What's wrong with turning 'repackaged computers' into something else? People have been turning cheap PC clones into 'Unix Workstations' by means of Linux and *BSD for years now.
um....what exactly is a PC clone?
secondly. what makes a *nix any less of an OS than, say windows, or BeOS, or MacOS? a 200Mhz computer is still a computer whether you run Windows, or Be, or Linux, or OpenBSD.
the fundamental point here is that microsoft is simply repackaging a PC and calling it a gaming console. I'm not irritated that they're getting into the gaming market. I'm irritated that they're trying to promote sales by telling the uneducated masses that this wunderbox is the next big console when it's nothing more than a mass-produced e-machine without the monitor and 3-years' worth of payments.
oh well, i suppose it's simply another case of Microsoft taking standard tech, repackaging it, and calling it theirs. that sure seems pretty fsckin' innovative to me!
FluX After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
i've seen the argument hinted at in several posts, but i would like to just reiterate. School is not, specifically, about knowledge. Or at least not about the kind of knowledge that parents are berating public school teachers for not imparting on their bright little gang-banging children.
If you take away the classroom, children miss out on the most important part of school: Social interaction. I personally hated high-school. I had fun in middle school, and elementary school wasn't so bad. But all told, i have to say that i did most of my learning outside of the classroom, while still at school. This proposed K12 system takes away the advantage of students being placed in a social setting where they can interact with other children and learn the most important lessons of their lives; the social ones. Sure, students can play with their friends after they're done with their lessons. But they won't be (yes...i'll say it) forced into a situation where they have to deal with good as well as bad. The bully, the friend, the cute girl you just can't seem to work up the nerve to talk to. The miscreant, the outcast. All of them are an integral part of any childrens social development. If you take that away, you severely retard the social and intellectual capabilities of the very students you are so righteously(sp) trying to help.
FluX After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
this stuff just gets more and more orwellian as the day progresses.
on this one, i SERIOUSLY urge you to take action. if that means calling your local legislator, do so. If that means doing something more provocative such as (oh my god!) forming a f---king protest line outside these guys' front doors, DO SO!!!
this isn't about companies getting ripped off anymore. This isn't about that "evil" napster corporation fucking everyone over. This is about big business trying to take away consumers' rights to fair use. All of the sudden you can't make a tape of that album you love so much. You can't do ANYTHING with it except play the original on compliant hardware. Same goes with any digital media that can be encrypted/have a copy bit set. Anyone see a problem here?
pure and simple: if you take a back seat on this one, you've effectively allowed big business to take away your fair use rights.
FluX After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
this is fabulous news for smokers - we got over that whole "oh shit, i could get cancer" thing a looooong time ago.
of course, this probably means that "cellers" are going to have to go to designated "celling" sections...and they'll have to associate with other "cellers" as non-cellers think it's a disgusting habit (you can SMELL all the gadgets they have. and their houses are littered with computers and other electronics!! peew!)
FluX After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
in general, contractors are billed out at at LEAST three to four times what they are actually being paid.
case in point: my friend was making about $20 an hour contracting for some company. they were billing him out at well over $80.
the discrepancies are not really in the financial dept. most employees are signifigantly cheaper in the long run than contractors. The problem is that once you hire an employee, it's hard as hell to get rid of them. You have to worry about the EEOC getting on your ass, as well as a slew of organizations dedicated to making companies look like assholes. Hell, the employee could just turn around and sue you for wrongful termination anyway.
With contractors, it's as easy as calling up their employer and saying "tell john not to report back on monday" - 'nuff said.
FluX After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
true - however, i believe most of these "human" patents are done in such a way that the owners already have a spanning reach in this area. i.e. they can claim patents now not only on the "human" genes, etc. but those of the fugazi or whatever the hell it's called again (puffer fish).
anyone wanna hear my rant on why intellectual property is bad again?????? anyone????
FluX After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
so you find it ok that microsoft has put out an OS (windows me) that won't run on a computer that was considered state-of-the-art just about 3-4 years ago.
FluX After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
I wish more coders in this day and age took more pride in making
their stuff run faster and better... rather than just running at all.
some do: they're called console programmers.
why do you think a 33mhz playstation went from the original mortal kombat to gran-tourismo 2 without ANY change in hardware? tighter code. the fuckwits up at redmond could learn a thing or two from these folks.
