I agree, perhaps public humiliation would be best in this case. While it won't physically harm the individual(s) responsible for this lapse, it will discipline them and it will provide an example for others. Perhaps the best form of humiliation would be genital exposure. Make these people walk around the campus for a day, penis hanging out.
There is never an absolute "win" in the software market. The "winner" at any particular time will be the piece of software with the widest acceptance. Of course, that may change over the course of time, and most likely will. But it is better to see a piece of software "win" based on its quality (ie. the "best" software), rather than "winning" due to anticompetitive business practices.
Indeed, we are seeing the benefits of true competition in the browser market. People have a better product to choose from, and existing manufacturers are forced to innovate.
Just when people thought that the desktop computing environment had started to stagnate, we're seeing many new developments recently. Most of the developments have been the result of competition from Mac OS X, the Mozilla Project, Linux, and other open-source software.
It's good to know that open source software has the ability to affect a misbehaving economy in such a fashion. But then again, perhaps it's just the system working as it should: there's a demand for new software, and that demand is being met by the open source community.
Frankly, I think it's excellent for such spoof sites to be created. And hopefully they do incite much hatred, angst and conflict. I want the DCC people to have the urge to, as certain Microsoft executives might say, "fucking destroy" Debian. I want them to have that urge so badly that they put out a far superior product.
When will the wireless market begin to stabilize? I will not invest in wireless technology that very well may become out of date or unsupported by newer hardware in the near future. As such, I will continue to use gigabit ethernet, thank you very much.
Conflict often brings about the biggest changes, and conflict between OS developers is nothing new.
Take OpenBSD. Had it not been for Theo quarreling with the NetBSD elite, then we would not have the ultrasecure system that we have today.
And of course there's the revolutionary DragonflyBSD. If Matt had not been ostracized by the FreeBSD team, then we wouldn't have what will most likely become the premiere workstation BSD in the near future.
Then there's the whole CTSS/ITS/Multics debacle of yesteryear.
While not an operating system in itself, the whole XFree86/Xorg licensing incident has proved to be one of the greatest influences on UNIX GUI development in the past 20 years.
I believe that conflict is essential for open source projects. For if it were not for conflict, we would not have such great products as OpenBSD, DragonflyBSD, and Xorg. I, for one, support this sort of conflict. It often leads to increased productivity in the long run.
If they're having problems, then it is time for them to, well, get with the times. Basically it comes down to the fact that the rest of the world has adopted the SI units. Either NASA can just accept the fact that they will need to make the transition, or they can continue to flounder and run into conversion problems.
It's quite simple, really. These devices could transform cell material outside of the Fallopian tubes into a stitching, which could then be used to encircle the tubes themselves. Each progressive loop around the tube would eventually result in the tube being, quite literally, tied. And thus the egg could not enter the uterus of the patient, and the patient could not get pregnant.
Read my post again, my good fool. It clearly states intrauterine. Just so you know, that refers to the state of being "within the uterus", since you're apparently ignorant of the term (and hence came up with your "intraurine" mumbojumbo).
The idea would be to plant such a device within the uterus of a woman who wishes not to get pregnant. This device would wait until an egg was in the Fallopian tubes, or the uterus, and would then proceed to destroy it. Pregnancy cannot, by normal means, take place without an egg to fertilize.
Well, I no longer have to worry about such problems. My wife hit menopause fifteen years ago. So we can whoopdeedoo all day long. That is, if I can get my penis erect.
This sort of a device sounds useful for performing certain surgeries, namely tubal ligation in females. Or perhaps even as an intrauterine contraceptive. Imagine one of these devices scooting around, looking for eggs to envelop and destroy. It may very well be far safer than using drugs.
Assuming that is the case, then Perl is not being used as often for new development projects. And such a lack of new Perl-based systems will eventually lead to the minimalization of Perl. That in itself could be considered a decrease in the popularity of Perl.
What in heaven's name is he talking about?
on
Bill Gates Speaks Out
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Software in general, whether it was from Microsoft or somebody else, was not set up for an environment where all the computers were connected together. So it's not like there was some software that had this security capability and our software did not. As we use the Internet to connect everyone up, then the need to essentially have suspicion and only listen to certain other systems, and if flaws come up to have those updated very quickly, that became a new requirement.
Of course software was set up for networked communication. Most UNIX (including *BSD and Linux) systems since the late 1970s have been network-aware in some form or another. And they have experienced nowhere near the problems that Microsoft's software has.
