Was said: "7. Parental controls: That could be very nice, and is unique. As I'm not a parent it's not as important to me,"
Well as a parent I happily restrict internet access on all machines on my home network (mix of OSes, some dual boot) based on day of week and time of day.....
Using my router.
A quick, easy, flexible hardware solution that solves things for the whole network, even lets me tune it per machine as can have MAC specific settings.
A lot simpler than doing it in software on every PC / device on the network
I think we are saying the same thing if you look at what I said - OK you are using UML phrases like user stories - which *is* a form of design / specification - which is what I was on about - we are both agreeing the objectives / meta design of the project were not clear enough.
BTW 15 years as developer including managing development projects so fully aware how good a framework developers need - and it varies a lot, some will deviate unless tightly constrained / monitored (and no its not always a matter of replace them in that case as this may be a thing to put up with compared to their other skills as its all a matter of getting the skills mix right on a development team. e.g. say a guy needs a lot of monitoring but is mind blowing in his ability to create memory efficient optimised code on a "real time" project then the pros outweigh the cons.
As far as I could see, very little in the way of specification, design / architecting. Without a reasonable framework it was inevitable the project collapsed.
The actual coding should be a minor part of a project, the real blood, sweat and tears is the spec and the architecting / design (and usability / test side of things): If that is done well enough then the coding should be a simple join the dots task.
Without architecture / design constraints then you will get toys for the boys (and girls) as there is no pressure / direction on them to do otherwise.
A key issue is the infrastructure behind this - think ahead. All card uses - when / where will be recorded. The ID card will become de facto compulsory ID for so many things and so will be logged a lot. Think ahead a few years.... Say by chance you happen to have visited some of the same places, near the same times as a suspected terrorist - and this is logged on ID card transactions. Expect the 2 AM police raid and the 28 days imprisoned with no access to legal help, family etc (under new anti terrorism rules). Expect racist policing - if you are "non white" you can bet your house that you will be asked for ID more often than a "white" person.
etc, etc - just use your brain theres so many possible abuses its chilling.
Interesting to see that the Dutch ID card scheme played a big role in helping the Nazis round up (with inevitable consequences) the Jews (as ID card indicated if someone was Jewish).
You assume the biometrics are far better than they actually are. Within the tolerances used they will have total chaos if they try and flag up "clone" attempts.
Except in most uses the biometrics will not be checked (bar a quick look at the photographic component to check the holder vaguely resembles teh portrait). Times when other biometrics are used will be rare as for a properly secure system ID card will not hold all the biometrics data otherwise it will be too easy to reverse engineer biometric data and produce fake ID cards. Note biometrics are poor anyway, they will have to have very loose acceptance windows, but whichever approach they take either hassle of false positives (i.e. more chance of impersonator matching a valid ID) or false negatives (the legit person fails on biometrics test).
Some UK airlines require passport for INTERNAL flights (e.g. London to Edinburgh) even though there is no legal requirement for this it is in their TOC!!!!
First one owned (as opposed to used) was an Acorn Atom. Built from kit (DIY soldering) as it was the cheapest way (even cheaper as shop I got it from was closing down) to do it as a schoolkid with very limited cash. The added fun(?) of saving up more cash for extras e.g. the final 6K of RAM doubled my memory to its 12K max, upgrading to "colour" graphics instead of monochrome (4 colour). BASIC and assembler for coding, programs stored on (cassette) tape. Despite what wikipedia implies... it was available before the 80's (1979 IIRC it was available). The small amount of memory meant that, if you wanted anything impressive, you soon went beyond basic and got your hands dirty with assembler.
At the time, the true geek kid on a budget option in the UK as more of a "real;" computer than the similar priced options such as the ZX80.