FluX After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
i agree with you - a lot of 20-somethings are in "tech" because they think that's where the money is. I know far too many people taking CCNA or MCSE classes because they were told that, if you have one of those, you're golden. (nevermind that they don't know their ass from a cat5 cable).
but - my original post was about the monotony and disrespect associated with tech-support call centers. I'm not talking about IT work-ethic, and i'm not talking about B2B or internal helpdesk. Those are signifigantly better because at least you get people who understand where you're coming from, and if you're internal, people are pretty much forced to treat you with a modicum of respect as they are your colleague. (god forbid you might get paid enough for what you do).
Wholesale tech-support is a totally different animal. People are treated like cattle, expected to stay late for extremely pitiful salaries (most fast food joints are offering more now than i was making as a tech-support rep. a couple of years ago). The job is monotonous. you don't have to think about anything as it's all scripted and you'll usually get written up or terminated if you don't stick to the script. Considering that most "geeks" are relatively innovative, this is hell. But whatever - i did my tech support stint, i've gone on..
all things considered, i'll stick to my original point....tech support sucks.
FluX After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
i always thought KDE was "a powerful Open Source graphical desktop environment for Unix workstations"
sounds like a window manager to me. just because they added a bunch of libraries and programing tools for developers doesn't make it anything else. It's a WM with a shit ton of accessories...something that i myself (and most users for that matter) don't really need. If i wanted a pretty GUI where i didn't have to think about the internals, i would have stuck to windows or MacOS.
FluX After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
i did get out of it. i work for a good company, doing what i love. I never bitched about my job openly, and i never slacked - if i wanted better, i would have gotten it. i was just trying to elucidate the many facets of tech-support life to the ill-informed (i would think this includes yourself).
the problem: most people just don't get it. they think that tech support is supposed to be some paradigm of customer service. It's not. It's a bunch of people sitting in a call center getting yelled at by the customer (through no fault of their own), then getting yelled at by their boss for not ending the call quickly enough, or ending it too quickly. Catch-22.
your problem: you've got the "those damned kids" attitude. Well, welcome to it because your elders said the same thing about you, and we'll say the same thing about our kids. And all you can really do is sit back and wait to get modded up to (+3, insightful).
FluX After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
who gives a shit. it's like the mac vs windows argument. THERE ARE OTHER CHOICES PEOPLE!!!
why not try something like blackbox, enlightenment (not the canned gnome version), or (god forbid) windowmaker.
gnome and kde are both bloatware in my book. and, comparitively ugly and slow.
FluX After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
as an ex AOL and ISP tech-support guru, i can tell you that the reason tech support is usually shitty is because tech support people are either A)treated like shit, or B)don't know their ass from a hole in the ground.
Back at AOL (am i violating my NDA here?) we used to fuck around all the time to try to ease the boredom of monotonous "i can't sign on" calls. Sometimes i thought it would be amusing to be irish, maybe indian from time to time. (there's nothing like getting called in by a manager you didn't know was listening in, only to be told "nice accent asshole").
However, most of these people doing tech support are 30 year olds who just can't get a better job. Some are immigrants, some are just slackers. But the only ones who actually know what they're doing (i.e. not reading directly from a big black binder) are the younger ones, and they don't give two shits because they know they should be earning better pay. It wasn't uncommon for those of us who knew our shit to fall asleep on calls or put people on hold to run over and see what our friend was up to. Half of the calls i took, i would forget the problem, come back from chatting 5 minutes later, and tell the customer one of several canned answers i had for that sort of thing. (usually: "you need to delete and reinstall AOL ma'am")
BTW - when you hear the words "that's a good question, let me put you on hold while i check" - it means your tech is tired and he needs to go grab a smoke while you listen to John Denver's Rocky Mountain High as played by the Norman Smithson banjo Quartet..
FluX After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
what they provided was two gigantic helpings of heresay. the only facts we have is that A)Redhat is downsizing by about 2% and B)Redhat has not actually lost money (their earnings are on target).
The article was a composite of disgruntled trash-talk and corporate ipo-babble. The only paragraphs that were actually news were the first and about the last three.
RedHat lays off two percent of their workforce
whoopty shit.
FluX After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
this is good journalism. i have often wondered why "journalists" don't take it upon themselves to ask more disgruntled employees what's wrong with a company.
It seems to me that the way to figure out how to run your company is to shit-can a whole slew of people, and then ask them how the company should be run. Obviously wired news knows a reliable source when it sees one.</sarcasm>
bottom line - RH laid off ~10 people. This is headline news?
