to clarify (yuk yuk), bigger pixels aren't the answer. bigger fonts are. the best for old people is a laptop running linux console-mode 80x34. fast zippy and comfortable. end of discussion.
last i checked, cobalt's business plan rests on proprietary UI. this is not a long-term viable business plan since glade et al now make customized UI idiot's work. corporate customers always demand blame-dereference services, but i think cobalt's expertise in that area is poor. i do not believe they value quality, which is the only thing to survive the onslaught of free software.
from a more traditional market perspective: cobalt was one of the first linux-as-appliance manufacturers, so they are in the position of having to make the mistakes whereas others may learn from cobalt's w/o expending resources (if smart enough). if cobalt is also smart enough, they will develop rewarding developer relationships instead of paying neophytes for square wheels. poor investment in experienced development means that the early good seeds that wandered through cobalt can only hope management sees the light. cobalt's strengths lie in its multiple distribution channels and community goodwill. these can be counted to remain loyal for the short term, but long term return to horizontal markets and (once again) free software change the value of that approach. as for product, it could be that cobalt will forego mips going forward, in the process shifting focus from efficiency (dollars/cycle) to price, in an effort to maximize margins.
other players will likely follow suit, and market the same message: our UI ontology maps to yours. since the market is still not sophisticated enough where every business has an in-house hacker, there is room for profits. cobalt has seeded the industry, but the window before market sophistication is small, and cobalt needs to strengthen its service before more traditional service providers loosely partner w/ netapp or whatnot and cobalt dies the usloth death.
if your question presumes a labelling point of view (convenient as the simplification may be), your answer will take the form of labels, aka bins, aka stereotypes.
people find the convenience helpful and often forget to approach/appreciate/abhor each person for their own individual traits.
american "left" and "right" is like windows 95 vs nt. (not that different when compared to, say, unix.) see axel boldt's (subjective) comparison of US and German cultures, for more on this.
as a culture, america does not value quality so much as quantity. "well, i've got enough quality, what are you talking about?", you exclaim. thank you for demonstrating my point exactly.
america is one of the only cultures that de-values education, and deceitfully misguides its children from understanding that all people are both teachers and students. to paraphrase, "a good person is a bad person's teacher, a bad person is a good person's job."
people, fix the design for the next release. don't keep kludging the implementation; that path is for fools. why condemn your children to following you into the abyss? enlightenment w/o action guarantees endless bondage on the wheel. what can we do to escape this?
geeks like to play, and often are extremely productive as a by-product. so, make things fun and interesting. if stuck w/ a project that doesn't have these qualities, focus on infrastructure or tools (as things to make fun and interesting). support "brown-bag lunches", where people can geek out on a particular topic. support high-bandwith email or mailing list discussion forums for the info addicts. stay away from "need to know" (compartmentalized) mentality, this really pisses off the aforementioned info junkies. value rational disagreements over irrational agreement.
reward based on accomplishment and effectiveness, not seniority. publish the reward algorithm, avoid political influences. publish the reward algorithm for non-tech folks. explore non-traditional rewards.
don't lie. if you must lie, explain why. if you can't explain everything, explain as much as possible and invite suggestions. give serious thought to these suggestions; you asked, after all.
get to the point. being convivial takes time from playing. time well-spent for a geek is a like a daze of intensity. learn to recognize when someone is in deep mode. schedule interruptions at boundaries or better yet, not at all. state your agenda up front. #define your assumptions.
establish or at least allow side projects. encourage lateral thinking and profilable solution strategies. but don't focus too much; grant some (significant) leeway for personal interest and growth. do not harsh on minor subversions.
stingy web-company management-team seeks idealistic lover to spend time away from the relationship and at the keyboard. not interested in long-term relationship. you must be good with your hands and not talk too much. don't worry about any kids we may have, it's a free country.
learning is a process. so is programming. knowledge is static. so is proprietary software. from this analogy we see that learning is superior to merely knowing as programming is superior to merely using.
conclusion: it is good that schools do not spend much on software. the opportunity exists for them to cultivate the programming side of their students. to think like a programmer is to always be learning. isn't that the goal?
this all blends nicely into the free software movement, as other more loquacious people will surely point out.
