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The European Space Agency is hosting a competition to find a snazzy new name for its ExoMars rover, Sky News reports. The rover will be deployed to Mars in 2020, so the winner would be playing a small role in the progress of space exploration. They probably won't accept Rover McRoverface will they?
Le Rover? La Rover?
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Kent Sharkey wrote: They probably won't accept Rover McRoverface will they?
That was my first though too, but apparently they've learned that lesson already:
But don't think "Spacey McSpaceFace" is a goer because this is not an online poll. All ideas will be put before an expert panel and it is they who will make the final choice.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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I suppose "I can't believe it made it" is too long.
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How about calling it a Cat. And once Curiosity finds it, its game over !!!
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‘1337d00m’ is a new and challenging way to play the first person shooter. 0_o
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Everyone wants to know how long a project will take. Here’s how to provide managers with a prediction that’s both accurate and imprecise, using cycle time and counting stories, along with advice on when to avoid estimation altogether. "When it's done, it's done. And no one will know until it's done."
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Just give the them the cable guy range estimate. The project will be done sometime between now and when I retire.
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The dept. head asked me and another fellow recently to provide a confidence factor that something that's taken a year and half to develop will be ready to ship in Aug. I replied with basically:
Well, if you don't want a number that's pulled out of our arses, the typical way to do this in a professional software development company would be to use some measurable analysis:
Do the unit tests pass? Fail. We don't have unit tests because nobody writes them and I personally conducted a couple training seminars for the developers on how to write them in VS, but nobody took up the banner (nobody, as in management)
Does the app meet the requirements? Fail. There was a one line requirement "send auto insurance policy changes to Verisk."
Have the code reviews all passed? Fail. What's a code review?
etc...
I was only slightly nicer in the actual email. I need to find another job.
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Tests - what tests, management will not release the resources to build test, just get the job done, NOW!
Requirements, what requirements the ones we have get morphed every time management has a meeting
Code review- bah I don't want to have to go through some other sod crap - again.
I'm retiring so part time stuff done from home is now an option.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Everywhere the same crap...
When writing tests and thinking of readable code makes a developer much faster than his colleagues, what does happen? Will the proof of enhanced productivity convince the other guys?
No, not at all. Bernie, you are an exception, you are so fast not because of tests etc, but because you are an exception...
Oh sanctissimi Wilhelmus, Theodorus, et Fredericus!
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Bernhard Hiller wrote: Bernie, you are an exception, you are so fast not because of tests etc, but because you are an exception... Hmmm. Trying to reignite the war about exceptions being faster?
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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Here's an analogy that might work for managers; buy a paper book with crossword-puzzles, and ask him/her for an estimate on when the book will be finished.
Also not part of my job to do estimates, that's a managers job. I work with code, not with estimates. Let the herder decide how long the sheep needs to grow its wool.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Man I know that feeling, some improvements where I'm working recently, but I've been in exactly that position too many times.
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."
Alan Kay.
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Microsoft is hoping to repair its tarnished image with consumers by trying to position its cross-platform apps and services as making them more productive. And here I was hoping for an update to Microsoft Milk Churning, Professional Edition
I think I have a little bit of "Modern Eyerolling Services" happening now.
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So is Microsoft bringing back Windows 1998 cause we miss the modern life ?
Caveat Emptor.
"Progress doesn't come from early risers – progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." Lazarus Long
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Neural networks have garnered all the headlines, but a much more powerful approach is waiting in the wings. AI, red in tooth and claw
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Hmm, video games generally involve shooting things. So, is MIT creating autonomous AI weapons?
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In the past, the security researchers have come across cases where notorious hackers were able to use EXIF data of images to hide malicious code. EVIL level: kind of sloppy
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Google has been willing to acknowledge the existence of its Fuchsia operating system for a while, and has made rough versions available on everything from mobile devices to PCs. Just in time for a new government to fine them
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I love the fact that the Update effectively demolishes the whole story. That's class journalism.
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."
Alan Kay.
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Engadget is slowly turning into Gartner (except without all the money from their cons reports.)
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Its new open-source software will help developers experiment with the machines, including Google’s own super-powerful quantum processor. Except for the bit about the quantum computer
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Next week MIT will announce that it's new software will help spaceships go to Warp 11.
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Warp 10 not fast enough for you? (what with it being instantaneously at all locations in the Universe).
(Full Nerd Mode activated)
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."
Alan Kay.
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Telling the time is going to be a whole lot more accurate. It's about time
Too hot for a coat, so I'll just leave then?
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