Good point. Personally it's not so much the top of management that annoys me, although their compensations are often outrageous. The perils of middle-management however...
They always advertise it as a field, and sure it's interesting, but as a job, to be a mathematician you're typically in a position where you are a tool for the non-mathematician's. Of course the non-math's want more math's to do the work for them and tell them what to do... but is it a good carreer?
I've always been interested in futurologists. It started as a kid, when they spew ideal worlds with flying cars and such. A.k.a. The Jetsons period. Soon afterwards, I started realizing it was all crap, and started using them as a source of entertainment as to this day. It makes a great laugh every now and then. If a futurologist predicts something, as a rule of thumb I'd say it won't, still, they tend to take themselves very serious.
However, so far I've seen two 'predictions' that are worthwhile:
- The partly self-fullfilling prophecy the books by William Gibson (Neuromancer, etc.); Not only is he spot on most of the time, what is scary is that while he issues many warnings, mostly the "coolness" was remembered and used, resulting in the opposite effect, starting with termonology: words like cyberspace, matrix and the Net originate from these books. Funnily, I like the books now mostly on other levels.
- The concept of technological singularity. Hey, they almost spoil it with stuff like http://www.singularitywatch.com/spiral.html but the effect in history cannot be denied.
I enjoyed the first new season very much, but everything I like will be covered. Things I liked most are:
- Its humour of course;
- References hidden or in plain view all over. Loaded with Star Wars jokes.
- Between the lines more depth in love, values and what's important in live than Beverly Hills 90210 In Space (a.k.a. Star Trek TNG) or the cataclysmic pseudo-babbel of what is the new Battlestar Galactica;
- Great stories. Because of it's format everything can be thrown at the Doctor, from zombie to Asimov stories. I don't agree with others the science or effects are great, but that was never the point.
There are some points of criticism as well:
- This Doctor only sticks around for 1 season;
- Rose has a great smile but it gets tiresome if that's the only face she has in this series;
- Lots of running; people run through alleys, run through streets, run through spaceships.
- Men-in-rubber-suit alert!
- The Doctor is still ofcourse a Deus ex Machina (a popular term these days..)
A statistical AI isn't an AI at all, but something (probably very useful) that almost fools you it is an AI.
Which means, a statistical AI can be fooled.
And -you- know who will head the field.
User: "Oh Googleplex Star Thinker, what is the average trajectory length of a single dust particle throughout a five-week Dangrabad Beta sand blizzard?"
Google: "Why don't you check out this website XXX Single Teens Get Great Length Up The a** Throughout Five-Weeks?"
Better hope the queen/king is not a corrupt dick.
Or is born with Down Syndrome. Or, less dramatic, is just an idiot with flappy ears and a baste taste in women.
You're entitled to your mideaval opinion, and I applaud you for coming out and saying you actually need the random dame that was born first, but it weakens your points if you start off by saying someone with another opinion has no clue of the system.
The obvious point has to be made again.
Royalty is a medieval artifact which in my opinion is evidence of lack of development. It's a Bad Thing (tm).
I wish more people who are "honoured" or knighted by royalty would take a stance and say it as it is, as opposed to immediately deteriorating to someone grateful and humble and respectful, to people who are irrelevant except in bloodline, but think they are special. In fact they have done nothing for us but spend our money on bling-bling. Snub their PR and marketing! It is no coincidence that they give these honours to people who are influential. Some would call it a moral bribe.
>Fine dramatic episodic TV with character arcs that would span months or even years.
It's not for everyone. You mileage might vary. Ok, things I really liked: NO telepaths so far (a disease in modern SF).. cleverly replaced with religious crap though; It has sex stuff, most sci-fi is so sexless it's ambarassing.
But I for one was frustrated after season 1. Do plots ever resolve in this series? Do these endless arcs ever develop beyond soap level? Can he plz get OFF that home planet allright after what feels like 100 hours of television? Can someone plz catch the obvious freak Baltar for ONCE and for all?? But nooo, these plots only THICKEN, while we have to watch the remainder of irrelevant episode-stories which are utterly predictable.
