Whenever the topics of AI and Robotics come up, I always ask: "How much drama do you want in your life?" This type of system does exactly what needs to be done: Get food and drink from the kitchen to the guest. I don't the machine to think or feel, I need it to do stuff like clean the floors (Roomba). Your dishwasher is stationary 'robot' that cleans your dishes. You don't need it to pass judgement on your eating habits. Now, if some bright spark can figure out a system that will do the sorting, washing, drying and folding the laundry that would be amazing.
Now there's a challenge for you guys in Silicon Valley!
Amen. Tablets are great for 'consuming' data, but you can't do any real work. I bought a 'all in one' PC with a 22" screen and it's great. Using a laptop is like look through a key hole!
If this thing hits anything bulkier than a shopping cart it's a write-off. That's the problem with composite materials: They don't bend, they break!! Insurance on these will be pretty rich. (but if you have the money for this BMW I guess it's not an issue..). Still, be wary of people who think everything should be made of some super light weight composite. It's a complete mess to work with and will leave you crying even after the slightest accident.
If you have a favorite local college or university, set up a scholarship for one or more students in a department of your choice. Set something up that pays some modest interest or dividends and pay this out as a yearly scholarship to deserving students. Given the student loan situation, you would be doing something really meaningful.
I've never believed the line that Americans got tired of the Space Program. The Vietnam War was in full swing and that drew the attention away from the Space Program. Critics of the Space Program need to be reminded the US spent more in ONE YEAR fighting the Vietnam War than the ENTIRE Apollo project. What did America get out of Vietnam? Nothing be grief. 55,000+ dead, hundreds of thousands wounded and families whose lives were ruined. As well, the country was in terrible social turmoil. Kennedy was shot and his brother was killed a few years later. The Vietnam War aggravated the Civil Rights movement. With all the mess that was going on here on Earth, it must have been really hard at times to get excited about the Space Program.
The Apollo program did something great: It made us look up. It inspired us and made us proud like nothing before or since.
Whenever people talk about what a waste of money Apollo was, consider that the Vietnam War was consuming as much money in ONE YEAR than the ENTIRE Apollo program. The final Apollo missions were killed because of budget cuts to fund the Vietnam War, not because of public disinterest. The Vietnam War was front and center in most peoples' lives at that time. On top of that was the Civil Rights campaigns and urban riots. It was like the country was having a nervous breakdown. If the Vietnam War hadn't happened, things would be so much different today.
How much has your administration grown in the last 20 years? I bet there are a whole bunch of newly minted VP's or Deputy Directors that have added to the cost of education. You could easily downsize half of this top heavy nonsense and not effect teaching one iota. All these people seem to do is create busy work that creates artificial workloads for lower level administrators and front line people.
Why should this guy waste time in jail and take up resources. Too bad we don't use caning as a punishment. I bet 5 good whacks on the ass would move his brains back into his head. And if does something like that again, double it. Jail time for this is a waste.
IBM-Oracle Pact. I wonder how long this non-aggression pact will last?
This sounds suspiciously like the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. If you look it up, it had a really bad ending.
As Thomas Watson said: "Nothing happens until a sale is made". Your engineer might have to work late, but the reason he has work is due to the efforts of the sales person. I know a lot of people that hate sales work, they just want to do the technical work. Some people are great with sales work and all that goes into it.(Including some off-colour behavior) They are the people that are bring the work through the door. Sure he got paid a lot of commission, but that commission is a small fraction of the overall value of a project. His $1million dollar commission brought in tens of millions of dollars of work for dozens (maybe hundreds) of people.
Some years back I worked for a government agency and the laptops had to be fully encrypted. There was a bit of a performance lag, but it was quite stable and there were no issues. I've used Safeguard by Utimaco and again, no stability problems.
Amen. I believe the book 'Peopleware' had a section on this comparing places where employees could control their distractions vs. those who couldn't. It was no surprise that the people who had a quiet workplace were far more productive. I need quiet and I've gone in on Saturday mornings when no one was around and go more done in 5 hours than I did in the previous 5 days. I just don't get this idea that you need to be in constant collaboration with people. If the specifications and documentation are that bad, send it back up the line for clarification. You need a place to think and if you need a break, get up and walk around. Get outside and get some air. Don't sit back and waste time watching Youtube or getting on the web.
