Of all the things I miss most about the era of "old computers" (for me this means early 80's), it's the culture of BBS systems that I miss the most. Operating under a pseudonym was extremely liberating, and by separating the individual from existing notions of age, gender, race, etc, the discourse could focus almost exclusively on the ideas being presented. The fact that the medium was entirely text-based during this period was a benefit, as it supported the stripping away of elements outside of the ideas. While the user base was smaller and more segmented, introduction of FIDONet helped expand interaction between sub-communities.
Looking at the evolution of online communities, and specifically the advent of social media, I personally find that we've moved in an absolutely contrary direction where social media environments create a focus on crafting an _image_ of a particular individual through photos, videos, and streams highlighting characteristics of the poster (irregardless of whether they actually apply to the posting user) and de-emphasize any true interaction around the core ideas being applied. It looks to me less a medium for discourse and discovery of new ideas, and more one for finding pockets of support and self-validation for ideas already held.
That's how I see things now, but perhaps it's just because I'm getting old and curmudgeonly...
On the other hand, I don't miss the XModem file transfer protocol (with it's stupid extra bytes at the end) at all.:-)
Hopefully you're reading the uncut version released by his wife in (I think) 1991 vs the original release. I think the segments re-introduced are meaningful. Definitely a wonderful book and one of my all-time favorites.
Perhaps I'm in a bit of a thematic rut, but I found all these to be quite compelling and thought provoking given the current geopolitical environment.
Camp of the Saints - Jean Raspail (Fiction) Suicide of the West - James Burnham (Politics & Theory) The Fourth Turning - William Strauss and Neil Howe (History & Theory)
An engineer is outside his office one day, when another engineer rides up on a fancy new mountain bike.
"Where did you get that bike?" he asked.
"You'll never believe it. I'm walking to work through the park this morning, and this girl rides up to me on this bicycle. She jumps off the bike, takes all her clothes off, and says 'You can take anything you want!'"
After regarding his friend for a moment, the 1st engineer replied.....
"Good call, her clothes never would have fit you..."
I can understand publishers' concern regarding an outside party scanning and indexing their works, but if they are serious about maintaining control, they must be ready to provide these services themselves. If they can provide a unified index of information that provides value, consumers will pay for that service.
As an example, the ACM Technical Library is a great resource. It has a good facility that allows you to search the contents of all ACM publications, and allows access to abstracts of all works online. With a subscription, you have access to the complete works. I'm happy to pay $99/year for that service as it provides quick access to high quality information.
If publishers are not willing to step up and provide services that the consumers desire, it seems only logical that a forward thinking third party should be able to step into that void.
Obviously, all that game playing has rotted your mind. I, for one, won't be satisfied until all shows on television, including network news, include "fly bitches" gyrating their asses across stage.
You might want to give pair-programming a try. Although it certainly doesn't feel natural at first, with a little practice, it's possible to use this to spread knowledge and maximize code efficiency across the code base.
If you are the most experienced developer, it gives the other developers a chance to see how you begin solving problems, and a chance to see your code as it emerges. It's important however, that you don't do 100% of the coding in your pair. Spend approximately half the time letting your partner code. This provides an opportunity for them to generate code, and gain some confidence in their abilities.
After a period of time, you should mix up the pairs, so everyone has a chance to work with everyone else.
As I said, this method of working feels extremely counter-intuitive at first, but with a bit of practice can really make a difference (especially on teams with widely disparate skill levels.)
As an added bonus, developers are less inclined to slack when they've got someone working with them, meaning you'll tend to get more productive hours out of each developer/day.
Check out this link for more descriptive info, and some discussion.
I think it's important to make the distinction between Open Source and Open Project. Just because you release the source under the GPL doesn't mean your project needs to be open to all committers.
In order to maintain control of your project, simply limit the number of committers to the repository to a select few you trust (or just yourself.) This approach has worked extremely well for the kernel source.
If someone is hell-bent on introducing something you disagree with, they have the option of forking the source and creating their own project, but this seems to be the exception and not the rule.
