what all of the software tools do is make the amatuer photographer better (my point and shoot photos look a lot better than they did 20 years ago), they don't threaten "professional photographers."
I'll point everyone at the excellent CNBC documentary on Pixar if you want to see the impact computers have had on the animation industry (just different tools for the artists, you still need artists). "Waking Sleeping Beauty" is also a good look at the traditional animation industry. compare and contrast:-)
anyway, a huge part of photography is what the photographer "sees" not the tools that they use, that fact isn't going to change anytime soon
yes, the profession has been changed (when did "photoshop" become a verb? Kodak declared bankruptcy) and is being changed by technology but photographers won't be "replaced" anytime soon.
human motivation is always tricky - mostly because you can never really know what is going on inside someone else's head. What motivates one person might not motivate another.
the dead Greek guy thought (Aristotle) is that there must be a root cause for all human action. Why do people get up and go to work? They need money. Why do they need money? They have bills to pay. Why do they have bills to pay? They need things. - and so on, until you get to the root motivator. Aristotle argued that this root motivator is "happiness."
so the reason people do things is because (they think) it will make them happy (please remember that philosophers/psychologists/lovers have been arguing over this subject for as long as people have been arguing - we are dealing with the ultimate "black box" in the human mind)
the practical advice is that people want to do useful work that has a purpose. if you feel that your job is pointless ("yeah, about the cover on the tps reports"), giving you a gold star for turning in your pointless work on time isn't going to help. If you feel that your work is important and you are emotionally involved in the process then you might think that putting explosives in your underwear is a good idea - and then the gold star is really pointless.
my personal opinion is that "gamification" might work for certain people/certain jobs - but not as a long term motivator
agreeing with you - I was going to make the pencil and paper analogy (I'm sure somewhere out there are people out there that prefer using a bird feather dipped in ink as opposed to the newer tech...)
"old tech" sticks around because it is doing something useful AND because upgrading a complicated system is never easy or cheap. Users who were experts at the "old way" of doing things need be trained (or replaced by "younger, less experienced, cheaper, but already trained in the new tech workers")
we could wander into the "creative destruction" economic discussion but then the Marcus Aurelius quote (paraphresed by Hannibal Lecter) "This thou must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the whole..." came to mind, and something about the "nature of tech" equalling "performing useful work" made me realize that I was using way to many quotation marks and should be doing something else...
I think of software engineering as being a higher level funtion than computer programming. a code mokey might get hired as a computer programmer, but then grows into a software engineer...
In his book ("iWoz") - Woz tells a story where "when he was young" he was able to lock himself in a room for a week and come out with a completed project. As he aged he found that he lost that ability/motivation (and he could just pay someone to write the code)
regarding Zuckerberg's comment, that guy who used to run Microsoft (Bill Gates I think) basically said the same thing - i.e. young minds have better/more ideas (read "Breaking Windows" to see when Bill Gates hit that wall).
anyway, the human brain changes as we age - which may not be "fair" but... ummm, what was I saying...
the first rule of I.T. fight club is ...
on
Tales of IT Idiocy
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
users who don't know anything aren't the problem - users who don't know anything but think they know everything are the problem...
does anyone actually believe that Microsoft will intentionally make their product less usable? (ducking and running)
I could see the gui "disappearing" from the actual server box - but we will still have remote administration tools. the windows "client"/desktop becomes the home for the server gui
Microsoft pushes the server core installation for security (smaller attack footprint) and performance (all those gui features require resources) reasons - not because the command line is something they love
to state the obvious - Microsoft is a software company, and they want to sell a lot of software. Moving the server gui admin tools to the "Windows client" (e.g. desktop/tablet/mobile/whatever) sounds like a good way to "encourage" people to buy more Microsoft products
but yes, you need to learn to use powershell if you are going to continue being a Windows server admin...
Microsoft is a software company, Apple is a hardware company - so this might be a good idea for Apple but not so much for Microsoft (unless they are going to get into the hardware business - which is possible, but not likely)
I'm reading this as "boot sector protection on steroids" - a security feature that could be disabled in the bios...
so just disable the feature, dban the drive, then install the free OS of your choice - or just go back to building your own computer...
who sits on boards is an old problem - and I'm not opposed to oversight - but who will watch the watchers?
