OK, before the conspiracy theorists on this board start coming out of the woodwork, let's try to keep this in perspective: they were drunks -- they deserved it!
Two trips to Auschwitz this year, my friend. I was responding -- in a perverse and ironic fashion -- to this meme that I hear oft repeated that the US gov't wouldn't conspire to kill its own people ...
40 years! I will never wrap my brain around this one. And no, I don't mean to say "that's just as bad as the Nazis". But still. 40 years. So much for rather hideous crap being impossible to keep secret, right? I can't help but think, if something like this can stay secret for 40 years, real horrid geopolitical stuff involving sending people to war based on deception, and pluging a country into debt to fleece them, would stay secret for much longer EZ PZ. Which doesn't prove anything of course, other than that "something like this is impossible to keep secret" seems to be wishful thinking.
While the Tuskegee experiment followed the natural progression of syphilis in those already infected, in Guatemala [US Public Health Service] doctors deliberately infected healthy people (having just defeated the Nazis).
speaking of nazis: I guess they would have been delighted to see the way for example people with Down's syndrome get removed before they are even born. And the way it is done voluntarily. Same disrespect, new wrapping. Instead of "to the greater good of the people" it is now "their parents right to decide."
(Startup lesson: Don't underestimate marketing. It might be the difference between "hero" and "villain".)
I, for one, am not worried; especially b/c "true innovation" is an entirely subjective quality, and even if
we could agree on a comprehensive definition agreeable to all camps, the effect of innovation is not necessarily salutary. I think it's important to point out that
creativity, 'constructive' engineering endeavors included, is literally destructive. You understand probably better than I that nothing that gets designed today by a reputable engineer is done so w/o giving consideration
to its ecological impact. From my perspective, this is where true innovation needs to start, in cultivating a deep understanding of how we fit into the earth's ECOSYSTEM and cultivating technologically appropriate responses to the same.
On a side note, I also think you highly underestimate the technological advances that continue to be made under the infrastructural hood of the internet, b/c it's almost completely transparent. iPhone apps and websites in and of themselves may not be a big deal, but the growing scale of digital distribution channels and the level and scope of our interconnectedness certainly is. Not to mention, managing this growth in a way that is environmentally sustainable? Not a trivial engineering problem, and, in my estimation one of pressing concern...
I'm delving into learning Polish myself but have been taking mostly a whole language, immersion approach. For example, when I was in Krakow I bought myself a book on CD and the book itself, so I can 'read' along as I listen. I use translation tools to put selected passages into English. I also spend time listening to Polish radio. I know at some point I will have to develop some discipline about tackling grammar in a systematic fashion the way you are doing, but for the moment I guess I'm content to as much as possible to get a feel for the language. Japanese is my second language and its challenges are almost completely different... anyway, good luck!
It turns out that the obstacles are the same for both: tonal inflection. Most people are familiar with this fact as it pertains to Chinese and many of the languages of southeast Asia (Thai, Vietnamese, Cantonese et al) but remain completely unaware that it also a core feature of the languages of Scandinavia, Danish included. btw, Google translate does an excellent job translating Chinese (but a pretty terrible job with a superficially related language like Japanese). It turns out Chinese and English word order are the same.
I'm glad someone has addressed this work-life balance canard. I would go further: getting hard things accomplished tends to take over one's life, and I don't think there's any way around it. Unless, of course, you live in Norway...
I also think humans on an individual basis are inherently unbalanced; that's why we're social creatures.
As much as I respect John Carmack, I have to say that I'm a little disappointed that he is rehashing this meme of software development not being a science... OK, wonderful, the state of the art in his shop doesn't rise to the level of being a consistently reproducible, measurable process, but that doesn't mean that this is a permanent condition or that its an insurmountable one.
I didn't get the same impression that you got. To me, Carmack is saying that the biggest thing to focus is how to enforce the known best practices. That we need to understand the social aspects of software development well enough to reap the benefits of improvements in the engineering side. There is science involved in that, but it is mainly stuff from the social sciencies.
Mac OS X: Avadis Tevanian - B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Rochester, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University
Python: Guido van Rossum - masters degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Amsterdam
Ruby on Rails: David Heinemeier Hansson - bachelor's degree in Computer Science
Ruby: Yukihiro Matsumoto - He graduated with an information science degree from University of Tsukuba
Linux: Linus Torvalds - master's degree in computer science from NODES research group
SpaceX: Elon Musk - From the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he received an undergraduate degree in Economics, and stayed on another year to finish a second bachelor's degree in physics.
There are software engineers, and then there are software "engineers". Just because because of their jobs involve programming does not make them all the same. Just like how using CAD doesn't automatically make you an engineer.
There are definitely software endeavors and jobs that can be called works of engineering. And then there are those in the grey areas, and then there are those which are not.
I bought the ipad on a total whim and have been repaid many times over by the enjoyment it continues to provide. I'm an old-school musician from the days when sounds were 'etched' on analog tape and I can tell you that as far as I'm concerned, it is a GREAT device for making music and one that is only going to get better as software evolves to exploit the full potential of its touch panel.
I also recently took it to Poland for a month and used it to compile a hundred pages of typed and handwritten notes and video footage--all the while using it to navigate my way around the unfamiliar terrain. I keep being surprised by my little sidekick's range of uses and flexibility...
