Amen. I'd love to see the face of one of these people who refuse to believe the scientific evidence regarding multi-tasking while driving when a veteran surgeon walks in to do an operation on them or a loved one with an iPod on. Just because you can do something with your eyes or ears shut doesn't mean you should and especially when lives are on the line.
Sure I have no proof but what if she's in Russia? As I see it now, she could comfortably be there now after slipping out of the country at the conclusion of this master plan. She'd be there with her children who are supposedly with her parents and no longer allowed to leave Russia, the money she embezzled from the company and the satisfaction of sticking it to her husband who she likely gained apathy towards over time after a combination of drugs and a more "macho" man comparison came into play.
Seriously though... she was involved in a number of circumstances individuals or their loved ones eventually have no recourse but to take drastic and dramatic action at times involving faking your own death or disappearing (e.g. hardcore drug spirals, weird religions/cults, severe psychiatric problems, mafia involvement in any way and so many more!)
WTF? Nobody but Disney and the US care about Disney copyrights. Try making "Jintao Sucks" T-shirts like the Bush ones I see and see if they let you. Correction... see how long you last before getting thrown in jail. Correction... see how long you last, PERIOD!
[quote]People just do what they want and if they don't cause any trouble are left alone.[/quote]
Correction... People just do what they want and if they agree with everything the government says and do everything they ask only then are they left alone. Sure, that sounds like freedom.
Don't mistake process for impeding on freedom.
PS. That "freedom" the imaginary hotdog vendor has in China results in him/her selling rotten REAL DOG slaughtered last month after he was lucky enough to stumble upon Fido's sickly corpse in the local human waste disposal pit.
This is a trend in the making as I've seen several other instances where this is being attempted. For example, the NY Times had an article on a CRM that was designed with "gaming" in mind and incorproates many elements without it compromising the primary mission of the tool, making "gaming elements" obvious and other important distinctions (article now requires login, though http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/business/yourmon ey/20proto.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)
My point is there is something to be said for incorporating some of the same engaging elements game producers use into library systems. I'm not talking about an actual game rather elements. It sounds silly and off the cuff but what if there was a social media aspect to it where you could decide to make your library profile public and people could see the last few books you read? Maybe you could also comment on them? Compare the time it took for you to read a book against your peers? You could have some fun with this, dramatically increase involvement and still accomplish the library's primary mission.
If you think most companies play nice then you're dreaming. Most if not all are evil to a certain extent and the degree to which they are is the only variable. After all, isn't that the nature of just about anything that focuses solely on the bottom line? In a capitalistic market almost everyone is bending the rules, at times breaking them and always playing hard ball. If you thought this was "beneath" Google then ask Scotty to beam you back onboard as you're that extra dude on the away mission that's going to get whacked!
... but it's not just the end user. In my role I look at my IT team just as much as the end user as they're just as human. There's nothing more hilarious to me than "secure" DoD operations with dual workstations (for confidential vs. connected to the public Internet and therefore general use) that are all locked down but then don't prevent something as silly as unplugging a USB printer to then use a thumb drive. There's always technology or room for innovation to prevent such human errors via checks & balances systems. In this case, how did that file make it onto an unsecured network since it's so easy to prevent through file-tagging technologies and a number of other almost full-proof methods? Even if not "classified" and only deemed "sensitive" why the hell was it on a laptop period? Simple, if it's sensitive and we don't want just anyone seeing it then don't let some idiot take it on a laptop to another country while he's there for pleasure.
Do your due diligence and lock down environments to appropriate security levels. Put in processes that may decrease productivity but maintain these levels. Grow yourself a backbone and fight the political bullshit that seeks to subvert security. If you're faced with a solution that has security issues recommend changes that correct them even if it requires more resources or makes it more cumbersome for the end user. If you're fired for standing your ground and refusing to relax security to inappropriate levels then that same asshole would likely fire you for the first security incident created as a result of it. Hence you're better off somewhere else...
