The Ars Digita story is a classic example of what Cringely is talking about- a company run into the ground by "professional" managers brought in by the VCs. Here's the story, as told by one of the company's founders:
Even though it's "just one side of the story," the consensus is that it's pretty close to what really happened.
In the end, the VCs cut a deal with Redhat, who hired a few of Ars' staff to make it look like the company was successfully sold. Fortunately, Ars' great products live on as open source software, OpenACS, and Redhat's CCM. Though Ars' incompetent management pushed CCM as the next, great version of their software, it was never more than vaporware. Redhat has continued to develop it, but it's still not finished.
No. "Poor" is a polite euphemism preferred by your third grade english teacher, who was also trying to get you to say "please" and "mister." Now that we're adults, we can come right out and say "bad," "badly," and "go away, you fucking nebbish."
I'm wondering if Debian was ever really meant to be a finished, polished, complete distribution- instead, maybe we should consider it raw material from which more polished distributions can be built- like Linux itself. Debian just takes Linux a little further- then leaves it for others to finish.
I say this because there have been some really nice, slick distributions based on Debian. Corel was the first I can remember. It wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but it had a slick installer that did everything automagically, and some desktop enhancements to make it easier for the average Windows user to handle. Storm Linux was another that was pretty nice- again, a slick installer almost anyone could use, plus some nice system management and configuration tools, similar to Mandrake's. Now, Libranet seems to be doing good things with Debian also. You can read about Libranet here. Finally, I tried Knoppix the other day. It's a neat distribution that runs live from a CD, so one can try Linux without actually installing it. It has all the basics, and a nice KDE desktop. It's incredibly slick- installing, configuring, and loading itself from a CD faster than any of my Linux machines have ever booted. It detected all the hardware and ran perfectly on my laptop, with the nicest KDE desktop I've seen. I've been a Win2k hostage lately, so I've been loading Knoppix to netsurf and use some of my favorite programs, like Lyx. I urge everyone to try it, just for kicks.
All of these distributions are Debian, with the finish work being done by someone else.
So maybe we shouldn't think of Debian as a finished distribution, but as a toolkit- raw material for other distibutors to work with. Some have, and have done a good job.
The writing is usually so bad the spelling is moot
on
Two Reviews of Debian 3.0
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
The spelling is the least of the problems these websites have. Most of them are so badly written in general that they're a real chore to read. The worst are the hardware sites like Anandtech, with pages and pages of stuff that a good writer could express in a couple of paragraphs. Reading these sites is like listening to a 14 year old blab on about his model airplanes or something.
I knew Slashdotters were just a big bunch of trainspotters, and now they're all coming out of the woodwork. This is amusing...
Turbines are *more* efficient, not less...
on
Jet Turbine Locomotives
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Don't compare old-tech, experimental turbines with what's available now. The whole reason for this project is that turbines are *more* efficient than diesels, not less. If diesels were more efficient, they'd be the first choice for electric powerplants, and they're not- turbines are.
Another reason for this project is that the service requirements of a passenger train are different from that of a freight train. Passenger trains pull lighter loads, travel faster, and need to accelerate more rapidly. Most locomotive technology in the US was designed with pulling freight in mind. Even the passenger locomotives are based on freigh-pulling designs. This project is a clean-slate design, with a specific purpose in mind. It should fulfill that purpose much more efficiently.
I don't understand- the whole point of Linux is that it's *open source,* meaning that anyone can read the source files. So how could anyone put a worm into them, without someone else seeing it?
I'm sure all kinds of crap could find its way into a Linux distribution, but if you download one from a trusted source like Debian (which is very well reviewed and tested), I don't see what the problem is.
...a way of going about something is a *method*, not a "methodology." Yeah, I know, everyone uses it, but it's still wrong. Don't they teach English in college these days?
Besides the other problems with batteries, there's the environmental one- production and disposal of noxious chemicals. Batteries used in cars have a very limited lifespan, and would have to be replaced every 2-5 years. Hydrogen is a much better storage medium on a mass scale.
Honestly, that's why I'm not a chef. It's definately a labor of love. For every wealthy Wolfgang Puck or Mario Batali, there are *thousands* of highly trained, mega-skilled, extramely talented, creative, ambitious, smart people working in the world's great restaurants and hotels, for less than $10/hr- even at age 40! Try living on that in NY or Napa- better have a trust fund to fall back on!
Escrow services for eBay-type transactions already exist. One that comes to mind is Tradenable, and htere are others too. So they're out there if you want to use them. eBay doesn't have their very own, but I predict they will before too long. The fees could generate too much money to ignore, especially if the service were integrated into eBay's website, like Paypal now is.
The worst part of this is that copyright isn't necessary to protect estalished *trademarks* like Pooh and Mickey. So this latest rewrite of copyright law isn't really to protect existing properties, it's a power grab by big business to control *everything else.*
There are telemarketing jobs that are "real," like selling long distance service to corportations, being a stockbroker, insurance agent, etc. But these "real" jobs, like any other, require some skills, training, smarts, and maybe even a college degree. Good companies with good products need good people on their front lines.
