Well said. The bulk of my recent code is simply not available for public use.
153 karma · joined November 26, 2010
- currently using lisp, python, perl - and others as occasion arises.
Anecdotally, one of the ISVs over on Programmers.stackexchange had a piracy problem; when he started detecting pirated software and reminding the user to buy, not steal, his sales numbers directly went up.
I think this idea that downloading IP for free is ok is really wrong. If you want something, you should pay the price for it, whether the price be fixed or negotiated. IP piracy is theft.
Also, hoghide is incredibly tough.
The article headline is definitely in error, not just misleading.
But when considering programmer to be someone who is comfortable:
- operating on multiple planes of abstraction
- using recursion/pointers
- 'seeing' the concepts embodied under computer languages
- 'seeing' the code flow
Then, yes, the programmer does think differently. Because it's his job to think this way to communicate correctly to the computer. Not that it's unattainable by someone outside of the field, but by the act of becoming competent, it changes the one coming in.
I watched some stuff on Hulu the other day. Fancy cars, teeth whitening commercials, drugs I don't ever anticipate using, and other useless stuff to me was marketed at me. That's just not a good ad model I think. I would love to see some really new and interesting products - not Another Car|Soda|Beer commercial.
That's a shame, but that's the way it is.
There is tremendous value in learning and discipline, and my observation of American schools makes me think that American schools are pretty weaksauce in the discipline and focus department. I don't think anyone out there denies that.
To pick at a particular example of Chua - music. I am better-suited than some others to look at this, since I myself - and my sister - spent time learning music as children and into our college years.
Mrs Chua! Your kids do well in violin and piano. And only violin and piano. Why violin and piano? Is the trumpet - a fine instrument! - beneath them? Or the viola, an underappreciated sibling to the violin? Perhaps it was simply too blue-collar to consider such an instrument as the guitar and its fine heritage in baroque European works. Or perhaps your children's true ability would have been in the drums. But, no, alas. It was the high-brow, well-respected violin and piano you chose for them. How simple it is to say, "ah, these are the respected instruments, the instruments bringing good face to us". Mrs. Chua, you have deeply restricted your children's musical activities. You really should not have done that. There is no call to regulate and legislate play like that. You should have let them explore their own mind, their own heart. They are Human beings too, and their perspective should be taken into account for their play. If they sought after being a professional musician, then there would have been time for focus, and much of it. Focus is the hallmark of a professional! But play is something else.
I was chatting with a friend who is studying education for her PhD about the article. We were unimpressed by Chua's approach and think it's quite too extreme.
No HS degree: > 10% unemployment
HS/some college: 7-9% unemployment
Associates: 5-7%
Bachelors+: 4%
Seasonal fluctuations drop dramatically as education levels go up.
I have heard anecdotally that Masters+ is 2%, but the BLS did not provide data there.
The BLS did not quantify the jobs (e.g., the MA in English working as a barista qualifies as employed).
My conclusion is this: the data recommends a degree for employment, statistically speaking.
I spent my time trying to do well in school, not contribute unpaid work to open source.
For instance, I remap Control to Alt a ton in emacs. It's very easy for me to thumb-key instead of pinky-key. YMMV, depending on keyboard and hand-size.
Sorry. :(
If you have your own admins keeping things up to date and polished, it removes (1) some grief from the customer and (2) allows you to rest more comfortably knowing your admin (theoretically) knows what he's doing.
The author points out that for conventional electric devices, there is no input from the electric company. True. But, if one puts in an industrial facility, the electric company starts caring, because the loads can not be simply ignored (c.f. inductive/reactive loads). That has analogies to the cloud.
There are decided advantages for the customer to have full control, there are decided advantages for the vendor to have full control.
There are a ton of thunguses in one's life that can be ditched to remove the maintenance of. There's a lot of validity in that particular concept.
But when one wants to develop a fuller life than virtually living - things become useful towards that goal. Let me give some examples.
* Musical instruments. iPad instruments just don't cut it.
* Older books. There are a ton of out-of-print and hard-to-find books that just aren't online, especially in the non-tech fields.
* Gardening requires tools.
* Any variant of a construction trade requires tools.
* Travelling longer distances in a place without a densely connected public transport requires (bike | car | skateboard | etc), which requires maintenance tools.
* Cooking & baking requires a multitude of tools; hosting people for dinner requires kitchenware.
* Offline gaming usually requires game boards & misc accouterments.
I could go on, but those examples are from my own life. The existence of a monk is simply not pragmatically livable for people who fancy dealing with the physical. I like some of Christopher Alexander's writings as he searched for a pattern language in architecture. He considered highly complex systems where people engaged in their environment and lived and hypothesized the idea of the "Quality without a Name", and he had this to say about it, "It is a subtle kind of freedom from inner contradictions". What I see the Minimalism people striving for is this freedom, and they are seeking this freedom by removing as many pieces from the system as they can so that the contradictions go away. I - obviously - don't think that this is the complete solution.
While environments and ourselves do mutually shape each other, I believe that a complete solution is to work towards being consistent and uncontradictory with the things we have both in our heads and outside of them. Sometimes that's getting rid of things, sometimes that's adding things, and other times that's simply changing things around.
Well, that's my 0.02c anyway.
(edit1: formatting)
I see Gate's/Microsoft's genius as being able to bring a usable computer into every household. Of course there are other factors, but, man, it's impressive what Microsoft helped bring about. Think of it! We live in a SF world today, and Microsoft, for all their flaws, helped it come to pass.
Sorta sad how the world keeps looking for the silver bullet to slay the vampires of software. You'd think by now we'd know...
Could you cite your assertions please?
Fast food joints could be mechanized. I have a scheme for a nearly fully automated department (grocery/walmart/etc) chain. It would take capital and engineering, but it's a solved problem.