I've been through C++, Perl (still use perl quite a bit for quick scripts), and on the web PHP and ColdFusion (yuck!). But java offers so much more! First, it's object oriented - not "can be" but "is". Second, there is a TON of development in java, so there are libraries for just about anything you can think of. Third, when it comes to JSP/Servlets, it is not tied to a single vendor like ColdFusion (our previous internal web app platform at work), so we can use Tomcat today, and potentially move our apps to WebSphere in the future without completely rewriting them. Best of all, the apps I write can easily be developed, compiled and tested on my Windows workstation just as easily as on my linux machine.
Plus, consider the power of two java utilities - jUnit (http://www.junit.org/) and Ant (http://ant.apache.org/). With a single command on the command line / xterm, my cvs code downloads locally, my classes are built, unit tested, and then packaged into distributable forms! What did we do before java?!?
I've been slowly drifting from perl to java (completely different, I know), and on those days when I do go back to my perl code, I quite often end up scratching my head, trying to remember what exactly my code is trying to do. So perl fails - no wait! I fail! I tried to be too clever with my code, and did not provide enough documentation.
Then, there's my coworker Steve, who's perl code could be printed out and used for documentation! But then, he starts by writing the documentation as his "plan of attack", and then adds the code.
Long and short, you can't blame the program language for readability, it's really up to the programmer.
What is a PHB anyway? (an acronym tag would have been helpful). I asked google, and it suggested:
Pointy-Haired Boss
Per-Hop Behavior
Players Handbook
I'd guess something like "programmer's handbook", but most actual programming books are either for powerful unix/linux development, java, or one of the many half-ass languages from Redmond. Of the useful books in the above collection, the books I've read seem apologetic to the poor windows user.
But looking at the book list from the referenced URL, it looks like most of the books in question are those general-overview-but-teach-nothing books that college professors are always so enamored with. Living in reality as I do, I just avoid those kinds of books.
I can sure relate to this! I had a stage design class 20 years ago that required a $150 book with glossy inlay photos of just about every set design ever imagined. We never even opened the book in class - instead had to go back out to the hardware store for tools (the book was "required" by the previous instructor, but the current instructor preferred a more hands-on approach). Luckily, the bookstore bought back my book - at a third of the price! (which they then resold used for $120).
I've since taught a class on web servers at a local tech college. When the 3rd edition of Apache: The Definitive Guide was released, I told the bookstore that I needed my students to have the latest edition (I chose the title with its price in mind, as opposed to the suggested courseware that ran $90/book). I was told by the bookstore that they still had two copies of the 2nd edition, and would not order any more until those had been sold. So, I pointed my students at O'Reilly and bookpool.com. And I caught hell from the administration for even suggesting that students get books from anywhere other than the campus bookstore.
But, for some courses, a mainstream O'Reilly book may not be appropriate. Sometimes you need specialized course books, which will never sell in the volume needed to bring them below the $50 range. Writing books takes a lot of time and research, or you don't get a book worthy of teaching from. While information is freely available on the internet, is it reliable, trustworthy information? How can you tell? Why, you get the endorsement of a publishing company! Which, of course, costs money - as does the authors time, etc.
So here's my suggestions -
Teachers - find reasonably priced books for your students where ever you can. Screw the campus bookstore - trust me, the campus will find other ways to swindle the students (like selling their names to advertisers like the University of Minnesota does). Find reliable, affordable books for your students where ever possible to do so.
O'Reilly, Prentice Hall, etc - is there any way you can reduce the costs of these books? Can publishers take a loss on instructional materials, knowing that students who value the materials will probably by other, more mainstream books in the future? It seems that the price will never come down as long as we keep purchasing books from these small, speciallized publishers who only deal with books for class-use. Tim O'Reilly, as such a strong leader in the publishing industry, can you help push this, and in the long run, help make education more affordable?
Authors - offer updates online where ever possible. If it's possible for someone to dust off an old 1st edition, and with a few corrections, updates, have the same material as the 3rd edition, why not enable them? Obviously, if the new edition is a significant rewrite, there's little that can be done. Also, try to find publishers that sell mainstream books as well as educational material. This not only can potentially make your book cheaper to the student, but you may find non-students buying your books from the publisher's catelog. How can that be a bad thing?
School administrators - quit your job, and join the public sector. Let people who's first goal is education (not profit) run our educational institutions. (U of Minn, I'm talking to you!). There's plenty of room for greed out there in business, we don't need you in education.
