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Comment My predictions for IBM's technology... (Score 3, Insightful) 93


1) IBM Rational ClearCase will continue to stink
2) ClearCase users will develop blindness as a result of continued exposure
to the eye-sore that is the clearcase-ui
3) ClearCase will create a new disease in the enterprise called CC-Shingles
as it infects every application that touches it with needless process steps
4) Cubicle neighbors of CC-users will soon be donning noise-cancelling ear-muffs to block
out the loud cursing of the ClearCase users around them
5) ClearCase market share will continue to dwindle below its already measly 2 % market share
as more and more workplaces find CC to be the most dis-tasteful source control product ever.

Comment Find the Fun (Score 1) 708

If you just can find-the-fun; the skills will blossom almost with you noticing it.

I'm about your age and recently had 3 job offers to decide from. I think what made me marketable was all the fun development projects I work on outside of work.

Years ago it was text-to-speach apps, new readers, and personal search tools that I enjoyed working on. Today I'm having fun building software for home-security (facial recognition and object recognition libraries are fast maturing) and helping my neighbors set up their own home-security systems based on this stuff (for free of course).

There's so much cool stuff in OSS to learn about; you are almost crazy not to be into this stuff.

I learned a ton about MySQL when I built my first mythTV DVR; and would never want to go back to watching TV any other way.

My Rss reading project taught me a ton about XML and XML-Schema; plus it cut down on the amount of surfing I do.

For my next home project I'm probably going to build some tools for my son's MineCraft worlds.

And I can't wait to start playing with the android SDK a bit more so I port some of my favorite projects over to my tablet.

Comment Judge Penfield Jackson said it best... (Score 1) 262

The original ant-trust breakup judge, Penfield Jackson nailed it:

Most harmful of all is the message that Microsoft's actions have conveyed to every enterprise with the potential to innovate in the computer industry. Through its conduct toward Netscape, IBM, Compaq, Intel, and others, Microsoft has demonstrated that it will use its prodigious market power and immense profits to harm any firm that insists on pursuing initiatives that could intensify competition against one of Microsoft's core products. Microsoft's past success in hurting such companies and stifling innovation deters investment in technologies and businesses that exhibit the potential to threaten Microsoft. The ultimate result is that some innovations that would truly benefit consumers never occur for the sole reason that they do not coincide with Microsoft's self-interest.

Comment sucky DVRs (Score 2, Interesting) 397

As far as I can tell; no TV service provider makes a DVR as awesome as my MythTV box. Once you've got automatic commercial skip -- you never want to go back. Naturally, this means I only get OTA local channels; but there just isn't enough decent programming on cable or satellite to take me away from automagic commercial skipping. For the few non-OTA shows I do want to watch (SCIFI stuff mostly) -- I use hulu. I've had this setup now for about 4 years and have saved a ton of dough.

Comment Re:Chinese espionage is not innocuous (Score 3, Insightful) 220

China is not trying to 'kill' America. They are simply trying to steal from it. And that potentially amounts to a slow and painful 'death'. That the author advocates being cognizant of these facts is not ignorance or racism, but rather prudence. Like all facts, they must be balanced with others, for a wise perspective to take form; but surely the scale of Chinese espionage is something all of us can see as a significant problem.

Comment Re:Hi, Summary: RTFA -- one paper was asked for (Score 1) 296

Wish I had found that article before I posted the question. Thanks for sharing it. But then, if I had found that article -- I wouldn't have needed to 'ask slashdot', would I?

Unfortunately, while the article you reference refers to a whitepaper and a presentation made by Scott McNealy, those materials are not published anywhere that I could find. If you know where they are -- please tell.

The need for a federal CIO is certainly a good part of the discussion, too. That there is not a federal CIO is very strange indeed. It sounds as though Scott did get his chance to make the pitch for using OSS to build vendor neutral enterprise environments. I hope that message doesn't get drowned out by the lobbyists.

Comment Re:Do Some Research!!! (Score 1) 296

I did some research. Actually quite a lot. If you read the title of the second link you referenced above it says:

"Sun's McNealy Advises Obama Administration on Open Source".

Even if we assume advising the administration is simply just writing a white paper, the question still remains where is that white paper?

The reason I posted the question to 'Ask Slashdot' is that question has not, in fact, been answered.

Whatever did in fact happen, the Obama administration clearly has forged ahead with its use of open source.

On whitehouse.gov alone:

- Drupal for Content Management
- Solr/lucene for search
- apache web server
- redhat OS for servers

Submission + - What Happened to Obama's Open Source Adviser (whitehouse.gov)

gov_coder writes: Back in January of 2009, various new articles announced that former SUN CEO, Scott McNealy was to become the Obama administration's Open Source Technology adviser. Currently, however, a search for Scott on the whitehouse.gov website yields zero results. Searching a bit more — I found that Scott is currently working on CurriWiki, a kind of wikipedia for school curriculum. So my question is what happened? Did some lobbyist block the appointment? Did Scott decide his other activities were more important? Scott, if you are out there — please tell us what happened. There are many people working in government IT, such as myself, who were really excited about the possibilities of an expanded role for open source software in government, and are now wondering what went wrong.

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