> "C++ makes it harder to shoot yourself in the foot; but when you do, it takes off the whole leg" > is sometimes quoted in a manner hostile to C++. That just shows immaturity.
I fully agree. Anyone who says that C++ makes it harder to shoot yourself in the foot obviously doesn't have a clue what they're talking about.
I also agree with the point about powerful tools being potentially dangerous. The problem with C++ is an absurdly high power-to-danger ratio. It's not the difference between a bicycle and a car, it's the difference between a car and a car with a jet engine welded to the roof. Both of them are pretty dangerous, but one of them has quite a bit more power than its control mechanisms can safely handle.
If you're gonna be pedantic, it's a lower-case 'c'.
But I'll freely admit to being biased. I've spent my time in the C++ trenches. C isn't a terribly good language, but when you shoot yourself in the foot it's usually a clean wound.
Early C++ "compilers" usually did more than just macro processing, but only just; most of them were implemented in terms of translating C++ to equivalent C code and then compiling the resulting C. Not so elegant, but it allowed compiler vendors to pick the low-hanging fruit and get something on the market ASAP.
It wasn't just commercial compilers, either. g++ worked that way.
Of course, it goes without saying that these early C++ compilers sucked hard.
> All these companies have to do is change them over to a serial hybrid esp for trucks.
Yep. I have a 10 year old pickup truck (secondary vehicle, now). I figure I can keep it running until manufacturers get a few hybrids out there. It's inevitable, and I suspect that's at least a part of why truck sales have fallen off so quickly; people who don't absolutely need to replace a truck are waiting for the hybrids. Or even smaller diesels.
> Is there any value to the company in standardizing on a text editor?
Standardization appears to have intrinsic value to some people.
We have someone high up in our organization who made an attempt to standardize the timeouts on screensavers for all corporate systems. So, you know, everyone would be the same. Currently, there's an on-going effort to standardize workstation hostnames to include information like workstation type (laptop, desktop, etc) building name, floor number, and user name. For a cross-country organization. Which supposedly has an Active Directory service.
Standardizing something may not make sense, but it doesn't mean someone won't try.
> Is Obama a black man with a white mother or a white man with a black father? > As a racist white male, this question has been causing me night terrors!
He's a politician. He's any color that'll get him elected. No need to feel guilty about hating him.
> Honestly, I wonder why nobody followed the thought train of "Hmm... my > life's wasted now anyway. Why not blow up the joint and go out with a bang?"
That's a good point, seeing as how the large media companies say they're only suing the most hardened criminals. Surely those mafioso grandmothers would know that it's cheaper to hire a hitman or two than to fight a court battle? And a hardcore, meth-addicted welfare mother would have access to heavy weapons, right?
> We have hunger, diseases, war... and all these people want to do is to get everybody to stop eating animals.
Feed any hungry lately? Cure any diseases today? How about stopping that war? Any of that stuff working for you?
I don't necessarily agree with PETA (goals or methods, take your pick), but as causes go it's one of the less futile ones. It fits into the "think globally, act locally" model in that just about any individual can practice what they preach and collectively see progress over time. If you measure improvements in animal welfare over any stretch of time, there's clearly been improvements.
In the big picture, it's certainly a better use of someones time and energy than getting excited about whether the $team_of_millionaires are going to beat the pants off the $other_team_of_millionaires in $team_sport.
Er, no. Not unless you believe music doesn't "exist" until someone plays it on an instrument.
If you really want perfect analogies, programming is like programming, music is like music, and math is like math. But I think you'll find that, like in music, perfection is rather boring.
> Programming is kinda like music, once you understand the theory of how > music works, its easier to pick up a musical instrument
Math is kinda like music. Programming is a lot like designing and building musical instruments. Theory is necessary to do it well, but theory alone will give you a violin which implodes when you tighten the strings.
> "Hah, I'm superior to you because these people that I am unaffiliated with > are better than some other people!" isn't a sane position.
It's not sane, but it certainly appears to be very normal human behaviour. Come to think of it, Apple fanboys are relatively tame in comparison to spectator sports fans.
> Where there is a law that makes an offense to mock religious belief.
For a secretive cult like Scientology, that sort of thing is a two-edged sword. Basically, they only get the protection if they're willing to go to court and claim that they hold a particular tract as a religious belief. I'm sure you can think of which "stories" to start with...
> So I would support a "contact terms mean what they mean" law
I think it's pretty well established that when you're dealing with abusive monopolies, contracts mean "bend over, spread cheeks" for the average consumer. I don't think you want that made into a law.
