it doesn't matter whether he downloads an open source system, or inherits his employer's legacy system -- he will need to learn the principles behind the technology in order to move that system forward.
There are 3 basic approaches to solving any technical problem. Let's say, for the sake of argument, you want to cook a roast and have never done it.
Brute Force & Ignorance
Get 100 ovens. Stick a roast in each. Set them to all different combinations of time & temperature. When they're all done, sample them all, and go with the one that's given the best result. The Scientific Method
Get a stove, and stick a roast in it. Using temperature probes placed at different depths in the meat, and possibly using some sort of thermal imaging, monitor the cooking process while varying the temperature over time. Make carefull notes and plot your results afterwards, and compute the optimal configuration. The Engineering Method
Ask your mother
The bottom line is this: you spend (roughly) a third of your adult life at work. You cannot expect to be happy in the rest of your life if you are miserable during such a large chunk of your waking hours.
The difference in quality of life when you earn $10,000 or $20,000 is huge...... but the difference between $60,000 and $70,000 is marginal.
Take the pay cut.... and you'll enjoy the money you DO have a lot more.
OK - somebody, please, tell me....... when did unix/linux et al become designed for server systems?
Unix is a multi-user, multi-tasking operating system, that was originally written to allow MANY people to use scarce computing resources. It was never designed to be a server system. Hell - servers, as we now understand them, didn't even exist when unix was written.
Windows is a single-user, multi-tasking operating system. Unix is a multi-user, multi-tasking operating system. The fact that unix happens to make a good server o/s is entirely coincidental to the design.
OK.... here goes. I'm an old salt - been a programmer for 25+ years. What I'm going to give you here, now, are my observations and general philosophy..... your milage may vary.
Get the best programmers you can lay your hands on. I don't care what the platform is - bad programmers write bad code. Good programmers write good code. GREAT programmers will make you cream:-) (I know - I have to get out more)
Ignore any comments of the type "Use XXX or you're nuts". "XXX is the only way to go, etc." They're trends - I've been seeing comments like that since I started, and code quality is no better now than it was when I was doing hand assembly.
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify. The smaller and more discrete your modules are, the less likely you are to have errors. Break the problem down into the simplist, most discrete chunks you can, and do each of them as an individual task. The smaller code will be simpler and easier to test & verify.
Use code reviews. Even a guru's eyes will glaze over once he's eyeballed the same source for the nth time.... you need the additional eyeballs.
Decouple & seperate. The less each module is dependant on other modules - explicitly OR implicitly - the less likely you are to have unforseen interactions. This also, btw, will help you develop an API that can be made available.
Use these approaches throughout your project, and you still wont' have perfect code - but it will stand a much better chance of being correct, and any errors you DO have will be easier to find.
This is not an exhuastive list, by any means, but good code is more about approach than specific languages or libraries - it's a state of mind.
Reality Check. The Tories are only *slightly* to the right of the Democrats. Even the old Reform party - "rednecks from hell", as they are generally known by an incredibly intolerant left here in Canada, were to the left of the Republicans.
While this is all quite suspicious and Slashdotters love the very idea of a conspiracy, I'm not yet in Spybot's camp here. First of all, one week to investigate and respond to an issue is way too short for a company as large as Symantec. Who does Spybot think they are to demand a one week response. Even the Department of Justice couldn't make such a demand, and if the DoJ did Slashdotters would be all up in arms over the evilness of it all.
Absolutly NOT true.
If Symantic had done enough investigation to make sure that they were right when they named Spybot on their site in the first place, the evidence would be handy.
And if they *don't* have the evidence handy..... wtf do they think they're doing?
I did it because I found it interesting that a common misspelling (genious) was actually correct in this case, which is counterintuitive.
You only see it as being spelt wrong because Mr Webster couldn't spell worth a shit.... Most of the rest of the english speaking world uses the oxford dictionary - where it *is* the "correct" spelling.
Thank you for your interest in obtaining updates from our site.
To use this site, you must be running Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or later.
