Slashdot Mirror


User: bastafidli

bastafidli's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
65
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 65

  1. Re:Good riddance! on The SUV Is Dethroned · · Score: 1

    I paid $0.78 for gallon of regular in Dallas, TX in summer of 1998.

  2. Re:Good riddance! on The SUV Is Dethroned · · Score: 1

    You know. Home Depot and Lowes rent trucks for less than $20/75 minutes you can use for delivery. I am sure you could have spent your money more wisely :-).

  3. Re:Explain? on MediaDefender Explains Itself · · Score: 1

    Well, why is not Wired having interview with spokeperson of FBI or DOJ asking about the stauts of the investigation???

  4. What about system/camera for continuous life feed on Is Cheap Video Surveillance Possible? · · Score: 1

    I would like to ask a slightly modified question and that is I have area on my property which I would like to continuosly monitor. So what I would like is a cheap/durable/sensitive camera, that I can let say hook to my TV/tuner and see what is going on in that area or my property day or night. Is there anything like this?

  5. Re:Where do you work? on Guerrilla IT, Embracing the Superuser? · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    Actually your tone and attitude show who is the jackass.

    I am not responsible for reinstalling and reconfiguring all that software. I dont think anybody asked you for this. Or me as as one of those users wouldn't ask you for this. If my computer gets screwed up, then I expect you to put it back to the working shape according to company standards and I take it from there.

    I'll restore an image. I'll recover files, though frankly they should already be on the network share. I'll give you a fresh install. That's it. That is what most such users would expect from you and anything more. Except with better attitude. The "that's it" attitude is the exact reason why many IT departments have so many reputations and if I can personally avoid them I will.

    We've all got jobs to do and if I have to spend a week fixing a screwed install (and it'd have to be me or one of the other senior guys because the regular techs aren't equipped to do it), then a weeks worth of my work won't be getting done. Your job as an IT guys is to support users. That's about it. If you have other duties than that, take it with your manager to better define your position or allocate resources. You are an expense to the company. You do not usually produce anything. Your value is only in one thing and that is how well can you enable other employees to do their job. If they have to put up with yout attitude during that process, it just makes you less valueable.
  6. SageTV on Blockbuster Working on Set-Top Box · · Score: 1

    They should just buy SageTV (http://www.sagetv.com) and their HD Media Extender (woops, I shouldn't be probably saying it since I do own one and it is the single best piece of electronic equipment I have ever bought).

  7. Re:Windows Server rocks on Microsoft's Savvy Open Source Move · · Score: 2, Informative

    I have a mod points but couldn't resist to comment :-) >2008 can be installed without a gui. You can > powershell/remote admin EVERYTHING from the > command line. In fact, the GUI admin tools use the > things written for the powershell/command line > administration. So MS finally reinvented the wheel and W2k8 finally behaves as Unix :-)

  8. Re:Live marketplace on Why Microsoft Won't Have Blu-ray on the Xbox · · Score: 1

    With physical media I: I don't have to be connected to watch!!!! (car, hotel, airplane...)

  9. Re:Uncrackable media on Blu-ray BD+ Cracked · · Score: 1

    And how easy would be for the pirates so user their player to read the disk once and then remaster it to exclude this information. There goes the protection.

  10. Re:If they know where it is originating from... on We Know Who's Behind Storm Worm · · Score: 1

    I completely agree with this approach. Honestly how many websites there are in Russia majority of users in US us?. Unless they are Russian expats the number is very low. I think ISPs should provide this feature when by default certain high risk regions would be blacklisted by default. Users who are still interested in accessing nodes in these regions could opt-in an be placed on some kind of VPN isolated from other users of that ISP. By letting ISPs deal with this, US goverment can also wash their hands since this is a private business decision of organization they cannot control.

  11. Re:Serial framework hater on Rails Bigwig Rails on Rails Community · · Score: 1

    Actually everything he said about the consulting business matches my experiences, I did work with some very bright and hard working consultants but I have also worked with overpaid, know-nothings protecting their turf. I am so happy I don't have to deal with it anymore and it is actually one of the requirements when looking for a job, how do they use consultants in their organization.

