Hint to mods: parent complaint is 'Funny' not 'Insightful'
This is crazy: "We grow grain with petroleum based fertilizers, harvest it with diesel powered combines, diesel truck it over asphalt highways, and then feed it to cows on treadmills to make electricity."
But is this any more sane: "We grow corn with petroleum based fertilizers, harvest it with diesel powered combines, diesel truck it over asphalt highways, and then feed it to yeast on treadmills to make ethanol to burn."
Read my F comment. Of course you didn't and so you didn't figure out my strongest criticism was the lusers who try to run a business on software that is not ready for prime time.
You can't even buy the operating system and anti-malware protection for Microsoft Windows for that, let alone have any money left over for hardware and productivity software!
Not true.
Then when you install the software, you have the paradigm of having to restart the computer to complete software installation and you have to learn how to practice safe computing while budgeting for annual anti-malware software license renewals!"
So you're saying people who use Ubuntu don't need to practice safe computing? That's great news! Next time I get an email from a Nigerian prince, I'll make sure I send him my account information with pine instead of Outlook, so then I'll be safe.
It's not the 3rd degree I got in 2000. Extra pages in case I'm living with the Partridge family, but otherwise just the basic age/sex/race.
I did actual consider eating the census form and posting the video...then I remembered, this is slashdot. I do not give a fark what any of you think of me;) So no eating of census forms.
But I will admit, the poster I responded to is correct. Very short questionnaire, should take about 1 minute to complete.
I remember doing the census in 2000. It was a small booklet taking about a week of evenings to complete. I don't remember the questions off hand, but I do remember having to do a lot of research. There was a lot more there than the obvious questions of how many people at this address, how old are they, what are their ethnic origins.
And after taking the time to complete and return the census form, I still got a phone call to answer all the questions a second time.
I haven't opened the form for 2010 yet, but I'll make this wager.
When I get home tonight, I'll open my census form. If contains only the 10 questions you list above, I'll post a link to youtube for the video of me eating my census form.
Remember this next time you are struggling getting requirements out of a non-technical manager or user. The submitter obviously has the technical background, but is making a common mistake.
What is it you want to do? "I want to write bits directly..."
Really? That's your final goal? Just to write bits? No, there's some other task you want to complete, and you've determined the best way to complete that task is to write bits directly to the platter.
But if you can't write bits directly to the platter, or you don't know what additional issues may arise when you do so, how can you determine that is the best course to take?
So slow down, back up a step, let us know what your real goal is. You want X, and you think the best way to X is to write bits to the platter.
While this guy talks about realism, he's missing the point. If we didn't have each software designer creating its own visual language, then we wouldn't have the issue of how well that language is designed.
When Microsoft has its own set of hieroglyphics, and Apple has theirs, and Adobe has theirs, and each OSS has its own language--which is similar to some existing commercial language to leverage user experience, but different enough to avoid getting sued--then the issue is not how well these languages are designed.
The issue is, why should the user need to learn a new language for each application?
You may say, well, if you put all your commands in English, then only English speakers can use your app. Fair enough. But if you put all your commands in some bespoke language spoken by no one, doesn't it follow then no one can use your app?
Designers, pick an existing language used by your target market. Is that real enough?
Okay, I'll bite: what's wrong with everyone having the same level of ability?
Because it's not natural. This idea of a rigidly defined target of "normal" is not natural. And, worst of all, it's boring. I much prefer a world of variety.
You have no idea what you're talking about, yet that doesn't stop you having an opinion on it.
This is/. It's what I'm here for.
You're also very upset at your parents for forcing you to live with whatever was holding you back rather than giving you the opportunity to flourish.
Actually quite the opposite. I wasn't made to feel there was something wrong with me for being different--for not being able to read when all the other little kids could, or learning to swim or ride when all my friend did.
