Ok, I started off with a blatantly obvious statement that can be said about just about any software. I have yet to find a piece of software that does more than one or two things that doesn't have flaws. (Kudos to those out there who have done it. Too bad I haven't seen it.)
Anyway, I know even from a server position that there are issues with memory management and garbage collection that make Linux unwieldy at times. We use it, but we also know that sometimes we have to reboot systems. Yes! We reboot Linux machines because we haven't coded around the lack of features. We easily have RAM allocated on our machines and then can't release it easily for other applications. Oh well. Rant, rant, rant.
I see the posts about Aqua and how Macs are so great, but I hate that I can't customise Aqua to how I want it. I hate the big bulky bars. Yeah, Apply MAY have been really great, but I think they've lost touch with people now, and are fighting a losing battle of trying to control. Microsoft may be a big bad behemoth that has wielded a lot of power out there, but at least I can customise windows to some degree as I like it.
As far as getting applications onto Linux, it's not that hard. Support the companies that are building good IDEs! Get better and better documentation written. If you wonder why widget X and Y hasn't been built to work with your application, perhaps your documentation isn't so good. I found this with our own developers in that we had lots of docs written by our developers ostensibly for others, but only really targetted towards themselves. No one had any idea beyond a basic presentation as to what our apps did as standard features and how they could be configured.
And for those trolls who love to bash anyone who's not a great tech geek, well, I'm sorry, but someone has to pay the bills. And people who design those pretty boxes and that cool anime and write a lot of great sci-fi books, scripts, and so on, tend to not be the most technically oriented people, and they don't like fighting to get an OS to work for them. If you don't have the user base, you don't get the supporting tools, and without the tools, you can't easily increase the base. The Linux user base has to reach critical mass, and not only in the server area.
OSS works. But bad attitudes and bad practices by the self-appointed mini-evangelists (i.e. trolls) who would rather engage in idealist wars than work together have hurt OSS more than Microsoft or any other corporation. There are very few idiot users. But there sure are a lot of socially inept engineers.
Having been looking at their demos and so on, they have some great summary software.
It is most certainly NOT free, but perhaps by looking at the summaries generated and the documents pulled from, you could get some idea how to reverse-engineer the process.
Sad as it sounds, this case doesn't have the same level of interest as a Microsoft case.
Granted, IBM may well dominate in the market, but I think the case that they say that they didn't want to lower costs and then IBM entered the software market shows just how silly this case is. IBM was likely willing to work with them, but not willing to keep the prices where they were just to lose market share.
I guess we'll see how this pans out, but I bet there will be a settlement within 6 months and not a peep out of Compuware again.
Personally, I'd like a definition of what tech-savvy means. Does it mean knowing how to cope with poorly designed electronic systems?
I work in the IT industry, and I'm responsible for designing all kinds of information flow and so on, and I keep find that the real problem in most systems is actually a lack of knowledge on the part of designers on how to really build good systems.
Personally, when it comes to design tech, I think a lot of "not-so-savvy" users probably know a lot more about how design should be than most of the designers.
</rant>
1984 - Hollywood and al-Qaeda converge?
on
SSSCA Hearing
·
· Score: 1
Days like these, I'm so glad I moved out of the States. I read 1984 last spring, and it just seems so shocking how draconian legislation in the U.S. is become.
Unlike certain European Foreign Ministers, I don't make a huge fuss about the whole prisoners in Cuba thing. I have spent plenty of time around military personnel and done enough logistics work to understand the rationale behind that.
However, the creation of new bureaus to handle security, the pursuit of new ways of finding criminals, and the push of labelling anyone and everyone with a differing opinion is rotten. That's not justice, bravery, or security speaking. It's fear.
The sad thing is that's just what's behind Hollywood's push to make all these anti-copying things as well. It's a matter of fear. Someone else migh have control. It's sick, it's twisted, and it's wrong.
You know, a smart, brave, free land would support differing ideas. It would support that people can build on ideas. It would state that an idea may well come from an individual, but eventually that idea become one upon which others can freely build.
The BSA argues constantly about how piracy is destroying business. Now, I know that some businesses have been ruined by it. I agree it should be illegal. However, haven't these same businesses grown dramatically within that context?