To upgrade to the latest version of the browser, go to the Internet Explorer Downloads website.
How bloody typical..... I use firefox so I don't have to use their crap any more than I have to, but I have to use their crap in order to fix another piece of their crap.....
There's a difference btween burning down your house for insurance money and burning down a military supply depot so the Canadians can invade. The first is illegal. The second is treason. Likewise, minor electon tampering is certainly illegal.
Ummmmm....... don't we need to have a military first?
While they might not have known they'd end up being some of the richest people to have ever lived, they had to have known that they were never going to have to worry about money again in their lives.
Hardly. IBM, when they came out with the original PC, estimated that total sales for the PC would be in the neighbourhood of about 250,000 for the life of the product. Back then, IBM worked on 5-10 year product cycles.
If anything, at their most optimistic, they probably hoped it would settle their student loans.
.... from another non-American: The right to free assembly : gone (see the Seattle WTO protests of '99)
Statements like this drive me NUTS. Restrictions on crowds at any WTO meeting in the last 10 years - regardless of country - has NOT, in fact, been to an attempt to suppress dissent. It's been a very real, REASONABLE reaction to a very real, REASONABLE - and even in hindsight, correct - estimation on the security situation.
There have been packs (hords?) of trouble-makers attending those conferences for *years* - and they come prepared for, and looking for, trouble. Who the hell is going to bring a gas mask to a "peaseful" demonstration unless they're expecting it? Who's going to bring trollops with them to throw under the hooves of horses unless they're planning on causing trouble so that the mounted police feel the need to try to dispurse the crowd? How many people here have any experience with anatomy of a riot, or even the most basic understanding of crowd control?
My first introduction to crowd control was when I was in the military, in the late 70s.... I was part of an... ummmm.... "final exam" for a crowd control course given to memebers of a communications regiment. (yes, it means I was ordered to riot). Had a blast, too, untill they gassed us.... after rioting & exerting ourselves in -20C weather.
If you watch what's happening carefully at riots at WTO gatherings (or almost any other riot, if it comes to that), you can very clearly spot the people who are controlling the action. Yes, boys and girls, I'm saying that riots are LED - and you only need 3 or 4 agitators to start the whole mess. Pack behaviour takes care of the rest.
whereas liberal in Canada and Europe and most other places means the same thing as "conservative" means in the US (or used to mean anyway), including smaller government, lower taxes, less government control, pro-business, etc.
Wow - it's not hard to tell that you haven't spent much time in Canada. Politically, "Liberal" means to the left... although economically, it means to the right.
In Canada, the Liberal Party is very socialistic - they believe in big government in a VERY big way, and essentially don't trust individuals to do what government can do for them.
As far as the political spectrum is concerned, the Convervative Party is economically about where the Democrates are in the states, but more socially conservative. The Liberals are to the left of that, and the NDP (New Democratic Party) even further to the left.
Essentially, the center in Canada is a bit to the left of the Democrats, and occupied by the Liberals, with the Conservatives to the right and the NDP to the left.
However, last summer the ice cap receded about 200 miles further north than the average of two decades ago, forcing the bears to undertake far longer voyages between floes.
I am not a biologist, but I do know a *few* things about polar bears - I've been all across the Canadian Arctic, from Churchill, Inuvik, Tuktoyuktuk, Alert, Nain, Frobisher Bay, points inbetween, and grew up in Labrador.
One think I CAN say, though, is that if the ice cap had receeded 200 miles in the last 20 years, the North West Passage would no longer be a dream, but one of the most crowded waterways in the world.
There are just too many things in that article that are on the surface, at least, nonsense that I doubt the rest of it.
I suspect that we will see a lot happening when publishers start running to congress to get this stopped. Plain and simple, this has the same disruption capabilities as the Internet and mp3 players have had.
Oh, horsehockey.... there is a world of difference between somebody typing up an article on crop rotation, history of the Bantu, or any other academic subject and the stealing of copywrited materials. I can't think of a single possible scenario where the publishers would have any cause to object, unless somebody is willing to type up Pax Britannia or some other work for inclusion.