I like how Adama is just like his previous characters.
Everytime I expect him to say, breathing heavily, "A cylon baseship just appeared.. Sonny, Rico, get on it!"
In a bigger scope of things, I see IT and dot com zilionaires investing in Space. I wonder if in, say, 100 years, this will be seen as the turning point where space exploration really got into motion. The heroes of the past are NASA, Armstrong, Gagarin and the like. These new rich, raised with SF, want to be the heroes of the future. They cannot be stooped by anything but their ego and the limit of their pocket, which is seemlingly endless. They will compete. They must have limited expectations of return of investment (?)
It seems a good thing.
It isn't free, that's how it's marketed and picked up by downloaders who don't want to think beyond downloading "King Kong" while not being called a thief because yada yada yada. They have been outsmarted by those they hate most, with a simple carrot on a stick.
In fact they put a tax on your ISP bill - you always pay.
This is not choice, nor free. In fact, it is a mechanism where you always pay and were the music industry has succesfully managed to infiltrate in taxes.
Tough luck for those who didn't buy or download music before.
Hey, what if, in the end, all copyable digital services end up this way, because what's the difference? You'd get world with 100% taxes, all for free and no money. It would also be a world with 100% goverment control and no choice beyond what they chose for you. If you are an artist, you wouldn't be able to chose for a pay mechanis where you charge for your copies, and better behave or you won't get money from the tax. Define: hell.
Current trends in GUI design usually doesn't add any value (beyond eye-candy) whatsoever, and morever, usually impose a cognitive burden and take extra screen space.
A large amount of the people I know who use Windows XP, use the classic skin.
The mistake they made and what they got right uptil Windows 2000, is that the GUI needs to be pretty. No, the GUI needs to be functional, and have boring consistancy, while being visually so "boring" it's the "content" and applications that shine.
Shadows won't add anything. Transparacy won't add anything. What they should have concentrated on, is consistancy and logic of the interface, such as in dialogs, menus, etc. Instead, they splash it all on eye-candy, assumably to market Windows to the masses as something you just need to buy. Problem is, Windows is good enough for most people as it is, so the whole interface is used in the marketing battle. But it's the same crap, as you still move the pointer, click on an icon and something launches in a window.
Well said. You're a typical introvert (like me), who make up 1/3rd of the population. Introverts make excellent programmers, this has nothing to do with nerds or apes on a rock. (Me, I've been into computers since I was a kid, but I've always disliked the self-proclaimed nerd-thing. These people don't seem to understand they are just like the suits, only wearing other 'uniforms'.)
Still, that leaves the question why there are so few woman programmers. Like you said, it came from within, but what makes you different from all the women who aren't programmers?
So we, people in IT, should keep the tools as primitive and immature as long as possible. Imagine a future where programming is only about concept, i.e. the Star Trek cliche, "Computer, make me a program that does this and that."
Perfection is bad. Bill Gates was right all the time!
It seems no one is safe: Google is doing Wi-Fi; Google is searching inside books; Google has a plan for ecommerce.
Of course, Google has always wanted to be more than a search engine. Even in the early days, its ultimate goal was extravagant: to organize the world's information. High-minded as that sounds, Google's ever-expanding agenda has put it on a collision course with nearly every company in the information technology industry: Amazon.com, Comcast, eBay, Yahoo!, even Microsoft
Does ANYONE remember how Google entered the search market as "just a search engine" because others failed to concentrate on their core business and that this is exactly what made them so succesful? This was their prime strength. I don't make this up. They did. Now they are ad-brokers and stock-driven, their prime aim is exactly the opposite. They need as much services and thus page hits as possible, and next year they need more, or otherwise they are "doing bad", for stockholders anyway. Me, I think they can be beaten by the next company which purely concentrates on search. Actually, if I consider all the fluff and features I don't use, all the overpaid top names working on pet projects, and the lack of any true inovation in the search field, I wonder what could have been done if they had concentrated on search and search alone.
This seems to be a 5-10 year cycle.
I've heard this over and over again.
