Then you're not shopping around enough. There are places where you can have that kind of a history and be valued... admittedly, not with 100% financing or other idiotic options, but you're probably not looking for that anyways.
I have personally watched people at World Savings make loans to people with good downpayments and less-than-usual documentation with perfectly acceptable terms. Adjustable rate, yes, but not truly evil rates like the 10% you're quoting.
... which is why you can usually get car dealers to give you cash back OR the zero percent financing. Pay cash, take the $3k rebate, and smile all the way to the bank.
Selling for a living will definitely hone the skills you're shooting for, but I'm not sure you want to run out to CompUSA and get a second job just to practice. After selling custom printing for a month or so, I really started noticing when people were glazing over and what I could do to bring them back into the discussion.
Selling makes you focus on their goals in order to reach your goals.
The other way to get this skill is to listen. Then listen more. Ask questions, then listen to the answers. By the way, that's the same way to do well at sales... at least in my experience.
Good luck!
I've had good experiences with DBDesigner (GPL) for database modeling, though I wasn't doing anything extremely taxing and it may miss some blinkenlights the paid products have. It was more than adequate for what I needed...
The discussions of 'Net Neutrality' definitions seem like they have gotten out of hand, and I am concerned that we may get some politics-induced policy that ends up selling users down the river regardless of the goals. What is wrong with using a simple concept instead:
All similar services will receive the same bandwidth policy, regardless of initiating company.
It would prevent a VoIP or Video-on-demand preference based on the Baby Bell providing a service instead of an outside provider. It would not prevent filtering or shaping, as long as it was applied identically to all traffic. The one danger is if a new delivery mechanism is not considered a 'similar service' such as Video streaming compared to P2P video but that could be FCC-watched with the Duck Rule (if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck and floats like a duck...)
Right, then it's a witch. So maybe there is still more to work out...
I've been on Speakeasy since I moved about three years ago and I run a Debian torrent client 24/7, and I've never seen my traffic slow or had any extra charges. However, I pay double or triple what the US Cheapo ISPs offer and I expect the complete, constant service in return.
I get it - and more. Speakeasy even encourages you to share your bandwidth with your neighbors and collect a cut of the income. Indeed, they offer special services for gamers and other folks who want faster performance. If they're traffic-shaping, AFAIK it would be just to get to my advertised limit and I've never seen it. They even upped my speed without me asking when it seemed their price was higher than most competitors.
They also have rocking technical support and great attitudes. Have I mentioned I'm a Raving Fan? You want to try good service? Sign up here... (Full disclosure: referral program in use)
I was at a Safeway grocery store recently where they sell lots of cards for other stores such as BN, and the teller let us know that as of January 1 the oh-so-helpful government had killed the law that provided similar protection to California residents. All gift cards/certs sold before 1/1/04 were valid forever, but after that date they expired as listed on the card.
It's a pity our legislators are watching out so carefully for the consumer's rights...
Instead of searching with site=microsoft for Windows fixes, you can get a search of many many things related to MS by using http://google.com/microsoft which turns up a ton more answers than the MS KB or any other search I've found.
Turns out they're on the instruction pages, more's the pity. I thought they were unpublished.
Deviant at LinuxWorld
on
Enterprise IM?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
The guys you mentioned, Deviant, were at LinuxWorld in SF. They're running Jabber in a Shuttle case, with a bunch of extra logging and retention tricks. So you'd get the open standards and full support at the same time, for what I thought was a great price.
That said, it was too expensive for my client, who is now using a basic Jabber setup...
My problem with mail forms is that I don't have a record of any messages sent or any information if things go wrong with the delivery. Black hole for information == bad.
That being said, if you have a copy sent to the sender as well it's not as evil.
Unfortunately, it's on Windows... but the last one I installed has run for three years and didn't die once unless the power went out or (just last month) the mobo fried. Not its fault.
Just make sure you have some hefty UPS backup, and at each workstation if you go with some powered phones like VOIP...
