Most of the hypermiling I've read about is about increasing mileage, not about using less fuel. Some of the techniques involve driving out of your way if you know you can get above average mileage for doing so. To me, this is silly.
If you want to save money on fuel, use less fuel.
For example, because a warm engine is way more efficient than a cold engine, trip combining can be a big fuel saver. Similarly, with only a little planning, preparing dinner at home saves fuel.
Perhaps we should call this Agile Driving?... eXtreme Driving?...Lean Driving?
I always want to ask one of these reformed hackers what, if anything, would have deterred them when they were first getting started. Does anyone know if this book attempts to answer that sort of question?
In my opinion, the real crime in the US healthcare system is the price gouging that the uninsured experience.
We have high-deductible insurance, which effectively means that we pay for all of our own healthcare. Despite that, we pay less than the uninsured because we pay for medical services at the discounted insurance rate.
The discounts alone almost cover the insurance premiums. And, as a bonus, we don't have to fear bankruptcy in the event of an emergency.
To me, this also shows how little it actually costs to make the system more efficient.
Yep, if he doesn't have the drive to learn programming on his own he never will.
IF you are suggesting that the best way to teach a youngster to program is to stimulate his drive to learn, then I agree.
About 15 years ago, I had the opportunity to teach programming at a summer camp. I had students from ages 8-15 in the same room. Playing off of each individual's particular interests was the only way to keep them going. It also helped when they found someone their own age with similar interests.
My suggestion: consider your primary role as providing learning opportunities by following the students lead as to what they would see as an opportunity.
Examples: I was having trouble getting one 8-year old girl interested in any of the things the other kids had latched onto. Then she asked if she could use the big kids computers. (she had an Apple II, the big kids were using PCs) I set her up with a word processor on the pc and let her write a letter to her parents, then I showed her how to print it. She was so excited, she went back to her computer and started trying to get it to do things.
With the older kids, they all just wanted to play games all day. So I wrote a small stock market simulator for them to play, and when they go bored with it (didn't take long), I challenged them to modify it. I offered a few suggestions, and they ran with it.
In both cases, once they were driving the process, it was easy to sneak some real skills in to their learning process.
Looking at the law in question, I don't see how it
requires a repair tech to have a investigator's license. If anything, this seems to be a response to some of the RIAA activities of investigating peoples computers without a PI license. I would think many slashdot readers would actually favor such a change.
IANAL, but below are the relevant sections (as far as I can tell) of the new law. Can someone explain to me how this forces PC techs to have a PI license?
Sec. 1702.104. INVESTIGATIONS COMPANY. (a) A person acts as an investigations company for the purposes of this chapter if the person:
(1) engages in the business of obtaining or furnishing, or accepts employment to obtain or furnish, information related to:
(A) crime or wrongs done or threatened against a state or the United States;
(B) the identity, habits, business, occupation, knowledge, efficiency, loyalty, movement, location, affiliations, associations, transactions, acts, reputation, or character of a person;
(C) the location, disposition, or recovery of lost or stolen property; or
(D) the cause or responsibility for a fire, libel, loss, accident, damage, or injury to a person or to property;
snip
b) For purposes of Subsection (a)(1), obtaining or furnishing information includes information obtained or furnished through the review and analysis of, and the investigation into the content of, computer-based data not available to the public.
Several years ago, I read an article in the Economist about improving the efficiency of the transmission grid. It indicated that energy lost due to grid inefficiency is one of the most easily tapped energy sources available today. Both the technology and manufacturing methods already exist.
The problem is that the economics of the transmission grid act as a disincentive to make the upgrades.
Sorry I don't have the reference. If someone has it, please post it as I'd like to reread the article.
you might forget how to change a light bulb, once you get used to LEDs I guess those who manufacture light fixtures will have to sell fixtures with the LEDs built-in. Never having to buy/change a light bulb would be value-added for them!