> Ballmer is correct to an extent - google and yahoo ARE a house of > cards, completely reliant on the fickle advertising market and pumped > up share prices.
This would be the same market Ballmer proposes to run Microsoft into debt in order to buy into?
> When it's Godzilla vs Godzilla, Tokyo gets trashed either way.
WTF is wrong with people in Tokyo, anyways? I mean, you'd think that after a few giant monster attacks, they'd update their building codes to survive things like massive tail sideswipes and napalm monster spit. Maybe have the subway system easily convertible into giant spikey death pits near major intersections? Stop being victims, people!
> The techology companies have paid lip service to trying to solve the problem. > They offer up solutions but their heart isn't really in it.
Well, of course not. They're being asked to solve the impossible, they get shit on when they don't, and if, after all that effort, they manage to come up with a halfway decent solution they have a bunch of middlemen trying to get a cut of their profits. Real motivating, that.
> As a final thought. Its now possible to buy music, on a track by track basis, > for a reasonable amount of money, without DRM. Has this made a dint in > illegal filesharing?
Certainly not. Illegal filesharing is the entrenched encumbent. It's not enough to offer an alternative. You need to offer speed, selection, convenience, quality, and maybe even compete on price. P2P has been giving people what they want for more than a decade while the entertainment industry has been twiddling their prostates. It's going to take years before anyone notices significant changes.
Slashdot Mirror
> "C++ makes it harder to shoot yourself in the foot; but when you do, it takes off the whole leg"
> is sometimes quoted in a manner hostile to C++. That just shows immaturity.
I fully agree. Anyone who says that C++ makes it harder to shoot yourself in the foot obviously doesn't have a clue what they're talking about.
I also agree with the point about powerful tools being potentially dangerous. The problem with C++ is an absurdly high power-to-danger ratio. It's not the difference between a bicycle and a car, it's the difference between a car and a car with a jet engine welded to the roof. Both of them are pretty dangerous, but one of them has quite a bit more power than its control mechanisms can safely handle.
c.
> Aren't you just a bit biased?
If you're gonna be pedantic, it's a lower-case 'c'.
But I'll freely admit to being biased. I've spent my time in the C++ trenches. C isn't a terribly good language, but when you shoot yourself in the foot it's usually a clean wound.
c.
Early C++ "compilers" usually did more than just macro processing, but only just; most of them were implemented in terms of translating C++ to equivalent C code and then compiling the resulting C. Not so elegant, but it allowed compiler vendors to pick the low-hanging fruit and get something on the market ASAP.
It wasn't just commercial compilers, either. g++ worked that way.
Of course, it goes without saying that these early C++ compilers sucked hard.
c.
> > It's happened a number of times. All you have to do is get enough people to agree with you.
...fixed that for you.
... fixed that for both of you.
> All you have to do is get enough armed people to agree with you.
>
All you have to do is get enough rich corporations to agree with you.
c.
> All these companies have to do is change them over to a serial hybrid esp for trucks.
Yep. I have a 10 year old pickup truck (secondary vehicle, now). I figure I can keep it running until manufacturers get a few hybrids out there. It's inevitable, and I suspect that's at least a part of why truck sales have fallen off so quickly; people who don't absolutely need to replace a truck are waiting for the hybrids. Or even smaller diesels.
c.
> Is there any value to the company in standardizing on a text editor?
Standardization appears to have intrinsic value to some people.
We have someone high up in our organization who made an attempt to standardize the timeouts on screensavers for all corporate systems. So, you know, everyone would be the same. Currently, there's an on-going effort to standardize workstation hostnames to include information like workstation type (laptop, desktop, etc) building name, floor number, and user name. For a cross-country organization. Which supposedly has an Active Directory service.
Standardizing something may not make sense, but it doesn't mean someone won't try.
c.
> [a whole pile of stuff which makes perfect sense] ... then ...
> Its a pity that Radiohead's music is not country/hip-hop
At this point, the reader builds a mental image of Radiohead performing a country/hip-hop fusion. The Elder Gods claim another victim.
c.
> I would expect a photoeassy on the day in a life of a proctologist would
> similarly be immune from piracy.
Haven't been on this Internet thing for long, have you?
c.
> Is Obama a black man with a white mother or a white man with a black father?
> As a racist white male, this question has been causing me night terrors!
He's a politician. He's any color that'll get him elected. No need to feel guilty about hating him.
c.
> Honestly, I wonder why nobody followed the thought train of "Hmm... my
> life's wasted now anyway. Why not blow up the joint and go out with a bang?"
