Fair enough. And no, I didn't just want launch an attack on you. My apologies if I came across as being obnoxious.
I come from a very different perspective, where IT people are treated as you would want to be (knowledgeable, not expendable, etc.). The salaries are average to high. Of course, I am from Canada so things could be much different. I have done consulting for US firms, but haven't seen the "you're expendable" mentality. Around here, there's plenty of high-paying jobs appearing daily, and I don't live in a prominent high-tech area. I also work with several aged (50+) folks who fit in quite well.
That being said, I've managed to find easy-going and well-paying work right out of university (and I didn't finish my degree). I consider myself lucky but I know I've also earned my chance. I just can't imagine a work environment where you could easily be replaced by a foreigner, nor can I consider IT/CS a bad industry to enter. Many people I know are not so fortunate to find well-paying jobs where your knowledge is respected.
Who needs a subliminal jackpot flash when you can hit the jackpot with the 70 year old woman dangling a cigarette from her mouth just playing beside her? Your odds will never be so good in a casino!
1) Absolutely KILL yourself in college with 35 hours a week of homework for ONE Database class while your friends are spending about 12 hours a week for all homework in all classes.
35 hours a week of homework for one class? Assuming you had at least 25 hours of class a week, plus 15 hours in homework, you're doing almost 80 hours of school a week? Sounds like someone hadn't caught up to the rest of the class, or your just extremely exaggerating.
3) Graduate into a low-status job when it comes to dating.
I'm sorry, but what kind of idiot takes a CS degree (or any degree) assuming it will get him a woman? That low-status job is a lot better than a lot of other work you tend to ignore (janitors, etc.).
4) Start with a reasonably high salary-- but after a few years, it becomes clear you need to leave the field and project lead or manage (that's me these days) if you ever want to make "real" money.
There's money to be made for managers and developers (assuming that's what you are) alike. Both can have high salaries.
5) Be managed by people who absolutely HATE that they have to have you- they view you as a COST.
You're probably not a good employee, then.
6) Never ever be understood by management (either overworked when you are stupid or underworked once you smarten up). They'll replace you in a heartbeat with crappy but cheaper labor.
See last comment.
7) And then-- at 55-- no more work. I've known so many who were just pushed out of the field. And you need the insurance you see. (Hence also my shift into manager+tech skills).
This is the same for many industries. Eventually you get phased out because the young bloods have the same skills, but with less experience and cheaper salaries.
I'll get off my "high horse" when the millions of other people around the world agree with you that drinking and driving is the norm, acceptable, and can/should be promoted. In short, never.
There's a major discrepancy in your argument. Linking to one article that suggests that cell phone use is equal to driving drunk is insufficient. Furthermore, assuming your article is true, the difference between cellphones and driving drunk is that as soon as the cellphone is hung up, you are perfectly sober again. With drunk driving, we all know your perception doesn't change until hours later and there's nothing to change this.
So I'll gladly pick up my cellphone to report a drunk driver, the same way a doctor will puncture a breathing passage (causing harm) to ensure a patient lives. Both methods can cause harm, but the harm will be less than the outcome. And neither is intentional, while driving drunk is.
So carry on about bows, arrows, and cellphones. Your cleverness has failed to justify your comments and you are none the wiser.
Drinking and driving is quite common, but you are not funny. I had a friend who hit and killed someone while driving drunk. It is a serious offence. Vehicular manslaughter while under the influence is not rare here.
When I suspect someone is driving under the influence, they get a cop on their ass five minutes after I pick up my cellphone. I forbid to let idiots like you and everyone else that downs a beer to think its acceptable to drink and drive, and actually promote the idea of it.
So yeah, let's raise a glass to drinking and driving, because we all know self-preservation is far more important than showing care to the thousands of other people you drive with daily.
One of the funniest, most well adjusted people I know was molested at six; it doesn't scar you for life, a savage beating from bullies just might though.
