Have you ever been a boss? I have. Whether you're a supervisor, or the owner, you always have to be thinking "productivity". It's the nature of the position.
Just how many times can you tolerate YOUR BOSS coming to you, and complaining about some gold brick wasting time on the phone? I'm rude, crude, very direct, and physical. I would go to my subordinate, and make it very plain that I just got my ass chewed out because he was on the phone, and threaten to kick his ass the next time he brought the phone to work with him. Leave it at home, or leave it in the car, or lock it in the lockers - DO NOT carry it around with you during work hours!
The boss doesn't have to justify banning electronic toys. There is an official business phone which people can use to contact you in a real emergency. If it turns out that you're getting non-emergency calls during work hours, you can get another job.
Burden of proof? WTF is that all about? We have problems with phones in our plant. They haven't been banned - yet. But we have problems with people's attention being distracted from their jobs. An issue that has never been addressed at our plant, is the possibility of "sensitive" and "secret" documents being recorded. Trade secrets are trade secrets, easily recorded and sold to whoever might be interested in them when everyone carries a phone with a camera.
There is no "burden of proof" - if management becomes aware of risk, they can ban anything and everything that they deem to be a part of the risk.
We also suffer from vandalism. So far, it has been confined to physical vandalism of equipment. Some day, some bright boy is going to figure out that he can plug in a WIFI, and use his smart phone to introduce anything he likes to the computerized equipment. The older equipment may not recognize a WIFI device, but the newer machines certainly do.
Bad form, you say? This is the United States, in the year 2012. Management has dismissed half of the lessons ever learned about keeping personnel happy. They don't give a damn about happy employees. There are four or five applicants for every job that opens up. They don't NEED to keep more than some key personnel happy. Even junior management is subject to layoff at any time.
Bad form and burden of proof, you say. Either you are a very lucky person, and have a really great job where management actually thinks about you and your needs - or you're stuck in the mid-1980's. Nowadays, management doesn't even measure their turnover rates among labor, skilled labor, and trades people. Moving up the chain of command, there is a little superficial "caring" shown to the engineers, and a little more "caring" for junior management.
More, the states are backing up employers far more than they did in past decades. I think it was Michigan that just became a "right to work" state. The employer need prove nothing - the employer rules, and you obey. There is no civil right being infringed if the employer bans your electronic toys during work hours.
LED lights are great for a lot of uses, but headlights aren't yet on of the best uses. It's best to use LED's as a supplement to your headlights, not as a replacement. Maybe in a few more years, they'll be up to snuff. Complaints I've heard are that they just don't reach down the road.
Auxiliary lights, like these AngelEyes http://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/led-headlight-accent-lights/ make you a lot more visible to other drivers, they tend to light up unlit areas close to you, but they do almost nothing to illuminate the road more than 30 feet in front of you.
And, I'm not solely voicing my own opinion here - as a member of a couple of motorcycle forums, I've found this to be the consensus. As I say, two, five, maybe ten years from now, LED will be ready to replace all of our halogen and xenon lights. They are not ready today.
So, get better headlights, stupid. If you're lucky, the bulbs are just growing dim, and you can replace them easily and cheaply. If you're unlucky, the reflective layer inside the bulb housings are oxidized and flaking. You can replace those for ~$75 to ~$125 each. If it were just YOUR life at risk, I wouldn't care. But, when you crash due to poor visibility, you're likely to take a pedestrian out.
I just double checked with my son. A set of Depo Performance Lights for a Camry runs right at $200. He also bought a pair of newfangled reflector bulbs to put into those light housings - his total bill was ~$300.
I was going to remind GP that Canadians and "Americans" agreed to be different long ago. We don't have to be like each other to like each other. You guys talk funny, you dress funny, you even sing funny, but you're still like cousins.;)
Yep - I've always called that the "Engineer's scale". Not sure if that's an official designation, but it's what I heard it called when I was exposed to it, and that's what it will always remain in my mind.
