IT is a critical part of our society and the Help Desk is like first responders (fire, police, ambulance) for other emergencies. I work for the City of Calgary and have wondered if an IT crest-emblazoned collared shirt similar to police or fire would be helpful. I'm not sure, but a crest with a logo / coat of arms that isn't tacky that is put together in a pseudo-military style shirt could look nice, however, given the general tendency towards pear-shaped employees in IT, this may not come off too well...and I can hear it now 'Here come the muffin-tops!'

I hate the fact that there is SO much intermediation between the keyboard and the actual machine in our current computing environment (when it comes to teaching the fundamentals of computer programming). I doubt that our programming models will ever actually return to the intimate connection to hardware of the 80s, which is fine, but when it comes to teaching the fundamentals of the interaction between the instructions and the actual machine / chips there is a lot less between you and the machine when developing in an 8-bit world. A single wrong character can bring the whole system to a halt, or cause really unexpected behaviours that are often not seen in our compiled / checked / verified modern programming environments. There is also a lot less help from the system in developing, so if you do take to it, it is because you enjoy the challenge despite the obsticles and clear limitations of 20-year-old hardware.

I've built up a 'lab' with old Atari, and Commodore 8-bit machines. My son is learning Atari and Commodore Basic and Atari LOGO. For Christmas he wrote a Christmas greeting in Atari LOGO, which really required him to dig in to recursion and integrating the application's behaviour in to an internal mental model, so I'd call this approach a success.

I find it interesting to see the comments on PYGAME here...I'll have to investigate as eventually I'll want him to move to the next level where he is using 'modern' languages once he groks the basics and wants to do something that he can share with his peers via email.

Actually, isn't the BEST shape the Buckyball?

When you look at it, this is a PERFECT way to mine data...give people a way to store and move data FOR FREE, and they will. You tell them that you will mine and retain that data, but most (99.9999999999%) never read the EULA or TOS docs and don't care. But what the NSA, er Google is doing is slowly building up Big Brother. With automatic facial recognition now working with Picasa and Google where (take a cellphone picture of a thing, like a bridge, and submit it to a Google search and it will identify the site and return info on it, while tracking that you were there!), soon your every move and relationship will be known by BB.

When you look at it, there is NO WAY that Google could be generating the revenue they claim just from 50-cent click ads. I so rarely select one so there must either be some people out there who are madly clicking on all these ads in life, or it is a scam to cover the billions of dollars poured in to this company by the NSA as a way to know all, see all and be everywhere. Don't do it too fast, or you'll raise suspicions, but keep on marching forward. The NSA has always worked its best black ops when run under the cover of legitimate business.

90% of my work has been in the Canadian Oil and Gas industry and EVERY company that I've worked for has sought 'get it done' above 'do it right'. In two decades of programming both as a consultant and as an employee I've NEVER had a code review. Even during my two years of Y2K work, whatever I delivered was just fine as long as the end client was happy.

I've inherited systems where the documentation was literally four pieces of 3"x3" sticky notes that covered 'all I needed to know' about 28 in-production apps that I was now the sole supporter of. What was on those sticky notes? The user accounts and passwords for the Oracle database back-ends for the systems and the application names. As you can expect, in-code documentation was non-existent. When I attempted to improve the level of documentation for these systems (even just putting down the 'basics' of the system information on a single sheet of paper), I was threatened with dismissal for being too slow in working with these systems. The other developers who had to interface with these systems I now supported greatly appreciated this additional information as it empowered them and made their work faster, but only a few of them adopted the use of this single-page documentation solution for fear of pissing off the same management that had overseen the creation of this fiasco.

Perhaps I've just been unlucky in my career and I've only stumbled into positions where results always override process, but since I've seen it in small companies, large multinationals and in three levels of Canadian Government, so I suspect that any talk about documenting systems and truly following 'best practices' is just so much BS. What management wants is results ASAP. When things fail it isn't management's fault, yet it is management that prevents systems from being built with adequate documentation and review because that takes longer and costs more, for which they are penalized, and when systems fail, it is the programmer who is at fault, not the manager.

I figured that once I moved into management that I could become part of the solution, but then I found my VP giving me the same results pressure AND the developers who reported to me, ironically, simply wanted the code to be the documentation (The Agile 'the tests ARE the documentation' BS).

Nowadays I simply program for myself and for my direct clients, and this is the only way that I've found to be able to ensure that systems are adequately documented without encountering a fight or threats on my employment.

I'm SURE Kirk and Spock are behind this. They did an 'ok' job, but to really get things undone right they need to bring Scotty with them next time!

