The CEO of an unnamed company I knew used to read all the empolyees emails as well. All of them. Every one. Whether they were addressed to him or not.:-)
It was funny, the guy who worked there was sent an email with a read-notification flag set on it. The sender then recieved two notifications that the email has been read - one from the CEO. Then the jig was up.
The above is a convoluted grasp at an alternate explaination of how and why their deity/messiah was executed by the Romans.
It makes little sense. Did the people who died before Jesus all go to hell no matter what they were like? Prior to that, was God so cruel that he would punish you for something Adam did?
It seems strange that the Jews believed you'd go to heaven if good, hell if you were bad, but Christians think that rule was only made possible by the crucifixion.
Now that Jesus took one for the team, does that mean we can sin all we like?
MS's objection was to there being two different 64 bit *extensions* to x86, which is why Intel now produce AMD0-compatible processors (gotta love that one). Otherwise Intel would have made a completely different instruction set for x86, leaving you with potentially three sets: IA-64, AMD x86-64, Intel x86-64 (I say potentially, because the Itanium is dead).
Seriously though, Sun do more for OS than people realise, an this is the 2nd time they have taken something ominous (e.g. MS Passport) and worked on a better alternative (Liberty Alliance). Not sure if it can be applied to DRM, but not sure means not sure, so let's see.
The guy has put nigh on 15 years into Linux. Is he not entitled, to kick back and relax for a while, forget about kernels, buy a tropical island, hire a team of permanent hookers for his island, get high all the time, and enjoy the fruits of his labour?
Who are you to criticise him if he does this? What are you, a Slashdot n00b? When Apple or Linus does it, it is not wrong!
Several people here have commented on how they have seen misuse of design patterns in code, or that a high usage correlates with bad code. This can happen, and I will discuss what I have noticed, but this does not reflect on the Gang of Four, or their book.
The book discusses the symptoms which would cause you to consider a particular pattern, and the disadvantages of using said pattern. In general, most of the patterns reduce coupling, and the flipside of that is it harder to follow the code - coupling means you can jump straight to where something is implemented. You use the pattern where you know without it e.g. the number of branches or classes has grown, or definetly will grow, to be unmanageable.
Design patterns became very fashionable, so everyone wanted to show they were using them. This meant that people who did not understand (or care about) the justification and negative consequences using them where the current and future requirements were simple, and the simple non-pattern solution was manageable.
For example, dozens of utility classes done as factory pattern. Therefore there is an interface and a factory, but there was only one implementation class needed and created. That class typically had a few extra methods, so client classes downcast to the concrete class. Pointless. It also made it harder to find what a framework method did, as you had to see what the factory was configured to create to find the implementation.
I have been in the situation where a poser at a design review insisted on using the strategy pattern because there was an if-else in my code (i.e. exactly two branches and the requirements were fixed). If someone like that gets their way, the code becomes very unreadable, inefficient and over-engineered.
People also cite that you can use the name of a design pattern, and other OO developers will understand this complicated design feature because it maps to the pattern. That is o.k. but the wannabes put the name of a pattern on their own solution which is quite different. Their solution might be valid, but they put a misleading name on it to get the pattern halo effect.
If some one reads the considerations mentioned in the book, and uses the pattern where there is a lot of complexity, or you can predict there will be a lot of complexity, they are an excellent solution to OO design problems that arise again and again.
Grandparent post said: "A problem with gray beards in ivory tower research divisions, is sometimes they start puttering on things that amuse them but never transition that in anything of real world value, and especially something that can someday be turned in to a product a company can sell."
Your links prove it. Perhaps that was your intent.
1. Buy a can of petrol and matches. 2. Find an outdoor area, free of flammable materials. 3. Apply petrol liberally to PC. 4. Light match, throw at PC, stepping backwards. 5. http://www.dell.com/
The alternative, Firefox, is too much effort by comparison.
"When I worked for a particular company, we instituted a "programmer intelligence test". It didn't test nonsense like "Define Polymorphism", it had questions where they actually had to think like a programmer."
For that remark, you fail my programmer IQ test. Getting people to rattle off definitions is a waste, sure, but showing you understand these concepts is a step on the way to being able to write non-shite code in an OO language.
These Onion people will never gain credibility as a news organisation if they cannot do more credible forecasting. Perhaps they should recruit that Dvorak gentleman.
