As tempting as it is to use this study as an excuse to become the bad boy of business, I'm convinced the professors have come to the wrong conclusion. Nice guys don't finish last. It just takes a while for the true value of positive, collaborative leadership to shine through.
If science tells us uncomfortable truth, then... well, too bad for science!
The solution is to start lobbying for our own laws. It's time to go on the offensive if we want to preserve what we've got. Let's force the RIAA and MPAA to use up all their political clout just protecting what they have. Here are some ideas we should be pushing for:* Elimination of software patents
* Legal fees paid by the loser in patent cases; non-practicing entities must post bond before they can file fishing expedition lawsuits
* Roll back length of copyright protection to the minimum necessary "to promote the useful arts." Maybe 10 years?
* Create a legal doctrine that merely linking is protected free speech
* And ponies. We want ponies. We don't have to get all this stuff. We merely have to tie them up fighting it, and re-center the "compromise" position
In what can be the most interesting aspect of the whole SOPA fight, the people who are building the internet prepare to go to war with “Hollywood” (i.e. large media companies). Here we have Joel Spolsky. Paul Graham came up with a call to action to startup founders.
My first reaction to ponies was allergic (What's next? Kittens, to render to whole thing laughable?), but then I realized that I'm more and more out of touch with how public debates are done these days.
Here's what you do. You come up with a cool idea of an open-source project. This becomes your company's development sandbox. Candidates are asked to then contribute to the project in some way. You want to see them code? Ask them to develop a module. You want to see them tackle a bug? Ask them to choose one from the bug-list. This works for every aspect of development work. You can design features together. You can gauge their communication skills. You can see how well they handle reviews. You can ask them to document their work and see how well they can write. But above all, you're not taking advantage of anyone, and true developers probably won't mind investing time into an open-source effort.
Interesting idea. It certainly requires more effort than just having few conversations, so I don't see it becoming a standard procedure, but it may be worth trying.
Now, in a development that could transform how viral infections are treated, a team of researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory has designed a drug that can identify cells that have been infected by any type of virus, then kill those cells to terminate the infection.
A discovery that can revolutionize medicine.
What if you were on the Starship Enterprise and the warp coil was seconds away from an anti-matter explosion and all you needed to do was invert one IF statement to save the ship. Would you use TDD for that?: Yes.
The article embodies what I see as the biggest problem with Test Driven Development's evangelism: it's full of religious zeal, but short on real-world numbers.
I would ask for proof of talent. Although a degree from an ivy league university might do the trick for some, quality experience does set the good developer apart. My developer friends have loads to show to testify for their talent. For some, from past work done, for others, from apprenticeship projects, but for all, from hands on development.
How to find a programming “friend”. Tips that, when applied in real life, would almost guarantee you would die lonely.
Don’t be too critical too early. Sometimes when you arrive on a new project, there may be things that do not make a lot of sense: a choice of tool, technology or practice that no-one appears to question but to you as an outsider seems substandard. It’s worth just hanging back on that criticism just for a couple of weeks. Ask your team mates for back story and try and get their opinions too. It’s alway worth digging around for the reasons first. Then you might be in the position to change things and make a positive contribution to the team.
Tips for programmers joining new teams.
Culture means knowing how I can find out in two minutes. Of course, nowadays I can find this kind of information on the Internet in no time. But, as I said, you never know with the Internet.
And so you don't know with the books.
Throughout the 2012 presidential campaign debates, The Times has employed a separate fact-check sidebar to assess the validity of the candidates’ statements. Do you like this feature, or would you rather it be incorporated into regular reporting?
From a top comment underneath the article: “If you actually did this, you would reclaim the purpose of print media.” Well said.
That phone also runs the Mango operating system and it’s a gorgeous device, with an elegant shell beautifully crafted from a single piece of polycarbonate plastic. The operating software is smooth and fast. In many ways the Lumia 800 was the nicest phone I’ve ever used. It makes the iPhone seem old and outdated, and makes Android phones seem big and clunky.
I'm happy to learn that soon after I left Nokia it began to slowly recover from the crisis that started roughly at the time when I joined the company.