I'm worried that we are on the slippery slope when we start deciding what someone "deserves" to make (as in "let's pass a law prohibiting this group of people from making more than $x"). That is how we got here in the first place - i.e. limitations on salary encouraged "stock options" as compensation
If a CEO creates a positive corporate culture, provides real leadership, and actually does what is "best" for the company - you can't pay them enough. If the CEO is making decisions based strictly on how the stock market is valuing their company - you can't fire them fast enough.
Yahoo!'s board (http://investor.yahoo.net/directors.cfm) looks like a reasonable bunch of people that have made a few mistakes (none of them look particularly confrontational - and they do look a little "nerdy" - neither of which is a bad thing).
On the other hand, Carol Bartz comes across as such a reasonable, mature, people friendly person that I am SHOCKED that they fired her over the phone;-)
(tongue in cheek)
if they were a "solar" company - maybe the commute to the sun hurt their profits
(... muffled... whispers... )
I have just been informed that they were guilty of having very good lobbyists and no one thought this solar power thing would really work anyway. Maybe some of those 1,100 ex-employees will consider starting a business selling a product or service that people want/need and for which they are willing/able to pay.
If they are lucky they will burn through 0.5 billion dollars before going bankrupt
(/tongue in cheek)
It is also worth pointing out that a great marketing plan for a terrible product is also a great way to quickly kill the product (Ford Edsel). You can't lose a little money on every transaction and stay in business (dot.com bust). AND a society based on repressing a large part of their population cannot last (I'm looking at you China).
The ratio of "IT employees" to "non-IT employees" is a definition game.
The purpose of having anybody around (you know - "employees") is to help the "employer" accomplish the mission (hopefully there is a mission...lol) - therefore ALL employees are in "customer" support (then we have to define the customer - yada,yada,yada)
Smaller organizations/departments are always more efficient. As more "employees" are added - more time has to be spent communicating between employees (i.e. more time is spent on activities that don't directly support the "mission").
Eventually you reach a point where adding additional employees is actually counter productive
"The Mythic Man Month" makes this point about software development but it is true in general...
"I don't know if they're trustworthy enough to not steal other people's equipment."
they aren't - good locks make people honest
the important thing with any type of "physical security" is that it be highly visible - i.e. one guard standing at the entrance will probably just irritate people (and not prevent any theft)
even if you hire a security guard and use security cameras (but that is probably overkill) it won't prevent someone who is motivated from stealing something
whatever level of security you decide to use - make sure people understand that you are not responsible for "items lost or stolen" and that they should not leave small/valuable items unattended
and of course IANAL;-) so I don't know what level of implied liability you are taking on...
Younger viewers are the prized age demographic in advertising circles. Why?
the theory is that the younger viewers haven't established "brand" preference for most products - and therefore can be more easily convinced to try a different/new brand
older viewers probably have made their "brand" choices and won't consider changing unless something drastic happens
this is why beer commercials are geared at people too young to drink and also why the tobacco industry got into so much trouble
my guess is that "young male" viewers are simply more open to the "advertising message" and aren't as annoyed by them (i.e. younger viewers see them as "information" not "advertising") and therefore (slightly) less likely to skip them
this study confirms what marketers already knew - targeting "younger" viewers is more profitable than targeting "older" viewers (obviously there is for "most products" - I don't know what age groups the AARP targets with their adds - but it probably isn't 15 year olds or 90 year olds...)
...and if I have DVRed something with commercials I turn on the "commercial auto skip" but I also fast forwarded through commercials with by VCR way back when...
I ran a site using Mambo/Joomla for a couple years and have moved to Drupal 5.x and now 6.x
Ease of installation is similar - with both projects it is basically "create a database and user" then run a php script
I'm "familiar" with php (but by no means an expert - so in depth comparisons of system architecture is beyond me) - Drupal just seems to run "better" (i.e. faster on the same hardware) than Joomla for whatever reason
Sorry no links - but I seem to remember some Blizzard talking head saying that they had plans for a movie
they said something about wanting to "make a good movie" not just a "good video game movie"...
of course they also have said that they planned to release a major expansion every year, - with all the cash that the Arena tourney HAS to be bringing in, maybe the movie project will get a closer look...
