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Paul Buchheit
I am Paul. I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe.
One advantage the Mac has vs Windows is that Apple controls the whole box, so it doesn't come preloaded with Norton AV and other garbage, poorly written drivers, etc. Maybe Microsoft should do like Google (Nexus One) and compete with their OEMs. They could probably make a much nicer machine than Dell does.
Eugene Barbashin, Erhan Erdoğan, Brian Daniel Eisenberg and 43 other people liked this
This might also pressure the OEMs into shipping better computers.
- Paul Buchheit
The Mac vs the PC you mean surely? The Mac is hardware and Windows is software.
- Kol Tregaskes
There is the minor issue of anti-trust.
- Brian Sullivan
The hardware is basically the same, but the overall platform experience is very different.
- Paul Buchheit
I'm sure the OEMs would complain, but I don't think there are any actual anti-trust issues.
- Paul Buchheit
I never buy PCs in this way anyway, purely for this reason. I've never put Norton on anyone's machine, even my worst enemy. Preloaded PCs are awful.
- Kol Tregaskes
I think it might end up like PlaysForSure, with OEMs deciding to bail when Microsoft starts to compete with them. Windows is probably big enough for OEMs to grin and bear it, but all it takes is one big mistake to initiate a chain reaction.
- Mark Trapp
I also think you could make the argument now that Microsoft already did this with XBox.
- Mark Trapp
What choice do they have Mark, ship Linux instead?! They're stuck with Windows.
- Paul Buchheit
Right now, sure: but hell hath no fury like a corporation scorn'd. They could all rally around the "kill Microsoft" flag and pull a VHS to Microsoft's Betamax.
- Mark Trapp
They are already building awesome keyboard, mouse, webcams. A proper PC which leverages Windows 7 multi-touch to max will be great.
- aakash
Isn't Android an open source platform, extensible by any OEM who wants to implement it? How about Windows Mobile? Motorola's got another 2 android phones in the hopper.
- Chris Duffy
I think Microsoft (kind of) doing this in their physical stores - a lot of the machines come with a "clean" install of Windows. (I am not sure if it is all of the machines.)
- Jennifer Dittrich
Microsoft recently introduced the "Microsoft Signature" brand of PCs which are still manufactured by third parties but don't come pre-loaded with any third-party crapware. More info at http://www.geek.com/article....
- Isaac Hepworth
Interesting, Isaac: who actually makes the Microsoft Signature PCs? Or is it more of an endorsement/certification any manufacturer can get?
- Mark Trapp
hate to say this but for one small shiny moment in time I agree with this.
- Dan Morrill AKA Techwag
Mark: the article indicated that Signature PCs come from manufacturers like Sony and HP.
- Gabe
Hey Paul: 1) You do know that some OEMs (HP, Dell, Alienware, for example) allow you to order PCs without any 3rd party apps installed, right? Maybe you should inform yourself before posting stuff. 2) Any 3rd party apps you see on a new Windows PC are the fault of the OEM, *not* MS 3) Economically speaking PCs would be more expensive if it weren't for crapware. Norton et al subsidize the cost of PCs by paying for a spot on new installations. Not everyone can afford a 4 figure laptop.
- LANjackal
LANjackal, you're missing the point.
- Paul Buchheit
Which is?
- LANjackal
from IM
LANjackal: calm down. Paul's making a good point -- your average Windows machine is annoying to use because somebody who doesn't care about your experience configured it. Your average Apple is not so annoying because Apple won't let anybody else configure it, and they do care about your experience.
- Gabe
What Gabe said.
- Paul Buchheit
I was pointing out specific cases where the argument breaks down, but if you use the term "average" you're correct
- LANjackal
I like it as long as it doesn't hinder innovation of hardware components by them sticking with certain brands or technology. The ability to build a computer from scratch yourself for cheap is part of the appeal. Microsoft should have a better relationship with OEM's to provide solid drivers.
- Rodfather
Rodfather, OEMs (and anyone else) would still continue producing Windows machines. The only change would be that they'd have to compete with MS, who presumably cares more about the overall windows brand than they do.
- Paul Buchheit
Yes, but if Microsoft creates a machine that is "Microsoft certified", it may cause OEM's to stick to that spec. Like with netbooks. Innovation there is hindered since Microsoft set certain specs a netbook should have to allow Windows 7 Starter edition installed for very cheap.
- Rodfather
That's actually a good idea, but so far MS has only used its own branding in markets in which it needed a huge dent against a formidable incumbent (console gaming, MP3 players). You'd be hard pressed to say that MS needs to make a huge dent in the PC market right now as they're already the formidable incumbent
- LANjackal
from IM
Advantage? Control? these words doesn't come together in the software world. I don't have Norton AV preloaded and have support for more devices than OSX.
- Sebastian Wain
#scobleapprovedconversation
- Jeremy (cropmarks)
What Jeremy? Neither Scoble has touched this conversation, yet.
- Jimminy Fuller
It is making us smarter. ;)
- Jeremy (cropmarks)
Didn't MS give out Acer laptops they had speced and configured (?) at their PDC conference last year?
- Nick Lothian
I think it's an interesting concept. And while a Microsoft "certified" PC might hinder innovation in some way (not sure about that, but I'll roll with it) I don't think a Microsoft produced PC would hinder anything. It's just competition, and that's healthy for an ecosystem.
- Jason Wehmhoener
"We're not a hardware company" -- Bill Gates.
- Eric @ CSTechcast.com
They do, it's called the Xbox 360
- Alex Scoble
I'm using a Windows computer right now that has some 3rd party software installed on it, but it's actually very good. It's called a Macintosh.The 3rd party software comes from a company called Apple. :)
- Cristo
Alex - good one, now they just need to go a step further like Paul mentioned. I think it's a good idea! I just bought a new laptop last week with Windows7 and de-installed a tonne of crapware... augh
- Susan Beebe
MS may _care_ about the user experience, but as a corporate culture it is much less likely to get the little details right. Crapware bloat, sure. Really little details, which aggregate to a better user experience? ... probably not. (ref the famous MS-internal "if MS designed the iPod box" video.)
- Andrew C
I've never bought a branded PC, I always put my own desktop PC hardware together myself. I can't see any reason to change except a competitive price.
- Simon Curran
Xbox 360 is right.
- Hayes Haugen
Just buy from Dell and you won't have to deal with any of the pre-loaded Krap. I just bought a Dell Studio 15 Win 7 laptop from Dell for my wife and it did not come with ANY preloaded crap. Neither did the Dell laptop I bought for my daughter last spring or the Precision desktop I bought 1.5 years ago.
- Jeff P. Henderson
Just buy from Apple. :)
- Cristo
Id buy a MS PC in a second, but Dells are pretty nice as is. You just need to get the XPS line.
- sean percival
Not everyone can drive a porsche.
- Cristo
Yea, some people just have to settle for a VW.
- Jeff P. Henderson
Does MS have a laptop? I can't get an Apple because they don't have the right ports, keyboards, or trackpads.
- Gabe
VW is good :)
- ★ Soner Gönül
to answer my own question: http://store.microsoft.com/microso...
- Gabe
Gabe, what ports do you need?
- Cristo
Question for anyone offended by my previous Microsoft questions: Are you also offended by this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Kol Tregaskes, Satish Bhat, Heather and 14 other people liked this
I'm offended by something in this post, but I'm not sure what yet...perhaps it's the fact that you used offended twice? Who can tell?
- Alex Scoble
haha that is AWESOME!! so, I guess that means I like it! If someone gets offended by that video, then they obviously don't have a good sense of humor :P
- Susan Beebe
Is that what an ipod package really looks like?
- Gabe
Yeah, I think it's actually a Microsoft video. Being capable of self-criticism is pretty important.
- Paul Buchheit
I'm offended to see something posted from so many years ago.
- Mark Horne
Classics are classics, Mark. :) Always worth reposting.
- Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF
I was trying to think of a reason to be offended. Best I could do.
- Mark Horne
lol. That's fair.
- Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF
Heh, I just searched for and watched this, since I had not experienced it in a while, not 10 minutes before seeing this entry.
- Andy Bakun
Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe - Reality TV Editing - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Russellreno, Gary Burd, Joe Beda () and Richard Chen liked this
Slovakian authorities plant explosives on unsuspecting airport passengers; Innocent Irish man arrested as a result. - http://www.reddit.com/r...
ǝuǝƃnǝ, Michal Cierniak and Alex Scrivener liked this
It was an inside job :)
- Paul Buchheit
This story was so bizarre. I really feel for the poor, unsuspecting guy that got arrested, then thankfully released.
- Jack (a.k.a. Jeber)
It looks like the Irish authorities only found out about it when alerted by Slovakian authorities. So why did they arrest the guy at first?
- Gabe
Maybe they just said "we think this guy has explosives" and forgot to mention why.
- Paul Buchheit
Facebook | Debunking Rumors about Advertising and Photos - http://blog.facebook.com/blog...
April Buchheit, LANjackal, Dan Hsiao and 5 other people liked this
"This rumor about Facebook using your photos in ads without your consent is spreading again. The rumor was not true earlier this year and it is not true now. For more information on Facebook's advertising policies and how we use photos, please take a look at the blog post below. ... The advertisements that started these rumors were not from Facebook but placed within applications by third parties. Those ads violated our policies by misusing profile photos, and we already required the removal of those deceptive ads from third-party applications before this rumor began spreading."
- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
That's what I was wandering as multiple friends of mine were treated as click bait recently. Love/Human matching apps are desperate and hungry for some demographics representation/revenue.
- ElijahBailey-Zu of FF <0,
Camilla and Thomas - Snow Day - http://camilla-april.blogspot.com/2010...
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Dan Hsiao, Florin Grozea, April Buchheit and 12 other people liked this
Great shots!
- Bryan Entzminger
Awwww Thomas makes me want to give him a big hug! #suckerforsadkids
- EricaJoy
Camilla and Thomas: Christmas 2009 - http://camilla-april.blogspot.com/2010...
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Mona Nomura, Nathaneal Mohr, Robyn Hawk and 33 other people liked this
Thomas is so cute!
- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
Those are great shots!
- AJ Batac
The picture of Camilla and Robbie by the fire is pretty cute, too.
- April Buchheit
Beautiful shots. That first shot of April and Thomas is absolutely adorable!!
- Rachel Lea Fox
adorable!