CMYK support (or not) is not that vital an issue. My wife does a lot of graphical work as part of her job - posters, postcards, fliers etc. She can use photoshop if required..however the printers she most commonly uses do not demand the images in psd format, just plain old jpeg. They handle the CMYK aspect of it all - thats the job of printers! All my wife needs to do is make sure monitor printer colour calibration side of things is sorted when she does her trial prints before sending it off - so she gets no nasty surprises. N.B. She sends them a paper print as well as the.jpeg just so the printers can do a quick "by eye" check after setup and warn her if theres a killer problem. Be on good terms with your local printers and using bog standard RGB is a non issue for "everyday" graphics printing (i.e. no weird effects stuff such as metallic etc which does need a different solution).
A few mini points as/. comment space is limited. Better off with a small company or an individual developer assuming it's a relatively mini project, a big consultancy company will screw you for cash and your project will just be a tiny one of many and so will not necessarily get the same attention and effort at crucial times than it would if it was the only / a major contributor to paying that months mortgage.
A key thing is design and specification of the project, get very scared if people quote timescales and prices without the project being adequately specified at that stage: It is only in the detailed analysis / design / specification stage that you get a real idea for the potential pitfalls. Note requirements will not just be what the site should do but will include resilience (incl. security issues), throughput etc. - there's no point in an initially "great" solution that falls over once your site gets a decent level of traffic. If you do not have proper specs then the whole thing will be a fiasco as, once development starts, any "grey areas" will inevitably act to push the project over time and over budget.
Get very, very worried if the team will not quote a firm timetable, with appropriate penalties if they are late. You DO NOT want the type of contract that is just open ended and you pay by the man hours of work - again this will end up over time and over budget as there is no incentive to get the job done quickly and efficiently... a fixed price contract is best as it's a good incentive for developers, if they do a good efficient job then they get good pay rate.
A key element to sort out is acceptance / stress testing - you really want someone independent from the development team trying to break the product as they will come at it with a different mindset. You can never underestimate the importance of a full test of a product before you sign off acceptance.
Whatever OS and software used chances are, esp for web based app, that patches / upgrades may be needed esp for security, that's a key thing to have sorted which leads to think future: Chances are you will need future maintenance, enhancements etc or maybe you get the team to run your solution - a (relatively) small monthly fee and they admin it as needed?.
Looking at the results - "Grammer Check" Shame it was not "Spelling Check" but on still quite amusing.
In all seriousness, interesting and makes me want to revist Wine as it looks a lot better than when I last tried it (given I run pretty low spec hardware, performance is key rather than stability).
Though I do think "Wine or XP aborted on 18 tests" was a bit cheeky as it was 3 XP aborts, 15 Wine aborts...
From the article "At the time of the source-code sale, Genovese was on probation for computer trespass and eavesdropping after breaking into some private computers and installing keystroke-logging software."
Wonder if the "monitoring software" is something he is already intimately familiar with..?
Met Office did give press releases based on NAO predictions that suggested approx 2/3 chance of it being a cold winter. Some sections of the media rather over hyped it, and rather gave the impression it was * defdinitely* going to be a very cold winter, rather than just that a certain model gave a more than 50% cahnce of a cold winter.
Additionally, this was a very long term projection, well in advance of winter, more provided (IMHO) as a "there *might* be a cold winter problem" alert so that local authorities, householders etc could ensure they were prepared in advance for cold weather e.g. grit / salt supplies.
As it was, the UK winter has had a few cold spells and is not over yet, subjectively it seems to have been a bit colder than in recent years but that could well be skewed by my boiler acting up and not having the cash to get it repaired and so "in house" temperature strongly affected by outside temp and so I have been monitoring the temperature forecasts more avidly than usual.
It is arguable as to whether a lot of meetings are held for a GOOD reason. Bad management often leads to a plethora of needless meetings. I always like the approach of having meetings standing up - suitable uncomfortable, focuses minds, people soon only schedule meetings that are really required, and they are brief.
Well, the Marks and Spencer quote may not mean much to Americans - but that quote *was* from the article - which was from the website of a UK newspaper.
I do not think the UK has yet got to the point where all articles are written with an eye to being fully understood in the US, they still have hints of local flavour (and spelling;-)
Use Azureus (or certain other p2p clients that also support this) -lets you create and share your own torrents.
We have an old (UK) house with some very thick stone walls, this can cause wireless network links to occasionally drop on the PC in one of the rooms (not the "main" server).