FluX After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
first off, you argument that america is getting more violent is bogus. if you look at the stats, crime is actually down in the past 20 years, with people ages 18-27 (ballpark) committing signifigantly fewer crimes than back in 1980.
It would seem that the "violence" you see comes from TV and assumptions made based on the fact that we have so many full-up prisons. The TV crime, i don't know what to tell you...blame it on a media doing anything it can to abate public apathy. The prisons? blame it on a failed drug war. The VAST majority of individuals in prisons are in there for some sort of drug related incident. This is changing...here in Colorado, we just legalized medical marijuana - and posession has been decriminalized. Usually, if you get caught with less than an ounce, the cops will just throw it away.
as far as no national health care is concerned - we don't feel we need it. Remember - what everyone else values is not necessarily what we value. One big thing is that most of us believe government should be as small as possible, so the fact that they haven't stepped into the healthcare ring is applauded by many of us. Plus, we've got social security going - that's a pretty decent suppliment to a pention that many people get at that age. On that, most can afford health-care and what not. BTW - that sense of "responsability" you mention is manifest at least in my family. My uncle and mother are helping my retired grandmother out, and i'll be doing the same with my mom. I could give two shits if the government helps, that's not what i think they're there for (you damned socialist;-)
Bottom line - it's pretty chic to attack the states now-a-days. Hell, most people i know IN the states like to attack it. The reason: every one of them seem to have forgotten to look around every once in a while to realize how good they've got it. Considering the fact that we are in the 99th percentile on a standard of living basis, we're doin' allright.
FluX After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
Slashdot Mirror
What's wrong with turning 'repackaged computers' into something else? People have been turning cheap PC clones into 'Unix Workstations' by means of Linux and *BSD for years now.
um....what exactly is a PC clone?
secondly. what makes a *nix any less of an OS than, say windows, or BeOS, or MacOS? a 200Mhz computer is still a computer whether you run Windows, or Be, or Linux, or OpenBSD.
the fundamental point here is that microsoft is simply repackaging a PC and calling it a gaming console. I'm not irritated that they're getting into the gaming market. I'm irritated that they're trying to promote sales by telling the uneducated masses that this wunderbox is the next big console when it's nothing more than a mass-produced e-machine without the monitor and 3-years' worth of payments.
oh well, i suppose it's simply another case of Microsoft taking standard tech, repackaging it, and calling it theirs. that sure seems pretty fsckin' innovative to me!
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
this was linked to at ars as well. my favorite is the headline:
DotComGuy leaves house, sees shadow: Bush says six more months of market downturn to follow
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
yes. this is for the masses. you, too, can get your very own X-box before M$ ships them in stores.
to get one, simply call gateway, or dell, or one of your favorite x-box manufacturers and ask them for the X-box special. this includes:
a 700Mhz processor
a DVD player
a large hard drive.
nVidia GeForce2
no keyboard or mouse (those are extra)
whabam! you have yourself an x-box.
Bill Gates:"No, really...it's not just a repackaged computer. i fucking SWEAR!!!!"
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
i've seen the argument hinted at in several posts, but i would like to just reiterate. School is not, specifically, about knowledge. Or at least not about the kind of knowledge that parents are berating public school teachers for not imparting on their bright little gang-banging children.
If you take away the classroom, children miss out on the most important part of school: Social interaction. I personally hated high-school. I had fun in middle school, and elementary school wasn't so bad. But all told, i have to say that i did most of my learning outside of the classroom, while still at school. This proposed K12 system takes away the advantage of students being placed in a social setting where they can interact with other children and learn the most important lessons of their lives; the social ones. Sure, students can play with their friends after they're done with their lessons. But they won't be (yes...i'll say it) forced into a situation where they have to deal with good as well as bad. The bully, the friend, the cute girl you just can't seem to work up the nerve to talk to. The miscreant, the outcast. All of them are an integral part of any childrens social development. If you take that away, you severely retard the social and intellectual capabilities of the very students you are so righteously(sp) trying to help.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
this stuff just gets more and more orwellian as the day progresses.
on this one, i SERIOUSLY urge you to take action. if that means calling your local legislator, do so. If that means doing something more provocative such as (oh my god!) forming a f---king protest line outside these guys' front doors, DO SO!!!
this isn't about companies getting ripped off anymore. This isn't about that "evil" napster corporation fucking everyone over. This is about big business trying to take away consumers' rights to fair use. All of the sudden you can't make a tape of that album you love so much. You can't do ANYTHING with it except play the original on compliant hardware. Same goes with any digital media that can be encrypted/have a copy bit set. Anyone see a problem here?
pure and simple: if you take a back seat on this one, you've effectively allowed big business to take away your fair use rights.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
what the fuck does "contrastion" mean?