So perhaps it is not a coincidence when I did bloom and excelled academically and was a varsity athlete, I didn't feel there was anything wrong with not having the same level of ability as everyone else, just on the other end of the bell curve.
Teaching kids sign language before they can talk (and after, too) is great. I am not a doctor, and even if I was, I couldn't make a diagnosis from a third hand account through a short/. post.
But as a big person who used to be a little person, I still do not see what needed to be "corrected" in this case.
My daughter is 20 months old. Her "best friend" is the same age. My daughter has a huge vocabulary already, her friend doesn't speak at all. The friend was taken to her pediatrician, who FIRST tested to make sure she wasn't deaf. She was then sent to a child psychologist to determine her mental facilities. At that point, she was put into a speech therapy program where she has been taught sign language in order to communicate. That, BTW, is the standard protocol used when a child hasn't started speaking at an appropriate time. Is it true that some pediatricians will resort to medicinal treatments first? Sure, but they are the extreme exception not the norm. Your statement is blatent fear-mongering with no factual basis.
Your example isn't the same a being put on medication, but a psychologist and speech therapy? I think you provide anecdotal support for the post you are trying to refute.
Really, is the kid deaf? No. Is the kid brain damaged? No. Anything you do after that makes me think "parents are ignorant and don't know how to raise their kids."
That "standard protocol" is insane. When a child hasn't started speaking at an appropriate time? WTF does that mean? There is no appropriate time to start speaking. OK, maybe if your child doesn't talk by high school, there might be an issue. Or maybe she/he just doesn't have anything to say.
But to have a 20-month old in therapy? Your example doesn't involve medication (yet, I'm sure) but is a data point to support the parent post. Over-diagnosis, over-medication, anything that isn't exactly what we expect is a syndrome .
Medicinal treatments for learning disorders are prescribed so that all children, regardless of ability, are given the chance to learn the same as those who do not have the disability.
Because we wouldn't want people to be different. Should we feed lead paint chips to the smart kids to bring them down to average? That way they are given the chance to learn the same as those who do not have the ability.
What about those weak, scrawny kids? They should get steroids and HGH! Can't leave things like hormones to chance. We might end up with different kids with different levels of ability that way.
I was a late-bloomer physically, intellectually, and socially. But I did bloom eventually. I'm not perfect, but I do like the person I am. It scares me to think about what sort of lab experiment I would have turned in to if my parents had been like your daughter's best friend's.
"The studio is hoping that the four-week window will push consumers interested in watching movies at home to... seek or create an alternative distribution source."
That was my first thought, because I've already switched to the alternative--not from Netflix, but from cable movie channels.
After time for DVD sales, then the rental window, then On Demand, by the time a movie hits HBO or Showtime, it's a golden oldie.
So I've canceled all the premium channels that don't have significant original content, and get my movies from an alternative source.
It's cheaper, faster, and in many cases not only do I get movies before they are available to rent, I get them before they hit the theatres!
1) Do not go to the bosses with this complaint. No one likes a tattle tale, and the boss will see this as a complaint against her/his ability to manage the team.
2) There is a very large possibility you do not know what you are talking about. Are you in position to know what deliverables these folks are responsible for and how they are doing in delivering?
For example, I work with several consultants who spend most of the business day chatting, surfing the web, smoke breaks, etc. These may be the folks you are complaining about. What you may not know is, at the end of the day they go back to their hotel and pump out code til 1 or 2 AM.
They get done what needs to get done, and it gets done on schedule. They work that way because in the office, we get at most 20 or 30 minutes of uninterrupted work time between pointless meetings and questions from managers we've already answered multiple times.
3) Teams count. The lone wolf coder is fiction. Any project of real utility may be born of a single mind, but matures with testing, revision, documentation, etc. Socialization generally should not be the only focus of the day, but people do work together better when they like and get along with each other.
4) If everything you say is true, then when you are the boss and it is your job to keep track of what everyone else is doing, you can fire the bums. Until then, it is not your job to monitor what everyone else is doing.