Sadly, there is this notion that people need to shove into a pile and work in some kind wide open area. I'd like someone to try this: Give 1/2 your people a real office with a door they can shut and control over distractions like turning the damn phone off. Put the other 1/2 in the typical dog-kennel style arrangement where you can hear every goddamn noise and distraction. Do this for 6 months and see who is more productive. I'll bet you can guess the answer. I just can't effing stand the wide open office cube farm. Just how much collaboration do you need?? Are the specs so lousy that you have to discuss every case or sequence? I'll bet there are a lot of people who work late or come in on weekends just to get a couple quiet hours to get some work done. If those people had some peace and quiet they wouldn't have to be at work 90 hours a week to do 25 hours of productive labor.
Who the *&^% wants to work for free?? The motivated young developers I've met lately want to code games (XNA et al) or mobile apps, especially the iPhone. I've met very very few young developers who are really motivated to develop open source programs. I can't say I blame them. Regarding Linux the OS, what's left to be solved? Does the core Linux group really need any help? Can anyone really make a meaningful contribution to Linux anymore?
People want to go where the action is. And that isn't Linux.
Thank you!
I keep telling people: When it comes to business DON'T F*CK AROUND! Get the RIGHT advice and the the tools from the pro's. If you do anything else, it will just look home made and no one will take you seriously.
http://www.junauza.com/2009/12/free-and-open-source-cad-software-for.html
You can also try VariCad at www.varicad.com
Honestly, I think it's better to pony up the cash and get version of SolidWorks. See if you can split the costs with someone else. Then you will know for sure that is can handle the file formats of the other products.
Absolutely correct! I use VMWare images of Win2k Server et al and we had to use NewSID to avoid problems. Your images have one SID so when you try and run multiple copies, (especially with a Parent/Child DC's) you get problem. For us, it happened about 50% of the time. For some reason, some students could make all kinds of copies of Win2kserver, run them and have no problems.
I run VMWare at a college and we typically have the students run a scenario of Primary and secondary DC's. Unless we used NewSID, we had problems. The weird part was, it was intermittent. Some students would create multiple copies of the same image and had no problems, others would have nothing but grief unless they used NewSID.
I've noticed some great deals on computers lately but, with all the grief surrounding Vista, I just could not be bothered to by a new PC or a laptop. I supposed I could have just blown away the OS and reloaded XP, but I honestly just can't be bothered to piss away a day trying to do this. And Linux is not an option because some of the apps I'm using are not available on Linux. I wonder how many people have felt the same way.
There needs to be a PUBLIC Parliamentary Inquiry and the first question should be: What high priced idiots did you hire to build this? Seriously, some very high level people need to be kicked out the door for this.
I read a book a little while ago called 'Geekonomics: The Real Cost of Insecure Software' and I have to agree with the author's general sentiments. It's high time that real quality assurance came to software development. Real standards could be set and software would have to comply with those standards. I don't by the argument that this will stifle creativity. If we end up with better products, we will all benefit. Software development tools are now WAY better than anything we had in the past.
Now how could the affect Open Source? Well, if Open Source software was proposed by a vendor as a solution, then that vendor would have to be responsible for ensuring that the code would conform to a third party quality assurance criteria. If the QA comes back and the system sucks, someone is going to have to fix it. Then the questions comes, who PAYS to fix Open Source software. Since a lot of Open Source relies on free labor, this could become a problem.
Whenever, I read these studies, they want to factor in depreciation. Unless you are running a business, DEPRECIATION IS NOT A COST! You bought the vehicle and your money has already been spent. It's gone! You CANNOT expense it a second time. Once the car is bought and paid for, your expenses are gas, maintenance and insurance. The one thing these studies rarely ask is: What is your time worth to you?
..and look around you when you are walking around. I'm sure many of us have seen people just blindly walk into the road figuring 'well, I have the right of way, car must stop'...
Defensive driving is about paying attention and looking ahead. The same applies when you are walking around.
If you are walking into traffic without paying attention, it's 'evolution in action'. This sort of safety mechanism is stupid and expensive and really won't do much to save lives. If you get hit by a car at anything over 20kph, you'll likely spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair drooling.
