I can't speak for why businesses choose their platforms, but as a programmer, starting with Visual Studio 2005 -- I finally feel like I'm in the proper development environment after programming for 35 years. 1) There's true integration -- if I need to create a class (and I have full OOP, not the sorta OOP you get in PHP) I can create a class, basically on-the-fly, and it will be immediately available to code that is calling it. Any mods are immediately available, with no gyrations or extra mechanics to link things up. It is an extremely productive environment. 2) There are so many well-built ready-made classes available, I can concentrate on the application without getting side-tracked building a software library. Starting with FORTRAN, I've built these types of libraries with each new platform, but in VS in most cases I don't need to. (How many times have I programmed a Shell Sort over the last 3 decades?) Many of these classes are quite sophisticated btw, a lot more than sorts. My specialty is systems analysis (mostly business systems) and applications -- I can stick to that instead of spending days researching other specialties. 3) Debugging is pretty amazing -- stepping into or around calls etc -- plus if I want to try out some code I can exercise pretty much any code I want at a breakpoint. It's just so simple! That's the thing -- it's simple. I just write code now. I don't see programmers using VB to write a generic app like Office, but for business apps it's great.

Anyone have any feedback on Resco or ComponentOne?

Do you have a link for the NETcf 3.5 info?

Wow! Do I need to respond to this? I think it's just supporting my point.

Jasmine2501 wrote:

HISTORY being the operative term there. I have never owned a slave, never been a slave, never SEEN a slave, and neither have you. Stop whining about things that happened a long time ago and have no bearing on today. It's an excuse... "oh I can't get a good job because of 300 years of slavery"... WHAT THE f***???! Bull sh*t. You can't get a job because of what you are choosing to do right now, not because of anything that happened lots of years ago. Seriously... stop bitching about it because nobody cares anymore. Divergent history doesn't mean a damn thing RIGHT NOW! It is history. "Stop crying over spilled milk" and all those cliches. Point number two is this: this joke actually points out one way that black people work very hard to perpetuate racism in this country. They CHOOSE to speak a different language from the rest of us! Why? Because they don't know English? No, it's because they WANT to separate themselves from the rest of society. It is completely hypocritical to want to be separate and equal. Decide what you want... either become proud generic Americans like the rest of us, or EXPECT to be treated differently. Honestly... are we adults here or not? Point number three is this: if you can't laugh at yourself, then you can't laugh at anyone else either, and that makes for a pretty sad life. There is a thing called humor, and it's not designed to illicit this kind of response. It is supposed to be funny. If you don't find it funny, don't laugh... but don't act as if someone is Hitler himself because they told a joke. It is a f****ing joke, ok? Look it up. "Quality Software since 1983!" http://www.smoothjazzy.com/ - see the "Programming" section for freeware tools and articles.

History then is inertia now. And don't give me this "If I can do it, so can they." You have absolutely no idea. Your 3rd point -- that it's just a joke -- seems to be contradicted by your 1st and 2nd points. You seem very angry at African-Americans. Doesn't sound like you're joking to me. It sure is interesting to see what's coming out of this board.

I certainly wished I had never seen it. It ticked me off too much to ignore unfortunately.

sirius-black wrote:

mobilemobile wrote: A) Blondes can change their hair color. Michael Jackson changed his colour. mobilemobile wrote: B) More than 300 years of slavery and repression. Can't see the connection with MS Word, but then I try to get on with my life without too many PC agendas. Black people actually have a sense of humour because they are, after all, just human.

Some things are just about PC, and some things aren't. I'm thinking this isn't just PC. I have to say, this board seems to have a not very diverse demographic. Perhaps that's why this joke is OK here.

TomGarth wrote:

Wasted space. Tom Garth Developer R. L. Nelson and Associates, Inc., Virginia

Tom, why not be more specific?

string name = "" wrote:

I see it as a double standard when black people can make rap music about killing white people and it is not called racist and you can have things like the UNCF, but whenever white people make jokes about them people like you just whine "RACISM INJUSTICE SLAVERY "

The point would be that all black people don't write or listen to rap music etc. There's a lot of black people who are totally against the more negative content in rap. But thanks for this post -- you've made things a lot clearer about the intent of your initial post.