You just proved that you have NO IDEA what you're talking about. Being sexually molested has lifelong effects on a person. You think getting punched and kicked is more gruesome than being raped and/or graphically molested when you're six years old?
Are you trying to tell me you think that being kicked at 6 years old is worse than being sodomized by a grown man at 6 years old? You are an absolute idiot and I wish I could bury your comment.
You might think the 'fight back' response is appropriate for everyone, but bullying is definitely not the same for girls. You can act all tough about how you forced your bullies to man-up, but the reality is many kids are not in a position to do that, and they aren't encouraged by their peers or parents to respond that way. Many don't have the self-esteem, strength, and courage to stand up to someone. Especially when that someone is a group of bullies.
I never got bullied around as a kid because I, like you, didn't take shit from anyone. I wasn't unnecessarily violent, but I also wasn't submissive. It worked for me, but I had the courage and know-better to do something about it. Many kids don't.
Teaching people to stand up for themselves is the solution. You can't remove the evil in this world, but you can learn to stand up to it. If a future kid of mine gets bullied, they will learn to stand up to it. Intervention might be required, but I'll be damn sure that I'm not intervening at the first signs of bullying because my kid will be submissive and come to expect help from others. I still know people that cannot handle confrontation -- even hanging up on a telemarketer.
It's a dog-eat-dog world for the rest of us, and for kids, it's no different. The earlier they adapt to confrontation, the sooner the problems of bullying become insignificant to them.
Good PHP programmers should be using Smarty templates anyways.
I was reading until that line. Yes, let's template a templating language thereby giving us less functionality and more overhead. The additional layers of abstraction and work is brilliant!
You will want to use an MVC (Model-View-Controller) paradigm. The Model contains your data work (accessing database, data manipulation, etc.). The Controller directs the application what to do, and the View is the final result (HTML).
The View can contain minimal PHP that's only used for display purposes. No data manipulation is done here (other than walking through records, for example). Alternatively you can use templates, but the point is moot because you're adding a layer of abstraction on top of what PHP already does -- templating.
I recommend CodeIgniter as a simple framework for any future applications you build. It's based around MVC, has a small footprint, and is very easy to learn and work with.
If you teach a man to fish with a rod, he won't immediately know a better way to catch more fish. The idea of using a mesh net to catch more fish at once will not be apparent to him -- it will take time. A man and his tools are departed only when he finds something better for the job.
So let's apply this concept to learning in the PHP community. For years, PHP developers (newbies, amateurs, and experts alike) have been handed down wisdom that reflected the current knowledge. Years ago, it was using registered globals. Then it became including pages via the query string. And so on... You can imagine for someone new to PHP how hard it would be (if not impossible) to distinguish right from wrong when everyone was telling you to do a certain thing. Articles, forums -- you name it, they preached it.
PHP has become more insecure due to the amount of bad advice spread, not because of PHP. What did we all learn about pointers? When abused or not taken care of, they can cause problems. The same goes for the tools PHP offers.
Slashdot will forever gouge PHP for being insecure, but I think it has everything to do with an immature community dishing out advice far too soon. PHP has matured, and so has much of the advice. Given more time, bad advice will be harder to find.
Blaming PHP for being insecure / providing insecure tools is like blaming auto manufacturers for attaching a steering wheel and a gas pedal to cars that cause accidents... think about it.
Roland: One.
Dark Helmet: One.
Colonel Sandurz: One.
Roland: Two.
Dark Helmet: Two.
Colonel Sandurz: Two.
Roland: Three.
Dark Helmet: Three.
Colonel Sandurz: Three.
Roland: Four.
Dark Helmet: Four.
Colonel Sandurz: Four.
Roland: Five.
Dark Helmet: Five.
Colonel Sandurz: Five.
Dark Helmet: So the combination is one, two, three, four, five? That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! The kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!
CBC just posted an article questioning the authenticity of D-Wave's claims because there hasn't been any peer review done.
"Martin [owner] said his company believes its computer is performing quantum computations, but confessed they're not certain."
and...
