I had a similar position to yours for several years, so I have some very general thoughts I hope you find helpful.
Any time The Boss read an article about something new, she would ask me about it.
There are two things that really helped me:
1 - I had spent a LOT of time (with an attorney) researching and developing what I still believe were really good policies. The attorney and I both learned a lot, since I lean towards anarchy.
2 - I learned to anticipate her requests by reading tech news voraciously and keeping my eye on headlines in the journals she read.
In this specific case, you should already have addressed this issue, since USB devices are (as another poster already pointed out) just one of many ways data can be copied to a personal device.
We can't answer for you. That's what you need to discuss with the owner, since it is *their* company. You just need to come up with a list of all devices that will need to be nixed if you decide to nix these (and some research places *do* nix all of this stuff). A partial list to get you thinking: Cellphones, cameras, PDA's, floppy disks, CD writers and/or media, DVD writers and/or media, copy machines. Once you have a list, you can get with your owner and have a sincere "how serious are you about this?" conversation and then come up with a policy general enough to cover whatever you end up with.
Anyone who lives here is aware that Intel employs 6000 people, "incase your interested." The employees *are* to be temporary (see the ABQ Journal article). Friends who work at Intel tell me the data centers are all moved to California.
If you gathered that I was somehow ungrateful that they have those 6000 jobs, well, you misunderstand. I even understand why they might want to locate their stuff where the local gov't can give them incentives. 300 temporary jobs is still a joke and NM is still a poor state.
Have you been here? Do you know what the poverty and unemployment levels are? Why are you SHOUTING the word "third", as if you think you know some secret that NM is somehow some secretly wealthy place and our poverty, unemployment, and associated per capita crime is all a lie to keep you people from coming here and taking our money?
The article in the ABQ Journal sez, "The temporary component test facility, which is to be in operation for the next two years, is expected to result in 300 more jobs to the New Mexico site during that period."
Thank you. THIS is why the recent payola scandal and Sony/BMG's settlement is so germane to the music downloading/sharing discussions. It's all about control - not just someone controlling their property, but controlling you and how you spend your money.
Actually, I was hoping to see some discussion about this case, DMCA, DRM, etc., since "the usual suspects" in the payola scam are the same folks using other methods to attempt to control how we listen to music.
I.e.: somehow, couldn't the lobbying for DMCA, the foisting of DRM, the payola, etc. be considered anticompetitive? Perhaps what really needs to happen is that congress does need to wake up and see these guys (perhaps especially their lobbyists) for the scum they really are.
'Not sure why you woulda gotten modded down had you just put in the first two sentences because you have a valid point. OTOH, it might be more relevant to a discussion of Ant vs Make than a discussion of a book review on Ant.
I.e.: I see your point (see below), but what does that have to do with this book?
I've been "bilingual" for awhile and that fact landed me in a mixed C++/Java project last year. Some consultants had built some of the java stuff using Ant and it just made things confusing and unnecessarily complex to have builds using both Make and Ant. Eventually all of the build.xml files were converted to makefiles and we were homogeneous.
Well, besides the obvious Perl, etc., it is entirely possible that you can accomplish what you wish using the Stupid Command Program (cmd.exe).
I just loaded ImageMagick and sed on a peecee running W2K for my current gig and put a little.bat file in that converts a buncha tiffs to pdfs and sed's an import script to change the file extensions.
If the script wants to do a lot of logic, then Perl, Python, and that ilk may be more to your liking.
I was really referring to the implication that there are things that a user might wish to change that require editing an xml file to accomplish and acting as if that fact was a feature. It's possible, if not likely, that editing those files and making a simple typo could leave one with an unusable installation. Someone Truly Serious about UI Guidelines generally makes their app fit in with the platform. Firefox is an example of having at least some menu items where one expects them on the platform one is using. For example, on Windoze, preferences are under Tools->Options... while, IIRC (I'm at work on my windoze box but use Fedora at home), they're under Edit->Preferences... under Linux.
A better approach might have been, "Users currently have the ability to configure what we think are the most important things via the form under Preferences. Those who feel confident can configure just about anything by editing the xml configuration files directly but we're working on finishing the preferences forms so that nobody has to do this." Or something to that effect.