Now it's intriguing that he's suggesting that it might be necessary to "only listen to certain other systems". That sounds an awful lot like a DRM-style situation for the Internet. Imagine not being able to connect to an FTP server running on Windows, only because you're using Mozilla or the FreeBSD ftp client, and such non-Microsoft products are deemed "insecure".
What's Perl being used for today?
on
Perl Best Practices
·
· Score: 0, Flamebait
What big-name projects is Perl being used for today? While it was once very big for web scripting, that arena now seems to be dominated by PHP, Ruby-on-Rails, ASP, JSP, and so forth. Even Pugs, a Perl 6 compiler, is written in Haskell rather than Perl.
While I'm sure that many people find it very useful to small throw-away scripts, perhaps it has outlived its usefulness as a general-purpose language suitable for large-scale development. As such, perhaps "best practices" aren't really needed, especially if the script will be discarded after a few uses.
I wouldn't shop in a grocery store with faeces smeared all over the front windows and doors. Likewise, I will not deal with a software vendor who cannot create a standards-compliant webpage for their product(s).
It's a matter of projecting a good public image, in addition to paying attention to small details (which is essential when doing software development).
I don't expect every company to have a perfect webpage. It'd probably be okay if Aunt Sally's Flower Shop's webpage wasn't perfect HTML. But then again, Aunt Sally isn't in the software business.
Any company in the software business should be capable of creating standards-compliant webpages for their products. It's not difficult to do, especially when verification services are available for free. It then becomes more a matter of care. Do they care enough to write quality code, be it their software product or their webpage?
I cannot trust any software company that cannot put together a decent, standards-compliant webpage. It's as simple as that. I want quality code, and if you cannot provide it for something as simple as a webpage, then I fail to believe that you can provide quality software products.
What exactly is a "blog" these days?
on
Google's Blog Search
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
What is considered a "blog" these days? I can understand a personal journal of some 13-year-old angsty kid being considered a "blog". But is Slashdot considered a "blog"? Is the news listing on Borland's site considered a "blog"?
It seems that any page that is updated frequently with entries of some sort is considered a "blog". And that ends up being a vast majority of pages. Perhaps the downfall of this service is that what it is supposed to be searching is not very well defined. One cannot do exact searches when the search medium is so undefined.
RAR files are the scum of the earth. If you want to archive files, you use tar to create a tarball. If you want to compress an archive or a large file, you use gzip or bzip2. Those are proven utilities that are wide spread and known to work.
Indeed, it isn't a big mistake at all. Yet it's easily caught by just running it through the free W3C HTML validation service, and it's very easily fixed once caught. Had they taken the care to make sure their website contains valid HTML code, then I would have considered using their service in the future. But I'm not sure if I will do so now.
They do, of course, have a more standards-compliant webpage than the PHP Nuke webpage (124 errors) or the Drupal webpage (7 errors).
Of course it's better to know about them, even if they cannot all be dealt with immediately or there are duplicates.
If there are a certain exception is thrown perhaps 4500 times out of the 5000 exceptions, then perhaps that's the problem to deal with first.
Likewise, it may provide useful to know if a recent change is causing problems that weren't caught by the existing testing procedure. Knowing of such problems would allow the testing procedure to be fixed, as well as the code.
No, ma'am. Had you read my post you'd see that I had said 5 or 6 million hits. Now consider that even just 1% of those 5 million hits throw an exception. That's 50 000 exceptions.
More realistically, even if just 0.1% of those 5 million hits throw an exception, you're looking at 5000 exceptions. That's 50 times the number of exceptions this site will list. A whole lot of data is being lost.
Indeed, I believe it is very important that a company selling a error-detection program take the care and time to ensure that their websites are standards-compliant. It shows that they're concerned with writing correct code, be it HTML or Perl or whatever.
It only allows the developer to see the last 100 exceptions? That might be fine and dandy for a site that only receives 100 hits per day. But when you're running an enterprise-grade site that gets 5 or 6 million hits on a slow day, 100 exceptions will basically be nothing. You could probably sit there and refresh the list of exceptions, getting a completely new list each time.
