Although I am a proponent of some XP concepts and feel certain concepts can help with software quality and delivery time, this article does not highlight any of them. This article is nothing more than "blah blah blah, XP is great, now go and buy my book". How on earth did the editors let this one in.
True... very true. We complain too, its just that it pisses me off when I see some dude crying about gas prices when he pulles up in his H2 Hummer towing a power boat on his way to the lake on a Wednesday afternoon.
As Americans, we are spoiled!
We are accustomed to cheap gas and all its by-products (heating oil, propane, electricity, etc.) for some time now. So much so, that we take it for granted. On top of that we extend ourselves to the max, getting credit cards and running up debt like crazy. So, when all of sudden this cheap energy source doubles in price and now stresses everyones budget, we scream foul. That is why gas prices are so closely watched and such a hot topic. We can afford the spike. Other countries have dealt with high energy prices by promoting mass transit, build more efficient cars, etc. But we just can't relate.
And with new developments like LED (light emitting diodes)...
Did you really think you had to tell fellow slashdotters what LED stands for? That is kinda funny.
They underreacted, the police should have called in SWAT and hurled tear gas at those pesky kids...
Yes, I am kidding. This kind of gestapo crap needs to be put in check and I hope that all the families sue and ask for nothing less than the cops jobs (rather than money).
I have the same problem with engineers that have "years of experience", so I don't think it is just a new graduate problem. Many people claim they have 10 years of experience, but what they really have is 1 year of experience 10 times over, and usually an ego and a lot of contempt for someone telling them how to do stuff. In some cases I would rather have that new grad because A) They are hungry for work, B) Usually work a lot harder for less, C) Are eager to learn, D) Usually know nothing, but have the ability to learn, and E) Usually are eager to learn new things.
Although the article ans source of music blows, the stance from Yahoo is one of the most logical things I have heard companies say regarding DRM. This is encouraging, and rather than everyone tearing apart the websit because it has 1 song, we should support them because I know we hate this DRM crap.
I would agree that using this power to track terrorists is something that might have a need to be done, but, my problem is that the yahoo's in power are not that honorable and use the "great latitude" to listen in on non-terror related conversations which might be illegal in nature but were obtained illeagally. Then this information is probably used to get legitimate warrants because all of a sudden some "anonymous person" called in something. If I trusted the powers in charge I would have no problem with secret phone tapping (as if this hasn't happened in the past...), but the current administration here in the US has demonstrated nothing but dishonest behavior and lost my trust.
Sounds a lot like Divix... Remember that half-assed idead by, umm, Best Buy (i think)? You buy the DVD for like $5 and it only plays 3 or 4 times or something. How did that work out again....
But what about the: "The Tesla Roadster is powered by 6,831 rechargeable lithium-ion batteries"?
There has got to be a negative impact on the environment when we ditch them into a landfill. How recycleable are those things anyway, and , how much does it cost (i.e. is it cheaper to throw them into the deep ocean or a landfill)?
Direct memory access has almost nothing to do with the language being used. This is a funciton of the underlying machine and OS. A protected mode OS running with a MMU won't let you directly manipulate anything without going into "privaledged mode". Sure, some languages might facilitate this better than others, but the ability to do it is provided by the OS and machine.
Open Source bugs will be revealed faster and closed faster PLUS a developer's code will be viewable by anyone (including those pesky hackers) so one might argue that the open source movement will (does?) cause people to be a little more careful in their code and not do things like say "oh, this pointer can be null here, but oh well, no one will know about it". We might see a flurry of open source security holes at first, but I bet they are closed and stopped quickyly, unlike the commercial counterparts which seem to be an endless security hole.
I must say that I find it difficult to imagine that a company like Microsoft does not understand the principles of how to document protocols in order to achieve interoperability.
Anyone who has worked on a very large system knows that understanding the principles of how to document protocols is fine, but if the software you are to document is large and overly complex then doing it, well, is another thing.
If by coming out of the obscure browser category to the significant market share browser category will increase the amount of exploits used by hackers, spammers and adware people out there. It would seem that much of the IE security breaches result from, aside from it's crappiness, its ubiquitous presence on the web. I wonder if Firefox will start to see more security breaches as it gains market share... We will see!
I acutally got back into Linux when my Windows 2000 machine kept getting "sick" and then discovered that I would have to pay $100+ to get XP... I had never paid for Windows and wasn't about to. I looked around for Linux distros and found DistroWatch and tried Ubuntu. I don't use the machine for much, but Ubuntu did the trick. Hardware crapshoot, as someone else put it, but I guess I rolled a 7 on the come out roll because everything worked great, even my HP all-in-one printer/scanner. My Nvidia card didn't have the "optimal" drivers and that was the toughest thing to overcome, but other than that I havent' looked back..