I was taught the theory of evolution as "proven fact" - with the caveat being that the professor wanted to distinguish between "micro" and "macro" evolution
"Micro" evolution was demonstrated with the fruit fly experiment (which countless students probably still perform each year)
"Macro" evolution (i.e. one species turning into a separate species) on the other hand takes "large periods of time" and cannot be directly observed.
Therefore the "theory of evolution" will remain a "theory" for the foreseeable future (while we are waiting on the "gaps" in the fossil record to be filled).
Since "macro" evolution cannot be directly proven, a certain amount of "faith" is required. So we are actually discussing one of those things about which reasonable people can disagree.
80 years ago the "establishment" was opposed to teaching the theory of evolution - now the "establishment" doesn't want to discuss the possibility that evolution is "bad" science.
I also like the fact that the "enlightened pro-evolution" people are usually the ones resorting to argumentum ad hominem...
... buy all of my overpriced cables at Blue Jeans Cable from now on (obviously I'm not a customer of either company)
This is also a great piece of guerrilla marketing - maybe they are well known in their field but I had never heard of Blue Jeans Cables before today...
my nomination for a name is "brick" - as in "useful as a brick"
I imagine the people who will find this laptop most useful are Intel executives.
governments/NGO will probably end up subsidizing most of the cost to get the price down (under $200) - that will mean good things for Intel's bottom line (and I'm not criticizing them for wanting to make a profit)
hopefully I'm wrong about the usefulness of the machine but still sounds like a potential brick to me...
Slashdot Mirror
what all of the software tools do is make the amatuer photographer better (my point and shoot photos look a lot better than they did 20 years ago), they don't threaten "professional photographers."
I'll point everyone at the excellent CNBC documentary on Pixar if you want to see the impact computers have had on the animation industry (just different tools for the artists, you still need artists). "Waking Sleeping Beauty" is also a good look at the traditional animation industry. compare and contrast :-)
anyway, a huge part of photography is what the photographer "sees" not the tools that they use, that fact isn't going to change anytime soon
yes, the profession has been changed (when did "photoshop" become a verb? Kodak declared bankruptcy) and is being changed by technology but photographers won't be "replaced" anytime soon.
the dead Greek guy thought (Aristotle) is that there must be a root cause for all human action. Why do people get up and go to work? They need money. Why do they need money? They have bills to pay. Why do they have bills to pay? They need things. - and so on, until you get to the root motivator. Aristotle argued that this root motivator is "happiness."
so the reason people do things is because (they think) it will make them happy (please remember that philosophers/psychologists/lovers have been arguing over this subject for as long as people have been arguing - we are dealing with the ultimate "black box" in the human mind)
the practical advice is that people want to do useful work that has a purpose. if you feel that your job is pointless ("yeah, about the cover on the tps reports"), giving you a gold star for turning in your pointless work on time isn't going to help. If you feel that your work is important and you are emotionally involved in the process then you might think that putting explosives in your underwear is a good idea - and then the gold star is really pointless.
my personal opinion is that "gamification" might work for certain people/certain jobs - but not as a long term motivator
"old tech" sticks around because it is doing something useful AND because upgrading a complicated system is never easy or cheap. Users who were experts at the "old way" of doing things need be trained (or replaced by "younger, less experienced, cheaper, but already trained in the new tech workers")
we could wander into the "creative destruction" economic discussion but then the Marcus Aurelius quote (paraphresed by Hannibal Lecter) "This thou must always bear in mind, what is the nature of the whole..." came to mind, and something about the "nature of tech" equalling "performing useful work" made me realize that I was using way to many quotation marks and should be doing something else ...
I think of software engineering as being a higher level funtion than computer programming. a code mokey might get hired as a computer programmer, but then grows into a software engineer...