Students - start your own used book clubs without the help of the campus. Share materials where ever you can, and DEMAND BETTER of your school! You're paying for the service, in this consumer-driven country, it is up to you to demand changes!
Haven't tried this yet - freedos is still in the process of compiling on my machine - but what the heck, I'll give it a shot.
Right now, I've got a huge box full of old floppies for Dune, ChessMaster, Wolfenstein, and a bunch of other old games that I spent way too much money on, considering all they can do now is collect dust.
Now if they only had an emulator for the Win95 games that no longer work in 2000/XP... Somebody aught to support these commercial products that no longer have an OS to run on!
This could be just one more "boast" for the Bush campaign - "During my (usurped) presidency, not only did I fight terrorism, Sadam, and free markets, I also kept the world running on time!".
Currious to see if this was another MS FUD campaign, I did a whois lookup for port80software.com. While I can't legally include the complete results here, I did find that they seem sheepish to give out any information, such as their names, or parent corporation, etc. All I found was that they are from San Diego. The authorative e-mail is even a phoney.
My guess? A MS partner (if not MS themselves) looking to make their own biased stats.
What's more, if you look at their "about" page, it looks like their main offering is commercial software to add functionality to IIS that comes standard with Apache. And if you feel limited by Apache config directives like "ServerSignature" and "ServerTokens", you can always modify Apache's source code to send what ever signature you want! (And where is IIS's source code?)
And just how much good does it do to disguise your server signature? The majority of the not founds logged on my Apache server are hacks at IIS. Obviously, the script-kiddies don't care about the server-signature too much.
So, my conclusion is that this is just another MS arm spreading FUD and duping their customers out of a few bucks while they're at it.
Great! I long ago left VeriSign in the dust due to their desire to send me repeated spam, even after I asked them to stop.
To me, letting VeriSign handle voting is a great step towards ridding the country of any concept of privacy. Homeland Security must just love this idea.
Oh, jeez! I saw this story, and had to post, but every idea I had has already been submitted and rebuffed ad nauseum. Come on, guys! Wait for me next time.
Oh, wait! I got one - will it have an ASW helicopter called 'Bozo'?
When I saw that "cheap but adequate" remark, I had to post to/. - of course, someone beat me to it.
I run both Win2k and RedHat servers. Win2k is used on our intranet, and RedHat on the public internet. I do most of my work on that RedHat machine - but I put out the most fires, and do the most running around (like running to the server room) for that Win2k machine.
Cost difference is actually somewhat minimal. Being a production server, we of course do pay for the full license from RedHat. Using an unlicensed/unsupported OS is simply out of the question! For the Win2k machine, we never purchased additional user licenses (one major cost for using the Windows platform), but instead limit the users to only 5 (not a good solution, IMHO).
A few years back, there was talk about changing our public servers to windows, just for the sake of having one common OS. However, our linux machine had a 100% uptime since we first brought it up, while our Win2k servers crashed frequently enough, they ended up scheduling them to reboot daily. Add all the recurring issues of IIS suseptability to viruses, and it really became a no-brainer.
ColdFusion was the only thing tying us to Win2k on the intranet server, but now we're looking at J2EE. We soon may have all of our server technologies running Apache & RedHat.
Reliability is much more of a deciding factor than cost!
The test I'd like to see is two unconfigured servers - Linux whatever-modern, and Windows 2003 put in a network with a crew of 50 hackers. See which door pops open first.
The reason software development is dying out is coming from the popular development tools. Developers chained to Microsoft tools can only build apps for Microsoft, and worse, usually end up using broken Microsoft Components (like Internet Explorer).
Innovation is being killed off by capitalism in the US. Small, innovative companies with new ideas are rapidly bought out by big business, while big business is so concerned about their bottom line, they can't really be innovative.
But there is another group of developers - the Open Source developers. This group is not worried about status quo, or quarterly profits, only good software. This group is working hard, and is coming up with many exciting innovations, but sadly, there's a trade-off: There's no guarentee that software app A will work with software app B. No promises that there will be user-friendly or up-to-date documentation, and no certainty that the software in question will even work on the next generation of hardware.
Innovation is risky. Most businesses do every thing they can to avoid risks.
Cool Beans! It sounds like kind of a "browser bitch-slap", certainly a lot more expressive than "Microsoft-Free Fridays".
Now what would be really cool is if you could program an ActiveX component for IE that would automatically install Mozilla - help the misinformed user, rather than just pissing them off.
I really don't know why anyone would use a browser that can't even get HTTP right (Hey Microsoft bozos, what do you think "Content-type" means?).