Take the source with a grain of salt.
on
Trouble Ahead for Java
·
· Score: 2, Informative
IIRC, Java Developers Journal has very close ties to it's older sister publication Windows Developer Journal, and receives much of it's funding from none other than....
<drumroll/> Microsoft <cymbal type="crash"/>
With that in mind, it's not surprising that the editor has such dire predictions since you can guess who signs the checks.
Note, I'm not bashing C#. The language is so similar to Java that you can certainly find good things in it, but predicting that MS will port their runtime over to a large number of other platfoms might not be the smartest bet.
I forgot to note that for the price of the seminar ($320 full price, $160 student) you get a copy of all four of his books. As a student, that basically means that for the price of his books, you get a full-day seminar from him on the application of the ideas.
If you haven't seen him speak, he gives a great one day seminar on visualization and display. The schedule is available at his homepage.
He's a very good speaker, and while the content is basically a survey of his four books, the presentation is lively and his style is very engaging. IMHO, this was a bargain for the price, and a very worthwhile event.
I think everyone is missing the obvious reason for this blatant ballot-stuffing episode. By catching Microsoft red-handed, and blowing the whistle, ZDNet, which has seemed to be another one of Redmond's lapdogs in the past proves itself to be objective and fair in it's reporting. This gives them an air of credibility so when they revert to their gushing praise of Microsoft, people will believe. No doubt the minions of dark (read MS) spent many hours devising this ever-so-subtle plan, but thanks to the astuteness of the general Slashdot population, no doubt their efforts will fail!
While I feel your pain from the broken machine, and think it sucks that UPS didn't insure it, looking at your pictures it appears that you might have taken a bit more care in the packaging.
There is a foam packaging system on the market (I think you can get it at most packing places) that consists of large thick foam sheets. You basically place several sheets in the bottom of the box until it is 50% full, put the contents on top and compress it half-way in. You then place more sheets on top, and compress the rest of the way until it is flush with the box top. It's not the cheapest stuff, but is fantastic for protecting equipment.
Also (and I'm not sure if these exist in Canada, but would expect they do,) there are a number of companies that specialize in shipping. Examples in the states are "Mailboxes, etc.", "Shipping Shack", and a few others. A lot of these places offer their own shipping insurance in addition to whatever insurance the carrier has. That could have provided a work-around for UPS's international policy.
Finally, did you ask if UPS offered insurance for an additional fee? According to their website:
The option of additional Excess Value Insurance may be added to your shipment.
All in all, the whole thing is very unfortunate, but perhaps others can learn from this before it happens to them.
While folks may poke fun at the CIA for their early efforts at animal-based intelligence gathering devices, but without failures like acoustic kitty, we wouldn't be in a position now to launch the Operation Covert Camel, which experts believe could crack the al Qaeda network wide open. (Can anyone say Pillow Talk;)
Many readers have posted with reasons why companies are reluctant to have employees telecommute, most stemming from discomfort caused by it's unfamiliarity, but also due to a fear of lack of control leading to lower productivity.
In addition to these, it's important to consider whether telecommuting is actually in your own best interest in the current economic environment. The economic downturn (ahem, recession) has impacted the tech community rather severely. Numerous layoffs from failed dot-coms are re-entering the market, increases in W-2 visas have lead to even more workers in the market. If the current financial situation continues, many other companies will be forced to "downsize" to appease investor concerns. At this point you have to think:
Who will the company keep, the person they see around the water cooler every day, or the highly-productive worker who telecommutes?
While the real answer should be based on productivity and bottom-line cost, the social aspects of the environment often exude an inordinate influence on the decision.
BSD is waning as most geeks don't see it as 'cool' enough
strikes me as strange, as there was recently a feauture story (I don't recall if it was ZD, CNet, or whomever) discussing that BSD in general, and FreeBSD specifically was going to potentially gain developers as linux became more mainstream and status-quo. In addition, there are currently a number of areas where BSD is outperforming Linux, most notably the TCP/IP stack. OpenBSD has been involved in a very intensive security audit for quite some time, which makes it uniquely well suited to DMZ or gateway type systems.
This is not to say that BSD is better than Linux. They currently just have some significant differences. I run them both in the settings I find most appropriate. Linux on my desktop,laptop and database, OpenBSD for the gateway & mailserver, and Solaris for the web/application server.