Actually, when I was a student, this was the story.
Then SLIP/PPP and the WWW were invented...
So this is a good time to start an IT study.
Things go up and down, same ol' story really.
In the big picture we're only at the dawn of things to come.
Global competition and slumps in the financial markets or economy don't take away that fact. It's like saying "there is no future in automobiles" in the 1930's, and I can come up with similar examples for steam, airplanes, etc. Only this one is much bigger...
It's the most exciting time in history to enroll in ICT!
Very insightful and to-the-point.
This will spawn a while new generation of "Killer websites" which are cognitive disasters.
The whole point of AJAX is IMHO not the XML or Javascript, but only and only XMLHttpRequest, which can return data and logic, thus enabling real interfaces. Frankly, I prefer doing most logic server side and not use XML (overhead!), yet for the user it's the same effect. But there is no interface and there are no standard libraries which are really, well, standard. Everybody is developing their own, and thus their own interface and code base from scratch, while 99,9% of them should be kept away from that like David Siegel should be from writing webdesign books. We'll see the "photoshop bevel" effect; give the people tools to make crap, and they will make crap. This is very important, because the cognitive paradigm of a single page with back and forward is so strong that it kills of framed sites and flash sites, but if everyone starts making their own crap once again, the whole browing eperience of people might fall apart.
However, just as Jacob Nielsen and the likes tamed the web and the David Siegels, this might also happen here. I don't think it's a reason to dismiss AJAX. On the contrary, in a couple of years we'll look back and say how incredible silly, outdated and cumbersome the old web was with these stupendous delays and re-rendering when clicking on things.
Ajax in action...
on
Ajax in Action
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
Ajax join Arsenal in the final 16
Tuesday, November 22, 2005 Posted: 2159 GMT (0559 HKT)
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) -- Ajax reached the Champions League knockout phase as two second-half goals by substitute Nigel de Jong gave them a 2-1 win over Sparta Prague in Group B on Tuesday.
De Jong struck after 68 minutes with a powerful close-range header and grabbed his second in the 89th when he struck a low 16-meter drive past keeper Jaromir Blazek.
Sparta captain Martin Petras got a late consolation for the visitors who battled until the end but lacked the firepower up front to trouble the Dutch side.
With one match left Ajax have 10 points from five games and will finish second behind Arsenal, who have 15 points after beating FC Thun 1-0 with a late Robert Pires penalty.
After reading the website through Google cache, I can't see how this case will hold in court.
There's nothing there.
In short, the woman is saying things as "I see roof workers without harness. Took photos. Am worried Contacted authorities." Etc. etc.
She's raising valid concerns. The pictures speak for themselves. How's Activa gonna say "Hey how on earth can you claim to see unharnessed roof workers, how on earth can you be concerned, how on earth can you write about it? Libel!"
What about the kids? We spend their money and leave them our trash without asking...imagine if it was a adult group of a particular gender, race or belief.
They stats say nothing except the unit sell well. I expect a direct correllation between the number of units sold, and the number of videos sold online. After all, when you buy one, you are gonna check out the possibilities. Also, you want to show off the thing running video. Therefore, it's not these first numbers that are interesting, except as a start of a trend. But will the people keep watching after they checked out the first videos they bought? I'm not convinced, the screen is too small to get an immersing experience and I'm not sure people want to keep paying for that.
I make boring backends for a bank using Oracle based systems costing 1 zillion dolars with an even more expensive support contract because the PHB was awed by Oracle sales persons, yada yada yada so all webdevelopers shouldn't use a free database perfectly suited for them.
In the best case scenario, their computer systems are redundant. There are facilities one can hire as a bank, broker, etc. to get you up and running in no time after disaster like fire, earthquake etc. strikes.
The work done in this facility is qualified as the best of the world, made possible by tax payers money. Normally I'd expect them to have obtained a service like this, but this is very costly stuff... For a bank it's easy maths, each hour they are down cost zillions and after a few days you're out, end of story. They get this service because it's mission-critical. For scientists, it might have been more appealing to throw it all away on cool experiments, which might cause a fire, but at this level?