- Anna Lynn M.
Can I rent them to take my place in my family's Christmas photos?
- Jim Norris
Camilla will definitely be there if you can make sure that there's cake.
- April Buchheit
FFdrs sure do make some beautiful babies! ;-p
- Robyn Hawk
It's interesting how many people disagree with my iPhone+Android domination prediction. Anyone remember the early PC market? "For a substantial period of time (1983-1986), the Commodore 64 dominated the market with between 30% and 40% share and 2 million units sold per year, outselling the IBM PC clones, Apple computers, and Atari computers."
Piaw Na, Jérôme Flipo, Jeffrey Canton and 15 other people liked this
It seems unlikely to me that there will still be 5-10 major mobile platforms in 10 years.
- Paul Buchheit
viva the vic-20, ;)
- chaz2b
The quote is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
- Paul Buchheit
What are they suggesting as the alternative? Window Mobile 7? By the time its released, it'll already be irrelevant
- Jeffrey Canton
Microsoft will NEVER be irrelevant! ;)
- Paul Buchheit
hahaha +1!
- Jeffrey Canton
How dare you say that Jeffrey?! YOU'RE irrelevant!
- Gabe
Possible, Android could be similar to Symbian. It dominated mobiles for awhile (outside the US), but has since died off. The 4 markets where Mobiles will define the lifeline are, China, Japan, South Korea & Finland.
- clarke thomas
I expect Android will be more like Dos/Windows.
- Paul Buchheit
Yeah, i definitely agree that Asia will experience the most mobile growth - I think an open mobile OS has a definite advantage there. @Gabe - lol ... you take that back!
- Jeffrey Canton
It does look to me that Android and iPhone are the two platforms growing in ecosystem and customers. It seems that, even to this iPhone fan, Android is better positioned for growth, with a broader product line and higher potential.
- Louis Gray
I do not have any expectations for Palm Pre, and Symbian/Windows Mobile are tired. They can have the low-end market.
- Louis Gray
Android will take the low-end market Louis because Google will pay installs I suspect (and possibly read somewhere).
- Paul Buchheit
How low-end? With low-end, I was thinking low quality (aka dumb phone). Are those going away?
- Louis Gray
I remember hearing that developers were avoiding writing/porting their apps to Android because there was a lot of anticipation for Palm's WebOS; iPhone and WebOS were going to be the dominant platforms. Now, I can't remember the last time I heard of WebOS on-line, and the only thing I can remember from their ads is the waifish blonde girl and the music behind the pixie ads (which reminds me of the Wizard of Oz).
- Andy Bakun
People said that Apple was strictly high-end when there was only one kind of iPod. Then they came out with the Mini, Nano, and Shuffle and now AFAICT only the lowest-end part of the MP3 player market isn't dominated by Apple. (I read a saying recently that if you're afraid to cannibalize your own market, you'd better get over it because if you don't do it, someone else will move in to that spot.) ... So anyways, I don't see Apple conceding the low-end smartphone market.
- Andrew C
As I dimly recall, IBM/DOS made gains in the 80s because business purchases were the main driver, and games were initially a backdoor. (remember the days when there was at most one PC per family?) I think all of that gets inverted this time, that the growing popularity of iPhones pushes it into the corporate world rather than corporate usage pushing Blackberries (or whatever) into the mainstream.
- Andrew C
BTW, and I realize I am biased, but: there are a whole bunch of iPhone apps I wish were on Android. Almost all of them are games. For nearly everything else, the Android apps or the iPhone-ified mobile websites works well enough.
- Andrew C
Android can die in near future or become some kind of "linux" for mobile phones (I mean incompatible distributions). Very nice and deep article about this http://www.appleinsider.com/article...
- vovasty
I've had various Android phones now. I haven't seen any compatibility issues. Seriously, there'll always be compatibility glitches, but that didn't hurt Windows's success.
- Piaw Na
how about HTC UI, SE UI, Samsung UI? Android incompatibility just on the way.
- vovasty
Those UIs don't do anything to the applications that you download and run on the phone. There's no incompatibility there.
- Piaw Na
Paul, the C64 was for a long time the single all-time bestselling model, largely because there was only one version of the c64, whereas other later computers churned more rapidly.
- Michael R. Bernstein
Michael, I think that proves Paul's point.
- Piaw Na
Piaw, I wasn't disagreeing with Paul. I was adding perspective that not only was the c64 the bestselling model of it's day, it was also the *all-time bestseller* for a long time (ie. into the 90s, I think).
- Michael R. Bernstein
Books and stuff: three years of Amazon addiction - http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2010...
Kol Tregaskes, Benjamin Golub, Dan Hsiao and 5 other people liked this
Do you know French? (Le Chat Chapeute)
- Robert Felty
No, but Camilla likes the Cat in The Hat so I figured she would learn or something.
- Paul Buchheit
Who are these people that get all defensive about Microsoft? Is there a group of Microsoft fanboys out there somewhere watching for negative remarks so that they can leave angry comments? I've seen this on other blogs too. Why do they care so much?
Carolyn Chan, Milton Ramirez, Laura Norvig and 40 other people liked this
probably stockholders.
- Mike Nencetti
fap fap fap fap fap...
- Danny Minick
It's amazing what you can do with Mechanical Turk :-)
- Todd Hoff
I tend to find Microsoft largely irrelevant in many areas of my life. I have one Windows machine, with o Microsoft software except windows itself. The rest are all Linux.
- Ian May
You've obviously never been to a PDC. Everyone in the valley underestimates the immense size of the MS ecosystem.
- Joe Beda ()
from iPhone
I don't doubt that Microsoft is still huge, I just don't think they are changing the world anymore in the way that Google or Apple are.
- Paul Buchheit
O really? Who are the journalists/bloggers who feel that writing MS-bashing posts for their own sake counts as useful output? Every year hordes of pundits pronounce MS irrelevant, only to be proven wrong the next year. The people who reply to those threads are those who are active users of MS products and find them the best fit for their needs. That includes me. I don't think every MS...
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- LANjackal
fap fap fap!
- Danny Minick
LANjackal. If I'm asked, I don't so much bash Microsoft, but point people to other options such as OpenOffice and Linux, if it's suitable for them. Many people use MS products simply because they know of no alternatives.
- Ian May
LANjackal, I don't think anyone disputes that Microsoft will keep producing Windows and Office, but that doesn't count as changing the world. If they introduced something on the scale of the iPhone (in terms of new product with market impact), that would count.
- Paul Buchheit
There are Microsoft fanboys? I must always just see the Apple and Linux fanboys.
- Rob Haas
There's a difference between pointing to alternatives and calling a company irrelevant. MS is the only company that can do an end-to-end drop in solution that includes a private cloud, collaboration (Sharepoint), supercomputing, servers, etc. They're the GE of the tech world. Sure, GE doesn't make exciting headlines ... but anyone who says they "don't matter" is simply insane. Ditto MS. Relevancy and making headlines are NOT the same thing.
- LANjackal
from IM
The computers in my house are all running Windows. The computers at my workplace are also. Nearly all the customer art we get is produced on the customers's Windows computers. Microsoft seems pretty important to my life. It helps put the bread on the table, it doesn't need to be doing anything new. If Google and Apple both went down the tubes what would the consequences be? People would...
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- SuezanneC Baskerville
So is the answer that these are Microsoft developers who feel slighted by the notion that Microsoft is irrelevant?
- Paul Buchheit
There are more MSFT fanboys than any of the others. I work with several at my work.
- Danny Minick
LANjackal, my question is why they have such strong feelings, not why do they disagree with me.
- Paul Buchheit
Microsoft isn't changing the world? Have you used a 360 at all?
- Alex Scoble
It would probably be reasonable to say that Microsoft has considerable influence - but isn't really at the forefront of most web-based tech anymore. But I know a few Wintards here in Seattle and they're not a pretty bunch (*ZING*) (I would probably count as a "Googtard" for the record)
- Jeffrey Canton
No need to say he's "trolling." He's stating an opinion.
- Danny Minick
I think you need to qualify how MS is irrelevant. Because I don't see it either.
- Gabe
Probably because we don't like people calling a good company whose products we rely on daily for serious stuff being called irrelevant? Don't you think some people out there might find that offensive? What if you had a BMW and I said BMW as a company was useless? Isn't there a slight chance you might be riled by that?
- LANjackal
from IM
Microsoft has had some hard time lately, but they are far from irrelevant. As an Apple user, I have seen the success they still have. They have Windows 7, which works wonderfully, the Xbox, which is an epic console with awesome online experience, and they have the Microsoft Surface, which is going to one day change home computing. More specifically, computing in the living room with others. So are they still a success? Most definitely. Are they irrelevant? Absolutely not.
- Danny Minick
No, I would not be offended LANjackal. I think it's fair to say that the American car companies are irrelevant for example, which is unfortunate. My possibly unfair definition of relevance is that they are driving change in the market. Continuing to produce the same thing you've been making for 10 or more years doesn't count.
- Paul Buchheit
If Surface ever becomes a real product that real people use that would count as relevance Danny, but my prediction is that it won't. You may be right about the Xbox -- I don't know anything about games.
- Paul Buchheit
I have confidence it will become a consumer product.
- Danny Minick
I think its crazy to get offended for a publicly traded company, or any other non-human entity, though.
- Jeffrey Canton
Yeah, it's the offense part that amuses me. Disagreement is totally reasonable :)
- Paul Buchheit
As an end user I mostly can't justify the price of MS products when I can use something else that is free, as in the case of Office. OpenOffice does what I need; reads/writes the MS formats, and isn't a few hundred bucks to buy. For email, I use Gmail, and Google Calender, on my ALL my computers (regardless of OS), and on my Blackberry too. No need to sync anything as it's all in the cloud.
- Ian May
So yes, I would miss Google if they disappeared overnight, but I wouldn't miss Microsoft.
- Ian May
Paul, then you must get really amused by Apple fanboys. I know I do.
- jbrotherlove
Paul: your definition of relevance is wrong. Period. By that definition only a handful of tech companies would be "relevant" despite the fact that many others supply major components that the handful rely on. I guess Cisco doesn't matter then, right? If they and their products vanished tomorrow we'd all be OK. Everyone in agreement? #sarcasm
- LANjackal
I guess I just haven't upset the Apple fanboys yet. Apple sucks.
