Any company that would want to deploy this would presumably have the infrastructure to give everyone who needs it VPN access.
And having to connect to the internet, and log in via a VPN just to read a document that I already have a local copy of is ok? What a pain in the ass... I'd avoid that tool like the plague thank you very much.
"...that leaves those of us who know how things work under the hood in a separate world."
Well, look at it this way... it's job security.
Not that I want to spend my days fixing windows machines (I get enough frustrations with just fixing my family's systems). I'm a Unix SysAdmin.. but of course to everyone else, I can fix all computers (and sometimes they think, anything electronic). Sure, I usually can fix all their computer woes (which almost always turn out to be windows problems) but when it comes to failing hardware they still think it's a simple fix... when, in reality, it might be extremely hard to narrow down and will likely require buying replacement parts.
The tired analogy of comparing us admins to car mechanics and the like is becoming more and more accurate. My brother-in-law happens to be a mechanic. We're almost opposites to each other in respect to cars and computers.. I know computers intimately, and fix theirs, or help add new things when they need it. He knows everything about cars and fixes mine when it needs it. Neither of us knows anything about the other's area of expertise. Works out for us in the end.
Depends on the size of the town or how well the postal service employees know the area I'm sure.
I'd bet if you sent a package to "The red roofed house on the east side of London with a broken fence" it won't get there. But try the same in a small town and it'll probably work.
When I was a senior in High School, some of us went to Washington DC on a trip (CloseUp foundation trip). We met people from all over, and 2 of my roomates while there were from a small town in Alaska. They told us we could mail them by just putting their name on the envelope and the town's name (Aniak IIRC) and it'd get to them because the town is small enough that everyone knows everyone else there.
BTW, you guys comparing the British PS to the USPS is pretty silly, we're talking about one entire country that's smaller then a couple of our states alone, and ~60million people vs almost 300million. We also have Alsaka, which is detatched from the mainland, but not all that far, but then there's Hawaii.
I know that any mail I get or send that's either within California (I live in San Diego) or to most of Nevada or Arizona usually takes only 1 day... 2 at the most.
No, that's not it. When you run a credit card thru various payment gateways, such as Verisign's Payflow or CardServices LinkPoint, the accounts are being verified online, in real time.
Real Time is right. When I bought my Kyocera 7135 smartphone online, I got a call from Discover fraud prevention in less then 2 minutes from the time I hit the finalize transaction button on the order form. They just wanted to make sure it was me doing the purchase.
Back to the main topic at hand... what's the beef here? If a company only wants to do business with one country, or not with specific countries.. that's their right. Just because the web site can be viewed from all over doesn't mean you're automatically guaranteed to buy from them.
Your telephone can likely call any company in the world that sells mail order, but that doesn't mean they'll sell to you either. Sheesh.
Strange Brew is one of my alltime favorites. You do own the DVD, right?:)
A group of us were so into this in the 6th grade, that not only did we call everyone hoser, and say 'beauty Clark' all the damn time, that two of us even dressed up as Bob and Doug for Halloween.
He's not astroturfing... Sprint service sucked for me too. I live in San Diego and had sprint for about a year. It was ok where I was (barely got a signal at my house) but when I moved into my new house almost 2 years ago, I switched to Verizon too. If I wanted to use my sprint phone, I had to go out into my driveway to get any signal.. and even then it wasn't even 1 bar. I don't live in the middle of nowhere either.. I live near the Stadium, and above a shopping center where Fry's is here.
Verizon at least gives me a consistent 2 bars in my house. I won't way they're perfect though. I notice that if I'm up between midnight and 1am that the phone will lose service, roll to roaming, then come back after a few minutes... almost every day. I don't know if they reboot their systems or what but it's pretty regular. And sometimes the phone will never ring, but I'll get a "Missed call" beep.. but that's rare anymore.
Biggest sign that Sprint has no clue? When I called to cancel service, told the guy why.. and his response was "If we lowered your monthly charges, would you stay with us?" Uh.. hello? I just said it was crappy coverage, why would a few bucks less sway me?
Rush?!? Jeez, I just don't get that.. I'd hate to see what everyone that says we're "rushing" to war would consider a slow pace. Maybe we should send entire families over there now and have them raise the next generation in place to fight in 20 years or so? Completely ignoring the 12 years of UN sanctions and diplomacy that completely failed... it's been about a year now that they've been talking about Iraq, and months that we've been building up forces.
