Frighteningly enough, we had one of those.
That was the other problem with the dot-com era; suddenly '5 percent growth a month, sustained' wasn't good enough. A job I had two years ago was shitcanned because the investors didn't like the R&D budget increase the president decided on! Stock dropped thirty dollars in an afternoon. It was BAD.
Yeah, but how easy is it to decide you need to go from a P2-450 to a full-blown sun cluster? If the business plan calls for that sun cluster to be in place in a year, it can (let me emphasize the word can) make perfect sense to go ahead and install that sun cluster.
I guess what I'm saying is large upfront investment isn't automatically a bad idea, nor is incremental upgrade automatically a bad idea.
How about... becasuse with the 'free' Windows you don't get support and the same crappy documentation, but with the free Linux you get all the documentation and all the support the web has to offer?
"Lord knows the web has no documentation and support to offer for Microsoft products," SuiteSisterMary says sarcastically.
And that means its better to go easy on those huge capital expenditures, such as leather ez-chairs, the latest and greatest servers, computers, etc. until you are making a profit.:)
Can't get the big servers till you have a profit; can't profit without the infrastructure. Sounds about right.:-)
The main problem I saw with the ".com's" I worked with was that they bought the most expensive servers (i.e., Sun, DEC & microsoft) they could get their hands on from the get go
That's really kind of a 'flip a coin' problem. I'm a firm believer in getting as much as you can up front, because upgrading is a real bitch, both in terms of getting what you need, and the actual downtime/replace/blah blah blah bit.
Also, you just never knew when the shit would take off. We had that problem; a prototype gets pressed into service; sure, limited to a few customers. Then, suddenly, everybody's trying to use it, you're struggling to build your PRODUCTION system to handle it, customers get tired of knocking on the door and leave for a lesser, but available, product, and you get blamed every time the 'producto-type' goes down.
Lets face it, you're looking at a 10 hour miniseries to avoide 'gutting' the characters. Given the constraints he had to work with (a three hour movie in today's attention deficient market?) he did a good job.
Lucas: I can't, Rick. I can't sleep. Not until I figure out why people didn't like the movie, and what I can do to beat Cameron! McCallum: Well, our feedback indicates that a lot of people despised the movie because of Ja... Lucas: Wait! I've got it! I know why people didn't want to see the movie over and over again! McCallum: Oh, so you have read the feedback reports? Lucas: What reports? I don't need reports to tell me that we're missing... the TF! McCallum: The what? TF? What does that stand for? Lucas: It's Hollywood slang for Teenybopper Factor. Cameron drowned that blasted Titanic movie with it like a kitten in a rain barrel! McCallum: No, really George. It says here that over 78% of your fans refused to see it a second time because of, and I quote: "That floppy-eared, brainless, annoying son of a..." Lucas: Yes, it's all falling into place! The only thing wrong with my movie is that not enough prepubescent girls or horny teenage boys wanted to see it! McCallum: No, George, seriously, listen to me. Read the damned reports. You ruined the movie by giving too much screen time to that annoying Gungan pri... Lucas: Can you see it, Rick? (Lucas waves his hands in the air for effect, despite being the only person in the room.) We'll make a special edition! It'll be just like the last three special editions, only it will have lots of cleavage and pop music! McCallum: George, are you even listening to me? Lucas: We could get B*Witched... or one of those boy bands simply oozing with homoeroticism... McCallum: I'm going to hang up in a second, George. Lucas (snapping his fingers): Of course! We'll get the Spice Girls! It's not like they're busy making albums or anything, plus they've made a movie before, so they already have the experience issue covered!
Ok, so taken as an adaptation of the book, it leaves a lot to be desired. But you know what? Taken as a movie on it's own, it's quite good. And that's the point.
Intel shipped the 80386 in 1985 and only now can you boot a Windows PC without running 16 bit code from the HDD.
Excuse me? Windows NT came out in the Windows for Workgroups era. Running, if I recall correctly, on 486 class machines. Not to mention MIPS, PowerPC, and, I believe at the time, SPARC.
