Comments for Mark Gregory Turansky

Comment on About Me by Colin

Colin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:50:56 +0000

Hi Mark,

I stumbled across your page searching for Java Script templates (thanks for the info.!). I’m a web newbie, trying to learn web development (ameteur level for now; possibly professional in the future). Right now I most interested in client side web development. I’m taking a HTML/CSS class at my local community college. As a professional developer, do you have advice on best ways to learn web development? I’m thinking of taking a begining java script and/or PHP course. I’ve also heard Python is good to learn. I appreciate any advice you have based on your experience.

Thanks

Colin

Comment on The “I think I’m off the air but the mic is hot” mic by Internet Banking

Internet Banking — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:03:25 +0000

Just killing some in between class time on Stumbleupon and I found your entry. Not typically what I like to read about, but it was absolutely worth my time. Thanks.

Comment on Linux is killing Solaris by Paul

Paul — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:02:33 +0000

@foosel
“Solaris feels evil: Behaving and looking similar enough to suggest being what you know and are used
to, but then throwing your ?du -h? or ?ps axvf? right back into your face in the worst of moments”

du -h works fine for me. I try to make my PATH as POSIX as possible, using ‘getconf PATH’, so du picks up /usr/xpg4/bin/du.

To be honest, if I were too dim to be able to set my PATH properly, I think I’d lay of any sort of posting of this nature until I’d figured it out.

As for “ps axvf?, what an abomination! This is Linux trying to be POSIX, BSD and Uncle Tom Cobbley wrt standards. Solaris has /usr/ucb/ps for BSD style ps and /usr/bin/ps for POSIX ps. Neither is a mish-mash of both standards, and neither supports the tree formatting. And what do you know, Linux ps doesn’t support -Z, so it must be just as bad.

Comment on Linux is killing Solaris by Paul

Paul — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:29:42 +0000

@sunny What a remarkably stupid and ignorant person you are.

Comment on The Global Economy is a Ponzi Scheme by Mark Gregory Turansky » The Global Ponzi Scheme revisited

Mark Gregory Turansky » The Global Ponzi Scheme revisited — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 01:56:15 +0000

[...] The Economist has an interesting article talking about the true cost of goods and services we take for granted when the environmental impact is measured and accounted for. This is also Lester Brown’s argument, which I wrote about recently. Mr. Brown calls it a Global Ponzi scheme. [...]

Comment on Terracotta Server as a Message Bus by Ronald Kurr

Ronald Kurr — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:20:09 +0000

Mark, the idea of adding a simple command socket to a headless application is brilliant. An embarrassingly simple idea that I can’t believe I never thought of myself! Many Thanks.

Comment on HOW TO: Bootstrap Java programs in isolated classloaders by Ronald Kurr

Ronald Kurr — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:16:34 +0000

Mark, I found your post interesting and thought provoking. Although many Java applications are web-based and run inside a servlet container, I’ve also seen the need for standalone headless Spring-based apps. The ability to simplify the launching program’s classpath is worth the price of admission alone. Moving the burden of creating a proper classpath from the installer into the application itself minimizes certain types of errors — “I swear didn’t touch anything. Well, I did make a minor tweek to the launch script but what harm could that do?” Kudos.

Comment on The Perils of Joel Spolsky by Mark Turansky

Mark Turansky — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:57:20 +0000

@Chris,

“continues to ding Java whenever the opportunity arises” is accurate.

Spolsky is so anti-Java that when needing a cross platform language like Java, he chose to implement “wasabi” which is a vbscript hack to generate ASP and PHP versions of a bug tracker so he could sell copies to unix shops. Selling cross platform products is smart business, but writing and supporting your own cross platform language when that’s been a long solved problem?

Comment on The Perils of Joel Spolsky by Chris

Chris — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:50:29 +0000

Mark, I don’t even think you’ve ever *really* read a Joel post. I’ve never met either one of you, I’ve never worked for either of you as well… but when you write, [Joel ] “continues to ding Java whenever the opportunity arises” well, that’s just a bunch of baloney!

Joel is NOT attacking Java, he’s attacking what has happened to contemporary computer science curriculum — BIG difference there Mark. Java is the the vehicle for the concerns Joel addresses. The implementation of Java is not necessarily the problem.

Go back, read his posts again, clear your mind, and take a deep breath.

I have the exact same frustrations as Joel does. I interview kids all the time fresh out of college and while they are good students, colleges aren’t getting it done. They don’t teach things like pointers or managing resources… and why would one have to? The common refrain I get all the time is the JVM or garbage collection takes care of it. Why would a developer concern themselves with such things? Ugh! When I asked someone recently why they used a string instead of using StringBuilder, they told me my suggestion was stupid because when a desktop comes with 3 – 4 GB or RAM, why worry about memory or performance? Where did this person go to school? A Java school.