"In the face of the questions, D-Wave CEO Herb Martin said his company's device is not a true quantum computer but rather a specialized machine that uses quantum mechanics to perform its calculations."
Come on, man. We've all been under pressure of deadlines, but mistakes like this are intentional or just plain sloppy. It takes absolutely minimal effort to encrypt passwords. And let's not even get into credit card numbers being stored as plain text...
This is pretty sad on several levels. I just can't imagine them mentality of the developers who were too lazy to do things properly. And the people who use a site like yours (or your company), think their safe because a graphic reminds them they are, but end up with their private information exposed.
when I get some stupid pop song stuck in my head and I download it instead of buying it, that's a few bucks that won't go to the damn RIAA
When you get some stupid pop song stuck in your head, are you really thinking about purchasing the entire CD knowing that the remaining tracks are probably garbage? I doubt it. You downloaded it because you never intended to buy it. And you probably only downloaded the single track, not the entire album. Besides, there's no difference between downloading the song and listening to it on the radio. Either way you are not directly handing money over, but you get the benefit of hearing and keeping the song (if you record to cassette).
I believe thats the underlying point here. Most music downloading doesn't harm legalized sales because the downloaders weren't likely going to purchase the music anyways, so financially no harm is done.
Re:As a longtime(past tense) PHP developer I can s
on
PHP 5 in Practice
·
· Score: 1
The rest of the observations are correct to the best of my knowledge and make PHP quite a horrible choice for all projects beyond a certain complexity threshold.
You are wrong because you obviously don't have experience in this area. PHP is quite capable for deploying large, enterprise-grade (not judged by the number of users using it, but by the quality of the processes involved and the business functionality it serves) software without a lot of headaches.
I treasure PHP and all of its shortcomings and inconsistencies. In time, these concerns will be addressed (some already have) and there will be less to complain about. PHP can be a blessing in disguise. Take a good MVC framework (CodeIgniter is one) and give PHP a fair shot -- you might be surprised to realize that its fun and equally capable.
you have to show why all those scientists who agree with the IPCC findings are wrong, and why the minority of scientists who disagree with them have better theories.
I honestly don't think this will happen. Assumptions made by the media about GW being an absolute truth is in such an abundance that it's difficult to erase the whole idea of it. Consensus says global warming is a fact and scientific findings mostly supports this. It's a compelling idea and it is understood why someone would believe it.
But it's simply too early to assume we need to take drastic measures like those mentioned. As many others said, it's ridiculous that we are willing to spend trillions on these tricks, but we can't even convince someone to reduce their emissions / consumption / etc.
I believe in due time we will realize that the Earth is not nearly as susceptible to its inhabitants as we currently believe it is. We've got evolution on our side -- a strong ability to adapt to any environment we live in. Why can't the same be said about the Earth?
I thought they were saying that the seeds they sent into space were plummeting to Earth and hitting the streets. Then I realized that makes little to no sense
Maybe most scientists could agree that global warming is caused by man and later be proven to be wrong, but that doesn't mean you throw away all the useful information you've learned through scientific theory and start acting like they got it all wrong.
Of course you don't throw away that information -- but you also don't force a solution on something that may not be a problem.
The real problem is that most scientists do not admit uncertainty in their findings, so the general public is led to believe that global warming is infallible and we must respond to protect the Earth.
To many, the greatest threat is not if global warming will alter our way of life 15 years from now. The threat is the effect of combating global warming with extreme measures like the proposed ones when we might not have a problem.
Slashdot Mirror
Fair enough. And no, I didn't just want launch an attack on you. My apologies if I came across as being obnoxious.
I come from a very different perspective, where IT people are treated as you would want to be (knowledgeable, not expendable, etc.). The salaries are average to high. Of course, I am from Canada so things could be much different. I have done consulting for US firms, but haven't seen the "you're expendable" mentality. Around here, there's plenty of high-paying jobs appearing daily, and I don't live in a prominent high-tech area. I also work with several aged (50+) folks who fit in quite well.