Well, in that case, it's a cover your ass move.
CTO: What are we doing about this?
You: Well, I hit linuxdoc.org, and nada. So I sent in an 'ask slashdot' question, and posted to to some newsgroups. I'm hoping that I won't get told to 'RTFM' or that I'm a 'l4m3r!' or anything.
Or...
CTO: What are we doing about this?
You: Well, as soon as I realized that it wasn't going to be a thirty second fix, I called up our Technical Account Manager. He's organizing things on their end, and I'm expecting a call back at any minute. I reminded him of how much of a support contract we have, and how much business we're losing per minute.
Executive: How's the "Tomb Raider: The Silicone Within" work coming?
Animator: We need to custom build a physics engine.
Executive: What? Why? It's all off-the-shelf now-a-days.
Animator: That's the problem; the physics engines are too realistic.
Executive: What do you mean?
Animator: Watch this test reel.
*Animator turns on a monitor, and runs an animation clip.*
Animation: *Lara Croft, in all her ray-traced glory, is standing as still as a statue on a flat plane. Suddenly she animates; her eyes start looking around, she starts breathing, her body is shifting ever so slightly on her feet, a breeze is playing with her hair. She stretches, arching her back.*
Animation: *as Lara arches her back, she gets a surprised look on her face*
Lara's Back: *SNAP*
Animation: *Lara's back snaps as gravity pulls her titanic brests downwards. She collapses in a hideously bent backward heap*
Lara: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!
Animation: Gravity pulls Lara down, bending the flat plane she's standing on into a cone, looking like those graphical renditions of black holes you always see.*
Animator: See what we mean? Sure, we could reduce the size of her breasts to normal human proportions, but...
Executive: Hell no! We want to make some money on this!
"Linux Insiders" is just a fancy way of saying 'these people are trained to 'know our enemy' so as to be able to answer questions. Much like the CIA has a 'desk' for every country in the world, and can answer questions like 'what's going on in Bagdad today?' any intelligent company is going to have people highly trained and versed in their competitor's products, to answer questions like 'this guy says he won't buy our product because the other guy's product can do X. How shall I respond?'
These have existed for years. Go to sun.com and find 'trusted solaris.' Or read about the Orange Book DoD security classifications.
Such Operating Systems do, in fact, prevent you from doing things like copying from a high security document into a low security one.
It all depends on what you ask for. "Give us a report on how Linux costs more, in real terms, than Microsoft" and that's what you get, and it will all be true. Oh, it'll be estimations, and specific scenarios, and all that sort of stuff, but it'll be true, and it'll be internally consistant. Say "Give us a report on how Microsoft costs more than Linux, in real terms" and you'll get, again, a true, accurate report that tells you just that, with all the same caveats.
Folks, for some of these projects, ten thousands for OS licenses is NOT a factor. Having a custom-written support contract, with phone numbers you can call at four o'clock in the morning that WILL be answered by YOUR technical account manager, who's ONLY PURPOSE IN LIFE is to keep you happy with his parent company, however, IS a factor.
In other words, Microsoft really isn't targetting the microsoft shop who winds up running a BIND server because they can. Sure, they'd like to stamp that out too, but they don't care. They're going, as the mail says, against Sun and IBM in the server market.
I was passed up for promotions despite being the most qualified for a given position and my clean working record.
See, that's the problem. If they think you're not the most qualified, you're not. They might have different ideas about what makes you qualified or not qualified, but there the ones making the hiring decisions. And if you manage to force their hands, so to speak, they're not going to just forgive and forget.
Ah, but if it's encoded as video clips, it doesn't, if I recall correctly, need to be CSS'd. And it's the decoding of CSS that you're paying the royalties for.
After all, encoding MPEG-2 is easy enough.
(Note to non-tech support people: Conflicts are 99% of the time revolving around "we want you to do something" that the customer isn't paying for or that we don't know how to do because we don't sell/service that product.)
STARS, YES!
Tech support: Tech support, how may I help you?
Customer: Hi. I'd like some help writing this application.
