Think of it another way. You are not training your replacement. You are being promoted to team lead or architect. This might be a lesson in whether or not your code is easy to maintain, or easy to learn, and how well you can mentor junior programmers on your team.
Plenty of people above have posted good justifications, but pragmatically it's also painless to implement good standards.
If you use visual studio, the amazing tool known as Resharper will do the style checking and correct casing and spelling for you. Since an independent third party is taking care of this, it will reduce squabbling and "hold outs". If you're cheap, there are other free tools (including the Code Analysis which comes with visual studio).
If your PHB wants a published doc, just point to a decent existing standard, like the Microsoft-generated naming guidelines and coding conventions
There are similar tools and published conventions for Java and C++.
This is a no-brainer folks, and plenty of talented individuals have tackled this problem. Once it becomes part of your infrastructure, you can even skip most of the code reviews for naming conventions and coding style.
Now I don't need to drive anywhere. The poor folks who have to drive large distances to work are going to get screwed twice over: once at the pump (in terms of taxes), and every year when the gummint processes the GPS data. So much for buying a hybrid to save on gas! In the meantime, I will be paying the same amount to take public transportation. Enjoy being a slave to your automobile, folks.
And then of course, the security vs civil liberty problems. The government will be able to track to you to tax you, but the police will not be able to track you? Yeah right. Do you think criminals are stupid? Either they will tamper with the GPS, drive old beaters that don't have one, or they'll mug people on foot. It's just another way to keep ordinary folks in line.
Before my current gig in Chicago, I held a job in Champaign-Urbana out of college. It has a mix of rural and city life; the opera house was three miles away, the night-life was about a mile walk away, and the corn fields were another 2 miles away. Yes you could get a lot more for your money there, but it's not all about standard of living. Since I had been there since college, after 6 years in that town it felt like I had done *everything* there was to do there. I had been to every single museum, I had done the barhop, I had done stargazing in the country, eaten at almost every restaurant, and I even went to the gaybar on saturday night just to see what it was like. I had simply run out of culturally entertaining things to do.
Now in Chicago I'm a mile northwest of Wrigley field and work downtown. The number of things to do is *overwhelming*. My view at work is the Sears Tower and the Bank One building, before it was a parking lot and some power lines. Moreover, I really didn't take that much of a hit in terms of quality of life. In Champaign I rented a two bedroom house for 750 a month. In Chicago I'm renting a 2+ flat with *more floor space* for 1200 a month. The only major drawback in quality of life is that in Champaign I could walk to work in 15 minutes; now I have 40 minute commute by foot+bus+train.
BWAHAHAHA! You actually PAY for the watered-down soda and stale popcorn? Sheesh, my girlfriend and I usually hit the local grocer/wallmart/meijer, put some bin candy in a bag, buy water/soda, and sneak it into the theater. Get a lot more for your money that way. Once we even snuck in some McDonalds and a full bag of our own popcorn.
We also use our old student ID's go get a student discount. When you include food, that comes out for a cheap $15 date!
Oh, and we go to the theaters late at night at around 11, avoid the insipid movies if we can, and often go on the weekdays. Makes it a whole lot better that way.
Have to tried going to an art theater? They're usually closer downtown than megaplexes, have cheaper tickets, better food, much better movies, and nicer audiences.
IANAB, but I really don't buy into this "we overhunted the megafauna" bullshit. First, Humans arrived in the Americas way before 10,000 years ago. Second, if somehow we overhunted camels, sabertooth cats, mastodons, and wooly rinoceros, how come american bison never went extinct? There were literally MILLIONS of these megafauna all over the US and Canada before the "white man" came. Humans have lived in Africa for as long as they existed as a species, but they never hunted elephants to extinction. It just doesn't make sense, and I agree with other posters that this is merely a money-making scheme.
It's simply that the climate changed. Temperate climates don't support huge animals as easily as glacial climates. That bison, african elephants, and asian elepants happened to survive is that they merely were able satisfy an ecological niche. No complicated conspiracy theories about it.
While we're at it, why don't we re-introduce timber wolves, bears, and bison to Europe, since those megafauna used to be there too. I guess wild sanglier don't count as megafauna either.