- Paul Buchheit
I do think that Microsoft is doing new and innovative things. In some cases they just haven't done a great job of bringing them to market and executing (Surface, for example) but in others you just don't see it as you aren't part of the Microsoft world. For example, LINQ is very very cool but unless you use C# (talking to MS SQL server in ASP.net/IIS via Visual Studio) you probably just...
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- Joe Beda ()
LANjackal, which successful companies _are_ irrelevant? I'm getting at a factor that is different from success, because if all I wanted to talk about was profits or market cap, that's what I would reference. However, there is an independent factor which is essentially "market influence", and it's undeniable that some companies have more than others.
- Paul Buchheit
That's a fair point Joe, and I think the fact that there is this growing non-microsoft world is part of what drives their "irrelevance". It would be really cool if they opened up C# and .Net, because by most accounts it's very nice (much better than Java), but nobody outside of the Microsoft ecosystem even considers it.
- Paul Buchheit
I'd agree with that. I think that Microsoft is stuck into a classic innovator's dilemma. They are optimizing for their ecosystem and world and missing the fact that the world is shifting. However, I don't think the world is shifting as much (yet) as it appears from the perspective of the valley. In the hearts and minds of the average enterprise developer Microsoft is the only game in town.
- Joe Beda ()
I think Microsoft advocates in general have less experience with non-MS systems than non-MS-centric tech types have with MS systems. If you don't know much about the alternatives to MS and if your income is tied to your tech knowledge - you probably should get busy and start up reading up about the things you don't know about. But it's a lot easier to just stick your head in the sand. That sounds a bit harsh. But I think it's accurate.
- Douglas
BTW -- C# is pretty open -- there is the spec and Mono. But it is largely still born as no one trusts Microsoft and there is very little cross pollination across these worlds.
- Joe Beda ()
Yeah, I'm not going to use the second-class version of it (Mono) and apparently neither is anyone else.
- Paul Buchheit
Douglas: I have plenty of experience with non-MS systems, but aside from embedded systems I find them largely irrelevant.
- Gabe
Gabe: Please explain
- Douglas
I think ignorance of the other side cuts both ways. There are plenty of unix nerds that have no idea how *awesome* the Visual Studio development environment can be. There is a lot going on there -- some of it is much better than what is going on in the Unix/Mac world. But mostly it is just different.
- Joe Beda ()
I do resent the comment that Mono is a 'second-class version' of .NET. We have some benefits over .NET, for instance, we are open source, and just like Linux was one day a second-class version of Unix, the day for Mono will come. For instance, anyone interested in .NET development on Mac, Linux, the iPhone, Android, the PS3 or the Wii have today only one option: Mono. If your business...
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- Miguel
Sorry Miguel. I'm sure Mono is really great, but I bet Microsoft's version is better.
- Paul Buchheit
Microsoft's version is better in many ways, and Mono's is better in many ways. We have no WPF, partial WCF and no WF, only now we are getting a copying/generational GC; But we have xplat GUI toolkits, an embeddable C# compiler, a C# REPL, SIMD extensions for AMD64 and X86, 64-bit arrays, full UNIX APIs, static compilation, we work on more platforms and much more. My point is: Mono is not your enemy, Mono is your ally. Use it when it makes sense as another tool in the box.
- Miguel
An example: several years ago I was working with a group of programmers on a project that was to be done in .Net. I suggested we use JQuery, which was pretty mainstream by then. No one else on the team had heard of it and one programmer even said "why would I want to use anything that didn't come from Microsoft?" A few months later Microsoft included JQuery in Visual Studio. It's not fun trying to get things done around that sort of attitude.
- Douglas
Douglas: I've used and supported Macs since System 6 and various Unix systems since the mid-90's, and I don't see what the big deal is. It's not like there's anything I can do on those systems that I can't do on Windows.
- Gabe
Microsoft is just another American software company, and I feel is unfairly targeted at for things like bundling IE with Windows, etc. Of course you get ketchup with a pizza. If you dont like the ketchup, use some other ketchup. Oracle brings with it Java. Did anybody complain?
- TrafficBug
Paul, I agree with Miguel. I don't see why MS having a better version is reason to disregard Mono. If I were writing Linux apps, I would choose Mono in a second.
- Gabe
Ketchup with a pizza?
- SuezanneC Baskerville
Gabe: what about rsync, ssh, vim, grep, sed, perl, readline, etc... of course, you can install windows-equivalents of most of those but it's a bit of a pain and they never seem to work quite right. If you just want to pull bits of data out of a giant file on a Windows machine on a network you can still do it but you may have to drag folders around and write a DTS package to load it into SQL Server... I'm sure you're an exception but the average Windows-only person has no concept of the unix way to do that.
- Douglas
Mono definitely isn't my enemy Miguel. Things like garbage collection are very tricky though, and I'd be surprised if you are able to keep up with Microsoft's version, I certainly hope you do though (especially after reading things like http://news.ycombinator.com/item...). Gabe, I simply called it "second class", which seems accurate if Microsoft's version is better.
- Paul Buchheit
my fear with Mono is that, despite it being really cool, I don't trust Microsoft to keep a genuine commitment to open-source software. Unfair? Probably to Mono ... but Microsoft has kind of earned that over the years (wrt open-source software) Having said that, I should investigate Mono more, the brief exposure I had to it a few years ago was really positive.
- Jeffrey Canton
BTW, what are the latest performance comparison numbers among the JVM, Mono, and CLR? A quick google didn't turn up anything credible looking.
- Paul Buchheit
Right, doing a copying/generational/multithreaded debugger is hard. But .NET is not the competition in this case, Java is. Java having multiple implementations for research and production has been the platform where new GC technologies and ideas have been tested out in recent years. We can only hope that Mono's open source nature will lead to new ideas and innovations being tried out with .NET beyond the walls of Redmond (which has been the case in other areas).
- Miguel
I worked at a Fortune 500 and there were a lot of fanboys here. The problem is folks invest in an MCSE or some sort of cert. It made them invested in Microsoft technology no matter how bad it was. Billable for Microsoft technology almost always cost double from what I could get from Open Source.
- barce
I would put it on par with Linux fanboys, Apple fanboys, Google fanboys, open source fan boys, Nintendo fanboys, Playstation fanboys, laserdisc fanboys, Betamax fanboys, Datsun fanboys; in essence, only the ones you disagree will you will rub you the wrong way.
- Eric @ CSTechcast.com
But I also said that Linux was hopeless on the desktop and nobody showed up to insult me :)
- Paul Buchheit
I'm not saying your wrong, just saying fanboys are fanboys and will argue to silliness about something like this. Don't look for rational thought from these kind of people.
- Eric @ CSTechcast.com
Yeah, I understand Eric. I'm just curious what motivates them. My suspicion is that the Linux fanboys are different from the Microsoft ones though. With Linux it's probably driven by a religious devotion whereas the Microsoft ones feel a threat to their livelihood perhaps.
- Paul Buchheit
Paul, the only reason no one comment on your "Linux was hopeless on the desktop" statement is because at the bottom of our hearts we do not really want "our" OS to become mainstream ;-)
- Tzury Bar Yochay
I think if your list showed on slashdot or Digg, you might get a few comments about Linux on the desktop, where stories about "I setup Linux for my grandma and she loves it" live.
- Eric @ CSTechcast.com
Have you tried Ubuntu lately? It's pretty cool. I find myself using my Ubuntu desktop machine more than my Mac laptop sometimes, completely unconscious preference. I understand that some of the other distros are also very nice; I just haven't gotten around to trying them. Of course if I were an Ubuntu fanboy I wouldn't say that :)
- Douglas
It's already becoming mainstream Tzury -- it's just going by the name "Android". I wouldn't be surprised if it surpasses Windows installs in fact (once every cheapo phone in the world has Android on it).
- Paul Buchheit
Nothing really comparing all 3 on the same conditions/platforms. But there are various mixed tests that you can use to extrapolate results.
- Miguel
I have Ubuntu in a vm Douglas. It has the same stupid problems that have always plagued Linux -- things never quite work right.
- Paul Buchheit
In case it's not clear by now, I'm happy to make fun of all platforms :)
- Paul Buchheit
It is well deserved by all!
- Eric @ CSTechcast.com
Paul: Cool. I suspect that's what separates the angry fanboys from the not(angry fanboys).
- Douglas
a concrete wall with barbed-wire at the top might be nice too, though.
- Douglas
People just do get it do they? how sad this guy Derek must be inside... pathetic! geesh
- Susan Beebe
Douglas: All those things are available on any platform I care to use. All are generally fairly easy to use on Windows if you want the precompiled binary, which is similar to other platforms -- on Linux it's hard to install something that isn't in a repository and on OSX it's hard to install something that isn't drag-n-drop installable. Of course, I also have no use for grep, sed, and...
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- Gabe
Paul - I think irrelevance comes down to what space you're talking - In an MS enterprise shop they're not. For those MSIEs, or even for the guy running a small computer repair shop, MS is their life blood, their livelihood depends on MS so they get rather rabid.If you're talking the web or consumer electronics space, they are somewhat irrelevant, or have been. At least haven't been...
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- PXLated
As a ceritfied MCSE: Security & Messaging, plus having installed, deployed and supported LOTS of servers and systems throughout the US to multiple customers in a wide variety of industries, I can assure you that most Microsoft "fanboys" are really scared. I invested a ton of money, time and energy back in the day with M$ and now I sit here with 7 levels of irrelevant technical...
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- Susan Beebe
Sadly, I've watched M$ go from relevant to pathetic. To their credit, Windows 7 is fantastic. Yet, I solely rely on cloud apps for my work. I hate MS Office - too clunky and old. M$ lost their mojo and i don't think it's coming back. So bottom line, folks that get all upset over that news are in denial.
- Susan Beebe
Jeffrey Canton, would you trust that Microsoft could keep a genuine commitment to open-source software if Microsoft themselves committed to releasing a portable run-time for .NET rather than relegating this task to Mono and Mono developers. Microsoft, with all their capital (both financial and mindshare), is in the best position to create and maintain a fully cross-platform portable runtime, yet they don't.
- Andy Bakun
That's my feeling Andy. If Microsoft really wanted it, they could make it happen and it would probably be awesome.