Tech support: I'm sorry, that's a Professional Services function; as clearly stated on our support site, we cannot, as a matter of policy, perform this service. I will now pass you over to our Professional Services manager.
Customer *writes email to President of company complaining he 'didn't get the support he needs.'
President: Do this work for him, for free. I don't care about our written policies!
Yes, it is. But that's not the point. The video won't start playing if you plop it into a set-top DVD player. I can encode DVD-Video to a CD-R if I really want to (and have; I have a wonderful CD with various THX, DD and DTS trailers) but that does NOT make it a 'DVD-Video disc.'
Similarly, a CD-R with a whack of wav files on it is NOT a CD-Audio disc. A CD-R with a whack of wav files on it *in a certain way* is, however.
Explain that you want to improve and are seeking constructive criticism.
And then, for pity's sake, SIT THERE AND TAKE IT. "Yes sir. Yes sir. Really? Wow. I didn't see it from that perspective, I guess. Can you give me an example of how somebody saw that in a negative light?"
And make sure that you don't have anything important to do right afterwords. It can be a REAL kick to the nuts if you think that you're crusing along happily with no problems, then somebody tells you in brutal honesty that they've been hating your performance for the last quarter. Granted, it should never ever go that far; your boss isn't doing his job if he's not telling you when and why he's displeased with your work, but it does happen.
Not saying you're in for the meat grinder, but it's a distinct possibility.
Get EVERYTHING documented. You do a good thing? Get it documented. You complete a task? DO NOT tell anybody face to face. Send an email. Keep the email, and the 'attaboy' reply archived. Print them out, even.
That way, you've got stuff to take to HR if suddenly get a termination notice; they take note of those 'out of the blue' problems.
If you're feeling lucky, put together a touchy-feely email to your boss, CC'd to the age-hater in question, and the head of HR, saying how much you enjoy your work environment, because nobody discriminates against your age; gosh, at some places, it's not how well you do the job, it's if you went to the right school, or play golf with the right people, or are 30+, and isn't it great that doesn't happen here?
Slashdot Mirror
You are mistaken in that regard. The company was spun off from it's parent sometime during the 80's, as I recall.
Frighteningly enough, we had one of those. That was the other problem with the dot-com era; suddenly '5 percent growth a month, sustained' wasn't good enough. A job I had two years ago was shitcanned because the investors didn't like the R&D budget increase the president decided on! Stock dropped thirty dollars in an afternoon. It was BAD.
Yeah, but how easy is it to decide you need to go from a P2-450 to a full-blown sun cluster? If the business plan calls for that sun cluster to be in place in a year, it can (let me emphasize the word can) make perfect sense to go ahead and install that sun cluster. I guess what I'm saying is large upfront investment isn't automatically a bad idea, nor is incremental upgrade automatically a bad idea.
Alpha. That's the one I remembered after I hit post. But I'm pretty sure that there was a SPARC version, even if it was never made public.
Lets face it, you're looking at a 10 hour miniseries to avoide 'gutting' the characters. Given the constraints he had to work with (a three hour movie in today's attention deficient market?) he did a good job.
Ok, so taken as an adaptation of the book, it leaves a lot to be desired. But you know what? Taken as a movie on it's own, it's quite good. And that's the point.
Well, in that case, it's a cover your ass move. CTO: What are we doing about this?
You: Well, I hit linuxdoc.org, and nada. So I sent in an 'ask slashdot' question, and posted to to some newsgroups. I'm hoping that I won't get told to 'RTFM' or that I'm a 'l4m3r!' or anything. Or... CTO: What are we doing about this?
You: Well, as soon as I realized that it wasn't going to be a thirty second fix, I called up our Technical Account Manager. He's organizing things on their end, and I'm expecting a call back at any minute. I reminded him of how much of a support contract we have, and how much business we're losing per minute.
Executive: How's the "Tomb Raider: The Silicone Within" work coming?
Animator: We need to custom build a physics engine.
Executive: What? Why? It's all off-the-shelf now-a-days.
Animator: That's the problem; the physics engines are too realistic.