Rush indeed.. pfft.
why we can't wait until the UN council approves of action
Because it was never going to happen. France has way to many interests in their deals with Saddam to not veto every resolution that mentions force.. not to mention the seeming dream of many EU countries to stop any fighting at any cost. That's why the US helped to write 1441 the way they did.. it gave permission without specifically stating force, because they knew if force was stated, there are those that would've vetoed it no matter what Saddam did/does.
To give you an example: Is peanut butter toxic? Of course not. But a small percentage of the population will die if they eat it.
I'm with you on that one. Two of my cousins are like this. They're so allergic to peanuts that the smell of them makes them ill, and if you do something like use a knife in a jar of peanut butter, then use it in a jar of jelly.. they can't ever touch that jelly.
Reading this guy's story, it does sound a lot like there's at least a bit of hypochondriac in there. The basic thing seems to be that these are people who's bodies are defective in some way.. and they get mad when everyone else doesn't understand. Of course they don't, they don't have those problems. Also, sometimes there's just too much required of the normal system to accomodate some people. Is it right to effect everyone because of a tiny minority.
The thing that bothers me is that it basically sounds like it's a defect in his system that was caused by his father in the first place.
Speaking for myself... I hate it so far because it's useless. I've had a demo dual 900MHz box in house for months.. even installed a pre-release of the RH Advanced Workstation mentioned in another recent post. The box sat still almost the entire time because there still aren't any damn apps for it yet! I support IC designers, and we couldn't get a single IPF version of their tools.
I'm really looking forward to x86-64. We'll be able to slide it in alongside our existing (growing) linux compute group, and use it for 32bits now, and get 64 bits as time goes on. Can't do that with Itanium.. 32 code runs so slow on there it's pathetic.
The editor should EDIT the copy, not just format it and split it up. Some (many?) people can't really write consise stories. They NEED to have an editor to cut down on the drivel, extra words, side-tracks, repetitive examples, etc.
Yes, the really need editors. There was a story on there about a year and a 1/2 ago on the Tivo, and I was one of the people the author email-interviewed. He even linked to my original upgrade/hack story I'd posted. After I saw that the article came out and that I was linked, I checked my logs to find well over 1,000 hits in my error_log.. he'd put the URL in wrong without bothering to doublecheck! Turned out he'd put the directory as/TiVo when I just had/tivo.. an easy fix on my side (just made a symlink) but it made me look bad, and them for not checking their own article.
"In the digital world, we don't need back-ups, because a digital copy never wears out. It is timeless."
I say he's right. I'd have no problem following this way of thinking at all.
Of course, it also suggests that this means that there will always be something available to playback that digital recording, as well as something to watch/hear it on. If he's willing to guarantee that this will always be true (which includes replacing the media free of charge if it does some how wear out) then I'm sure we could all go along with this.
Show of hands... who wants to see this proposed to him and his reaction to it?:)
Same here... I've got a PS2, GC and a Dreamcast, and they all work great. I've even banged the hell out of them (knocked off tables, tripped over controller cable, dropped something on them, etc). Not to mention I own a few DVDs and not one has suffered from rot. I bought my first player in '97 just a month or two after they first came out, and even my oldest disks work fine.
I have exactly one disc with play problems.. and that's Star Wars Ep1.. because the case was broken and it was scratched when I brought it home. I never got around to taking it back because I lost the receipt.
One thing I have seen is plenty of discs that (after not being touched in a long time) look exactly like they're talking (appearance like stains), and it turns out to be a buildup of dirt. It's odd though because they're in cases and it seems finer then normal dust.. but it always wipes off and the discs play just fine.
I'm think the rot is either extremely rare.. or people just don't take care of their stuff.
i can't wait for these new boxes to come out. i've had a 65in widescreen hd capable tv for about 2 years now, but was never willing to give up the flexibility that TiVo offers me to sit down and watch HD programming.
Can I get an amen?
I'm in the exact same boat... 65in 16x9 TV for almost 2 years now, and I've yet to use HD on it. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret the purchase at all as DVDs are so damn clear on it that I hardly goto the theater anymore (why when a DVD is the same cost, or less if rented, I'm in control, and it's far more comfortable?).
I've looked into Digital cable... Far more money for 1 HBO, 1 Showtime, and something like 4 other channels, only 1 or 2 local ones... pass.