Slashdot Mirror
Good point. Personally it's not so much the top of management that annoys me, although their compensations are often outrageous. The perils of middle-management however...
They always advertise it as a field, and sure it's interesting, but as a job, to be a mathematician you're typically in a position where you are a tool for the non-mathematician's. Of course the non-math's want more math's to do the work for them and tell them what to do... but is it a good carreer?
I've always been interested in futurologists. It started as a kid, when they spew ideal worlds with flying cars and such. A.k.a. The Jetsons period. Soon afterwards, I started realizing it was all crap, and started using them as a source of entertainment as to this day. It makes a great laugh every now and then. If a futurologist predicts something, as a rule of thumb I'd say it won't, still, they tend to take themselves very serious.
However, so far I've seen two 'predictions' that are worthwhile:
- The partly self-fullfilling prophecy the books by William Gibson (Neuromancer, etc.); Not only is he spot on most of the time, what is scary is that while he issues many warnings, mostly the "coolness" was remembered and used, resulting in the opposite effect, starting with termonology: words like cyberspace, matrix and the Net originate from these books. Funnily, I like the books now mostly on other levels.
- The concept of technological singularity. Hey, they almost spoil it with stuff like http://www.singularitywatch.com/spiral.html but the effect in history cannot be denied.
I enjoyed the first new season very much, but everything I like will be covered. Things I liked most are:
- Its humour of course;
- References hidden or in plain view all over. Loaded with Star Wars jokes.
- Between the lines more depth in love, values and what's important in live than Beverly Hills 90210 In Space (a.k.a. Star Trek TNG) or the cataclysmic pseudo-babbel of what is the new Battlestar Galactica;
- Great stories. Because of it's format everything can be thrown at the Doctor, from zombie to Asimov stories. I don't agree with others the science or effects are great, but that was never the point.
There are some points of criticism as well:
- This Doctor only sticks around for 1 season;
- Rose has a great smile but it gets tiresome if that's the only face she has in this series;
- Lots of running; people run through alleys, run through streets, run through spaceships.
- Men-in-rubber-suit alert!
- The Doctor is still ofcourse a Deus ex Machina (a popular term these days..)
A statistical AI isn't an AI at all, but something (probably very useful) that almost fools you it is an AI.
Which means, a statistical AI can be fooled.
And -you- know who will head the field.
User: "Oh Googleplex Star Thinker, what is the average trajectory length of a single dust particle throughout a five-week Dangrabad Beta sand blizzard?"
Google: "Why don't you check out this website XXX Single Teens Get Great Length Up The a** Throughout Five-Weeks?"
Better hope the queen/king is not a corrupt dick. Or is born with Down Syndrome. Or, less dramatic, is just an idiot with flappy ears and a baste taste in women.
You're entitled to your mideaval opinion, and I applaud you for coming out and saying you actually need the random dame that was born first, but it weakens your points if you start off by saying someone with another opinion has no clue of the system.
The obvious point has to be made again. Royalty is a medieval artifact which in my opinion is evidence of lack of development. It's a Bad Thing (tm). I wish more people who are "honoured" or knighted by royalty would take a stance and say it as it is, as opposed to immediately deteriorating to someone grateful and humble and respectful, to people who are irrelevant except in bloodline, but think they are special. In fact they have done nothing for us but spend our money on bling-bling. Snub their PR and marketing! It is no coincidence that they give these honours to people who are influential. Some would call it a moral bribe.
>Fine dramatic episodic TV with character arcs that would span months or even years. It's not for everyone. You mileage might vary. Ok, things I really liked: NO telepaths so far (a disease in modern SF).. cleverly replaced with religious crap though; It has sex stuff, most sci-fi is so sexless it's ambarassing. But I for one was frustrated after season 1. Do plots ever resolve in this series? Do these endless arcs ever develop beyond soap level? Can he plz get OFF that home planet allright after what feels like 100 hours of television? Can someone plz catch the obvious freak Baltar for ONCE and for all?? But nooo, these plots only THICKEN, while we have to watch the remainder of irrelevant episode-stories which are utterly predictable.
