Amazing how the cable companies screwed it up, huh? They were perfectly placed to profit from the dotcom boom and later; everyone was obsessed with Yahoo-esque approaches of "being the portal to the interwebz" and/or the browser "wars", (something that continues to this day, except that Google has pretty much won everywhere in search, with Chrome(ium) and on mobile with Android etc.) Yet all this time the cable (and phone) guys owned the last mile into your house, with TV and Internet along with it. With a bit of vision but - above all - accepting that they would have to cannibalize their existing offer, they could have used the massive subsidies they received to build out a great network, with good, fast service and compelling original content.
What did they do? Sit on their fat-ass, rent-seeking business model, ripping people off with poor, expensive service and bundles of advert-laden crap channels. Good riddance.
60% of the electricity generated in Switzerland comes from hydro., a bit less than 40% nuke. But this only accounts for about 15% of domestic consumption. The rest is bought from the Germans (burning lovely polluting brown coal) and the French, who have an abundance of cheap nuke electricity...(about the only country in the world that got its nuclear power generating strategy right)
Well, I started off on a System/3 with a card reader, so I've had to keep my competencies up to date. In our industry more than most this is vital - I sometimes meet people bragging about having "20 years experience in x"; too often it's more like 2 years worth of experience x 10.
That said, I have some buddies still making decent coin on COBOL gigs...
According to French and German prosecutors, the crash was deliberately caused by the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz.[29][97][98] Brice Robin said Lubitz was initially courteous to Captain Sondenheimer during the first part of the flight, then became "curt" when the captain began the mid-flight briefing on the planned landing.[99] Robin said when the captain returned from a probable toilet break and tried to enter the cockpit, Lubitz had locked the door.[29][97] The captain had a code to unlock the door, but the lock's code panel can be disabled from the cockpit controls.[7][100] The captain requested re-entry using the intercom; he knocked and then banged on the door, but received no response.[101] The captain then tried to break down the door.[16][77][102] During the descent, the co-pilot did not respond to questions from air traffic control and did not transmit a distress call.[103] Robin said contact from the Marseille air traffic control tower, the captain's attempts to break in, and Lubitz's steady breathing were audible on the cockpit voice recording.[97][104] The screams of passengers in the last moments before impact were also heard on the recording.[99]
After their initial analysis of the aircraft's flight data recorder, the BEA concluded that Lubitz deliberately crashed the aircraft. He had set the autopilot to descend to 100 feet (30 m) and accelerated the speed of the descending aircraft several times thereafter.[105][106] The aircraft was travelling at 700 kilometres per hour (430 mph) when it crashed into the mountain.[99] The BEA preliminary report into the crash was published on 6 May 2015, six weeks later. It confirmed the initial analysis of the aircraft's flight data recorder and revealed that during the earlier outbound Flight 9524 from Düsseldorf to Barcelona, Lubitz had practised setting the autopilot altitude dial to 100 feet several times while the captain was out of the cockpit.[107][108]
Indeed - but who has the competence, and the budget, to do that these days? Of course you will (correctly) reply that budget should not be an issue, since the investment should recoup itself in opportunity cost of not having to spend a fortune in ongoing security efforts, and or recovery. But try explaining that to your average suit...
OK; so I'm a serious watch nerd, and have a decent collection of all kinds of stuff...can't see myself getting one of these but people I know like 'em a lot. Female colleague has a bunch of nice timepieces, including a beautiful ladies classic Rolex Datejust in gold and steel. Also has a Cartier - fine piece. Yet since she got a cheap-looking iWatch in pink she wears it every day. Why? Utility. If you're an iPhone user, looks like they are genuinely useful.
It's amazing how often I've seen projects - even strategic / multi-million buck ones - being planned "on the back of an envelope". Some dude shits out a guesstimate that's then slapped in a powerpoint and it becomes the target & budget which is handed to the luckless PM and the dev team.
Getting the right people involved, and going into detail on scope, spec and architecture etc. is not "wasted time and money" but instead an investment; these are activities that will have to be done (or should be done) eventually anyway... Of course, the estimate is often higher than key stakeholders "guessed", hence the popularity (as mentioned in another post) of the cynical "lowball then come back for more time and money later" method.
Then we get posts like this saying "development is impossible to estimate". Bullshit; with a competent PM controlling the scope and a tech team that know their stuff it's not that hard.
Ah OK, so when the thing is worn-out and obsolete you propose to...recycle it somewhere, like on the ISS? You know that one person-day of work in LEO costs MINIMUM 7.5 million bucks, right?
Interesting article on the BBC...'My Airbnb flat was turned into a pop-up brothel'
Quote: "I found used condom wrappers under the bed, I found the bin was overflowing with tissues and condoms. And basically what I had to do was pick all that up with my hands."
With people like this renting stuff, I'm not sure I want to try Airbnb anytime soon...