The same can be seen within other areas as well.
But here we are, in a slump, and we want to make more money. Instead of pursuing good ideas, let's crack down on things. Instead of pursuing better real security, let's try to pressure people to conform to ideas. Yeah, right!
I was born an American and believe very strongly in the ideals of the nation. However, I find it sad how quickly a media-frenzied nation can panic, and how much might a corporations can have in what's supposed the most powerful nation on earth, the once great "land of the free and home of the brave".
Because most purely technical complaints ignore business reality, and ignore organizational concerns.
Yeah! Huzzah! Someone who really gets it!
I find this a lot in my work. People who think along the lines of "we've always done it this way". They drive me nuts.
Many of our developers have come from university where they've had free access to everything and think that everything should be free. They're the same people who come on here and whine about DRM and such, since information should be free. The talk about hacking PVRs to get programmes with no commercials.
I agree that Free Software is good. I agree that testing the limits of technology is good. But I will say that unless we're willing to pay for things, we won't be able to support creative development either.
We have a lot of stupid people who work as managers, true. But whining and complaining without any sense of reality of the business models just results in not being heard. Developers aren't stupid and their comments are not useless drivel. But if you've tried to get your company to give away its heart without proposing an alternate revenue source, or tried to get training without showing how it will make the company money, well, you've convinced them that you're as lost from reality as the marketing department is.
Think of all of the people that you know who don't work in IT (exempt any doctors, lawyers, accountants or self-employed people -- these professions are similar to IT in regards to the necessary knowledge base). How many of them have to regularly spend their personal time in order to stay up to date in their profession?
Well, it all depends on what they do. If you're talking about family-practice doctors, divorce lawyers, or small business accounts, well, they don't have to do all that much to stay current. (My father works in ligitation on construction contracts for the state government. Not much changes.) However, if they're on the cutting edge of the field, they probably spend a lot of time keeping up to date.
I'm sure that a lot of intellectual property lawyers are working quite hard these days to keep on top of changing legislation. Doctors at research hospitals often work very hard keeping up-to-date on the latest changes in medicine. And I think a fair number of accounts for consulting firms are working really hard to change practices now in the wake of Enron.
As for me, I'm not an "IT" person, per se. I've moved into the realm of a project manager. However, I read four or five magazines a month, buy big thick tomes to read all the time, and yes, most of it is directly related to my work.
Basically, it all comes down to whether or not your work is a commodity. IT isn't yet, but when it is, things won't change as quickly. The real question is one of why people who do routine crap all the time get paid big bucks just because they're doctors, lawyers, or accountants?
I'd like to see how they can even think it'll hold up in a court of law. This one should be so simple to beat down, I can't imagine it would even help in an election race.
The reality is that you cannot discriminate towards one particular form of something. Case in point would be pornography. Ok, if we restrict pornography, then we have to do in all forms of media.
The point was made previously, but if the law was non-discriminatory, this would mean that most news publications, not just on television, but also print and web would have to avoid allowing minors to access such things.
Personally, I'd like to see how this would affect demos downloaded off the Internet. Can you imagine id Software getting prosecuted because some kids in Georgia downloaded a Quake demo?
My laptop is currently a Celeron 400 with 128 MB RAM, and I'm not having any problems running it on Win 98 SE. Ok, if I play with 15 civilisations, after I find them all and the year A.D. 1000, well, then it starts to be slow between turns.
I wonder why yours runs so slowly. A friend of mine has an even worse machine than mine and has no problems. Could it be the Win2K?
Hey, I love Wine. It's a great product, and I think it's neat to run whatever I can directly in Linux using Wine.
However, I have to be realistic. One of my favourite games is Civ III, and since Infogrames isn't the most cooperative publisher in the world, I doubt a Linux version will arrive. And Wine doesn't run it well.
So, I'm stuck with my next system being one using both Wine and VMWare.
I think that's really the best anyone can hope for now. I'm not planning on upgrading my Windows version any time soon, though, so if you're a developer, remember the Win98 SE people.