I wonder if they'll have a flash animation of "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" soon - it wasn't a bad book, but I personally think Doctor Who makes a better character (ever since I was a pimply, geeky preteen).
Very cool to see the story with the Doctor as the lead character! (sorry, Dirk)
I can't think of any other industry that so hates it's support base. To actually attempt to damage equipment when listening to music?
I think what we need to look at here is how WE as consumers should respond to the record industry. How about boycotting music for a year? Purchase no CDs or tickets - shut them out completely. And it's not nearly as hostile a move as those that the record industry is looking at.
I've suggested such a boycott before. The trick is that it must be organized, announced, and understood that we the consumer are CHOOSING not to support these monopolists/terrorists who have overesteemed themselves. They may have congress in their pocket, but we have the money, and therefore the power to JUST SAY NO!
With this device's size and storage capacity, it could revolutionize hand-held devices (should the technology catch on). While I see mp3 players as just a trend, this would have a lot more applications - portable phones, calculators, not to mention devices only imagined now.
Think of all the data you could store in a small GPS device, or the amount of audio you could keep on a digital recording device. Or how about a hand-held card catalog for the libarary? You could look up a book while standing right in the aisle! Rather than a paper 'chart' at a hospital, patients could have a small digital device that could hold their medical history & insurance info. These are all things that were slightly possible before, but with 1.5GB of storage - the sky's practically the limit.
Of course, being a web fanatic, I think of the idea of coupling this HDD with an iPic (see http://http://www-ccs.cs.umass.edu/~shri/iPic.html ) Maybe one day/. will be served from a device the size of a pager!
Devices like these are what spark new innovation! Now we can only pray that M$ doesn't "embrace & extend" and wipe out any non-M$ inovators.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been through C++, Perl (still use perl quite a bit for quick scripts), and on the web PHP and ColdFusion (yuck!). But java offers so much more! First, it's object oriented - not "can be" but "is". Second, there is a TON of development in java, so there are libraries for just about anything you can think of. Third, when it comes to JSP/Servlets, it is not tied to a single vendor like ColdFusion (our previous internal web app platform at work), so we can use Tomcat today, and potentially move our apps to WebSphere in the future without completely rewriting them. Best of all, the apps I write can easily be developed, compiled and tested on my Windows workstation just as easily as on my linux machine.
Plus, consider the power of two java utilities - jUnit (http://www.junit.org/) and Ant (http://ant.apache.org/). With a single command on the command line / xterm, my cvs code downloads locally, my classes are built, unit tested, and then packaged into distributable forms! What did we do before java?!?
I've been slowly drifting from perl to java (completely different, I know), and on those days when I do go back to my perl code, I quite often end up scratching my head, trying to remember what exactly my code is trying to do. So perl fails - no wait! I fail! I tried to be too clever with my code, and did not provide enough documentation.
Then, there's my coworker Steve, who's perl code could be printed out and used for documentation! But then, he starts by writing the documentation as his "plan of attack", and then adds the code.
Long and short, you can't blame the program language for readability, it's really up to the programmer.
What is a PHB anyway? (an acronym tag would have been helpful). I asked google, and it suggested:
I'd guess something like "programmer's handbook", but most actual programming books are either for powerful unix/linux development, java, or one of the many half-ass languages from Redmond. Of the useful books in the above collection, the books I've read seem apologetic to the poor windows user.
But looking at the book list from the referenced URL, it looks like most of the books in question are those general-overview-but-teach-nothing books that college professors are always so enamored with. Living in reality as I do, I just avoid those kinds of books.
I can sure relate to this! I had a stage design class 20 years ago that required a $150 book with glossy inlay photos of just about every set design ever imagined. We never even opened the book in class - instead had to go back out to the hardware store for tools (the book was "required" by the previous instructor, but the current instructor preferred a more hands-on approach). Luckily, the bookstore bought back my book - at a third of the price! (which they then resold used for $120).
/book). I was told by the bookstore that they still had two copies of the 2nd edition, and would not order any more until those had been sold. So, I pointed my students at O'Reilly and bookpool.com. And I caught hell from the administration for even suggesting that students get books from anywhere other than the campus bookstore.
I've since taught a class on web servers at a local tech college. When the 3rd edition of Apache: The Definitive Guide was released, I told the bookstore that I needed my students to have the latest edition (I chose the title with its price in mind, as opposed to the suggested courseware that ran $90
But, for some courses, a mainstream O'Reilly book may not be appropriate. Sometimes you need specialized course books, which will never sell in the volume needed to bring them below the $50 range. Writing books takes a lot of time and research, or you don't get a book worthy of teaching from. While information is freely available on the internet, is it reliable, trustworthy information? How can you tell? Why, you get the endorsement of a publishing company! Which, of course, costs money - as does the authors time, etc.