- Paul Buchheit
And that's my issue with Mono: its very existence shows that Microsoft doesn't really care and was only throwing the open source community a bone by _allowing_ it to exist. I'm sure there are people at Microsoft that work closely with Mono developers (like Miguel has claimed in the past, I have no reason to doubt him), but .NET on anything other than Windows doesn't really fit into Microsoft The Corporation's plans.
- Andy Bakun
Susan, are you Redhat (or other) certified also? I'm curious as to how someone who is certified with both MCSE and Linux view and value the knowledge they provide. I have heard that RH certifications are more long-term useful, but MCSE are so focused on specific products that they encourage an ecosystem of requiring more/additional certification as time goes on. I've seen the RHCE, and...
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- Andy Bakun
MS does some pretty cool tech demo videos (eg, surface). Maybe that makes them this decade's Xerox? Cool tech, but unable to deliver.
- Nick Lothian
No I am not RHCE certified, but I sure wish I had pursued RHCE as much as I did my MCSE in 2006. I considered doing both, in retrospect, I should have. Both certs are well respected, but anything M$ is starting to be laughed at, sadly :( MCSE is very niche, yet it does also required strong networking and infrastructure knowledge. During my tests I was doing subnetting in my head, that's not product specific. (actually I used my hands - 8 fingers for octet counting!)
- Susan Beebe
Surface is amazing, really awesome. I need to upload my iPhone video of that, thanks for the reminder :)
- Susan Beebe
Gaping Void comic strip -- very apropro -- http://www.gapingvoid.com/microso...
- Susan Beebe
@Andy - that's exactly the issue for me wrt Mono. They ultimately need people to buy Windows and Office, they're 2 main profit-engines - moving into the cloud the way Google wants to move (and the way things seem to be heading) undoes their momentum in the shrink-wrapped, downloadable software business and I can't see them undercutting that anytime soon. My guess has always been that...
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- Jeffrey Canton
@Nick - yeah, I was thinking IBM, but Xerox definitely works too :-)
- Jeffrey Canton
I don't think that Microsoft opening any product (like .NET completely etc) will help them get respect from those that wouldn't use anything by Microsoft, anyway. Usually it goes like this: "1) Microsoft should open product/format X!1" **Microsoft makes X open, maybe even a standard**, "2) The specifications suck! They need more details!" **Microsoft revises specs, provides more...
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- Jemm
I am a software developer on the Microsoft platform. I've been working on the MS platform (DOS, Windows) for over 20 years. And yes, I do defend Microsoft in forums, because I find that many criticisms are exagerated or come from irrational hate and not from reason.
- Dan Armano
I've seen a lot of this coming from Apple people - I'm sure it cuts both ways. (Personally, I don't care because neither company sends me any checks or anything.)
- Ciaoenrico
Is Microsoft really so thin skinned that they need respect from people who don't want to use their products? It's not about gaining respect, it's about following through on your claims.
- Andy Bakun
@Andy: "respect" was perhaps wrong choice of words by me. The point was that those demanding "openness" wouldn't switch anyway - no matter what Microsoft did or promised. I personally don't care whether something is completely open or a black box, as long there is a good way to integrate through a decent API through standard interfaces (SOAP, REST whatever).
- Jemm
Then why does Microsoft do or promise anything? It has to obvious to them too that these people won't switch, so why bother catering to them?
- Andy Bakun
@Andy: I've been wondering the same. Maybe there are some major audiences (like governments) that require at least some effort or because "opennes" looks good on paper.
- Jemm
never underestimate stupidity
- Nico Granelli
This is a good and relevant question. I look forward to a Paul Buchheit blog post about the dynamics of people becoming emotionally attached to software/services/platforms.
- Bruce Lewis
If you make such a blog post, it would be an interesting read, I guess you can let us know as I for one can read it...
- TrafficBug
It's a sort of primate threat display against a perceived danger to their in-group. Just more of our glorious simian heritage misfiring in the modern context. There's no great mystery about it. .....Actually, it's all those damn smug, factually challenged "I'm a Mac" ads with those ass-hat actors, and all those feckin' yuppies with their Macs and matching Prada man-bags with their...
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- Christopher A Carr
Has fairness and balance become irrelevant? Our national news media has chosen hype over reality in their efforts to attract views. Perhaps Mr. Buchheit has made the same choice in his effort attract readers. I'm an Apple fanboy, but I haven't lost my grip on reality. I agree with the observations of LANjackal as to Microsoft's relevance. The vitriol here is beyond the bounds of rational discussion. Perhaps that's the nature of the internet. Sadly, it's becoming the nature of our culture.
- Jimmy Walker
In fairness to msft fanboys, it's the Java fanboys that are most easily angered. Maybe the pollution from all their FactoryFactories is causing brain damage? ;)
Bruce Johnson, Tzury Bar Yochay, David Cook and 31 other people liked this
All this "debate" is putting me in a trollish mood :)
- Paul Buchheit
GO PHP! *dodges missiles*
- Mo Kargas
Yeah, I had no idea how awesome PHP really is!
- Paul Buchheit
PERL is pretty simple
- ◄ani625Ξ
Sadly, I am not smart enough for PERL.
- Paul Buchheit
What!?
- Zachary Poley
It's Perl, not PERL ;-)
- Jesse Stay
Just kidding. I dove into the fray looking for a nice soft pine tree.
- Zachary Poley
Like I said, I'm not that smart, but didn't it at least start as an acronym?
- Paul Buchheit
Not 'not', but 'also' http://www.cs.cmu.edu/cgi-bin...
- ◄ani625Ξ
{$I}->cant_believe($paul_buchheit, {%could_be={($scared-$off)=>by, perl=>line_noise}});
- Douglas
that doesn't actually parse
- Douglas
Paul, yeah - any way of casing it is correct, depending on who you ask and what time period. I was mostly joking. Some say it stands for Practical Extraction and Reporting Language, Larry Wall jokes it stands for Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister. It actually started out being spelled "Pearl" after the Parable of the Pearl in the Gospel of Matthew.
- Jesse Stay
FWIW I'm not smart enough to know Python. :-)
- Jesse Stay
"Perl looks like line noise to the uninitiated, but to the seasoned Perl programmer, it looks like checksummed line noise with a mission in life."
- ◄ani625Ξ
Python is for perl programmers who get bigger monitors.
- Douglas
Paul, if you ever do decide to check out Perl you'll appreciate Mark Jason Dominus's "Higher Order Perl" - if you like Lisp, it will give you a new perspective on Perl.
- Jesse Stay
ani, indeed! It's poetic to me - somewhat peaceful in many ways. It's like a canvas with many different types of brushes and colors.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse - yes! That's a brilliant book. You can actually write very lisp-ish or java-ish in perl, if you like.
- Douglas
Jesse - Once you're able to see the Matrix..
- ◄ani625Ξ
and you can use perl without a prescription.
- Douglas
Perl's testing libraries are also superior to many other tools I've seen
- Jesse Stay
And then there's cpan.
- Douglas
Douglas, definitely. Re: testing, everyone must read (Perl programmer or not) "Perl Testing: A Developer's Notebook" - Perl testing libs work with more than just Perl!
- Jesse Stay
Now wait a minute, why are talking Perl here?
- ◄ani625Ξ
ani, because you brought it up ;-)
- Jesse Stay
-_-
- ◄ani625Ξ
I've never read that. Will look for it. We sound like perl fanboys. I'm going to say something nice about Javascript... Javascript is neat.
- Douglas
Douglas, Javascript works with Perl! ;-) (I *am* a Perl fanboy!)
- Jesse Stay
SpiderMonkey!
- ◄ani625Ξ
Okay, fine - Javascript. Favorite JS Scripting Framework?
- Jesse Stay
Jesse - Of course! IIS? Back to MSFT
- ◄ani625Ξ
ani, I remember the days when I really thought that PerlScript was going to replace JavaScript some day
- Jesse Stay
SpiderMonkey is great! It's fast! Well, it did just crash my Firefox. But to be fair to the Mozillans, I am running a beta version.
- Douglas
Jesse - well, thare was really a chance at THAT time. Anyway - jQuery.
- ◄ani625Ξ
ani, jQuery here as well - I love it for the community and simplicity (and the "$" sign!)
- Jesse Stay
Paul: When I read your post and the comments about Java GC issues, I got to say that I felt that you probably are basing that off your age old experience but not anything recent. I have been in the Java field for a while now, I have seen all sorts of issues with thousands of customers who use our software but last I saw a GC issue I cannot remember (not saying they are not there but its not like you are portraying).
- Kiran Patchigolla
Pine Is Not Elm. That is all.
- Louis Gray
Pine FTW!
- Jesse Stay
I used to use nothing else, Redhat 3 or 4 I think
- Jesse Stay
It was that time I invested about $500 into RHAT and quintupled my money in just under a year :-)
- Jesse Stay
Python is for Perl coders who like coming back to their code in a year and being able to understand it. (but in all fairness I have written just as much Perl code as I have Python)
- bear (aka Mike Taylor)
Louis - It IS e-mail though :)
- ◄ani625Ξ
Jesse, jQuery $(fanboy).is() right here :)
- Micah Wittman
Prototype, mootools also pretty popular
- ◄ani625Ξ
Micah, wouldn't that be $(this).fanboy.is("here")?
- Jesse Stay
I recently read some of my old perl from the late '90s and I hope no one EVER understands that stuff. I would be very embarrassed.
- Douglas
Or, if you want it prettier: jQuery(this).fanboy.is("here")
- Jesse Stay
I should probably look into this javascript language - I hear the web is becoming really hot next year.
- bear (aka Mike Taylor)
Dude! heard Rocketmail is cool..
- ◄ani625Ξ
I shouldn't think anyone would ever want to send mail on a computer.
- Douglas
Those blasphemers
- ◄ani625Ξ
Coming to python.. Django anyone?
- ◄ani625Ξ
All joking aside, can somebody explain why Java has FactoryFactories? And why other languages don't?
- Gabe
People writing in Java are paid by the syllable?
- Douglas
The last time I saw "FactoryFactories" was when I was doing OLE coding in the Windows world - it drove me *crazy* with all of the abstraction for the sake of abstraction layers. If Java has it then I am again glad that I've never looked seriously at the language.
- bear (aka Mike Taylor)
probably in accordance with the cuil theory..