(Of course, I bought Alpha Centauri for Linux. It's a shame about Loki. Can't wait for Bioware to release Neverwinter Nights to run on Linux. And those TOOLS better work under Linux as well.)
I remember when I was in the process years back of trying to organise a startup. I would get spammed endlessly for jobs.
I don't mind people sending me an unsolicited résumé, but the key is to know the company. Form letters can work, but make sure that what's actually in the form letter pertains to what we do.
Currently I work for a company specialised in doing mobile entertainment using a Java platform. Don't tell me about your mad web skills with PHP and MySQL, because that's not what we do. Of course, if you hand-crafted a letter properly...
At any rate, I can't figure out why these people think they'll get jobs. I'll buy a ThinkGeek T-shirt for the first person who can prove that they really got a job from résumé spamming.
If there's 30% deflation, then money is worth more and more ever every year. Inflation works the other way, in that prices increase every year, and the money loses real value.
I'm hoping that's a typo, but if not, it makes for a very interesting economy.
I don't know how one could be on slashdot and miss EverQuest, or not know what an MMORPG is. So definition time.
First, MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.
Everquest - Although I've never played, Everquest is a huge fantasy role-playing game which has monsters, characters, a running economy, etc. I've avoided it primarily because I used to blow enough money on Magic: The Gathering cards and know and addictive game when I see one.
Everquest characters at least used to be auctioned on EBay for quite a lot of money.
Personally, I'm slightly security paranoid, but I don't believe that anyone who steals my machine is going to care what's on it, but more likely swap drives. Ok, that's what I'd do, at least.
But, looking at this, I'd love to have something like this running. Are they any current security programs that do things like this? I would need it for Windows and Linux.
Now if only I could have it run in the BIOS. Imagine if on the bios level, without a proper key or password or whatever, if the hard drive was removed and replaced, it would then call a panic number whenever connected. That'd be neat.
I never said that paper was easier, just inherently more secure.
Most people leave oils, small flakes of skin, and prints on almost everything they touch. I remember reading at some point that over 90% of house dust is skin.
DNA tests aren't easier, but it's hard to do a DNA test on an electronic sig.
Paper easily collects fingerprints and body fluids. You may not be able to perfectly verify that signature, but you should be able to verify whether or not someone actually held the paper.
Keycards are great, but only if used in conjunction with biometrics.
Primary purpose of cryptography is to hide information. It's not destructive by nature. It has great benefits to corporations and individuals alike.
A gun's primary purpose is to inflict severe wounds. Most people will not reap the benefits of inflicting severe wounds.
The big issue is not what sane people, whether lawful or unlawful, will do with these items. The big question is what will the insane do.
Cryptography in the hands of the insane is highly unlikely to rob any more mothers of their children. Firearms, on the other hand, may well do so.
Gun control is much like control of any weapon. It's not about those who are sane, but those who go crazy. And last I checked, in the "Me first, I'm an individual" society, you weren't too good at spotting the real crazies.
My biggest gripe with Microsoft software in general is the cost of the hardware upgrades, not the licences. Granted, I hate licence costs, but think about what the upgrades will do.
Idiot management user: I want to get Windows XQ (or whatever). I heard that we have the upgrade licences already.
You attempt to stall him or her, and no matter what you do, whether you appease or not, eventually the entirety of management wants it, for them and their users. So now you have to buy new hardware. And, whoops, now you're over budget.
Going with this kind of licence as a CIO means one of two things: Fired for being uncooperative with management or Fired for going way over budget.
(Is Microsoft's bloated code a conspiracy to help the hardware industry? Or is it simply a plot to continue to abuse OEM relationships?)
Slashdot Mirror
I have to cheer! This is great.
Now, let's just get the 24-hour Commercial Channel on cable, and I'm set.
Ok, I started off with a blatantly obvious statement that can be said about just about any software. I have yet to find a piece of software that does more than one or two things that doesn't have flaws. (Kudos to those out there who have done it. Too bad I haven't seen it.)
Anyway, I know even from a server position that there are issues with memory management and garbage collection that make Linux unwieldy at times. We use it, but we also know that sometimes we have to reboot systems. Yes! We reboot Linux machines because we haven't coded around the lack of features. We easily have RAM allocated on our machines and then can't release it easily for other applications. Oh well. Rant, rant, rant.