I've run into some serious challenges starting to use Zope... the documentation is kind of brutal and out of date, with few coherent examples of page templates or external classes. Do you (or anyone else) have non-obvious leads on how to get started building Zope Products or ZClasses beyond the docs on zope.org? Or suggestions offline: zopehelpfromslashdot at remove.this webplumbers.com
Thanks... I'm really hot to start building stuff but not sure where to start... ---
Just today, the SF Chronicle had a column on Rich Aurilia (baseball player) who is dealing with a similar issue and his hunt for a solution. Since he has far more cash for doctors than I do, his solutions may not match yours but they may help...
NetBotz are the best-known and most fully-featured system, but they're kind of pricey.
A cheaper alternative is APC's solution while providing just the environment info you want.
If you are also looking into remote power management, Server Technology's Power Tower product is being integrated with a new environmental device (for $100-200 or so, according to reports) which allows you to keep your interactions and monitoring all on one interface for environmental and power both.
My second child is only 11 days old now... so I'm reading/. over a week behind. However, some things were neglected above:
1) The importance of sleeping NOW, before baby arrives. I know you thought they mentioned it enough, but SLEEP NOW or you shan't for months.
2) Cloth diapers rock. Yeah, they're a pain to learn to put on right (but you're a geek and you'll understand the logic behind the folding patterns so it's not so bad) and the first week you'll want to give up. However, they're cheaper, better for the environment, and are delivered to your door if you pick the right folks! I can't push Tiny Tots enough if you're anywhere in the greater SF/SJ Bay Area. It used to be worse for the environment but not any more - better washers and extrication - aint tech grand? And by law, you're supposed to rinse out paper diapers before throwing them away (can't put human excrement in the landfills, I know no one does it but it's still on the books) and the diaper companies actually ask you not to clean out the poop.
3) Breastfeeding is the best *BUT* don't let the Breastfeeding Nazis get a hold of you. My wife had really bad problems (blood and gobbets of flesh coming off, erg) with the first and it was awfully hard to throw off the brainwashing and use formula as a supplement. With this one we're using it when necessary and it's not perfect (some previous people mentioned the problems) but it's better than a chewed-up wife. Trust me.
4) Sleep now!
5) Make nice with your boss so you can be more flexible with your time away from work. You want to see your kid!
6) <preach>Figure out how to get one of you to stay at home with the kid. I don't care how, just do it. Read like mad to them. Read like mad around them. They'll pick up from your behavior what's important. Talk to them like adults and they'll behave well. Treat them like babies and they'll behave like it. They have brains (lots, based on you) and they'll use them. Your family is now your top priority. Period. Show that to them. </preach>
7) Sleep NOW.
8) Trust your instincts. We did things exactly the opposite of a number of posters, and exactly the same as others. Ignore anyone who tells you something that doesn't fit with your views, even if it's your mother. Especially if it's your mother!
9) Did I mention to sleep now?
Congrats and good luck... holler if you need more opinions! johnqatmpsce dott com
OK, I don't see this being a discussion based on which way we're facing -- you're familiar with Isen, great. But I can tell you that as a consumer with little choice or as someone attempting to pull together a bit of competition to the ILEC as a local ISP, the issues don't look so clean *NOW*. Not in the future, nor in the past, now. The local loops have been paid for via previous high prices on phone service -- the monopoly prices -- and I don't begrudge them (much) that recovery. I know how much capital it takes to do that type of a rollout.
Unfortunately, instead of each residence owning their own wire (I and every other existing house paid for it over the last 50+ years) the phone company now gets to hold me hostage. So now, as a consumer or as an ISP, I get to pay PacBell every year for my wire, or I have to reinvest a duplicate amount of capital to (a) string my own wire or (b) install fixed wireless. Wasteful.
Not to mention, fixed wireless works horribly in my area (lots of hills and trees) and cellular only slightly better. Cable? Not useful (I detest ATT only slightly less than PacBell), mostly because they interfere with the flow of bits even more.