Don't get me wrong: the potential of creating a Truly Platform Independant (TM) application (at least on platforms that have a JVM) is immense, and I feel like the editors were right to post this story.
From TFI: "What I'd like to emphasize here is that, compared to Thunderbird for example, we target grown up users or business users. We follow strict user interface guidelines. We have predefined preferences, in comparison to ultimate configurability. Only the most important option can be changed in the UI. More advanced options have to be changed in xml-based configuration files manually. We try hard to make things as easy, yet powerful, as possible."
Translation: "We'll make the gui so gui wimps can change the more advanced options later", or "what kind of idiot would want to change THAT?", or "It's not a bug, it's a FEATURE!".
Seriously, I hate to rain on anyone's parade, especially someone offering Truly Free software, but I guess none of us are immune from spin-doctoring...
Stick with that Nintendo. My 8 and 9 year olds still *love* Zelda, etc. They like Sonic a lot, too (though I'm less enthralled with the wise-ass hedgehog).
They don't give a rat's backside about the fancy graphics. My 8 year old only wants a Playstation because some older kids tell him Shooterz 'R Kewl (fortunately, G4TV folks still like Zelda, increasing Nintendo's Coolness Factor somewhat).
Actually, if you look like a squeezebox (you can use the open source java app softsqueeze to accomplish this), you can sync your players using the slimserver s/w all from the squeezebox folks...
"The big selling point for him was being able to have all the "zones" synchronously play the same song in every room. None of the other solutions he looked at were able to do that."
Squeezebox (www.slimdevices.com) does that, but isn't standalone and assumes you're providing the computer and hard drive holding your music collection. Each player ("zone") is $300 ($250 if you don't need wireless) and requires external amp/speakers. For those of us who like the sound of our existing systems, it seemed better.
If you already have "Media PC's" hooked up, they can run the free and open source squeezeplayer software (really! they just give the stuff away!) and sync up along with the squeezeboxen.
Again, my only point really was that squeezeboxen can be sync'ed if you wish.
I agree - the so-called "negative vibe against advertising in general" should have said "negative vibe against advertising that is so obnoxiously intrusive that it makes it difficult to find the actual content and tiring to read the content if you can find it."
* Parts stay together better. With TT, the wood pieces did not always fit well - some not at all, others wouldn't stay together. Eventually, with wear, they got to where they would not stay together.
* Parts snap together consistently, making joined pieces always have the same length. Very important for complex structures. With TT, the length varies by how far you have to push the rod in to make it hold.
* A greater variety of pieces such as flexible pieces - my son has built and made variations on a working roller coaster that is quite cool, but the rails have to be flexible, of course.
Our kids did have TT's, and they are nice, but K'Nex are better, IMHO.
Heh heh - yesterday in Sunday School at church, my 9-year-old son learned about a guy named "Lazarus" who, in the Bible, is raised from the dead by Jesus.
His teacher was a little flummoxed because my son kept referring to Lazarus as "re-dead", which refers to some zombie like characters in some of his Zelda games on his Gamecube.
For some reason, she didn't get any happier after I "educated" her about who Zelda was... Believe it or not, we really only let him have 30 minutes of total screen time (TV + Computer + Gamecube) per day. I'm not sure *she* would believe me.;-)
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My first thought, too. Any discussion of any "BSD Desktop" must be compared to OSX.
:)
'Course someone's gonna point out that OSX doesn't use X Windows, as if that made it less BSD.
No Caveats Here: I do NOT own an Apple. I run Fedora Core 3.
Mark
...ends where the other man's nose begins.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes
"You left out IRDA, WiFI and Bluetooth."
I think I left out a whole lot more than that (keep thinking: laptops, email, notebooks...)...
It was just a list to start from.
Mark
I had a similar position to yours for several years, so I have some very general thoughts I hope you find helpful.
Any time The Boss read an article about something new, she would ask me about it.
There are two things that really helped me:
1 - I had spent a LOT of time (with an attorney) researching and developing what I still believe were really good policies. The attorney and I both learned a lot, since I lean towards anarchy.