That being said, I've managed to find easy-going and well-paying work right out of university (and I didn't finish my degree). I consider myself lucky but I know I've also earned my chance. I just can't imagine a work environment where you could easily be replaced by a foreigner, nor can I consider IT/CS a bad industry to enter. Many people I know are not so fortunate to find well-paying jobs where your knowledge is respected.
Who needs a subliminal jackpot flash when you can hit the jackpot with the 70 year old woman dangling a cigarette from her mouth just playing beside her? Your odds will never be so good in a casino!
1) Absolutely KILL yourself in college with 35 hours a week of homework for ONE Database class while your friends are spending about 12 hours a week for all homework in all classes.
35 hours a week of homework for one class? Assuming you had at least 25 hours of class a week, plus 15 hours in homework, you're doing almost 80 hours of school a week? Sounds like someone hadn't caught up to the rest of the class, or your just extremely exaggerating.
3) Graduate into a low-status job when it comes to dating.
I'm sorry, but what kind of idiot takes a CS degree (or any degree) assuming it will get him a woman? That low-status job is a lot better than a lot of other work you tend to ignore (janitors, etc.).
4) Start with a reasonably high salary-- but after a few years, it becomes clear you need to leave the field and project lead or manage (that's me these days) if you ever want to make "real" money.
There's money to be made for managers and developers (assuming that's what you are) alike. Both can have high salaries.
5) Be managed by people who absolutely HATE that they have to have you- they view you as a COST.
You're probably not a good employee, then.
6) Never ever be understood by management (either overworked when you are stupid or underworked once you smarten up). They'll replace you in a heartbeat with crappy but cheaper labor.
See last comment.
7) And then-- at 55-- no more work. I've known so many who were just pushed out of the field. And you need the insurance you see. (Hence also my shift into manager+tech skills).
This is the same for many industries. Eventually you get phased out because the young bloods have the same skills, but with less experience and cheaper salaries.
I'll get off my "high horse" when the millions of other people around the world agree with you that drinking and driving is the norm, acceptable, and can/should be promoted. In short, never.
There's a major discrepancy in your argument. Linking to one article that suggests that cell phone use is equal to driving drunk is insufficient. Furthermore, assuming your article is true, the difference between cellphones and driving drunk is that as soon as the cellphone is hung up, you are perfectly sober again. With drunk driving, we all know your perception doesn't change until hours later and there's nothing to change this.
So I'll gladly pick up my cellphone to report a drunk driver, the same way a doctor will puncture a breathing passage (causing harm) to ensure a patient lives. Both methods can cause harm, but the harm will be less than the outcome. And neither is intentional, while driving drunk is.
So carry on about bows, arrows, and cellphones. Your cleverness has failed to justify your comments and you are none the wiser.
Oh please, drunk driving has killed and/or damaged a hell of a lot more people than cellphones ever will.
Drinking and driving is quite common, but you are not funny. I had a friend who hit and killed someone while driving drunk. It is a serious offence. Vehicular manslaughter while under the influence is not rare here.
When I suspect someone is driving under the influence, they get a cop on their ass five minutes after I pick up my cellphone. I forbid to let idiots like you and everyone else that downs a beer to think its acceptable to drink and drive, and actually promote the idea of it.
So yeah, let's raise a glass to drinking and driving, because we all know self-preservation is far more important than showing care to the thousands of other people you drive with daily.
Asshole.
One of the funniest, most well adjusted people I know was molested at six; it doesn't scar you for life, a savage beating from bullies just might though.
You just proved that you have NO IDEA what you're talking about. Being sexually molested has lifelong effects on a person. You think getting punched and kicked is more gruesome than being raped and/or graphically molested when you're six years old?
Are you trying to tell me you think that being kicked at 6 years old is worse than being sodomized by a grown man at 6 years old? You are an absolute idiot and I wish I could bury your comment.