So, we're back to Isen - and the idea of leaving the wires as a monopoly but letting the services on them be many (and separate companies, not this fictitious separation between PacBell and PacBell DSL). Make "the bits business" real - not a wires and bits business. Give the end user control over what rides on their wires - not an ILEC.
And I've got to admit, I'm swayed by friends who work for PacBell and brag about how their foot-dragging and misconfigurations killed off CLECs and ISPs. I'm tired of manipulation, whether it be Microsoft or PacBell. I want to see people play by the rules, not stall for 6 years and lobby the issue until it dies (whether that's through the courts or the FCC).
I'm just tired of fighting gorillas to get semi-adequate service.
In the longer term, I believe that this will spur innovation
Ummm... how many baby bells have innovated something in the last 30 years? OK, maybe a slight exaggeration but their business is preserving their monopoly... or as you put it, '...the benefits of their investments.' Their investments are coming out of MY pocket as a monopoly provider, and the whole issue now is how long the government is going to support them. Check out Here Comes the Bailout (SMART letter 82)...
Kushnick presents an example
of how in 1993, New Jersey Bell convinced the New Jersey
Public Utilities Commission to institute new, "incentive
based" rate rules. In return, NJ Bell promised to spend
US$1.5 billion to "greatly accelerate deployment of
advanced technologies," including fiber to the home. In
1997, the New Jersey Ratepayer Advocate (a NJ State
Official) reported that NJ Bell spent not $1.5 billion but
only $79 million. At the same time, Kushnick reports, the
new regulatory "incentives" gave NJ Bell a $955 million
windfall that resulted not in advanced services, but in $1
additional dividend payouts of -- surprise! -- about $955
million. And -- more surprise! -- no New Jersey homes got
"advanced technologies" under the "incentive based" system.
It was all quid, and no pro quo.
Danger! Danger! RAID 10 and RAID 0+1 is different, and the MTBF is drastically worse for 10 (the standard version included on the controllers) due to the way it's handled... think about it for a few moments:
RAID 1+0 (or 10) (mirroring plus striping) gives you a chance that if one drive dies, you still have a fully functioning side of the mirror on the other disk.
RAID 0+1 (striping plus mirroring) gives you a chance that if one drive dies, half of the mirror dies immediately.
Thus, if you lose a drive in the other half for 10, your stripe set continues with one (non-mirrored) disk on each side. But if you lose a drive in the other half for 0+1, your mirror set fails completely since both sides are missing half of the stripes... bang! you're dead.
Check out Robert X. Cringely's new setup where he's prepping to build a NerdTV... coming Real Soon Now. He has tips into hardware and thoughts on a bunch of issues you'll probably have to address...
Until you're paid for your work, the code is still yours.
Morally, at least. It really depends on your contract*, but if you've got deliverables and they haven't delivered the money, that may be true legally as well. Read your contract carefully*. At least one person has suggested a lawyer... and doing that gives you really good odds of ending your contract, but it lets you make the dispute public (in front of the financiers) without blackmailing the company.
Have they told you what they're unhappy with? 'Progress' is awfully general - if the milestones have been hit, on time, they shouldn't have much of an argument*. If it took 5 weeks to hit the first week's milestone, then you may have to renegotiate with them since that's pretty bad...
Don't ruin your reputation by an end-around on something this basic. As a consultant, it may make you poison for future employers.
* Check your contract for quality-of-code clauses or milestone-timing penalties
One solution I've seen that works really well is velcro and Plexiglass. Put a spot (1" square or bigger) of velcro in each of the four corners of the LCD screen, cut the Plexi to be slightly bigger than the velcro distances, and put the other side of the velcro on the Plexi. Protects the most vulnerable stuff without great investment... and you can pull it off and be running in 15 seconds.
FWIW, not my idea. A contractor in the office used this solution to bring in his own screen and I just thought it was neat...
I set up my new DVD player yesterday, and I wanted it to work perfectly out of the box. I'm tired of having to read manuals for every component (and all other kinds of hardware) I buy just to get it set up. At least with a RedHat install, it asks for my configuration the first time I use it. How hard would it be for a DVD player to behave the same way?