Executive: What do you mean?
Animator: Watch this test reel.
*Animator turns on a monitor, and runs an animation clip.*
Animation: *Lara Croft, in all her ray-traced glory, is standing as still as a statue on a flat plane. Suddenly she animates; her eyes start looking around, she starts breathing, her body is shifting ever so slightly on her feet, a breeze is playing with her hair. She stretches, arching her back.*
Animation: *as Lara arches her back, she gets a surprised look on her face*
Lara's Back: *SNAP*
Animation: *Lara's back snaps as gravity pulls her titanic brests downwards. She collapses in a hideously bent backward heap*
Lara: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!
Animation: Gravity pulls Lara down, bending the flat plane she's standing on into a cone, looking like those graphical renditions of black holes you always see.*
Animator: See what we mean? Sure, we could reduce the size of her breasts to normal human proportions, but...
Executive: Hell no! We want to make some money on this!
"Linux Insiders" is just a fancy way of saying 'these people are trained to 'know our enemy' so as to be able to answer questions. Much like the CIA has a 'desk' for every country in the world, and can answer questions like 'what's going on in Bagdad today?' any intelligent company is going to have people highly trained and versed in their competitor's products, to answer questions like 'this guy says he won't buy our product because the other guy's product can do X. How shall I respond?'
These have existed for years. Go to sun.com and find 'trusted solaris.' Or read about the Orange Book DoD security classifications. Such Operating Systems do, in fact, prevent you from doing things like copying from a high security document into a low security one.
It all depends on what you ask for. "Give us a report on how Linux costs more, in real terms, than Microsoft" and that's what you get, and it will all be true. Oh, it'll be estimations, and specific scenarios, and all that sort of stuff, but it'll be true, and it'll be internally consistant. Say "Give us a report on how Microsoft costs more than Linux, in real terms" and you'll get, again, a true, accurate report that tells you just that, with all the same caveats. Folks, for some of these projects, ten thousands for OS licenses is NOT a factor. Having a custom-written support contract, with phone numbers you can call at four o'clock in the morning that WILL be answered by YOUR technical account manager, who's ONLY PURPOSE IN LIFE is to keep you happy with his parent company, however, IS a factor. In other words, Microsoft really isn't targetting the microsoft shop who winds up running a BIND server because they can. Sure, they'd like to stamp that out too, but they don't care. They're going, as the mail says, against Sun and IBM in the server market.
Ah, but if it's encoded as video clips, it doesn't, if I recall correctly, need to be CSS'd. And it's the decoding of CSS that you're paying the royalties for. After all, encoding MPEG-2 is easy enough.
Customer: Hi. I'd like some help writing this application.
Tech support: I'm sorry, that's a Professional Services function; as clearly stated on our support site, we cannot, as a matter of policy, perform this service. I will now pass you over to our Professional Services manager.
Customer *writes email to President of company complaining he 'didn't get the support he needs.'
President: Do this work for him, for free. I don't care about our written policies!
Yes, it is. But that's not the point. The video won't start playing if you plop it into a set-top DVD player. I can encode DVD-Video to a CD-R if I really want to (and have; I have a wonderful CD with various THX, DD and DTS trailers) but that does NOT make it a 'DVD-Video disc.' Similarly, a CD-R with a whack of wav files on it is NOT a CD-Audio disc. A CD-R with a whack of wav files on it *in a certain way* is, however.
Get EVERYTHING documented. You do a good thing? Get it documented. You complete a task? DO NOT tell anybody face to face. Send an email. Keep the email, and the 'attaboy' reply archived. Print them out, even. That way, you've got stuff to take to HR if suddenly get a termination notice; they take note of those 'out of the blue' problems. If you're feeling lucky, put together a touchy-feely email to your boss, CC'd to the age-hater in question, and the head of HR, saying how much you enjoy your work environment, because nobody discriminates against your age; gosh, at some places, it's not how well you do the job, it's if you went to the right school, or play golf with the right people, or are 30+, and isn't it great that doesn't happen here?