off topic: new car advice for senior

[Robert Green]

That's a pretty broad brush you're tarring all FOSS creators with. I don't accept it. I've worked with a number of Home Automation software publishers who have literally fallen all over themselves to fix a bug or issue that I identified and do it very quickly. If they couldn't fix it right away because of some complex dependencies elsewhere in the code, they'd certainly file it away in their "we'll get to it at the next major build."

Interestingly enough, when I asked for features that would benefit mostly me and not all the other users, I always got the "we'll see" which is parent-speak for a deferred "no." "Can I have a BB gun for Christmas?" "We'll see."

If you told me that, as the guy who hired you, I would simply say "It's unfortunate that you used tools that were unsuitable for the task. Didn't you evaluate them fully before starting?" Whose fault is it then? The poor FOSS creator who's doing it as a labor of love or the guy trying to save a buck by using FOSS on a paying project?

I rarely bring freeware onto a paying project but if I do, I make sure it's functioning and that it can be properly licensed by the end user.

I've never had an issue with IrfanView, VLC, HexEdit, WinZip, PKModem (in the very old days) and so many more products that I have just the opposite view of FOSS than you have. What FOSS program burned you so badly that you're willing to classify them all as drek?

[Robert Green]

That's what I recall.

And it does for me, too, although I do use a lot of commercial software as well. Whatever does the job well at the lowest cost to me. I am sure most programmers have the same sort of utility CD/DVD that I have containing all the FOSS that's been of use - WireShark, Hexedit, VNC, VLC, WinZip, SANDRA, MemTest and many, many more.

[Robert Green]

I didn't realize until I standardized on one particular machine (Fujitsu tablets) how remarkably convenient it is to be able to take an image from one machine and load it onto another - without getting the BSOD.

I'm user some ACER stuff now, and so far, so good.

I just had my first crapped out laptop HD and it failed without giving any warning. My machines see very light use so it's no wonder they've lasted 15 years. They've been so reliable that I haven't been backing up as regularly as I used to. That's because a good HD crash every now and then reminds you that they're just machines and as such, prone to failure at some point.

I have a lot of gear in the corner of the basement sitting on shelf waiting for me to open them up and look for bad caps. The TVs followed the well-known pattern of taking longer and longer to turn on until one day, they wouldn't. It's such a problem with stuff manufactured during the "flu" that there are eBay sellers who assemble kits of HQ caps for various TV models.

The beauty of identical machines. As a clone builder only for myself, I think I only have two identical machines that can accept each other's image files. Then I got religion and decided uniformity was a big asset. I seem to remember someone selling cloning machines that would take a list of user IDs, machine network names, etc. and use them to alter each clone so that it was ready to boot.

[Robert Green]

Reminds me of a few years ago if you ran a search for "soprano" you'd get Tony and not any singers.

Even in places with lots of brick and mortar stores AND things in stock I still prefer Amazon for lots of reasons. I've never had anyone rear-end me on the way to the mailbox to pick up a package from Amazon but it did happen in the Home Depot parking lot. Let UPS take the risk.

Kinda sad, in a way. They know their days are probably numbered. What I have found is that local merchants see slowing sales and then reduce the inventory they are holding. That's a classic death spiral.

I always look at the ratings and read them in detail (lots of idiots who give it 5 stars and then write "I haven't actually used the product yet."

However, I see some bad consequences for all this in the not-to-distant future. Who could really be a competitor to Amazon? Wal-mart is faced with the dilemma of their on-line business cannibalizing their retail stores so they treat on-line sales as a poor relation. Other big general-item merchants have died like flies. What happens when only Amazon remains?

Yet those concerns haven't stopped me from running up quite a tab there. (-: Now they offer same-day delivery on many items. What's not to like?

[Robert Green]

Haven't touched a mainframe since 19 -seventy something and then I really only fed it stacks of punch cards. Having punch card experience makes you an old fogey these days.

I *nearly* went to work for Sperry helping to design a traveler system for NASA parts. It was shortly after the "O" ring failure and NASA decided that every part that went into the space shuttle, even a piece of wire, had to be accompanied by a full chain of custody on-line. When the HR guy took me around to meet the team, they all scurried away like cockroaches.

It turns out the Sperry was laying off senior people and bringing in young pukes like me to cut salary costs. They had little interest in meeting the people that were taking their jobs and I can't blame them. I decided instead to work for an employment company that scheduled nurse visits and was using spreadsheets to do it. You wouldn't believe all the things that spreadsheets got used for until they grew too big. Then I'd get the call. (-:

After that I made my living converting spreadsheets to databases and taking on applications scheduled for mainframe implementation that had languished in the queue for a year or more. Doing PC software developing was really like being a cowboy on the wide open prairie. Conversion is a weird business to be in. Sometimes it's easier than developing software from scratch and sometimes you wish you had that option.

I have a good friend that was a little older than me who was a mainframe jockey like you and a true believer that no PC or network of PCs could ever touch a mainframe for most large applications. I would always say "we're getting there!"

Looking at it dispassionately, there's actually convergence between PCs and mainframes in that massively parallel PCs are hooked together using multiple CPUs in much the same way. Clearly places like Amazon and Google have decided that PC server farms are far better tools for their transaction-based trade than a supercomputer. And transactions per second was the holy grail back then so I assume that mantle has passed.

I learned some pretty valuable things from a mainframe jockey in my PC user group. One was to document all changes as if someone else was going to have to work on the machine. Or more importantly as if you were being handed the system from someone else. As my memory fades, documenting what I do is becoming more and more critical. )-: Oddly enough, I can't remember the second, more important thing that he taught me. Sheesh. I can't even remember whether there WAS a second thing that he taught me. I'll wake up at 3AM shouting it.