(Above irony aside, if you read one of the Onion books, they have an issue from 2000, post election. The have a humorous forecast of the what the Bush presidency will bring which is eerily prophetic - "atleast one Desert Storm sized war", recessione etc.)
If you want us to accommodate your inability to improve single threaded performance and rearchitect 20 years of software for parallel computing, then how about this:
DON'T CALL US WEENIES! Ya bunch of Verilog writin', pocket protector wearing misfits, who take six months to implement what we can do in five lines of code, and cannot maintain app. integrity even in a single core non-hyperthreaded CPU! (See here: http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~abhik/pdf/pact04.pdf).
Yours Sincerely, A Software Engineer.
Sneak Preview of one of the clauses
on
Drafting GPL3
·
· Score: 2, Funny
"23(a): Permission for all uses of this copyrighted work are granted to Microsoft Corporation (new sponsors of the Free Software Foundation), and they are exempt from all requirements in this licence agreement."
This may cause disquiet among developers who used the "either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version." clause.
The article is a plug for a distro, disguising itself as relating to Apple on Intel, so I might aswell ask this question relating to the Apple/Intel announcement:
Will it be possible to install Windows for dual booting? You might need some drivers for whatever proprietary Apple stuff on the motherboard, but how much of an impediment would the Apple BIOS be?
Some may wonder what the point would be. You may want / have to use Windows for some purpose and want / have to have access to a Mac and OSX. For Apple, the point of the OS is to sell Apple hardware, so if you are running Windows on their gear, it is not the end of the world, especially if the option makes Macs more desireable for some.
I could even see Apple taking on Dell to an extent. Sounds stupid, but hear me out:
1. Apple make well-engineered PCs with low noise characteristics and elegant styling and packaging. 2. Where I live, an Apple is the only PC you can buy inside a shopping mall. The stores that sell mobile phones have branched into iPods, and now Mac minis and iMacs. 3. Windows + OSX is a unique selling proposition. 4. Apple have the highest profile and most desireability of any PC brand. 5. Dell are currently planning a "luxury" priced range of PCs, coincidentaly at Mac type prices. 6. Apples top engineers have succesfully cracked the secrets of the mouse with more than one button!
Certain code would do the wrong thing on date rollovers and needed fixing - I'd seen it myself.
The seriousness of the problem was exaggerated by the following misconceptions: 1. Everything that held a date in it with 2 digit years was going to have a problem. 2. Everything described in point 1 that was not fixed would fail in the most disastrous way - missiles being launched, planes falling from the sky.
In reality there could be no problem, or the problem might only be cosmetic. For example, a system I was testing would show the wrong status colour (meaning you haven't done a diagnostic in so many months) but it would not do anything wrong. Still, it had to be fixed to be Y2K ready.
Nonetheless, I was slightly under whelmed by what went wrong on the day. I knew society was not going to collapse, but I expected a few non-critical SNAFUs. I made sure I took out cash from the ATM before New Years, but I gave the water supplies and the bomb shelter a miss:-) Globally there were one or two, but nothing major.
Cable Telephony TV over phone lines Broadband Over Power Lines Power Over Ethernet Voice Over IP Cable Broadband Internet Radio Wireless Internet Satelite Radio Satelite Internet
Where will it end? Teleconferencing by gas main? Pay per view movies over sewerage pipes? Use them as God intended. It's messing with nature I tell's ya!
I've been told of someone in my father's generation who had their left hand tied behind their backs as a child, in order to make them right-handed (and hate their parents).
Slashdot Mirror
Here is a Venn diagram showing the interest in Java on mobile devices e.g. phones (MIDP) and Java 3D and the intersection between them:
/ \ / \
/ Phones /\ \ /
_________ _________
/ Java On \/ Java 3D \
\ \/
\ /\ /
\_________/ \_________/
Hope both of those guys enjoyed the article!
The CEO of an unnamed company I knew used to read all the empolyees emails as well. All of them. Every one. Whether they were addressed to him or not. :-)
It was funny, the guy who worked there was sent an email with a read-notification flag set on it. The sender then recieved two notifications that the email has been read - one from the CEO. Then the jig was up.
The above is a convoluted grasp at an alternate explaination of how and why their deity/messiah was executed by the Romans.
It makes little sense. Did the people who died before Jesus all go to hell no matter what they were like? Prior to that, was God so cruel that he would punish you for something Adam did?
