There is separation of Church and State in the Bible. Jesus never questioned the right of the Romans to rule Judea. He never advocated any civil disobedience against the pagan rulers of Judea, and asked them to pay taxes to Caesar. He very clearly stated his Kingdom is in Heavens, and he has no wish to cross swords with any earthly Kings.
This dang PI with a stupid value like 3.141592654 is making calculations difficult. I wish they would also create a law and define PI to be something simple like 3 so that math would be a breeze.
I saw a demo in bangalore. You run an app in your android phone, and create a barcode to give out a small sum, small as in 1 rupee ~= 2 cents. The other guy has the same app that reads the bar code. Money gets transferred from one bank account to another.
Can any one man manage a company with 600 million customers? The sheer size and magnitude of that company makes it impossible to manage or run. The number of layers of management makes it very difficult to see vested interests, empire builders, incompetents... Apparently Microsoft has this compensation model where some people make it to "partner" level. They get a cut in the revenue stream of the products they manage. If this is true, it would lead to perverse incentives. Failure that big is rarely one man's fault.
In Soviet China space moves through the particles. [I know I know it is weak and does not make sense. But if I bring the meme back from the dead someone might make a better one.]
Going from point A to point B without going through any intervening points is quite easy for the chinese. They have gone from authoritarian regime to 1% - 99 % split oligarchy without going through the intervening democracy phase like America.
What? Help each other? Avoid buying the new and shiny things? Continue to use things even after there is a perfectly good reason to throw them away? Go through extraordinary lengths like actually lugging stuff out and meet actual other human beings and fix each other's gadgets for free? What kind of anti-corporate attitude is that? No wonder job creators are fleeing Europe. What is the big point in having a society or government or laws if it does not create more profits for the big banks and corporations? Let europe rot its way from socialism to communism. Yoo Es Yay! Yoo Es Yay! Yoo Es Yay! Yoo Es Yay! Yoo Es Yay!
That guy who wrote cow clicker is going to be a millionaire. Joke's on you pal, you made fun of facebook and wrote cow clicker. Now it is going to make you a millionaire.
Then all the smilies would come out wrong. You would not have to tilt your head to make sense of the smilies. That is why they dont let you rotate the screen.
The anti-WiFi wall paper will be the second product to be certified by the Tin Foil Hatter's Institute. The first one to earn the esteemed and much sought after certification was Reynolds kitchen aluminum wrap.
True. And we can even have best practices guidelines for developers about naming the functions. All functions that is meant for purely debugging purposes should have the string _dbgfn_ in its name. The entire body of all functions with _dbgfn_ in the name will be automatically protected using the #ifdef at the time of checkin. We can have all such rules. But all these rules assume the developers will follow the guidelines and the code review will be done and peer will not miss it.
Exactly. Still it is not foolproof. It would drastically reduce careless mistakes, would not eliminate them. If one experienced savvy developer missed it, chances are his peer is likely to miss it too. And most people doing the review look to see if it would do what it should do, and if it would trigger any regression. This mistake happened after all the heavy lifting is done. At the time of winding up. Both the dev and his peer would have let their guards down. Anyway adding more layers and layers of code review, peer review, mechanical processes, check-in triggers and warnings based on grep and awk [For example: all functions meant for purely debugging must have the string _nc_ or _nocheckin_ in its name. All bodies of such functions will be automatically #ifdef\ed out in production builds] would take it beyond the point of diminishing returns. Developers start relying on these dumb mechanistic processes and let their guards down. Eventually you have careless developers.
Moral of the story: You can't guard against careless developers.
An aspiring entomologist, named Gary Larson, had already published a short paper on what dogs hear. Unfortunately I don't have a link but it goes something like this:
You: Stupid dog Bingo, Why did you do that Bingo? Should you always shred the paper like this Bingo? How can I read it now Bingo! You dimwit Bingo!
Dog hears: xxxxxx xxx Bingo, xxx xxx xxx xxx xxxx Bingo? xxxxx xxx xxxxxx xxxxx xxx xxxxx xxxx xxxx Bingo? xxx xxx X xxxx xx xxx Bingo! xxx xxxxxx Bingo!
All your debug flags and compiler flags and build settings etc assume the developers would properly bracket their code under proper #ifdefs.
Like:
#ifdef DEBUG_BUILD
SaveDebugInfo(logfile);
#endif
But if the developer had not bracketed their code with proper protection macros, no build setting is going to rescue you.
I have tried make the system as automatic as possible. I have laid down rules to my team. But if you make the system very very foolproof only fools would be able to use it. The process requirements will swamp out the developer. Most likely the error happened at several stages. Originally a function that will be called only under debug build was making a call to save stuff to the log file without protection because the whole damned function is supposed to be called in debug mode. Then someone cut/paste parts of the code out to a function that is called in both debug builds and protection builds. Carelessly.