For large data transfers (periodic backups to backup only hard drive which dangles off "main" PC ) tend to use torrent creation approach as nicely handles connection drops and easier to tweak bandwidth use (using my preferred p2p apps) than alternatives such as resumeable ftp (my preferred ftp app is not great at bandwidth use tweaking).
But why have a plugin when a p2p app does the job?
If I click on a p2p link then my p2p app kicks in to handle it (Azureus), creating a FF specific p2p plugin is pointless as theres a whole host of p2p clients out there, some such as utorrent that are very small footprint if resource usage is an issue.
Its no more hassle to install a p2p client as any other "extra" to make browsing easier.
Though the site is a bit misleading: "Motorists will need to look out for cameras erected on tall blue or yellow-coloured distinctive columns in the verge and central reservation. The cameras do not flash and all the data is digitally stored so that there is no need for film. In accordance with Department for Transport rules, standard 'box brownie' speed camera signs must be erected explaining to motorists that speed enforcement will be taking place." One of the UKs highest grossing speed cameras is on the A610 in Nottingham - it is of this type - to a visitor the cameras are not in the slighest bit obvious, the speed limit signs are few in number and awkwardly placed (e.g. at junctions where a visitor may well be fully focused just on figuring out where to go).
From the register earlier this year http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/23/81mph_scho ol_bus/ "Finally, and just to further provoke those readers with steam already coming out of their ears, we have the heartwarming news of what must be among the UK's most lucrative speed cameras - stationed on the A610 in Nottinghamshire and with a five-year bonanaza of £4.2m in fines. Its tireless work has accounted for almost a third of all speeding raps in the county, totalling 280,000 motor-borne ne'er-do-wells."
Slashdot Mirror
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4740668.s tm
Sounds good to me.
UK Job Centres are zero help if you have good qualifications (mine include a couple of degrees).
Was said:
"7. Parental controls: That could be very nice, and is unique. As I'm not a parent it's not as important to me,"
Well as a parent I happily restrict internet access on all machines on my home network (mix of OSes, some dual boot) based on day of week and time of day.....
Using my router.
A quick, easy, flexible hardware solution that solves things for the whole network, even lets me tune it per machine as can have MAC specific settings.
A lot simpler than doing it in software on every PC / device on the network
I think we are saying the same thing if you look at what I said - OK you are using UML phrases like user stories - which *is* a form of design / specification - which is what I was on about - we are both agreeing the objectives / meta design of the project were not clear enough.
BTW 15 years as developer including managing development projects so fully aware how good a framework developers need - and it varies a lot, some will deviate unless tightly constrained / monitored (and no its not always a matter of replace them in that case as this may be a thing to put up with compared to their other skills as its all a matter of getting the skills mix right on a development team. e.g. say a guy needs a lot of monitoring but is mind blowing in his ability to create memory efficient optimised code on a "real time" project then the pros outweigh the cons.
As far as I could see, very little in the way of specification, design / architecting.
Without a reasonable framework it was inevitable the project collapsed.
The actual coding should be a minor part of a project, the real blood, sweat and tears is the spec and the architecting / design (and usability / test side of things): If that is done well enough then the coding should be a simple join the dots task.
Without architecture / design constraints then you will get toys for the boys (and girls) as there is no pressure / direction on them to do otherwise.
A key issue is the infrastructure behind this - think ahead. All card uses - when / where will be recorded. The ID card will become de facto compulsory ID for so many things and so will be logged a lot.
Think ahead a few years....
Say by chance you happen to have visited some of the same places, near the same times as a suspected terrorist - and this is logged on ID card transactions.
Expect the 2 AM police raid and the 28 days imprisoned with no access to legal help, family etc (under new anti terrorism rules).
Expect racist policing - if you are "non white" you can bet your house that you will be asked for ID more often than a "white" person.
etc, etc - just use your brain theres so many possible abuses its chilling.
Interesting to see that the Dutch ID card scheme played a big role in helping the Nazis round up (with inevitable consequences) the Jews (as ID card indicated if someone was Jewish).