DirectTV.. similar to above, but just not worth it to ditch my Tivo. When I can have what I've got now, and HD programming on the Tivo to boot.. that's when I'll upgrade.
Heh.. what can I say? I'm spoiled. I'm so used to the Tivo always working that I hate "live" tv now. I've even caught myself (on the rare occasion that I watch something live... usually news, TLC or History) trying to fast forward into the future. Damn the laws of physics and time!
Even with our reinstall, there have been cases where the Media Center application crashed, requiring a full system restart before functioning properly
I've got 2 Tivo's, both hacked, and neither has ever crashed or spontaneously rebooted on me (save one hang during first upgrade because I didn't disable write verify on the disks first.. my fault, I cut corners). There's no way in hell I'd trust a box that's not completely reliable to replace my trusty Tivos.
That list lost all credibility in my eyes when it put Caterpiller on there. For selling bulldozers... oh, excuse me "house demolishers"... to Isreal. They're freaking bulldozers built for construction work... it's not their fault that someone's using them for something they don't agree with.
Should Boeing and other airplane manufacturers be on the list for building human controlled cruise missles (aka Airplanes)?
The rest is probably true, but that one point was just stupid.
This is typically what companies do just before imploding
Not really.. you're missing what massive advertising they get out of it. Qualcomm pulled the city council's jiblets out of the fire something like 6 or 7 years ago in San Diego.. and it's still going strong. 3com is still plugging along. Then there's Ericsson, Network Associates, Coors, etc.
I'll probably regret asking this, but how the hell does owning a Tivo put one in the elitist category? Sure, they're not dirt cheap, but not everyone that owns one is filthy rich or a computer geek.
Hell, I'd think even if it were nothing but elitists, it'd balance out ratings more as the current crop of ratings seems to only account for complete morons with no brains.
You mean to tell me that oratory skills and verbal salesman charisma (is that 18/00?) is not a reliable indicator of intelligence?
No.. it's not. I know plenty of intelligent people (myself humbly included) that stammer like idiots, make mistakes, etc when speaking in front of a large group of people. There are plenty of people who are damn fine speakers, but aren't all that bright either. Just because one can read a prepared speech well means they're smart?
California because $100k/yr is barely enough to survive on plus earthquakes
Idiot. I don't make $100k, yet I own my own home (Yes.. even in this "housing shortage"), own my car outright, and live quite comfortably thank you very much.
As for earthquakes... oooh, I'm so scared. I've lived here (San Diego) my whole life and haven't endured one that caused damage in my area yet. Even the large ones that have hit us aren't anything to get all worked up about... hell, it ads a little spice to life. If you live in any area that gets hit by tornados, floods, hurricanes, or horrid blizzards, then you're even that much more a fool. Just about everywhere has some kind of natural disaster that effects it in some way now and then.
You keep believing that, and get back to your keyboard... be happy that you've got your guaranteed 60 hrs/week with two whole weeks of holiday a year.
And you just keep believing that and get back to whatever fantasy world you live in. Not everywhere in the US is like that, and I doubt that most is either. Where I work I get 4 weeks a year (just hit 5 years here and was bumped from 3 weeks.. already above your 2), It'll be 5 weeks a year in a few more years. We only have to work 40 hours, which is usually all I spend in the office. I do often do more work from home, though not because it's expected but because it's either something I'm working on, enjoying, and want to finish (some cool new script). Or because I happen to check my mail after hours, notice a problem, and decide to fix it to help the users. And believe me, it's noticed and I'm well compensated for it come review periods (as all of us that do so are).
Then again, I'm a loyal employee. I'm not one of those that jumps ship at the slightest increase in pay or other offer (and I got quite a few offers from 97-2000). I've also read a lot of resumes in the recent past, and when I see people jumping from job to job..that's usually a big red flag that you can't count on this person to be there when you need them.
...is far happier (according to the UN and the OECD at least)
Yeah, that's a shocker. The UN has pretty much been in a "The US is evil and sucks" mode for the last few years. Of course, it all looks like jealousy to many of us.
write up a bunch of bad mortgages, then watch people fail to make payments
I'm pretty sure that it's illegal to give out mortgages to people you know aren't going to be able to pay. Places don't want to do this, that's why you have to go through so many checks before you get one. I have stellar credit and it still took all the extra checks on what I earn, that I was gainfully employed, etc, before I got my mortgage.
it's a way to soak the parents through the kids, without the parents having any opportunity to decide whether this is going to be permitted or not.