PS That asshole that wants his way regardless of security is the other weak link
I'm fairly certain it's to recoup the costs associated with the network modifications AT&T had to make to support iPhone specific features such as Visual Voicemail.
I'm wondering if this is international scare propaganda? After all there have been a few references as of late to iron curtains. Besides, wouldn't it make sense to use the existing expertise and technology gained through the years our Predators have been around and leverage that platform to accomplish this mission? Wouldn't it be better to build massive numbers of smaller, more affordable, unmanned expendable aircraft that transmit imagery to nearby AWACS and other reconnaisance units? It would also fit more closely with the supposed future model of the entire military remote controlling their respective equipment safely behind enemy lines.
You'd think we learned our lesson with the costly F-22 and would be throttling ourselves back a bit on the whole "less numbers of top notch equipment."
So this study was originally intended to "focus on the ecological impact of inkjet printing." Instead of focusing on that there's a diversion into the fact we're not getting all the ink we should out of our cartridges. Even the environmentalists are focusing on that it seems (ex. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/printers_g uzzle.php) Now, I'm no treehugger myself but find it odd that at the end of the day no one is speaking on exactly what is the ecological impact, what should one do with spare cartridges, etc.
Now, I understand why Epson spin doctors would want to flaunt the finding that less ink is wasted (regardless of the fact it does not imply they're more efficient, cost-effective or anything else) but why is no one talking about the greener side of the matter?
As the person responsible for global IT operations my company I can sincerely say I am platform agnostic. We embrace open source, Macs, Windows and all technologies alike applying them where they belong according to their strenghts, weaknesses and industry standards. In terms of upgrades, everything goes through the same due dilligence including TCO vs ROI calcs. Now I'm no iPhone expert but I currently fail to see a compelling reason for a business to adopt this product on its own merit. At the consumer level I think it's awesome and no surprise since after all it's Apple.
Back to businesses, though, since that's the focus. We have hundreds of handhelds and currently do not have IMAP enabled on front-end mail servers. Why would I want to take on everything related to introducing a new public-facing protocol for a device that provides IMHO no noteworthy advantages over Blackberries and Windows Mobile Devices and I'm unable to purchase and distribute to my staff through my regular business channels? Additional resource consumption, new threat vectors and other factors have to be outweighed by the advantages the solution provides and I don't see the iPhone doing that. If we use POP3 for it people loose the active synchronizations their current handhelds provide and inevitably perceive it as a downgrade.
I would appreciate some insight as to why this product should be adopted by a business as short of the top-notch hardware Mac always puts out I'm just not seeing the value. Don't talk to me about re-ordering voicemails and other features businesses simply don't care about. Hopefully this is not another case of me missing the global teleport over to Job's reality suspension field since I heard it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy...
P.S. Any organization that allows a "revolution" to be driven by employees probably won't last long especially when it's regarding legalities, technologies or any other specialized topic the majority of staff have insufficient knowledge on to make informed decisions. They hired us because we do have the knowledge and expertise and will do what's in the best interest of the organization. So, don't try to buy your own drugs and then ask your doctor to make it work for you because the commercial described your symptoms...
I believe the virtual world's population, game mechanics, economic framework and a number of other significant components in an MMORPG all play an important role in determining the extent to which gold farmers affect the game. It's unfair IMHO to make generalizations about their affect on all MMORPGs as I liken it to speaking on the affects of money supply changes regardless of the country, its regulations and current economic state. Also, I think it's only fair to separate the process of farming and selling virtual GOLD versus ITEMS or POWER LEVELING as the three inherantly affect all MMORPGs differently regardless. I'm going to limit this post to World of Warcraft GOLD farming since we have to start somewhere. Yes, I've been playing since it came out... play often... have several 70s... play on several servers (except the weirdos on RP ones) and am not talking out of my anus. In short, I don't believe this virtual world's stability is affected by gold farmers except for pissing off bratty kids that like to stomp their feat when life isn't fair.
