I dare say it's the sexiest thing I've seen yet. If they ever release a version 2 that allows for simple Javascript on the client for AJAX interfaces, there will be only 1 game in town for web development!
Ruby on Rails 1.0 already has extensive AJAX support. It uses the Prototype library and the Scriptaculous library (which builds on top of Prototype). Thomas Fuchs, the creater of Scriptaculous is a core Rails contributor.
The grandparent and parent both touch on something important. The vandal/repairman example comes straight from Hazlitt and is indeed an old fallacy. People see the new improved and rock-resistent glass and they say 'now that's progress'. What they don't see is the resources the shopkeeper had wanted to purchase with the money that had to go to the new window. The shopkeeper could have spent that money to become more efficient or expand. Or as in Hazlitt's example, bought a new suit. Then the tailor would have had more resources to put into play.
The window repairman, much like the parent poster, probably thinks rock-resistant windows and proxy firewalls are an excellent investment. When we look at the long list of technologies that changed the 20th century, many/most were developed at least in part to help wage and defend warfare. One might deduce that warfare is a creator of value. Yet war is always a destroyer of value. It is the allocation of resources that could be more suitably employed.
I really should not do this, but I must address your passionate defense of the public sector. A nation state is, figuratively speaking, chartered as an operating company. It's primary goal being to create a stable environment for it's members to thrive. Two steps to accomplish this goal were taken by the Unitesd States early in our history with the establishment of a standing army and court system to regulate interstate disputes. Later we added things like inter-state highways to help. At times, we have protected resources, subsidized industry and researched sciences. We decided that an educated workforce was important and created departments for things like commerce. The costs of all these projects should be thought of as infrastructure costs (i.e the cost of doing business). THe United States' infrastructure costs have been ehh, roughly about 20% of our Gross Domestic Product. Twenty cents out of each dollar of product we create goes to maintaining this infrastructure. I am, of course, excluding the cost of state and municipal infrastructure in these calculations.
As often happens in this world, second movers get to leverage the trails you blaze. An upstart nation state with little in the way of infrastructure except knowledge and a hunger, can compete with you, and not only are they more agile, they don't have the 20% expense. Naturally, this would scare people into questioning whether they are getting good Return On their infrastructure Investment. IBM sold the Machines! Now they're just IB.
The two political parties constrain the conversation to whether to increase funding for this organization by this percentage or that percentage. The question of whether that organzation should still be centralized is never even asked. When you hear about federal funding for police, EMTs and teachers, remind yourself of the process. It's probably something like: tax money leaves state for federal government -> state employee writes grant proposals to federal government -> federal employee reviews proposals -> commitee decides which proposals to fund --> money returns to state.
You say these underpaid overworked public sector employees have their life on the line for me. Tell, me what percentage of your wife's time is spent prosecuting murderers and rapists and what percentage is spent prosecuting young men selling drugs to people who want them in poor neighborhoods? Prosecuting women contracting for consensual sex?
I would be surpised to find that contract boilerplate does not exist for these scenarios, but here is what I think my general (oversimplified) guidelines would be:
If the script was some sort of feature unique to my business or processes, I would contract to own the source.
If the script is for a general feature that the developer wishes to maintain as an offering to other customers, than the contract should be written as though you are sponsoring the development of the feature (1.e. lower price)
If the situation is somewhere in between I would negotiate source escrow for specific deliverables/metrics.
But in regards to your current situation, continue to request his attention to your concerns. If that fails, request the source. If all else fails flame him all across the web.
I don't think I've ever heard it discussed much, but distributed flaming/shaming (flashflames) could someday be an effective punishment. It sounds stupid, but I'm sure there are employers out there googling prospective recruits/contractors.
Ballmer has probably done a pretty decent job considering the circumstances. I think the cash horde was originally for a potential SAP acq/merge. When that was a no go, the only battle big enough and worthy of a fight was the very one that Microsoft was hoping would go away...the web.