No, it's irresponsible kids who have parents that didn't teach them basic finances or responsibility. The best thing the parents of these kids could do is to let them fix their own messes.. but of course many will just pay off the debt further enabling the kids and letting them continue down this road of no responsibility. There are even adults with dozens of credit cards with balances due on all of them, these are not people that were screwed by credit card companies, they are what are known as stupid people, who don't understand basic finances. I've never had more then 2 cards (and the only reason I have 2 is because not everyplace takes every card). I never leave large (if any) balances on them, and don't buy things I can't afford to own. This was something my parents taught me when I was a child.
Car and computer leases: now, how big a scam is THIS?
That one I pretty much agree on. I just don't see the benefit of a lease to an idividual. It makes sense for company cars, but I personally buy my vehicle(s) and pay them off as fast as I can.
I pretty much agree with your paragraphs 4 and 5 too. Although there are a ton of commercials these days for schools that promise to make you filthy rich by just learning some computer skills, which are pretty stupid too. MicroSkills (might be mostly local to San Diego, not sure) is the worst I see with places like ITT Tech, Coleman college and such following close behind.
Um, what about college just being expensive? I have alot of debt, all of it is college related. I got rid of most of my credit card debt (by using most of my savings), and still am paying my college loans.
Good for you, you made a choice to invest in yourself, got a good education, and took a chance. Explain exactly why I should feel sorry for you? Or anyone else that has done anything similar? Hell, I even admire you for believing in yourself enough to take a chance, but feel sorry for you? No. You're in the position you're in becuase you made choices and you sound like you knew what you were doing, and it sounds like you'll have your head above water eventually.
Must be nice to be that secure. Unfortunatly, not all people are. I get paid, i pay my bills and my loans, and normally things are fine. But if somethign unexpected comes up, like my car needs repair, it has to go on the CC. Are you saying i shouldnt fix my car, and then in turn not be able to get to work?
Nothing's 100%, I could lose my job for any of a number of reasons, but that's life. I don't expect people to feel sorry for me if I do lose my job.
BTW, every car will need to be fixed eventually, and the older a car is, the more likely it is to break down. Aside from getting broken things fixed, regular maintenace is needed. Smart people plan for this, so one should have some savings for that if possible, or knows they might have to go into debt to fix it. Perhaps the car is too expensive for someone to own if they have to go well into debt to get it fixed? I don't know for sure, but I do know that I make sure I know I might need to fix mine.
I already knew how to balance a check book, i don't buy things i can't afford yet i sitll have debt from college and unexpected things. I do plan things out, but some debt is unavoidable.
That, I agree with. I have debt too: I have a mortgage. Of course I made sure it was one that I could afford the payments on, even a few if I lose my job, and I made sure not to get one until I could put a decent downpayment on my home so that I have some equity in it. My problem with the article is that it makes it sound like we should feel sorry for all GenXers like we're all lined up to be screwed.. which is crap. Plenty of us who panned ahead, didn't leap at every job offer that was worth a few bucks more, and work hard are doing well.
I have friends in several significant cities; and they (and I) know lots of places that are hiring at good salaries with good benefits. If someone isn't getting a job, it's probably because their skills are a bunch of fantasy or they are anti-social whiners.
I have to agree with you there. I spent almost 6 months reading resumes and interviewing people trying to find a new senior level Unix/Linux Sysadmin with experience in large environments. Resumes would come in from people that administered a couple webservers (and they did more web development then admin work), PC hardware techs, etc. The few that I interviewed over the phone made it so obvious that they'd lied on their resume it wasn't even funny (and no, they didn't just interview bad... I suck at interviews and am my own worst critic, and I knew these people sucked).
The one resume that really cracked me up, which came from monster.com, was for a guy that listed himself as a senior unix admin with 15 years experience. I read over his resume and the largest site he worked with had a whopping total of 9 unix machines! There weren't even big iron boxes, but workstation class HPs, Suns, SGIs, etc. I phone screened him, and it was clear he was barely an entry level admin, let alone senior.. after doing the job for 15 years. Now that was sad.
We ended up hiring back someone that had left for a startup a few years earlier (and realized it was a mistake to have done that) because he wanted to come back to town, and we knew he had the skills we needed.
I know a lot of people that are good admins, coders, web designers, etc... and they're all either working, or still going to school. Noone good that I know is stuck out of work.
