Nothing beats being in the same room with people who know stuff. Hell, even answering clueless questions will keep you fresh. Random thoughts other people voice can add creatively to what you are working on. Sometimes an email or chat exchange is just not as quick as shouting out or even walking down the hall. Oh yeah, I've got a computer in my office too.
It's also important to segregate your life, as you noted. If eveyplace is the office, and the office is the pits, your life will soon start to suck.
Scenerio in point: You're at the beach and a deadline is near. Your solution just does not work right, Your cell phone is just in range so you loose contact frequently. It happens again. Total frustration. Right then, your little girl pokes at your sunburned shouler again, sending waves of sand and salt into your keyboard. "Look dady", she starts. Her touch reminds you of your own father's 5PM shadow kisses when you were her age, what a bad burn you have. Her high pitched voice has penetrated your shell. Possilbe actions:
A) Yell: "Yeah, Great! Another fucking sand castle. Will you kids shut up, so I can think for a minute!"
B) Try to unstick the jjjjjjjjj key. Say, "That's very nice dear."
I'm going to start a web site for venting hatred of John Katz. I'll build a database of links to his articles, and have scripts build even more. Scripts will also be used to select news stories submitted by readers. Then readers will be able to post comments in user moderated forums. It will be a great hit, and all of those eyeballs will be sold.
I'm going to be rich, socially secure! Yessss! I can bite people and...
I wonder what certified means. I'd be happy if they put in unix like file protection, but worry that they will create root privalages for themselves that sysadmins won't get. "Oh that file, only central services can change that file...use smart update." More power is better, less is the MS direction.
Though I see a complete lack of confidence in vendors expressed below, do you think the vendor could manage a Debian install?
The magnitude of the problem is why a big vendor might help. They've been putting configured images of Windows on thousands and millions of computers a year. You would think they have specialized equipment for this, like racks for their hard drive duplication. That's not something the average place has. A place that only hase 2,500 employees will have trouble finding a room that will fit more than a dozzen computers at a time.
Once Debian, perhaps with a chron job to update itself by ftp, is in it should be able to take care of itself. Keep your users from having root access, but give them a nice big home directory and everyone should be happy. If things change, you could change the chron job with a script of your own. Then all (hehe)all you will have to deal with is mechanical problems, a big enough task on it's own.
I'm not sure how you could automate hardware upgrades.
Oh well, I'll resign myself to being the custodian of the secret knowledge of F1.
How I hate shit like this. MS users are clueless because MS likes them that way. Most just want their God damned word processor to not second guess them, and help them do their JOB. MS help files have gotten better, but are still not all that helpful because the underlying application is flawed/limited and painful to use. Half the pain is all the stuff that gets hidden and can only be revealed with some secret handshake, like hold the shift key while opening that database. RTFM? What FM? That talking paperclip? Don't be so smug, the user is generally frustrated by the inferior MS app that replaced the app that worked better and was more familliar.
Yes, the average user will blame IT for the software on their desk. Who else makes such decisions?
I can forgive IT at my company for being forced to use NT and office. They are generally nice about things. I enjoy making smug ones feel small.
Your job might be easier if all your users were not superusers. Dump MS, please!
I would think that head read rate is a function only of head design. Small size, right material, low hyserisis, fast state change, fast read.
Can I then use that better head to pack more stuff on the disk? If I can, I'll pass just as much data despite the speed. In fact, if I go too fast I might not be able to read because I'll exceed my read rate.
The only reason that I can see spin rate making a difference is in getting to the start position faster.
Well, you have to be forced to write like that.
on
Microsoft PDC Journal
·
· Score: 1
I can't get that article up, but from what other people have written here and his intro, I can feel his pain. He's forced to work with MS crap and make it talk to other platforms. He was also forced to listen to a week of MS BS.
Have you read the MS write ups on C#, SOAP, and other shit like that? The horses mouth is more terrifying than slashdot. C# is the end of C on MS platforms, though they promise it will continue to run C++ in special controled sections. MS C++ was bad enough, C# is castrated! This is news.
His bitterness must stem from repressed anger and laughter all week long. I imagine the week would have rolled by like a weeks worth of blithering adverts, like the following. It all operates wonderfully with itself. If you use your left hand, it will feel like someone else! The possibilities are endless, only bounded by your immagination, blah blah blah, puke.