You assume the biometrics are far better than they actually are.
Within the tolerances used they will have total chaos if they try and flag up "clone" attempts.
Except in most uses the biometrics will not be checked (bar a quick look at the photographic component to check the holder vaguely resembles teh portrait).
Times when other biometrics are used will be rare as for a properly secure system ID card will not hold all the biometrics data otherwise it will be too easy to reverse engineer biometric data and produce fake ID cards.
Note biometrics are poor anyway, they will have to have very loose acceptance windows, but whichever approach they take either hassle of false positives (i.e. more chance of impersonator matching a valid ID) or false negatives (the legit person fails on biometrics test).
Some UK airlines require passport for INTERNAL flights (e.g. London to Edinburgh) even though there is no legal requirement for this it is in their TOC!!!!
First one owned (as opposed to used) was an Acorn Atom. ... it was available before the 80's (1979 IIRC it was available).
Built from kit (DIY soldering) as it was the cheapest way (even cheaper as shop I got it from was closing down) to do it as a schoolkid with very limited cash.
The added fun(?) of saving up more cash for extras e.g. the final 6K of RAM doubled my memory to its 12K max, upgrading to "colour" graphics instead of monochrome (4 colour).
BASIC and assembler for coding, programs stored on (cassette) tape.
Despite what wikipedia implies
The small amount of memory meant that, if you wanted anything impressive, you soon went beyond basic and got your hands dirty with assembler.
At the time, the true geek kid on a budget option in the UK as more of a "real;" computer than the similar priced options such as the ZX80.
CMYK support (or not) is not that vital an issue. .jpeg just so the printers can do a quick "by eye" check after setup and warn her if theres a killer problem.
My wife does a lot of graphical work as part of her job - posters, postcards, fliers etc.
She can use photoshop if required..however the printers she most commonly uses do not demand the images in psd format, just plain old jpeg.
They handle the CMYK aspect of it all - thats the job of printers!
All my wife needs to do is make sure monitor printer colour calibration side of things is sorted when she does her trial prints before sending it off - so she gets no nasty surprises.
N.B. She sends them a paper print as well as the
Be on good terms with your local printers and using bog standard RGB is a non issue for "everyday" graphics printing (i.e. no weird effects stuff such as metallic etc which does need a different solution).
A few mini points as /. comment space is limited.
Better off with a small company or an individual developer assuming it's a relatively mini project, a big consultancy company will screw you for cash and your project will just be a tiny one of many and so will not necessarily get the same attention and effort at crucial times than it would if it was the only / a major contributor to paying that months mortgage.
A key thing is design and specification of the project, get very scared if people quote timescales and prices without the project being adequately specified at that stage: It is only in the detailed analysis / design / specification stage that you get a real idea for the potential pitfalls. Note requirements will not just be what the site should do but will include resilience (incl. security issues), throughput etc. - there's no point in an initially "great" solution that falls over once your site gets a decent level of traffic.
If you do not have proper specs then the whole thing will be a fiasco as, once development starts, any "grey areas" will inevitably act to push the project over time and over budget.
Get very, very worried if the team will not quote a firm timetable, with appropriate penalties if they are late. You DO NOT want the type of contract that is just open ended and you pay by the man hours of work - again this will end up over time and over budget as there is no incentive to get the job done quickly and efficiently... a fixed price contract is best as it's a good incentive for developers, if they do a good efficient job then they get good pay rate.
A key element to sort out is acceptance / stress testing - you really want someone independent from the development team trying to break the product as they will come at it with a different mindset. You can never underestimate the importance of a full test of a product before you sign off acceptance.
Whatever OS and software used chances are, esp for web based app, that patches / upgrades may be needed esp for security, that's a key thing to have sorted which leads to think future: Chances are you will need future maintenance, enhancements etc or maybe you get the team to run your solution - a (relatively) small monthly fee and they admin it as needed?.
Looking at the results - "Grammer Check"
Shame it was not "Spelling Check" but on still quite amusing.