Ed Noell wrote:

Your insensitivity is stunning. Don't you think the butt of a joke is going to be hurt by it regardless of the amount of "history" there is behind it? So arguing that a certain class is more affected by a joke based on the amount of "history" is a null argument. I'm certain that the person who's on the end of the joke doesn't feel any better or worse because of the "history". Being the butt of a joke ALWAYS hurts! And if you wan't to point out the amount of history a certain class has, take a look at the Jewish religion, or the Irish. The Jews have been persecuted 2000 years and the Irish 800 years. Yet people like you think nothing of making jokes about them. And I'm certain that it hurts them just as much as it would hurt a black person to be the butt of a joke. So when you get down to it, all classes ARE the same. YOU just have to be sensitive enough to the position of the person who's the butt of the joke to see it, and obviously you aren't.

A) I don't make jokes about Jewish or Irish people. Besides, I'm Irish on my father's side, and Jewish on my mother's side, so I'd just be attacking myself. Nice touch, though, accusing me of something where you've never seen it. It's funny you picked my two halves. B) The first I ever heard of "blonde jokes" was when I started dating a blonde woman, who had a ton of them. I have another blonde friend who also tells them -- she was an executive VP of a union, she's been to DC to lobby Senators etc. I'm pointing this out because they're both smart women. I still don't make blonde jokes. I'm uncertain of their negative effects, but I get the feeling it's not considered by blondes to reach the level of racism. C) Actually, I think you're making my point. Blonde people, as far as I know, were not persecuted like blacks, Jews or the Irish. I think a common thread in those 3 groups is that they have been segregated in some way -- blondes have not be segregated. In fact the perfect support for my argument is to include all 3 groups in the discussion. Thanks. You know, as I typing this, I'm thinking -- geez, isn't this obvious???

I see that injustice bores you. Not a surprise to me.

Ed Noell wrote:

It's obvious to me that you can't explain anything, regardless of whether you need to or not. In the same sentence, you say that all classes are the same, then you say that they aren't. Make up your mind which you think it is. And for me, this is the end of the flame war.

No, silly, I was saying that your proposal is that both classes are the same, which I disagreed with. See, here's my sentence: "This is not a theoretical argument -- one class is the same as another -- these two groups of people have had a wildly divergent history in this country." Clearly I'm stating that the theoretical argument is "one class is the same as another" which is your position; I then rebut this by pointing out that their experiences are vastly different.

kjude wrote:

get a life - its just a joke (altho i agree that 'word for rappers' may have been a wiser choice of title) ive seen 'word for glaswegians' and 'word for geordies' before too, and they're at least as offensive as that.

Sorry, I have to speak up when something this offensive occurs. I'm not sure what the dynamic is in the UK -- that is, I don't understand how offensive jokes about "glaswegians" are, I don't know the history or the current socio-economic situation -- but in the US this type of humor, which was here presented as representing all black people, is unacceptable in normal public discourse. Anyone who is familiar with, among other things, the disaster in New Orleans during and after Katrina, would understand that such topics in the US are beyond the hurt of the words only, that the words represent an attitude that stills exists in a reasonably large portion of the American population.

Ed Noell wrote:

There is no difference between blonde jokes and black jokes.

I disagree. That would be ignoring 300+ years of American history. This is not a theoretical argument -- one class is the same as another -- these two groups of people have had a wildly divergent history in this country. Really, I can't believe that I have to explain this.

Ed Noell wrote:

I get it. It's not okay to make fun of black people, but it is okay to make fun of blondes. Do I detect a double standard here? I think the Politically Correct thing has gone WAY too far.

Let's do a test, OK? Suppose I send a copy of this thread to CodeProject.com's advertisers. I wonder whether they'd pull advertising because of the blonde jokes or the black jokes. I don't think they'd be too worried about the blonde jokes. This idea that you can't tell the difference is just an excuse for unacceptable behavior.

Unbelievable! I can't believe that you people don't realize how this part of the thread could be seen as racist, whether it's intentional or not. Now we're getting Ebonics jokes?? This is sickening.

A) Blondes can change their hair color. B) More than 300 years of slavery and repression.

Whoever thinks this is just downright offensive, raise your hand. Cause I find it very offensive. Maybe if you had said MS Word for rappers. In any case, on very thin ice with this one, it would seem to me.

Thanks for the reply. Probably not a bad idea -- I've done a lot of .NET but I know there are a lot of holes in my knowledge. Steve

When you say the cert cost $5K, what are you paying for? Just curious, Steve