Hopefully all the unique benefits of these flavors will migrate across... That's one of the key benefits of open source, and whether any particular variety of OS is the flavor du jour doesn't really seem to have any bearing on the real world viability of the OS as a solution.
I thought the following comment was a little strange...
The Linux community claims to have improved performance and scalability in the latest versions of the Linux Kernel (2.2), however it's clear that Linux remains inferior to the Windows NT® 4.0 operating system.
I'm sorry but does anybody recall a number of stories regarding Linux based clusters built by NASA ranking in the top 100 (and IIRC top 20) most powerful computers in operation today?
Maybe I didn't look carefully enough, and numbers 1-19 were actually all NT Wolfpack clusters.....;)
What I find most impressive about your life is not simply the excellent technical work, but the fact that you seem to have a life outside work as well... I'm most interested in your recent trip to Iceland. As someone who has Iceland solidly inked at the top of the travel list, are there any locations that you would classify as absolutely must-see? Good bars and restaurants in Reykjavic? Local brews that merit tasting?
I'd like to see a little more local flavor and a little less tourist fare while I'm there, and would guess that you took a similar approach...
Apparently, the creators of the degree don't realize that essays on topics such as "Will robots take over the earth?" are pointless, as this is obviously already the case. Take for instance the purely mechanical response of the pol-bots in Washington D.C., and the mindless following of the MTV-Drones. In fact, the truth has surfaced about/., and we now know that Rob and his cadre of site admins are nothing more that an elaborate set of perl scripts generated by a WinNT based AI developed by Microsoft, which was created by Bill Gates at the request of space aliens.
Slashdot Mirror
Of all the things I miss most about the era of "old computers" (for me this means early 80's), it's the culture of BBS systems that I miss the most. Operating under a pseudonym was extremely liberating, and by separating the individual from existing notions of age, gender, race, etc, the discourse could focus almost exclusively on the ideas being presented. The fact that the medium was entirely text-based during this period was a benefit, as it supported the stripping away of elements outside of the ideas. While the user base was smaller and more segmented, introduction of FIDONet helped expand interaction between sub-communities.
Looking at the evolution of online communities, and specifically the advent of social media, I personally find that we've moved in an absolutely contrary direction where social media environments create a focus on crafting an _image_ of a particular individual through photos, videos, and streams highlighting characteristics of the poster (irregardless of whether they actually apply to the posting user) and de-emphasize any true interaction around the core ideas being applied. It looks to me less a medium for discourse and discovery of new ideas, and more one for finding pockets of support and self-validation for ideas already held.
That's how I see things now, but perhaps it's just because I'm getting old and curmudgeonly...
On the other hand, I don't miss the XModem file transfer protocol (with it's stupid extra bytes at the end) at all. :-)
Hopefully you're reading the uncut version released by his wife in (I think) 1991 vs the original release. I think the segments re-introduced are meaningful. Definitely a wonderful book and one of my all-time favorites.
"indoor veggie growing" == Best.Explanation.Ever.
Perhaps I'm in a bit of a thematic rut, but I found all these to be quite compelling and thought provoking given the current geopolitical environment.
Camp of the Saints - Jean Raspail (Fiction)
Suicide of the West - James Burnham (Politics & Theory)
The Fourth Turning - William Strauss and Neil Howe (History & Theory)
I love tech as much as the next guy, but why not keep it simple... Submerge the craft in water, and look for bubbles. :D
An engineer is outside his office one day, when another engineer rides up on a fancy new mountain bike.
"Where did you get that bike?" he asked.
"You'll never believe it. I'm walking to work through the park this morning, and this girl rides up to me on this bicycle. She jumps off the bike, takes all her clothes off, and says 'You can take anything you want!'"
After regarding his friend for a moment, the 1st engineer replied.....
"Good call, her clothes never would have fit you..."
Oh, and dump your boy/girlfriend, too.
And where exactly are we supposed to get one of those?
+5 Funny.
