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Many years ago I worked for a building society (I think that equates to a savings and loan in USA). They had a simple solution to development. The systems analysts would talk to the business managers and figure out what was necessary for the programmers. They then wrote a detailed and fairly logical specification of what each module should do. We (the humble coders) would then turn that into assembler code (or sometimes Cobol) and build and test (using punched card batch input). Very few projects were not delivered on time, but we knew nothing of Agile, Scrum etc. Any consultant looking at that today would probably tell us why we were doing it all wrong.
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But in that era, the people doing the coding were true professionals. And they knew what they were doing.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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Well some of them. I worked with a few who really did not justify the money they were being paid.
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In the early 80s, all the computer mags (no online fora then!) went all frothy over a program known as TLO - for "The Last One". This took "natural language" and generated BASIC code (what else?!) and took it's name as "The last program anyone would need to write". Programs were generated in response to user selecting actions from limited menus, and they could view a graphic flowchart as part of this process. After TLO of course we had 4GLs, then CASE tools. So low-code all feels a very familiar story...
Wikipedia's entry[^] for The Last One begins, ironically, with "The Last One is a computer program released in 1981 by the British company D.J. "AI" Systems. Now obsolete, ..."
This extract[^] from Personal Computer World is lovely reading.
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Just read today's version of Chef Sharkey's (Insider News) perfectly risen souffle of technical tidbits: gosh, an amoeba-foraging algorithm solves the old travelling-salesman problem in linear time; and, who can forget the recent advances in protein folding using ai modelling running on gonzo hardware ?
I go from euphoric to gob-smacked to homicidal, and back, as I absorb the latest innovations at the same time I try to use another MS Preview of the WinForms UI in 5.0 that crashes on the simplest test.
But, then ... (drum-roll) ... I stumble over yet another triumph like this one: [^], and, after the goose-bumps go away, I slide into blissful numbness.
«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali
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yep you read something just absolutely awesome someone has done. And then you get to try to figure out some shumucks vba code from 15 years that your company doesn't want to give up because it works in that one excel sheet.
To err is human to really elephant it up you need a computer
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Many of our amazingly practical breakthrough inventions are actually just mimicking nature. Velcro is a good example.
Real programmers use butterflies
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I think of my personality as an unreliable impersonation of nature
«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali
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honey the codewitch wrote: Velcro is a good example.
First time I saw Velcro I was hooked!
If you can't laugh at yourself - ask me and I will do it for you.
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Is your idea of a perfect date yyyy/MM/dd?
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Inherently sortable.
The only correct way!
Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello
Never stop dreaming - Freddie Kruger
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Really, year post seem seemed a bit week; that March I can say.
- Balboos 2020.12.11
- Q.E.D.
Ravings en masse^ |
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"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I like mine under a palm tree.
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mine would come off of a tree. Or perhaps when younger and dumber out of the swedish bikini team.
To err is human to really elephant it up you need a computer
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For one of the best examples of how computer charts and graphics especially when animated can reveal data. Check out the following link. I know the message is grim but for a moment think about the technical aspects of how any chart can show multiple aspects from the same data. How it is more powerful than just tables of numbers.
They say a picture is worth a thousand works. A moving must be worth a million.
The programmer that did this just earned his years salary. Maybe several years.
https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/how-america-gave-up/index.html[^]
Now we can go back to the grim message.
So many years of programming I have forgotten more languages than I know.
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The data is not even correct. I looked at Georgia and it said there were no deaths until almost October.
I'm not sure I'm getting the point you are trying to make.
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If each line represents a county and every so many pixels high represents a number of deaths then it may appear zero. It is more a mater of scaling than incorrect data.
The point is how much data was presented to you in such a short time. Think about having to do this program. Think about even coming up with the idea in the first place.
If you do not get the point you have never spent hours on doing graphs and charts.
So many years of programming I have forgotten more languages than I know.
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michaelbarb wrote: every so many pixels high represents Oh, I typed in Georgia where it says "Search for your state" and there it had a line that showed 0 until October.
michaelbarb wrote: how much data was presented to you in such a short time. Ya, it's OK I guess. I have done lots with charts and this is just another one in the long list of charts.
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you know it shows deaths per 100,000, rounded (or possibly truncated) to an integer? See the blips in April & May.
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mngerhold wrote: rounded Down to 0 apparently.
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I posted this to another group. Someone reminded me of a saying. "A chart or graph is where data becomes art."
So many years of programming I have forgotten more languages than I know.
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At the risk of turning this into a political discussion...(and yeah, I know, if I'm already feeling compelled to put in this disclaimer, it probably already is). But if we can get even a semi-coherent discussion going, I'm willing to risk getting this locked down/deleted/whatever and I'll refrain from further voicing my opinion on this matter. With this out of the way...
There's been so many discussions about discrepancies between in the ways different states or even entire countries test and report infection rates and hospitalizations and the fact that some people are completely asymptomatic and false positives and such, all numbers are questionable when you're comparing apples and oranges. As developers, we should all understand (I hope) that when you're working with data, all of your data points have to be measuring the same thing, otherwise, you end up with garbage in, garbage out. This is how one can make the claim that "the more people you test, the more infections you're going to detect, duh!". People can skew, twist and spin numbers to fit whatever agenda they're trying to push.
I'm absolutely NOT denying there's a pandemic out there and people are dying from it.
But what I'd like to see is a graph, over time, showing the total number of deaths--IRRELEVANT OF THE CAUSE--plotted year-over-year. This, we can get accurate numbers for. If it's "normal" for [x] many people to die in any given month of any given year, then I want to see those figures for a number of years. Then lets compare this baseline with 2020. IMO, how much 2020 deviates from that baseline (x+n) would be a much better indicator of the pandemic's cost in human life.
Yes, that would include deaths related to the increase in stress, depression, suicides, people avoiding the hospital out of fear of getting infected, etc. But isn't that the figure we should be trying to find out anyway?
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