- ◄ani625Ξ
Ok... serious but poorly-thought-out and probably wrong answer. I think it's because it's awkward to implement closures in Java. I don't think anonymous inner classes were even possible before Java 2 and so the whole factoryfactoryfactory... idiom became popular because it's sort of a way around that.
- Douglas
They should have called it factoryschmactory so as to prevent semantic satiation.
- Douglas
Douglas, you may be right about that. I've always thought the vast framework mechanisms were all just to get around not having function pointers (or closures, or delegates, or whatever you want to call them).
- Gabe
I think it's rather that there''s just so many more Java or MSFT users. Typically, it's minorities who are more super sensitive to criticism vs the mainstream, but there's so many Java/MSFT users, if you insult them, someone is likely to see it. Python users are so busy making sure their whitespace is correct that they almost never see any insult. Ruby users too are busy trying to...
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- Ray Cromwell
I think it's not so much Ruby as it is Rails that's tricky to scale. But I might have scoffed at PHP too, once. That would be in the pre-Facebook and pre-Wikipedia days.
- Douglas
@Jesse I have a coworker who is one of those mysterious perl monks - he's been recommending "Higher Order Perl" for a while too. Not to put too fine a point on it, but java is the suburban blight of programming languages. ;-) I do keep meaning to take a better look at Python as well
- Jeffrey Canton
Ah, but if Java is the suburban blight, then slow scripting languages are the hulking bloated SUVs of the programming world, like SUVs, they take advancements in engine power (CPU perf/watt), and use it to drag extra weight around. :) Java is like a guy driving a Prius to the suburbs, Ruby is like a guy driving a a Hummer around Manhattan. :)
- Ray Cromwell
Haha, Nice! :-) In all fairness, my comment was about java's ridiculously verbose syntax and comes after using it at work for 5 or 6 years. No prius there, its all earth-hating Hummer powered by leaded gas and puppies! I do like some of the synchronization and garbage-collection tech. in Java though.
- Jeffrey Canton
from Android
True, but you pay the penalty at edit/compile time, the end users don't pay it. If you were buying a car and GM told you "well, the fuel efficiency sucks, but our engineers had fun making the car", it wouldn't be a very persuasive argument. This is really most relevant in mobile where battery life is severely impacted by inefficiencies. Sure, I could develop a game much faster in JS...
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- Ray Cromwell
Don't forget, Ray, that by developing the game faster, the users actually get to play it!
- Gabe
Don't forget, Gabe, that by making it not suck, users might actually *want* to play it :)
- Joel Webber
More seriously, here's the real blight on software development: People who get their panties in a wad over programming languages. You know what? Your favorite programming language sucks. Mine would too, if I had one. All that really matters is getting something good built -- results, not how you got there. I'm using Java and Javascript right now because they're the right tools for the...
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- Joel Webber
Oh, and the real reason everyone hates on Java specifically? Because there is a huge horde of people writing shitty Java code, and unfortunately some of them have been responsible for monstrosities like EJB, that should be taken out behind the shed and shot.
- Joel Webber
Joel: Do you mean that monstrosities like EJB should be taken out back and shot, or that those responsible for them should be taken out back and shot? Either way, you're probably right.
- Gabe
PostgreSQL is a good database, but it's fanboys are the most arrogant, insufferable people.
- Andy Dustman
I think there's a breaking point where all frameworks evolve to the breaking point, kinda like the Peter Principle, but for languages. Invariably, a successful community keeps adding more and more until complexity becomes unmanageable, and then it simplifies again. People initially get excited by small, coherent languages/libraries, then they get mainstreamed, upsized, and people start using them for everything, eventually they become bloated.
- Ray Cromwell
@Gabe: I was referring to the libraries themselves, but both sound good to me :)
- Joel Webber
Your favourite band sucks.
- Nelson Minar
Does the U.S. Lead in Life Expectancy? - http://blogs.wsj.com/numbers...
April Buchheit, Micah Wittman, Victor Panlilio and 2 other people liked this
"However, two economists have argued in a recent book that life expectancy is a lousy way to compare two countries. Murders, suicides and accidents can have a big effect on life-expectancy stats because their victims die younger, on average, than victims of disease. And, they argue, the health-care system can’t do much to prevent those kinds of deaths. After adjusting for those kinds of deaths, the U.S. ranks at or near the top of developed nations in life expectancy" (edit: this is really old and possibly discredited)
- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
It's an interesting find that our lowered life expectancy may not be due to our health care system, but I don't think that it being due to a high murder rate is that great either. This might be a crazy thought, but I think that large class differences spurs crime. Most of the more socialized countries in Europe tend to have lower crime rates than the U.S., and I think that might be part of the reason.
- Robert Felty
In many ways, Europe has larger class differences (and more trouble assimilating immigrants). I think the answer is that it's really complex and simple answers and stats tend to be misleading.
- Paul Buchheit
The U.S. leads in expectancy.
- Cliff Gerrish
A non-peer-reviewed study published by a conservative think tank uses an overly simplistic statistical analysis to conclude that the U.S. health care system is actually great and the real problem is all those (presumably dusky looking) murderers? Something about this is triggering my B.S. meter.
- Jim Norris
I don't think they're concluding that the US health care system is great, but it's very reasonable to point out that many factors feed into life expectancy beyond the quality of the health care system.
- Paul Buchheit
WSJ editorials should always be assumed to be false unless proven otherwise. If you wait a few hours, I'm pretty sure this one will be debunked.
- Piaw Na
Ahh, now I know why this sounded like B.S.: I had already seen it and actually posted to FriendFeed another WSJ blog post discussing it. http://friendfeed.com/jim... "But the OECD itself took the trouble to counter this finding in print. In a footnote to its 2008 economic survey of the U.S., the agency says that Ohsfeldt and Schneider’s...
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- Jim Norris
What does it mean to "factor in GDP"?
- Paul Buchheit
The post Jim quoted cites an OECD report, but links to pg 139 instead of 137. Here's the report's relevant footnote: "The adjustment for the gap in injury death rates between the United States and the OECD average alone only increases life expectancy at birth marginally, from 19th among 29 countries on average over 1980-99 to 17th. Hence, the high ranking of adjusted life expectancy at birth mainly reflects high US GDP per capita, not the effects of unusually high death rates from accident [or] injury."
- Andrew C
And yeah, in my personal "acceptable uses of ad hominem" rules, City Journal, WSJ, and Betsey McCaughey all come in near the top.
- Andrew C
"It has been claimed (Ohsfeldt and Scheider, 2006) that adjusting for the higher death rate from accident or injury in the United States over 1980-99 than the OECD average would increase US life expectancy at birth from 18th out of 28 OECD countries to the highest. In fact, what the panel regression estimated by these authors shows is that predicted life expectancy at birth based on US...
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- Jim Norris
I'm still confused, what does it mean to factor in GDP? Are the US life expectancy numbers being downward adjusted because of a high GDP?
- Paul Buchheit
I think it's more that life expectancy generally tracks with GDP per capita, so a high average will itself correlate well with life expectancy, *but it's not the effects of factoring out injury or accidental death*, as with the City Journal/McCaughey/WSJ claim.
- Andrew C
The US has abnormally high GDP, high fatal injury rates, and low life expectancy at birth compared to other OECD countries. It appears (according to the OECD) that they ran a regression to estimate the relationship between these three variables and then plugged in the numbers for the US GDP and the OECD average fatal injury rate to project what life expectancy would be if the US had a...
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- Jim Norris
But if you actually discount (as the OECD did) the fatal injury rate from the life expectancy statistics directly, rather than using a statistical regression model, it only makes a very small difference in relative life expectancy rankings. So the murders, suicides, and accidents aren't in fact the reason that the US ranks lower than many other OECD countries in life expectancy. There...
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- Jim Norris
Now the caveat is that I am not in any way a social scientist or health care expert and I have not looked at the original data and methodology used in this study. But (from the original article) "Prof. Ohsfeldt acknowledges that regression was chosen for its relative simplicity for what he called his 'little book project.'" The fact that this was published as a little book project...
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- Jim Norris
Fair enough. It is an interestingly difficult question though.
- Paul Buchheit
An interesting statistic is life expectancy at 65. Again it is not directly measuring the quality of healthcare, and has a whole host of other confounding factors: http://www.economist.com/daily...
- Simon
So another way of looking at the "factoring in GDP" is that we throw a lot more money at health care than other countries to get about the same results. Once again, I cite this marvelous article comparing Canadian and U.S. health care systems - http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues...
- Robert Felty
@Robert - the most shocking comparison I've ever read about US vs Canada in health care spending is that the US system spends more *government dollars* per capita, possibly purchasing power parity adjusted, than Canada does. Again, that's before we even get to the vast disparity in private spending.
- Andrew C
My healthcare plan: End corn subsidies :)
- Paul Buchheit
Happy new year!
debbie gasaway, Jason Huebel, Charlie Anzman and 35 other people liked this
Happy New Year
- VAL D. Zone
Happy New Year, you have a beautiful family!
- Stephen Pickering
Happy New Year Paul, April, Thomas and Camilla!! Thanks for FriendFeed :) (and Gmail too!)
- Susan Beebe
Camilla loves cake, so we got her a New Years cake. Thomas is already in bed, so he gets nothing.
- Paul Buchheit
from iPhone
Happy New Year!
- Michael Fidler
hahha if ya snoooze ya looozze! poor Thomas
- Susan Beebe
Thank you Paul and same to you and all your friends, followers & fans . It is my request to you to give me new year gift by spreading a word or 2 amongst your connections about my books. Will you do this favour to me?
- Sandesh Shinde
Happy New Year, guys! Enjoy that cake!
- MaryB, BrandingBroadOfFF
Happy New Year, Buchheit family!
- Anne Bouey
The cake was Camilla's idea. The candles were Paul's.
- April Buchheit
Happy new year!
- AJ Batac
Happy new year to your family !
- Renchin(Reina)
39325
vovasty, Itachi, Johnny Worthington and 129 other people liked this
ha nice!
- Wesley Barrow
from '95
- Paul Buchheit
Summer intern?
- Mike Doeff
Yeah, Sanjeev was also there that same summer as it turns out.
- Paul Buchheit
Crazy.
- Eric @ CSTechcast.com
oooh look at how young and cute Paul is! :) very cool that you saved this! What was your job title then (intern for ______)? What location did you work at? Does that # mean you were the 39,325 employee hired by M$?