I can understand publishers' concern regarding an outside party scanning and indexing their works, but if they are serious about maintaining control, they must be ready to provide these services themselves. If they can provide a unified index of information that provides value, consumers will pay for that service.
As an example, the ACM Technical Library is a great resource. It has a good facility that allows you to search the contents of all ACM publications, and allows access to abstracts of all works online. With a subscription, you have access to the complete works. I'm happy to pay $99/year for that service as it provides quick access to high quality information.
If publishers are not willing to step up and provide services that the consumers desire, it seems only logical that a forward thinking third party should be able to step into that void.
Just 2-cents.
Obviously, all that game playing has rotted your mind. I, for one, won't be satisfied until all shows on television, including network news, include "fly bitches" gyrating their asses across stage.
You need to get out more.
I find your point #3 offensive. What happened to Atari 2600/Intellivision/Coleco Vision? What about PONG. The original (and still) killer console.
All your BOSS are belong to us!!!
You might want to give pair-programming a try. Although it certainly doesn't feel natural at first, with a little practice, it's possible to use this to spread knowledge and maximize code efficiency across the code base.
If you are the most experienced developer, it gives the other developers a chance to see how you begin solving problems, and a chance to see your code as it emerges. It's important however, that you don't do 100% of the coding in your pair. Spend approximately half the time letting your partner code. This provides an opportunity for them to generate code, and gain some confidence in their abilities.
After a period of time, you should mix up the pairs, so everyone has a chance to work with everyone else.
As I said, this method of working feels extremely counter-intuitive at first, but with a bit of practice can really make a difference (especially on teams with widely disparate skill levels.)
As an added bonus, developers are less inclined to slack when they've got someone working with them, meaning you'll tend to get more productive hours out of each developer/day.
Check out this link for more descriptive info, and some discussion.
I think it's important to make the distinction between Open Source and Open Project. Just because you release the source under the GPL doesn't mean your project needs to be open to all committers.
In order to maintain control of your project, simply limit the number of committers to the repository to a select few you trust (or just yourself.) This approach has worked extremely well for the kernel source.
If someone is hell-bent on introducing something you disagree with, they have the option of forking the source and creating their own project, but this seems to be the exception and not the rule.
IIRC, Java Developers Journal has very close ties to it's older sister publication Windows Developer Journal, and receives much of it's funding from none other than....
<drumroll/>
Microsoft
<cymbal type="crash"/>
With that in mind, it's not surprising that the editor has such dire predictions since you can guess who signs the checks.
Note, I'm not bashing C#. The language is so similar to Java that you can certainly find good things in it, but predicting that MS will port their runtime over to a large number of other platfoms might not be the smartest bet.
I forgot to note that for the price of the seminar ($320 full price, $160 student) you get a copy of all four of his books. As a student, that basically means that for the price of his books, you get a full-day seminar from him on the application of the ideas.
Not too shabby!
If you haven't seen him speak, he gives a great one day seminar on visualization and display. The schedule is available at his homepage.
He's a very good speaker, and while the content is basically a survey of his four books, the presentation is lively and his style is very engaging. IMHO, this was a bargain for the price, and a very worthwhile event.
I think everyone is missing the obvious reason for this blatant ballot-stuffing episode. By catching Microsoft red-handed, and blowing the whistle, ZDNet, which has seemed to be another one of Redmond's lapdogs in the past proves itself to be objective and fair in it's reporting. This gives them an air of credibility so when they revert to their gushing praise of Microsoft, people will believe. No doubt the minions of dark (read MS) spent many hours devising this ever-so-subtle plan, but thanks to the astuteness of the general Slashdot population, no doubt their efforts will fail!
Power to the Penguin!
While I feel your pain from the broken machine, and think it sucks that UPS didn't insure it, looking at your pictures it appears that you might have taken a bit more care in the packaging.
There is a foam packaging system on the market (I think you can get it at most packing places) that consists of large thick foam sheets. You basically place several sheets in the bottom of the box until it is 50% full, put the contents on top and compress it half-way in. You then place more sheets on top, and compress the rest of the way until it is flush with the box top. It's not the cheapest stuff, but is fantastic for protecting equipment.
