ATTENTION: THE PRESIDENT/CEO/OVERSEER/GRAND MASTER/SUPREME OVERLORD
DEAR SIR, MADAM OR DRONE,
CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL
HAVING CONSULTED WITH MY COLLEAGUES AND BASED ON THE INFORMATION GATHERED FROM THE EARTH CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE AND CORRUPTION, I HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO REQUEST FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE TO TRANSFER THE SUM OF $47,500,000,000,000.00 (FORTY SEVEN TRILLION, FIVE BILLION THOUSAND CREDITS) INTO YOUR ACCOUNTS. THE ABOVE SUM RESULTED FROM AN OVER-INVOICED CONTRACT, EXECUTED COMMISSIONED AND PAID FOR ABOUT FIVE EARTH YEARS (5) AGO BY A FOREIGN SYSTEM. THIS ACTION WAS HOWEVER INTENTIONAL AND SINCE THEN THE FUND HAS BEEN IN A SUSPENSE ACCOUNT AT THE CENTRAL BANK OF SOL APEX BANK.
WE ARE NOW READY TO TRANSFER THE FUND OVER SUBSPACE MONEY TRANSFER AND THAT IS WHERE YOU COME IN. IT IS IMPORTANT TO INFORM YOU THAT AS CIVIL SERVANTS/SLAVES, WE ARE FORBIDDEN TO OPERATE A EXTRA-SOLAR ACCOUNT; THAT IS WHY WE REQUIRE YOUR ASSISTANCE. THE TOTAL SUM WILL BE SHARED AS FOLLOWS: 70% FOR US, 70% FOR YOU AND 5% FOR LOCAL, INTERNATIONAL AND INTERSTELLAR EXPENSES INCIDENT TO THE TRANSFER.
THE TRANSFER IS RISK FREE ON BOTH SIDES. I AM AN ACCOUNTANT WITH THE EARTH NATIONAL PLUTONIUM CORPORATION (ENPC). IF YOU FIND THIS PROPOSAL ACCEPTABLE, WE SHALL REQUIRE THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTS:
(A) YOUR BANKER'S NAME, SPECIE, ACCOUNT, SOLAR SYSTEM AND PLANET
(B) YOUR PRIVATE SUBSPACE FREQUENCY AND ESP NUMBERS -- FOR CONFIDENTIALITY AND EASY COMMUNICATION.
(C) YOUR LETTER-HEADED CRYPTO STOMPED AND MARKED.
ALTERNATIVELY WE WILL FURNISH YOU WITH THE TEXT OF WHAT TO TYPE INTO YOUR LETTER-HEADED PAPER, ALONG WITH A BREAKDOWN EXPLAINING, COMPREHENSIVELY WHAT WE REQUIRE OF YOU. THE BUSINESS WILL TAKE US THIRTY (30) WORKING EARTH DAYS TO ACCOMPLISH.
I'm happy that Sun is taking the FLOSS movement seriously. I'm a Java developer working with Netbeans on Linux and OOo has been my main office suite since the StarOffice days. Sun seems to 'get' FLOSS, but I'm wondering how that's helping their bottom line? Are they doing this because it's helping them sell servers (or something else), or out of desperation?
In other words, I hope that they are doing this because they realize (and reap) a distinct business value and not just because they're desperate. Should the former be the case, I hope that it continues to send waves down the IT marketplace and continues to encourage organizations to provide free (libre) software.
In addendum to the above post, I'd like to point out that the Catholic church represent about half of the Christian population and 1/6th of the world's population (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_church), so I'd like to consider it major, but not exclusive.
For those that I've offended: s/the only major Christian church/a Christian church/.
Thanks for pointing out other (mostly European?) churches that consolidate instead of bending science. Forgive my ignorance. Since I live north of what seems to be the biggest hive of creationism fundamentalist, it sometimes sound like every religion is science bashing. Usually, their statements are hilarious but I absolutely abhor the tone of the fundamentalist bible-blabber.