I’m tired of giving them simple problems, in an exercise to gauge how they get things done, and seeing 400 lines of code in main(). But since that’s how the Deitel & Deitel books show it, that’s what these kids learn. They are basically memorizing the examples they download or see in a textbook and thus really have no clue what they are doing otherwise.

Unfortunately, this phenomenon has become widespread, and the Java schools are definitely to blame for it.

Heck, I love Java. I’ve worked in C++, C#, and Delphi shops too. But for reasons based upon my work, I prefer Java. And as much of a Java sock-puppet I am, I have never read one of Joel’s articles and thought, wow, this guy has it out for the language. Joel is rightfully ticked at the state of contemporary eduction.

Comment on We’re not “resources” by Steve Walter

Steve Walter — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:20:07 +0000

Sounds like Mr. Turansky doesn’t want to learn anything new. Too bad. Sometimes teams are built by making project assignments that encourage cross-functionality. What’s wrong with trying to encourage cross functionality by giving stretch assignments and trying to give skilled and talented developers experience in unfamiliar areas? Doesn’t that make the team stronger? Isn’t flexibility a good goal, and isn’t that achieved by cross functionality?
Stop perpetuating the stereotype of the ’smarter than everyone else’ developer who hides in his office, refusing to share his knowledge and skills with less experienced folks. It’s one of the reasons software engineers get such a bad rap outside of their own circles.
Talent does matter. Part of being talented is becoming skilled in as many areas as possible, so your team can be flexible and performing. A good manager will encourage that, and will try to spread the habits of a good team around.

Comment on Mr. President, please, raise my taxes by Small Business Tax Guru

Small Business Tax Guru — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:46:23 +0000

I’ve been included in taxes for longer then I care to acknowledge, both on the personal side (all my employed life-time!!) and from a legal point of view since satisfying the bar and following up on tax law. I’ve put up a lot of advice and rectified a lot of wrongs, and I must say that what you’ve put up makes perfect sense. Please continue the good work – the more people know the better they’ll be armed to handle with the tax man, and that’s what it’s all about.

Comment on The Global Economy is a Ponzi Scheme by David

David — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:53:15 +0000

Life is a Ponzi scheme. Some things more than others, but most everything is like that. Matter cannot be created or destroyed, nor can wealth.

Comment on How to recapitalize the banks without handing them money outright by Frank Manning

Frank Manning — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:51:41 +0000

great stuff here

Comment on Safety 1st made the worst plug protector ever by Sonya

Sonya — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:13:42 +0000

Thank you, I’m glad to hear that someones thinks the same thing! I just purchased these thinking this will keep my 8 month old safe, but she has discovered them on the wall and she now thinks it is the coolest thing to play with. she pulls them out with no trouble at all! I’m so mad that they would sell a product like this, you would think that they would test their products. Well I’m glad I came across this because I thought maybe it was me that was doing something wrong, surely they wouldn’t sell a product for the safety of babies that doesn’t even work, but they do! CRAZY!

Comment on The Great Indian Outsourcing is over by Bubble20

Bubble20 — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:38:52 +0000

India is a great nation.

Comment on WSDL first development? Are they crazy? by Stonie

Stonie — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:54:10 +0000

It’s callled “contract first development” and makes a lot of sense on large integrations.
Working in XSD is easy once you get the hang of it, and works across all platforms/languages etc..

http://static.springsource.org/spring-ws/sites/1.5/reference/html/why-contract-first.html
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163783.aspx

Comment on Mr. President, please, raise my taxes by William

William — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 23:00:06 +0000

Here you go… send in a few hundred extra bucks a month:

Make your check payable to the Bureau of the Public Debt, and in the memo section, notate that it is a Gift to reduce the Debt Held by the Public. Mail your check to:

Attn Dept G
Bureau of the Public Debt
P. O. Box 2188
Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188

Comment on Terracotta Server as a Message Bus by namqer

namqer — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:20:42 +0000

any chance you can make some of this very, very interesting framework public? this has the possibility of becoming a project with it’s own life (with community feedback/involvement)..

thanks for the post

Comment on Printable Design Patterns Quick Reference Cards by sacandaga

sacandaga — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 12:47:05 +0000

Thanks!

Comment on Small organic farms on the rise by Christopher Vigliotti

Christopher Vigliotti — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:10:36 +0000

Awesome. My copy of “Square Foot Gardening” will be arriving today or Monday…since fall harvest stuff needs to be planted now my plan is to check out container gardening from now until spring.