You might think the 'fight back' response is appropriate for everyone, but bullying is definitely not the same for girls. You can act all tough about how you forced your bullies to man-up, but the reality is many kids are not in a position to do that, and they aren't encouraged by their peers or parents to respond that way. Many don't have the self-esteem, strength, and courage to stand up to someone. Especially when that someone is a group of bullies.
I never got bullied around as a kid because I, like you, didn't take shit from anyone. I wasn't unnecessarily violent, but I also wasn't submissive. It worked for me, but I had the courage and know-better to do something about it. Many kids don't.
Teaching people to stand up for themselves is the solution. You can't remove the evil in this world, but you can learn to stand up to it. If a future kid of mine gets bullied, they will learn to stand up to it. Intervention might be required, but I'll be damn sure that I'm not intervening at the first signs of bullying because my kid will be submissive and come to expect help from others. I still know people that cannot handle confrontation -- even hanging up on a telemarketer.
It's a dog-eat-dog world for the rest of us, and for kids, it's no different. The earlier they adapt to confrontation, the sooner the problems of bullying become insignificant to them.
and they're adding extra inches in porn movies, right?
No, but I thought I recommended that you keep quiet about your problem? We will discuss this at our next appointment.
Dr. Longjohn
Penile Shortage Specialist
Short Short Men Plaza, Lake Flaccid
Yeah, this guy is an idiot. Who wants black light bulbs?!
Good PHP programmers should be using Smarty templates anyways.
I was reading until that line. Yes, let's template a templating language thereby giving us less functionality and more overhead. The additional layers of abstraction and work is brilliant!
You will want to use an MVC (Model-View-Controller) paradigm. The Model contains your data work (accessing database, data manipulation, etc.). The Controller directs the application what to do, and the View is the final result (HTML).
The View can contain minimal PHP that's only used for display purposes. No data manipulation is done here (other than walking through records, for example). Alternatively you can use templates, but the point is moot because you're adding a layer of abstraction on top of what PHP already does -- templating.
I recommend CodeIgniter as a simple framework for any future applications you build. It's based around MVC, has a small footprint, and is very easy to learn and work with.
Blaming PHP for being insecure / providing insecure tools is more like blaming auto manufacturers for cars that explode themself.
When was the last time you installed PHP and it "exploded" on you? As I said, give it a rest.
If you teach a man to fish with a rod, he won't immediately know a better way to catch more fish. The idea of using a mesh net to catch more fish at once will not be apparent to him -- it will take time. A man and his tools are departed only when he finds something better for the job.
So let's apply this concept to learning in the PHP community. For years, PHP developers (newbies, amateurs, and experts alike) have been handed down wisdom that reflected the current knowledge. Years ago, it was using registered globals. Then it became including pages via the query string. And so on... You can imagine for someone new to PHP how hard it would be (if not impossible) to distinguish right from wrong when everyone was telling you to do a certain thing. Articles, forums -- you name it, they preached it.
PHP has become more insecure due to the amount of bad advice spread, not because of PHP. What did we all learn about pointers? When abused or not taken care of, they can cause problems. The same goes for the tools PHP offers.
Slashdot will forever gouge PHP for being insecure, but I think it has everything to do with an immature community dishing out advice far too soon. PHP has matured, and so has much of the advice. Given more time, bad advice will be harder to find.
Blaming PHP for being insecure / providing insecure tools is like blaming auto manufacturers for attaching a steering wheel and a gas pedal to cars that cause accidents... think about it.
You, sir, are insulting the great King Roland...
Roland: One.
Dark Helmet: One.
Colonel Sandurz: One.
Roland: Two.
Dark Helmet: Two.
Colonel Sandurz: Two.
Roland: Three.
Dark Helmet: Three.
Colonel Sandurz: Three.
Roland: Four.
Dark Helmet: Four.
Colonel Sandurz: Four.
Roland: Five.
Dark Helmet: Five.
Colonel Sandurz: Five.
Dark Helmet: So the combination is one, two, three, four, five? That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! The kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!