2 - I learned to anticipate her requests by reading tech news voraciously and keeping my eye on headlines in the journals she read.
In this specific case, you should already have addressed this issue, since USB devices are (as another poster already pointed out) just one of many ways data can be copied to a personal device.
We can't answer for you. That's what you need to discuss with the owner, since it is *their* company. You just need to come up with a list of all devices that will need to be nixed if you decide to nix these (and some research places *do* nix all of this stuff). A partial list to get you thinking: Cellphones, cameras, PDA's, floppy disks, CD writers and/or media, DVD writers and/or media, copy machines. Once you have a list, you can get with your owner and have a sincere "how serious are you about this?" conversation and then come up with a policy general enough to cover whatever you end up with.
Mark
Anyone who lives here is aware that Intel employs 6000 people, "incase your interested." The employees *are* to be temporary (see the ABQ Journal article). Friends who work at Intel tell me the data centers are all moved to California.
If you gathered that I was somehow ungrateful that they have those 6000 jobs, well, you misunderstand. I even understand why they might want to locate their stuff where the local gov't can give them incentives. 300 temporary jobs is still a joke and NM is still a poor state.
Have you been here? Do you know what the poverty and unemployment levels are? Why are you SHOUTING the word "third", as if you think you know some secret that NM is somehow some secretly wealthy place and our poverty, unemployment, and associated per capita crime is all a lie to keep you people from coming here and taking our money?
Mark
The article in the ABQ Journal sez, "The temporary component test facility, which is to be in operation for the next two years, is expected to result in 300 more jobs to the New Mexico site during that period."
So, well, that's what they say...
Mark
Here's the article in our local paper:
m
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/apintel07-25-05.ht
Mark
They're temporarily adding 300 employees in Albuquerque for testing... Place called "Fab 7 Test".
:(
Like our Third World State needs 300 temp jobs to get folks' hopes up.
Mark
Thank you. THIS is why the recent payola scandal and Sony/BMG's settlement is so germane to the music downloading/sharing discussions. It's all about control - not just someone controlling their property, but controlling you and how you spend your money.
:)
Mark, putting tinfoil hat back on...
The article is over a month old.
Not just registered voters, but lobbyists who (unlike a person with any moral fiber) do all kinds of favors for congressmen and their families.
Actually, I was hoping to see some discussion about this case, DMCA, DRM, etc., since "the usual suspects" in the payola scam are the same folks using other methods to attempt to control how we listen to music.
I.e.: somehow, couldn't the lobbying for DMCA, the foisting of DRM, the payola, etc. be considered anticompetitive? Perhaps what really needs to happen is that congress does need to wake up and see these guys (perhaps especially their lobbyists) for the scum they really are.
Mark
'Not sure why you woulda gotten modded down had you just put in the first two sentences because you have a valid point. OTOH, it might be more relevant to a discussion of Ant vs Make than a discussion of a book review on Ant.
I.e.: I see your point (see below), but what does that have to do with this book?
I've been "bilingual" for awhile and that fact landed me in a mixed C++/Java project last year. Some consultants had built some of the java stuff using Ant and it just made things confusing and unnecessarily complex to have builds using both Make and Ant. Eventually all of the build.xml files were converted to makefiles and we were homogeneous.
Mark
Well, besides the obvious Perl, etc., it is entirely possible that you can accomplish what you wish using the Stupid Command Program (cmd.exe).
.bat file in that converts a buncha tiffs to pdfs and sed's an import script to change the file extensions.
I just loaded ImageMagick and sed on a peecee running W2K for my current gig and put a little
If the script wants to do a lot of logic, then Perl, Python, and that ilk may be more to your liking.
Mark
I was really referring to the implication that there are things that a user might wish to change that require editing an xml file to accomplish and acting as if that fact was a feature. It's possible, if not likely, that editing those files and making a simple typo could leave one with an unusable installation. Someone Truly Serious about UI Guidelines generally makes their app fit in with the platform. Firefox is an example of having at least some menu items where one expects them on the platform one is using. For example, on Windoze, preferences are under Tools->Options... while, IIRC (I'm at work on my windoze box but use Fedora at home), they're under Edit->Preferences... under Linux.