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Whenever the topics of AI and Robotics come up, I always ask: "How much drama do you want in your life?" This type of system does exactly what needs to be done: Get food and drink from the kitchen to the guest. I don't the machine to think or feel, I need it to do stuff like clean the floors (Roomba). Your dishwasher is stationary 'robot' that cleans your dishes. You don't need it to pass judgement on your eating habits. Now, if some bright spark can figure out a system that will do the sorting, washing, drying and folding the laundry that would be amazing. Now there's a challenge for you guys in Silicon Valley!
Amen. Tablets are great for 'consuming' data, but you can't do any real work. I bought a 'all in one' PC with a 22" screen and it's great. Using a laptop is like look through a key hole!
If this thing hits anything bulkier than a shopping cart it's a write-off. That's the problem with composite materials: They don't bend, they break!! Insurance on these will be pretty rich. (but if you have the money for this BMW I guess it's not an issue..). Still, be wary of people who think everything should be made of some super light weight composite. It's a complete mess to work with and will leave you crying even after the slightest accident.
If you have a favorite local college or university, set up a scholarship for one or more students in a department of your choice. Set something up that pays some modest interest or dividends and pay this out as a yearly scholarship to deserving students. Given the student loan situation, you would be doing something really meaningful.
I've never believed the line that Americans got tired of the Space Program. The Vietnam War was in full swing and that drew the attention away from the Space Program. Critics of the Space Program need to be reminded the US spent more in ONE YEAR fighting the Vietnam War than the ENTIRE Apollo project. What did America get out of Vietnam? Nothing be grief. 55,000+ dead, hundreds of thousands wounded and families whose lives were ruined. As well, the country was in terrible social turmoil. Kennedy was shot and his brother was killed a few years later. The Vietnam War aggravated the Civil Rights movement. With all the mess that was going on here on Earth, it must have been really hard at times to get excited about the Space Program. The Apollo program did something great: It made us look up. It inspired us and made us proud like nothing before or since.
Whenever people talk about what a waste of money Apollo was, consider that the Vietnam War was consuming as much money in ONE YEAR than the ENTIRE Apollo program. The final Apollo missions were killed because of budget cuts to fund the Vietnam War, not because of public disinterest. The Vietnam War was front and center in most peoples' lives at that time. On top of that was the Civil Rights campaigns and urban riots. It was like the country was having a nervous breakdown. If the Vietnam War hadn't happened, things would be so much different today.
How much has your administration grown in the last 20 years? I bet there are a whole bunch of newly minted VP's or Deputy Directors that have added to the cost of education. You could easily downsize half of this top heavy nonsense and not effect teaching one iota. All these people seem to do is create busy work that creates artificial workloads for lower level administrators and front line people.
Calgary, a city of a million+ people is only a few kilometers from Okotoks!! I better turn on the TV!
Why should this guy waste time in jail and take up resources. Too bad we don't use caning as a punishment. I bet 5 good whacks on the ass would move his brains back into his head. And if does something like that again, double it. Jail time for this is a waste.
IBM-Oracle Pact. I wonder how long this non-aggression pact will last? This sounds suspiciously like the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. If you look it up, it had a really bad ending.
"Pioneers usually end up with arrows in their backs" I wish you all the best.
As Thomas Watson said: "Nothing happens until a sale is made". Your engineer might have to work late, but the reason he has work is due to the efforts of the sales person. I know a lot of people that hate sales work, they just want to do the technical work. Some people are great with sales work and all that goes into it.(Including some off-colour behavior) They are the people that are bring the work through the door. Sure he got paid a lot of commission, but that commission is a small fraction of the overall value of a project. His $1million dollar commission brought in tens of millions of dollars of work for dozens (maybe hundreds) of people.
Some years back I worked for a government agency and the laptops had to be fully encrypted. There was a bit of a performance lag, but it was quite stable and there were no issues. I've used Safeguard by Utimaco and again, no stability problems.
Amen. I believe the book 'Peopleware' had a section on this comparing places where employees could control their distractions vs. those who couldn't. It was no surprise that the people who had a quiet workplace were far more productive. I need quiet and I've gone in on Saturday mornings when no one was around and go more done in 5 hours than I did in the previous 5 days. I just don't get this idea that you need to be in constant collaboration with people. If the specifications and documentation are that bad, send it back up the line for clarification. You need a place to think and if you need a break, get up and walk around. Get outside and get some air. Don't sit back and waste time watching Youtube or getting on the web.