I like how Adama is just like his previous characters. Everytime I expect him to say, breathing heavily, "A cylon baseship just appeared.. Sonny, Rico, get on it!"
In a bigger scope of things, I see IT and dot com zilionaires investing in Space. I wonder if in, say, 100 years, this will be seen as the turning point where space exploration really got into motion. The heroes of the past are NASA, Armstrong, Gagarin and the like. These new rich, raised with SF, want to be the heroes of the future. They cannot be stooped by anything but their ego and the limit of their pocket, which is seemlingly endless. They will compete. They must have limited expectations of return of investment (?) It seems a good thing.
It isn't free, that's how it's marketed and picked up by downloaders who don't want to think beyond downloading "King Kong" while not being called a thief because yada yada yada. They have been outsmarted by those they hate most, with a simple carrot on a stick. In fact they put a tax on your ISP bill - you always pay. This is not choice, nor free. In fact, it is a mechanism where you always pay and were the music industry has succesfully managed to infiltrate in taxes. Tough luck for those who didn't buy or download music before. Hey, what if, in the end, all copyable digital services end up this way, because what's the difference? You'd get world with 100% taxes, all for free and no money. It would also be a world with 100% goverment control and no choice beyond what they chose for you. If you are an artist, you wouldn't be able to chose for a pay mechanis where you charge for your copies, and better behave or you won't get money from the tax. Define: hell.
Current trends in GUI design usually doesn't add any value (beyond eye-candy) whatsoever, and morever, usually impose a cognitive burden and take extra screen space. A large amount of the people I know who use Windows XP, use the classic skin. The mistake they made and what they got right uptil Windows 2000, is that the GUI needs to be pretty. No, the GUI needs to be functional, and have boring consistancy, while being visually so "boring" it's the "content" and applications that shine. Shadows won't add anything. Transparacy won't add anything. What they should have concentrated on, is consistancy and logic of the interface, such as in dialogs, menus, etc. Instead, they splash it all on eye-candy, assumably to market Windows to the masses as something you just need to buy. Problem is, Windows is good enough for most people as it is, so the whole interface is used in the marketing battle. But it's the same crap, as you still move the pointer, click on an icon and something launches in a window.
Well said. You're a typical introvert (like me), who make up 1/3rd of the population. Introverts make excellent programmers, this has nothing to do with nerds or apes on a rock. (Me, I've been into computers since I was a kid, but I've always disliked the self-proclaimed nerd-thing. These people don't seem to understand they are just like the suits, only wearing other 'uniforms'.) Still, that leaves the question why there are so few woman programmers. Like you said, it came from within, but what makes you different from all the women who aren't programmers?
So we, people in IT, should keep the tools as primitive and immature as long as possible. Imagine a future where programming is only about concept, i.e. the Star Trek cliche, "Computer, make me a program that does this and that." Perfection is bad. Bill Gates was right all the time!
It seems no one is safe: Google is doing Wi-Fi; Google is searching inside books; Google has a plan for ecommerce.
Of course, Google has always wanted to be more than a search engine. Even in the early days, its ultimate goal was extravagant: to organize the world's information. High-minded as that sounds, Google's ever-expanding agenda has put it on a collision course with nearly every company in the information technology industry: Amazon.com, Comcast, eBay, Yahoo!, even Microsoft
Does ANYONE remember how Google entered the search market as "just a search engine" because others failed to concentrate on their core business and that this is exactly what made them so succesful? This was their prime strength. I don't make this up. They did. Now they are ad-brokers and stock-driven, their prime aim is exactly the opposite. They need as much services and thus page hits as possible, and next year they need more, or otherwise they are "doing bad", for stockholders anyway. Me, I think they can be beaten by the next company which purely concentrates on search. Actually, if I consider all the fluff and features I don't use, all the overpaid top names working on pet projects, and the lack of any true inovation in the search field, I wonder what could have been done if they had concentrated on search and search alone.