I see the posts about Aqua and how Macs are so great, but I hate that I can't customise Aqua to how I want it. I hate the big bulky bars. Yeah, Apply MAY have been really great, but I think they've lost touch with people now, and are fighting a losing battle of trying to control. Microsoft may be a big bad behemoth that has wielded a lot of power out there, but at least I can customise windows to some degree as I like it.
As far as getting applications onto Linux, it's not that hard. Support the companies that are building good IDEs! Get better and better documentation written. If you wonder why widget X and Y hasn't been built to work with your application, perhaps your documentation isn't so good. I found this with our own developers in that we had lots of docs written by our developers ostensibly for others, but only really targetted towards themselves. No one had any idea beyond a basic presentation as to what our apps did as standard features and how they could be configured.
And for those trolls who love to bash anyone who's not a great tech geek, well, I'm sorry, but someone has to pay the bills. And people who design those pretty boxes and that cool anime and write a lot of great sci-fi books, scripts, and so on, tend to not be the most technically oriented people, and they don't like fighting to get an OS to work for them. If you don't have the user base, you don't get the supporting tools, and without the tools, you can't easily increase the base. The Linux user base has to reach critical mass, and not only in the server area.
OSS works. But bad attitudes and bad practices by the self-appointed mini-evangelists (i.e. trolls) who would rather engage in idealist wars than work together have hurt OSS more than Microsoft or any other corporation. There are very few idiot users. But there sure are a lot of socially inept engineers.
Check out ArchiText from YellowBrix.
Having been looking at their demos and so on, they have some great summary software.
It is most certainly NOT free, but perhaps by looking at the summaries generated and the documents pulled from, you could get some idea how to reverse-engineer the process.
Sad as it sounds, this case doesn't have the same level of interest as a Microsoft case.
Granted, IBM may well dominate in the market, but I think the case that they say that they didn't want to lower costs and then IBM entered the software market shows just how silly this case is. IBM was likely willing to work with them, but not willing to keep the prices where they were just to lose market share.
I guess we'll see how this pans out, but I bet there will be a settlement within 6 months and not a peep out of Compuware again.
Personally, I'd like a definition of what tech-savvy means. Does it mean knowing how to cope with poorly designed electronic systems?
I work in the IT industry, and I'm responsible for designing all kinds of information flow and so on, and I keep find that the real problem in most systems is actually a lack of knowledge on the part of designers on how to really build good systems.
Personally, when it comes to design tech, I think a lot of "not-so-savvy" users probably know a lot more about how design should be than most of the designers.
</rant>Days like these, I'm so glad I moved out of the States. I read 1984 last spring, and it just seems so shocking how draconian legislation in the U.S. is become.
Unlike certain European Foreign Ministers, I don't make a huge fuss about the whole prisoners in Cuba thing. I have spent plenty of time around military personnel and done enough logistics work to understand the rationale behind that.
However, the creation of new bureaus to handle security, the pursuit of new ways of finding criminals, and the push of labelling anyone and everyone with a differing opinion is rotten. That's not justice, bravery, or security speaking. It's fear.
The sad thing is that's just what's behind Hollywood's push to make all these anti-copying things as well. It's a matter of fear. Someone else migh have control. It's sick, it's twisted, and it's wrong.
You know, a smart, brave, free land would support differing ideas. It would support that people can build on ideas. It would state that an idea may well come from an individual, but eventually that idea become one upon which others can freely build.
The BSA argues constantly about how piracy is destroying business. Now, I know that some businesses have been ruined by it. I agree it should be illegal. However, haven't these same businesses grown dramatically within that context?
The same can be seen within other areas as well.
But here we are, in a slump, and we want to make more money. Instead of pursuing good ideas, let's crack down on things. Instead of pursuing better real security, let's try to pressure people to conform to ideas. Yeah, right!
I was born an American and believe very strongly in the ideals of the nation. However, I find it sad how quickly a media-frenzied nation can panic, and how much might a corporations can have in what's supposed the most powerful nation on earth, the once great "land of the free and home of the brave".