Trust the man on the spot. If he's misserable, you don't want to go there. I thank him for the warning.
May you be forced to develop a VB solution for someone not related to yourself. We'll see who finds their shoe laces first.
I think the original point was the absurd misplacement of money and it's effects. Is flash coding that much more difficult than scrubbing toilets? Some people make the mistake of thinking that they earned their wild scucess. Few people do, the rest of us are just in the right place at the right time. Sure, what you did to prepare for a living might not have been easy but is it really worth what you get out of it? Is your house really worth two million dollars? None of this is any reason to treat people badly.
Janitors in Louisianna work durring the day at least at every place I've worked. Here, you come to appreciate people who do any kind of work for a living. Humility is a great skill. Those that don't work are engaged in the much easier life of pillage and drugs.
My cousin worked his way through UC Davis as a Janitor. His hard work and good pre med grades earned him a spot at LSU Medical School. He has finished that and is on his way to intern in San Fransisco. I never asked him about his hours, but I don't think it was 8PM to 2AM and I hope he was treated with respect.
They author is not suggesting you be ashamed of your accomplishments. He is praying that people will keep things in perspective and act decent.
I work in an all MS shop and I can say that people are dissatisfied. Poor networking, non existant security, applications that crash, and most importantly ever changing "standards" are insults. It stinks and people openly curse their computers. No, they are not just lusers, they are tomorows bosses.
These people are dying for things that work better, and are amazed that it has not appeared. What innovations are left for general word processing that require a new file format? They have no need for the blinking bullshit that breaks their browsers, but want simple, funtional and infomrative web sites. "It used to work, what happened?" they ask.
If any government agency publishes file formats and standards for documents submitted to them and demand compliance, Microsoft is toast. People will flock to it, and much less work will be lost to "enhancements."
"Soon, we will look back with nostalgia at the times when we were only listened to by the KGB and not by God-knows-whom, by anybody."
Psst - Don't trust those bastards to snoop on you! Only the real KGB knows how to do it right. Just let us take charge again and never have to think for yourself again. We'll round up all of those pesky computers, copy machines, and other printing presses for you. Happy days will come again.
From what I've read, this is not winning anyone over but retirees and, suprise, party members who have taken some big hits. What can be worse than being killed for thinking? People want to be free.
Association of people who give more money to Bill Gates than Chruch?
NT hermits?
WinBaters?
Blue Screen Cult
Eternal Patience Society
VB users group?
Office Inductees?
Meditation through disk grinders?
Modern Quakers?
Really. Pointing out windows flaws around some people is like talking bad about the pope.
Windows has it's uses, but security is not a feature. Why would I use my potentially compromised game box for things that I should do at the console? It will be nice if the authors can get this to run through a secure shell or some other encryption, but it's like plugging a hole in a strainer.
The movie Dune (I wish that I had read the book) had a whole culture devoid of computers because people became enslaved by their programers. Michal Lewis's book, the New New Thing takes a funnier look at the house of the future in Jim Clark's sailboat, which does odd things on it's own.
Oxegen, in Microsoft's hands, would be closer to the Dune fear. I can just hear my house, "Welcome home, you must want dinner. Let me charge you to order a BrandX pizza." With open information exchange protocols it is the future.
Customization of such a system must be possible and rational for it to work. Take the ticket purchase from example 1 on the oxygen site. What criteria were used? A secretary can make choices like that, but a box? It's going to take lots of work before people will trust systems like this. As is, I don't trust Microsoft to make a numbered list for me! It works, but just try changing the order. No can do!
Thank you, Free Software movement for the falling price of software. Thank you also for obsoleeting such a traditional rip off. What little programing I have to offer shall be yours.
I have no fear of loosing things such as word processing. I've got at least three editors with source code, ispell, and Word Perfect 8 to work with. In fact, I expect better things in the furture, regardless of what MicroBoft does.
I remember a video game like this, ten years ago in Tokyo. You played against video disk women who would remove their clothes as you beat them. The more you won, the dumber you got.