It seems strange that the Jews believed you'd go to heaven if good, hell if you were bad, but Christians think that rule was only made possible by the crucifixion.
Now that Jesus took one for the team, does that mean we can sin all we like?
Something to think about.
... too many CounterStrike jokes ...
"[Microsoft]BillG (Terrorist): HAX! We can't handle that."
"[Halliburton]VPCheney (Counter Terroris): Why are the Ts killing hostages? Admin kick them!"
"Hey [Warner]EltonJohn is camping again!"
"[USA]Dubya has been kicked for having a high ping."
(he's slow)
2.6.13 Linux(TM) kernel
And do something similar with the Cobol 80 columners :-)
MS's objection was to there being two different 64 bit *extensions* to x86, which is why Intel now produce AMD0-compatible processors (gotta love that one). Otherwise Intel would have made a completely different instruction set for x86, leaving you with potentially three sets: IA-64, AMD x86-64, Intel x86-64 (I say potentially, because the Itanium is dead).
Please help the Disney corp.
Seriously though, Sun do more for OS than people realise, an this is the 2nd time they have taken something ominous (e.g. MS Passport) and worked on a better alternative (Liberty Alliance). Not sure if it can be applied to DRM, but not sure means not sure, so let's see.
The guy has put nigh on 15 years into Linux. Is he not entitled, to kick back and relax for a while, forget about kernels, buy a tropical island, hire a team of permanent hookers for his island, get high all the time, and enjoy the fruits of his labour?
Who are you to criticise him if he does this? What are you, a Slashdot n00b? When Apple or Linus does it, it is not wrong!
Piss of you M$ troll!
Thank you, I'm here all week.
Several people here have commented on how they have seen misuse of design patterns in code, or that a high usage correlates with bad code. This can happen, and I will discuss what I have noticed, but this does not reflect on the Gang of Four, or their book.
The book discusses the symptoms which would cause you to consider a particular pattern, and the disadvantages of using said pattern. In general, most of the patterns reduce coupling, and the flipside of that is it harder to follow the code - coupling means you can jump straight to where something is implemented. You use the pattern where you know without it e.g. the number of branches or classes has grown, or definetly will grow, to be unmanageable.
Design patterns became very fashionable, so everyone wanted to show they were using them. This meant that people who did not understand (or care about) the justification and negative consequences using them where the current and future requirements were simple, and the simple non-pattern solution was manageable.
For example, dozens of utility classes done as factory pattern. Therefore there is an interface and a factory, but there was only one implementation class needed and created. That class typically had a few extra methods, so client classes downcast to the concrete class. Pointless. It also made it harder to find what a framework method did, as you had to see what the factory was configured to create to find the implementation.
I have been in the situation where a poser at a design review insisted on using the strategy pattern because there was an if-else in my code (i.e. exactly two branches and the requirements were fixed). If someone like that gets their way, the code becomes very unreadable, inefficient and over-engineered.
People also cite that you can use the name of a design pattern, and other OO developers will understand this complicated design feature because it maps to the pattern. That is o.k. but the wannabes put the name of a pattern on their own solution which is quite different. Their solution might be valid, but they put a misleading name on it to get the pattern halo effect.
If some one reads the considerations mentioned in the book, and uses the pattern where there is a lot of complexity, or you can predict there will be a lot of complexity, they are an excellent solution to OO design problems that arise again and again.
What is up with the machine name in that first link?:. org/article.pl?sid=05/07/14/138247&tid=10"
"http://dsl089-23-21.pa.dial.usa.slashdot
"rejecting Wozniak and Jobs' idea for a personal computer has to rank with one of the all-time mistakes in corporate America".
:-)
I believe that events have shown that the invention of the personal computer has been a monumental mistake for humanity
Grandparent post said:
"A problem with gray beards in ivory tower research divisions, is sometimes they start puttering on things that amuse them but never transition that in anything of real world value, and especially something that can someday be turned in to a product a company can sell."
Your links prove it. Perhaps that was your intent.
Internet over telephone lines (dialup/DSL).
Telephony via the internet (VOIP).
Internet via Cable.
TV via internet.
Internet via wireless.
Internet radio.
IP via Avian protocol (see the RFC).
Birds on the internet (will not provide any links).
Internet via power lines.