If the question is pay, the answer is get out of CS or programming entirely.
Do your undergrad in psychology, get an MBA, have the programmers work for you. You'll make more money and never need more math than addition and subtraction.
As to the question of, does math pay? This supposedly insightful comment proves itself wrong.
So the programmer doesn't need math because the actuarial tables have already been worked out. I'm willing to bet the mathematicians putting those tables together make more money than the programmers using the tables. So how is it that math does not pay?
If you're looking to maximize income, getting a degree in CS or working as a programmer isn't even worth considering, so the parent comment is completely off topic.
However, to reply to the actual question, for a programmer, I recommend the course on graphs and sets. Discrete maths have general applicability to computer science and programmer tasks (unless, as others have said, you have specific plans to work in areas requiring consideration of the continuum).
Slashdot Mirror
Hint to mods: parent complaint is 'Funny' not 'Insightful'
This is crazy: "We grow grain with petroleum based fertilizers, harvest it with diesel powered combines, diesel truck it over asphalt highways, and then feed it to cows on treadmills to make electricity."
But is this any more sane: "We grow corn with petroleum based fertilizers, harvest it with diesel powered combines, diesel truck it over asphalt highways, and then feed it to yeast on treadmills to make ethanol to burn."
Read my F comment. Of course you didn't and so you didn't figure out my strongest criticism was the lusers who try to run a business on software that is not ready for prime time.
Wow. How is that modded Troll?
For people in the real world who use servers as tools to get work done, one year is a very short time in the life of software.
Actually, I would argue the other way. Not, why are you running year old software? But rather, why are you running a version less than a year old?
I need software to get things done, not to serve as beta tester for the vendor.
Gee, and some people wonder why business don't do more to embrace open source.
They only gave businesses 6 months notice, on a version only a year old, and are surprised there are issues?
Some of us in the real world have jobs that extend beyond the upgrade treadmill. 6 months to upgrade means 6 months to find a new vendor.
The real mistake here was not the failure to upgrade, but the mistake of trying to run a business with immature software.
If you can't commit to supporting software for at least 3 years, you have no right marketing to businesses.
How is that funny?
If I say you'll have no success trying to sell a car that doesn't go over 20 MPH, is it funny because 100 years ago no cars went over 20 MPH?
You can't even buy the operating system and anti-malware protection for Microsoft Windows for that, let alone have any money left over for hardware and productivity software!
Not true.
Then when you install the software, you have the paradigm of having to restart the computer to complete software installation and you have to learn how to practice safe computing while budgeting for annual anti-malware software license renewals!"
So you're saying people who use Ubuntu don't need to practice safe computing? That's great news! Next time I get an email from a Nigerian prince, I'll make sure I send him my account information with pine instead of Outlook, so then I'll be safe.
Said the CTO who is now looking for a job.
NYSE closes at 4:30. But there are other markets. And the data flows 24/7.
There is no reason for these systems to have spare cycles.
How carp, that's the one. I hope who ever that as a good idea is down in Gitmo eating dick sandwich daily.
Well, got home, opened my big envelope, and...
It's not the 3rd degree I got in 2000. Extra pages in case I'm living with the Partridge family, but otherwise just the basic age/sex/race.
I did actual consider eating the census form and posting the video...then I remembered, this is slashdot. I do not give a fark what any of you think of me ;) So no eating of census forms.
But I will admit, the poster I responded to is correct. Very short questionnaire, should take about 1 minute to complete.
Wow. I want whatever census form you got.
I remember doing the census in 2000. It was a small booklet taking about a week of evenings to complete. I don't remember the questions off hand, but I do remember having to do a lot of research. There was a lot more there than the obvious questions of how many people at this address, how old are they, what are their ethnic origins.
And after taking the time to complete and return the census form, I still got a phone call to answer all the questions a second time.