For example, Notepad is a very easy to learn text editor. Notepad, however, is hideously inefficient for actually editing text with. In comparison, Vim is a difficult text editor to learn how to use, but once you know how to use it, you'll find yourself several orders of magnitude more efficient at editing text than someone who only uses Notepad. I believe you are using a rather narrow definition of efficiency. In particular, for software that is only used occasionally, the learning curve is the dominant reducer of efficiency. The same reasoning applies to the aspects of your example that are not used every day (the configuration process, for example). Furthermore, like it or not, there are plenty of users who rarely edit text; for them, vim is far less efficient than notepad.
Herein lies the fundamental OSS challenge on usability. Most OSS authors are writing software for themselves. If they are at all qualified to write such software, they are probably an expert (in some general sense) in the domain they are addressing. Therefore, most OSS software is written for experts.
Personally, I have tried to switch completely to OSS many times over the past 10+ years (started with the 0.94 kernel), but I always tire of repeatedly having to pay this "learn the application" cost for every little thing I want to do. I'm just too busy to become an expert in more than the 2-3 applications I use all of the time.
"We're looking for behavior indicators that show a certain level of stress, fear or anxiety above and beyond that shown by an anxious member of the traveling public." Wow! What a fantastically detailed legal threshold for a full body search! Full body search?!?! Gimme a break! Secondary screening involves metal-detector wand, baggage search/explosive screening, id check, etc. That is hardly a full body search.
Except one: Customers are not our enemy.
Yes, yes, yes, yes yes! Oh, if only I had some mod points!
Having shopped (in desparation) at CompUSA in both Illinois and Texas, I can say with some confidence that if they didn't think you were spending enough money (buying service plans or full-priced/over-priced items), they did everything they could to insult or humiliate you before you could get out the door.
I bought a laptop there once. After paying, the manager had to go get the item from the storage area. He actually said to me "No service plan! You can wait!" and walked off. For 15 minutes I had to stand and the end of the checkout counter while employees wandered over to snicker at me as other customers paid and left with their purchases.
Having already paid, it was unclear how to back out at that point. I did find it easy to decide to never shop there again. I'm glad the owners lost billions. I hope that manager ends up working at the most disgusting job he can imagine. I hope their good employees have the courage to start businesses where I'd be glad to shop.
The original PC's power switch was known far and wide as the Big Red Switch (BRS). Given that it came from IBM, it had to be given a TLA (Three Letter Acronym). Those were the good old days.
I knew the analysis was garbage when I saw that the graphs were continuous. The frequency counts are not meaningful for ball number 32.51792 and yet, if you look at any of the graphs, there is frequency count for it.
It makes the whole thing look a bit like a junior-high science project.
Um, excuse me, but the hacker/idiot did not fuck with people who have the power to arrest or execute someone , he fucked with an innocent family of four. As far as I'm concerned, this moron is guilty multiple counts of assault with a deadly weapon. If someone had been seriously injured, it could quite possibly have been manslaughter.
The police were NOT the victims of this so-called prank. Someone who would risk the lives of a set of complete strangers for his own amusement is clearly a menace to society and should do jail time.
I don't even have a lock on my mail box and banks send me this crap all the time. Besides being a massive waste of everyone's money, it only takes a few days of intercepting the mail to rob someone.
From the back of a recent, unsolicited offer:
Prescreen and Opt-out notice:... If you do not want to receive prescreened offers of credit from us and other companies, call the consumer reporting angencies toll free at 1-888-5-OPTOUT.
I did this a couple of months ago, and have seen the flow of offers gradually drop off.
as you will be selling your box as an embedded utility, what do you have to lose by GPL'ing (or otherwise opening) your code? If you do things right, you will have:
I. a community of people that are willing to buy your box to start;
II. a community will want to tinker and make your product better, fast, and you get to incorporate the changes for the next versions of your product;
III. the respect of a lot of people.
The basic question of whether or not to open source is a business descision, but the original question did not mention whether or not any basic market research has been done.
What do the customers expect?
How does GPL'ing the code affect the potential size of the market?
It has been pointed out that open sourcing some products has opened up new markets for those products or make them easier to sell to some customers. I'd like to point out, however, that open source can scare away customers. It depends on the customer, the product and the market you are trying to enter.