That's a good point, seeing as how the large media companies say they're only
suing the most hardened criminals. Surely those mafioso grandmothers would know that
it's cheaper to hire a hitman or two than to fight a court battle? And a hardcore,
meth-addicted welfare mother would have access to heavy weapons, right?
c.
> Step 2: Freeze the water.
Well, now we know why this kind of gag order is called a "chilling effect".
c.
> We have hunger, diseases, war... and all these people want to do is to get everybody to stop eating animals.
Feed any hungry lately? Cure any diseases today? How about stopping that war? Any of that stuff working for you?
I don't necessarily agree with PETA (goals or methods, take your pick), but as causes go it's one of the less futile ones. It fits into the "think globally, act locally" model in that just about any individual can practice what they preach and collectively see progress over time. If you measure improvements in animal welfare over any stretch of time, there's clearly been improvements.
In the big picture, it's certainly a better use of someones time and energy than getting excited about whether the $team_of_millionaires are going to beat the pants off the $other_team_of_millionaires in $team_sport.
c.
> A filename by the name of "rapeMe" is far easier to find when you need id than the same file
Funny and somewhat relevant story:
I once had Amarok's shuffle mode play me the rather disturbing queue of (guess the artists):
Rape Me
After the Flesh
Keep Your Mouth Shut
Kill Kill Kill
And one other, which I don't recall off-hand.
Fortunately, I don't believe last.fm is admissible evidence. Yet.
c.
Er, no. Not unless you believe music doesn't "exist" until someone plays it on an instrument.
If you really want perfect analogies, programming is like programming, music is like music, and math is like math. But I think you'll find that, like in music, perfection is rather boring.
c.
Genius is always a special case.
c.
> Programming is kinda like music, once you understand the theory of how
> music works, its easier to pick up a musical instrument
Math is kinda like music. Programming is a lot like designing and building musical instruments. Theory is necessary to do it well, but theory alone will give you a violin which implodes when you tighten the strings.
c.
> > Sure, but even Mozart died penniless in an unmarked grave.
> Surely an unusual place to die?
Very efficient, and you gotta give him props for his "do it yourself" ethic.
> "Hah, I'm superior to you because these people that I am unaffiliated with
> are better than some other people!" isn't a sane position.
It's not sane, but it certainly appears to be very normal human behaviour. Come to think of it, Apple fanboys are relatively tame in comparison to spectator sports fans.
c.
> Where there is a law that makes an offense to mock religious belief.
For a secretive cult like Scientology, that sort of thing is a two-edged sword. Basically, they only get the protection if they're willing to go to court and claim that they hold a particular tract as a religious belief. I'm sure you can think of which "stories" to start with...
c.
> So I would support a "contact terms mean what they mean" law
I think it's pretty well established that when you're dealing with abusive monopolies, contracts mean "bend over, spread cheeks" for the average consumer. I don't think you want that made into a law.
c.
> It goes to the CRIA ( you know, the Canadian Recording Industry Association)
Uh... You might want to check their membership list. They're pretty much just an RIAA franchise these days.
c.
> Ballmer is correct to an extent - google and yahoo ARE a house of
> cards, completely reliant on the fickle advertising market and pumped
> up share prices.
This would be the same market Ballmer proposes to run Microsoft into debt in order to buy into?
c.
> When it's Godzilla vs Godzilla, Tokyo gets trashed either way.
WTF is wrong with people in Tokyo, anyways? I mean, you'd think that after a few giant monster attacks, they'd update their building codes to survive things like massive tail sideswipes and napalm monster spit. Maybe have the subway system easily convertible into giant spikey death pits near major intersections? Stop being victims, people!
c.
> The techology companies have paid lip service to trying to solve the problem.
> They offer up solutions but their heart isn't really in it.
Well, of course not. They're being asked to solve the impossible, they get shit on when they don't, and if, after all that effort, they manage to come up with a halfway decent solution they have a bunch of middlemen trying to get a cut of their profits. Real motivating, that.
> As a final thought. Its now possible to buy music, on a track by track basis,
> for a reasonable amount of money, without DRM. Has this made a dint in
> illegal filesharing?
Certainly not. Illegal filesharing is the entrenched encumbent. It's not enough to offer an alternative. You need to offer speed, selection, convenience, quality, and maybe even compete on price. P2P has been giving people what they want for more than a decade while the entertainment industry has been twiddling their prostates. It's going to take years before anyone notices significant changes.
c.
> "But surely it can't be any good if they're just giving it away.
> After all, you don't get something for nothing."
"Speaking of my technical support fees, mom..."
c.