CBC just posted an article questioning the authenticity of D-Wave's claims because there hasn't been any peer review done.
"Martin [owner] said his company believes its computer is performing quantum computations, but confessed they're not certain."
and...
"In the face of the questions, D-Wave CEO Herb Martin said his company's device is not a true quantum computer but rather a specialized machine that uses quantum mechanics to perform its calculations."
I think we should wait out on this one, folks.
Wasn't something like this done in Jurassic Park? It was proven ineffective as all of the tagged and monitored dinosaurs were accounted for.
Well I know that America has an obesity problem, but comparing yourselves to dinosaurs...
Come on, man. We've all been under pressure of deadlines, but mistakes like this are intentional or just plain sloppy. It takes absolutely minimal effort to encrypt passwords. And let's not even get into credit card numbers being stored as plain text...
This is pretty sad on several levels. I just can't imagine them mentality of the developers who were too lazy to do things properly. And the people who use a site like yours (or your company), think their safe because a graphic reminds them they are, but end up with their private information exposed.
And what brand were your parents using so I can avoid it?
when I get some stupid pop song stuck in my head and I download it instead of buying it, that's a few bucks that won't go to the damn RIAA
When you get some stupid pop song stuck in your head, are you really thinking about purchasing the entire CD knowing that the remaining tracks are probably garbage? I doubt it. You downloaded it because you never intended to buy it. And you probably only downloaded the single track, not the entire album. Besides, there's no difference between downloading the song and listening to it on the radio. Either way you are not directly handing money over, but you get the benefit of hearing and keeping the song (if you record to cassette).
I believe thats the underlying point here. Most music downloading doesn't harm legalized sales because the downloaders weren't likely going to purchase the music anyways, so financially no harm is done.
The rest of the observations are correct to the best of my knowledge and make PHP quite a horrible choice for all projects beyond a certain complexity threshold.
You are wrong because you obviously don't have experience in this area. PHP is quite capable for deploying large, enterprise-grade (not judged by the number of users using it, but by the quality of the processes involved and the business functionality it serves) software without a lot of headaches.
I treasure PHP and all of its shortcomings and inconsistencies. In time, these concerns will be addressed (some already have) and there will be less to complain about. PHP can be a blessing in disguise. Take a good MVC framework (CodeIgniter is one) and give PHP a fair shot -- you might be surprised to realize that its fun and equally capable.
you have to show why all those scientists who agree with the IPCC findings are wrong, and why the minority of scientists who disagree with them have better theories.
I honestly don't think this will happen. Assumptions made by the media about GW being an absolute truth is in such an abundance that it's difficult to erase the whole idea of it. Consensus says global warming is a fact and scientific findings mostly supports this. It's a compelling idea and it is understood why someone would believe it.
But it's simply too early to assume we need to take drastic measures like those mentioned. As many others said, it's ridiculous that we are willing to spend trillions on these tricks, but we can't even convince someone to reduce their emissions / consumption / etc.
I believe in due time we will realize that the Earth is not nearly as susceptible to its inhabitants as we currently believe it is. We've got evolution on our side -- a strong ability to adapt to any environment we live in. Why can't the same be said about the Earth?
I thought they were saying that the seeds they sent into space were plummeting to Earth and hitting the streets. Then I realized that makes little to no sense
:)
Let me correct that for you: it made no sense
Maybe most scientists could agree that global warming is caused by man and later be proven to be wrong, but that doesn't mean you throw away all the useful information you've learned through scientific theory and start acting like they got it all wrong.
Of course you don't throw away that information -- but you also don't force a solution on something that may not be a problem.
The real problem is that most scientists do not admit uncertainty in their findings, so the general public is led to believe that global warming is infallible and we must respond to protect the Earth.
To many, the greatest threat is not if global warming will alter our way of life 15 years from now. The threat is the effect of combating global warming with extreme measures like the proposed ones when we might not have a problem.
It fell off the edge of the Earth. Now what were you saying about 95% certainty?