One theory I've heard (and empathized with, especially yesterday) is version fatigue... people just get tired of things being a bit different each time they set something up.
And hey, I'm inherently lazy. I found the instructions to fix the DVD in three pages... but I don't want to have to look. Prompt me for basic config, you underdesigning JVC engineers!
Slashdot Mirror
Then you're not shopping around enough. There are places where you can have that kind of a history and be valued... admittedly, not with 100% financing or other idiotic options, but you're probably not looking for that anyways.
I have personally watched people at World Savings make loans to people with good downpayments and less-than-usual documentation with perfectly acceptable terms. Adjustable rate, yes, but not truly evil rates like the 10% you're quoting.
... which is why you can usually get car dealers to give you cash back OR the zero percent financing. Pay cash, take the $3k rebate, and smile all the way to the bank.
Selling for a living will definitely hone the skills you're shooting for, but I'm not sure you want to run out to CompUSA and get a second job just to practice. After selling custom printing for a month or so, I really started noticing when people were glazing over and what I could do to bring them back into the discussion.
Selling makes you focus on their goals in order to reach your goals.
The other way to get this skill is to listen. Then listen more. Ask questions, then listen to the answers. By the way, that's the same way to do well at sales... at least in my experience. Good luck!
I've had good experiences with DBDesigner (GPL) for database modeling, though I wasn't doing anything extremely taxing and it may miss some blinkenlights the paid products have. It was more than adequate for what I needed...
Right, then it's a witch. So maybe there is still more to work out...
I've been on Speakeasy since I moved about three years ago and I run a Debian torrent client 24/7, and I've never seen my traffic slow or had any extra charges. However, I pay double or triple what the US Cheapo ISPs offer and I expect the complete, constant service in return.
I get it - and more. Speakeasy even encourages you to share your bandwidth with your neighbors and collect a cut of the income. Indeed, they offer special services for gamers and other folks who want faster performance. If they're traffic-shaping, AFAIK it would be just to get to my advertised limit and I've never seen it. They even upped my speed without me asking when it seemed their price was higher than most competitors.
They also have rocking technical support and great attitudes. Have I mentioned I'm a Raving Fan? You want to try good service? Sign up here... (Full disclosure: referral program in use)
I was at a Safeway grocery store recently where they sell lots of cards for other stores such as BN, and the teller let us know that as of January 1 the oh-so-helpful government had killed the law that provided similar protection to California residents. All gift cards/certs sold before 1/1/04 were valid forever, but after that date they expired as listed on the card.
It's a pity our legislators are watching out so carefully for the consumer's rights...
Instead of searching with site=microsoft for Windows fixes, you can get a search of many many things related to MS by using http://google.com/microsoft which turns up a ton more answers than the MS KB or any other search I've found.
/linux and Macintosh...
Also works with
Turns out they're on the instruction pages, more's the pity. I thought they were unpublished.
The guys you mentioned, Deviant, were at LinuxWorld in SF. They're running Jabber in a Shuttle case, with a bunch of extra logging and retention tricks. So you'd get the open standards and full support at the same time, for what I thought was a great price.
That said, it was too expensive for my client, who is now using a basic Jabber setup...
My problem with mail forms is that I don't have a record of any messages sent or any information if things go wrong with the delivery. Black hole for information == bad.
That being said, if you have a copy sent to the sender as well it's not as evil.
- VOIP
- handy voicemail
- integration with contact managers
- total control of user privileges
- uses STANDARD handsets (not proprietary)
- totally easy to administer
Unfortunately, it's on Windows... but the last one I installed has run for three years and didn't die once unless the power went out or (just last month) the mobo fried. Not its fault.Just make sure you have some hefty UPS backup, and at each workstation if you go with some powered phones like VOIP...
The penguins already stopped, back in March.
But it was amusing while it lasted...