- Susan Beebe
I bet I could find mine if I tried, too.
- Gabe
I wish I still had my Apple badge. They made me give it back when I left.
- Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
Do I sense a meme coming?
- Chris Lamprecht
Yeah, unfortunately I don't seem to have any pics of my Sun badge, so I can't collect the whole set :(
- Paul Buchheit
bummer! collection is busted
- Susan Beebe
my work badges are boring white - no logo..nothing - designed for max security I guess
- Susan Beebe
Paul, did you work in Redmond?
- Gary Burd
Gary, Paul and I both worked in Redmond. Paul worked on Plus! Setup.
- Gabe
Oooh I remember Plus! that was really cool and made Win95 rock!
- Susan Beebe
Wow, I had no idea that you guys worked at Microsoft. Gabe, what did you work on?
- Gary Burd
Ex-PM in Developer Tools here. Visual J++ for the um, ...
- DeWitt Clinton
Maybe it would be more efficient for everyone who didn't work at Microsoft to raise their hand.
- DeWitt Clinton
How cute ;)
- Bindu Reddy
I worked on Win NT, debugging OLE. It was pretty bad because the NT OLE code was fine; all the bugs were in 16-bit OLE apps. There are few things worse than debugging interactions between two 16-bit apps you don't have the source to!
- Gabe
Wow, 16 bit OLE. Why didn't you force everyone to use 32bit Word and Excel? It would've been very Apple of you.
- Eric @ CSTechcast.com
Yup, Redmond. I think I worked in building 4, which may not exist anymore, and lived across the street at "Timberlawn". I worked on the installer for "Plus Pack for Windows 95".
- Paul Buchheit
Eric, it gets worse: one of the first apps I had to look at was Ichitaro, Japan's #1 word processor at the time. It sure would have made things easier if I could have forced everybody to only use 32-bit English apps!
- Gabe
Awesome, Paul.
- Christopher Sacca
I tried, and I can't remember my ORCL employee number any more! Does that mean I've finally put it all out behind me?
- Tudor Bosman
My Intel WWID was 10599476, but I get the feeling that they added at least 10,000,000 to the employee number to generate that value.
- Paul Buchheit
I've already forgotten my Google employee number. I think my Yahoo! number was right around 9000...
- Kevin Fox
Ok here's a picture of my current ones I mentioned - sorta boring white plan ID badges http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Susan Beebe
haha, cool... And I didnt even know that I´m apparently the only person on friendfeed who hasn´t been a summer intern at Microsoft
- Peter Efland
At least they gave you a top-30 number at Google :)
- Charlie Anzman
Once again proving that you're "kind of a big deal". Nice badge!
- Randy Holloway
from twhirl
*swoon*
- Yuvi
I wonder if it was some kind of foresight to hang on to your old Microsoft badges, but not your diplomas.
- Clare Dibble
Nice, a blue badge. I consult for Microsoft and have an Orange badge.
- Alan Le
Wow! I was there that same summer interning for "Office Team Manager" I must have started a week or 2 before you as my employee number was 39207.
- Joe Beda ()
I think I returned my badge, so I can't remember what my employee number was. I worked on porting the standard ms installer from windows to the mac.
- Private Sanjeev
Sanjeev - a worthy cause for sure! :P
- Susan Beebe
It was a piece of code that Ben Slivka wrote to produce cab files :)
- Private Sanjeev
My MS ID was #38440 @ Microsoft... There were around 17k employees when I joined in 1995.
- Steve Lacey
You seem very happy in this picture. There's still so much hope and optimism in that face.
- April Buchheit
Old school.
- "Joey"
Bubbling entry to make the Microsoft people (http://friendfeed.com/paul...) feel better (or worse) :)
- Paul Buchheit
Bubbling? Is that what the kids are calling it these days?
- Gabe
those are nice glasses :)
- bob
They are nice glasses, aren't they? Maybe I should switch back.
- Paul Buchheit
:D
- Susan Beebe
cute Paul :D
- Nimaa
You look not unlike Bill in that photo.
- Kevin Fox
Reddit, you just hit the lottery: $100,000,000 *after taxes*... what do you do? - http://www.reddit.com/r...
Kol Tregaskes, Emre Tekelioglu, Susan Beebe and 16 other people liked this
"turn the thermostat to 70F" LOL
- Glen, Bespectacled Elder
from iPhone
Hire a financial advisor.
- Rochelle
ditto what Rochelle said
- VAL D. Zone
oh and watch the back of my head as I leave town
- VAL D. Zone
The answers are disappointingly uncreative.
- Paul Buchheit
Start up a social networking website
- Gabe
One lab, one handful of scientists, one year, and my consciousness copied into a fleet of Von Neumann probes and fired off across the galaxy.
- Mark H
Oh..*after taxes* ? ;) I would probably go for a long run in the forest.
- Thomas Bøhm
Email work and tell them an emergency requires me to be WFH indefinitely. Get in my car and drive to my dads house (clear across the country). Once at the Dads house, drink and eat salmon. Squeal a bit. Email the money gurus at work for a recommendation of a brilliant financial planner. Tell the planner to distribute 1mil to each immediate family member, in a method of their choosing....
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- EricaJoy
I thin this one's pretty creative: "Buy up used PS3's, high desert land, and create a research cluster. Use surrounding land to host real robot wars (maybe underground - 20mm rounds fly far)."
- Gabe
Paul I would seriously build an AIDS clinic
- VAL D. Zone
Segment the majority into profitable investments and banking the rest into profitable savings.
- H0llywoodWh0re
Put it ALL into Kiva, as an experiment to see how much of an effect an individual can have on global poverty.
- Rishabh Mishra (p248)
I liked those that quoted office space and went with two chicks at once.
- Clare Dibble
That was only a million dollars though Clare -- for 100 million he should do 200 chicks at once :)
- Paul Buchheit
Paul: I don't think that chick-doing is linear. :(
- Gabe
Here's a related question: If that person wanted to have as many children as possible, what would be the most effective way to make it happen? (my guess: a baby farm in a low-cost-of-living country)
- Paul Buchheit
you could have 2 at once for MUCCCCCH less money
- sean percival
Gabe, I think it's linear if you're willing to hire them.
- Paul Buchheit
I would buy back FF and sell it in 2012 :) 5 million will deposit for a fantastic future ,10 donation and with the cambio will buy techcrunch
- Johni Fisher
Hire a trusted financial advisor. Pay my parents back. Scout which European country I want to move to. Start an artists' colony. Start an endowment to conduct research into cures for various RSIs. Start an organization to hook up mentors with adults who had no mentors when they were young. Etc. Etc. As long as I invest wisely, I could hopefully help existing charities or start charities for people who are underserved because they're not normally thought of as needing help.
- Spidra Webster
Private railway car and a amtrak schedule...
- WarLord
As George Costanza would say, I'd spend it on the ponies. This is found money: I want to parlay it; make a big score!
- Mark Trapp
Paul: Hiring chicks is linear up to a point, but it's the doing of them that doesn't parallelize.
- Gabe
See how long it takes to enter 100 million bills into Where's George.
- Morton Fox
Hire a team to make me a tater-tot dispenser. Piping hot tots 24/365 ftw.
- Mona Nomura
sleep on it... literally.
- Dost Besler
I would buy Belgium.
- Onur Gündüz
I'd rather buy Iceland. It should be on sale.
- Joe
Actually -- I'd probably donate money to support libraries and scholarships at various colleges and universities. I would also support some homeless and animal shelter charities that I am familiar with.
- Joe
Paul, I think Genghis Khan had a pretty effective strategy to have as many children as possible, but I'm not sure it modernizes very well. I also think men have more options to make lots of babies than women because there part in the process doesn't take as long. However, with technology, women could have baby farms too. Yeah technology ;)
- Clare Dibble
Joe: You'd buy Iceland, and donate the rest :)
- Onur Gündüz
aapl
- howlongtoretire
from FreshFeed
Intersting thread LOL. Buy an island and enjoy it!! :) [can you tell i need a vacation?!] Next get financial advisors (not 1, but many) and some lovely lawyers to add more complication to the mix. Consider family, charities, and things to do / build.
- Susan Beebe
Thomas eating a pancake at Mayfield - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Kol Tregaskes, Susan Beebe, Daisy and 2 other people liked this
Love how he's using a big person fork and not a dedicated small person fork...or worse, a spoon. Confirmed: my children will be using chopsticks from the get go.
- Mona Nomura
Body scan of 250lb and 120lb woman side by side. (Airport scanners not expected to be this detailed) - http://origin.reddit.com/r...
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Kol Tregaskes, ◄ani625Ξ, Gerald Hildebrandt and 5 other people liked this
Re: the comments at Reddit: Amazing what assumptions non-medical-degree-holding people can make about others and how evil they can be about it.
- Spidra Webster
Are people with medical degrees more qualified to make evil assumptions about others?
- Paul Buchheit
I didn't say their assumptions were evil. I meant that their ways of expressing what they assumed were evil. There are several ways to say things. Many of the people there choose extremely rude ways to say what they assume.
- Spidra Webster
Yeah, that's Reddit basically :(
- Paul Buchheit
That's a lot of the Internet, basically. ;-) But when it comes to people who are overweight, people really feel they have carte blanche to talk about them as if they were lab animals. Except worse because without any knowledge of the person's habits or medical history, they will blame the person and somehow their sin is reckoned as even worse than someone who drives drunk.
- Spidra Webster
10 predictions for the world of January 1, 2020 - http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2010...
Mohamed Abdelatif, Nyan Min, Mitch and 28 other people liked this
"Steven Colbert will win the 2016 election -- the left will think he's joking, the right will think he's serious, and both sides will think that they are tricking the other"
- Bret Taylor
Let me save this article somewhere in the cloud and we will se then :-)
- Florin Grozea
I like the part about people going to Mexico to get health care. Travel and health care will become one and you will get a one week on the beach with any procedure!
- Edwin Khodabakchian
I learned a lot -- especially the Palin/Gore win the 2014 presidential election one. That sounds like one we can bank on.
- Stephen Mack
On a more serious note, this is a great read, Paul, thanks. How many of these (such as Facebook or the war on drugs) represent your view of what you predict will happen versus what you would like to have happen?
- Stephen Mack
I think all of them will happen Stephen, though my timeline may be optimistic.