Knowing your customers is a critical part of starting and operating a successful business. Unless your goal is to become a GPL "warrior", I suggest you let the market drive this type decision.
...not (just) a product. Based on that, I sell it like this:
I tell a windows users that it is not as easy to use as windows. Then I tell them that, if they feel a little adventurous, it really isn't all that difficult to learn. And, if they take a little the time to get used to it, I believe they'll really enjoy the result.
If they are still interested after that tidbit, I refer them to general sources of information to help them get started (live cd distros are a good start). Always point out that much of this information is provided by other users in their free time, so your mileage may vary. This leads to point that Linux is really a (growing) community and all are welcome to be a part of it.
This won't convert everyone. But, those who do try based on this are generally happy with the experience, even if they give up along the way.
Slashdot Mirror
Most of the hypermiling I've read about is about increasing mileage, not about using less fuel. Some of the techniques involve driving out of your way if you know you can get above average mileage for doing so. To me, this is silly.
... eXtreme Driving? ...Lean Driving?
If you want to save money on fuel, use less fuel.
For example, because a warm engine is way more efficient than a cold engine, trip combining can be a big fuel saver. Similarly, with only a little planning, preparing dinner at home saves fuel.
Perhaps we should call this Agile Driving?
I always want to ask one of these reformed hackers what, if anything, would have deterred them when they were first getting started. Does anyone know if this book attempts to answer that sort of question?
In my opinion, the real crime in the US healthcare system is the price gouging that the uninsured experience.
We have high-deductible insurance, which effectively means that we pay for all of our own healthcare. Despite that, we pay less than the uninsured because we pay for medical services at the discounted insurance rate.
The discounts alone almost cover the insurance premiums. And, as a bonus, we don't have to fear bankruptcy in the event of an emergency.
To me, this also shows how little it actually costs to make the system more efficient.
Yep, if he doesn't have the drive to learn programming on his own he never will.
IF you are suggesting that the best way to teach a youngster to program is to stimulate his drive to learn, then I agree.
About 15 years ago, I had the opportunity to teach programming at a summer camp. I had students from ages 8-15 in the same room. Playing off of each individual's particular interests was the only way to keep them going. It also helped when they found someone their own age with similar interests.
My suggestion: consider your primary role as providing learning opportunities by following the students lead as to what they would see as an opportunity.
Examples: I was having trouble getting one 8-year old girl interested in any of the things the other kids had latched onto. Then she asked if she could use the big kids computers. (she had an Apple II, the big kids were using PCs) I set her up with a word processor on the pc and let her write a letter to her parents, then I showed her how to print it. She was so excited, she went back to her computer and started trying to get it to do things.
With the older kids, they all just wanted to play games all day. So I wrote a small stock market simulator for them to play, and when they go bored with it (didn't take long), I challenged them to modify it. I offered a few suggestions, and they ran with it.
In both cases, once they were driving the process, it was easy to sneak some real skills in to their learning process.
Good luck!
IANAL, but below are the relevant sections (as far as I can tell) of the new law. Can someone explain to me how this forces PC techs to have a PI license?
Sec. 1702.104. INVESTIGATIONS COMPANY. (a) A person acts as an investigations company for the purposes of this chapter if the person:
(1) engages in the business of obtaining or furnishing, or accepts employment to obtain or furnish, information related to:
(A) crime or wrongs done or threatened against a state or the United States;
(B) the identity, habits, business, occupation, knowledge, efficiency, loyalty, movement, location, affiliations, associations, transactions, acts, reputation, or character of a person;
(C) the location, disposition, or recovery of lost or stolen property; or
(D) the cause or responsibility for a fire, libel, loss, accident, damage, or injury to a person or to property;
snip
b) For purposes of Subsection (a)(1), obtaining or furnishing information includes information obtained or furnished through the review and analysis of, and the investigation into the content of, computer-based data not available to the public.
...did security walk him to the door after his exit interview?
Several years ago, I read an article in the Economist about improving the efficiency of the transmission grid. It indicated that energy lost due to grid inefficiency is one of the most easily tapped energy sources available today. Both the technology and manufacturing methods already exist.