Slashdot Mirror
Rather than have censorware, have session management software that resets the initial (login) screen.
thi
it will be one of the first segments in the software industry to crash.
--thi
you have to get infected to really grok w/ it. good luck!
--thi
go out and do some of that in real life.
when was the last time you volunteered at a homeless shelter or soup line?
fool! find one place and you see a thousand other places.
to clarify (yuk yuk), bigger pixels aren't the answer. bigger fonts are. the best for old people is a laptop running linux console-mode 80x34. fast zippy and comfortable. end of discussion.
you think you're a programmer? do you think you're a quality programmer?
calumnical interruptus at-your-service
close, but don't you think "zero tolerance" is at odds w/ "respect everyone"?
from a more traditional market perspective: cobalt was one of the first linux-as-appliance manufacturers, so they are in the position of having to make the mistakes whereas others may learn from cobalt's w/o expending resources (if smart enough). if cobalt is also smart enough, they will develop rewarding developer relationships instead of paying neophytes for square wheels. poor investment in experienced development means that the early good seeds that wandered through cobalt can only hope management sees the light. cobalt's strengths lie in its multiple distribution channels and community goodwill. these can be counted to remain loyal for the short term, but long term return to horizontal markets and (once again) free software change the value of that approach. as for product, it could be that cobalt will forego mips going forward, in the process shifting focus from efficiency (dollars/cycle) to price, in an effort to maximize margins.
other players will likely follow suit, and market the same message: our UI ontology maps to yours. since the market is still not sophisticated enough where every business has an in-house hacker, there is room for profits. cobalt has seeded the industry, but the window before market sophistication is small, and cobalt needs to strengthen its service before more traditional service providers loosely partner w/ netapp or whatnot and cobalt dies the usloth death.
usloth can't program, but they can come up w/ CYA TLAs. beautiful.
people find the convenience helpful and often forget to approach/appreciate/abhor each person for their own individual traits.
btw, your questions seem to indicate that you already expect a certain answer. why do you do that?
too bad disney doesn't have the balls to do anything that is not furry in some way. (perhaps disney could delegate this to touchstone...)
(down w/ photorealism! i already got enough reality. bring back sparse-data planes and light cycles, yeah!)
the way to implement "open employment" semantics is to use the GPL.
this poor guy needs to stop working so hard. he's blathering like an idiot.
if another calls you a hacker, what do they know about hacking?
if a hacker calls you a hacker, what is your next hack?
if you are called, what is your return value?
as a culture, america does not value quality so much as quantity. "well, i've got enough quality, what are you talking about?", you exclaim. thank you for demonstrating my point exactly.
america is one of the only cultures that de-values education, and deceitfully misguides its children from understanding that all people are both teachers and students. to paraphrase, "a good person is a bad person's teacher, a bad person is a good person's job."
people, fix the design for the next release. don't keep kludging the implementation; that path is for fools. why condemn your children to following you into the abyss? enlightenment w/o action guarantees endless bondage on the wheel. what can we do to escape this?
reward based on accomplishment and effectiveness, not seniority. publish the reward algorithm, avoid political influences. publish the reward algorithm for non-tech folks. explore non-traditional rewards.
don't lie. if you must lie, explain why. if you can't explain everything, explain as much as possible and invite suggestions. give serious thought to these suggestions; you asked, after all.
get to the point. being convivial takes time from playing. time well-spent for a geek is a like a daze of intensity. learn to recognize when someone is in deep mode. schedule interruptions at boundaries or better yet, not at all. state your agenda up front. #define your assumptions.
establish or at least allow side projects. encourage lateral thinking and profilable solution strategies. but don't focus too much; grant some (significant) leeway for personal interest and growth. do not harsh on minor subversions.
conclusion: it is good that schools do not spend much on software. the opportunity exists for them to cultivate the programming side of their students. to think like a programmer is to always be learning. isn't that the goal?
this all blends nicely into the free software movement, as other more loquacious people will surely point out.
see sja-play.el for an elisp player. i call it "sja" for "simon jansen asciimation". this file is part of project ADHOC, under GNU GPL.
may the foam-flecked waves roil above as you plumb the depths of elegance.
your arguments are for the subset w/ access. they do not apply to those w/o access. see original poster's arguments.
fwiw, i've put the above on a webpage.