In his book ("iWoz") - Woz tells a story where "when he was young" he was able to lock himself in a room for a week and come out with a completed project. As he aged he found that he lost that ability/motivation (and he could just pay someone to write the code)
regarding Zuckerberg's comment, that guy who used to run Microsoft (Bill Gates I think) basically said the same thing - i.e. young minds have better/more ideas (read "Breaking Windows" to see when Bill Gates hit that wall).
anyway, the human brain changes as we age - which may not be "fair" but ... ummm, what was I saying...
users who don't know anything aren't the problem - users who don't know anything but think they know everything are the problem ...
does anyone actually believe that Microsoft will intentionally make their product less usable? (ducking and running)
I could see the gui "disappearing" from the actual server box - but we will still have remote administration tools. the windows "client"/desktop becomes the home for the server gui
Microsoft pushes the server core installation for security (smaller attack footprint) and performance (all those gui features require resources) reasons - not because the command line is something they love
to state the obvious - Microsoft is a software company, and they want to sell a lot of software. Moving the server gui admin tools to the "Windows client" (e.g. desktop/tablet/mobile/whatever) sounds like a good way to "encourage" people to buy more Microsoft products
but yes, you need to learn to use powershell if you are going to continue being a Windows server admin ...
I'm reading this as "boot sector protection on steroids" - a security feature that could be disabled in the bios...
so just disable the feature, dban the drive, then install the free OS of your choice - or just go back to building your own computer ...
I'm worried that we are on the slippery slope when we start deciding what someone "deserves" to make (as in "let's pass a law prohibiting this group of people from making more than $x"). That is how we got here in the first place - i.e. limitations on salary encouraged "stock options" as compensation
If a CEO creates a positive corporate culture, provides real leadership, and actually does what is "best" for the company - you can't pay them enough. If the CEO is making decisions based strictly on how the stock market is valuing their company - you can't fire them fast enough.
Yahoo!'s board (http://investor.yahoo.net/directors.cfm) looks like a reasonable bunch of people that have made a few mistakes (none of them look particularly confrontational - and they do look a little "nerdy" - neither of which is a bad thing).
On the other hand, Carol Bartz comes across as such a reasonable, mature, people friendly person that I am SHOCKED that they fired her over the phone ;-)
if they were a "solar" company - maybe the commute to the sun hurt their profits
( ... muffled ... whispers ... )
I have just been informed that they were guilty of having very good lobbyists and no one thought this solar power thing would really work anyway. Maybe some of those 1,100 ex-employees will consider starting a business selling a product or service that people want/need and for which they are willing/able to pay.
If they are lucky they will burn through 0.5 billion dollars before going bankrupt
(/tongue in cheek)
It is also worth pointing out that a great marketing plan for a terrible product is also a great way to quickly kill the product (Ford Edsel). You can't lose a little money on every transaction and stay in business (dot.com bust). AND a society based on repressing a large part of their population cannot last (I'm looking at you China).
and take off the stormtrooper sights ...
I thought that was Slashdot's job ;-)
The ratio of "IT employees" to "non-IT employees" is a definition game.
The purpose of having anybody around (you know - "employees") is to help the "employer" accomplish the mission (hopefully there is a mission ...lol) - therefore ALL employees are in "customer" support (then we have to define the customer - yada,yada,yada)
Smaller organizations/departments are always more efficient. As more "employees" are added - more time has to be spent communicating between employees (i.e. more time is spent on activities that don't directly support the "mission").
Eventually you reach a point where adding additional employees is actually counter productive
"The Mythic Man Month" makes this point about software development but it is true in general...
they aren't - good locks make people honest
the important thing with any type of "physical security" is that it be highly visible - i.e. one guard standing at the entrance will probably just irritate people (and not prevent any theft)
even if you hire a security guard and use security cameras (but that is probably overkill) it won't prevent someone who is motivated from stealing something
whatever level of security you decide to use - make sure people understand that you are not responsible for "items lost or stolen" and that they should not leave small/valuable items unattended
and of course IANAL ;-) so I don't know what level of implied liability you are taking on...