- Paul Buchheit
from iPhone
I'd like to believe that the increasingly rapid evolution of political movements will make it easier to resolve the health care issues, and possibly even the financial bubbles, especially if political movements ever become an educational force. Of course, the opposite pitchforks and torches scenarios also seem possible to me...
- Jason Wehmhoener
Listening to NPR the other day, some academics pointed out that our increasingly fragmented media is increasing tribalism and inhibiting collective action, not strengthening it. Many people are now able to isolate themselves from opinions or people they disagree with, by following only those exactly like this. They pointed out, in the era of 3 networks and 3 anchors, people by and large...
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- Ray Cromwell
I like Nr. 9 most, including the video about Thorium!
- George Moga
My poorly remembered and partially imagined predictions from Jan 1, 2000 - http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2010...
kuchin, Russellreno, Jason Huebel and 26 other people liked this
Paul, I think you might be over-optimistic ;)
- Clare Dibble
It seems like all the errors came from technology advancing slower than expected, including that google's competitors reacted slower than expected.
- Bruce Lewis
I didn't know that Microsoft Market Cap 270B - Google Market Cap 196B.
- Tim Tyler
I thought that Google had drawn ahead a while ago - http://google.com/trends...
- Tim Tyler
2012? Would that be in December by any chance?
- Gabe
let me predict something for you...hyperinflation of the dollar. should have come earlier but clever politicians smuggled that into this new decade.
- Chris Hofmann
from Android
A plot of selected energy densities (excluding oxidizers) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...
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◄ani625Ξ, A Puri, Chatsohbet and 10 other people liked this
Lithium Ion batteries aren't that great relative to gasoline or fat metabolism.
- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
But who would want to keep their DSLR powered up by metabolised fat?
- Mark H
I like this sentence," Energy density (how much energy you can carry) does not tell you about energy conversion efficiency (net output per input)".
- ashish
I'd like to see it plotted against flash point.
- Gabe
Be interesting to see antihydrogen on that chart. :)
- Ray Cromwell
Li Ion batteries are valued for their ability to be recharged, and it cannot be said of other energy sources on the graph
- Здесь вам не тут
Actually, the nice thing about LiIon is that it's easy to get the energy out as electricity. If I could easily power my laptop with sugar, I wouldn't mind having to "refill" it every few weeks.
- Paul Buchheit
I could go for recharging my laptop with usb liposuction.
- Amit Patel
San Francisco's smelly sea lions end their 20-year stay - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2...
Jessie, Clare Dibble, Vedrana Janković and 6 other people liked this
"Last month, Pier 39 groaned under the weight of some 1,500 of the animals. But now all but a few have swum off bringing to an end a two-decade long sojourn - and one of the world's smelliest tourist attractions. The first bull sea lions arrived in late 1989, but the animals began to depart in November. Officials hope the departure is only temporary - as a 20th anniversary party had been planned for 15 January."
- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
Some friends were discussing this yesterday. I suggested that maybe they left after finishing all the good food.
- Gabe
"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish."
- Richard Chen
AKA the only worthwhile reason to visit Fisherman's Wharf.
- Andrew C
@Andrew: Candy Baron is a good reason to visit, too.
- Tödd Nëmët
I always associated the arrival of the sea lions with the Loma Prieta earthquake a few weeks earlier though I admit that chasing a food source is a much more logical reason.
- Tödd Nëmët
I'm thinking of making some retro-active predictions for the decade starting Jan 1, 2000. Suggestions?
Susan Beebe, Kol Tregaskes, Jérôme Flipo and 7 other people liked this
Real or snarky? :)
- Matt Mastracci
people will get bored with interacting online.
- WorldofHiglet
social networking will explode almost as fast as the number of people who self-profess to being a social networking expert
- Jason Miller
Apple will release an MP3 player. Pundits will say that the player is a failure because the player does not work with Windows and the player is expensive compared to other players on the market. Users will love the MP3 player. Apple will own the MP3 player market before the end of the decade.
- Gary Burd
When I first read this, I thought you were going back in time to predict the 90s.
- Cristo
A moron and a black man will both get elected President of the US.
- Gabe
Might as well skip most of the Bush presidency; the Onion already did it back in 2001* and it was amazing. But yeah, predicting the return of PDAs** or American Idol*** would work. (* see "Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over") (** "they'll be crossed with phones! And Apple will come out of nowhere to take the lead in that category!") (*** "the country will become absolutely obsessed with a singing competition that is clearly full of untalented singers.")
- Andrew C
Push technology will make a comeback.
- Amit Patel
And here it is: http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2010...
- Paul Buchheit
Wrong Correctness - http://www.artima.com/weblogs...
Amit Patel, Ruchira S. Datta, Clare Dibble and 2 other people liked this
"In the end I'm not so interested in understanding why we go wrong as much as discovering ways to inspire us toward naturally better decisions. In the same way that an open-spaces conference guides us to spontaneously create the best possible conference experience, I believe that there is some structure that will guide us to spontaneously create the best possible business experience (and for the rest, those not quite ready to jump in completely, make them question the knee jerk addition of structures "because that's the way you run a business"). That's what I'm working on now. It's very ambitious, but it's the only thing that I find compelling: completely change our experience of work and business to make it happiness instead of drudgery, in the same way that open-spaces make conferences wonderful instead of an effort (for both organizers and attendees). I know I can't do it by myself -- I need to find the right community-building tools so that lots of ideas can appear and flow (I...
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- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
I read your thoughts and heard you saying for business when many of us are saying for education in science and technology. There's an opportunity for technology-exchange here, or synergy, or whatever you want to call it. Let us all know what you learn.
- Jason Miller
Tablet thoughts - http://paulbuchheit.blogspot.com/2009...
Kol Tregaskes, Stephen Mack, imabonehead and 17 other people liked this
Loved this: "When considering revolutionary new products, we can not simply compare them with existing products, but must instead compare them with the products that don't yet exist, but should"
- Susan Beebe
Paul, I totally agree with you, and I hope they're building what you described too. One would think that all of these so called experts, who have been and continue to dismiss the usefulness of such a device, are seriously lacking vision. It doesn't take much either. Happy New Year to you and your family!
- Michael Fidler
I was just debugging a problem with re-tweets not appearing. Answer: they were partially removed from the Twitter API. Here is an interesting and confusing discussion about it: http://groups.google.com/group... I don't understand the logic.
Daniel Rowley, Seth Goldstein, Sebastian Wain and 15 other people liked this
Maybe we're just not creative enough :). The last post from Twitter: "i would like to stress that timelines are, of course, only "slices" of data that twitter. API developers are urged to be creative and innovative -- come up with "timelines" that we didn't think of! come up with other ways to present data to the user that are not just direct representations of our API calls. new and compelling user experiences do not stop with our provided timelines. go code something interesting, and we will be here to support you. (of course, if we missed something, as we are arguing about in the RT case, we will work with you all to get it to be what the community needs)."
- Paul Buchheit
Reminds me of the responses I used to give Gateway support customers on Microsoft Bob and Windows 95 ;-)
- Jesse Stay
"I think you need to reformat your computer..." Done.
- Jesse Stay
LOL :D
- Susan Beebe
If we can't catch a Nigerian with explosives in feminine underpants, whose father alerted the U.S. embassy, whose ticket was bought in cash, who didn’t check bags, whose visa was denied by the UK, who studied in Yemen, whose name was on a watch list, who can we catch? - http://origin.reddit.com/r...
Neşe Uyanık, Mustafa Şenay, Jens Holze and 84 other people liked this
Damn...
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
:|
- AJ Batac
Saddam Hussein.
- Cristo
If only he'd been using OpenID with the new 'terrorist' attribute.
- Cliff Gerrish
Cliff: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... ? :)
- Tudor Bosman
wow
- .LAG liked that
Maybe we're not trying to catch terrorists? Maybe we're trying to manufacture excuses to more tightly control US citizens, and terrorism is just the rationalization du jour?
- Mr. Gunn
Mr. Gunn: Space aliens are actually doing the terrorizing in preparation for 2012.
- Christopher A Carr
I second .LAG's "wow"
- Jan Ole Peek
I usually tend more toward the incompetence than conspiracy viewpoint.
- Cristo
We need better spam filters to stop the Nigerians before they ever get through, they're all trouble.
- Jimminy Fuller
Maybe they're thinking if they let one underpants bomber get through, then they have justification to go to war on all underpants.
- Morton Fox
Next, only masculine underpants will be allowed on flights.
- Ruchira S. Datta
Okay, that's it then. No more flying for me.
- Cristo
They're waiting until they fileshare. Once these guys fileshare, they're toast.
- Spidra Webster
exactly! ... this was, again, inside operation - the guy was just let go /aided even/ to board that plane. ..the good thing is, that unlike 9/11, inside job was set up so that no fatalities occur - bomb did not explode. i like that ... http://krunchd.com/inside , http://WorldNewsRecord.wordpress.com , http://Twitter.com/911news , http://Friendfeed.com/911news
- Petr Buben
Petr: While I'm sure it, in a strange way, comforts you to think there a Grand Order behind all things -- a Big Conspiracy to rule them all -- that's really not the reality. Human brains are exceedingly good at recognizing patterns, but sometimes this capacity is hyperactive (as in your case). If you think the Virgin Mary appears to us in common objects, your brain will construct Virgin Mary visages on burnt toast. And you ascribe way too much competence to human organizations.
- Christopher A Carr
I read this week that the two most important changes to airline security since 9/11 are re-enforced cockpit doors and that now passengers know to fight back. Who knows how many plans have been thwarted by the first, and between 1 and 3 have been thwarted by the second (depending how you count it: Flight 93, the shoe bomber, and the underwear bomber).
- Kevin Fox
I'm with you Cristo....heavy on the incompetence.
- Bonnie Foster
Never attribute to conspiracy that which can adequately be explained by incompetence.
- Joel Webber
from BuddyFeed
wow
- ★ Soner Gönül
sublata causa tollitur morbus
- A.T.
*remove the cause - sickness will go away itself* - old medical proverb (yes, in Latin)
- A.T.
if people can crash a White House party and it goes on and on
- VAL D. Zone
And yet we have no problem putting 12 year old girls on the no-fly list because of a name match ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-k... ). The people working at the TSA are clearly fast-food burn-outs. At what point do we, as citizens, stop putting up with this tomfoolery?