Sure you can use gold to buy reputation to a certain extent but not with the important ones (ex. Violet Eye.) Who cares if you're Exaulted with Aldor and get some slightly better gear. If you buy your way into that rep you've bypassed no skill test as it only takes an unearthly amount of time to farm the rep from easy kills. Granted one can argue that the time it takes to do so is a writes of passage that ensures only those with X skill gained through Y farming time are worthy of Z item. Hence you can only complain about it not being fair as that does not significantly affect the stability of the playing field. If you take it a step up in quality and consider epics, each faction only offers a few and they may not even match your class or build. Also, how many epics are actually Bind on Equip and can be purchased? The few that are go for $200-$800US a pop, have insanely limited drop rates (ex..001%) and find it hard to believe they're being bought up all over the place. There just doesn't seem to be enough there to tilt the scales. Think about how the tremendous amount of counterfeit money in the US does not significantly impact the economy. Sure it does to a certain extent but the theoretical money supply is so vast it's a drop in the bucket and other measures are in place (ex. interest rate changes) to keep it in check. The same applies here but I'll spare you the details.
At the end of the day if you get pwned by some rich kid who bought his way into his gear then you deserve to die! Really, give me any build in decently clad blues and I'll pwn any purpled out gold buyer (except locks of course.) Besides the Hunter epic bow, Priest staff and a few other quests I've not seen a single task a player is charged with that truly takes any skill whatsoever. Everything in WoW takes one or both of these things: TIME, PEOPLE. You either spend a bunch of time doing something simple or you need to get people to join your party and help with a challenge that tests your collective coordination.
I do not buy WoW gold as I make plenty with having one of each class AND profession at my disposal. I do, however, pay people to do my laundry, clean my house and perform other duties not worth my time. That is perfectly ok. Paying someone to write term papers, do my job, etc. is NOT ok and thus made the distinction between GOLD farming and ITEM FARMING, etc.
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Amen. I'd love to see the face of one of these people who refuse to believe the scientific evidence regarding multi-tasking while driving when a veteran surgeon walks in to do an operation on them or a loved one with an iPod on. Just because you can do something with your eyes or ears shut doesn't mean you should and especially when lives are on the line.
Sure I have no proof but what if she's in Russia? As I see it now, she could comfortably be there now after slipping out of the country at the conclusion of this master plan. She'd be there with her children who are supposedly with her parents and no longer allowed to leave Russia, the money she embezzled from the company and the satisfaction of sticking it to her husband who she likely gained apathy towards over time after a combination of drugs and a more "macho" man comparison came into play.
Seriously though... she was involved in a number of circumstances individuals or their loved ones eventually have no recourse but to take drastic and dramatic action at times involving faking your own death or disappearing (e.g. hardcore drug spirals, weird religions/cults, severe psychiatric problems, mafia involvement in any way and so many more!)
WTF? Nobody but Disney and the US care about Disney copyrights. Try making "Jintao Sucks" T-shirts like the Bush ones I see and see if they let you. Correction... see how long you last before getting thrown in jail. Correction... see how long you last, PERIOD!
[quote]People just do what they want and if they don't cause any trouble are left alone.[/quote] Correction... People just do what they want and if they agree with everything the government says and do everything they ask only then are they left alone. Sure, that sounds like freedom.
Don't mistake process for impeding on freedom.
PS. That "freedom" the imaginary hotdog vendor has in China results in him/her selling rotten REAL DOG slaughtered last month after he was lucky enough to stumble upon Fido's sickly corpse in the local human waste disposal pit.
This is a trend in the making as I've seen several other instances where this is being attempted. For example, the NY Times had an article on a CRM that was designed with "gaming" in mind and incorproates many elements without it compromising the primary mission of the tool, making "gaming elements" obvious and other important distinctions (article now requires login, though http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/business/yourmon ey/20proto.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)
My point is there is something to be said for incorporating some of the same engaging elements game producers use into library systems. I'm not talking about an actual game rather elements. It sounds silly and off the cuff but what if there was a social media aspect to it where you could decide to make your library profile public and people could see the last few books you read? Maybe you could also comment on them? Compare the time it took for you to read a book against your peers? You could have some fun with this, dramatically increase involvement and still accomplish the library's primary mission.
