Check out Daniel Pink's book Drive. He does an analysis of human motivation and how it has changed through our evolution. Very short book, good stuff. It helped me clarify my own stance on certain issues and prompted my decision to take my--what I thought was profit centered--(5 year old, mature) software project open source. Business needs to catch up with the science.
Think before you speak. Capitalism is just he described, and I would go so far as to say true. Communism is a defunct idea. It has no proof of ever working. For some reason democracy is never involved with communism.
You know, every once in a while you would see a comment like this on/. But as of late they are very common. I'm an easy going fellow, and not one who would promote affirmative action under any circumstance, but this is getting ridiculous. I can make a relevant comment and get moderated into oblivion, but some how this crap is sitting here at the top of the thread for everyone to see. I consider myself a member of the Slashdot community and I do not want to be associated with this outlook. I don't care if it is trolling or not, if it is trolling it is not very good. A good troll is subtle and smart.
That is an insult to all trolls. Trolls, like eh...., are a necessary evil. They liven up many a staunch forum, a good troll can be a real asset. Where do you get your best belly laughs, especially in a languishing forum? Trolls.
"With respect, this is naive and assumes that such companies *want* your assistance. I'm sure that a significant proportion would rather that you STFU about any inconvenient vulnerabilities which would cause them a lot of hassle to fix, probably make them look bad (people do *not* like being made to look incompetent, even when they are)"
I found a vulnerability in a web portal that would shut down an entire line of business for a certain "company," and because of the dynamic you mentioned, it is still unreported to this day. Oddly enough as coincidences are, I was put in charge of installing a major security appliance for that system shortly after discovering the vulnerability. To this day, with the vulnerability still in tact (and the security appliance is still not in place because of the difficulty in actually switching systems), and after gaining notoriety and the trust of the people responsible for the system, I still have not reported it. The security appliance is capable, in theory, of curtailing the problem but it would take significant testing and development since it lies outside the domain of the said security appliance. Long story short, blatant and absolute incompetence is the reason for the security hole. For me to document and report the problem to the appropriate people would risk my political standing, so I opt not to report it. In government institutions when you report things like this they will leave it as it is, and you will soon afterwards find doors closing on you. To be honest, I have reported it verbally to others not directly responsible for the system, but they choose to the let the other department hang itself (they enjoy seeing that). Witness government in-fighting 101, frankly, I'm tired of it.
Yeah, but its called LibreOffice, so I can't the picture of Jack Black in tights out of my head. LibreOffice is a no-go. Sorry, just the reality of the situation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nacho_Libre
I work at a community college in which the union blocked online courses for adjunct professors. It was a total nightmare for the students. Teachers would arbitrarily stop teaching online classes because they felt like it, content was/is pathetic. The really passionate tech-literate professors were hamstrung by the union, not able to teach online classes. It changed at last year's contract negotiation and adjunct are now allowed to teach online. We are in the transition period, but the program now suffers from a severe lack of leadership. So we will see how it goes.
Yes, and being a competent professional in the midst of this environment is very frustrating. When you are surrounded by meiocrity you begin to accept and rationalize the sorry state of these situations. Wishing you could be around people like yourself. Each IT shop has an average of one truly competent, knowledgeable, and interested person.
You have to mature enough not to care. I thought the internet had solved all these problems. Guess I'm naive. I know plenty of people who have found girlfriends on the internet, if not for free then from a paid match maker site. There are tons of people out there and you can practically shop for them on the internet. Hell, you can even find one that will spend money on you!
Actually, I think pretty much all of Windows has been re-written since its inception by talented and competent engineers. It is object oriented for god's sake, *nix can't make that claim.
Why does death always have to be sad? I think it rather petty to ascribe this label to all deaths. Death is inevitable, it leads to more creation. It causes people to reflect. You don't always have to be sad about it. We get old, sick, our bodies run down. Eventually it is not sad, it is just welcome. Sad is when someone lives a life in which they did not contribute anything. Some people are not afraid of death, at some point you just have to be rational about it, prepare for it, accept it. In the western world some people, most people maybe, are so afraid of death that it is technically irrational. Whats is the worst that could happen, you die. Are people afraid of death when they risk their lives to save a child or another human being? No, but on Sunday morning they are terrified of it.
I don't see Sun as mismanaged. They did exactly as they intended to do. They just didn't care about money. They took from the Wall Street racket and pumped it into open technology. I think we have all benefited from this. I came to this realization when I saw the CEO getting grilled on PBS one day from all sides by Wall Street analysts. Sun was staffed by true technologists, people who loved doing what they did, research and development. Sun turned out some awesome technologies and funded their engineers' salaries by selling systems.
Slashdot Mirror
Check out Daniel Pink's book Drive. He does an analysis of human motivation and how it has changed through our evolution. Very short book, good stuff. It helped me clarify my own stance on certain issues and prompted my decision to take my--what I thought was profit centered--(5 year old, mature) software project open source. Business needs to catch up with the science.
Think before you speak. Capitalism is just he described, and I would go so far as to say true. Communism is a defunct idea. It has no proof of ever working. For some reason democracy is never involved with communism.