..."stock options"
salary is only part of "total compensation" - (i.e. "benefits" are worth a lot) so directly comparing "salaries" becomes very hard
"salary" isn't one of the top reasons people voluntarily leave jobs (Google has millions of results for "reasons people change jobs")
the top reason is always some form of "company culture" issue - e.g. "I just didn't like it there"
Younger viewers are the prized age demographic in advertising circles. Why?
the theory is that the younger viewers haven't established "brand" preference for most products - and therefore can be more easily convinced to try a different/new brand older viewers probably have made their "brand" choices and won't consider changing unless something drastic happens
this is why beer commercials are geared at people too young to drink and also why the tobacco industry got into so much trouble
my guess is that "young male" viewers are simply more open to the "advertising message" and aren't as annoyed by them (i.e. younger viewers see them as "information" not "advertising") and therefore (slightly) less likely to skip them
this study confirms what marketers already knew - targeting "younger" viewers is more profitable than targeting "older" viewers (obviously there is for "most products" - I don't know what age groups the AARP targets with their adds - but it probably isn't 15 year olds or 90 year olds...)
...and if I have DVRed something with commercials I turn on the "commercial auto skip" but I also fast forwarded through commercials with by VCR way back when...
Mr. McBride obviously meant that there are no Linux books in the SCO company bookstore
My local B&N seems to be full of "Linux" books though ...
I ran a site using Mambo/Joomla for a couple years and have moved to Drupal 5.x and now 6.x
Ease of installation is similar - with both projects it is basically "create a database and user" then run a php script
I'm "familiar" with php (but by no means an expert - so in depth comparisons of system architecture is beyond me) - Drupal just seems to run "better" (i.e. faster on the same hardware) than Joomla for whatever reason
Of course this is just my opinion ;-)
...the ceiling is the floor
plans for a "live action movie" in Blizzard's news - May 2006 Gamespot did an interview with Blizzard
or direct link to the interview
Sorry no links - but I seem to remember some Blizzard talking head saying that they had plans for a movie
they said something about wanting to "make a good movie" not just a "good video game movie"...
of course they also have said that they planned to release a major expansion every year, - with all the cash that the Arena tourney HAS to be bringing in, maybe the movie project will get a closer look...
I agree.
I was taught the theory of evolution as "proven fact" - with the caveat being that the professor wanted to distinguish between "micro" and "macro" evolution
"Micro" evolution was demonstrated with the fruit fly experiment (which countless students probably still perform each year)
"Macro" evolution (i.e. one species turning into a separate species) on the other hand takes "large periods of time" and cannot be directly observed.
Therefore the "theory of evolution" will remain a "theory" for the foreseeable future (while we are waiting on the "gaps" in the fossil record to be filled).
Since "macro" evolution cannot be directly proven, a certain amount of "faith" is required. So we are actually discussing one of those things about which reasonable people can disagree.
Q.E.D.
... is the closing of minds
ideas are dangerous to closed minds.
80 years ago the "establishment" was opposed to teaching the theory of evolution - now the "establishment" doesn't want to discuss the possibility that evolution is "bad" science.
I also like the fact that the "enlightened pro-evolution" people are usually the ones resorting to argumentum ad hominem...
... buy all of my overpriced cables at Blue Jeans Cable from now on (obviously I'm not a customer of either company)
This is also a great piece of guerrilla marketing - maybe they are well known in their field but I had never heard of Blue Jeans Cables before today ...
yup, actually reading the article would have been a good idea
how about replacing "Intel" with the generic "computer company executives"?
the whole concept still sounds like a glorified PDA - that they admit has questionable market potential/demand
if you can afford a laptop and a decent cell phone why would someone want to pay $500 for one of these things?
if the market is "school kids" then it sounds even more like a marketing vehicle to dump high profit margin bricks (at $500 dollars that is)
as always, I'm probably wrong ;-)
my nomination for a name is "brick" - as in "useful as a brick"
I imagine the people who will find this laptop most useful are Intel executives.
governments/NGO will probably end up subsidizing most of the cost to get the price down (under $200) - that will mean good things for Intel's bottom line (and I'm not criticizing them for wanting to make a profit)
hopefully I'm wrong about the usefulness of the machine but still sounds like a potential brick to me...