Power to the People, via the web (Power to the People).
1. Buy a can of petrol and matches.
2. Find an outdoor area, free of flammable materials.
3. Apply petrol liberally to PC.
4. Light match, throw at PC, stepping backwards.
5. http://www.dell.com/
The alternative, Firefox, is too much effort by comparison.
"When I worked for a particular company, we instituted a "programmer intelligence test". It didn't test nonsense like "Define Polymorphism", it had questions where they actually had to think like a programmer."
For that remark, you fail my programmer IQ test. Getting people to rattle off definitions is a waste, sure, but showing you understand these concepts is a step on the way to being able to write non-shite code in an OO language.
These Onion people will never gain credibility as a news organisation if they cannot do more credible forecasting. Perhaps they should recruit that Dvorak gentleman.
(Above irony aside, if you read one of the Onion books, they have an issue from 2000, post election. The have a humorous forecast of the what the Bush presidency will bring which is eerily prophetic - "atleast one Desert Storm sized war", recessione etc.)
If you want us to accommodate your inability to improve single threaded performance and rearchitect 20 years of software for parallel computing, then how about this:
.
DON'T CALL US WEENIES! Ya bunch of Verilog writin', pocket protector wearing misfits, who take six months to implement what we can do in five lines of code, and cannot maintain app. integrity even in a single core non-hyperthreaded CPU! (See here: http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~abhik/pdf/pact04.pdf)
Yours Sincerely,
A Software Engineer.
"23(a): Permission for all uses of this copyrighted work are granted to Microsoft Corporation (new sponsors of the Free Software Foundation), and they are exempt from all requirements in this licence agreement."
This may cause disquiet among developers who used the "either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version." clause.
The article is a plug for a distro, disguising itself as relating to Apple on Intel, so I might aswell ask this question relating to the Apple/Intel announcement:
Will it be possible to install Windows for dual booting? You might need some drivers for whatever proprietary Apple stuff on the motherboard, but how much of an impediment would the Apple BIOS be?
Some may wonder what the point would be. You may want / have to use Windows for some purpose and want / have to have access to a Mac and OSX. For Apple, the point of the OS is to sell Apple hardware, so if you are running Windows on their gear, it is not the end of the world, especially if the option makes Macs more desireable for some.
I could even see Apple taking on Dell to an extent. Sounds stupid, but hear me out:
1. Apple make well-engineered PCs with low noise characteristics and elegant styling and packaging.
2. Where I live, an Apple is the only PC you can buy inside a shopping mall. The stores that sell mobile phones have branched into iPods, and now Mac minis and iMacs.
3. Windows + OSX is a unique selling proposition.
4. Apple have the highest profile and most desireability of any PC brand.
5. Dell are currently planning a "luxury" priced range of PCs, coincidentaly at Mac type prices.
6. Apples top engineers have succesfully cracked the secrets of the mouse with more than one button!
Please campaign to have me replace John Dvorak.
Certain code would do the wrong thing on date rollovers and needed fixing - I'd seen it myself.
:-) Globally there were one or two, but nothing major.
The seriousness of the problem was exaggerated by the following misconceptions:
1. Everything that held a date in it with 2 digit years was going to have a problem.
2. Everything described in point 1 that was not fixed would fail in the most disastrous way - missiles being launched, planes falling from the sky.
In reality there could be no problem, or the problem might only be cosmetic. For example, a system I was testing would show the wrong status colour (meaning you haven't done a diagnostic in so many months) but it would not do anything wrong. Still, it had to be fixed to be Y2K ready.
Nonetheless, I was slightly under whelmed by what went wrong on the day. I knew society was not going to collapse, but I expected a few non-critical SNAFUs. I made sure I took out cash from the ATM before New Years, but I gave the water supplies and the bomb shelter a miss
Cable Telephony
TV over phone lines
Broadband Over Power Lines
Power Over Ethernet
Voice Over IP
Cable Broadband
Internet Radio
Wireless Internet
Satelite Radio
Satelite Internet
Where will it end? Teleconferencing by gas main? Pay per view movies over sewerage pipes? Use them as God intended. It's messing with nature I tell's ya!
I've been told of someone in my father's generation who had their left hand tied behind their backs as a child, in order to make them right-handed (and hate their parents).
Didn't DEC name it Ultrix at one stage, or did I just dream that part?