For anybody that cares, I'm curious to hear what other churches/religions have a position similar to the Vatican on science.
I know the Catholic church has it's dark side in history, however, I'm very pleased that one of the worlds foremost religion is doing such a fantastic job 'respecting' science. Before you blast me with examples of how the Catholic church is blundering (big bang?), remember that they are (as far as I know), the only _major_ Christian church that supports evolution. Furthermore, I do have a lot of respect for the Jesuits and their pursuit of science. Finally, the Vatican may not 100% pro-science, but they seem far from being anti-science.
Though I'm not Catholic (atheist), I respect the Vatican for trying to understand how science merge with their faith, instead of bending science to their faith. Considering the horror stories that I see and hear about creationist faith (cringe!), this is a breath of fresh air!
In 2004-05, I wrote a PHP application for a client. We had agreed ahead of time that the app would be written in PHP. Upon delivery, everything worked great on the test (WIMP) server that I set up myself. When the technician was called in to put the application in production, he said no problem. I should point out that the fellow is a hard-core and experienced MCSE.
A month later, the application was not installed. I called the technician to find out what was happening, and I was given the story of being too busy. I offered to do it myself, but they would not agree to that. The tech promised to install it ASAP.
A week later, still nothing. Called again. After I pressed the technician as to why he would not install it, the answer he gave we what that 'installing foreign application like Apache & PHP may destabilize the server ecosystem.' According to him, it should have been written in ASP(.Net).
What a wonderful Microsoft-ish answer. He finally agreed to install PHP after I pointed out that PHP CAN run on IIS.
The FUD and BS that MS crams down their MCP just makes my blood boil. Disclaimer: I _was_ a MCP and MCT, so I know the type of stuff Microsoft feeds.
The appplication works. It still being used today by dozens of offices across Canada (coast-to-coast). And as far as I know, the maintenance has been near 0.
Most of my applications are LAMP, and the maintenance time/cost has been near 0.
I like a good laugh from time to time, and I'm glad/. does not take itself too seriously. I'm sorry and surprised at the amount of people bitching at/. for dropping a bit of humour in my day (that is not MS centric).
Cheers,
J-F
I think that Bill G. and Steve B. are annoyed that MS's shares haven't moved much since 2000. MS is still a safe investment, but their stocks seems stuck and not growing much.
Why does the author avoid any mention of ODF or OpenOffice as alternatives to work with MS Office docs? He seems stuck on 'old' formats like WKS or RTF.
I know OOo is not a perfect Word/Excel converter, but it has served me marvelously since the StarOffice days. I wish that there was a simple command-line driven tool that could convert.docs or.xls to ODS or PDF using the OOo code. Any one knows about such a tool?
Agreed. I've got an old Nortel display phone that must be well over 15 years. It survived at least seven moves and being dropped on the ground countless times. Nothing has stopped working on it and it's still going strong.
Now that I think about it, my SNES must be the oldest technical gadget that is still in fine working order. I got mine before they were even available in retail in Canada. Oh, the memories!
I avoid using DOC format, and I've often had to remind people that I should not need to spend $$$ just to get Microsoft Office so I can follow business 'standards.'
Before you mean to be not insulting, please see my reply to the above post.:)
I've been developing enterprise applications for over ten years in Java, and more recently in.NET. However, I don't think I'm a.NET idiot. Granted, I know my Java much better than.NET but my ASP.NET (including web services) experiences were --to borrow your words -- like sticking a dull pencil in my eyeball.
NB: I'm blasting ASP.NET here -- not the whole.NET Framework. My preference remains Java, followed by.NET.
As for not equating Silverlight to Flash, I can't comment. As I mentioned previously, I never used Flash. However, Applets are another story. Blast them as much as you want, but a well designed applet should provide a seamless, transparent experience for the user. +1 is released I'm not advocating Applets since I haven't use them seriously for years now, and I know I'm not going to convert anyone here, but I'm getting the impression that MS is hoping to compete with both Java Applet & Flash. My fear now is that a number of website will no longer work correctly on Macs, Linux & even Firefox in future versions of Silverlight.