There is no way you can protect yourself against careless developer. Anyone working at such sensitive parts would be a senior developer, probably a manager stepping in to fix something simple in a module that he himself wrote ages ago. He was very confident and the build guidelines might have mutated without him knowing it. #ifdef DEBUG_BUILD might have been changed to #ifdef DEBUG_OSX and #ifdef DEBUG_IOS and he never got the memo because he was not a regular developer. Such things happen.
Actually, it's paranoid delusions that correlate with a high intelligence somewhat.
Or, to be more precise, elaborate paranoid delusions.
Paranoid Scizophrenia occurs through the entire spectrum and should NOT be confused with general paranoia.
I've met both categories...
And both the categories are actually me. One version of me communicates to the other asynchronously by sending text messages and emails because both versions can not be active at the same time, synchronous communication is impossible. But both my avatars have high IQ and have come to accept the fact they can never meet each other face to face. They have friended each other in facebook, that is the closest they are going to get, it is bittersweet sad and joyous thing. Did I mention I am bipolar too?
Evolution ! bah! It is so last billion years ago. We have already peaked and we are well on to devolution. Want evidence? If you are a Dem (or Rep) in USA, Rep (or Dem) in USA is all the evidence you need.
I am not saying what TSA is doing makes any sense when you look at it from stop the terrorists point of view. But everything they do is perfectly rational from one point of view: CYA.
They know that all this hue and cry will blow over. But no one will be fired because they followed the procedure to the letter. But they know they are not stopping any terrorists. It is a matter of time before something bad happens. Then this entire media circus will turn on them. Every journalist and blogger will do Monday morning quarterbacking. And finally they will find one TSA agent who deviated from the script by an inch. And they all will come down like a ton of bricks on him. "If only Agent Ball G Rabber or Specialist Gater Aper had done this or that, something very clearly and explicitly stated in the manual and procedure, this whole tragedy could have been avoided". All these guys want to do is not to be that fall guy.
Federal bureaucrats are one of the last few remaining groups that is ok to be crapped on. Every time something goes bad, everyone, from politicians to pundits to media analysts to bloggers to slashdot posters to late night comedians, crap on them. Is it any wonder only the thickest skinned CYA professionals still remain in the Government service?
What happened on Dec 09 of 2001? Some vague speculation about what the Nobel Laureates are going to be wearing for the dinner with the King of Sweden? oh! you are one of those brits who dd/mm/yyyy! No wonder you have lots of communications problems dude. Learn American. All your bases are belong to us.
Why blame Darwin for something Monsato or Bayer dids? Poor chump, all he did was to set up a logical framework to predict what would happen if we spray chemicals indiscriminately.
Slashdot Mirror
There is separation of Church and State in the Bible. Jesus never questioned the right of the Romans to rule Judea. He never advocated any civil disobedience against the pagan rulers of Judea, and asked them to pay taxes to Caesar. He very clearly stated his Kingdom is in Heavens, and he has no wish to cross swords with any earthly Kings.
If they ask "Do human beings share a common ancestor with present day apes?" a lot more people say would say yes.
This dang PI with a stupid value like 3.141592654 is making calculations difficult. I wish they would also create a law and define PI to be something simple like 3 so that math would be a breeze.
I saw a demo in bangalore. You run an app in your android phone, and create a barcode to give out a small sum, small as in 1 rupee ~= 2 cents. The other guy has the same app that reads the bar code. Money gets transferred from one bank account to another.
Can any one man manage a company with 600 million customers? The sheer size and magnitude of that company makes it impossible to manage or run. The number of layers of management makes it very difficult to see vested interests, empire builders, incompetents... Apparently Microsoft has this compensation model where some people make it to "partner" level. They get a cut in the revenue stream of the products they manage. If this is true, it would lead to perverse incentives. Failure that big is rarely one man's fault.
In Soviet China space moves through the particles. [I know I know it is weak and does not make sense. But if I bring the meme back from the dead someone might make a better one.]
Going from point A to point B without going through any intervening points is quite easy for the chinese. They have gone from authoritarian regime to 1% - 99 % split oligarchy without going through the intervening democracy phase like America.
What? Help each other? Avoid buying the new and shiny things? Continue to use things even after there is a perfectly good reason to throw them away? Go through extraordinary lengths like actually lugging stuff out and meet actual other human beings and fix each other's gadgets for free? What kind of anti-corporate attitude is that? No wonder job creators are fleeing Europe. What is the big point in having a society or government or laws if it does not create more profits for the big banks and corporations? Let europe rot its way from socialism to communism. Yoo Es Yay! Yoo Es Yay! Yoo Es Yay! Yoo Es Yay! Yoo Es Yay!
