You make the immediate assumption that it was a problem with the MS Patch. I'll wait until the final news release about the subject, in case it's an issue with Zone Alarm. Why is Zone Alarm the only firewall with this problem (so far)? Is Zone Alarm firewall released as open source? Free != Open Source. Your same argument against MS can just as easily be applied to Check Point.
Most of my writing was the "I will not {action} in class" variety. I've been typing papers since the Commodore 64 days.....I think my teachers appreciated it.
Actually, I never said standardize on one IDE. I said pick the language that makes the most sense for your industry. Then pick a framework within that language. Those selections support the "interchangable developer" model that management wants. When people talk about standardization, they usually are referring to the "real work" of the team, not admin scripting (unless that's the only development your company does).
Once those choices have been made, I said pick a couple of IDE's. Too many and you have support issues (conflicting machine requirements, no volume licensing, etc.); too few and you have people issues (unhappy developers).
Which was the reference to Intercal in the parent post. If the key piece is written in a language that only a couple of staff members know, then you don't have the flexibility because there isn't "an equally skilled member of the team".
If the language and environment are standardized (I'd be more worried about the language, libraries, and framework than actual development tools), then there are plenty of equally skilled team members that can pick up where someone else leaves off.
Personally, in answer to the original post, I would probably stick to the language that fits your industry best and evaluate the available frameworks. Once that is settled, then (and only then) would I worry about toolset -- let each group suggest something that fits them and select a couple as standards.
If you are writing business apps, the top choices are Java and.Net. If you are writing games, C/C++. If you are prototyping, a scripting language (several to choose from). For a database, it's pretty much Oracle (with nods to DB2 and SQL Server in some instances) for large businesses; MySQL and SQL Server for small businesses.
Sure, you can argue that RoR or PHP or Perl or what have you can be used to make business apps or games or whatever, but in this case, marketshare is much more important than anything else you can argue about. A larger market base means better (more robust) tools, available frameworks, educational material, etc. All of the factors that management cares about.
Learn Norwegian......Norwegian hot chicks Learn Portugese......Brazillian hot chicks Learn Swiss..........Swedish hot chicks Learn Japanese.......Cosplay...errr Japanese hot chicks Learn Khoisan........because noone else will (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoisan_languages)
Starving college student + parents who think the kid needs to sacrifice something instead of just giving them money = student sells stuff to parents. Parents just donate it to Goodwill if it isn't something they'd actually use. Tends to keep the kid from blowing the money on unimportant things.
Also, environmental factors. For example, I've been in various cubes over the years and the ones where there was a light fixture visible from my chair as I looked at my monitor caused fatigue faster than when the fixture was not visible (this includes when the fixture was behind me....basically visible in any direction from a sitting position at my desk). Also, for a while, they allowed us to dim the fixtures (turn off/remove one bulb) which helped too (not completely dark, but more cavelike).
Other things you can do is to make sure the brightness and contrast are appropriate. Most people keep them too high (myself included).
And of course, frequent "look away" breaks. I had an old NEC 21" CRT (heavy beast) that actually had a built in timer that you could set that would remind / force you to look away (the screen would go black except for the message). Easy enough to implement in software if you are so inclined.
There's some good articles here: http://www.sangrea.net/ohs_dbase/colour-color.htm They are mostly focused on designing web pages, but the information is just as relevant for any computer image that someone will be starting at for any length of time.
I wonder if New York Country Lawyer would file something on my behalf to exclude my data from inclusion. I don't believe that I've watched anything that is Viacom owned (mostly parody and how-to videos), so I wouldn't really care if they found out who I was through that filing (but as a John Doe would be even better). If the scope was limited to only stuff owned by them, that's one thing, but for any YouTube video, screw them.
AT&T Family unlimited texting plan ($30 covering five phones) + 2 teenage girls = about $0.11 per message
In one month, the girl with the most usage sent more than 13k text messages (I'm not even sure if she talked on her phone any). The other daughter sent over 8K. My wife and I combined might have accounted for 500. The youngest just got her phone, so the bill didn't include her usage. Let's just call it 26,000 messages per month. 3000 / 26000 = $0.115 per message.
Where I work (large company), Program Manager is in the business and writes requirements. Project Manager is the I/T function that deals with the schedules. Program Managers need to understand the processes in the business in order to document them.