The Win32 APIs would be my first exhibit;). But let's continue: COM (DCOM, COM+, ATL, etc...) Visual Basic ASP MFC...I could probably give you more if you wanted, but.NET did give sanity to those older technology. I'll program in Java before I'll program in.NET. However, I'll program in.NET before I'll use some of the old APIs. And yes, I wrote applications using the Win16 and Win32 APIs.
But to go back to the original thread: Would I program in Flash or Silverlight? That's a question I can't answer, since I never did touch Flash.;)
As both a Java and.NET developer, I must say that from personal experience, you may be right in saying that.NET has a lesser learning c.NET is a thinly disguised layer to 'pretty up' some old MS technologies. Futhermore, it not just slightly inflexible, but highly inflexible.
As for the classpath complain, I find it moot. I haven't had to fight with classpath in years. I develop on Windows, Mac OS X & Linux and I've used Eclipse, Netbeans and other IDE, as well as the command line.
Slashdot Mirror
UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK, EARTH, SOL
ATTENTION: THE PRESIDENT/CEO/OVERSEER/GRAND MASTER/SUPREME OVERLORD
DEAR SIR, MADAM OR DRONE,
CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL
HAVING CONSULTED WITH MY COLLEAGUES AND BASED ON THE INFORMATION GATHERED FROM THE EARTH CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE AND CORRUPTION, I HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO REQUEST FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE TO TRANSFER THE SUM OF $47,500,000,000,000.00 (FORTY SEVEN TRILLION, FIVE BILLION THOUSAND CREDITS) INTO YOUR ACCOUNTS. THE ABOVE SUM RESULTED FROM AN OVER-INVOICED CONTRACT, EXECUTED COMMISSIONED AND PAID FOR ABOUT FIVE EARTH YEARS (5) AGO BY A FOREIGN SYSTEM. THIS ACTION WAS HOWEVER INTENTIONAL AND SINCE THEN THE FUND HAS BEEN IN A SUSPENSE ACCOUNT AT THE CENTRAL BANK OF SOL APEX BANK.
WE ARE NOW READY TO TRANSFER THE FUND OVER SUBSPACE MONEY TRANSFER AND THAT IS WHERE YOU COME IN. IT IS IMPORTANT TO INFORM YOU THAT AS CIVIL SERVANTS/SLAVES, WE ARE FORBIDDEN TO OPERATE A EXTRA-SOLAR ACCOUNT; THAT IS WHY WE REQUIRE YOUR ASSISTANCE. THE TOTAL SUM WILL BE SHARED AS FOLLOWS: 70% FOR US, 70% FOR YOU AND 5% FOR LOCAL, INTERNATIONAL AND INTERSTELLAR EXPENSES INCIDENT TO THE TRANSFER.
THE TRANSFER IS RISK FREE ON BOTH SIDES. I AM AN ACCOUNTANT WITH THE EARTH NATIONAL PLUTONIUM CORPORATION (ENPC). IF YOU FIND THIS PROPOSAL ACCEPTABLE, WE SHALL REQUIRE THE FOLLOWING DOCUMENTS:
(A) YOUR BANKER'S NAME, SPECIE, ACCOUNT, SOLAR SYSTEM AND PLANET
(B) YOUR PRIVATE SUBSPACE FREQUENCY AND ESP NUMBERS -- FOR CONFIDENTIALITY AND EASY COMMUNICATION.
(C) YOUR LETTER-HEADED CRYPTO STOMPED AND MARKED.
ALTERNATIVELY WE WILL FURNISH YOU WITH THE TEXT OF WHAT TO TYPE INTO YOUR LETTER-HEADED PAPER, ALONG WITH A BREAKDOWN EXPLAINING, COMPREHENSIVELY WHAT WE REQUIRE OF YOU. THE BUSINESS WILL TAKE US THIRTY (30) WORKING EARTH DAYS TO ACCOMPLISH.
