so I will have to know how many books I must read and how long or difficult these books are.
If I can calculate the prerequisites for writing the different parts, then I assign deadlines to the completion of each part. I continue breaking the subtasks into smaller and smaller tasks, until I can create weekly or daily schedules. Then I use my PDA, timesheet software, or a personal wiki for tracking my progress.
Another important technique for cutting down procrastination is to minimise startup time/costs. If I need to power up my laptop before typing my essay, then I just leave the laptop open at all times.
Finally, for people who have to spend their days in multiple locations within each day, it is imperative to maximise your mobility. For example, I want to learn some Python, but I have little formal time for investing in it. What I did was to load PythonCE on my HTC Universal PDA (which, by the way, has a QWERTY keyboard and broadband Internet access), so while I commute to work and university I spend the time reading Python tutorials over the Internet and typing programs into the Python interpreter. The fact that this runs on an always-on PDA (with an extended 8h battery and nearly always-on Internet connectivity, too) means that it is very easy to start from where I left even between days (there is no frequent shutdown-bootup cycle in PDAs).
Another example I can give for increased mobility is with e-mail: I was using a POP email server which made life difficult when I couldn't access my mail which was stored on my home's hard disk because I was away from home. What I did was to switch to using my own IMAP server. Combined with RoundCube Webmail software, this really created an environment where I can access my email, including my drafts, from anywhere in the world and with any IMAP client I have in hand.
Other tips for mobility that I know from experience is using laptops with cellular Internet access such as Flybook, and using Web-based tools on your own Web server instead of desktop applications (sometimes I had to write my own Web tools in PHP) so that you are not tied to one particular machine. Use of SSH/VNC with an always-on broadband connection at home is also useful if you need to access your home PC when you travel (assuming you do leave your PC open 24/7 as in my case).
Of course, in actual practice, procrastination still occurs and the planning isn't always reflective of reality, and sometimes you just need to accept this fact and stop worrying too much (especially if you are a Type A personality).
A very good tablet that can run GNU/Linux and Windows XP, and has an internal 3G antenna for Internet access on the go, is Flybook. I own two. The only problem with them is their price (up t0 4000 EUR for a fully equipped top model with accessories, etc.). The old models I own, A33i, also had that Transmeta CPU that slowed down the machine a lot, but the new models, V33, have a Pentium M at 1.1 GHz which ought to be enough.
What a wonderful notebook. Unfortunately, I see no GPRS/UMTS/HSDPA antenna built-in. I wonder why notebook manufacturers keep releasing subnotebooks with no built-in Internet capability. An innovative company has released Flybook which can connect to the Internet with up to 1.8mbps speed through HSDPA 3G networks. While it's true that you can just put a PCMCIA card and have 3G in every laptop, I think that the internal antenna worths the extra money. All high-end PDAs, like HTC Universal, have 3G connectivity nowadays, but few high-end laptops have it. In this sense, PDAs seem to be more advanced than laptops. I just wonder when manufacturers will wake up and understand that built-in GPRS/UMTS/HSDPA connectivity in a laptop multiplies its value to the user more than one hundred times.
My IBM laptops last about 4 hours, and my HTC Universal PDA with broadband Internet and Opera browser lasts up to 8 hours. Manufacturers often sell extended batteries, and if not then you can always carry with you more than 1 battery and change.
Microsoft is known to have hired some open-source people, maybe either because they wanted to silence them with dollars or because they needed good developers. I argue, however, that if they want good developers they ought first to get rid of their inefficient organisational structures. Top talent may not be very productive in an incompetent organisation, and the code coming out of a software company reflects not only the personal abilities of the developers but also the quality of management, organisational efficiency, level of communication, and work ethic of those higher up in the hierarchy of the company.
(I just hope the reporter posted an erroneous article summary)
I am very happy that Sun Microsystems open sourced its Java and OpenSolaris products. If I buy my own server hardware, I will certainly prefer Sun. Contrast this with Microsoft, which is known for its Embrace-Extend-and-Extinguish practices, its preference to its own shared source licences for the very few lines of code that they ever made public, their aggressive hiring of some open-source people (why? to silence them with dollars?), and shadowy agreements with GNU/Linux vendors. Sun initially tried to use CDDL, but now took a bold step by adopting GPL and releasing actual, useful, working code under it. This means that Sun has open-minded people in its management.
Perhaps we should look into ant colonies to imagine the future of humanity, but this future may never come as we may destroy ourselves with nukes before we develop an ant-like social structure. Of course, I would personally die from depression as an ant, as I value my individuality and healthy competition, so I only hope that human societies continue to value individuality.
Of course, I mostly talk from a theoretical-philosophical standpoint right now. I really wish all poor people had some capital, and of course I would never, on philosophical grounds, decline some capital as a gift if I were offered any! :)
In socialism-communism, at least as it was implemented by Stalin, Mao, and similar power-hungry inhumane beasts, productive people not only have no incentive to work hard, but in fact they were put into prison or executed. Productive people by their nature want to live in capitalism, and therefore they are revolutionaries in a communist state, so the government went against anyone who had any ability to produce anything of value, including the business people and the intellectuals.
In a true capitalistic society people would get more money according to their contribution (usefulness) to the rest of the community. Capitalism is about competition in ability. You try to improve yourself, in order to produce more, so that you can collect more money. This money is given to you by people who choose to do so in their freedom, because you provide them with useful services. This is the true spirit of capitalism, and is analogous to the struggle of life, evolution, and species in general. It would be capitalistic to learn a new software development methodology in order to be able to produce software faster than your competitors. It wouldn't be really capitalistic, in the philosophical-abstract sense of the word, to attempt to use restrictive exclusivity contracts with your customers and implement vendor-lockin strategies. From a purely philosophical standpoint, using coercion means that you are too lazy or incapable to improve yourself, and therefore you cannot be useful to society, and therefore there is no reason for your community to grant you the right of being rich and this is why revolutions happen.