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
so...cell phone users are gonna get cancer eh.
this is fabulous news for smokers - we got over that whole "oh shit, i could get cancer" thing a looooong time ago.
of course, this probably means that "cellers" are going to have to go to designated "celling" sections...and they'll have to associate with other "cellers" as non-cellers think it's a disgusting habit (you can SMELL all the gadgets they have. and their houses are littered with computers and other electronics!! peew!)
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
in general, contractors are billed out at at LEAST three to four times what they are actually being paid.
case in point: my friend was making about $20 an hour contracting for some company. they were billing him out at well over $80.
the discrepancies are not really in the financial dept. most employees are signifigantly cheaper in the long run than contractors. The problem is that once you hire an employee, it's hard as hell to get rid of them. You have to worry about the EEOC getting on your ass, as well as a slew of organizations dedicated to making companies look like assholes. Hell, the employee could just turn around and sue you for wrongful termination anyway.
With contractors, it's as easy as calling up their employer and saying "tell john not to report back on monday" - 'nuff said.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
true - however, i believe most of these "human" patents are done in such a way that the owners already have a spanning reach in this area. i.e. they can claim patents now not only on the "human" genes, etc. but those of the fugazi or whatever the hell it's called again (puffer fish).
anyone wanna hear my rant on why intellectual property is bad again?????? anyone????
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
so you find it ok that microsoft has put out an OS (windows me) that won't run on a computer that was considered state-of-the-art just about 3-4 years ago.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
I wish more coders in this day and age took more pride in making their stuff run faster and better... rather than just running at all.
some do: they're called console programmers.
why do you think a 33mhz playstation went from the original mortal kombat to gran-tourismo 2 without ANY change in hardware? tighter code. the fuckwits up at redmond could learn a thing or two from these folks.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
ahh...but THESE ligh-shoes you can screw into a lamp.
what will sony think of next.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
seems that the deal of the day is to come up with two different concepts and merge them for no aparent reason.
Introducting the Sony Shoe/Lightbulb
wireless access isn't even fast enough to make the cost justifiable for this type of thing.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
i agree with you - a lot of 20-somethings are in "tech" because they think that's where the money is. I know far too many people taking CCNA or MCSE classes because they were told that, if you have one of those, you're golden. (nevermind that they don't know their ass from a cat5 cable).
but - my original post was about the monotony and disrespect associated with tech-support call centers. I'm not talking about IT work-ethic, and i'm not talking about B2B or internal helpdesk. Those are signifigantly better because at least you get people who understand where you're coming from, and if you're internal, people are pretty much forced to treat you with a modicum of respect as they are your colleague. (god forbid you might get paid enough for what you do).
Wholesale tech-support is a totally different animal. People are treated like cattle, expected to stay late for extremely pitiful salaries (most fast food joints are offering more now than i was making as a tech-support rep. a couple of years ago). The job is monotonous. you don't have to think about anything as it's all scripted and you'll usually get written up or terminated if you don't stick to the script. Considering that most "geeks" are relatively innovative, this is hell. But whatever - i did my tech support stint, i've gone on..
all things considered, i'll stick to my original point....tech support sucks.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
i always thought KDE was "a powerful Open Source graphical desktop environment for Unix workstations"
sounds like a window manager to me. just because they added a bunch of libraries and programing tools for developers doesn't make it anything else. It's a WM with a shit ton of accessories...something that i myself (and most users for that matter) don't really need. If i wanted a pretty GUI where i didn't have to think about the internals, i would have stuck to windows or MacOS.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
i did get out of it. i work for a good company, doing what i love. I never bitched about my job openly, and i never slacked - if i wanted better, i would have gotten it. i was just trying to elucidate the many facets of tech-support life to the ill-informed (i would think this includes yourself).
the problem: most people just don't get it. they think that tech support is supposed to be some paradigm of customer service. It's not. It's a bunch of people sitting in a call center getting yelled at by the customer (through no fault of their own), then getting yelled at by their boss for not ending the call quickly enough, or ending it too quickly. Catch-22.
your problem: you've got the "those damned kids" attitude. Well, welcome to it because your elders said the same thing about you, and we'll say the same thing about our kids. And all you can really do is sit back and wait to get modded up to (+3, insightful).