Interesting sophistry. I suppose you would agree that the user does not need all of the pointless and uninformative messages as well as important ones? A user that does not know what formating is, has had a big M$ flag pulled over their eyes. The conditioning runs deeper than message boxes.
Having worked in an all M$ shop for the last three weeks, I can tell you that you are right. Many of the users do not know what formating is. I can also tell you that most will click or run just about anything! 1 of 3 is a low ball estimate for where I work. Those people and myself generally read no further than OK. Woops, it blew up, so what? Application reliability is terrible to begin with and most people have just given up. Their powerlessness has been demonstrated again and again as reasonable applications were replaced with MS counterparts. With their power to choose went all feelings of responsibility. They have given up.
He posted because he actually read the stupid thing! Most normal people don't do this, and are shocked when they take the time to look at the ugly thing. Sure, M$ and others have been making up such BS forever, and some people might have gotten used to the yolk by now. Not everybody has been around forever. Gblues was so upset that he took the time to type the entire ugly. Good for him.
I'm glad he did, more people are likely to read it on slashdot. Many people have pointed out how the authors attempt to shed all of their responsibilities while artificially restricting your ability and right to do what you want with your own computers. What better way than to quote the thing in it's entirety? People bored at work will actually read this thing. Good for everyone.
Now for some fun. Can you imagine a car maker saying, "You and only you are autorized to use this vehicle. No one else may ride in it with you. We are not liable for design flaws, predictable failures, and any consequential losses this may cause. If you don't agree with this (and all of the other provisions that I won't bother to make fun of) then, you must destroy the vehicle and all materials that came with it."?
Hardware fail? MS has made sure that your software will fail first. The solution will be to purchase an liscence update. That is a copy of the same thing that works again, but slower.
I have several computers that don't work well under windows. Boot Linux, any Linux, and things are fine. Slowly, MS is being removed from them.
No problem! Bill Gates will force all of his emplyees to wear the Microsoft Translator 2001, wich will run on wince. This will take their incomprhesible and meaningless market driven speach and produce equally incomprehensible, gramatically incorect French. Belive me, once you know what you have been missing you will want them to turn it off.
The point was that people don't read the dialog. It could have said anything, and 1/3 of the users would have punched yes. The average user sees so many anoying and useless pop up windows, that they have learned to ignore them to get what they want.
There is an analog in meatspace warning lables. Due to lawsuits, warning lables on all sorts of products have become small books. The few usefull messages are lost in the clutter. Have you read all the warnings on your step ladder? No, you just used it. The one or two sensible warnings were lost in a blizzard of BS about pregnant woment not opperating heavy machinery.
...BAD WINDOWS! Bad for running everything as root. Bad for integrating all sorts of stuff that should not be. BAD MICROSOFT for building such a sloppy system. I'm told that all the user has to do is look at this thing in a viewer pane, and that thier machine will no longer boot. What's to keep the thing from deleting command.com? People are hammering Microsoft for making a product that can be destroyed so easily just so they can cram stuff down their user's throats.
There's nothing more wrong with VB script than, let's say, Lotus script. It's something that can be changed at will by a single company that will not run anywhere else. Keeping up with changes will keep you from learning something usefull. It's a dead end.
Slashdot Mirror
It's also important to segregate your life, as you noted. If eveyplace is the office, and the office is the pits, your life will soon start to suck.
Scenerio in point: You're at the beach and a deadline is near. Your solution just does not work right, Your cell phone is just in range so you loose contact frequently. It happens again. Total frustration. Right then, your little girl pokes at your sunburned shouler again, sending waves of sand and salt into your keyboard. "Look dady", she starts. Her touch reminds you of your own father's 5PM shadow kisses when you were her age, what a bad burn you have. Her high pitched voice has penetrated your shell. Possilbe actions:
A) Yell: "Yeah, Great! Another fucking sand castle. Will you kids shut up, so I can think for a minute!"
B) Try to unstick the jjjjjjjjj key. Say, "That's very nice dear."
C) Drive home early.
I'm going to start a web site for venting hatred of John Katz. I'll build a database of links to his articles, and have scripts build even more. Scripts will also be used to select news stories submitted by readers. Then readers will be able to post comments in user moderated forums. It will be a great hit, and all of those eyeballs will be sold.
