Posts by Ape TimeLord

Novell owns Unix copyrights after all

Spelling - cheque/check

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=check&searchmode=none

check (n.) Look up check at Dictionary.com

c.1314, from O.Fr. eschequier "a check at chess," from eschec, from V.L. *scaccus, from Ar. shah, from Pers. shah "king," the principal piece in a chess game (see shah). When the king is in check a player's choices are limited. Meaning widened from chess to general sense of "adverse event, sudden stoppage" and by c.1700 to "a token used to check against loss or theft" (surviving in hat check) and "a check against forgery or alteration," which gave the modern financial use of "bank check, money draft" (first recorded 1798), probably influenced by exchequeur. Check-up "careful examination" is 1921, Amer.Eng., on notion of a checklist of things to be examined.

So it looks like cheque was the original?

Sucky software? So add a virgin

new verses old

What I see happening is that younger less experienced programmers are playing with the software. The older programmers either move to a different field or up the ladder. There is a constant drive to employ juniors to do seniors work. After all, once a developer has done 5+years they are not that interested in trying new tricks but getting the older ones working.

Agile and extreme programming are examples of returning to the good old days of developer/user communication - neither understands each other.

I think it is time IT grew up and took notice of how the Civil Engineering industry works. Juniors do not do critical design - and all of their design for 5+ years is meticulously checked by senior engineers.

Most of the code reviews I have witnessed miss the point - is it what the user wants? - 'no it is what they are getting - users do not know what they want'.

DrinkorDie warez leader jailed for 51 months

Gutless Aussies - concur

I agree with you completely.

I now live in the UK with no wish to go back to a country with a spineless government. BTW Labour is just as bad.

The USA has been meddling in Australian politics since 1945.

No Australian politician can afford to upset USA - we still have no control over Pine Gap.

I have no trust in the USA copyright laws and their Patent system is corrupt - whoever has the most money wins - Most other countries review patents thoroughly and and only award if the patent is truly valid - I have tried and it was quite an arduous task in Australia.

As someone else pointed out quite correctly, illegal copies of software increase the install base and therefore profits.

I am in IT and shy away from all things USA - I prefer not to use Microsoft products as they are not reliable. MS Windows is not multi-tasking, not multi-user and causes many problems because of their archaic operating system (MVS?? is older and less powerful than Unix).

Yes I use Ubuntu and apart from MS Project can read and write any MS format.