Of course "they need to." But you're looking at it wrong. They *can't* because of a number of reasons, mostly related to competition in the marketplace.
True; poorly phrased on my part. I meant: they're able to make an increased profit on the same price, based strictly on volume.
Banks just don't pay for shit unless you are a VP or own the place, so they get the crappiest IT help.
"Due diligence" means "cover your ass", and has NO OTHER MEANING in the banking community. Everywhere else it means "make a good effort to do the best you can to the spirit of the task".
There's some truth in this, but not in the way you think. Of course it's CYA -- since corporations do not think and act as people, that's the equivalent of their moral compass. The net result is no different, though.
Granted, this breech is considerably dumber than average, but of the banks I have worked with, every single one of them at one time or another had some sort of institutional problem understanding and implementing some of the most basic data safety measures.
That's like saying "all of the car manufacturers have made a lethally unsafe vehicle at some point, so they're all a bunch of morons with no clue about safety."
I cannot begin to express how seriously banks are taking this. Anecdotal example: the other day I sent my own personal income tax return, in zipped PDF, from my work account to my home account. It was immediately bounced back: "This email was detected to contain sensitive customer infomration (SSN). If you are required to send it, you must encrypt it using..." etc etc.
This was also followed up by a call from infosec a few minutes later, wanting to know what the hell I was thinking. (And they were right. That was a stupid thing for me to do -- even if it was just my own data.)
Whether it's "CYA" or because they actually don't want to screw over their customers; the end result is the same. Banks are taking this much more seriously than you seem to believe. At my own bank, and at most of the other big US banks, there are strictly enforced rules about PII.
Where you'll find it breaking down is at smaller places like this one -- where they don't have the resources to prevent it from happening. This doesn't mean mistakes don't happen at the larger institutions; simply that to blithely claim that they're just too dumb to have a clue is more than a little disingenuous.
The two things that strike me now are 1) games were really goddamn expensive back in the day and 2) I'm surprised that they haven't been able to jack that price harder considering inflation and all.
They probably don't really need to. Look at the penetration of gaming systems and PCs back in the 1980s and compare it to now. They make up the difference in volume many times over.
Re:Extra! Extra! Read here for the scoop!
on
Why Games Cost $60
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· Score: 1
That's an intriguing point. My first thought was "oh noes, another data wants to be free jerk". But then I thought about what you wrote, and it's very true. Supply and demand doesn't apply here (at least for downloadables); but at the same time "whatever the market will bear" does. Clearly the price is $60 because people will pay 60 -- the "demand" side is certainly covered. But when the supply is infinite at negligible cost. , how does that fit in an economic sense?
I'm... struggling here. If I could summarize: "Sometimes this doesn't work. Oh while I'm on the subject, Microsoft, Apple, and homegrown frameworks suck, use Qt. " I'm just trying to see the point here, or the relation to the actual article...
Unit tests are only as good as the programmers who make them. And if the programmer can think of a unit test... chances are that his code has already accounted for it; after all it's the same person, and he will be in the same mindset as he was when writing the code in the first place.
-snip-Its quite possible it would be really small amount of users using it even if it was build-in, since its not really why the users are there on the site and it just forgots. -snip-
That's probably a good thing. Do you really want to go to a popular web site and see the comments of millions of people starting at you...
This seems a bit overhyped to me, and doesn't really seem like a well-run clinical trial. It may be something of a first step, but if it is, there's still a long way to go.
Well of course - the/best/ trial would be to inject volunteers who received both the placebo and teh vaccine with HIV. Unfortunately, that's not really an option...
Why? It's not obvious. The sequence of bits stored with your UID known as "karma" might take a hit because this is offtopic? Oh no. End of the world. Do you think your "karma" here matters for anything in the real world?
Or maybe you're really Ballmer and don't want to get caught here.
Another Monsanto gem is their law suits of suing farmers for retaining harvest seeds year over year instead of buying them from Monsanto, claiming patent infringment.
While often "making profit == evil" is the attitude we come across in slashdot conversations, there's actually some merit here. Monsanto has had a fairly long and unpleasant history of the things they're doing in the name of profit.
The reason developers get fired is either for the same reason most people get fired -- namely that they piss off the wrong person and they find someone in power to make their dream come true (and someone else's nightmare to begin), -OR- they learn too much about the system and not enough about politics and get caught by surprise when they try to implement a change that is a political hotbed.
-OR- they're not good at they're job -OR- they have a primma donna attitude/no people skills -OR- they're not meeting deadlines -OR-... well, you get the picture. While the reasons you've listed are valid, they're far from the only reasons; and I'd argue that in spite of your personal experience, they may not even be the most prevalent.
Or, since you're on a team, you can actually take the time to help your coworker to improve instead of "throwing him under the bus". That way, you get someone else to work with who has a clue (lessening the load on you), and you don't have to worry about heavy metal poisoning via coffee.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not sure why everyone keeps bringing this up
If you were a classic car enthusiast, you would understand the nearly pain watching this video causes. ;)
>They probably don't really need to.
Of course "they need to." But you're looking at it wrong. They *can't* because of a number of reasons, mostly related to competition in the marketplace.
True; poorly phrased on my part. I meant: they're able to make an increased profit on the same price, based strictly on volume.
I work as a supplier to the banking industry.
And I work /in/ the banking industry.
Banks just don't pay for shit unless you are a VP or own the place, so they get the crappiest IT help. "Due diligence" means "cover your ass", and has NO OTHER MEANING in the banking community. Everywhere else it means "make a good effort to do the best you can to the spirit of the task".