Let's not forget that there are 96/16ths in a foot, and there are 100 x.01 in a foot. It's pretty simple to convert between the two, but I've met a lot of carpenters (and others) who seem to be incapable of doing so.
We've had the metric system since day one. Ten pennies equal a dime. Ten dimes equal a dollar. Ten dollars equal a ten. Ten tens equal a C-note. People who can make change without relying on a computer understand the metric system perfectly. We had metric before most of Europe. How many shillings in a pound are there, anyway?
Perhaps you don't understand the term "arbitrary". Some people got together, decided that this system is "better" than any other system, and now the world wishes to impose this system on everyone in the world.
Arbitrary.
I'll agree that a base 10 system is much easier to use, and to convert into other measurements than imperial measurements. But, "easy" doesn't preclude "arbitrary".
No one uses furlongs. Inches, feet, yards, and miles. Crap - there's probably not more than 1 in 1000 Americans who knows what a furlong is. Most will start fishing in their pants, wondering what the "fur" is all about.
That seems a bit silly to me. There are so many discoveries and inventions that sat around for generations, waiting to be discovered. All that was required was that someone without preconceived ideas looked at it with a fresh mind.
Apparently, that is just what happened here. Some kid says, "But, Dad, how can you be sure they are just random? Has no one ever looked for a pattern?" Dad says, "Well Son, if you think you're so smart, then YOU find the pattern! Some of the world's best minds have tried and failed!" Or, maybe I have it wrong, maybe Dad said, "Son, as far as I know we just ASSumed they were random. Maybe we should take another look. What kind of a pattern do you think we should look for?"
Whatever - it was a fresh mind that hadn't been indoctrinated with the idea that these galaxies were just randomly distributed. That fresh mind may have only been the stimulus, in some cases. In other cases, the fresh mind actually made the real discovery. Old, stale minds that are incapable of thinking outside the box don't make a lot of discoveries.
Bottom feeders? Whatever - we're used to hearing that from the predators in the republican party, and the !% that the party seems to represent. Bottom feeders. Thanks a lot.
You're forgetting that "vendor lockin" thing with the OEM's. "If you want to sell Windows, then you can ONLY sell Windows OS's." Remember that? BECAUSE of that little bit of arm twisting, then no OEM could afford to be locked out of Windows, so they ALL agreed to those terms.
That was a very effective monopoly. Worldwide, Microsoft has owned more than 90% of all desktops for how long now? Definitely a monopoly.
Ohhh, I don't know about all that. The DOJ spent - what? - nineteen months and several millions of dollars investigating Google. They couldn't find anything with which to beat Google down. I would guess that Google isn't doing a very good job of being evil. Note that they said "don't be evil", they did not say "let's be fucking saints".
Can Google screw up? Yes.
Has Google screwed up? Yes.
Has Google pissed me off? Yes.
Even so, Google is more good than bad. Microsoft can't say the same. The DOJ was about to tear them a new asshole, until George Bush took office. Bush Junior has never met a monopoly that he didn't like, so the DOJ was called off.
"Why is mouselessness seemingly so important to people who are sworn off Windows anyway?"
Because the Linux distros are moving in that direction as well. Two new desktop environments have been created for Linux, to revolt against the touch GUI's. I'm currently in Mate right now. Cinnamon doesn't really appeal to me. Enlightenment is the other option, but it's still not ready for prime time. I've abandoned Gnome3 and I had already left KDE when version 4 came out.
The two desktops that I am most familiar, most comfortable with, are Gnome2 and Windows Classic. The distro that gives me what I'm comfortable with will gain my allegiance. Right now, that means Linux Mint Debian.
