Eveything was fine until I got to this bit at the end. What's he talking about?
9.10 How to Deal with Organizational Chaos
There are often times of great organizational chaos. These are unsettling to everyone, but perhaps a little less unsettling to the programmer whose personal self-esteem is founded in her capacity rather than in her position. Organizational chaos is a great opportunity for programmers to exercise their magic power. I've saved this for last because it is a deep tribal secret. If you are not a programmer, please stop reading now.
Engineers have the power to create and sustain.
Non-engineers can order people around but in a typical software company can create nothing on their own and only have the power that engineers grant them. They can create and sustain nothing without engineers. This power is proof against almost all the problems associated with organizational mayhem. When you have it you should ignore the chaos completely and carry on as if nothing is happening. You may of course get red, but if that happens you can easily get a new job because of the magic power. More commonly, some stressed-out person who does not have the magic power will come into your cube and tell you to do something stupid. It is best to smile and nod until they go away and then carry on doing what you know is best for the company.
This course of action is the best for you personally, and the best for the company you work for. If you are a leader, tell your people to do the same thing and tell them to ignore what anybody other than yourself tells them, including your own superiors.
Eveything was fine until I got to this bit at the end. What's he talking about?
9.10 How to Deal with Organizational Chaos
There are often times of great organizational chaos. These are unsettling to everyone, but perhaps a little less unsettling to the programmer whose personal self-esteem is founded in her capacity rather than in her position. Organizational chaos is a great opportunity for programmers to exercise their magic power. I've saved this for last because it is a deep tribal secret. If you are not a programmer, please stop reading now.
Engineers have the power to create and sustain.
Non-engineers can order people around but in a typical software company can create nothing on their own and only have the power that engineers grant them. They can create and sustain nothing without engineers. This power is proof against almost all the problems associated with organizational mayhem. When you have it you should ignore the chaos completely and carry on as if nothing is happening. You may of course get red, but if that happens you can easily get a new job because of the magic power. More commonly, some stressed-out person who does not have the magic power will come into your cube and tell you to do something stupid. It is best to smile and nod until they go away and then carry on doing what you know is best for the company.
This course of action is the best for you personally, and the best for the company you work for. If you are a leader, tell your people to do the same thing and tell them to ignore what anybody other than yourself tells them, including your own superiors.
I'm not sure that that's so true. I used to share your view - that once you know one language, it's just a matter of learning different syntax to master the others. There is certainly, to my mind at least, a large gap between structured/OO languages and functional languages.
Re:what about Robert Alexander Watson-Watt?
on
Tuxedo Park
·
· Score: 1
Perhaps you should check the facts before calling other people names:
"In March 1936, the Orfordness group were moved to Bawdsey Manor a little further down on the Suffolk coast. By this time plans were being put into action to construct enormous radar chain of detection aerials all around the eastern coastline of England and Scotland. The first of these were built between June 1936, and June 1937"
Let's see, 1936 was before the outbreak of WWII wasn't it?
what about Robert Alexander Watson-Watt?
on
Tuxedo Park
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
inventor of RADAR
I might be wrong, but I thought the Brit, Robert Alexander Watson-Watt invented radar.
Re:JVM actually has more languages than .NET (CLR)
on
The Future of Java?
·
· Score: 1
It's interesting to compare different companies attempt to make what is, after all, just an attempt to make the ultimate Hardware Abstraction Layer - Sun makes a stack based JVM specifically for running Java while MS makes the CLR for different languages.
The Tao VM is the best virtual machine that I know of, being a nice, infinite register based VM. This means that writing a (insert language here) to Tao VM compiler is far easier and likely to be far more efficient than anything to come from Sun. Suns decision to make Java stack-based was misguided and MSs CLR is too high level for functional languages to be implemented properly. Sadly the Tao VM (or Amiga DE) is unlikely to ever make it big.
As someone who is not too impressed by the x86 architecture, I think one of the best aspects of Linux and Open Source in general is its lack of dependance on any one hardware platform. This means that if/when linux becomes the dominant platform, you will be able to run your stuff on whatever hardware you want as long as you can recompile the source.
I know what you mean. I think most hackers have moved from the Amiga to Linux nowadays, and since programming for a HAL is nowhere near as fun as coding directly for the hardware they code non-graphical stuff instead. The demo scene has suffered, but the open source/free software movement has gained massively as a result.
I'd love to think that Haskell was getting this kind of attention, but text at the bottom of the page reads:
"This bogus press release made the rounds on April Fools Day, 1998. Not long after this was released, Simon Peyton Jones announced his move to Microsoft (an event that caught the author of this press release by complete suprise!)."
Why on earth would you want to watch PC demos? Everyone knows the Amiga was (and sometimes still is) where it's at. Demo coding on a PC is daft due to the undefined nature of the platform - If an effect is too slow you just run it on a better spec'ed machine, and effects can't be written to take advantage of a particular graphics architecture.
Chunky pixeled generic PCs don't come close to the fun you can have coding custom chipped Amigas.
Running an Amiga demo through an emulator doesn't quite seem right somehow. Watching them on a DVD means they'll be ripped straight from a proper Amiga which is almost as good as running it there and then.