I'd like to see versions of Windows that target specific religions. A Windows Vista Christian Edition which includes a file of the Biblican texts, and tools to help one analyze such writings. Perhaps even Christian-themed backgrounds and screensavers and such. There could also be versions for Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Wiccans, you name it.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree, perhaps public humiliation would be best in this case. While it won't physically harm the individual(s) responsible for this lapse, it will discipline them and it will provide an example for others. Perhaps the best form of humiliation would be genital exposure. Make these people walk around the campus for a day, penis hanging out.
There is never an absolute "win" in the software market. The "winner" at any particular time will be the piece of software with the widest acceptance. Of course, that may change over the course of time, and most likely will. But it is better to see a piece of software "win" based on its quality (ie. the "best" software), rather than "winning" due to anticompetitive business practices.
Indeed, we are seeing the benefits of true competition in the browser market. People have a better product to choose from, and existing manufacturers are forced to innovate.
Just when people thought that the desktop computing environment had started to stagnate, we're seeing many new developments recently. Most of the developments have been the result of competition from Mac OS X, the Mozilla Project, Linux, and other open-source software.
It's good to know that open source software has the ability to affect a misbehaving economy in such a fashion. But then again, perhaps it's just the system working as it should: there's a demand for new software, and that demand is being met by the open source community.
Frankly, I think it's excellent for such spoof sites to be created. And hopefully they do incite much hatred, angst and conflict. I want the DCC people to have the urge to, as certain Microsoft executives might say, "fucking destroy" Debian. I want them to have that urge so badly that they put out a far superior product.
When will the wireless market begin to stabilize? I will not invest in wireless technology that very well may become out of date or unsupported by newer hardware in the near future. As such, I will continue to use gigabit ethernet, thank you very much.
Conflict often brings about the biggest changes, and conflict between OS developers is nothing new.
Take OpenBSD. Had it not been for Theo quarreling with the NetBSD elite, then we would not have the ultrasecure system that we have today.
And of course there's the revolutionary DragonflyBSD. If Matt had not been ostracized by the FreeBSD team, then we wouldn't have what will most likely become the premiere workstation BSD in the near future.
Then there's the whole CTSS/ITS/Multics debacle of yesteryear.
While not an operating system in itself, the whole XFree86/Xorg licensing incident has proved to be one of the greatest influences on UNIX GUI development in the past 20 years.
I believe that conflict is essential for open source projects. For if it were not for conflict, we would not have such great products as OpenBSD, DragonflyBSD, and Xorg. I, for one, support this sort of conflict. It often leads to increased productivity in the long run.
If they're having problems, then it is time for them to, well, get with the times. Basically it comes down to the fact that the rest of the world has adopted the SI units. Either NASA can just accept the fact that they will need to make the transition, or they can continue to flounder and run into conversion problems.
It's quite simple, really. These devices could transform cell material outside of the Fallopian tubes into a stitching, which could then be used to encircle the tubes themselves. Each progressive loop around the tube would eventually result in the tube being, quite literally, tied. And thus the egg could not enter the uterus of the patient, and the patient could not get pregnant.
Read my post again, my good fool. It clearly states intrauterine. Just so you know, that refers to the state of being "within the uterus", since you're apparently ignorant of the term (and hence came up with your "intraurine" mumbojumbo).
The idea would be to plant such a device within the uterus of a woman who wishes not to get pregnant. This device would wait until an egg was in the Fallopian tubes, or the uterus, and would then proceed to destroy it. Pregnancy cannot, by normal means, take place without an egg to fertilize.
Well, I no longer have to worry about such problems. My wife hit menopause fifteen years ago. So we can whoopdeedoo all day long. That is, if I can get my penis erect.
This sort of a device sounds useful for performing certain surgeries, namely tubal ligation in females. Or perhaps even as an intrauterine contraceptive. Imagine one of these devices scooting around, looking for eggs to envelop and destroy. It may very well be far safer than using drugs.
Assuming that is the case, then Perl is not being used as often for new development projects. And such a lack of new Perl-based systems will eventually lead to the minimalization of Perl. That in itself could be considered a decrease in the popularity of Perl.
Software in general, whether it was from Microsoft or somebody else, was not set up for an environment where all the computers were connected together. So it's not like there was some software that had this security capability and our software did not. As we use the Internet to connect everyone up, then the need to essentially have suspicion and only listen to certain other systems, and if flaws come up to have those updated very quickly, that became a new requirement.
Of course software was set up for networked communication. Most UNIX (including *BSD and Linux) systems since the late 1970s have been network-aware in some form or another. And they have experienced nowhere near the problems that Microsoft's software has.