If you think most companies play nice then you're dreaming. Most if not all are evil to a certain extent and the degree to which they are is the only variable. After all, isn't that the nature of just about anything that focuses solely on the bottom line? In a capitalistic market almost everyone is bending the rules, at times breaking them and always playing hard ball. If you thought this was "beneath" Google then ask Scotty to beam you back onboard as you're that extra dude on the away mission that's going to get whacked!
... but it's not just the end user. In my role I look at my IT team just as much as the end user as they're just as human. There's nothing more hilarious to me than "secure" DoD operations with dual workstations (for confidential vs. connected to the public Internet and therefore general use) that are all locked down but then don't prevent something as silly as unplugging a USB printer to then use a thumb drive. There's always technology or room for innovation to prevent such human errors via checks & balances systems. In this case, how did that file make it onto an unsecured network since it's so easy to prevent through file-tagging technologies and a number of other almost full-proof methods? Even if not "classified" and only deemed "sensitive" why the hell was it on a laptop period? Simple, if it's sensitive and we don't want just anyone seeing it then don't let some idiot take it on a laptop to another country while he's there for pleasure.
Do your due diligence and lock down environments to appropriate security levels. Put in processes that may decrease productivity but maintain these levels. Grow yourself a backbone and fight the political bullshit that seeks to subvert security. If you're faced with a solution that has security issues recommend changes that correct them even if it requires more resources or makes it more cumbersome for the end user. If you're fired for standing your ground and refusing to relax security to inappropriate levels then that same asshole would likely fire you for the first security incident created as a result of it. Hence you're better off somewhere else...
PS That asshole that wants his way regardless of security is the other weak link
The 6700 is a UTStarcom product used by multiple carriers including Cingular/AT&T who call it an 8125... or they're newer 8525.
I'm fairly certain it's to recoup the costs associated with the network modifications AT&T had to make to support iPhone specific features such as Visual Voicemail.
I'm wondering if this is international scare propaganda? After all there have been a few references as of late to iron curtains. Besides, wouldn't it make sense to use the existing expertise and technology gained through the years our Predators have been around and leverage that platform to accomplish this mission? Wouldn't it be better to build massive numbers of smaller, more affordable, unmanned expendable aircraft that transmit imagery to nearby AWACS and other reconnaisance units? It would also fit more closely with the supposed future model of the entire military remote controlling their respective equipment safely behind enemy lines.
You'd think we learned our lesson with the costly F-22 and would be throttling ourselves back a bit on the whole "less numbers of top notch equipment."
So this study was originally intended to "focus on the ecological impact of inkjet printing." Instead of focusing on that there's a diversion into the fact we're not getting all the ink we should out of our cartridges. Even the environmentalists are focusing on that it seems (ex. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/printers_g uzzle.php) Now, I'm no treehugger myself but find it odd that at the end of the day no one is speaking on exactly what is the ecological impact, what should one do with spare cartridges, etc.
Now, I understand why Epson spin doctors would want to flaunt the finding that less ink is wasted (regardless of the fact it does not imply they're more efficient, cost-effective or anything else) but why is no one talking about the greener side of the matter?
As the person responsible for global IT operations my company I can sincerely say I am platform agnostic. We embrace open source, Macs, Windows and all technologies alike applying them where they belong according to their strenghts, weaknesses and industry standards. In terms of upgrades, everything goes through the same due dilligence including TCO vs ROI calcs. Now I'm no iPhone expert but I currently fail to see a compelling reason for a business to adopt this product on its own merit. At the consumer level I think it's awesome and no surprise since after all it's Apple.