PLEASE REPLY URGENTLY.
BEST REGARDS
I'm happy that Sun is taking the FLOSS movement seriously. I'm a Java developer working with Netbeans on Linux and OOo has been my main office suite since the StarOffice days. Sun seems to 'get' FLOSS, but I'm wondering how that's helping their bottom line? Are they doing this because it's helping them sell servers (or something else), or out of desperation?
In other words, I hope that they are doing this because they realize (and reap) a distinct business value and not just because they're desperate. Should the former be the case, I hope that it continues to send waves down the IT marketplace and continues to encourage organizations to provide free (libre) software.
In addendum to the above post, I'd like to point out that the Catholic church represent about half of the Christian population and 1/6th of the world's population (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_church), so I'd like to consider it major, but not exclusive.
For those that I've offended: s/the only major Christian church/a Christian church/.
Thanks for pointing out other (mostly European?) churches that consolidate instead of bending science. Forgive my ignorance. Since I live north of what seems to be the biggest hive of creationism fundamentalist, it sometimes sound like every religion is science bashing. Usually, their statements are hilarious but I absolutely abhor the tone of the fundamentalist bible-blabber.
For anybody that cares, I'm curious to hear what other churches/religions have a position similar to the Vatican on science.
I know the Catholic church has it's dark side in history, however, I'm very pleased that one of the worlds foremost religion is doing such a fantastic job 'respecting' science. Before you blast me with examples of how the Catholic church is blundering (big bang?), remember that they are (as far as I know), the only _major_ Christian church that supports evolution. Furthermore, I do have a lot of respect for the Jesuits and their pursuit of science. Finally, the Vatican may not 100% pro-science, but they seem far from being anti-science.
Though I'm not Catholic (atheist), I respect the Vatican for trying to understand how science merge with their faith, instead of bending science to their faith. Considering the horror stories that I see and hear about creationist faith (cringe!), this is a breath of fresh air!
My $0.02 CAD
Ok, so why is the above post marked 'interesting'?
:P
Oh! It must be because someone actually RTFA!
Agreed.
In 2004-05, I wrote a PHP application for a client. We had agreed ahead of time that the app would be written in PHP. Upon delivery, everything worked great on the test (WIMP) server that I set up myself. When the technician was called in to put the application in production, he said no problem. I should point out that the fellow is a hard-core and experienced MCSE.
A month later, the application was not installed. I called the technician to find out what was happening, and I was given the story of being too busy. I offered to do it myself, but they would not agree to that. The tech promised to install it ASAP.
A week later, still nothing. Called again. After I pressed the technician as to why he would not install it, the answer he gave we what that 'installing foreign application like Apache & PHP may destabilize the server ecosystem.' According to him, it should have been written in ASP(.Net).
What a wonderful Microsoft-ish answer. He finally agreed to install PHP after I pointed out that PHP CAN run on IIS.
The FUD and BS that MS crams down their MCP just makes my blood boil. Disclaimer: I _was_ a MCP and MCT, so I know the type of stuff Microsoft feeds.
The appplication works. It still being used today by dozens of offices across Canada (coast-to-coast). And as far as I know, the maintenance has been near 0.
Most of my applications are LAMP, and the maintenance time/cost has been near 0.
RoR doesn't sound as cool as PoW. They'll have to come up with a kooler phonetic acronym if they don't want to loose too many developers. ;)
It's not what PHP has to offer that MS wants. They are hoping to migrate OSS developers to the Windows platform.
Sorry, but as for me, you won't see my LAMP become a WAMP anytime soon.
You mean there's a difference between Windows as a workstation and Windows as a server beyond price? Oh, and the crippling of a couple of services?
Maybe I should become one of the 75% to 80% of PHP developers who use this 'Windows' thing and see the difference myself.