They will not be able to simply get this $100 laptop and keep all the textbooks they need on it, the 'e-books' will have to be purchased/licensed as well.
Think "Open Source".... although I'm not a mathematition, I AM a historian by training (computer programmer for 25 years by inclination).
I would have absolutly no problem with writing articles/mini-books etc, type them up, and donate them if I had the chance... and I seriously doubt you would have any shortage of volunteers from ANY field willing to do the same thing.
Personally, I like to change my default font to Verdana. I do this on my website, and in my browser.
.... deletions....
I hate it when my browser is taken over by someone else's fonts, cursors, or popups. To me, they're all the same intrusive, annoying thing, and are all on the same level of annoyance.
ummmm...... maybe it's just me, but aren't you doing yourself what you just said you find annoying & intrusive?
The problem with that is that the votes get counted by a human being and human beings have prejudances. Anybody who tells you that they are 100% impartial is lying.
Yes, you're absolutly right...... that's why here in Canada, where we DO have a paper ballot system, EACH CANDIDATE is allowed to have a representative to watch the count. They are not allowed to physically handle the ballots, but they are allowed to see and challenge the validity of each one.
Wether the challenge is accepted, and the ballot marked as spoiled, is a decision made by the poll clerk - the person who does the actual counting.
If the candidate's representatives are unhappy with the decisions, they are free to file suit, and have the ballots recounted by a judge.
The same process is followed for national, provincial, AND municipal elections.
(Obviously, I'm leaving out a lot of details for brevity, and trying to stick to the major points)
Slashdot Mirror
If the gun shop doesn't take the precautions required by law and someone steals guns to use in a crime then the gun shop is liable.
..... I hope.
.... not taking legal precautions for safe storage.
... but for their individual, respective crimes.
Wrong
The phycho is personaly, %100 responsible for going postal.
The gunshop owner is perosonally, 100% responsible for a *different* crime
They should both be given roommates named Bubba
it doesn't matter whether he downloads an open source system, or inherits his employer's legacy system -- he will need to learn the principles behind the technology in order to move that system forward.
There are 3 basic approaches to solving any technical problem. Let's say, for the sake of argument, you want to cook a roast and have never done it.
Brute Force & Ignorance
Get 100 ovens. Stick a roast in each. Set them to all different combinations of time & temperature. When they're all done, sample them all, and go with the one that's given the best result.
The Scientific Method
Get a stove, and stick a roast in it. Using temperature probes placed at different depths in the meat, and possibly using some sort of thermal imaging, monitor the cooking process while varying the temperature over time. Make carefull notes and plot your results afterwards, and compute the optimal configuration.
The Engineering Method
Ask your mother
'nuff said
I've done it before, and I'd do it again.
...... but the difference between $60,000 and $70,000 is marginal.
.... and you'll enjoy the money you DO have a lot more.
The bottom line is this: you spend (roughly) a third of your adult life at work. You cannot expect to be happy in the rest of your life if you are miserable during such a large chunk of your waking hours.
The difference in quality of life when you earn $10,000 or $20,000 is huge
Take the pay cut
OK - somebody, please, tell me ....... when did unix/linux et al become designed for server systems?
Unix is a multi-user, multi-tasking operating system, that was originally written to allow MANY people to use scarce computing resources. It was never designed to be a server system. Hell - servers, as we now understand them, didn't even exist when unix was written.
Windows is a single-user, multi-tasking operating system. Unix is a multi-user, multi-tasking operating system. The fact that unix happens to make a good server o/s is entirely coincidental to the design.
OK .... here goes. I'm an old salt - been a programmer for 25+ years. What I'm going to give you here, now, are my observations and general philosophy ..... your milage may vary.
Get the best programmers you can lay your hands on. I don't care what the platform is - bad programmers write bad code. Good programmers write good code. GREAT programmers will make you cream :-) (I know - I have to get out more)
Ignore any comments of the type "Use XXX or you're nuts". "XXX is the only way to go, etc." They're trends - I've been seeing comments like that since I started, and code quality is no better now than it was when I was doing hand assembly.