The real story here is the failure of Microsoft's Chief Architect to deliver a compelling vision. Longhorn, Avalon, Betting-on-Rich-Clients, Blah-Blah-Blah, No-One-Freakin-Cares!
It's telling that the big technology stories of 2004 were 4+ year old technologies: javascript, DHTML, XMLHTTP, RSS, Wiki.
They probably thought it was pretty funny sending the IE team on a 4 year sabbatical and releasing multi-gigabyte developer studios without a proper web development tool. But lately the belly laughs have turned to nervous grins.
In terms of universal history, human readable compendiums of knowledge are a fairly recent endeavor. Over the last couple hundred years Encyclopedia Britannica and others have made great strides in compiling and editing knowledge bases, and Mr. McHenry's criticisms are valid. Yet this issue, as with most others, basically comes down to a worldview. Do we need the medicine man to lead us to the land of milk and honey? Or in an emergent way, can we just get there together? Mr. McHenry shows us his worldview right away in reference to the leaderless interpedia. But Wikipedia is an interesting experiment. Liken a malicious editor to the mobs that destroyed the library of Alexandria. Knowledge is lost, and for a time 'there be dragons', but those who know preserve and restore the knowledge (often igniting new ideas). This is all new. I'm not saying that the oversoul operates on port 80 or anything, but it's way to early to be casting your bets.
I'm vey interested in your vision for Python in Ubuntu Linux. After up-to-date Debian and Gnome, the Python emphasis is the most compelling feature for me. Could you elaborate on future plans, packages or interfaces for Python in Ubuntu Linux? Thanks.
Slashdot Mirror
I dare say it's the sexiest thing I've seen yet. If they ever release a version 2 that allows for simple Javascript on the client for AJAX interfaces, there will be only 1 game in town for web development!
Ruby on Rails 1.0 already has extensive AJAX support. It uses the Prototype library and the Scriptaculous library (which builds on top of Prototype). Thomas Fuchs, the creater of Scriptaculous is a core Rails contributor.
Imagine if some wise tutor could harness this technology and knowledge and instill a pupil with the ability to conquer the world...
muwhahaha...
yes yes I know I know...it's not the same Macedonia.
Postgres 8 Release Date: 2005-01-19
SQL Server 2000 Release Date: Well, in 2000.
The publication is available in either hardcopy or .pdf for $250 through IHS Global Engineering Documents.
Where's the BitTorrent link already?
Second, absolutely mandate IPSec
Third, mnandate QoS
use X.509 certificates at both host and user levels
I would not have thought it possible for someone to have been around this long and still completeley miscomprehend the utility of the dumb network.
My hat goes off to you sir.
The grandparent and parent both touch on something important. The vandal/repairman example comes straight from Hazlitt and is indeed an old fallacy. People see the new improved and rock-resistent glass and they say 'now that's progress'. What they don't see is the resources the shopkeeper had wanted to purchase with the money that had to go to the new window. The shopkeeper could have spent that money to become more efficient or expand. Or as in Hazlitt's example, bought a new suit. Then the tailor would have had more resources to put into play.
The window repairman, much like the parent poster, probably thinks rock-resistant windows and proxy firewalls are an excellent investment. When we look at the long list of technologies that changed the 20th century, many/most were developed at least in part to help wage and defend warfare. One might deduce that warfare is a creator of value. Yet war is always a destroyer of value. It is the allocation of resources that could be more suitably employed.
I really should not do this, but I must address your passionate defense of the public sector. A nation state is, figuratively speaking, chartered as an operating company. It's primary goal being to create a stable environment for it's members to thrive. Two steps to accomplish this goal were taken by the Unitesd States early in our history with the establishment of a standing army and court system to regulate interstate disputes. Later we added things like inter-state highways to help. At times, we have protected resources, subsidized industry and researched sciences. We decided that an educated workforce was important and created departments for things like commerce. The costs of all these projects should be thought of as infrastructure costs (i.e the cost of doing business). THe United States' infrastructure costs have been ehh, roughly about 20% of our Gross Domestic Product. Twenty cents out of each dollar of product we create goes to maintaining this infrastructure. I am, of course, excluding the cost of state and municipal infrastructure in these calculations.