You're thinking in reverse. What will encourage people (i.e. corporations) to switch from windows to linux is expense, but they will hesitate because the applications they are currently using will not run on linux easily. If you are able to brain-dead easily install windows applications on linux with little bugs, then people will migrate to linux. Then you gradually move people off of individual applications, such as word and excel, and eventually move the more complicated applications such as outlook and visual studio. I'm not even mentioning the hundreds of legacy apps out there that barely run in windows 2000.
Now to get non-corporate people to switch from windows to linux is to make cedega dirt-cheap and integrated into linux, so that they can run The Sims and Everquest 2.
I checked Cedega, and it has come a long way on that front; it even runs two games that won't run on my windows 2003 box (Battlefield: 1942, and Rise of Nations). How much you want to bet that Vista won't run these games either?
Yeah, I do, but I sure as hell not going to replace my MSDN copy of windows 2003 with windows shlonghorn blista beta. You're going to have to pry that OS out of my cold dead hands, hear that Bill?
Not a system for everyone, since many students will be more interested in the big names which tend to get pirated in the first place, but a nice enough system, and the artists certainly aren't hard done by. They even provide software, MARS (Mindawn Audio Ripping Software), for ripping CD, WAV or AIFF to OGG or FLAC format for using with their system. That's not to say that you couldn't use flac/oggenc, especially since it isn't F/OSS, but it's nice that they've provided their own multi-platform utility with a GUI to help out in that regard... not to mention the fact that the MARS documentation says that you need oggenc/flac/cdparanoia installed on Linux in any case.
There's a nice piece of software that I use called Exact Audio Copy. It provides an amazing GUI that can be switched from noobie mode to ultra-1337, it can detect and correct errors on even really badly scratched CD's, provides online CD database access, custom naming schemes, lots of ID3 tag options, and you can encode to *any friggin format you want to*. It has built-in support for a very large number of formats, but you can also integrate it with LAME, oggenc, flac and whathaveyou. Oh yeah, and it's free too. Windows only, but it might work with wine on linux.
Also, if you want more bang for your buck, er, download, Rarewares has special builds for oggenc, flac, and other formats that support a larger number of features. For instance, they added hard min-max bitrate levels for ogg vorbis (so ogg doesn't encode silence at 100kbps), and something called "impulse-trigger", which helps with promblems in echo from rimshots or something like that. The forums at hydrogen audio explain the extra features in more detail.
The free-as-in-beer, light-weight, fully-compatible virus-scanner that I use is called ClamWin. I've used it on my winME, win2000, winXP, and win2003 boxen without any problems. It even integrates into Outlook.
Actually, if you download the security services wizard from microsoft, it will detect if you are running any server services (in the workstation's case, none), and disable all other services and even pre-set your firewall. Before this, I would have to go to different sites to look up which services to disable manually, often taking up to a half-hour tweaking the system. Run the wizard, double-check it, and you'll be done in a few minutes.
A word of warning though: NOT ALL PROGRAMS THAT RUN IN WINDOWS XP WILL RUN IN WIN2003. For example, "Rise of Nations" and "Battlefield: 1942" refused to run no matter what I tried. Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 barely installed and had numerous glitches (A patch might be available now), whereas it would work much better on windows XP. Other than that, everything else runs peachy, and it takes windows XP drivers just fine.
I disagree with the 2003-as-workstation article on some points. For one, disabling IE's advanced security. Just use FireFox for day-to-day internet browsing, and use IE for patches and "legacy" websites. You can add these websites to IE's "safe list". I also kinda like the shutdown even tracker, though it may annoy some. Also I'm glad the goopy sloppy XP theme is disabled by default! It's the first thing I turn off in windows XP! Other than that, the article does give important tips on re-enabling video and audio acceleration, especially if you'll be using it as a gaming rig.
Technically, it's not wrong, since whilst==while, but it looks like the author did a find-replace for while with whilst to look more savvy. Whilst is reserved for elegant discourse or poetry, not a goddamn video card interview. You would NEVER hear it in spoken conversation in the United States.