Slashdot Mirror
Any company that would want to deploy this would presumably have the infrastructure to give everyone who needs it VPN access.
And having to connect to the internet, and log in via a VPN just to read a document that I already have a local copy of is ok? What a pain in the ass... I'd avoid that tool like the plague thank you very much.
"...that leaves those of us who know how things work under the hood in a separate world."
Well, look at it this way... it's job security.
Not that I want to spend my days fixing windows machines (I get enough frustrations with just fixing my family's systems). I'm a Unix SysAdmin.. but of course to everyone else, I can fix all computers (and sometimes they think, anything electronic). Sure, I usually can fix all their computer woes (which almost always turn out to be windows problems) but when it comes to failing hardware they still think it's a simple fix... when, in reality, it might be extremely hard to narrow down and will likely require buying replacement parts.
The tired analogy of comparing us admins to car mechanics and the like is becoming more and more accurate. My brother-in-law happens to be a mechanic. We're almost opposites to each other in respect to cars and computers.. I know computers intimately, and fix theirs, or help add new things when they need it. He knows everything about cars and fixes mine when it needs it. Neither of us knows anything about the other's area of expertise. Works out for us in the end.
Depends on the size of the town or how well the postal service employees know the area I'm sure.
I'd bet if you sent a package to "The red roofed house on the east side of London with a broken fence" it won't get there. But try the same in a small town and it'll probably work.
When I was a senior in High School, some of us went to Washington DC on a trip (CloseUp foundation trip). We met people from all over, and 2 of my roomates while there were from a small town in Alaska. They told us we could mail them by just putting their name on the envelope and the town's name (Aniak IIRC) and it'd get to them because the town is small enough that everyone knows everyone else there.
BTW, you guys comparing the British PS to the USPS is pretty silly, we're talking about one entire country that's smaller then a couple of our states alone, and ~60million people vs almost 300million. We also have Alsaka, which is detatched from the mainland, but not all that far, but then there's Hawaii.
I know that any mail I get or send that's either within California (I live in San Diego) or to most of Nevada or Arizona usually takes only 1 day... 2 at the most.
No, that's not it. When you run a credit card thru various payment gateways, such as Verisign's Payflow or CardServices LinkPoint, the accounts are being verified online, in real time.
Real Time is right. When I bought my Kyocera 7135 smartphone online, I got a call from Discover fraud prevention in less then 2 minutes from the time I hit the finalize transaction button on the order form. They just wanted to make sure it was me doing the purchase.
Back to the main topic at hand... what's the beef here? If a company only wants to do business with one country, or not with specific countries.. that's their right. Just because the web site can be viewed from all over doesn't mean you're automatically guaranteed to buy from them.
Your telephone can likely call any company in the world that sells mail order, but that doesn't mean they'll sell to you either. Sheesh.
Strange Brew is one of my alltime favorites. You do own the DVD, right? :)
A group of us were so into this in the 6th grade, that not only did we call everyone hoser, and say 'beauty Clark' all the damn time, that two of us even dressed up as Bob and Doug for Halloween.
He's not astroturfing... Sprint service sucked for me too. I live in San Diego and had sprint for about a year. It was ok where I was (barely got a signal at my house) but when I moved into my new house almost 2 years ago, I switched to Verizon too. If I wanted to use my sprint phone, I had to go out into my driveway to get any signal.. and even then it wasn't even 1 bar. I don't live in the middle of nowhere either.. I live near the Stadium, and above a shopping center where Fry's is here.
Verizon at least gives me a consistent 2 bars in my house. I won't way they're perfect though. I notice that if I'm up between midnight and 1am that the phone will lose service, roll to roaming, then come back after a few minutes... almost every day. I don't know if they reboot their systems or what but it's pretty regular. And sometimes the phone will never ring, but I'll get a "Missed call" beep.. but that's rare anymore.
Biggest sign that Sprint has no clue? When I called to cancel service, told the guy why.. and his response was "If we lowered your monthly charges, would you stay with us?" Uh.. hello? I just said it was crappy coverage, why would a few bucks less sway me?
I just don't understand what the rush is
Rush?!? Jeez, I just don't get that.. I'd hate to see what everyone that says we're "rushing" to war would consider a slow pace. Maybe we should send entire families over there now and have them raise the next generation in place to fight in 20 years or so? Completely ignoring the 12 years of UN sanctions and diplomacy that completely failed... it's been about a year now that they've been talking about Iraq, and months that we've been building up forces.