You know, every once in a while you would see a comment like this on /. But as of late they are very common. I'm an easy going fellow, and not one who would promote affirmative action under any circumstance, but this is getting ridiculous. I can make a relevant comment and get moderated into oblivion, but some how this crap is sitting here at the top of the thread for everyone to see. I consider myself a member of the Slashdot community and I do not want to be associated with this outlook. I don't care if it is trolling or not, if it is trolling it is not very good. A good troll is subtle and smart.
Has anyone done a study on this yet?
That is an insult to all trolls. Trolls, like eh...., are a necessary evil. They liven up many a staunch forum, a good troll can be a real asset. Where do you get your best belly laughs, especially in a languishing forum? Trolls.
"With respect, this is naive and assumes that such companies *want* your assistance. I'm sure that a significant proportion would rather that you STFU about any inconvenient vulnerabilities which would cause them a lot of hassle to fix, probably make them look bad (people do *not* like being made to look incompetent, even when they are)" I found a vulnerability in a web portal that would shut down an entire line of business for a certain "company," and because of the dynamic you mentioned, it is still unreported to this day. Oddly enough as coincidences are, I was put in charge of installing a major security appliance for that system shortly after discovering the vulnerability. To this day, with the vulnerability still in tact (and the security appliance is still not in place because of the difficulty in actually switching systems), and after gaining notoriety and the trust of the people responsible for the system, I still have not reported it. The security appliance is capable, in theory, of curtailing the problem but it would take significant testing and development since it lies outside the domain of the said security appliance. Long story short, blatant and absolute incompetence is the reason for the security hole. For me to document and report the problem to the appropriate people would risk my political standing, so I opt not to report it. In government institutions when you report things like this they will leave it as it is, and you will soon afterwards find doors closing on you. To be honest, I have reported it verbally to others not directly responsible for the system, but they choose to the let the other department hang itself (they enjoy seeing that). Witness government in-fighting 101, frankly, I'm tired of it.
My wife used to work with an Excel guru who did all of her word processing in.....drum roll....Excel.
Writer...Write....I wish it was called Word Bitch Slap or something with Word in it. It would be so much easier to relate it to people.
Notepad++ rocks! Any machine I get on (save for Linux) gets Notepad++ installed right away. I wish there were a Linux version.
Paleease! Java is going to be around as long as C++. It will outlive us all.
Yeah, but its called LibreOffice, so I can't the picture of Jack Black in tights out of my head. LibreOffice is a no-go. Sorry, just the reality of the situation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nacho_Libre
You have not worked in government have you? People do not get fired for mistakes, they get promoted--seriously.
OKI, Texas Instruments, NEC, ...
Just a general disclaimer.
I work at a community college in which the union blocked online courses for adjunct professors. It was a total nightmare for the students. Teachers would arbitrarily stop teaching online classes because they felt like it, content was/is pathetic. The really passionate tech-literate professors were hamstrung by the union, not able to teach online classes. It changed at last year's contract negotiation and adjunct are now allowed to teach online. We are in the transition period, but the program now suffers from a severe lack of leadership. So we will see how it goes.
FUCK....I just GPL'd my face!
Have you tried an open source host like Oregon State University?
Yes, and being a competent professional in the midst of this environment is very frustrating. When you are surrounded by meiocrity you begin to accept and rationalize the sorry state of these situations. Wishing you could be around people like yourself. Each IT shop has an average of one truly competent, knowledgeable, and interested person.
They did mention it had an arm....guess it has a hand too.
You have to mature enough not to care. I thought the internet had solved all these problems. Guess I'm naive. I know plenty of people who have found girlfriends on the internet, if not for free then from a paid match maker site. There are tons of people out there and you can practically shop for them on the internet. Hell, you can even find one that will spend money on you!
"Throw in a text to speech"....whoa -- WHOA! there. No one said anything about them talking. Kind of besides the point.
Actually, I think pretty much all of Windows has been re-written since its inception by talented and competent engineers. It is object oriented for god's sake, *nix can't make that claim.
Why does death always have to be sad? I think it rather petty to ascribe this label to all deaths. Death is inevitable, it leads to more creation. It causes people to reflect. You don't always have to be sad about it. We get old, sick, our bodies run down. Eventually it is not sad, it is just welcome. Sad is when someone lives a life in which they did not contribute anything. Some people are not afraid of death, at some point you just have to be rational about it, prepare for it, accept it. In the western world some people, most people maybe, are so afraid of death that it is technically irrational. Whats is the worst that could happen, you die. Are people afraid of death when they risk their lives to save a child or another human being? No, but on Sunday morning they are terrified of it.
I don't see Sun as mismanaged. They did exactly as they intended to do. They just didn't care about money. They took from the Wall Street racket and pumped it into open technology. I think we have all benefited from this. I came to this realization when I saw the CEO getting grilled on PBS one day from all sides by Wall Street analysts. Sun was staffed by true technologists, people who loved doing what they did, research and development. Sun turned out some awesome technologies and funded their engineers' salaries by selling systems.
It is just a matter of time before Microsoft releases an OS based on Linux.