I like a good laugh from time to time, and I'm glad /. does not take itself too seriously. I'm sorry and surprised at the amount of people bitching at /. for dropping a bit of humour in my day (that is not MS centric).
Cheers,
J-F
I think that Bill G. and Steve B. are annoyed that MS's shares haven't moved much since 2000. MS is still a safe investment, but their stocks seems stuck and not growing much.
Sorry...could not resist!
Microsoft's approach to breakthrough engineering is through acquisitions? Is it just me or do I sense an oxymoron here...
So why is he talking about converting to PDF or RTF? ;)
Why does the author avoid any mention of ODF or OpenOffice as alternatives to work with MS Office docs? He seems stuck on 'old' formats like WKS or RTF.
.docs or .xls to ODS or PDF using the OOo code. Any one knows about such a tool?
I know OOo is not a perfect Word/Excel converter, but it has served me marvelously since the StarOffice days. I wish that there was a simple command-line driven tool that could convert
Agreed. I've got an old Nortel display phone that must be well over 15 years. It survived at least seven moves and being dropped on the ground countless times. Nothing has stopped working on it and it's still going strong. Now that I think about it, my SNES must be the oldest technical gadget that is still in fine working order. I got mine before they were even available in retail in Canada. Oh, the memories!
What about NDA? Could we purchase the specs and share them openly?
"IF you abuse your position to have people install redundant software, you probably won't be in that position for very long."
Good! Does that mean that MS is on the way out?
...and do you use those wonderful OLE objects on a Linux desktop?
.DOC. It's meant to work only in Windows.
That's another reason I hate
I avoid using DOC format, and I've often had to remind people that I should not need to spend $$$ just to get Microsoft Office so I can follow business 'standards.'
Time to renew the Sue Me First wiki?
http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sue_me_first%2C_microsoft
Before you mean to be not insulting, please see my reply to the above post. :)
.NET. However, I don't think I'm a .NET idiot. Granted, I know my Java much better than .NET but my ASP.NET (including web services) experiences were --to borrow your words -- like sticking a dull pencil in my eyeball.
.NET Framework. My preference remains Java, followed by .NET.
I've been developing enterprise applications for over ten years in Java, and more recently in
NB: I'm blasting ASP.NET here -- not the whole
As for not equating Silverlight to Flash, I can't comment. As I mentioned previously, I never used Flash. However, Applets are another story. Blast them as much as you want, but a well designed applet should provide a seamless, transparent experience for the user.
+1 is released
I'm not advocating Applets since I haven't use them seriously for years now, and I know I'm not going to convert anyone here, but I'm getting the impression that MS is hoping to compete with both Java Applet & Flash. My fear now is that a number of website will no longer work correctly on Macs, Linux & even Firefox in future versions of Silverlight.
Pretty up could be taken in two ways. .NET pretties up the Win32 API. .NET pretties up COM, VB and others by deprecating them.
.NET environment (not the classlib) is implemented as a collection of COM components.
As a side note, The
The Win32 APIs would be my first exhibit ;). But let's continue: ...I could probably give you more if you wanted, but .NET did give sanity to those older technology. I'll program in Java before I'll program in .NET. However, I'll program in .NET before I'll use some of the old APIs. And yes, I wrote applications using the Win16 and Win32 APIs.
;)
COM (DCOM, COM+, ATL, etc...)
Visual Basic
ASP
MFC
But to go back to the original thread: Would I program in Flash or Silverlight? That's a question I can't answer, since I never did touch Flash.
As both a Java and .NET developer, I must say that from personal experience, you may be right in saying that .NET has a lesser learning c.NET is a thinly disguised layer to 'pretty up' some old MS technologies. Futhermore, it not just slightly inflexible, but highly inflexible.
As for the classpath complain, I find it moot. I haven't had to fight with classpath in years. I develop on Windows, Mac OS X & Linux and I've used Eclipse, Netbeans and other IDE, as well as the command line.
My $0.02
J-F