Yup, same here. Really a pain when you were using floppies... I remember when I was trying to install at a customer site who had a load of Compaq boxen; was with IBM, and we'd just managed to persuade this big customer to go with OS/2 instead of Dos&Win. Could not get the damn thing to install - due to being IBM and the high-profile nature of the deal, managed to get through to the devs. "We've only ever tried to install on IBM machines...." (Remember the wonderful PS/2?)
As for shill above wanking on about "losing your windows skills"...don't worry, if you're a normal human being I'm sure you can learn new things while still retaining your old knowledge, especially if - like many - you regularly work with both.
So - duh - you actually become MORE valuable on the job market! Being working well for me for over 30 years now...
Try Apple also, based on BSD so under the hood it's not too unfamiliar. Used Macbook Pros (get the right model) are serious tools, and of course you can multi-boot if you can't get your VM to do what you want.
(b) Desperate people in conflict-ravaged areas needing any food they can get their hands on? Maybe not.
Meanwhile, the biggest cause of megafauna and other "wild" animal extinction is not poaching; it's habitat loss. You want to torture to death large swathes of populations in Africa, South America, India and China?
Pointing out that "CD audio quality" is, in fact, not really "lossless"... Of course, unless Spotify can get their hands on the original studio tapes (unlikely) or exotic limited edition releases, they're not going to able to make gonzobyte flac files available anyway, so perhaps a moot point. Bearing in mind their target audiences are likely to be listening on crap Beats cans or buds, there's probably little point in this anyway, apart from bragging rights.
Slashdot Mirror
Amazing how the cable companies screwed it up, huh?
They were perfectly placed to profit from the dotcom boom and later; everyone was obsessed with Yahoo-esque approaches of "being the portal to the interwebz" and/or the browser "wars", (something that continues to this day, except that Google has pretty much won everywhere in search, with Chrome(ium) and on mobile with Android etc.)
Yet all this time the cable (and phone) guys owned the last mile into your house, with TV and Internet along with it.
With a bit of vision but - above all - accepting that they would have to cannibalize their existing offer, they could have used the massive subsidies they received to build out a great network, with good, fast service and compelling original content.
What did they do? Sit on their fat-ass, rent-seeking business model, ripping people off with poor, expensive service and bundles of advert-laden crap channels. Good riddance.
Because if we're talking about stuff that's used everywhere that would be C in its various iterations plus Java...
non peer reviewed generals do not represent good science and research
To be fair, I don't think Generals ever claimed to... ;)
60% of the electricity generated in Switzerland comes from hydro., a bit less than 40% nuke. But this only accounts for about 15% of domestic consumption.
The rest is bought from the Germans (burning lovely polluting brown coal) and the French, who have an abundance of cheap nuke electricity...(about the only country in the world that got its nuclear power generating strategy right)
So, yeah, this is a very "green" decision!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Well, I started off on a System/3 with a card reader, so I've had to keep my competencies up to date.
In our industry more than most this is vital - I sometimes meet people bragging about having "20 years experience in x"; too often it's more like 2 years worth of experience x 10.
That said, I have some buddies still making decent coin on COBOL gigs...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
According to French and German prosecutors, the crash was deliberately caused by the co-pilot, Andreas Lubitz.[29][97][98] Brice Robin said Lubitz was initially courteous to Captain Sondenheimer during the first part of the flight, then became "curt" when the captain began the mid-flight briefing on the planned landing.[99] Robin said when the captain returned from a probable toilet break and tried to enter the cockpit, Lubitz had locked the door.[29][97] The captain had a code to unlock the door, but the lock's code panel can be disabled from the cockpit controls.[7][100] The captain requested re-entry using the intercom; he knocked and then banged on the door, but received no response.[101] The captain then tried to break down the door.[16][77][102] During the descent, the co-pilot did not respond to questions from air traffic control and did not transmit a distress call.[103] Robin said contact from the Marseille air traffic control tower, the captain's attempts to break in, and Lubitz's steady breathing were audible on the cockpit voice recording.[97][104] The screams of passengers in the last moments before impact were also heard on the recording.[99]
After their initial analysis of the aircraft's flight data recorder, the BEA concluded that Lubitz deliberately crashed the aircraft. He had set the autopilot to descend to 100 feet (30 m) and accelerated the speed of the descending aircraft several times thereafter.[105][106] The aircraft was travelling at 700 kilometres per hour (430 mph) when it crashed into the mountain.[99] The BEA preliminary report into the crash was published on 6 May 2015, six weeks later. It confirmed the initial analysis of the aircraft's flight data recorder and revealed that during the earlier outbound Flight 9524 from Düsseldorf to Barcelona, Lubitz had practised setting the autopilot altitude dial to 100 feet several times while the captain was out of the cockpit.[107][108]
Indeed - but who has the competence, and the budget, to do that these days?
Of course you will (correctly) reply that budget should not be an issue, since the investment should recoup itself in opportunity cost of not having to spend a fortune in ongoing security efforts, and or recovery.