Rush indeed.. pfft.
why we can't wait until the UN council approves of action
Because it was never going to happen. France has way to many interests in their deals with Saddam to not veto every resolution that mentions force.. not to mention the seeming dream of many EU countries to stop any fighting at any cost. That's why the US helped to write 1441 the way they did.. it gave permission without specifically stating force, because they knew if force was stated, there are those that would've vetoed it no matter what Saddam did/does.
To give you an example: Is peanut butter toxic? Of course not. But a small percentage of the population will die if they eat it.
I'm with you on that one. Two of my cousins are like this. They're so allergic to peanuts that the smell of them makes them ill, and if you do something like use a knife in a jar of peanut butter, then use it in a jar of jelly.. they can't ever touch that jelly.
Reading this guy's story, it does sound a lot like there's at least a bit of hypochondriac in there. The basic thing seems to be that these are people who's bodies are defective in some way.. and they get mad when everyone else doesn't understand. Of course they don't, they don't have those problems. Also, sometimes there's just too much required of the normal system to accomodate some people. Is it right to effect everyone because of a tiny minority.
The thing that bothers me is that it basically sounds like it's a defect in his system that was caused by his father in the first place.
Speaking for myself... I hate it so far because it's useless. I've had a demo dual 900MHz box in house for months.. even installed a pre-release of the RH Advanced Workstation mentioned in another recent post. The box sat still almost the entire time because there still aren't any damn apps for it yet! I support IC designers, and we couldn't get a single IPF version of their tools.
I'm really looking forward to x86-64. We'll be able to slide it in alongside our existing (growing) linux compute group, and use it for 32bits now, and get 64 bits as time goes on. Can't do that with Itanium.. 32 code runs so slow on there it's pathetic.
The editor should EDIT the copy, not just format it and split it up. Some (many?) people can't really write consise stories. They NEED to have an editor to cut down on the drivel, extra words, side-tracks, repetitive examples, etc.
/TiVo when I just had /tivo.. an easy fix on my side (just made a symlink) but it made me look bad, and them for not checking their own article.
Yes, the really need editors. There was a story on there about a year and a 1/2 ago on the Tivo, and I was one of the people the author email-interviewed. He even linked to my original upgrade/hack story I'd posted. After I saw that the article came out and that I was linked, I checked my logs to find well over 1,000 hits in my error_log.. he'd put the URL in wrong without bothering to doublecheck! Turned out he'd put the directory as
"In the digital world, we don't need back-ups, because a digital copy never wears out. It is timeless."
:)
I say he's right. I'd have no problem following this way of thinking at all.
Of course, it also suggests that this means that there will always be something available to playback that digital recording, as well as something to watch/hear it on. If he's willing to guarantee that this will always be true (which includes replacing the media free of charge if it does some how wear out) then I'm sure we could all go along with this.
Show of hands... who wants to see this proposed to him and his reaction to it?
Yet they seem to be having an effect on a multi-billion dollar company. Funny that.
Same here... I've got a PS2, GC and a Dreamcast, and they all work great. I've even banged the hell out of them (knocked off tables, tripped over controller cable, dropped something on them, etc). Not to mention I own a few DVDs and not one has suffered from rot. I bought my first player in '97 just a month or two after they first came out, and even my oldest disks work fine.
I have exactly one disc with play problems.. and that's Star Wars Ep1.. because the case was broken and it was scratched when I brought it home. I never got around to taking it back because I lost the receipt.
One thing I have seen is plenty of discs that (after not being touched in a long time) look exactly like they're talking (appearance like stains), and it turns out to be a buildup of dirt. It's odd though because they're in cases and it seems finer then normal dust.. but it always wipes off and the discs play just fine.
I'm think the rot is either extremely rare.. or people just don't take care of their stuff.
i can't wait for these new boxes to come out. i've had a 65in widescreen hd capable tv for about 2 years now, but was never willing to give up the flexibility that TiVo offers me to sit down and watch HD programming.
Can I get an amen?
I'm in the exact same boat... 65in 16x9 TV for almost 2 years now, and I've yet to use HD on it. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret the purchase at all as DVDs are so damn clear on it that I hardly goto the theater anymore (why when a DVD is the same cost, or less if rented, I'm in control, and it's far more comfortable?).