On the other hand you have hard core Windows apps that just won't port or run under Crossover/WINE, not to mention games.
I have said this before and I will say this again. I beleive Linux distros like Ubuntu are at a level that compete with Windows 98, that is, most stuff "just works" but every now and then you need to Google some stuff and tweak something from the command line, just like when Windows 98 came out and the first "plug and play" stuff was introduced.
Here is a perfect example of successful communication and negotiation:
On one project that I was called in to help out with, it was obvious that we had a schedule problem, and everyone said the customer will not tolerate a slip, yada yada. I went back and looked at the feature list, and said hey, we can get through a certification (this is software for airplanes and has to go through FAA) if we postpone these 2 features. I was told no you are wrong, we cant do that, and the customer won't have it. I went above their heads, to the president, and explained my plan, who then brought the customer to the table. This all happened two months before the alledged delivery date. I presented that the current list of features would not allow us to meet the aircraft certification date. I then proposed 3 alternatives. 1.) Pay for bonuses and overtime for people so that engineers can work 14 hour days for the next 2 months, 2.) Remove 2 feautres with "dumbed down versions" which we will still work after the original delivery date and provide as version 1.x later, but would still allow for the aircraft to meet its cert date. 3.) Slip the schedule. My plan worked, and the customer was impressed that we had a handle on things and that we gave them opttions early on which made them feel in control. They then informed us that the aircraft schedule actually was going to slip and it was OK for us to slip our schedule, but they weren't planning on telling us this and wanted us to hold true to our commitment anyway.... Had we waited until the day of delivery to notify management, things would not have gone this smoothly. It is all about communication and providing alternatives to management and customers.
I have seen great projects, OK projects, and the-worst-projects-ever-created. This article points out some good tips, but there is no such thing as a free lunch. The best thing you can hope for when faced with an impossible schedule is to communicate with management, and not just with bitching about how they setup an impossible schedule, but offer solutions that are logical, like reducing scope, throwing more money at it, slipping schedule, reducing quality, or yes even canceling the project!
Want some good (aka REAL) tips, check out Steve McConnel's book on Rapid Development (Ignore the fact that it is produced by M$ press). This book is great, and if anyone is serious about software development they should read this book. And for the developers out there, please read his other book, Code Complete.
WGA that checks users' computers only once a month, rather than every day.
Why would authentication need to happen more than ONCE, PERIOD?
Soon, Windows will ship with a USB stick that has the Key on it, or some other hardware, that will enable the install.
Remember the old school days when you had to plug some adapter into the parallel port to get your software to work!
This is how it will go:
(user inserts Windows CD)
"Thank you for choosing Windows"
Please insert your Hardware Authentication Module (HAM)
(seconds later)
Windows has found new hardware, do you have a driver, or would you like to search the internet?
user clicks search
I am sorry, but your version of Windows has been identified as illeagal. Please contact Microsoft.
(reboot)
...
User gets a copy of Linux, installs and throws sells his new Windows copy on eBay.
I don't understand the Net Neutrality bill, and this guy is a tooooool. Internet Bill of Rights? Um, since when is a technological nicety a basic right? Sounds like he is just pissed because an email of his took a day to get where it was supposed to go... and he blames "consumers" that are downloading movies. Whatever dude!
Monitors are not a problem -- most people have monitors leftover in their basement/attic from when they upgraded to LCD, so they just connect to the surplus monitor, plug into their network and off they go
I also like to utilize my S-Video(or normal video) output and plug right into a big screen TV and play my games, if my friends don't have an extra monitor any modern TV will do!
It does not appear to come with Source Code, and that's going to be the big show-stopper.
No... The show-stopper is that the OS can't do the things that most users want to do. As others have pointed out, it is not a question of source code, it is a question of supporting hardware and running applications that people want and can get easily.
If you don't know what Source Code is, and why it's so important that you should have access to it, then you probably will just use Windows and wallow in your own ignorance until you drown
Don't be such an elitist, acting like you are all special because you know what source code is. Many people out there who know what source code is could give a rat's ass about "having it". Most people, yes, even the smart ones, just want things "to just work" without dicking around rebuild the OS kernel and fixing some bug. If we are talking Linux, many people would rather just cycle through various distros to find one that just works. Besides, knowing what source code is, and being able to decipher and fix someone elses code are very different things.
I really think they will have a very hard job selling an operating system without the source code
Now who is being the idiot? As much as I hate M$, they make a pretty nice living doing just this...
Slashdot Mirror
Although I am a proponent of some XP concepts and feel certain concepts can help with software quality and delivery time, this article does not highlight any of them. This article is nothing more than "blah blah blah, XP is great, now go and buy my book". How on earth did the editors let this one in.
