From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00, REPLYTO_WITHOUT_TO_CC autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 101deb,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid101deb,public X-Google-Thread: fdb77,c9f2b97a84c48976 X-Google-Attributes: gidfdb77,public X-Google-Thread: 10a146,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid10a146,public X-Google-Thread: 1158e3,c9f2b97a84c48976 X-Google-Attributes: gid1158e3,public X-Google-Thread: 1073c2,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid1073c2,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,23963231b5359f74 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-06-14 13:25:46 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!sn-xit-02!supernews.com!newsfeed.direct.ca!look.ca!newshub2.rdc1.sfba.home.com!news.home.com!news1.rdc1.bc.home.com.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Roedy Green Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,ccomp.lang.clarion,comp.lang.java.programmer,comp.lang.pl1,comp.lang.vrml,comp.lang.java.advocacy Subject: Re: Market pressures for more reliable software Organization: Canadian Mind Products Reply-To: roedy@mindprod.com Message-ID: <407iitsqevc9j85mcuadk4ha392ega7jmj@4ax.com> References: <3B1FE1FE.B49AE27F@noaa.gov> <9fotpi$4k6$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <3b24dc21$1@news.tce.com> <3B25D5FB.15C9B240@dresdner-bank.com> <9g5as6$hbq$1@magnum.mmm.com> <9g5ipg$roq$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <9g614i$at4$1@magnum.mmm.com> <9g7r02$mni$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <9g840k$qjt$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <40gfitgrvd8cgu27r3vfib6eptmapb3pfl@4ax.com> <3b28b7a7$4$fuzhry$mr2ice@va.news.verio.net> X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.8/32.548 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 20:25:41 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.76.128.193 X-Complaints-To: abuse@home.net X-Trace: news1.rdc1.bc.home.com 992550341 24.76.128.193 (Thu, 14 Jun 2001 13:25:41 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001 13:25:41 PDT Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:8750 comp.lang.java.programmer:76439 comp.lang.pl1:1040 comp.lang.vrml:3810 comp.lang.java.advocacy:21143 Date: 2001-06-14T20:25:41+00:00 List-Id: On Thu, 14 Jun 2001 09:09:59 -0400, "Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz" wrote or quoted : >>3. Consumer Reports so that new software is much less a pig in a >>poke. > >That would help if CU had a clue about computers. Every >computer-related review of theirs that I've read has been seriously >flawed at best. You need something like CR though to avoid the problem of refraining from giving the dirt to avoid hurting advertisers. Perhaps there will be a way of organising reports from the field from ordinary folk that are hard to forge. But even then, you really need one person looking at all the packages side by side, who represents a typical user. So often the reviewer has no idea what is important since he has never used such a package in production. They get hypnotised by cute features. There are several TV shows now that talk about software. One of them seems to be on nearly all the time on Shaw Cable. The guy wings it and tends thus to be unusually honest. I was hired once by such as a TV show, Dotto on Data, as a "regular" columnist, On my first live show I took a strip out of Compuserve. That was my last show. It turned out Compuserve was one of the sponsors. For more detail, please look up the key words mentioned in this post in the Java Glossary at: http://mindprod.com/gloss.html -- Roedy Green, Canadian Mind Products Custom computer programming since 1963. Ready to take on new work.