I'm really happy about this, although the only software company I know in Alberta is BioWare.
It's about time the Canadians teach Americans (and several other nationalities) how to really run government to support the people.
Because most purely technical complaints ignore business reality, and ignore organizational concerns.
Yeah! Huzzah! Someone who really gets it!
I find this a lot in my work. People who think along the lines of "we've always done it this way". They drive me nuts.
Many of our developers have come from university where they've had free access to everything and think that everything should be free. They're the same people who come on here and whine about DRM and such, since information should be free. The talk about hacking PVRs to get programmes with no commercials.
I agree that Free Software is good. I agree that testing the limits of technology is good. But I will say that unless we're willing to pay for things, we won't be able to support creative development either.
We have a lot of stupid people who work as managers, true. But whining and complaining without any sense of reality of the business models just results in not being heard. Developers aren't stupid and their comments are not useless drivel. But if you've tried to get your company to give away its heart without proposing an alternate revenue source, or tried to get training without showing how it will make the company money, well, you've convinced them that you're as lost from reality as the marketing department is.
Think of all of the people that you know who don't work in IT (exempt any doctors, lawyers, accountants or self-employed people -- these professions are similar to IT in regards to the necessary knowledge base). How many of them have to regularly spend their personal time in order to stay up to date in their profession?
Well, it all depends on what they do. If you're talking about family-practice doctors, divorce lawyers, or small business accounts, well, they don't have to do all that much to stay current. (My father works in ligitation on construction contracts for the state government. Not much changes.) However, if they're on the cutting edge of the field, they probably spend a lot of time keeping up to date.
I'm sure that a lot of intellectual property lawyers are working quite hard these days to keep on top of changing legislation. Doctors at research hospitals often work very hard keeping up-to-date on the latest changes in medicine. And I think a fair number of accounts for consulting firms are working really hard to change practices now in the wake of Enron.
As for me, I'm not an "IT" person, per se. I've moved into the realm of a project manager. However, I read four or five magazines a month, buy big thick tomes to read all the time, and yes, most of it is directly related to my work.
Basically, it all comes down to whether or not your work is a commodity. IT isn't yet, but when it is, things won't change as quickly. The real question is one of why people who do routine crap all the time get paid big bucks just because they're doctors, lawyers, or accountants?
I'd like to see how they can even think it'll hold up in a court of law. This one should be so simple to beat down, I can't imagine it would even help in an election race.
The reality is that you cannot discriminate towards one particular form of something. Case in point would be pornography. Ok, if we restrict pornography, then we have to do in all forms of media.
The point was made previously, but if the law was non-discriminatory, this would mean that most news publications, not just on television, but also print and web would have to avoid allowing minors to access such things.
Personally, I'd like to see how this would affect demos downloaded off the Internet. Can you imagine id Software getting prosecuted because some kids in Georgia downloaded a Quake demo?
Strange that you'd have problems.
My laptop is currently a Celeron 400 with 128 MB RAM, and I'm not having any problems running it on Win 98 SE. Ok, if I play with 15 civilisations, after I find them all and the year A.D. 1000, well, then it starts to be slow between turns.
I wonder why yours runs so slowly. A friend of mine has an even worse machine than mine and has no problems. Could it be the Win2K?
Hey, I love Wine. It's a great product, and I think it's neat to run whatever I can directly in Linux using Wine.
However, I have to be realistic. One of my favourite games is Civ III, and since Infogrames isn't the most cooperative publisher in the world, I doubt a Linux version will arrive. And Wine doesn't run it well.
So, I'm stuck with my next system being one using both Wine and VMWare.
I think that's really the best anyone can hope for now. I'm not planning on upgrading my Windows version any time soon, though, so if you're a developer, remember the Win98 SE people.
(Of course, I bought Alpha Centauri for Linux. It's a shame about Loki. Can't wait for Bioware to release Neverwinter Nights to run on Linux. And those TOOLS better work under Linux as well.)
Well, the easiest way to go is to call it as most people do in Europe. Curriculum vitae.
Most people here ask for a CV, and the nice part is that no matter how you write it, not need for high-ASCII characters.