This seems to be a 5-10 year cycle. I've heard this over and over again. Actually, when I was a student, this was the story. Then SLIP/PPP and the WWW were invented... So this is a good time to start an IT study. Things go up and down, same ol' story really. In the big picture we're only at the dawn of things to come. Global competition and slumps in the financial markets or economy don't take away that fact. It's like saying "there is no future in automobiles" in the 1930's, and I can come up with similar examples for steam, airplanes, etc. Only this one is much bigger... It's the most exciting time in history to enroll in ICT!
Very insightful and to-the-point.
This will spawn a while new generation of "Killer websites" which are cognitive disasters.
The whole point of AJAX is IMHO not the XML or Javascript, but only and only XMLHttpRequest, which can return data and logic, thus enabling real interfaces. Frankly, I prefer doing most logic server side and not use XML (overhead!), yet for the user it's the same effect. But there is no interface and there are no standard libraries which are really, well, standard. Everybody is developing their own, and thus their own interface and code base from scratch, while 99,9% of them should be kept away from that like David Siegel should be from writing webdesign books. We'll see the "photoshop bevel" effect; give the people tools to make crap, and they will make crap. This is very important, because the cognitive paradigm of a single page with back and forward is so strong that it kills of framed sites and flash sites, but if everyone starts making their own crap once again, the whole browing eperience of people might fall apart.
However, just as Jacob Nielsen and the likes tamed the web and the David Siegels, this might also happen here. I don't think it's a reason to dismiss AJAX. On the contrary, in a couple of years we'll look back and say how incredible silly, outdated and cumbersome the old web was with these stupendous delays and re-rendering when clicking on things.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005 Posted: 2159 GMT (0559 HKT)
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) -- Ajax reached the Champions League knockout phase as two second-half goals by substitute Nigel de Jong gave them a 2-1 win over Sparta Prague in Group B on Tuesday.
De Jong struck after 68 minutes with a powerful close-range header and grabbed his second in the 89th when he struck a low 16-meter drive past keeper Jaromir Blazek.
Sparta captain Martin Petras got a late consolation for the visitors who battled until the end but lacked the firepower up front to trouble the Dutch side.
With one match left Ajax have 10 points from five games and will finish second behind Arsenal, who have 15 points after beating FC Thun 1-0 with a late Robert Pires penalty.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/SPORT/football/11/22/c hampions.groupb/
After reading the website through Google cache, I can't see how this case will hold in court. There's nothing there. In short, the woman is saying things as "I see roof workers without harness. Took photos. Am worried Contacted authorities." Etc. etc. She's raising valid concerns. The pictures speak for themselves. How's Activa gonna say "Hey how on earth can you claim to see unharnessed roof workers, how on earth can you be concerned, how on earth can you write about it? Libel!"
NapsterBSD
What about the kids? We spend their money and leave them our trash without asking...imagine if it was a adult group of a particular gender, race or belief.
They stats say nothing except the unit sell well. I expect a direct correllation between the number of units sold, and the number of videos sold online. After all, when you buy one, you are gonna check out the possibilities. Also, you want to show off the thing running video. Therefore, it's not these first numbers that are interesting, except as a start of a trend. But will the people keep watching after they checked out the first videos they bought? I'm not convinced, the screen is too small to get an immersing experience and I'm not sure people want to keep paying for that.
I make boring backends for a bank using Oracle based systems costing 1 zillion dolars with an even more expensive support contract because the PHB was awed by Oracle sales persons, yada yada yada so all webdevelopers shouldn't use a free database perfectly suited for them.
In the best case scenario, their computer systems are redundant. There are facilities one can hire as a bank, broker, etc. to get you up and running in no time after disaster like fire, earthquake etc. strikes. The work done in this facility is qualified as the best of the world, made possible by tax payers money. Normally I'd expect them to have obtained a service like this, but this is very costly stuff... For a bank it's easy maths, each hour they are down cost zillions and after a few days you're out, end of story. They get this service because it's mission-critical. For scientists, it might have been more appealing to throw it all away on cool experiments, which might cause a fire, but at this level?