Errrrr - no. Apparently you haven't used very many VM's. You have some software that requires XP. So, you do all the REST of your work on your real desktop. You fire up the VM to access the files or whatever from a shared folder on the real desktop. Run your "mission critical" software to perform whatever it is you need done. Meanwhile, you're doing OTHER work on your real desktop. When XP has completed that "mission critical" task, you close the damned VM. You don't BROWSE from the VM. You don't do your email from the VM. Ideally, you don't even supply the VM with a network interface. It's hard to get a virus when the only connection to any data is via that shared folder on the host operating system.
I remember blackboards. Teacher would stand in front of the blackboard, spend maybe thirty seconds scribbling something, wipe her hands, then wander around the room for two or three minutes, while blathering away on the importance of what she just wrote. Then, she would return to the blackboard, blather for another minute and a half, turn around, and write something new up there. Rinse and repeat for maybe 30 minutes, then sit at her desk, read off an assignment to the class, do something obscure in her books, and the bell would ring to signal that it was time to go to another classroom.
While there was a blackboard in every room, the teacher who spent more than fifteen minutes writing something on it was the exception, rather than the rule.
Remember, writing something like "I will not pick my ass in class" on the blackboard a hundred times was PUNISHMENT, not a reward
So run that shit in a virtual machine. FFS, the real operating system doesn't have to be compromised by decades old libraries and executables that are full of exploits.
Right around the time that grammar nazis stop bitching and whining? I noticed the extraneous apostrophe, and dismissed it. Anally retentive people simply can't dismiss the noise, so they don't get the signal.
Slashdot Mirror
ROFLMAO - go for it. Your threats mean diddly to my threats. FFS man, I've never worked with such sissies. "Oh, officer, he THREATENED ME!!"
Grow a fucking pair of balls. And leave the goddamned phone home, because I'm gonna smash that before I tear you a new asshole.
Have you ever been a boss? I have. Whether you're a supervisor, or the owner, you always have to be thinking "productivity". It's the nature of the position.
Just how many times can you tolerate YOUR BOSS coming to you, and complaining about some gold brick wasting time on the phone? I'm rude, crude, very direct, and physical. I would go to my subordinate, and make it very plain that I just got my ass chewed out because he was on the phone, and threaten to kick his ass the next time he brought the phone to work with him. Leave it at home, or leave it in the car, or lock it in the lockers - DO NOT carry it around with you during work hours!
The boss doesn't have to justify banning electronic toys. There is an official business phone which people can use to contact you in a real emergency. If it turns out that you're getting non-emergency calls during work hours, you can get another job.
Burden of proof? WTF is that all about? We have problems with phones in our plant. They haven't been banned - yet. But we have problems with people's attention being distracted from their jobs. An issue that has never been addressed at our plant, is the possibility of "sensitive" and "secret" documents being recorded. Trade secrets are trade secrets, easily recorded and sold to whoever might be interested in them when everyone carries a phone with a camera.
There is no "burden of proof" - if management becomes aware of risk, they can ban anything and everything that they deem to be a part of the risk.
We also suffer from vandalism. So far, it has been confined to physical vandalism of equipment. Some day, some bright boy is going to figure out that he can plug in a WIFI, and use his smart phone to introduce anything he likes to the computerized equipment. The older equipment may not recognize a WIFI device, but the newer machines certainly do.
Bad form, you say? This is the United States, in the year 2012. Management has dismissed half of the lessons ever learned about keeping personnel happy. They don't give a damn about happy employees. There are four or five applicants for every job that opens up. They don't NEED to keep more than some key personnel happy. Even junior management is subject to layoff at any time.
Bad form and burden of proof, you say. Either you are a very lucky person, and have a really great job where management actually thinks about you and your needs - or you're stuck in the mid-1980's. Nowadays, management doesn't even measure their turnover rates among labor, skilled labor, and trades people. Moving up the chain of command, there is a little superficial "caring" shown to the engineers, and a little more "caring" for junior management.
More, the states are backing up employers far more than they did in past decades. I think it was Michigan that just became a "right to work" state. The employer need prove nothing - the employer rules, and you obey. There is no civil right being infringed if the employer bans your electronic toys during work hours.