Simplify, Simplify, Simplify. The smaller and more discrete your modules are, the less likely you are to have errors. Break the problem down into the simplist, most discrete chunks you can, and do each of them as an individual task. The smaller code will be simpler and easier to test & verify.
Use code reviews. Even a guru's eyes will glaze over once he's eyeballed the same source for the nth time .... you need the additional eyeballs.
Decouple & seperate. The less each module is dependant on other modules - explicitly OR implicitly - the less likely you are to have unforseen interactions. This also, btw, will help you develop an API that can be made available.
Use these approaches throughout your project, and you still wont' have perfect code - but it will stand a much better chance of being correct, and any errors you DO have will be easier to find.
This is not an exhuastive list, by any means, but good code is more about approach than specific languages or libraries - it's a state of mind.
Conservatives are pretty near the same as the GOP
Reality Check. The Tories are only *slightly* to the right of the Democrats. Even the old Reform party - "rednecks from hell", as they are generally known by an incredibly intolerant left here in Canada, were to the left of the Republicans.
While this is all quite suspicious and Slashdotters love the very idea of a conspiracy, I'm not yet in Spybot's camp here. First of all, one week to investigate and respond to an issue is way too short for a company as large as Symantec. Who does Spybot think they are to demand a one week response. Even the Department of Justice couldn't make such a demand, and if the DoJ did Slashdotters would be all up in arms over the evilness of it all.
..... wtf do they think they're doing?
Absolutly NOT true. If Symantic had done enough investigation to make sure that they were right when they named Spybot on their site in the first place, the evidence would be handy.
And if they *don't* have the evidence handy
I did it because I found it interesting that a common misspelling (genious) was actually correct in this case, which is counterintuitive.
.... Most of the rest of the english speaking world uses the oxford dictionary - where it *is* the "correct" spelling.
You only see it as being spelt wrong because Mr Webster couldn't spell worth a shit
Thank you for your interest in obtaining updates from our site.
..... I use firefox so I don't have to use their crap any more than I have to, but I have to use their crap in order to fix another piece of their crap .....
To use this site, you must be running Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or later.
To upgrade to the latest version of the browser, go to the Internet Explorer Downloads website.
How bloody typical
You forgot unshaven pits.
There's a difference btween burning down your house for insurance money and burning down a military supply depot so the Canadians can invade. The first is illegal. The second is treason. Likewise, minor electon tampering is certainly illegal.
....... don't we need to have a military first?
Ummmmm
While they might not have known they'd end up being some of the richest people to have ever lived, they had to have known that they were never going to have to worry about money again in their lives.
Hardly. IBM, when they came out with the original PC, estimated that total sales for the PC would be in the neighbourhood of about 250,000 for the life of the product. Back then, IBM worked on 5-10 year product cycles.
If anything, at their most optimistic, they probably hoped it would settle their student loans.
.... from another non-American:
.... I was part of an ... ummmm .... "final exam" for a crowd control course given to memebers of a communications regiment. (yes, it means I was ordered to riot). Had a blast, too, untill they gassed us .... after rioting & exerting ourselves in -20C weather.
The right to free assembly : gone (see the Seattle WTO protests of '99)
Statements like this drive me NUTS. Restrictions on crowds at any WTO meeting in the last 10 years - regardless of country - has NOT, in fact, been to an attempt to suppress dissent. It's been a very real, REASONABLE reaction to a very real, REASONABLE - and even in hindsight, correct - estimation on the security situation.
There have been packs (hords?) of trouble-makers attending those conferences for *years* - and they come prepared for, and looking for, trouble. Who the hell is going to bring a gas mask to a "peaseful" demonstration unless they're expecting it? Who's going to bring trollops with them to throw under the hooves of horses unless they're planning on causing trouble so that the mounted police feel the need to try to dispurse the crowd? How many people here have any experience with anatomy of a riot, or even the most basic understanding of crowd control?