If you want to continue in a more technical vein, then System Engineering, DBA, Network Administrators, etc. all would be a good fit.
Incidentally, Project Management is the fastest way into people management around here. So if you have aspirations in that direction, go get your PMP certification (Project Management Professional). While it's "just a piece of paper", for some reason people like it.
Linspire came on some cheap desktops I picked up, but the very first action I took after plugging it in was to format the drive. But if I remember right, they were touting it as having some better / easy application installation......but Ubuntu isn't hard, either.
Finally, a keyboard that will give emacs the power it needs!
You pressed ctl-alt-meta-super-hyper-compose-w. Do you want emacs to write your thesis on "Improving emacs: An in-depth study in the cross-functional relational........... (y/n)?
What do you do when you get another computer? Move the keyboard from one to the other? No, you plug in the spare that's currently collecting dust somewhere.
I'd love for them to be close to my house because it would mean that the jets would have to fly further away. Windmill = quiet power. Jet = noise pollution.
select move from all_possible_moves where chance_of_winning is highest_(with_some_randomness) and board_position = current_board_position
The same could be said for human Chess Masters. The best players can see far enough ahead to see whether a move has a greater chance of success than any other move.
There's some potential with Spore.......I'm still in "wait and see" mode for what it holds. And then there was Creatures (and Creatures 2): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatures_2
Not what I would call ground breaking stuff, but not your typical pathfinding AI.
Slashdot Mirror
You make the immediate assumption that it was a problem with the MS Patch. I'll wait until the final news release about the subject, in case it's an issue with Zone Alarm. Why is Zone Alarm the only firewall with this problem (so far)? Is Zone Alarm firewall released as open source? Free != Open Source. Your same argument against MS can just as easily be applied to Check Point.
Layne
Most of my writing was the "I will not {action} in class" variety. I've been typing papers since the Commodore 64 days.....I think my teachers appreciated it.
Layne
Actually, I never said standardize on one IDE. I said pick the language that makes the most sense for your industry. Then pick a framework within that language. Those selections support the "interchangable developer" model that management wants. When people talk about standardization, they usually are referring to the "real work" of the team, not admin scripting (unless that's the only development your company does).
Once those choices have been made, I said pick a couple of IDE's. Too many and you have support issues (conflicting machine requirements, no volume licensing, etc.); too few and you have people issues (unhappy developers).
Layne
Which was the reference to Intercal in the parent post. If the key piece is written in a language that only a couple of staff members know, then you don't have the flexibility because there isn't "an equally skilled member of the team".
If the language and environment are standardized (I'd be more worried about the language, libraries, and framework than actual development tools), then there are plenty of equally skilled team members that can pick up where someone else leaves off.
Personally, in answer to the original post, I would probably stick to the language that fits your industry best and evaluate the available frameworks. Once that is settled, then (and only then) would I worry about toolset -- let each group suggest something that fits them and select a couple as standards.
If you are writing business apps, the top choices are Java and .Net.
If you are writing games, C/C++.
If you are prototyping, a scripting language (several to choose from).
For a database, it's pretty much Oracle (with nods to DB2 and SQL Server in some instances) for large businesses; MySQL and SQL Server for small businesses.
Sure, you can argue that RoR or PHP or Perl or what have you can be used to make business apps or games or whatever, but in this case, marketshare is much more important than anything else you can argue about. A larger market base means better (more robust) tools, available frameworks, educational material, etc. All of the factors that management cares about.
Layne
Learn Norwegian......Norwegian hot chicks
Learn Portugese......Brazillian hot chicks
Learn Swiss..........Swedish hot chicks
Learn Japanese.......Cosplay...errr Japanese hot chicks
Learn Khoisan........because noone else will (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoisan_languages)
Layne
There are 1 types of people in this world. Those who waste bits.
Those who don't are considered to be the default case.
Layne
Simple, buy a Wii/XBox 360/Playstation 3 like the undergrads.
Layne
All I can imagine is Jiffy Pop. If the microwaves don't make your head explode, the Jiffy Pop will. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiffy_Pop
Layne
Option 1: http://www.webtv.com/pc/
Option 2: My HD TV has VGA inputs and I have a media PC hooked to it, so in my case, Flickr shows up pretty clear on my TV.