  12. Fun, fun, fun on Rails Bigwig Rails on Rails Community · · Score: 1

    Regardless if the things are true or not, this is the single most entertaining thing I have read on the Internet in last few months.

  13. Re:Wal-Mart "squished"? on Wal-Mart Closes Online Movie Download Service · · Score: 1

    I live in north dallas which is pretty much exactly in the middle of highly populated area (no suburbs) with several million dollar neighborhoods around it. Two years ago they torn down old mall and built walmart in its place. Walmart attracted many other stores (B&N, Circuit City, Petco, Ulta, DSW, ...) and restaurants. The area is now really hopping. I am actually really happy it is there.

  14. Re:OpenSubsystems on 9 Open Source Companies to Watch · · Score: 1

    Hi, I am the owner of the project and architect for the development team of OpenSubsystems. Thanks for the interest in our project. We have a big release coming this week, when we will release OpenChronicle, thorough tutorial to Open Core, our middleware abstraction layer. Please check it out.

  15. Holy grail of reusable objects on Alan Cox on Writing Better Software · · Score: 1

    Pretty interesting reading especially since it touches several points we are also trying to make with our OpenSubsystems project.

    He says: "Of the much-vaunted 'holy grail' of reusable objects, Cox said, "As far as I'm concerned these all generally suck too. Part of the problem is that they're sold as products and the original ideas behind a lot of reusable products is that you wrote it once. If you write it once, it has to do everything. If it does everything it's complicated, and if it's complicated, it's broken. That's not always the case but it is quite frequently the case.""

    I cannot agree with this point. It is impossible to start every project from scratch and even though not reinventing the wheel, create your own version of it. Using his own argument about microprocessor industry, microprocessor manufaturers mastered the art of creation of complex and reusable objects Similar examples can be found in other areas of life (construction industry, car manufacturing). Since it is possible to do it in hardware, there is no reason why software components cannot be complex and still reusable but still of high quality. The software industry should probably learn their lessons from the the above mentioned industries.

    Some of the critical requirements to get to that point are

    Be specific then generalize. Only very few people have the capability to abstract the patterns to create reusable piece of software. If the generalized patterns don't match the actual need and use, they will not be used. Create software you need and that does exactly what it needs to do. Then go back, review, revise, observe and only then extract the common themes into patterns and reusable components. Replace the specific parts of you system with the newly identified reusable components.

    Start simple. Most software projects struggle with incorrect, invalid or misunderstood requirements. It is impossible to create something, which can be reused if we do not understand what it should be used for. When trying to create reusable component, do not try to encompass "infinite and everyting". Take only the pieces, which are truly generic and handle other scenarious by inheritance or customization. Software follows 80/20 rule where 80 percent of users use or need only 20 percent of the provided functionality. Your generic components should represent those 20 percent.

    Good interface. Design good interface for your reusable components. This is what everybody will be using with the rest of the software being just a black box for most users. If you do not get the interfaces right then the component will not be used correctly or as often as it should be. If they are not easy enough, the perception will be it is easier to recreate it than reuse.

    Test, Test, Test. There is no excuse for releasing code, which doesn't work. The reusable code represents you and your reputation and it is much easier to loose a good reputation than to gain a bad once. Think about it as warranty. It plays a big role when buying car or house. Why shouldn't it play the same role when buying software.

    Extend and iterate. Once you got the simple reusable object right, customized and extended it few times for specific situations look back and identify the next set of common behavior. Listen to your users. Instead of including every new feature into the simple component, think about creating new extended version, which can be reusable as well. This way you can still provide and use the simple object when the simplicity satisfies the requirements without confusing users with the additional bells and whistles.

    Documentation. Without documentation it is difficult to use any slightly more complex object. Without documentation it is hard to communicate your ideas and intentions. The better you communicate the larger audience understands you.