I haven't opened the form for 2010 yet, but I'll make this wager.
When I get home tonight, I'll open my census form. If contains only the 10 questions you list above, I'll post a link to youtube for the video of me eating my census form.
I may get razzed for giving away secrets, but in fact the magic ones do not need to be of high quality or particularly difficult to detect.
One reason is human psychology. In most cases, if you lead someone to expect an ordinary situation, they will see an ordinary situation.
The other reason is, that coin handed to an audience member to check? It is a real coin, not the prop used in the illusion.
And so, since your penis is not part of the woman's body, she doesn't have the right to decide when/if it is inside her?
I'm guessing you don't work with many engineers.
It's a site on web design. The number of errors on their home page is the content.
Wow. There's a gamer who really loves Civ IV.
Remember this next time you are struggling getting requirements out of a non-technical manager or user. The submitter obviously has the technical background, but is making a common mistake.
What is it you want to do? "I want to write bits directly..."
Really? That's your final goal? Just to write bits? No, there's some other task you want to complete, and you've determined the best way to complete that task is to write bits directly to the platter.
But if you can't write bits directly to the platter, or you don't know what additional issues may arise when you do so, how can you determine that is the best course to take?
So slow down, back up a step, let us know what your real goal is. You want X, and you think the best way to X is to write bits to the platter.
While this guy talks about realism, he's missing the point. If we didn't have each software designer creating its own visual language, then we wouldn't have the issue of how well that language is designed.
When Microsoft has its own set of hieroglyphics, and Apple has theirs, and Adobe has theirs, and each OSS has its own language--which is similar to some existing commercial language to leverage user experience, but different enough to avoid getting sued--then the issue is not how well these languages are designed.
The issue is, why should the user need to learn a new language for each application?
You may say, well, if you put all your commands in English, then only English speakers can use your app. Fair enough. But if you put all your commands in some bespoke language spoken by no one, doesn't it follow then no one can use your app?
Designers, pick an existing language used by your target market. Is that real enough?
You're the sort of wet blanket who during the space battle scenes of Star Wars leans over and whispers, "There's no sound in space," aren't you?
Okay, I'll bite: what's wrong with everyone having the same level of ability?
Because it's not natural. This idea of a rigidly defined target of "normal" is not natural. And, worst of all, it's boring. I much prefer a world of variety.
You have no idea what you're talking about, yet that doesn't stop you having an opinion on it.
This is /. It's what I'm here for.
You're also very upset at your parents for forcing you to live with whatever was holding you back rather than giving you the opportunity to flourish.
Actually quite the opposite. I wasn't made to feel there was something wrong with me for being different--for not being able to read when all the other little kids could, or learning to swim or ride when all my friend did.
So perhaps it is not a coincidence when I did bloom and excelled academically and was a varsity athlete, I didn't feel there was anything wrong with not having the same level of ability as everyone else, just on the other end of the bell curve.
Teaching kids sign language before they can talk (and after, too) is great. I am not a doctor, and even if I was, I couldn't make a diagnosis from a third hand account through a short /. post.
But as a big person who used to be a little person, I still do not see what needed to be "corrected" in this case.
My daughter is 20 months old. Her "best friend" is the same age. My daughter has a huge vocabulary already, her friend doesn't speak at all. The friend was taken to her pediatrician, who FIRST tested to make sure she wasn't deaf. She was then sent to a child psychologist to determine her mental facilities. At that point, she was put into a speech therapy program where she has been taught sign language in order to communicate. That, BTW, is the standard protocol used when a child hasn't started speaking at an appropriate time. Is it true that some pediatricians will resort to medicinal treatments first? Sure, but they are the extreme exception not the norm. Your statement is blatent fear-mongering with no factual basis.
Your example isn't the same a being put on medication, but a psychologist and speech therapy? I think you provide anecdotal support for the post you are trying to refute.