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
I'm not convinced this can adequately be explained by incompetence. I don't know that there was a conspiracy, but I can't dismiss the possibility given the depth of incompetence required. Assuming conspiracies never happen is as mindless as assuming everything is conspiracy.
- Bruce Lewis
from fftogo
Bruce: And now they want to form a union...
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
It *is* pretty interesting that people bitch about too much airport security until there's a thwarted bombing, then they say there's never been enough.
- Kevin Fox
I'm not complaining about there being too much, Kevin, just that there isn't any effective.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Anyone know the names of the companies who are making whole body scanners? I think I need to buy some stock.
- Victor Ganata
Try Skynet, Victor...
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Victor: http://www.cyberware.com/
- Rochelle
Kevin - There's a reason for the "no getting up last hour" rule, and it's not to prevent a terrorist from going to the bathroom. It's to prevent innocent people with headscarves from being tackled by well-meaning but jittery passengers.
- Mr. Gunn
As I understand the TSA strategy, it involves catching anyone who tries to do something that has already been tried. In other words, we're preparing for the previous "war" rather than the next one.
- Mark It's 2000-Oh-1-Oh J
In other words, the TSA strategy = FAIL.
- Victor Ganata
Seriously. An amazingly _expensive_ FAIL. All that time, people-power, money spent, so we can hear platitudes about why it did not work or that there are things that can be improved.
- Rick Cogley
Three hours delay at Paris CDG for this the following day on-route to Detroit. Most of this spent in the queue at the departure gate as they had only one male and one female officer to carry out an intensive search of 300 pax and their carry-ons. Explanations from Air France were very sparse, fortunately I'd caught all the details on Sky News at Manchester.
- Nick B.
@Chris..No, I do not think there is one big conspiracy, and that all is conspiracy. Let's please stick to FACTS and lets debate that. ok? (1). Detroit bomber was on a Britain 'no-entry' radical Islamist list. IF THIS will not hint CIA FBI DHS TSA to not only not to allow this guy in the US, BUT ALSO to search him down while boarding, then I DO NOT believe it was complete imbecile fail...
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- Petr Buben
@Chris.. further, please understand, that nanothermite high military explosive was found on the site of WTC controlled demolition inside operation pretext for wars, just as pools of molten steel. please understand that buildings were PULVERIZED with the speed close to free fall, 11 floors per second .... NoT possible other than masterpiece controlled demolition, per irrefutable scientific evidence .... i mean, have seen the video footage? http://ae911truth.org
- Petr Buben
HOW do you colonize countries in the age of airplanes as suicide weapons, of people willing to die in a suicide and terror act to resist occupations, in the age of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons? ....these wars are a big mistake .. http://krunchd.com/911 pretext for wars
- Petr Buben
'Dick Cheney is a coward and a disgrace.' A-freakin'-men - http://www.reddit.com/r...
Russellreno, Здесь вам не тут, Susan Beebe and 2 other people liked this
Well, yeah, if you're going to sugar-coat it...
- Gabe
Ayıp bee !!
- Murat Can Demir
Variable Pitch Quadrocopter - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Sebastian Wain, John μller, Aaron D'Souza and 8 other people liked this
"Some possible moves that can be done with a variable pitch quadrocopter that has a 4 servo pitch mechanic"
- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
I want one ;) Dang it's open source. "OpenSource Quadrocopter U.A.V.P. Universal Aerial Video Platform www.uavp.de" http://www.youtube.com/watch...
- Shane
I notice that there are no clips of *landing* the quadrocopter
- Robert Felty
Rob, landing is easy if you are this good at flying.
- Paul Buchheit
Note that this is a computer simulation and not a video of an actual model. Still - very cool!
- Joe Beda ()
from iPhone
Damn those computers and their fake reality!
- Paul Buchheit
Liked for the old Knight Rider theme.
- DeWitt Clinton
I'm sure i could land one too Paul. I'm just not so sure that it would ever fly again.
- Robert Felty
What I'd like to see with a variable-pitch quadrocopter would be a rock-steady, autonomous hover. With fixed-pitch, they always seem to float around approximately in the same place, with variable-pitch hovering steady might be more possible.
- John μller
TSA Threatens Blogger Who Posted New Screening Directive - http://www.wired.com/threatl...
Seth Goldstein, imabonehead, Richard Chen and 5 other people liked this
Gotta love the TSA (or else!) "The two agents who visited him arrived around 7 p.m. Tuesday, were armed and threatened him with a criminal search warrant if he didn’t provide the name of his source. They also threatened to get him fired from his KLM job and indicated they could get him designated a security risk, which would make it difficult for him to travel and do his job. “They were indicating there would be significant ramifications if I didn’t cooperate,” said Frischling, who was home alone with his three children when the agents arrived. “It’s not hard to intimidate someone when they’re holding a 3-year-old [child] in their hands. My wife works at night. I go to jail, and my kids are here with nobody.”"
- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
how crazy is the TSA for doing this - don't they realize that Bush is no longer in the whitehouse and they don't have a executive cover now? (and that is probably the first and last political statement I make here)
- bear (aka Mike Taylor)
the bomber was classified as a security risk too... this guy's got nothing to worry about.
- Jim: Now With Caffeine
Bear, all evidence from the past year shows that they *do* still have executive cover. :(
- Michael R. Bernstein
And the ridiculous thing is that they're always trying to stop the last attack! What good is that ever going to do?
- Gabe
The Master, The Expert, The Programmer - http://zedshaw.com/essays...
Piaw Na, Karthick R, Space Cowboy and 62 other people liked this
"What I notice is that my peers are progressing to more and more complicated and convoluted designs. They are impressed with the flashiest APIs, the biggest buzzwords, and the most intricate of useless features. They are more than happy to write endless unit tests to test their endless refactoring all the while claiming that they follow XP’s “the simplest thing that works” mantra. I’ve actually seen a guy take a single class that did nothing more than encapsulate the addition of two strings, and somehow “refactor” it to be four classes and two interfaces. How is this improving things? How can more somehow equal simpler? This should never be the case. These are the actions of an expert. These experts are very smart, capable, and skilled, but they are too busy impressing everyone to realize that their actions are only making things worse for themselves. In the end all of their impressive designs are doing nothing but making more work for themselves and everyone around them. It’s as if...
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- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
This applies to experts in any field.
- WorldofHiglet
It takes smart people to make complicated things simple.
- imabonehead
Is it possible he's talking about Java programmers?
- Gabe
i really liked this post (it resonated with me) until the end, at which point i felt alienated.
- Neha Narula
I'm a big fan of keeping it simple, but some problems do require a thorough approach.
- Andrew C
"In contrast there are masters in the martial arts who learned their art as a means of survival and became masters in a realistic and hostile environment. We don't have anyone like this in the programming profession, " ... what about Carmack and Abrash & co?
- Andrew C
BTW, I dunno if this is what put Neha off, but it almost sounds like Shaw wants to deny the reality of a nice O(n log n) solution beating out an O(n^2) solution (assuming small k, whatever) on a problem of decent size.
- Andrew C
I mean, the stories of the martial arts masters may involve simple-looking moves, but they are also (in the stories) _perfectly_ executed, the product of careful observation of one's opponent and expert timing and precise angles. You might be able to pare down a simple linked list to the bare essentials, but I don't think it's quite analogous to not using a more complex structure _where appropriate_.
- Andrew C
Nice... "The main thing I noticed about the experts I’ve encountered is they are into impressing you with their abilities. They are usually incredibly good, but their need for recognition gets in the way of mastery. Everything they do is an attempt to prove themselves and in order to do this they must perform like an actor on stage. There’s nothing wrong with this, and I don’t think the...
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- Ken Sheppardson
Andrew: Maybe the point was that an Expert would say "Aha! You need to keep these items in order, so a self-balancing tree is the perfect solution.", while a Master would say "Ah, but you never have more than 5 items, so a linked-list will always be faster!"
- Gabe
this part, so much guy/son stuff! i dislike superfluous interfaces as much as anybody else: “There was this guy I worked with who once optimized a complicated red- black tree getting 300% performance boost. I was baffled and ask, 'How’d you do that? That’s impossible.’ To which he responded…” “'That’s my linked list my son.’”
- Neha Narula
This is the kind of crap that gives java such a bad image. It used to be that people used it for what it was -- a simple OO language with garbage collection and a fast VM. Now you have architecture astronauts going off the deep end and making everyone assume the language has to be that way. I believe this disease stems from people who focus more on the process than on the product of their work. That's a recipe for disaster in my book.
- Joel Webber
from BuddyFeed
The impulse is good, but people have such different senses of what is simple, what has quality, what flows with the Tao. It's like beauty that way. What the story doesn't say is the 300% performance boost was on a limited test data set, in the real world it performed 3x worse and all the complexity had a reason that made sense once you "know." :-)
- Todd Hoff
Complexity that's "there for a reason" is the worst kind. But who even talks about red-black trees vs linked lists? TreeMap vs LinkedList isn't the issue, interface swaddling and hyperfine dependency injection is the issue. Thing is, fights are decisively won, but code maintainability is much harder to measure, and even the importance of performance can be disputed.
- ⓞnor
from Android
I find it funny how the article, while praising simple approach, suffers from superfluity of language.
- andrei_c
egnor: unnecessarily so.
- Neha Narula
Neha, I thought the final "That's my linked list my son" was to make clear the parallel with the earlier quote "That was my foot my son" from Mestre Bimba.
- Ruchira S. Datta
Todd: Imagine the situation where you are storing data for the US Census, and need to keep track of the people in a household by age. Since it's sorted and unbounded (there's no maximum number of children a family can have), you can easily think that a nice O(n lg n) algorithm that keeps a balanced binary tree is the right way to go. However, if you bother to look at the data, you'd see...
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- Gabe
I wish I could "Like" this article again :)
- scott willeke
might have created a "MEGA-liked" button:)
- alex melnikov
Love this article.
- Mon Geslani
It's a great analogy, but in reality, the martial arts stuff is mythology. Wing Chun proponents often talk about simplicity of the art, but they'd get their butts kicked in a sloppy street fight because invariably, most real world fights are messy, quickly go to the ground, and result in grappling and choking and eye gouging. Bullshido has lots of examples of this. The 80 year old guy...
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- Ray Cromwell
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