I've looked into Digital cable... Far more money for 1 HBO, 1 Showtime, and something like 4 other channels, only 1 or 2 local ones... pass.
DirectTV.. similar to above, but just not worth it to ditch my Tivo. When I can have what I've got now, and HD programming on the Tivo to boot.. that's when I'll upgrade.
Heh.. what can I say? I'm spoiled. I'm so used to the Tivo always working that I hate "live" tv now. I've even caught myself (on the rare occasion that I watch something live... usually news, TLC or History) trying to fast forward into the future. Damn the laws of physics and time!
Then I saw this:
Even with our reinstall, there have been cases where the Media Center application crashed, requiring a full system restart before functioning properly
I've got 2 Tivo's, both hacked, and neither has ever crashed or spontaneously rebooted on me (save one hang during first upgrade because I didn't disable write verify on the disks first.. my fault, I cut corners). There's no way in hell I'd trust a box that's not completely reliable to replace my trusty Tivos.
That list lost all credibility in my eyes when it put Caterpiller on there. For selling bulldozers... oh, excuse me "house demolishers"... to Isreal. They're freaking bulldozers built for construction work... it's not their fault that someone's using them for something they don't agree with.
Should Boeing and other airplane manufacturers be on the list for building human controlled cruise missles (aka Airplanes)?
The rest is probably true, but that one point was just stupid.
This is typically what companies do just before imploding
Not really.. you're missing what massive advertising they get out of it. Qualcomm pulled the city council's jiblets out of the fire something like 6 or 7 years ago in San Diego.. and it's still going strong. 3com is still plugging along. Then there's Ericsson, Network Associates, Coors, etc.
I'll probably regret asking this, but how the hell does owning a Tivo put one in the elitist category? Sure, they're not dirt cheap, but not everyone that owns one is filthy rich or a computer geek.
Hell, I'd think even if it were nothing but elitists, it'd balance out ratings more as the current crop of ratings seems to only account for complete morons with no brains.
You mean to tell me that oratory skills and verbal salesman charisma (is that 18/00?) is not a reliable indicator of intelligence?
No.. it's not. I know plenty of intelligent people (myself humbly included) that stammer like idiots, make mistakes, etc when speaking in front of a large group of people. There are plenty of people who are damn fine speakers, but aren't all that bright either. Just because one can read a prepared speech well means they're smart?
California because $100k/yr is barely enough to survive on plus earthquakes
Idiot. I don't make $100k, yet I own my own home (Yes.. even in this "housing shortage"), own my car outright, and live quite comfortably thank you very much.
As for earthquakes... oooh, I'm so scared. I've lived here (San Diego) my whole life and haven't endured one that caused damage in my area yet. Even the large ones that have hit us aren't anything to get all worked up about... hell, it ads a little spice to life. If you live in any area that gets hit by tornados, floods, hurricanes, or horrid blizzards, then you're even that much more a fool. Just about everywhere has some kind of natural disaster that effects it in some way now and then.
And you just keep believing that and get back to whatever fantasy world you live in. Not everywhere in the US is like that, and I doubt that most is either. Where I work I get 4 weeks a year (just hit 5 years here and was bumped from 3 weeks.. already above your 2), It'll be 5 weeks a year in a few more years. We only have to work 40 hours, which is usually all I spend in the office. I do often do more work from home, though not because it's expected but because it's either something I'm working on, enjoying, and want to finish (some cool new script). Or because I happen to check my mail after hours, notice a problem, and decide to fix it to help the users. And believe me, it's noticed and I'm well compensated for it come review periods (as all of us that do so are).
Then again, I'm a loyal employee. I'm not one of those that jumps ship at the slightest increase in pay or other offer (and I got quite a few offers from 97-2000). I've also read a lot of resumes in the recent past, and when I see people jumping from job to job..that's usually a big red flag that you can't count on this person to be there when you need them.
Yeah, that's a shocker. The UN has pretty much been in a "The US is evil and sucks" mode for the last few years. Of course, it all looks like jealousy to many of us.
write up a bunch of bad mortgages, then watch people fail to make payments
I'm pretty sure that it's illegal to give out mortgages to people you know aren't going to be able to pay. Places don't want to do this, that's why you have to go through so many checks before you get one. I have stellar credit and it still took all the extra checks on what I earn, that I was gainfully employed, etc, before I got my mortgage.
it's a way to soak the parents through the kids, without the parents having any opportunity to decide whether this is going to be permitted or not.