There's some truth in this, but not in the way you think. Of course it's CYA -- since corporations do not think and act as people, that's the equivalent of their moral compass. The net result is no different, though.
Granted, this breech is considerably dumber than average, but of the banks I have worked with, every single one of them at one time or another had some sort of institutional problem understanding and implementing some of the most basic data safety measures.
That's like saying "all of the car manufacturers have made a lethally unsafe vehicle at some point, so they're all a bunch of morons with no clue about safety."
I cannot begin to express how seriously banks are taking this. Anecdotal example: the other day I sent my own personal income tax return, in zipped PDF, from my work account to my home account. It was immediately bounced back: "This email was detected to contain sensitive customer infomration (SSN). If you are required to send it, you must encrypt it using ..." etc etc.
This was also followed up by a call from infosec a few minutes later, wanting to know what the hell I was thinking. (And they were right. That was a stupid thing for me to do -- even if it was just my own data.)
Whether it's "CYA" or because they actually don't want to screw over their customers; the end result is the same. Banks are taking this much more seriously than you seem to believe. At my own bank, and at most of the other big US banks, there are strictly enforced rules about PII.
Where you'll find it breaking down is at smaller places like this one -- where they don't have the resources to prevent it from happening. This doesn't mean mistakes don't happen at the larger institutions; simply that to blithely claim that they're just too dumb to have a clue is more than a little disingenuous.
The two things that strike me now are 1) games were really goddamn expensive back in the day and 2) I'm surprised that they haven't been able to jack that price harder considering inflation and all.
They probably don't really need to. Look at the penetration of gaming systems and PCs back in the 1980s and compare it to now. They make up the difference in volume many times over.
That's an intriguing point. My first thought was "oh noes, another data wants to be free jerk". But then I thought about what you wrote, and it's very true. Supply and demand doesn't apply here (at least for downloadables); but at the same time "whatever the market will bear" does. Clearly the price is $60 because people will pay 60 -- the "demand" side is certainly covered. But when the supply is infinite at negligible cost. , how does that fit in an economic sense?
.There is place for indie developers, but you need professional commercial game developers too.
Please note that "indie" is not synonymous with "!professional"...
I'm ... struggling here. If I could summarize: "Sometimes this doesn't work. Oh while I'm on the subject, Microsoft, Apple, and homegrown frameworks suck, use Qt. " I'm just trying to see the point here, or the relation to the actual article...
Why is it that whenever I read an article by Joel I feel like I'm being talked down to?
Oh, no reason really....
You, my friend, cannot go out in public without combing your hair. It will frighten the children. Because youâ(TM)re just not that pretty
... nope, I don't see it.
yeah, but i am not full of shit and would take your challenge any day, just to crush you and make you look stupid.
... sayeth the nameless, faceless person on the Internet.
Unit tests are only as good as the programmers who make them. And if the programmer can think of a unit test... chances are that his code has already accounted for it; after all it's the same person, and he will be in the same mindset as he was when writing the code in the first place.
Perhaps we'd best be sure this is commonplace before making lithium-ion battery powered seats...
What a complete waste of my time this adventure was.
.... oh by the way, this seems to only be offered as part of google toolbar.
-snip-Its quite possible it would be really small amount of users using it even if it was build-in, since its not really why the users are there on the site and it just forgots. -snip-
That's probably a good thing. Do you really want to go to a popular web site and see the comments of millions of people starting at you...
There's a reasonably probability that the half with the "real" vaccine will have less car accidents, thus showing progress in my vaccine! TLDR:
What statistical methodology leads you to think that the half with the "real" vaccine will have 30% fewer car accidents?
This seems a bit overhyped to me, and doesn't really seem like a well-run clinical trial. It may be something of a first step, but if it is, there's still a long way to go.
Well of course - the /best/ trial would be to inject volunteers who received both the placebo and teh vaccine with HIV. Unfortunately, that's not really an option...
Now there's no reason to - oh! I get it! You pig-sticking goat-roper.
Well - crap. I've been doing this all wrong!
Posted Anonymous Coward for obvious reasons.
Why? It's not obvious. The sequence of bits stored with your UID known as "karma" might take a hit because this is offtopic? Oh no. End of the world. Do you think your "karma" here matters for anything in the real world?
Or maybe you're really Ballmer and don't want to get caught here.
So explain, because it's not obvious at all.
Another Monsanto gem is their law suits of suing farmers for retaining harvest seeds year over year instead of buying them from Monsanto, claiming patent infringment.
While often "making profit == evil" is the attitude we come across in slashdot conversations, there's actually some merit here. Monsanto has had a fairly long and unpleasant history of the things they're doing in the name of profit.
how to make bad stuff like nukes, or worse a virus writers dream
We geeks sure do have our priorities straight.
Yes! Godwinned in one!
Close. It's the Jewish Scientologists. We're everywhere.
The reason developers get fired is either for the same reason most people get fired -- namely that they piss off the wrong person and they find someone in power to make their dream come true (and someone else's nightmare to begin), -OR- they learn too much about the system and not enough about politics and get caught by surprise when they try to implement a change that is a political hotbed.
-OR- they're not good at they're job -OR- they have a primma donna attitude/no people skills -OR- they're not meeting deadlines -OR-... well, you get the picture. While the reasons you've listed are valid, they're far from the only reasons; and I'd argue that in spite of your personal experience, they may not even be the most prevalent.
Or, since you're on a team, you can actually take the time to help your coworker to improve instead of "throwing him under the bus". That way, you get someone else to work with who has a clue (lessening the load on you), and you don't have to worry about heavy metal poisoning via coffee.