The problem is that the economics of the transmission grid act as a disincentive to make the upgrades.
Sorry I don't have the reference. If someone has it, please post it as I'd like to reread the article.
Herein lies the fundamental OSS challenge on usability. Most OSS authors are writing software for themselves. If they are at all qualified to write such software, they are probably an expert (in some general sense) in the domain they are addressing. Therefore, most OSS software is written for experts.
Personally, I have tried to switch completely to OSS many times over the past 10+ years (started with the 0.94 kernel), but I always tire of repeatedly having to pay this "learn the application" cost for every little thing I want to do. I'm just too busy to become an expert in more than the 2-3 applications I use all of the time.
Gotta run...
Yes, yes, yes, yes yes! Oh, if only I had some mod points!
Having shopped (in desparation) at CompUSA in both Illinois and Texas, I can say with some confidence that if they didn't think you were spending enough money (buying service plans or full-priced/over-priced items), they did everything they could to insult or humiliate you before you could get out the door.
I bought a laptop there once. After paying, the manager had to go get the item from the storage area. He actually said to me "No service plan! You can wait!" and walked off. For 15 minutes I had to stand and the end of the checkout counter while employees wandered over to snicker at me as other customers paid and left with their purchases.
Having already paid, it was unclear how to back out at that point. I did find it easy to decide to never shop there again. I'm glad the owners lost billions. I hope that manager ends up working at the most disgusting job he can imagine. I hope their good employees have the courage to start businesses where I'd be glad to shop.
The original PC's power switch was known far and wide as the Big Red Switch (BRS). Given that it came from IBM, it had to be given a TLA (Three Letter Acronym). Those were the good old days.
I knew the analysis was garbage when I saw that the graphs were continuous. The frequency counts are not meaningful for ball number 32.51792 and yet, if you look at any of the graphs, there is frequency count for it.
It makes the whole thing look a bit like a junior-high science project.
Um, excuse me, but the hacker/idiot did not fuck with people who have the power to arrest or execute someone , he fucked with an innocent family of four. As far as I'm concerned, this moron is guilty multiple counts of assault with a deadly weapon. If someone had been seriously injured, it could quite possibly have been manslaughter.
The police were NOT the victims of this so-called prank. Someone who would risk the lives of a set of complete strangers for his own amusement is clearly a menace to society and should do jail time.
From the back of a recent, unsolicited offer:
Prescreen and Opt-out notice:
I did this a couple of months ago, and have seen the flow of offers gradually drop off.
Hope that helps.
The basic question of whether or not to open source is a business descision, but the original question did not mention whether or not any basic market research has been done.
What do the customers expect?
How does GPL'ing the code affect the potential size of the market?
It has been pointed out that open sourcing some products has opened up new markets for those products or make them easier to sell to some customers. I'd like to point out, however, that open source can scare away customers. It depends on the customer, the product and the market you are trying to enter.
Knowing your customers is a critical part of starting and operating a successful business. Unless your goal is to become a GPL "warrior", I suggest you let the market drive this type decision.
Good luck.
You'd think she would have learned something from that week she spent stuck in the shower :)
...not (just) a product. Based on that, I sell it like this:
I tell a windows users that it is not as easy to use as windows. Then I tell them that, if they feel a little adventurous, it really isn't all that difficult to learn. And, if they take a little the time to get used to it, I believe they'll really enjoy the result.
If they are still interested after that tidbit, I refer them to general sources of information to help them get started (live cd distros are a good start). Always point out that much of this information is provided by other users in their free time, so your mileage may vary. This leads to point that Linux is really a (growing) community and all are welcome to be a part of it.
This won't convert everyone. But, those who do try based on this are generally happy with the experience, even if they give up along the way.
This discussion makes me wonder if, when quitting, one is obligated to tell a current employer anything at all about a future employer.
Keeping it a secret would seem to prevent the kind of harassment (of your new employer) that might put your new position in jeapordy.
Anyone have any experience with this approach?