And yes, I'm American.
Anybody else notice the large number of times the word "whilst" was used? I thought my Firefox translation plugin was accidentally set to English->MiddleEnglish. It's like author just got done cramming for an exam on Shakespeare and feels compelled to write the same way, but then gives up halfway through sentences and goes back to regular english:
Whilst their relationship with Microsoft has become publicly tenuous, what about NVIDIA's relationship with their new console partner?
I had a computer at home where I destroyed the copy of windows XP on it. So I decided to do a fresh install of Windows 2003 Server on it. The mistake I made was to keep this box on the DMZ of my router. So, as soon as I was done installing and ready to download service pack 1, BAM within 3 minutes, it started complaining about executed code and would shut itself down within 30 seconds. Thank god it at least had the sense to turn itself off before anything dangerous was installed (a very nice feature of 2003), but at the same time prevented me from ever completing the download of SP1.
Quick and easy solution: download the service pack manually on a win2k box that was not DMZ on my router, disconnect the win2003 box from the internet, and transfer the service pack through the network.
Of course, with SP1 I'm all peachy since it has the improved windows firewall. Along with the windows antispyware, clamwin antivirus, and firefox, my free-as-in-beer protection has kept me safe ever since.
Slashdot Mirror
Think of it another way. You are not training your replacement. You are being promoted to team lead or architect. This might be a lesson in whether or not your code is easy to maintain, or easy to learn, and how well you can mentor junior programmers on your team.
Plenty of people above have posted good justifications, but pragmatically it's also painless to implement good standards. If you use visual studio, the amazing tool known as Resharper will do the style checking and correct casing and spelling for you. Since an independent third party is taking care of this, it will reduce squabbling and "hold outs". If you're cheap, there are other free tools (including the Code Analysis which comes with visual studio). If your PHB wants a published doc, just point to a decent existing standard, like the Microsoft-generated naming guidelines and coding conventions There are similar tools and published conventions for Java and C++. This is a no-brainer folks, and plenty of talented individuals have tackled this problem. Once it becomes part of your infrastructure, you can even skip most of the code reviews for naming conventions and coding style.
And then of course, the security vs civil liberty problems. The government will be able to track to you to tax you, but the police will not be able to track you? Yeah right. Do you think criminals are stupid? Either they will tamper with the GPS, drive old beaters that don't have one, or they'll mug people on foot. It's just another way to keep ordinary folks in line.
Now in Chicago I'm a mile northwest of Wrigley field and work downtown. The number of things to do is *overwhelming*. My view at work is the Sears Tower and the Bank One building, before it was a parking lot and some power lines. Moreover, I really didn't take that much of a hit in terms of quality of life. In Champaign I rented a two bedroom house for 750 a month. In Chicago I'm renting a 2+ flat with *more floor space* for 1200 a month. The only major drawback in quality of life is that in Champaign I could walk to work in 15 minutes; now I have 40 minute commute by foot+bus+train.
We also use our old student ID's go get a student discount. When you include food, that comes out for a cheap $15 date!
Oh, and we go to the theaters late at night at around 11, avoid the insipid movies if we can, and often go on the weekdays. Makes it a whole lot better that way.
Have to tried going to an art theater? They're usually closer downtown than megaplexes, have cheaper tickets, better food, much better movies, and nicer audiences.
No wayz! that band is teh AWESOME! And Gavin is soooo hott!
Pictures, assembly instructions, and... user testimonials!
So you're saying that elephants are extinct in Africa?!?!?! I better cancel my subscription to the Discovery channel then!
It's simply that the climate changed. Temperate climates don't support huge animals as easily as glacial climates. That bison, african elephants, and asian elepants happened to survive is that they merely were able satisfy an ecological niche. No complicated conspiracy theories about it.
While we're at it, why don't we re-introduce timber wolves, bears, and bison to Europe, since those megafauna used to be there too. I guess wild sanglier don't count as megafauna either.
Now to get non-corporate people to switch from windows to linux is to make cedega dirt-cheap and integrated into linux, so that they can run The Sims and Everquest 2.