That guy who wrote cow clicker is going to be a millionaire. Joke's on you pal, you made fun of facebook and wrote cow clicker. Now it is going to make you a millionaire.
You talk as though wallpaper means something other than the background image on your computer/device screen.
Then all the smilies would come out wrong. You would not have to tilt your head to make sense of the smilies. That is why they dont let you rotate the screen.
Many mods give "interesting" instead of "funny" because funny does not earn the posting any karma points.
The anti-WiFi wall paper will be the second product to be certified by the Tin Foil Hatter's Institute. The first one to earn the esteemed and much sought after certification was Reynolds kitchen aluminum wrap.
True. And we can even have best practices guidelines for developers about naming the functions. All functions that is meant for purely debugging purposes should have the string _dbgfn_ in its name. The entire body of all functions with _dbgfn_ in the name will be automatically protected using the #ifdef at the time of checkin. We can have all such rules. But all these rules assume the developers will follow the guidelines and the code review will be done and peer will not miss it.
Moral of the story: You can't guard against careless developers.
You: Stupid dog Bingo, Why did you do that Bingo? Should you always shred the paper like this Bingo? How can I read it now Bingo! You dimwit Bingo!
Dog hears: xxxxxx xxx Bingo, xxx xxx xxx xxx xxxx Bingo? xxxxx xxx xxxxxx xxxxx xxx xxxxx xxxx xxxx Bingo? xxx xxx X xxxx xx xxx Bingo! xxx xxxxxx Bingo!
Like:
#ifdef DEBUG_BUILD
SaveDebugInfo(logfile);
#endif
But if the developer had not bracketed their code with proper protection macros, no build setting is going to rescue you.
I have tried make the system as automatic as possible. I have laid down rules to my team. But if you make the system very very foolproof only fools would be able to use it. The process requirements will swamp out the developer. Most likely the error happened at several stages. Originally a function that will be called only under debug build was making a call to save stuff to the log file without protection because the whole damned function is supposed to be called in debug mode. Then someone cut/paste parts of the code out to a function that is called in both debug builds and protection builds. Carelessly.
There is no way you can protect yourself against careless developer. Anyone working at such sensitive parts would be a senior developer, probably a manager stepping in to fix something simple in a module that he himself wrote ages ago. He was very confident and the build guidelines might have mutated without him knowing it. #ifdef DEBUG_BUILD might have been changed to #ifdef DEBUG_OSX and #ifdef DEBUG_IOS and he never got the memo because he was not a regular developer. Such things happen.
...There is app for that.
Why did you post it here? Man! TSA has elevated CYA to an art form. All it takes is one agent to read slashdot, and boom! they will ban all batteries.
Actually, it's paranoid delusions that correlate with a high intelligence somewhat. Or, to be more precise, elaborate paranoid delusions.
Paranoid Scizophrenia occurs through the entire spectrum and should NOT be confused with general paranoia. I've met both categories...
And both the categories are actually me. One version of me communicates to the other asynchronously by sending text messages and emails because both versions can not be active at the same time, synchronous communication is impossible. But both my avatars have high IQ and have come to accept the fact they can never meet each other face to face. They have friended each other in facebook, that is the closest they are going to get, it is bittersweet sad and joyous thing. Did I mention I am bipolar too?
Evolution ! bah! It is so last billion years ago. We have already peaked and we are well on to devolution. Want evidence? If you are a Dem (or Rep) in USA, Rep (or Dem) in USA is all the evidence you need.
They know that all this hue and cry will blow over. But no one will be fired because they followed the procedure to the letter. But they know they are not stopping any terrorists. It is a matter of time before something bad happens. Then this entire media circus will turn on them. Every journalist and blogger will do Monday morning quarterbacking. And finally they will find one TSA agent who deviated from the script by an inch. And they all will come down like a ton of bricks on him. "If only Agent Ball G Rabber or Specialist Gater Aper had done this or that, something very clearly and explicitly stated in the manual and procedure, this whole tragedy could have been avoided". All these guys want to do is not to be that fall guy.
Federal bureaucrats are one of the last few remaining groups that is ok to be crapped on. Every time something goes bad, everyone, from politicians to pundits to media analysts to bloggers to slashdot posters to late night comedians, crap on them. Is it any wonder only the thickest skinned CYA professionals still remain in the Government service?
What happened on Dec 09 of 2001? Some vague speculation about what the Nobel Laureates are going to be wearing for the dinner with the King of Sweden? oh! you are one of those brits who dd/mm/yyyy! No wonder you have lots of communications problems dude. Learn American. All your bases are belong to us.
Why blame Darwin for something Monsato or Bayer dids? Poor chump, all he did was to set up a logical framework to predict what would happen if we spray chemicals indiscriminately.
If I want to know something, I just have to ask my ex. She knows everything.
She knew everything?, eh?. Guess that is why she became the ex.