But try explaining that to your average suit...
OK; so I'm a serious watch nerd, and have a decent collection of all kinds of stuff...can't see myself getting one of these but people I know like 'em a lot.
Female colleague has a bunch of nice timepieces, including a beautiful ladies classic Rolex Datejust in gold and steel. Also has a Cartier - fine piece.
Yet since she got a cheap-looking iWatch in pink she wears it every day. Why? Utility.
If you're an iPhone user, looks like they are genuinely useful.
Ah yes...the Big Blue...having (briefly) worked there in the 90s I give you:
Icompatible Bits (of) Machinery
Idiots Become Managers and
I've Been Misled
It's amazing how often I've seen projects - even strategic / multi-million buck ones - being planned "on the back of an envelope".
Some dude shits out a guesstimate that's then slapped in a powerpoint and it becomes the target & budget which is handed to the luckless PM and the dev team.
Getting the right people involved, and going into detail on scope, spec and architecture etc. is not "wasted time and money" but instead an investment; these are activities that will have to be done (or should be done) eventually anyway...
Of course, the estimate is often higher than key stakeholders "guessed", hence the popularity (as mentioned in another post) of the cynical "lowball then come back for more time and money later" method.
Then we get posts like this saying "development is impossible to estimate". Bullshit; with a competent PM controlling the scope and a tech team that know their stuff it's not that hard.
This was modded "funny"; should be modded "cynical but true"; all the contractors around these days seem to use some variant of this technique.
All of them. Onshore, Offshore, the lot.
You beat me to it; now if only it went the whole hog and forcibly installed an upgrade to Linux or BSD
Depends on driving mode engaged; "Libertarian" she's probably OK, "Gangsta" or "Fundamentalist Christian" not so much
Avoid useless windows posts here:
http://pcbsd.org/
If you're running Win 7 or 8, you'll probably be OK for driver support.
Ah OK, so when the thing is worn-out and obsolete you propose to...recycle it somewhere, like on the ISS?
You know that one person-day of work in LEO costs MINIMUM 7.5 million bucks, right?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
That buys you a fuckton of cubesats & launches, space cadet.
Interesting article on the BBC...'My Airbnb flat was turned into a pop-up brothel'
Quote: "I found used condom wrappers under the bed, I found the bin was overflowing with tissues and condoms. And basically what I had to do was pick all that up with my hands."
With people like this renting stuff, I'm not sure I want to try Airbnb anytime soon...
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazi...
Yes, but make sure you're wacked out of your box to appreciate to the full....
Mod up!!
But to fair, I should add that - if you managed to get it working - it was streets ahead of windows.
Yup, same here. Really a pain when you were using floppies...
I remember when I was trying to install at a customer site who had a load of Compaq boxen; was with IBM, and we'd just managed to persuade this big customer to go with OS/2 instead of Dos&Win. Could not get the damn thing to install - due to being IBM and the high-profile nature of the deal, managed to get through to the devs.
"We've only ever tried to install on IBM machines...." (Remember the wonderful PS/2?)
Quit IBM shortly after.
There are still a lot of cash in hand jobs....
Yup, doing hand jobs can get you plenty of cash, I hear...
Eh? Well, the way I was taught to calculate a percentage increase was:
(a) 26.3 - 25.6 = 0.7
(b) 0.7/25.6 = 0.02734
So 2.7% increase....
(c) Check your result 25.6 * 1.02734 = 26.2999 or round up to 26.3
At least these guys agree with me anyway...
https://www.skillsyouneed.com/...
BSD FTW! Probably PC-BSD as an easy start...
http://web.pcbsd.org/
As for shill above wanking on about "losing your windows skills"...don't worry, if you're a normal human being I'm sure you can learn new things while still retaining your old knowledge, especially if - like many - you regularly work with both.
So - duh - you actually become MORE valuable on the job market!
Being working well for me for over 30 years now...
Try Apple also, based on BSD so under the hood it's not too unfamiliar. Used Macbook Pros (get the right model) are serious tools, and of course you can multi-boot if you can't get your VM to do what you want.
Define "poacher":
(a) Bastards slaughtering elephants with automatic weapons for Ivory? String 'em up, (if you can catch them).
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fa...
(b) Desperate people in conflict-ravaged areas needing any food they can get their hands on? Maybe not.
Meanwhile, the biggest cause of megafauna and other "wild" animal extinction is not poaching; it's habitat loss.
You want to torture to death large swathes of populations in Africa, South America, India and China?
Pointing out that "CD audio quality" is, in fact, not really "lossless"...
Of course, unless Spotify can get their hands on the original studio tapes (unlikely) or exotic limited edition releases, they're not going to able to make gonzobyte flac files available anyway, so perhaps a moot point.
Bearing in mind their target audiences are likely to be listening on crap Beats cans or buds, there's probably little point in this anyway, apart from bragging rights.