Sadly, there is this notion that people need to shove into a pile and work in some kind wide open area. I'd like someone to try this: Give 1/2 your people a real office with a door they can shut and control over distractions like turning the damn phone off. Put the other 1/2 in the typical dog-kennel style arrangement where you can hear every goddamn noise and distraction. Do this for 6 months and see who is more productive. I'll bet you can guess the answer. I just can't effing stand the wide open office cube farm. Just how much collaboration do you need?? Are the specs so lousy that you have to discuss every case or sequence? I'll bet there are a lot of people who work late or come in on weekends just to get a couple quiet hours to get some work done. If those people had some peace and quiet they wouldn't have to be at work 90 hours a week to do 25 hours of productive labor.
Who the *&^% wants to work for free?? The motivated young developers I've met lately want to code games (XNA et al) or mobile apps, especially the iPhone. I've met very very few young developers who are really motivated to develop open source programs. I can't say I blame them. Regarding Linux the OS, what's left to be solved? Does the core Linux group really need any help? Can anyone really make a meaningful contribution to Linux anymore? People want to go where the action is. And that isn't Linux.
Thank you! I keep telling people: When it comes to business DON'T F*CK AROUND! Get the RIGHT advice and the the tools from the pro's. If you do anything else, it will just look home made and no one will take you seriously.
http://www.junauza.com/2009/12/free-and-open-source-cad-software-for.html You can also try VariCad at www.varicad.com Honestly, I think it's better to pony up the cash and get version of SolidWorks. See if you can split the costs with someone else. Then you will know for sure that is can handle the file formats of the other products.
Absolutely correct! I use VMWare images of Win2k Server et al and we had to use NewSID to avoid problems. Your images have one SID so when you try and run multiple copies, (especially with a Parent/Child DC's) you get problem. For us, it happened about 50% of the time. For some reason, some students could make all kinds of copies of Win2kserver, run them and have no problems.
I run VMWare at a college and we typically have the students run a scenario of Primary and secondary DC's. Unless we used NewSID, we had problems. The weird part was, it was intermittent. Some students would create multiple copies of the same image and had no problems, others would have nothing but grief unless they used NewSID.
I've noticed some great deals on computers lately but, with all the grief surrounding Vista, I just could not be bothered to by a new PC or a laptop. I supposed I could have just blown away the OS and reloaded XP, but I honestly just can't be bothered to piss away a day trying to do this. And Linux is not an option because some of the apps I'm using are not available on Linux. I wonder how many people have felt the same way.
There needs to be a PUBLIC Parliamentary Inquiry and the first question should be: What high priced idiots did you hire to build this? Seriously, some very high level people need to be kicked out the door for this.
I read a book a little while ago called 'Geekonomics: The Real Cost of Insecure Software' and I have to agree with the author's general sentiments. It's high time that real quality assurance came to software development. Real standards could be set and software would have to comply with those standards. I don't by the argument that this will stifle creativity. If we end up with better products, we will all benefit. Software development tools are now WAY better than anything we had in the past. Now how could the affect Open Source? Well, if Open Source software was proposed by a vendor as a solution, then that vendor would have to be responsible for ensuring that the code would conform to a third party quality assurance criteria. If the QA comes back and the system sucks, someone is going to have to fix it. Then the questions comes, who PAYS to fix Open Source software. Since a lot of Open Source relies on free labor, this could become a problem.
Whenever, I read these studies, they want to factor in depreciation. Unless you are running a business, DEPRECIATION IS NOT A COST! You bought the vehicle and your money has already been spent. It's gone! You CANNOT expense it a second time. Once the car is bought and paid for, your expenses are gas, maintenance and insurance. The one thing these studies rarely ask is: What is your time worth to you?
..and look around you when you are walking around. I'm sure many of us have seen people just blindly walk into the road figuring 'well, I have the right of way, car must stop'... Defensive driving is about paying attention and looking ahead. The same applies when you are walking around. If you are walking into traffic without paying attention, it's 'evolution in action'. This sort of safety mechanism is stupid and expensive and really won't do much to save lives. If you get hit by a car at anything over 20kph, you'll likely spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair drooling.