Now it's intriguing that he's suggesting that it might be necessary to "only listen to certain other systems". That sounds an awful lot like a DRM-style situation for the Internet. Imagine not being able to connect to an FTP server running on Windows, only because you're using Mozilla or the FreeBSD ftp client, and such non-Microsoft products are deemed "insecure".
What big-name projects is Perl being used for today? While it was once very big for web scripting, that arena now seems to be dominated by PHP, Ruby-on-Rails, ASP, JSP, and so forth. Even Pugs, a Perl 6 compiler, is written in Haskell rather than Perl.
While I'm sure that many people find it very useful to small throw-away scripts, perhaps it has outlived its usefulness as a general-purpose language suitable for large-scale development. As such, perhaps "best practices" aren't really needed, especially if the script will be discarded after a few uses.
I wouldn't shop in a grocery store with faeces smeared all over the front windows and doors. Likewise, I will not deal with a software vendor who cannot create a standards-compliant webpage for their product(s).
It's a matter of projecting a good public image, in addition to paying attention to small details (which is essential when doing software development).
I don't expect every company to have a perfect webpage. It'd probably be okay if Aunt Sally's Flower Shop's webpage wasn't perfect HTML. But then again, Aunt Sally isn't in the software business.
Any company in the software business should be capable of creating standards-compliant webpages for their products. It's not difficult to do, especially when verification services are available for free. It then becomes more a matter of care. Do they care enough to write quality code, be it their software product or their webpage?
I cannot trust any software company that cannot put together a decent, standards-compliant webpage. It's as simple as that. I want quality code, and if you cannot provide it for something as simple as a webpage, then I fail to believe that you can provide quality software products.
What is considered a "blog" these days? I can understand a personal journal of some 13-year-old angsty kid being considered a "blog". But is Slashdot considered a "blog"? Is the news listing on Borland's site considered a "blog"?
It seems that any page that is updated frequently with entries of some sort is considered a "blog". And that ends up being a vast majority of pages. Perhaps the downfall of this service is that what it is supposed to be searching is not very well defined. One cannot do exact searches when the search medium is so undefined.
RAR files are the scum of the earth. If you want to archive files, you use tar to create a tarball. If you want to compress an archive or a large file, you use gzip or bzip2. Those are proven utilities that are wide spread and known to work.
Indeed, it isn't a big mistake at all. Yet it's easily caught by just running it through the free W3C HTML validation service, and it's very easily fixed once caught. Had they taken the care to make sure their website contains valid HTML code, then I would have considered using their service in the future. But I'm not sure if I will do so now.
They do, of course, have a more standards-compliant webpage than the PHP Nuke webpage (124 errors) or the Drupal webpage (7 errors).
Of course it's better to know about them, even if they cannot all be dealt with immediately or there are duplicates.
If there are a certain exception is thrown perhaps 4500 times out of the 5000 exceptions, then perhaps that's the problem to deal with first.
Likewise, it may provide useful to know if a recent change is causing problems that weren't caught by the existing testing procedure. Knowing of such problems would allow the testing procedure to be fixed, as well as the code.
No, ma'am. Had you read my post you'd see that I had said 5 or 6 million hits. Now consider that even just 1% of those 5 million hits throw an exception. That's 50 000 exceptions.
More realistically, even if just 0.1% of those 5 million hits throw an exception, you're looking at 5000 exceptions. That's 50 times the number of exceptions this site will list. A whole lot of data is being lost.
It looks like their site has one HTML error.
p tioncollection.com
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.exce
Indeed, I believe it is very important that a company selling a error-detection program take the care and time to ensure that their websites are standards-compliant. It shows that they're concerned with writing correct code, be it HTML or Perl or whatever.
It only allows the developer to see the last 100 exceptions? That might be fine and dandy for a site that only receives 100 hits per day. But when you're running an enterprise-grade site that gets 5 or 6 million hits on a slow day, 100 exceptions will basically be nothing. You could probably sit there and refresh the list of exceptions, getting a completely new list each time.
Do you think the same will happen to Apple, if they continue to grow?
I'd like to see versions of Windows that target specific religions. A Windows Vista Christian Edition which includes a file of the Biblican texts, and tools to help one analyze such writings. Perhaps even Christian-themed backgrounds and screensavers and such. There could also be versions for Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Wiccans, you name it.