Back to businesses, though, since that's the focus. We have hundreds of handhelds and currently do not have IMAP enabled on front-end mail servers. Why would I want to take on everything related to introducing a new public-facing protocol for a device that provides IMHO no noteworthy advantages over Blackberries and Windows Mobile Devices and I'm unable to purchase and distribute to my staff through my regular business channels? Additional resource consumption, new threat vectors and other factors have to be outweighed by the advantages the solution provides and I don't see the iPhone doing that. If we use POP3 for it people loose the active synchronizations their current handhelds provide and inevitably perceive it as a downgrade.
I would appreciate some insight as to why this product should be adopted by a business as short of the top-notch hardware Mac always puts out I'm just not seeing the value. Don't talk to me about re-ordering voicemails and other features businesses simply don't care about. Hopefully this is not another case of me missing the global teleport over to Job's reality suspension field since I heard it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy...
P.S. Any organization that allows a "revolution" to be driven by employees probably won't last long especially when it's regarding legalities, technologies or any other specialized topic the majority of staff have insufficient knowledge on to make informed decisions. They hired us because we do have the knowledge and expertise and will do what's in the best interest of the organization. So, don't try to buy your own drugs and then ask your doctor to make it work for you because the commercial described your symptoms...
I believe the virtual world's population, game mechanics, economic framework and a number of other significant components in an MMORPG all play an important role in determining the extent to which gold farmers affect the game. It's unfair IMHO to make generalizations about their affect on all MMORPGs as I liken it to speaking on the affects of money supply changes regardless of the country, its regulations and current economic state. Also, I think it's only fair to separate the process of farming and selling virtual GOLD versus ITEMS or POWER LEVELING as the three inherantly affect all MMORPGs differently regardless. I'm going to limit this post to World of Warcraft GOLD farming since we have to start somewhere. Yes, I've been playing since it came out... play often... have several 70s... play on several servers (except the weirdos on RP ones) and am not talking out of my anus. In short, I don't believe this virtual world's stability is affected by gold farmers except for pissing off bratty kids that like to stomp their feat when life isn't fair. Sure you can use gold to buy reputation to a certain extent but not with the important ones (ex. Violet Eye.) Who cares if you're Exaulted with Aldor and get some slightly better gear. If you buy your way into that rep you've bypassed no skill test as it only takes an unearthly amount of time to farm the rep from easy kills. Granted one can argue that the time it takes to do so is a writes of passage that ensures only those with X skill gained through Y farming time are worthy of Z item. Hence you can only complain about it not being fair as that does not significantly affect the stability of the playing field. If you take it a step up in quality and consider epics, each faction only offers a few and they may not even match your class or build. Also, how many epics are actually Bind on Equip and can be purchased? The few that are go for $200-$800US a pop, have insanely limited drop rates (ex. .001%) and find it hard to believe they're being bought up all over the place. There just doesn't seem to be enough there to tilt the scales. Think about how the tremendous amount of counterfeit money in the US does not significantly impact the economy. Sure it does to a certain extent but the theoretical money supply is so vast it's a drop in the bucket and other measures are in place (ex. interest rate changes) to keep it in check. The same applies here but I'll spare you the details.
At the end of the day if you get pwned by some rich kid who bought his way into his gear then you deserve to die! Really, give me any build in decently clad blues and I'll pwn any purpled out gold buyer (except locks of course.) Besides the Hunter epic bow, Priest staff and a few other quests I've not seen a single task a player is charged with that truly takes any skill whatsoever. Everything in WoW takes one or both of these things: TIME, PEOPLE. You either spend a bunch of time doing something simple or you need to get people to join your party and help with a challenge that tests your collective coordination.
I do not buy WoW gold as I make plenty with having one of each class AND profession at my disposal. I do, however, pay people to do my laundry, clean my house and perform other duties not worth my time. That is perfectly ok. Paying someone to write term papers, do my job, etc. is NOT ok and thus made the distinction between GOLD farming and ITEM FARMING, etc.