I checked Cedega, and it has come a long way on that front; it even runs two games that won't run on my windows 2003 box (Battlefield: 1942, and Rise of Nations). How much you want to bet that Vista won't run these games either?
Yeah, I do, but I sure as hell not going to replace my MSDN copy of windows 2003 with windows shlonghorn blista beta. You're going to have to pry that OS out of my cold dead hands, hear that Bill?
Are they going to test it with the Brown Note?
There's a nice piece of software that I use called Exact Audio Copy. It provides an amazing GUI that can be switched from noobie mode to ultra-1337, it can detect and correct errors on even really badly scratched CD's, provides online CD database access, custom naming schemes, lots of ID3 tag options, and you can encode to *any friggin format you want to*. It has built-in support for a very large number of formats, but you can also integrate it with LAME, oggenc, flac and whathaveyou. Oh yeah, and it's free too. Windows only, but it might work with wine on linux.
Also, if you want more bang for your buck, er, download, Rarewares has special builds for oggenc, flac, and other formats that support a larger number of features. For instance, they added hard min-max bitrate levels for ogg vorbis (so ogg doesn't encode silence at 100kbps), and something called "impulse-trigger", which helps with promblems in echo from rimshots or something like that. The forums at hydrogen audio explain the extra features in more detail.
Yes Mr AC, I run a fileserver, print server, webserver, and even perl cgi running off my computer *while* I'm playing counterstrike. So poop on you.
The free-as-in-beer, light-weight, fully-compatible virus-scanner that I use is called ClamWin. I've used it on my winME, win2000, winXP, and win2003 boxen without any problems. It even integrates into Outlook.
Actually, if you download the security services wizard from microsoft, it will detect if you are running any server services (in the workstation's case, none), and disable all other services and even pre-set your firewall. Before this, I would have to go to different sites to look up which services to disable manually, often taking up to a half-hour tweaking the system. Run the wizard, double-check it, and you'll be done in a few minutes.
A word of warning though: NOT ALL PROGRAMS THAT RUN IN WINDOWS XP WILL RUN IN WIN2003. For example, "Rise of Nations" and "Battlefield: 1942" refused to run no matter what I tried. Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 barely installed and had numerous glitches (A patch might be available now), whereas it would work much better on windows XP. Other than that, everything else runs peachy, and it takes windows XP drivers just fine.
I disagree with the 2003-as-workstation article on some points. For one, disabling IE's advanced security. Just use FireFox for day-to-day internet browsing, and use IE for patches and "legacy" websites. You can add these websites to IE's "safe list". I also kinda like the shutdown even tracker, though it may annoy some. Also I'm glad the goopy sloppy XP theme is disabled by default! It's the first thing I turn off in windows XP! Other than that, the article does give important tips on re-enabling video and audio acceleration, especially if you'll be using it as a gaming rig.
Probably a former employee of Claria Networks I'm sure :-/
The Citroën commercial is nice, but it's unfortunate that citron in French means "lemon" in English :(
Technically, it's not wrong, since whilst==while, but it looks like the author did a find-replace for while with whilst to look more savvy. Whilst is reserved for elegant discourse or poetry, not a goddamn video card interview. You would NEVER hear it in spoken conversation in the United States. And yes, I'm American.
For a second I was confused when looking at the title of the web page :D
I had a computer at home where I destroyed the copy of windows XP on it. So I decided to do a fresh install of Windows 2003 Server on it. The mistake I made was to keep this box on the DMZ of my router. So, as soon as I was done installing and ready to download service pack 1, BAM within 3 minutes, it started complaining about executed code and would shut itself down within 30 seconds. Thank god it at least had the sense to turn itself off before anything dangerous was installed (a very nice feature of 2003), but at the same time prevented me from ever completing the download of SP1.
Quick and easy solution: download the service pack manually on a win2k box that was not DMZ on my router, disconnect the win2003 box from the internet, and transfer the service pack through the network.
Of course, with SP1 I'm all peachy since it has the improved windows firewall. Along with the windows antispyware, clamwin antivirus, and firefox, my free-as-in-beer protection has kept me safe ever since.