A better approach might have been, "Users currently have the ability to configure what we think are the most important things via the form under Preferences. Those who feel confident can configure just about anything by editing the xml configuration files directly but we're working on finishing the preferences forms so that nobody has to do this." Or something to that effect.
Don't get me wrong: the potential of creating a Truly Platform Independant (TM) application (at least on platforms that have a JVM) is immense, and I feel like the editors were right to post this story.
Mark
From TFI: "What I'd like to emphasize here is that, compared to Thunderbird for example, we target grown up users or business users. We follow strict user interface guidelines. We have predefined preferences, in comparison to ultimate configurability. Only the most important option can be changed in the UI. More advanced options have to be changed in xml-based configuration files manually. We try hard to make things as easy, yet powerful, as possible."
Translation: "We'll make the gui so gui wimps can change the more advanced options later", or "what kind of idiot would want to change THAT?", or "It's not a bug, it's a FEATURE!".
Seriously, I hate to rain on anyone's parade, especially someone offering Truly Free software, but I guess none of us are immune from spin-doctoring...
Mark
I'm with you:
Stick with that Nintendo. My 8 and 9 year olds still *love* Zelda, etc. They like Sonic a lot, too (though I'm less enthralled with the wise-ass hedgehog).
They don't give a rat's backside about the fancy graphics. My 8 year old only wants a Playstation because some older kids tell him Shooterz 'R Kewl (fortunately, G4TV folks still like Zelda, increasing Nintendo's Coolness Factor somewhat).
Mark
Actually, if you look like a squeezebox (you can use the open source java app softsqueeze to accomplish this), you can sync your players using the slimserver s/w all from the squeezebox folks...
Mark
"The big selling point for him was being able to have all the "zones" synchronously play the same song in every room. None of the other solutions he looked at were able to do that."
Squeezebox (www.slimdevices.com) does that, but isn't standalone and assumes you're providing the computer and hard drive holding your music collection. Each player ("zone") is $300 ($250 if you don't need wireless) and requires external amp/speakers. For those of us who like the sound of our existing systems, it seemed better.
If you already have "Media PC's" hooked up, they can run the free and open source squeezeplayer software (really! they just give the stuff away!) and sync up along with the squeezeboxen.
Again, my only point really was that squeezeboxen can be sync'ed if you wish.
Mark
I agree - the so-called "negative vibe against advertising in general" should have said "negative vibe against advertising that is so obnoxiously intrusive that it makes it difficult to find the actual content and tiring to read the content if you can find it."
Mark
No, this is the quonset hut in area 51 where they're keeping the spacecraft that landed in Roswell back in 1947.
From TFA: "Bose is all about the quality of sound"...
Now I gotta clean off my keyboard since I just spewed coffee all over it...
Mark
Yes, but not *that* different:
* Parts stay together better. With TT, the wood pieces did not always fit well - some not at all, others wouldn't stay together. Eventually, with wear, they got to where they would not stay together.
* Parts snap together consistently, making joined pieces always have the same length. Very important for complex structures. With TT, the length varies by how far you have to push the rod in to make it hold.
* A greater variety of pieces such as flexible pieces - my son has built and made variations on a working roller coaster that is quite cool, but the rails have to be flexible, of course.
Our kids did have TT's, and they are nice, but K'Nex are better, IMHO.
Mark
Honest question, from a guy who doesn't own (or run ;)) a copy of MS anything:
.net could possibly be installed without rebooting the computer. Nah. That would be too much to hope for.
Why does an O/S have to be based on an application framework?
Maybe it's *good* thing: updates to
Mark
Heh heh - yesterday in Sunday School at church, my 9-year-old son learned about a guy named "Lazarus" who, in the Bible, is raised from the dead by Jesus.
;-)
His teacher was a little flummoxed because my son kept referring to Lazarus as "re-dead", which refers to some zombie like characters in some of his Zelda games on his Gamecube.
For some reason, she didn't get any happier after I "educated" her about who Zelda was... Believe it or not, we really only let him have 30 minutes of total screen time (TV + Computer + Gamecube) per day. I'm not sure *she* would believe me.
Mark