That's a different issue. I was trying to point out that the American Democratic party is centre-right (and definitely not socialist!) and that the Republican party is to the right of what the rest of the developed world has for its popular right-wing parties.
Thay's not quite right. The two main American parties (Republican and Democrat) are to the right of other countries main poitical groups. Even if we compare the US with Britain (where the Labour party is a centre party in all but name), we can see that the American Democrats are further to the right. Political-spectrum wise, the Republican party does not really have an equivalent in mainstream politics in the developed world.
Since Anders Hejlsberg, the Danish creator of Turbo Pascal was pinched by Borland by Microsoft to be the chief architect of C# and the Common Language Infrastructure used by.NET, perhaps Microsoft will decide to go the whole hog and get the rest of the company too? Borland had (has?) some of the best developers in the field and may be worth buying just for them.
Although Active Desktop is pretty useless and a waste of resources, the functionality that's set up with Active Desktop (around IE4?) is pretty useful for Windows users. For example, I started a new job 2 weeks ago, and they gave me an NT4 machine with IE6 (they'd skipped IE4 and thus Active Desktop). Since Active Desktop allows the HTML control to be used by explorer.exe, I can't have toolbars on the taskbar (I miss "Show Desktop") or drag things to the start menu. I've also partly written software for one employer that required that client machines have Active Desktop, and it's a complete nightmare to get users to uninstall to IE4 before upgrading to IE6!
The graphics are nice, but what advantages does this have over a Windows style taskbar? On the one hand you have:
- "cards" with their titled edges at the bottom of the screen where a click on the arrow makes them slide up to reveal their whole surface
and on the other
- Win95 windows where you have the windows titles on buttons at the bottom of the screen and a click on the button makes them come to the front to reveal their whole surface.
If there are no major advantages you are simply adding another metaphor for the user to have to learn - unless you want to replace the window concept by these cards. Either way, you'll need more than a theme for KDE, you'll need to rewrite KWin!
Re:You know, Fresco...doesn't ring a bell?
on
Fresco M1 Released
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
X seems to use so much video memory because the X server process allocates memory on behalf of tasks using it's services.
No, I reckon "Worse is Better" qualifies, especially to the many of us who only really know "worse".
Here's the link - my favourite quote: The good news is that in 1995 we will have a good operating system and programming language; the bad news is that they will be Unix and C++.
Slashdot Mirror
I've always used the heading "Softography" to list any software I have developed myself.
Eveything was fine until I got to this bit at the end. What's he talking about?
9.10 How to Deal with Organizational Chaos
There are often times of great organizational chaos. These are unsettling to everyone, but perhaps a little less unsettling to the programmer whose personal self-esteem is founded in her capacity rather than in her position. Organizational chaos is a great opportunity for programmers to exercise their magic power. I've saved this for last because it is a deep tribal secret. If you are not a programmer, please stop reading now.
Engineers have the power to create and sustain.
Non-engineers can order people around but in a typical software company can create nothing on their own and only have the power that engineers grant them. They can create and sustain nothing without engineers. This power is proof against almost all the problems associated with organizational mayhem. When you have it you should ignore the chaos completely and carry on as if nothing is happening. You may of course get red, but if that happens you can easily get a new job because of the magic power. More commonly, some stressed-out person who does not have the magic power will come into your cube and tell you to do something stupid. It is best to smile and nod until they go away and then carry on doing what you know is best for the company.
This course of action is the best for you personally, and the best for the company you work for. If you are a leader, tell your people to do the same thing and tell them to ignore what anybody other than yourself tells them, including your own superiors.
Eveything was fine until I got to this bit at the end. What's he talking about?
9.10 How to Deal with Organizational Chaos
There are often times of great organizational chaos. These are unsettling to everyone, but perhaps a little less unsettling to the programmer whose personal self-esteem is founded in her capacity rather than in her position. Organizational chaos is a great opportunity for programmers to exercise their magic power. I've saved this for last because it is a deep tribal secret. If you are not a programmer, please stop reading now.
Engineers have the power to create and sustain.
Non-engineers can order people around but in a typical software company can create nothing on their own and only have the power that engineers grant them. They can create and sustain nothing without engineers. This power is proof against almost all the problems associated with organizational mayhem. When you have it you should ignore the chaos completely and carry on as if nothing is happening. You may of course get red, but if that happens you can easily get a new job because of the magic power. More commonly, some stressed-out person who does not have the magic power will come into your cube and tell you to do something stupid. It is best to smile and nod until they go away and then carry on doing what you know is best for the company.
This course of action is the best for you personally, and the best for the company you work for. If you are a leader, tell your people to do the same thing and tell them to ignore what anybody other than yourself tells them,
including your own superiors.
I'm not sure that that's so true. I used to share your view - that once you know one language, it's just a matter of learning different syntax to master the others. There is certainly, to my mind at least, a large gap between structured/OO languages and functional languages.