So here's my suggestions -
Teachers - find reasonably priced books for your students where ever you can. Screw the campus bookstore - trust me, the campus will find other ways to swindle the students (like selling their names to advertisers like the University of Minnesota does). Find reliable, affordable books for your students where ever possible to do so.
O'Reilly, Prentice Hall, etc - is there any way you can reduce the costs of these books? Can publishers take a loss on instructional materials, knowing that students who value the materials will probably by other, more mainstream books in the future? It seems that the price will never come down as long as we keep purchasing books from these small, speciallized publishers who only deal with books for class-use. Tim O'Reilly, as such a strong leader in the publishing industry, can you help push this, and in the long run, help make education more affordable?
Authors - offer updates online where ever possible. If it's possible for someone to dust off an old 1st edition, and with a few corrections, updates, have the same material as the 3rd edition, why not enable them? Obviously, if the new edition is a significant rewrite, there's little that can be done. Also, try to find publishers that sell mainstream books as well as educational material. This not only can potentially make your book cheaper to the student, but you may find non-students buying your books from the publisher's catelog. How can that be a bad thing?
School administrators - quit your job, and join the public sector. Let people who's first goal is education (not profit) run our educational institutions. (U of Minn, I'm talking to you!). There's plenty of room for greed out there in business, we don't need you in education.
Students - start your own used book clubs without the help of the campus. Share materials where ever you can, and DEMAND BETTER of your school! You're paying for the service, in this consumer-driven country, it is up to you to demand changes!
Now this is the perfect use!
Wait 'til everyone in the office sees SETI@home running on my tie! (I suppose it'd be pretty slow)
Haven't tried this yet - freedos is still in the process of compiling on my machine - but what the heck, I'll give it a shot.
Right now, I've got a huge box full of old floppies for Dune, ChessMaster, Wolfenstein, and a bunch of other old games that I spent way too much money on, considering all they can do now is collect dust.
Now if they only had an emulator for the Win95 games that no longer work in 2000/XP... Somebody aught to support these commercial products that no longer have an OS to run on!
I swear I heard that we got a ransom message from Mars -
..."
"We got Spirit! Yes we do!
or wait, was that from the Titans' game yesterday?
This could be just one more "boast" for the Bush campaign - "During my (usurped) presidency, not only did I fight terrorism, Sadam, and free markets, I also kept the world running on time!".
Thank you - and have a happy turkey day yourself! (I hope you aren't a Dallas or Green Bay fan)
Currious to see if this was another MS FUD campaign, I did a whois lookup for port80software.com. While I can't legally include the complete results here, I did find that they seem sheepish to give out any information, such as their names, or parent corporation, etc. All I found was that they are from San Diego. The authorative e-mail is even a phoney.
My guess? A MS partner (if not MS themselves) looking to make their own biased stats.
What's more, if you look at their "about" page, it looks like their main offering is commercial software to add functionality to IIS that comes standard with Apache. And if you feel limited by Apache config directives like "ServerSignature" and "ServerTokens", you can always modify Apache's source code to send what ever signature you want! (And where is IIS's source code?)
And just how much good does it do to disguise your server signature? The majority of the not founds logged on my Apache server are hacks at IIS. Obviously, the script-kiddies don't care about the server-signature too much.
So, my conclusion is that this is just another MS arm spreading FUD and duping their customers out of a few bucks while they're at it.
That's simply juvenile and stupid. Mind you, I just picked my self off the floor from laughing!
Great! I long ago left VeriSign in the dust due to their desire to send me repeated spam, even after I asked them to stop.
To me, letting VeriSign handle voting is a great step towards ridding the country of any concept of privacy. Homeland Security must just love this idea.
Does this mean that they can make it illegal to use old computers for door stops?
Can I set my coffee on it in the morning, or is that against the EULA, too?
If I buy a new computer, can I take the hard drive or NIC, or sound card out of my old Dell, or is that also in violation of the EULA?
VALinux - we need you back!!!
I know this will probably get tossed as a flame, but Coleman is evil. Don't trust him.
Oh, jeez! I saw this story, and had to post, but every idea I had has already been submitted and rebuffed ad nauseum. Come on, guys! Wait for me next time.
Oh, wait! I got one - will it have an ASW helicopter called 'Bozo'?