LED lights are great for a lot of uses, but headlights aren't yet on of the best uses. It's best to use LED's as a supplement to your headlights, not as a replacement. Maybe in a few more years, they'll be up to snuff. Complaints I've heard are that they just don't reach down the road.
Auxiliary lights, like these AngelEyes http://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/led-headlight-accent-lights/ make you a lot more visible to other drivers, they tend to light up unlit areas close to you, but they do almost nothing to illuminate the road more than 30 feet in front of you.
At present, HID lights are the best you can do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlamp
And, I'm not solely voicing my own opinion here - as a member of a couple of motorcycle forums, I've found this to be the consensus. As I say, two, five, maybe ten years from now, LED will be ready to replace all of our halogen and xenon lights. They are not ready today.
OMG - I screwed that up, didn't I? Yes, you're right. Next question, "Why in hell did I screw that up when I KNOW it so well?"
So, get better headlights, stupid. If you're lucky, the bulbs are just growing dim, and you can replace them easily and cheaply. If you're unlucky, the reflective layer inside the bulb housings are oxidized and flaking. You can replace those for ~$75 to ~$125 each. If it were just YOUR life at risk, I wouldn't care. But, when you crash due to poor visibility, you're likely to take a pedestrian out.
I just double checked with my son. A set of Depo Performance Lights for a Camry runs right at $200. He also bought a pair of newfangled reflector bulbs to put into those light housings - his total bill was ~$300.
I was going to remind GP that Canadians and "Americans" agreed to be different long ago. We don't have to be like each other to like each other. You guys talk funny, you dress funny, you even sing funny, but you're still like cousins. ;)
We were mocking the French long before the Gulf war.
FOR SALE: Used French rifle, only dropped once.
Yep - I've always called that the "Engineer's scale". Not sure if that's an official designation, but it's what I heard it called when I was exposed to it, and that's what it will always remain in my mind.
Let's not forget that there are 96/16ths in a foot, and there are 100 x .01 in a foot. It's pretty simple to convert between the two, but I've met a lot of carpenters (and others) who seem to be incapable of doing so.
We've had the metric system since day one. Ten pennies equal a dime. Ten dimes equal a dollar. Ten dollars equal a ten. Ten tens equal a C-note. People who can make change without relying on a computer understand the metric system perfectly. We had metric before most of Europe. How many shillings in a pound are there, anyway?
Perhaps you don't understand the term "arbitrary". Some people got together, decided that this system is "better" than any other system, and now the world wishes to impose this system on everyone in the world.
Arbitrary.
I'll agree that a base 10 system is much easier to use, and to convert into other measurements than imperial measurements. But, "easy" doesn't preclude "arbitrary".
No one uses furlongs. Inches, feet, yards, and miles. Crap - there's probably not more than 1 in 1000 Americans who knows what a furlong is. Most will start fishing in their pants, wondering what the "fur" is all about.
Root? I KNEW IT!! IT'S A ROOT KIT!!!!! DEATH TO THE METRIC SYSTEM
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
Yes, I know that. I was born at night, but not last night. I'm yelling. Deal with it. Don't like me yelling? Move to a frigging monastery then!
Specialties
high availability
You may be in luck - or not.
That seems a bit silly to me. There are so many discoveries and inventions that sat around for generations, waiting to be discovered. All that was required was that someone without preconceived ideas looked at it with a fresh mind.
Apparently, that is just what happened here. Some kid says, "But, Dad, how can you be sure they are just random? Has no one ever looked for a pattern?" Dad says, "Well Son, if you think you're so smart, then YOU find the pattern! Some of the world's best minds have tried and failed!" Or, maybe I have it wrong, maybe Dad said, "Son, as far as I know we just ASSumed they were random. Maybe we should take another look. What kind of a pattern do you think we should look for?"