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
who gives a shit. it's like the mac vs windows argument. THERE ARE OTHER CHOICES PEOPLE!!!
why not try something like blackbox, enlightenment (not the canned gnome version), or (god forbid) windowmaker.
gnome and kde are both bloatware in my book. and, comparitively ugly and slow.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
when does KDE Me come out?
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
as an ex AOL and ISP tech-support guru, i can tell you that the reason tech support is usually shitty is because tech support people are either A)treated like shit, or B)don't know their ass from a hole in the ground.
Back at AOL (am i violating my NDA here?) we used to fuck around all the time to try to ease the boredom of monotonous "i can't sign on" calls. Sometimes i thought it would be amusing to be irish, maybe indian from time to time. (there's nothing like getting called in by a manager you didn't know was listening in, only to be told "nice accent asshole").
However, most of these people doing tech support are 30 year olds who just can't get a better job. Some are immigrants, some are just slackers. But the only ones who actually know what they're doing (i.e. not reading directly from a big black binder) are the younger ones, and they don't give two shits because they know they should be earning better pay. It wasn't uncommon for those of us who knew our shit to fall asleep on calls or put people on hold to run over and see what our friend was up to. Half of the calls i took, i would forget the problem, come back from chatting 5 minutes later, and tell the customer one of several canned answers i had for that sort of thing. (usually: "you need to delete and reinstall AOL ma'am")
BTW - when you hear the words "that's a good question, let me put you on hold while i check" - it means your tech is tired and he needs to go grab a smoke while you listen to John Denver's Rocky Mountain High as played by the Norman Smithson banjo Quartet..
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
what they provided was two gigantic helpings of heresay. the only facts we have is that A)Redhat is downsizing by about 2% and B)Redhat has not actually lost money (their earnings are on target).
The article was a composite of disgruntled trash-talk and corporate ipo-babble. The only paragraphs that were actually news were the first and about the last three.
RedHat lays off two percent of their workforce
whoopty shit.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
this is good journalism. i have often wondered why "journalists" don't take it upon themselves to ask more disgruntled employees what's wrong with a company.
It seems to me that the way to figure out how to run your company is to shit-can a whole slew of people, and then ask them how the company should be run. Obviously wired news knows a reliable source when it sees one.</sarcasm>
bottom line - RH laid off ~10 people. This is headline news?
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
i'd just like to put this into the pot:
no one ever mentions Vampire Hunter D when we get into these huge, embroiled, arguments over which is the best "screw akira" "no screw you" movie.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
first off, you argument that america is getting more violent is bogus. if you look at the stats, crime is actually down in the past 20 years, with people ages 18-27 (ballpark) committing signifigantly fewer crimes than back in 1980.
;-)
It would seem that the "violence" you see comes from TV and assumptions made based on the fact that we have so many full-up prisons. The TV crime, i don't know what to tell you...blame it on a media doing anything it can to abate public apathy. The prisons? blame it on a failed drug war. The VAST majority of individuals in prisons are in there for some sort of drug related incident. This is changing...here in Colorado, we just legalized medical marijuana - and posession has been decriminalized. Usually, if you get caught with less than an ounce, the cops will just throw it away.
as far as no national health care is concerned - we don't feel we need it. Remember - what everyone else values is not necessarily what we value. One big thing is that most of us believe government should be as small as possible, so the fact that they haven't stepped into the healthcare ring is applauded by many of us. Plus, we've got social security going - that's a pretty decent suppliment to a pention that many people get at that age. On that, most can afford health-care and what not. BTW - that sense of "responsability" you mention is manifest at least in my family. My uncle and mother are helping my retired grandmother out, and i'll be doing the same with my mom. I could give two shits if the government helps, that's not what i think they're there for (you damned socialist
Bottom line - it's pretty chic to attack the states now-a-days. Hell, most people i know IN the states like to attack it. The reason: every one of them seem to have forgotten to look around every once in a while to realize how good they've got it. Considering the fact that we are in the 99th percentile on a standard of living basis, we're doin' allright.
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
sql == sequal. (or see-qwill for the phonically inclined).
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network
>drop table internet;
OK, 135454265363565609860398636678346496
rows affected.
"oh fuck"
FluX
After 16 years, MTV has finally completed its deevolution into the shiny things network