[rbowman]

That's not only for FOSS. When one of our clients asks for a new feature I evaluate it. If it's a reasonable request and something I think most of the users will like, I schedule it. If it's not a major project but only of interest to that client I'll schedule it to be done some rainy day. If it's a major change and only one client asks for it, it's time for a PO.

Some clients are like kids. They ask for a gerbil, so you give them a gerbil. Then they want a dog, so Lassie joins the family. They figure they're on a roll and go for a pony. That's when you say 'we'll see.'

[rbowman]

One of my favorites:

"Love this book! (I think.) I loved Bill Clinton as a president and I hope Chelsea goes far in life. She has grown up to be an amazing woman. I am basing my review on my positive thoughts about Chelsea and her father. I have not read the book yet ...."

I'm not in the middle school target audience so I'll never read the book although I sometimes dip into YA literature, but if I did the last thing I'd admit to would be judging the book by the author's father.

[clare]

That would be like judging Justin Trudeau on the basis of his late father, Pierre. Their last name and the party affiliation are the same

- but not a lot more. (Canadian politics - federal election a week from today)

[Don Y]

When's "the next major build"? Is it before or *after* my release?

E.g., it is not unusual for a database to be a read-only construct and still be useful. In fact, it can be a *desirable* characteristic of a database -- the CERTAINTY that the contents CAN NOT be altered!

I.e., put the "data" on read-only media. Try as the software might (bugs, malware), there's simply NO WAY to alter the persistent copy of the data!

I rely on this capability in my current project. I.e., the data resides *in* read-only memory. *If* the DBMS expects to be able to alter it FOR WHATEVER REASON, that action WILL fail! There is simply no way to write to the memory even if you deliberately tried to do so!

Requests for this feature/capability are simply not important enough (apparently) to rise to the level of "active development" (for PostgreSQL). The feature *is* apparently supported under Oracle. And, IIRC, under MySQL (though possibly as a kludge).

Given that I've adopted the philosophy that everything I'm building must be available under an "open" (nonGPL) license, Oracle is out of the question. As I've not been impressed with MySQL, that leaves me with the only choice of taking ownership of a PostgreSQL release and adding the features that *I* want *to* that release -- taking full advantage of the license terms to do so as a "spin-off" codebase.

Of course, my priorities aren't the same as the PostgreSQL development team -- nor its user base. So, my modifications will be of little direct use to them. *But*, they'll meet *my* needs. If, at some future date, someone wants to backport new PostgreSQL features to my implementation; or, port my features to -CURRENT, that's entirely up to them to do so -- without it impacting *my* efforts, time table, etc.

Exactly. I spend $15-70K/year on tools. Because I *don't* want to ever be wondering why a *tool* doesn't do what I expect it to do. Saving a few dollars (or, even a few tens of kilodollar) doesn't make sense when my reputation and a client's *product* (plus his reputation) are on the line.

I did projects 30 years ago that FOSS software *still* isn't up to the task to address! Let alone do so efficiently and with minimal effort.

[Don Y]

I don't get suckered into this sort of "endless maintenance". Decided what you want, now. If you don't know, then *think* about it, talk to your salespeople (surely THEY are talking to your customers?), look at your competitors, etc. *You* are the best judge of your market AND your company (including its commitment *to* that market).

[If you just want to give lip service to claiming that you're committed to delivering The Best Quality, Leading Edge Products, Best Service, etc. than *you* should know the hollowness of those promises]

I can tell you what's possible/affordable. I can refine your UI/UX to make it more consistent or efficient. I can design for future enhancement. But, I have NO DESIRE to perform those future enhancements. Nor, argue with you as to what forms they might take, when they might want to be introduced, how they will compete with previous offerings, etc.

That's "work" (boring). Just like disciplining a child.

[Don Y]

Or, George W based on George HW. One was apparently an intelligent individual!

(I guess that speaks to the fallibility of genetics!)

[rbowman]

I never had much use for the family, starting with Prescott.

[rbowman]

Let's not even go there.

[Scott Lurndal]

Wrote mainframe operating systems for a bunch of years until the company (Unisys nee Burroughs) stopped new development in 1992. The last of the systems was retired in 2010 and now is a working exhibit at the Living Computer museum in seattle (although the card readers were long since retired).

[Don Y]

I think most clients/customers *know* what they want. But, they haven't "sat down" to actually "put it into words". I.e., if *you* can get them to focus on this as a task, you can usually lead them through all of the choices to a definitive statement of need. And, they will actually be happy/confident with that end result.

They just don't know how to do it themselves!

[Robert Green]

I think it just turned out the PCs are a better fit for most businesses. A failed desktop CPU is a small problem, a failed mainframe CPU is a forking disaster. Keeping a "hot spare" server on line was a lot cheaper than dealing with a failed mainframe.

What I find remarkable is that we're gradually moving back to the mainframe terminal model with the cloud. That is until one day the cloud crashes and crashes hard. I'll bet there are teams in China, Russia and elsewhere working hard to make that happen. )-:

Here's a heart-chilling story about vulture capitalism and beans. (Cache version since the main Forbes URL didn't work).

[Robert Green]

Yes, that's why you have to read through the reviews to determine which were written by idiots and thus can be written off. Other favorites include people who clearly bought the wrong product and those that had no idea how to install or setup up the product they are reviewing.

[Robert Green]

It's like the US Clinton/Bush fascination. We seem to like our political dynasties and do exactly what it seems your compatriots do. Judge a son based on the father (or brother or wife, etc).

[Robert Green]

The apple never falls far from the tree but some of them rot faster than others!

[Robert Green]

I agree. I have a co-branded (both names on the lid) HP/Compaq laptop that I put on ice because they didn't make a lot of them. And because it barked like a dog it was so slow. Maybe my heirs can cash in on it on "Pawn Stars

2060."