In all seriousness, interesting and makes me want to revist Wine as it looks a lot better than when I last tried it (given I run pretty low spec hardware, performance is key rather than stability).
Though I do think "Wine or XP aborted on 18 tests" was a bit cheeky as it was 3 XP aborts, 15 Wine aborts...
From the article
"At the time of the source-code sale, Genovese was on probation for computer trespass and eavesdropping after breaking into some private computers and installing keystroke-logging software."
Wonder if the "monitoring software" is something he is already intimately familiar with..?
Met Office do use NAO in predictionsa l/nao/
http://www.metoffice.com/research/seasonal/region
Met Office did give press releases based on NAO predictions that suggested approx 2/3 chance of it being a cold winter.
Some sections of the media rather over hyped it, and rather gave the impression it was * defdinitely* going to be a very cold winter, rather than just that a certain model gave a more than 50% cahnce of a cold winter.
Additionally, this was a very long term projection, well in advance of winter, more provided (IMHO) as a "there *might* be a cold winter problem" alert so that local authorities, householders etc could ensure they were prepared in advance for cold weather e.g. grit / salt supplies.
As it was, the UK winter has had a few cold spells and is not over yet, subjectively it seems to have been a bit colder than in recent years but that could well be skewed by my boiler acting up and not having the cash to get it repaired and so "in house" temperature strongly affected by outside temp and so I have been monitoring the temperature forecasts more avidly than usual.
Article refereed to business meetings, these are typically MUCH less interesting than the sort of chat you would have with your doctorate. supervisor!
Nah...too many orgasms is an oxymoron, and definitely not bad ;-)
It is arguable as to whether a lot of meetings are held for a GOOD reason.
Bad management often leads to a plethora of needless meetings.
I always like the approach of having meetings standing up - suitable uncomfortable, focuses minds, people soon only schedule meetings that are really required, and they are brief.
Well, the Marks and Spencer quote may not mean much to Americans - but that quote *was* from the article - which was from the website of a UK newspaper. I do not think the UK has yet got to the point where all articles are written with an eye to being fully understood in the US, they still have hints of local flavour (and spelling ;-)
adds obligatory (C) D Adams ;-)
Use Azureus (or certain other p2p clients that also support this) -lets you create and share your own torrents. We have an old (UK) house with some very thick stone walls, this can cause wireless network links to occasionally drop on the PC in one of the rooms (not the "main" server). For large data transfers (periodic backups to backup only hard drive which dangles off "main" PC ) tend to use torrent creation approach as nicely handles connection drops and easier to tweak bandwidth use (using my preferred p2p apps) than alternatives such as resumeable ftp (my preferred ftp app is not great at bandwidth use tweaking).
But why have a plugin when a p2p app does the job? If I click on a p2p link then my p2p app kicks in to handle it (Azureus), creating a FF specific p2p plugin is pointless as theres a whole host of p2p clients out there, some such as utorrent that are very small footprint if resource usage is an issue. Its no more hassle to install a p2p client as any other "extra" to make browsing easier.
Though the site is a bit misleading:
o ol_bus/
"Motorists will need to look out for cameras erected on tall blue or yellow-coloured distinctive columns in the verge and central reservation. The cameras do not flash and all the data is digitally stored so that there is no need for film. In accordance with Department for Transport rules, standard 'box brownie' speed camera signs must be erected explaining to motorists that speed enforcement will be taking place."
One of the UKs highest grossing speed cameras is on the A610 in Nottingham - it is of this type - to a visitor the cameras are not in the slighest bit obvious, the speed limit signs are few in number and awkwardly placed (e.g. at junctions where a visitor may well be fully focused just on figuring out where to go).
From the register earlier this year
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/23/81mph_sch
"Finally, and just to further provoke those readers with steam already coming out of their ears, we have the heartwarming news of what must be among the UK's most lucrative speed cameras - stationed on the A610 in Nottinghamshire and with a five-year bonanaza of £4.2m in fines. Its tireless work has accounted for almost a third of all speeding raps in the county, totalling 280,000 motor-borne ne'er-do-wells."
What about the women?