I've run into some serious challenges starting to use Zope... the documentation is kind of brutal and out of date, with few coherent examples of page templates or external classes. Do you (or anyone else) have non-obvious leads on how to get started building Zope Products or ZClasses beyond the docs on zope.org? Or suggestions offline: zopehelpfromslashdot at remove.this webplumbers.com
Thanks... I'm really hot to start building stuff but not sure where to start...
---
- (for those who don't click through)
- drops in his eyes
- two flaxseed oil tablets a day
- clear wraparound glasses, essentially protective goggles
- sealed off his tear ducts so that fluid wouldn't drain easily from his eyes
Sealing off the ducts seems like a radical solution to me. I can't imagine monkeying that much with my body just to avoid dry eyes.---
NetBotz are the best-known and most fully-featured system, but they're kind of pricey.
A cheaper alternative is APC's solution while providing just the environment info you want.
If you are also looking into remote power management, Server Technology's Power Tower product is being integrated with a new environmental device (for $100-200 or so, according to reports) which allows you to keep your interactions and monitoring all on one interface for environmental and power both.
My second child is only 11 days old now... so I'm reading /. over a week behind. However, some things were neglected above:
1) The importance of sleeping NOW, before baby arrives. I know you thought they mentioned it enough, but SLEEP NOW or you shan't for months.
2) Cloth diapers rock. Yeah, they're a pain to learn to put on right (but you're a geek and you'll understand the logic behind the folding patterns so it's not so bad) and the first week you'll want to give up. However, they're cheaper, better for the environment, and are delivered to your door if you pick the right folks! I can't push Tiny Tots enough if you're anywhere in the greater SF/SJ Bay Area. It used to be worse for the environment but not any more - better washers and extrication - aint tech grand? And by law, you're supposed to rinse out paper diapers before throwing them away (can't put human excrement in the landfills, I know no one does it but it's still on the books) and the diaper companies actually ask you not to clean out the poop.
3) Breastfeeding is the best *BUT* don't let the Breastfeeding Nazis get a hold of you. My wife had really bad problems (blood and gobbets of flesh coming off, erg) with the first and it was awfully hard to throw off the brainwashing and use formula as a supplement. With this one we're using it when necessary and it's not perfect (some previous people mentioned the problems) but it's better than a chewed-up wife. Trust me.
4) Sleep now!
5) Make nice with your boss so you can be more flexible with your time away from work. You want to see your kid!
6) <preach>Figure out how to get one of you to stay at home with the kid. I don't care how, just do it. Read like mad to them. Read like mad around them. They'll pick up from your behavior what's important. Talk to them like adults and they'll behave well. Treat them like babies and they'll behave like it. They have brains (lots, based on you) and they'll use them. Your family is now your top priority. Period. Show that to them. </preach>
7) Sleep NOW.
8) Trust your instincts. We did things exactly the opposite of a number of posters, and exactly the same as others. Ignore anyone who tells you something that doesn't fit with your views, even if it's your mother. Especially if it's your mother!
9) Did I mention to sleep now?
Congrats and good luck... holler if you need more opinions! johnqatmpsce dott com
OK, I don't see this being a discussion based on which way we're facing -- you're familiar with Isen, great. But I can tell you that as a consumer with little choice or as someone attempting to pull together a bit of competition to the ILEC as a local ISP, the issues don't look so clean *NOW*. Not in the future, nor in the past, now. The local loops have been paid for via previous high prices on phone service -- the monopoly prices -- and I don't begrudge them (much) that recovery. I know how much capital it takes to do that type of a rollout.
Unfortunately, instead of each residence owning their own wire (I and every other existing house paid for it over the last 50+ years) the phone company now gets to hold me hostage. So now, as a consumer or as an ISP, I get to pay PacBell every year for my wire, or I have to reinvest a duplicate amount of capital to (a) string my own wire or (b) install fixed wireless. Wasteful.
Not to mention, fixed wireless works horribly in my area (lots of hills and trees) and cellular only slightly better. Cable? Not useful (I detest ATT only slightly less than PacBell), mostly because they interfere with the flow of bits even more.