My first introduction to crowd control was when I was in the military, in the late 70s
If you watch what's happening carefully at riots at WTO gatherings (or almost any other riot, if it comes to that), you can very clearly spot the people who are controlling the action. Yes, boys and girls, I'm saying that riots are LED - and you only need 3 or 4 agitators to start the whole mess. Pack behaviour takes care of the rest.
There is no such thing as a spontanious riot.
whereas liberal in Canada and Europe and most other places means the same thing as "conservative" means in the US (or used to mean anyway), including smaller government, lower taxes, less government control, pro-business, etc.
... although economically, it means to the right.
Wow - it's not hard to tell that you haven't spent much time in Canada. Politically, "Liberal" means to the left
In Canada, the Liberal Party is very socialistic - they believe in big government in a VERY big way, and essentially don't trust individuals to do what government can do for them.
As far as the political spectrum is concerned, the Convervative Party is economically about where the Democrates are in the states, but more socially conservative. The Liberals are to the left of that, and the NDP (New Democratic Party) even further to the left.
Essentially, the center in Canada is a bit to the left of the Democrats, and occupied by the Liberals, with the Conservatives to the right and the NDP to the left.
However, last summer the ice cap receded about 200 miles further north than the average of two decades ago, forcing the bears to undertake far longer voyages between floes.
I am not a biologist, but I do know a *few* things about polar bears - I've been all across the Canadian Arctic, from Churchill, Inuvik, Tuktoyuktuk, Alert, Nain, Frobisher Bay, points inbetween, and grew up in Labrador.
One think I CAN say, though, is that if the ice cap had receeded 200 miles in the last 20 years, the North West Passage would no longer be a dream, but one of the most crowded waterways in the world.
There are just too many things in that article that are on the surface, at least, nonsense that I doubt the rest of it.
Propoganda from the global warming folks, maybe?
I suspect that we will see a lot happening when publishers start running to congress to get this stopped. Plain and simple, this has the same disruption capabilities as the Internet and mp3 players have had.
.... there is a world of difference between somebody typing up an article on crop rotation, history of the Bantu, or any other academic subject and the stealing of copywrited materials. I can't think of a single possible scenario where the publishers would have any cause to object, unless somebody is willing to type up Pax Britannia or some other work for inclusion.
Oh, horsehockey
They will not be able to simply get this $100 laptop and keep all the textbooks they need on it, the 'e-books' will have to be purchased/licensed as well.
.... although I'm not a mathematition, I AM a historian by training (computer programmer for 25 years by inclination).
... and I seriously doubt you would have any shortage of volunteers from ANY field willing to do the same thing.
Think "Open Source"
I would have absolutly no problem with writing articles/mini-books etc, type them up, and donate them if I had the chance
Personally, I like to change my default font to Verdana. I do this on my website, and in my browser.
.... deletions ....
...... maybe it's just me, but aren't you doing yourself what you just said you find annoying & intrusive?
I hate it when my browser is taken over by someone else's fonts, cursors, or popups. To me, they're all the same intrusive, annoying thing, and are all on the same level of annoyance.
ummmm
The problem with that is that the votes get counted by a human being and human beings have prejudances. Anybody who tells you that they are 100% impartial is lying.
...... that's why here in Canada, where we DO have a paper ballot system, EACH CANDIDATE is allowed to have a representative to watch the count. They are not allowed to physically handle the ballots, but they are allowed to see and challenge the validity of each one.
Wether the challenge is accepted, and the ballot marked as spoiled, is a decision made by the poll clerk - the person who does the actual counting.
If the candidate's representatives are unhappy with the decisions, they are free to file suit, and have the ballots recounted by a judge.
The same process is followed for national, provincial, AND municipal elections.
Yes, you're absolutly right
(Obviously, I'm leaving out a lot of details for brevity, and trying to stick to the major points)
cooperation != socialism. It's what Ann Rand called "enlightened self-interest"