Perhaps you should check the facts before calling other people names:
"In March 1936, the Orfordness group were moved to Bawdsey Manor a little further down on the Suffolk coast. By this time plans were being put into action to construct enormous radar chain of detection aerials all around the eastern coastline of England and Scotland. The first of these were built between June 1936, and June 1937"
Let's see, 1936 was before the outbreak of WWII wasn't it?
inventor of RADAR
I might be wrong, but I thought the Brit, Robert Alexander Watson-Watt invented radar.
It's interesting to compare different companies attempt to make what is, after all, just an attempt to make the ultimate Hardware Abstraction Layer - Sun makes a stack based JVM specifically for running Java while MS makes the CLR for different languages.
The Tao VM is the best virtual machine that I know of, being a nice, infinite register based VM. This means that writing a (insert language here) to Tao VM compiler is far easier and likely to be far more efficient than anything to come from Sun. Suns decision to make Java stack-based was misguided and MSs CLR is too high level for functional languages to be implemented properly. Sadly the Tao VM (or Amiga DE) is unlikely to ever make it big.
As someone who is not too impressed by the x86 architecture, I think one of the best aspects of Linux and Open Source in general is its lack of dependance on any one hardware platform. This means that if/when linux becomes the dominant platform, you will be able to run your stuff on whatever hardware you want as long as you can recompile the source.
I know what you mean. I think most hackers have moved from the Amiga to Linux nowadays, and since programming for a HAL is nowhere near as fun as coding directly for the hardware they code non-graphical stuff instead. The demo scene has suffered, but the open source/free software movement has gained massively as a result.
I'd love to think that Haskell was getting this kind of attention, but text at the bottom of the page reads:
"This bogus press release made the rounds on April Fools Day, 1998. Not long after this was released, Simon Peyton Jones announced his move to Microsoft (an event that caught the author of this press release by complete suprise!)."
Even better than a SidStation, the Catweasel MK3 PCI board can take a SID chip.
Why on earth would you want to watch PC demos? Everyone knows the Amiga was (and sometimes still is) where it's at. Demo coding on a PC is daft due to the undefined nature of the platform - If an effect is too slow you just run it on a better spec'ed machine, and effects can't be written to take advantage of a particular graphics architecture.
Chunky pixeled generic PCs don't come close to the fun you can have coding custom chipped Amigas.
Sigh...
Genesi, the makers of the Pegasos and Morphois will be at CES this year, along with tye MAc-on-Linux guy
see http://www.morphos-news.de/
Running an Amiga demo through an emulator doesn't quite seem right somehow. Watching them on a DVD means they'll be ripped straight from a proper Amiga which is almost as good as running it there and then.
It seems it is mistakable - he wished him a good new year.
That's a different issue. I was trying to point out that the American Democratic party is centre-right (and definitely not socialist!) and that the Republican party is to the right of what the rest of the developed world has for its popular right-wing parties.
Thay's not quite right. The two main American parties (Republican and Democrat) are to the right of other countries main poitical groups. Even if we compare the US with Britain (where the Labour party is a centre party in all but name), we can see that the American Democrats are further to the right. Political-spectrum wise, the Republican party does not really have an equivalent in mainstream politics in the developed world.
Since Anders Hejlsberg, the Danish creator of Turbo Pascal was pinched by Borland by Microsoft to be the chief architect of C# and the Common Language Infrastructure used by .NET, perhaps Microsoft will decide to go the whole hog and get the rest of the company too? Borland had (has?) some of the best developers in the field and may be worth buying just for them.
"A computer is a state machine. Threads are for people who can't program state machines." -- Alan Cox
Although Active Desktop is pretty useless and a waste of resources, the functionality that's set up with Active Desktop (around IE4?) is pretty useful for Windows users. For example, I started a new job 2 weeks ago, and they gave me an NT4 machine with IE6 (they'd skipped IE4 and thus Active Desktop). Since Active Desktop allows the HTML control to be used by explorer.exe, I can't have toolbars on the taskbar (I miss "Show Desktop") or drag things to the start menu. I've also partly written software for one employer that required that client machines have Active Desktop, and it's a complete nightmare to get users to uninstall to IE4 before upgrading to IE6!
The graphics are nice, but what advantages does this have over a Windows style taskbar? On the one hand you have:
- "cards" with their titled edges at the bottom of the screen where a click on the arrow makes them slide up to reveal their whole surface
and on the other
- Win95 windows where you have the windows titles on buttons at the bottom of the screen and a click on the button makes them come to the front to reveal their whole surface.
If there are no major advantages you are simply adding another metaphor for the user to have to learn - unless you want to replace the window concept by these cards. Either way, you'll need more than a theme for KDE, you'll need to rewrite KWin!
X seems to use so much video memory because the X server process allocates memory on behalf of tasks using it's services.
How about using root-tail to show your logs on the root window (desktop) with transparent aterms to do the rest of the work?
:D
You can keep the sexual services if it's all the same
Oh come on. Big-endian is the low level debuggers friend and once you get to high level languages it doesn't matter.
No, I reckon "Worse is Better" qualifies, especially to the many of us who only really know "worse".
Here's the link - my favourite quote: The good news is that in 1995 we will have a good operating system and programming language; the bad news is that they will be Unix and C++.