True... very true. We complain too, its just that it pisses me off when I see some dude crying about gas prices when he pulles up in his H2 Hummer towing a power boat on his way to the lake on a Wednesday afternoon.
As Americans, we are spoiled!
We are accustomed to cheap gas and all its by-products (heating oil, propane, electricity, etc.) for some time now. So much so, that we take it for granted. On top of that we extend ourselves to the max, getting credit cards and running up debt like crazy. So, when all of sudden this cheap energy source doubles in price and now stresses everyones budget, we scream foul. That is why gas prices are so closely watched and such a hot topic. We can afford the spike. Other countries have dealt with high energy prices by promoting mass transit, build more efficient cars, etc. But we just can't relate.
porn. and lots of it!
And with new developments like LED (light emitting diodes) ...
Did you really think you had to tell fellow slashdotters what LED stands for? That is kinda funny.
They underreacted, the police should have called in SWAT and hurled tear gas at those pesky kids...
Yes, I am kidding. This kind of gestapo crap needs to be put in check and I hope that all the families sue and ask for nothing less than the cops jobs (rather than money).
I have the same problem with engineers that have "years of experience", so I don't think it is just a new graduate problem. Many people claim they have 10 years of experience, but what they really have is 1 year of experience 10 times over, and usually an ego and a lot of contempt for someone telling them how to do stuff. In some cases I would rather have that new grad because A) They are hungry for work, B) Usually work a lot harder for less, C) Are eager to learn, D) Usually know nothing, but have the ability to learn, and E) Usually are eager to learn new things.
Although the article ans source of music blows, the stance from Yahoo is one of the most logical things I have heard companies say regarding DRM. This is encouraging, and rather than everyone tearing apart the websit because it has 1 song, we should support them because I know we hate this DRM crap.
I would agree that using this power to track terrorists is something that might have a need to be done, but, my problem is that the yahoo's in power are not that honorable and use the "great latitude" to listen in on non-terror related conversations which might be illegal in nature but were obtained illeagally. Then this information is probably used to get legitimate warrants because all of a sudden some "anonymous person" called in something. If I trusted the powers in charge I would have no problem with secret phone tapping (as if this hasn't happened in the past...), but the current administration here in the US has demonstrated nothing but dishonest behavior and lost my trust.
Oh yeah.. Circuit City... TOTAL FLOP... Maybe downloading will be better, who knows.
Sounds a lot like Divix... Remember that half-assed idead by, umm, Best Buy (i think)? You buy the DVD for like $5 and it only plays 3 or 4 times or something. How did that work out again....
But what about the: "The Tesla Roadster is powered by 6,831 rechargeable lithium-ion batteries"?
There has got to be a negative impact on the environment when we ditch them into a landfill. How recycleable are those things anyway, and , how much does it cost (i.e. is it cheaper to throw them into the deep ocean or a landfill)?
Direct memory access has almost nothing to do with the language being used. This is a funciton of the underlying machine and OS. A protected mode OS running with a MMU won't let you directly manipulate anything without going into "privaledged mode". Sure, some languages might facilitate this better than others, but the ability to do it is provided by the OS and machine.
Open Source bugs will be revealed faster and closed faster PLUS a developer's code will be viewable by anyone (including those pesky hackers) so one might argue that the open source movement will (does?) cause people to be a little more careful in their code and not do things like say "oh, this pointer can be null here, but oh well, no one will know about it". We might see a flurry of open source security holes at first, but I bet they are closed and stopped quickyly, unlike the commercial counterparts which seem to be an endless security hole.
I must say that I find it difficult to imagine that a company like Microsoft does not understand the principles of how to document protocols in order to achieve interoperability.
Anyone who has worked on a very large system knows that understanding the principles of how to document protocols is fine, but if the software you are to document is large and overly complex then doing it, well, is another thing.
If by coming out of the obscure browser category to the significant market share browser category will increase the amount of exploits used by hackers, spammers and adware people out there. It would seem that much of the IE security breaches result from, aside from it's crappiness, its ubiquitous presence on the web. I wonder if Firefox will start to see more security breaches as it gains market share... We will see!
I acutally got back into Linux when my Windows 2000 machine kept getting "sick" and then discovered that I would have to pay $100+ to get XP... I had never paid for Windows and wasn't about to. I looked around for Linux distros and found DistroWatch and tried Ubuntu. I don't use the machine for much, but Ubuntu did the trick. Hardware crapshoot, as someone else put it, but I guess I rolled a 7 on the come out roll because everything worked great, even my HP all-in-one printer/scanner. My Nvidia card didn't have the "optimal" drivers and that was the toughest thing to overcome, but other than that I havent' looked back..