No, it's irresponsible kids who have parents that didn't teach them basic finances or responsibility. The best thing the parents of these kids could do is to let them fix their own messes.. but of course many will just pay off the debt further enabling the kids and letting them continue down this road of no responsibility. There are even adults with dozens of credit cards with balances due on all of them, these are not people that were screwed by credit card companies, they are what are known as stupid people, who don't understand basic finances. I've never had more then 2 cards (and the only reason I have 2 is because not everyplace takes every card). I never leave large (if any) balances on them, and don't buy things I can't afford to own. This was something my parents taught me when I was a child.
Car and computer leases: now, how big a scam is THIS?
That one I pretty much agree on. I just don't see the benefit of a lease to an idividual. It makes sense for company cars, but I personally buy my vehicle(s) and pay them off as fast as I can.
I pretty much agree with your paragraphs 4 and 5 too. Although there are a ton of commercials these days for schools that promise to make you filthy rich by just learning some computer skills, which are pretty stupid too. MicroSkills (might be mostly local to San Diego, not sure) is the worst I see with places like ITT Tech, Coleman college and such following close behind.
Um, what about college just being expensive? I have alot of debt, all of it is college related. I got rid of most of my credit card debt (by using most of my savings), and still am paying my college loans.
Good for you, you made a choice to invest in yourself, got a good education, and took a chance. Explain exactly why I should feel sorry for you? Or anyone else that has done anything similar? Hell, I even admire you for believing in yourself enough to take a chance, but feel sorry for you? No. You're in the position you're in becuase you made choices and you sound like you knew what you were doing, and it sounds like you'll have your head above water eventually.
Must be nice to be that secure. Unfortunatly, not all people are. I get paid, i pay my bills and my loans, and normally things are fine. But if somethign unexpected comes up, like my car needs repair, it has to go on the CC. Are you saying i shouldnt fix my car, and then in turn not be able to get to work?
Nothing's 100%, I could lose my job for any of a number of reasons, but that's life. I don't expect people to feel sorry for me if I do lose my job.
BTW, every car will need to be fixed eventually, and the older a car is, the more likely it is to break down. Aside from getting broken things fixed, regular maintenace is needed. Smart people plan for this, so one should have some savings for that if possible, or knows they might have to go into debt to fix it. Perhaps the car is too expensive for someone to own if they have to go well into debt to get it fixed? I don't know for sure, but I do know that I make sure I know I might need to fix mine.
I already knew how to balance a check book, i don't buy things i can't afford yet i sitll have debt from college and unexpected things. I do plan things out, but some debt is unavoidable.
That, I agree with. I have debt too: I have a mortgage. Of course I made sure it was one that I could afford the payments on, even a few if I lose my job, and I made sure not to get one until I could put a decent downpayment on my home so that I have some equity in it. My problem with the article is that it makes it sound like we should feel sorry for all GenXers like we're all lined up to be screwed.. which is crap. Plenty of us who panned ahead, didn't leap at every job offer that was worth a few bucks more, and work hard are doing well.
I have friends in several significant cities; and they (and I) know lots of places that are hiring at good salaries with good benefits. If someone isn't getting a job, it's probably because their skills are a bunch of fantasy or they are anti-social whiners.
I have to agree with you there. I spent almost 6 months reading resumes and interviewing people trying to find a new senior level Unix/Linux Sysadmin with experience in large environments. Resumes would come in from people that administered a couple webservers (and they did more web development then admin work), PC hardware techs, etc. The few that I interviewed over the phone made it so obvious that they'd lied on their resume it wasn't even funny (and no, they didn't just interview bad... I suck at interviews and am my own worst critic, and I knew these people sucked).
The one resume that really cracked me up, which came from monster.com, was for a guy that listed himself as a senior unix admin with 15 years experience. I read over his resume and the largest site he worked with had a whopping total of 9 unix machines! There weren't even big iron boxes, but workstation class HPs, Suns, SGIs, etc. I phone screened him, and it was clear he was barely an entry level admin, let alone senior.. after doing the job for 15 years. Now that was sad.
We ended up hiring back someone that had left for a startup a few years earlier (and realized it was a mistake to have done that) because he wanted to come back to town, and we knew he had the skills we needed.
I know a lot of people that are good admins, coders, web designers, etc... and they're all either working, or still going to school. Noone good that I know is stuck out of work.