Whatever - it was a fresh mind that hadn't been indoctrinated with the idea that these galaxies were just randomly distributed. That fresh mind may have only been the stimulus, in some cases. In other cases, the fresh mind actually made the real discovery. Old, stale minds that are incapable of thinking outside the box don't make a lot of discoveries.
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/10/23/13219/110
You must get educated before you are capable of judging how evil either company might be.
And, don't miss the AARD code, either:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/11/05/how_ms_played_the_incompatibility/
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-46840313/google-political-donations-where-company-execs-put-their-cash/
http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=d000000115&cycle=A
http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?cycle=2012&type=P&id=D000022008
Bottom feeders? Whatever - we're used to hearing that from the predators in the republican party, and the !% that the party seems to represent. Bottom feeders. Thanks a lot.
You're forgetting that "vendor lockin" thing with the OEM's. "If you want to sell Windows, then you can ONLY sell Windows OS's." Remember that? BECAUSE of that little bit of arm twisting, then no OEM could afford to be locked out of Windows, so they ALL agreed to those terms.
That was a very effective monopoly. Worldwide, Microsoft has owned more than 90% of all desktops for how long now? Definitely a monopoly.
Microsoft was already evil. Blocking Google from IE would have just been one more evil act floating in a sea of evil.
Ohhh, I don't know about all that. The DOJ spent - what? - nineteen months and several millions of dollars investigating Google. They couldn't find anything with which to beat Google down. I would guess that Google isn't doing a very good job of being evil. Note that they said "don't be evil", they did not say "let's be fucking saints".
Can Google screw up? Yes.
Has Google screwed up? Yes.
Has Google pissed me off? Yes.
Even so, Google is more good than bad. Microsoft can't say the same. The DOJ was about to tear them a new asshole, until George Bush took office. Bush Junior has never met a monopoly that he didn't like, so the DOJ was called off.
"Why is mouselessness seemingly so important to people who are sworn off Windows anyway?"
Because the Linux distros are moving in that direction as well. Two new desktop environments have been created for Linux, to revolt against the touch GUI's. I'm currently in Mate right now. Cinnamon doesn't really appeal to me. Enlightenment is the other option, but it's still not ready for prime time. I've abandoned Gnome3 and I had already left KDE when version 4 came out.
The two desktops that I am most familiar, most comfortable with, are Gnome2 and Windows Classic. The distro that gives me what I'm comfortable with will gain my allegiance. Right now, that means Linux Mint Debian.
Errrrr - no. Apparently you haven't used very many VM's. You have some software that requires XP. So, you do all the REST of your work on your real desktop. You fire up the VM to access the files or whatever from a shared folder on the real desktop. Run your "mission critical" software to perform whatever it is you need done. Meanwhile, you're doing OTHER work on your real desktop. When XP has completed that "mission critical" task, you close the damned VM. You don't BROWSE from the VM. You don't do your email from the VM. Ideally, you don't even supply the VM with a network interface. It's hard to get a virus when the only connection to any data is via that shared folder on the host operating system.
I remember blackboards. Teacher would stand in front of the blackboard, spend maybe thirty seconds scribbling something, wipe her hands, then wander around the room for two or three minutes, while blathering away on the importance of what she just wrote. Then, she would return to the blackboard, blather for another minute and a half, turn around, and write something new up there. Rinse and repeat for maybe 30 minutes, then sit at her desk, read off an assignment to the class, do something obscure in her books, and the bell would ring to signal that it was time to go to another classroom.
While there was a blackboard in every room, the teacher who spent more than fifteen minutes writing something on it was the exception, rather than the rule.
Remember, writing something like "I will not pick my ass in class" on the blackboard a hundred times was PUNISHMENT, not a reward
So run that shit in a virtual machine. FFS, the real operating system doesn't have to be compromised by decades old libraries and executables that are full of exploits.
Right around the time that grammar nazis stop bitching and whining? I noticed the extraneous apostrophe, and dismissed it. Anally retentive people simply can't dismiss the noise, so they don't get the signal.