I don't think Monster.com submissions are spam. Spam is unsolicited. They advertised there.
So Monster submissions don't win.
True enough...
I think the only places that'll matter are those which have automated systems. Then they're looking for the right keywords.
Of course, if you have to spam, chances are, you don't have the right keywords.
I remember when I was in the process years back of trying to organise a startup. I would get spammed endlessly for jobs.
I don't mind people sending me an unsolicited résumé, but the key is to know the company. Form letters can work, but make sure that what's actually in the form letter pertains to what we do.
Currently I work for a company specialised in doing mobile entertainment using a Java platform. Don't tell me about your mad web skills with PHP and MySQL, because that's not what we do. Of course, if you hand-crafted a letter properly...
At any rate, I can't figure out why these people think they'll get jobs. I'll buy a ThinkGeek T-shirt for the first person who can prove that they really got a job from résumé spamming.
If there's 30% deflation, then money is worth more and more ever every year. Inflation works the other way, in that prices increase every year, and the money loses real value.
I'm hoping that's a typo, but if not, it makes for a very interesting economy.
I don't know how one could be on slashdot and miss EverQuest, or not know what an MMORPG is. So definition time.
First, MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.
Everquest - Although I've never played, Everquest is a huge fantasy role-playing game which has monsters, characters, a running economy, etc. I've avoided it primarily because I used to blow enough money on Magic: The Gathering cards and know and addictive game when I see one.
Everquest characters at least used to be auctioned on EBay for quite a lot of money.
Personally, I'm slightly security paranoid, but I don't believe that anyone who steals my machine is going to care what's on it, but more likely swap drives. Ok, that's what I'd do, at least.
But, looking at this, I'd love to have something like this running. Are they any current security programs that do things like this? I would need it for Windows and Linux.
Now if only I could have it run in the BIOS. Imagine if on the bios level, without a proper key or password or whatever, if the hard drive was removed and replaced, it would then call a panic number whenever connected. That'd be neat.
I never said that paper was easier, just inherently more secure.
Most people leave oils, small flakes of skin, and prints on almost everything they touch. I remember reading at some point that over 90% of house dust is skin.
DNA tests aren't easier, but it's hard to do a DNA test on an electronic sig.
Paper easily collects fingerprints and body fluids. You may not be able to perfectly verify that signature, but you should be able to verify whether or not someone actually held the paper.
Keycards are great, but only if used in conjunction with biometrics.
CNN incorrectly reported the prices as yen. The should be Euro
Not ¥ but €
I bet lots of Japanese wish that ¥60 was close to $53....
(This is just like the use of duel instead of dual, when they asked Nicole Kidman about her dual citizenship. CNN has really gone downhill.)
Lousy analogy.
Primary purpose of cryptography is to hide information. It's not destructive by nature. It has great benefits to corporations and individuals alike.
A gun's primary purpose is to inflict severe wounds. Most people will not reap the benefits of inflicting severe wounds.
The big issue is not what sane people, whether lawful or unlawful, will do with these items. The big question is what will the insane do.
Cryptography in the hands of the insane is highly unlikely to rob any more mothers of their children. Firearms, on the other hand, may well do so.
Gun control is much like control of any weapon. It's not about those who are sane, but those who go crazy. And last I checked, in the "Me first, I'm an individual" society, you weren't too good at spotting the real crazies.
My biggest gripe with Microsoft software in general is the cost of the hardware upgrades, not the licences. Granted, I hate licence costs, but think about what the upgrades will do.
Idiot management user: I want to get Windows XQ (or whatever). I heard that we have the upgrade licences already.
You attempt to stall him or her, and no matter what you do, whether you appease or not, eventually the entirety of management wants it, for them and their users. So now you have to buy new hardware. And, whoops, now you're over budget.
Going with this kind of licence as a CIO means one of two things: Fired for being uncooperative with management or Fired for going way over budget.
(Is Microsoft's bloated code a conspiracy to help the hardware industry? Or is it simply a plot to continue to abuse OEM relationships?)
That's very strange. I've never, ever had that problem.
I've used AT&T@Home (before they change), Adelphia's cable modem service, and several small ISPs.