I'm going to be rich, socially secure! Yessss! I can bite people and...
Never mind.
I wonder what certified means. I'd be happy if they put in unix like file protection, but worry that they will create root privalages for themselves that sysadmins won't get. "Oh that file, only central services can change that file...use smart update." More power is better, less is the MS direction.
The magnitude of the problem is why a big vendor might help. They've been putting configured images of Windows on thousands and millions of computers a year. You would think they have specialized equipment for this, like racks for their hard drive duplication. That's not something the average place has. A place that only hase 2,500 employees will have trouble finding a room that will fit more than a dozzen computers at a time.
Once Debian, perhaps with a chron job to update itself by ftp, is in it should be able to take care of itself. Keep your users from having root access, but give them a nice big home directory and everyone should be happy. If things change, you could change the chron job with a script of your own. Then all (hehe)all you will have to deal with is mechanical problems, a big enough task on it's own.
I'm not sure how you could automate hardware upgrades.
Nothing is obvious, presumptuous little coward.
How I hate shit like this. MS users are clueless because MS likes them that way. Most just want their God damned word processor to not second guess them, and help them do their JOB. MS help files have gotten better, but are still not all that helpful because the underlying application is flawed/limited and painful to use. Half the pain is all the stuff that gets hidden and can only be revealed with some secret handshake, like hold the shift key while opening that database. RTFM? What FM? That talking paperclip? Don't be so smug, the user is generally frustrated by the inferior MS app that replaced the app that worked better and was more familliar.
Yes, the average user will blame IT for the software on their desk. Who else makes such decisions?
I can forgive IT at my company for being forced to use NT and office. They are generally nice about things. I enjoy making smug ones feel small.
Your job might be easier if all your users were not superusers. Dump MS, please!
Where is the limit really?
I would think that head read rate is a function only of head design. Small size, right material, low hyserisis, fast state change, fast read.
Can I then use that better head to pack more stuff on the disk? If I can, I'll pass just as much data despite the speed. In fact, if I go too fast I might not be able to read because I'll exceed my read rate.
The only reason that I can see spin rate making a difference is in getting to the start position faster.
Have you read the MS write ups on C#, SOAP, and other shit like that? The horses mouth is more terrifying than slashdot. C# is the end of C on MS platforms, though they promise it will continue to run C++ in special controled sections. MS C++ was bad enough, C# is castrated! This is news.
His bitterness must stem from repressed anger and laughter all week long. I imagine the week would have rolled by like a weeks worth of blithering adverts, like the following. It all operates wonderfully with itself. If you use your left hand, it will feel like someone else! The possibilities are endless, only bounded by your immagination, blah blah blah, puke.
Trust the man on the spot. If he's misserable, you don't want to go there. I thank him for the warning.
May you be forced to develop a VB solution for someone not related to yourself. We'll see who finds their shoe laces first.
I think the original point was the absurd misplacement of money and it's effects. Is flash coding that much more difficult than scrubbing toilets? Some people make the mistake of thinking that they earned their wild scucess. Few people do, the rest of us are just in the right place at the right time. Sure, what you did to prepare for a living might not have been easy but is it really worth what you get out of it? Is your house really worth two million dollars? None of this is any reason to treat people badly.
Janitors in Louisianna work durring the day at least at every place I've worked. Here, you come to appreciate people who do any kind of work for a living. Humility is a great skill. Those that don't work are engaged in the much easier life of pillage and drugs.
My cousin worked his way through UC Davis as a Janitor. His hard work and good pre med grades earned him a spot at LSU Medical School. He has finished that and is on his way to intern in San Fransisco. I never asked him about his hours, but I don't think it was 8PM to 2AM and I hope he was treated with respect.
They author is not suggesting you be ashamed of your accomplishments. He is praying that people will keep things in perspective and act decent.
If you are buying new machines, why not ask the vendor to install what you want?
I work in an all MS shop and I can say that people are dissatisfied. Poor networking, non existant security, applications that crash, and most importantly ever changing "standards" are insults. It stinks and people openly curse their computers. No, they are not just lusers, they are tomorows bosses.