As often happens in this world, second movers get to leverage the trails you blaze. An upstart nation state with little in the way of infrastructure except knowledge and a hunger, can compete with you, and not only are they more agile, they don't have the 20% expense. Naturally, this would scare people into questioning whether they are getting good Return On their infrastructure Investment. IBM sold the Machines! Now they're just IB.
The two political parties constrain the conversation to whether to increase funding for this organization by this percentage or that percentage. The question of whether that organzation should still be centralized is never even asked. When you hear about federal funding for police, EMTs and teachers, remind yourself of the process. It's probably something like: tax money leaves state for federal government -> state employee writes grant proposals to federal government -> federal employee reviews proposals -> commitee decides which proposals to fund --> money returns to state.
You say these underpaid overworked public sector employees have their life on the line for me. Tell, me what percentage of your wife's time is spent prosecuting murderers and rapists and what percentage is spent prosecuting young men selling drugs to people who want them in poor neighborhoods? Prosecuting women contracting for consensual sex?
I would be surpised to find that contract boilerplate does not exist for these scenarios, but here is what I think my general (oversimplified) guidelines would be:
If the script was some sort of feature unique to my business or processes, I would contract to own the source.
If the script is for a general feature that the developer wishes to maintain as an offering to other customers, than the contract should be written as though you are sponsoring the development of the feature (1.e. lower price)
If the situation is somewhere in between I would negotiate source escrow for specific deliverables/metrics.
But in regards to your current situation, continue to request his attention to your concerns. If that fails, request the source. If all else fails flame him all across the web.
I don't think I've ever heard it discussed much, but distributed flaming/shaming (flashflames) could someday be an effective punishment. It sounds stupid, but I'm sure there are employers out there googling prospective recruits/contractors.
Ballmer has probably done a pretty decent job considering the circumstances. I think the cash horde was originally for a potential SAP acq/merge. When that was a no go, the only battle big enough and worthy of a fight was the very one that Microsoft was hoping would go away...the web.
The real story here is the failure of Microsoft's Chief Architect to deliver a compelling vision. Longhorn, Avalon, Betting-on-Rich-Clients, Blah-Blah-Blah, No-One-Freakin-Cares!
It's telling that the big technology stories of 2004 were 4+ year old technologies: javascript, DHTML, XMLHTTP, RSS, Wiki.
They probably thought it was pretty funny sending the IE team on a 4 year sabbatical and releasing multi-gigabyte developer studios without a proper web development tool. But lately the belly laughs have turned to nervous grins.
Put this together with WyPy, an 11 line python wiki, and you have the beginnings of a 36 line YASNS.
Well who *is* on Google's side?
Six hundred million screamin' Chinamen.
I thought there was a billion screamin' Chinamen.
There was...
In terms of universal history, human readable compendiums of knowledge are a fairly recent endeavor. Over the last couple hundred years Encyclopedia Britannica and others have made great strides in compiling and editing knowledge bases, and Mr. McHenry's criticisms are valid. Yet this issue, as with most others, basically comes down to a worldview. Do we need the medicine man to lead us to the land of milk and honey? Or in an emergent way, can we just get there together? Mr. McHenry shows us his worldview right away in reference to the leaderless interpedia. But Wikipedia is an interesting experiment. Liken a malicious editor to the mobs that destroyed the library of Alexandria. Knowledge is lost, and for a time 'there be dragons', but those who know preserve and restore the knowledge (often igniting new ideas). This is all new. I'm not saying that the oversoul operates on port 80 or anything, but it's way to early to be casting your bets.
The U.S. Governement's ultra-secret monitoring system 'echelon' was briefly unavailable after the NSA's web servers were Slashdotted.
I'm vey interested in your vision for Python in Ubuntu Linux. After up-to-date Debian and Gnome, the Python emphasis is the most compelling feature for me. Could you elaborate on future plans, packages or interfaces for Python in Ubuntu Linux? Thanks.