On the other hand you have hard core Windows apps that just won't port or run under Crossover/WINE, not to mention games.
I have said this before and I will say this again. I beleive Linux distros like Ubuntu are at a level that compete with Windows 98, that is, most stuff "just works" but every now and then you need to Google some stuff and tweak something from the command line, just like when Windows 98 came out and the first "plug and play" stuff was introduced.
to my good ol' vaccum tubes!
Here is a perfect example of successful communication and negotiation:
On one project that I was called in to help out with, it was obvious that we had a schedule problem, and everyone said the customer will not tolerate a slip, yada yada. I went back and looked at the feature list, and said hey, we can get through a certification (this is software for airplanes and has to go through FAA) if we postpone these 2 features. I was told no you are wrong, we cant do that, and the customer won't have it. I went above their heads, to the president, and explained my plan, who then brought the customer to the table. This all happened two months before the alledged delivery date. I presented that the current list of features would not allow us to meet the aircraft certification date. I then proposed 3 alternatives. 1.) Pay for bonuses and overtime for people so that engineers can work 14 hour days for the next 2 months, 2.) Remove 2 feautres with "dumbed down versions" which we will still work after the original delivery date and provide as version 1.x later, but would still allow for the aircraft to meet its cert date. 3.) Slip the schedule. My plan worked, and the customer was impressed that we had a handle on things and that we gave them opttions early on which made them feel in control. They then informed us that the aircraft schedule actually was going to slip and it was OK for us to slip our schedule, but they weren't planning on telling us this and wanted us to hold true to our commitment anyway.... Had we waited until the day of delivery to notify management, things would not have gone this smoothly. It is all about communication and providing alternatives to management and customers.
Here, Here! This book is great. The developers should read his other book, Code Complete!
I have seen great projects, OK projects, and the-worst-projects-ever-created. This article points out some good tips, but there is no such thing as a free lunch. The best thing you can hope for when faced with an impossible schedule is to communicate with management, and not just with bitching about how they setup an impossible schedule, but offer solutions that are logical, like reducing scope, throwing more money at it, slipping schedule, reducing quality, or yes even canceling the project!
Want some good (aka REAL) tips, check out Steve McConnel's book on Rapid Development (Ignore the fact that it is produced by M$ press). This book is great, and if anyone is serious about software development they should read this book. And for the developers out there, please read his other book, Code Complete.
WGA that checks users' computers only once a month, rather than every day.
...
Why would authentication need to happen more than ONCE, PERIOD?
Soon, Windows will ship with a USB stick that has the Key on it, or some other hardware, that will enable the install.
Remember the old school days when you had to plug some adapter into the parallel port to get your software to work!
This is how it will go:
(user inserts Windows CD)
"Thank you for choosing Windows"
Please insert your Hardware Authentication Module (HAM)
(seconds later)
Windows has found new hardware, do you have a driver, or would you like to search the internet?
user clicks search
I am sorry, but your version of Windows has been identified as illeagal. Please contact Microsoft.
(reboot)
User gets a copy of Linux, installs and throws sells his new Windows copy on eBay.
Did anyone download and listen to the audio?
Man, I thought Bush was a bad speaker.
I don't understand the Net Neutrality bill, and this guy is a tooooool. Internet Bill of Rights? Um, since when is a technological nicety a basic right? Sounds like he is just pissed because an email of his took a day to get where it was supposed to go... and he blames "consumers" that are downloading movies. Whatever dude!
Monitors are not a problem -- most people have monitors leftover in their basement/attic from when they upgraded to LCD, so they just connect to the surplus monitor, plug into their network and off they go
I also like to utilize my S-Video(or normal video) output and plug right into a big screen TV and play my games, if my friends don't have an extra monitor any modern TV will do!
It does not appear to come with Source Code, and that's going to be the big show-stopper.
No... The show-stopper is that the OS can't do the things that most users want to do. As others have pointed out, it is not a question of source code, it is a question of supporting hardware and running applications that people want and can get easily.
If you don't know what Source Code is, and why it's so important that you should have access to it, then you probably will just use Windows and wallow in your own ignorance until you drown
Don't be such an elitist, acting like you are all special because you know what source code is. Many people out there who know what source code is could give a rat's ass about "having it". Most people, yes, even the smart ones, just want things "to just work" without dicking around rebuild the OS kernel and fixing some bug. If we are talking Linux, many people would rather just cycle through various distros to find one that just works. Besides, knowing what source code is, and being able to decipher and fix someone elses code are very different things.
I really think they will have a very hard job selling an operating system without the source code
Now who is being the idiot? As much as I hate M$, they make a pretty nice living doing just this...