So, we're back to Isen - and the idea of leaving the wires as a monopoly but letting the services on them be many (and separate companies, not this fictitious separation between PacBell and PacBell DSL). Make "the bits business" real - not a wires and bits business. Give the end user control over what rides on their wires - not an ILEC.
And I've got to admit, I'm swayed by friends who work for PacBell and brag about how their foot-dragging and misconfigurations killed off CLECs and ISPs. I'm tired of manipulation, whether it be Microsoft or PacBell. I want to see people play by the rules, not stall for 6 years and lobby the issue until it dies (whether that's through the courts or the FCC).
I'm just tired of fighting gorillas to get semi-adequate service.
In the longer term, I believe that this will spur innovation
Ummm... how many baby bells have innovated something in the last 30 years? OK, maybe a slight exaggeration but their business is preserving their monopoly... or as you put it, '...the benefits of their investments.' Their investments are coming out of MY pocket as a monopoly provider, and the whole issue now is how long the government is going to support them. Check out Here Comes the Bailout (SMART letter 82)...
Check out also the "Fail Fast" letter for more details...
Danger! Danger! RAID 10 and RAID 0+1 is different, and the MTBF is drastically worse for 10 (the standard version included on the controllers) due to the way it's handled... think about it for a few moments:
RAID 1+0 (or 10) (mirroring plus striping) gives you a chance that if one drive dies, you still have a fully functioning side of the mirror on the other disk.
RAID 0+1 (striping plus mirroring) gives you a chance that if one drive dies, half of the mirror dies immediately.
Thus, if you lose a drive in the other half for 10, your stripe set continues with one (non-mirrored) disk on each side. But if you lose a drive in the other half for 0+1, your mirror set fails completely since both sides are missing half of the stripes... bang! you're dead.
Check out a more detailed writeup that we consulted when debating this for a client...
Check out Robert X. Cringely's new setup where he's prepping to build a NerdTV... coming Real Soon Now. He has tips into hardware and thoughts on a bunch of issues you'll probably have to address...
Until you're paid for your work, the code is still yours.
Morally, at least. It really depends on your contract*, but if you've got deliverables and they haven't delivered the money, that may be true legally as well. Read your contract carefully*. At least one person has suggested a lawyer... and doing that gives you really good odds of ending your contract, but it lets you make the dispute public (in front of the financiers) without blackmailing the company.
Have they told you what they're unhappy with? 'Progress' is awfully general - if the milestones have been hit, on time, they shouldn't have much of an argument*. If it took 5 weeks to hit the first week's milestone, then you may have to renegotiate with them since that's pretty bad...
Don't ruin your reputation by an end-around on something this basic. As a consultant, it may make you poison for future employers.
* Check your contract for quality-of-code clauses or milestone-timing penalties
---
One solution I've seen that works really well is velcro and Plexiglass. Put a spot (1" square or bigger) of velcro in each of the four corners of the LCD screen, cut the Plexi to be slightly bigger than the velcro distances, and put the other side of the velcro on the Plexi. Protects the most vulnerable stuff without great investment... and you can pull it off and be running in 15 seconds.
FWIW, not my idea. A contractor in the office used this solution to bring in his own screen and I just thought it was neat...
I set up my new DVD player yesterday, and I wanted it to work perfectly out of the box. I'm tired of having to read manuals for every component (and all other kinds of hardware) I buy just to get it set up. At least with a RedHat install, it asks for my configuration the first time I use it. How hard would it be for a DVD player to behave the same way?
One theory I've heard (and empathized with, especially yesterday) is version fatigue... people just get tired of things being a bit different each time they set something up.
And hey, I'm inherently lazy. I found the instructions to fix the DVD in three pages... but I don't want to have to look. Prompt me for basic config, you underdesigning JVC engineers!
How are you mapping those keys to mouse buttons?
I'm still in OS9, but I'd just love to get a couple more mouse buttons going. Could you share how it's done, and if it is possible in OS9?
Thanks!
Anybody remember the last time this story was posted? It's definitely cool, but it's easy to check if the story has been covered before...