Really, is the kid deaf? No. Is the kid brain damaged? No. Anything you do after that makes me think "parents are ignorant and don't know how to raise their kids."
That "standard protocol" is insane. When a child hasn't started speaking at an appropriate time? WTF does that mean? There is no appropriate time to start speaking. OK, maybe if your child doesn't talk by high school, there might be an issue. Or maybe she/he just doesn't have anything to say.
But to have a 20-month old in therapy? Your example doesn't involve medication (yet, I'm sure) but is a data point to support the parent post. Over-diagnosis, over-medication, anything that isn't exactly what we expect is a syndrome .
Medicinal treatments for learning disorders are prescribed so that all children, regardless of ability, are given the chance to learn the same as those who do not have the disability.
Because we wouldn't want people to be different. Should we feed lead paint chips to the smart kids to bring them down to average? That way they are given the chance to learn the same as those who do not have the ability.
What about those weak, scrawny kids? They should get steroids and HGH! Can't leave things like hormones to chance. We might end up with different kids with different levels of ability that way.
I was a late-bloomer physically, intellectually, and socially. But I did bloom eventually. I'm not perfect, but I do like the person I am. It scares me to think about what sort of lab experiment I would have turned in to if my parents had been like your daughter's best friend's.
"The studio is hoping that the four-week window will push consumers interested in watching movies at home to... seek or create an alternative distribution source."
That was my first thought, because I've already switched to the alternative--not from Netflix, but from cable movie channels.
After time for DVD sales, then the rental window, then On Demand, by the time a movie hits HBO or Showtime, it's a golden oldie.
So I've canceled all the premium channels that don't have significant original content, and get my movies from an alternative source.
It's cheaper, faster, and in many cases not only do I get movies before they are available to rent, I get them before they hit the theatres!
If they're going to do that, they might as well grab the bit torrent and stock the machine for the price of a blank disc.
The license granted when buying the usual DVD for home viewing is not same license to rent the disc.
This is why, if you ever lose a rented disc, the charge is more than it would it cost you to just buy a retail copy.
[Citation needed]
Shut up and do your job.
1) Do not go to the bosses with this complaint. No one likes a tattle tale, and the boss will see this as a complaint against her/his ability to manage the team.
2) There is a very large possibility you do not know what you are talking about. Are you in position to know what deliverables these folks are responsible for and how they are doing in delivering?
For example, I work with several consultants who spend most of the business day chatting, surfing the web, smoke breaks, etc. These may be the folks you are complaining about. What you may not know is, at the end of the day they go back to their hotel and pump out code til 1 or 2 AM.
They get done what needs to get done, and it gets done on schedule. They work that way because in the office, we get at most 20 or 30 minutes of uninterrupted work time between pointless meetings and questions from managers we've already answered multiple times.
3) Teams count. The lone wolf coder is fiction. Any project of real utility may be born of a single mind, but matures with testing, revision, documentation, etc. Socialization generally should not be the only focus of the day, but people do work together better when they like and get along with each other.
4) If everything you say is true, then when you are the boss and it is your job to keep track of what everyone else is doing, you can fire the bums. Until then, it is not your job to monitor what everyone else is doing.
If the question is pay, the answer is get out of CS or programming entirely.
Do your undergrad in psychology, get an MBA, have the programmers work for you. You'll make more money and never need more math than addition and subtraction.
As to the question of, does math pay? This supposedly insightful comment proves itself wrong.
So the programmer doesn't need math because the actuarial tables have already been worked out. I'm willing to bet the mathematicians putting those tables together make more money than the programmers using the tables. So how is it that math does not pay?
If you're looking to maximize income, getting a degree in CS or working as a programmer isn't even worth considering, so the parent comment is completely off topic.
However, to reply to the actual question, for a programmer, I recommend the course on graphs and sets. Discrete maths have general applicability to computer science and programmer tasks (unless, as others have said, you have specific plans to work in areas requiring consideration of the continuum).