No, that's no good. Never mind.
How about "FreakRaft"? Screw 'em!
Tell it, brother!
/. - of course, someone beat me to it.
When I saw that "cheap but adequate" remark, I had to post to
I run both Win2k and RedHat servers. Win2k is used on our intranet, and RedHat on the public internet. I do most of my work on that RedHat machine - but I put out the most fires, and do the most running around (like running to the server room) for that Win2k machine.
Cost difference is actually somewhat minimal. Being a production server, we of course do pay for the full license from RedHat. Using an unlicensed/unsupported OS is simply out of the question! For the Win2k machine, we never purchased additional user licenses (one major cost for using the Windows platform), but instead limit the users to only 5 (not a good solution, IMHO).
A few years back, there was talk about changing our public servers to windows, just for the sake of having one common OS. However, our linux machine had a 100% uptime since we first brought it up, while our Win2k servers crashed frequently enough, they ended up scheduling them to reboot daily. Add all the recurring issues of IIS suseptability to viruses, and it really became a no-brainer.
ColdFusion was the only thing tying us to Win2k on the intranet server, but now we're looking at J2EE. We soon may have all of our server technologies running Apache & RedHat.
Reliability is much more of a deciding factor than cost!
The test I'd like to see is two unconfigured servers - Linux whatever-modern, and Windows 2003 put in a network with a crew of 50 hackers. See which door pops open first.
The reason software development is dying out is coming from the popular development tools. Developers chained to Microsoft tools can only build apps for Microsoft, and worse, usually end up using broken Microsoft Components (like Internet Explorer).
Innovation is being killed off by capitalism in the US. Small, innovative companies with new ideas are rapidly bought out by big business, while big business is so concerned about their bottom line, they can't really be innovative.
But there is another group of developers - the Open Source developers. This group is not worried about status quo, or quarterly profits, only good software. This group is working hard, and is coming up with many exciting innovations, but sadly, there's a trade-off: There's no guarentee that software app A will work with software app B. No promises that there will be user-friendly or up-to-date documentation, and no certainty that the software in question will even work on the next generation of hardware.
Innovation is risky. Most businesses do every thing they can to avoid risks.
Cool Beans! It sounds like kind of a "browser bitch-slap", certainly a lot more expressive than "Microsoft-Free Fridays".
Now what would be really cool is if you could program an ActiveX component for IE that would automatically install Mozilla - help the misinformed user, rather than just pissing them off.
I really don't know why anyone would use a browser that can't even get HTTP right (Hey Microsoft bozos, what do you think "Content-type" means?).
I wonder if they'll have a flash animation of "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" soon - it wasn't a bad book, but I personally think Doctor Who makes a better character (ever since I was a pimply, geeky preteen).
Very cool to see the story with the Doctor as the lead character! (sorry, Dirk)
Maybe I'm the only one with a problem with this, but this is a https site with a bad certificate. Does anyone have this on a http site?
I can't think of any other industry that so hates it's support base. To actually attempt to damage equipment when listening to music?
I think what we need to look at here is how WE as consumers should respond to the record industry. How about boycotting music for a year? Purchase no CDs or tickets - shut them out completely. And it's not nearly as hostile a move as those that the record industry is looking at.
I've suggested such a boycott before. The trick is that it must be organized, announced, and understood that we the consumer are CHOOSING not to support these monopolists/terrorists who have overesteemed themselves. They may have congress in their pocket, but we have the money, and therefore the power to JUST SAY NO!
With this device's size and storage capacity, it could revolutionize hand-held devices (should the technology catch on). While I see mp3 players as just a trend, this would have a lot more applications - portable phones, calculators, not to mention devices only imagined now.
l ) /. will be served from a device the size of a pager!
Think of all the data you could store in a small GPS device, or the amount of audio you could keep on a digital recording device. Or how about a hand-held card catalog for the libarary? You could look up a book while standing right in the aisle! Rather than a paper 'chart' at a hospital, patients could have a small digital device that could hold their medical history & insurance info. These are all things that were slightly possible before, but with 1.5GB of storage - the sky's practically the limit.
Of course, being a web fanatic, I think of the idea of coupling this HDD with an iPic (see http://http://www-ccs.cs.umass.edu/~shri/iPic.htm
Maybe one day
Devices like these are what spark new innovation! Now we can only pray that M$ doesn't "embrace & extend" and wipe out any non-M$ inovators.
I seem to recall that Taoism mentions that laws only effect the moral people in a society - criminals are not effected by laws.
I think this just proves that point.