These people are dying for things that work better, and are amazed that it has not appeared. What innovations are left for general word processing that require a new file format? They have no need for the blinking bullshit that breaks their browsers, but want simple, funtional and infomrative web sites. "It used to work, what happened?" they ask.
If any government agency publishes file formats and standards for documents submitted to them and demand compliance, Microsoft is toast. People will flock to it, and much less work will be lost to "enhancements."
"Soon, we will look back with nostalgia at the times when we were only listened to by the KGB and not by God-knows-whom, by anybody."
Psst - Don't trust those bastards to snoop on you! Only the real KGB knows how to do it right. Just let us take charge again and never have to think for yourself again. We'll round up all of those pesky computers, copy machines, and other printing presses for you. Happy days will come again.
From what I've read, this is not winning anyone over but retirees and, suprise, party members who have taken some big hits. What can be worse than being killed for thinking? People want to be free.
The KGB is still watching you too!
I feel comfortable giving as well as recieving. Selling, on the other hand, has always bothered me. Lying, hyping, ect., I won't do that.
Association of people who give more money to Bill Gates than Chruch?
NT hermits?
WinBaters?
Blue Screen Cult
Eternal Patience Society
VB users group?
Office Inductees?
Meditation through disk grinders?
Modern Quakers?
Really. Pointing out windows flaws around some people is like talking bad about the pope.
Windows has it's uses, but security is not a feature. Why would I use my potentially compromised game box for things that I should do at the console? It will be nice if the authors can get this to run through a secure shell or some other encryption, but it's like plugging a hole in a strainer.
Oxegen, in Microsoft's hands, would be closer to the Dune fear. I can just hear my house, "Welcome home, you must want dinner. Let me charge you to order a BrandX pizza." With open information exchange protocols it is the future.
Customization of such a system must be possible and rational for it to work. Take the ticket purchase from example 1 on the oxygen site. What criteria were used? A secretary can make choices like that, but a box? It's going to take lots of work before people will trust systems like this. As is, I don't trust Microsoft to make a numbered list for me! It works, but just try changing the order. No can do!
I have no fear of loosing things such as word processing. I've got at least three editors with source code, ispell, and Word Perfect 8 to work with. In fact, I expect better things in the furture, regardless of what MicroBoft does.
I remember a video game like this, ten years ago in Tokyo. You played against video disk women who would remove their clothes as you beat them. The more you won, the dumber you got.
Having worked in an all M$ shop for the last three weeks, I can tell you that you are right. Many of the users do not know what formating is. I can also tell you that most will click or run just about anything! 1 of 3 is a low ball estimate for where I work. Those people and myself generally read no further than OK. Woops, it blew up, so what? Application reliability is terrible to begin with and most people have just given up. Their powerlessness has been demonstrated again and again as reasonable applications were replaced with MS counterparts. With their power to choose went all feelings of responsibility. They have given up.
I'm glad he did, more people are likely to read it on slashdot. Many people have pointed out how the authors attempt to shed all of their responsibilities while artificially restricting your ability and right to do what you want with your own computers. What better way than to quote the thing in it's entirety? People bored at work will actually read this thing. Good for everyone.
Now for some fun. Can you imagine a car maker saying, "You and only you are autorized to use this vehicle. No one else may ride in it with you. We are not liable for design flaws, predictable failures, and any consequential losses this may cause. If you don't agree with this (and all of the other provisions that I won't bother to make fun of) then, you must destroy the vehicle and all materials that came with it."?
I have several computers that don't work well under windows. Boot Linux, any Linux, and things are fine. Slowly, MS is being removed from them.
Just my half dollar.
Quebec sera touts Quebecqois. Is that circular?
I once read that Wingate was full of holes. You might want to look into that.
There is an analog in meatspace warning lables. Due to lawsuits, warning lables on all sorts of products have become small books. The few usefull messages are lost in the clutter. Have you read all the warnings on your step ladder? No, you just used it. The one or two sensible warnings were lost in a blizzard of BS about pregnant woment not opperating heavy machinery.
Conditioned like a rat.
There's nothing more wrong with VB script than, let's say, Lotus script. It's something that can be changed at will by a single company that will not run anywhere else. Keeping up with changes will keep you from learning something usefull. It's a dead end.