Since Go! is taken, what about STOP or STALL?

I would have suggested BING! (But Its NOT Go!) but it seems that someone else is using that name...

Back when Microsoft was first out selling .NET, one of the big promotions behind encouraging us to move to .NET was the 'end to .DLL Hell'. After listening to a few sessions at the TechEd event where all these sales pitches where happening, it dawned on me that Microsoft was simply replacing .DLL Hell with what could just as easily become .NET Hell. At the day's closing Q&A session I put up my hand and asked the presenters just that question. They agreed, but added, "trust us, we've learned our lessons with .DLL Hell and won't do it with .NET". Obviously the lesson wasn't fully learned!

How ironic it is that my 25 year-old Commodore 64 still blows the pants off what is touted as 'fantastic' today. Even my Atari 800 boots in less than a second. My MacBook 165 boots in about 8 seconds and powers down in 2... I have an HP DV8000 notebook running Windows 7 that boots in 'just minutes' ahh progress...sometimes you CAN beat it.

The poster of this 'article' is hardly more than a shill for the nuclear industry. What a load of crap! 'Emits virtually no CO2' - bullshit.

Everyone is castigating the Canadian Oilsands for being 'dirty oil' because of all of the pollution caused by its sourcing and refinement. When you take a FULL view of nuclear energy that INCLUDES the effort to find, mine, refine, ship, store, use, store, re-refine, store, use, and then permanently store in a 'secure' manner for tens of thousands of years, PLUS the emissions caused by the manufacture of a nuclear power plant (LOTS of CO2 in that work!) and the decommissioning and storage of THAT radioactive waste...there is FAR more CO2 emitted by nuclear than ANY OTHER form of energy on the planet!

Don't be fooled by the shills of the nuclear power industry who want to shackle us and all future generations of humanity with a toxic legacy that is a testament to our greed and laziness. If we REALLY cared about the planet and future generations we would not leave behind such a toxic legacy.

Nuclear energy is a technology from last century that we now know isn't what was promised. We no longer practice or seek alchemy because we know it is a wasted effort. We no longer practice slavery because it is morally repugnant. The truly advanced know that to seek a nuclear nirvana is both a wasted effort that has moral implications that future generations will gravely judge us by.

My sister has schizophrenia and her smoking has increased dramatically since the onset of the disease a decade ago. She is pretty much a chain-smoker now...this effect of nicotine helps to explain why she would be dedicating so much time, effort and the majority of her money to this gross practice (yellow fingers and all). With this knowledge I'm going to see what can be prescribed for her (such as a patch or nicotine gum) to help get her the aid of the drug without the cost or health risks of a cigarette-based delivery mechanism. Thanks to the poster for sharing this news!

For those of us who watched 'The Lone Gunmen' live or on DVD, you may recall that the pilot episode has the government conspiring to fly a jet airliner in to the World Trade Center. One of the Lone Gunmen is on said plane while the other two are on a computer network trying to override the 'evil government agent's actions to remotely control the plane to crash in to the building. Whenever I watch this episode on DVD it is rather chill-instilling, so close to home (They don't crash, they *just* miss hitting the building).

The REAL irony of this is that this episode aired 6 months BEFORE 9/11. So, should the TSA / NSA / FBI / Secret Service / Homeland Security / NTSB or some 'Men in Black' group go and arrest and detain the writers and producers (perhaps even the evil actors?) of this episode for doing something that *clearly* influenced the terrorists to do the deed for real?

The thought police are here...think happy thoughts...think happy thoughts!

I bought a 30gb model for far less than a comparable iPod a couple of years ago and (other than it locking up on Dec 31) it has performed quite well. I'd like to upgrade to a 120gb model, but they are priced exactly the same as iPods right now.

If Microsoft wants to win in this space it has to compete both on features AND on price, and right now Zunes are physically bigger than iPods and less supported by 3rd party add-ons. Price seems to be the only path to success in the short to medium term. Microsoft has to take it to Apple in the pocketbook, but I'm not sure it has the Ballsimer to do it.

I've used both the Zune and iTunes desktop software and the Zune product is superior to iTunes in Windows. The Zune has this 'Social' feature where you can wirelessly sync with other Zuners, but there is not a critical mass of owners, so this is a wasted feature.

So, since Microsoft doesn't seem as daring as it once was to compete to win, the Zune will likely be orphaned in 2009...which should provide a good supply of clearance 120gb models for jut $99. I'll pick up a few and be happy, cuz it works at a price that I like.