Also (and I'm not sure if these exist in Canada, but would expect they do,) there are a number of companies that specialize in shipping. Examples in the states are "Mailboxes, etc.", "Shipping Shack", and a few others. A lot of these places offer their own shipping insurance in addition to whatever insurance the carrier has. That could have provided a work-around for UPS's international policy.
Finally, did you ask if UPS offered insurance for an additional fee? According to their website:
The option of additional Excess Value Insurance may be added to your shipment.
All in all, the whole thing is very unfortunate, but perhaps others can learn from this before it happens to them.
While folks may poke fun at the CIA for their early efforts at animal-based intelligence gathering devices, but without failures like acoustic kitty, we wouldn't be in a position now to launch the Operation Covert Camel, which experts believe could crack the al Qaeda network wide open. (Can anyone say Pillow Talk ;)
Many readers have posted with reasons why companies are reluctant to have employees telecommute, most stemming from discomfort caused by it's unfamiliarity, but also due to a fear of lack of control leading to lower productivity.
In addition to these, it's important to consider whether telecommuting is actually in your own best interest in the current economic environment. The economic downturn (ahem, recession) has impacted the tech community rather severely. Numerous layoffs from failed dot-coms are re-entering the market, increases in W-2 visas have lead to even more workers in the market. If the current financial situation continues, many other companies will be forced to "downsize" to appease investor concerns. At this point you have to think:
Who will the company keep, the person they see around the water cooler every day, or the highly-productive worker who telecommutes?
While the real answer should be based on productivity and bottom-line cost, the social aspects of the environment often exude an inordinate influence on the decision.
Just something to consider.
your backs' shirt is not.
There are no shoes to not match.
wisdoms' toast pops up
Your statement that
BSD is waning as most geeks don't see it as 'cool' enough
strikes me as strange, as there was recently a feauture story (I don't recall if it was ZD, CNet, or whomever) discussing that BSD in general, and FreeBSD specifically was going to potentially gain developers as linux became more mainstream and status-quo. In addition, there are currently a number of areas where BSD is outperforming Linux, most notably the TCP/IP stack. OpenBSD has been involved in a very intensive security audit for quite some time, which makes it uniquely well suited to DMZ or gateway type systems.
This is not to say that BSD is better than Linux. They currently just have some significant differences. I run them both in the settings I find most appropriate. Linux on my desktop,laptop and database, OpenBSD for the gateway & mailserver, and Solaris for the web/application server.
Hopefully all the unique benefits of these flavors will migrate across... That's one of the key benefits of open source, and whether any particular variety of OS is the flavor du jour doesn't really seem to have any bearing on the real world viability of the OS as a solution.
My two cents.
I thought the following comment was a little strange...
;)
The Linux community claims to have improved performance and scalability in the latest versions of the Linux Kernel (2.2), however it's clear that Linux remains inferior to the Windows NT® 4.0 operating system.
I'm sorry but does anybody recall a number of stories regarding Linux based clusters built by NASA ranking in the top 100 (and IIRC top 20) most powerful computers in operation today?
Maybe I didn't look carefully enough, and numbers 1-19 were actually all NT Wolfpack clusters.....
Alan-
What I find most impressive about your life is not simply the excellent technical work, but the fact that you seem to have a life outside work as well... I'm most interested in your recent trip to Iceland. As someone who has Iceland solidly inked at the top of the travel list, are there any locations that you would classify as absolutely must-see? Good bars and restaurants in Reykjavic? Local brews that merit tasting?
I'd like to see a little more local flavor and a little less tourist fare while I'm there, and would guess that you took a similar approach...
Thanks!
Apparently, the creators of the degree don't realize that essays on topics such as "Will robots take over the earth?" are pointless, as this is obviously already the case. Take for instance the purely mechanical response of the pol-bots in Washington D.C., and the mindless following of the MTV-Drones. In fact, the truth has surfaced about /., and we now know that Rob and his cadre of site admins are nothing more that an elaborate set of perl scripts generated by a WinNT based AI developed by Microsoft, which was created by Bill Gates at the request of space aliens.
YOU ARE ALL SHEEP!!!
Repent, Win2K is neigh!!!