Layne
Starving college student + parents who think the kid needs to sacrifice something instead of just giving them money = student sells stuff to parents. Parents just donate it to Goodwill if it isn't something they'd actually use. Tends to keep the kid from blowing the money on unimportant things.
Layne
Don't forget that he was a huge fan of flashing text to grab attention. And since you wanted people to see your whole page, it was all flashing.
Layne
Also, environmental factors. For example, I've been in various cubes over the years and the ones where there was a light fixture visible from my chair as I looked at my monitor caused fatigue faster than when the fixture was not visible (this includes when the fixture was behind me....basically visible in any direction from a sitting position at my desk). Also, for a while, they allowed us to dim the fixtures (turn off/remove one bulb) which helped too (not completely dark, but more cavelike).
Other things you can do is to make sure the brightness and contrast are appropriate. Most people keep them too high (myself included).
And of course, frequent "look away" breaks. I had an old NEC 21" CRT (heavy beast) that actually had a built in timer that you could set that would remind / force you to look away (the screen would go black except for the message). Easy enough to implement in software if you are so inclined.
There's some good articles here: http://www.sangrea.net/ohs_dbase/colour-color.htm
They are mostly focused on designing web pages, but the information is just as relevant for any computer image that someone will be starting at for any length of time.
And of course, a different Slashdot question on the same subject: http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/09/14/1516207&mode=thread&tid=99
Layne
I wonder if New York Country Lawyer would file something on my behalf to exclude my data from inclusion. I don't believe that I've watched anything that is Viacom owned (mostly parody and how-to videos), so I wouldn't really care if they found out who I was through that filing (but as a John Doe would be even better). If the scope was limited to only stuff owned by them, that's one thing, but for any YouTube video, screw them.
Layne
AT&T Family unlimited texting plan ($30 covering five phones) + 2 teenage girls = about $0.11 per message
In one month, the girl with the most usage sent more than 13k text messages (I'm not even sure if she talked on her phone any). The other daughter sent over 8K. My wife and I combined might have accounted for 500. The youngest just got her phone, so the bill didn't include her usage. Let's just call it 26,000 messages per month. 3000 / 26000 = $0.115 per message.
Layne
Where I work (large company), Program Manager is in the business and writes requirements. Project Manager is the I/T function that deals with the schedules. Program Managers need to understand the processes in the business in order to document them.
If you want to continue in a more technical vein, then System Engineering, DBA, Network Administrators, etc. all would be a good fit.
Incidentally, Project Management is the fastest way into people management around here. So if you have aspirations in that direction, go get your PMP certification (Project Management Professional). While it's "just a piece of paper", for some reason people like it.
Layne
Blue Screens of Death?
Linspire came on some cheap desktops I picked up, but the very first action I took after plugging it in was to format the drive. But if I remember right, they were touting it as having some better / easy application installation......but Ubuntu isn't hard, either.
Layne
PDA's? Palm or Windows devices should be available for really cheap.
Layne
Finally, a keyboard that will give emacs the power it needs!
You pressed ctl-alt-meta-super-hyper-compose-w. Do you want emacs to write your thesis on "Improving emacs: An in-depth study in the cross-functional relational ........... (y/n)?
Layne
He said all he does is write reviews. Change Meta to that curly symbol from Macs. But most likely, he works on a laptop, so Fn is just as appropriate.
Layne
It's obvious to me.....
What do you do when you get another computer? Move the keyboard from one to the other? No, you plug in the spare that's currently collecting dust somewhere.
Layne
I'd love for them to be close to my house because it would mean that the jets would have to fly further away. Windmill = quiet power. Jet = noise pollution.
Layne
Plus, they'd have to have their captain steer around them while out on their yachts.
Layne
You've also been wasting your knowledge of the English language.......
waist != waste
Layne
Chess - a very "simple" database query.
select move from all_possible_moves where chance_of_winning is highest_(with_some_randomness) and board_position = current_board_position
The same could be said for human Chess Masters. The best players can see far enough ahead to see whether a move has a greater chance of success than any other move.
Layne
There's some potential with Spore.......I'm still in "wait and see" mode for what it holds.
And then there was Creatures (and Creatures 2): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatures_2
Not what I would call ground breaking stuff, but not your typical pathfinding AI.
Layne