The telemarketing jobs available to people without these skills are usually not "real" jobs at all. They're miserable, boiler-room slavery for fly-by-night sleazeball telemarketing contractors. Employees are lured into servitude with promises of big commissions, flexible hours, etc. The reality is being forced to work long hours to meet unrealistic quotas, for commissions that never materialize. After a couple of weeks of this (according to Dept. of Labor statistics), most people get disgusted and leave. But the contractor got plenty of work out of them almost for free, and there's always another sucker to replace the one who left. Most people leave these jobs in worse shape than when they started, even more broke, deeper in debt, completely demoralized, and without any new skills. In the time spent working for the telemarketing contractor, they would have been far better off washing dishes, cleaning toilets, or pounding nails.
The government would be doing *everyone* a favor by putting these bottom-feeders out of business.
We have do-not-call lists in the US, but they're hardly obeyed. Small companies just plead ignorance if they're caught, and large companies avoid the issue by using telemarketing "contractors." These operations spring up overnight, and disappear before they're caught. Some of them even operate from overseas, making them impossible to catch. Besides that, law enforcement has more important crimes to deal with than annoying phone calls.
This just one more reason to use Linux/BSD. It's more secure to begin with, has very few viruses written for it, and security updates are timely- and free. Debian and OpenBSD are looking better all the time.
Last year we decided to migrate off Windows. We first moved to OpenOffice. Painful, when your clients all use MS Office, but it's possible.
But what kind of work does your company do? What are all those people doing with OpenOffice? Are you a bunch of programmers who occasionally write letters, a resume writing company, a real estate office, what? I keep hearing all these anecdotes about various offices in the abstract. Everyone works in these hypothetical, theoretical, nameless, faceless business office situations. I'm beginning to wonder if they really exist. I'm sure CIOs at big corporations do too, when they read this stuff...
Desktop integration was a *Debian* first...
on
Red Hat 8.0 Released
·
· Score: 2
"Mandrake also has dektop integration, my menues look the same in GNOME and KDE. The task oriented menues pick the best apps wherever they come from. It really feels integrated. But it looks like RH invented the concept. And this is simply not true."
Nope, it's not true. But Mandrake didn't invent it either. It came from Debian.
In fact, it sometimes didn't work in earlier versions of Mandrake, so there were plenty of newsgroup/BB posts about how to undo the "Debian menu hack."
"If you want a corporate-style OS, with actual help, support, integration, and consistency, then for christ's sake YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO PAY FOR IT."
"The support idea is hogwash. Support is good cash but it won't replace copies sold. Red Hat needed to win acceptance and dominance, and so it gave away binary copies of their OS."
The support idea *is* hogwash- at least what Redhat calls support. In my experience, the basic level of support included in the price of their software is completely useless- you'll get better, faster, more competent help in newsgroups. I can't comment on their premium support packages, but their basic offerings don't encourage me to spend any more money.
I don't know what you're talking about in referring to integration and consistency- Redhat is generally behind the curve in hardware support, drivers, and being able to set up stuff like Samba easily. As far as consistency goes, Redhat's hodgepodge of crude-as-hell, badly designed, old-style-Unix GUI tools leaves me cold.
A couple of people have posted saying a custom TCP/IP stack is needed. Well, then, do it in the sattelite receiver, in the hardware and firmware! Proprietary secrets would be safe within the box, and the damned thing would actually work! Plug and play- no drivers, no tech support calls. Give us our ethernet, dammit!
Betcha this would be cheaper than creating and supporting software, too. They have to make the receiver/modem box anyway- so stick a router chip in there, and be done with it.
There's nothing wrong with postponing college- if and only if you have something else worthwhile you're going to be doing. This could include military service (get the gov to pay for college), other public service, a really neat internship, learning a marketable skill (paramedic, certified programmer, pilot, chef, whatever) so you can earn a living while in college. Travel is great too- but only if it's truly adventurous, and a learning experience. Moving to the beach to wait tables, get drunk, and chase babes doesn't count- unless it's somewhere you'll have to learn a foreign language or something. If you're putting off school so you can earn money for a cool car, forget it- you're a loser. This applies to the rest of your life, from now on. Pursue your dreams, whatever they may be, but never take a year *off.*
This is a great experiment, and the material is very useful. I'm sure I'll be using it myself in the coming years.
However, classroom learning *does not* really translate well online. Online coursework, if it's serious at all, requires a whole different approach- including several different kinds of interactivity. For MIT to offer *real* online coursework, it would require designing it specifically for that purpose, and probably producing it entirely separately. The reality is two separate universities- cyberspace and meatspace.
Slashdot Mirror
The Ars Digita story is a classic example of what Cringely is talking about- a company run into the ground by "professional" managers brought in by the VCs. Here's the story, as told by one of the company's founders:
http://eveander.com/arsdigita-history
Even though it's "just one side of the story," the consensus is that it's pretty close to what really happened.
In the end, the VCs cut a deal with Redhat, who hired a few of Ars' staff to make it look like the company was successfully sold. Fortunately, Ars' great products live on as open source software, OpenACS, and Redhat's CCM. Though Ars' incompetent management pushed CCM as the next, great version of their software, it was never more than vaporware. Redhat has continued to develop it, but it's still not finished.
Just like leaving your home phone behind, you can leave your cell phone behind by turning it off! Or just not carrynig it with you!
That "preferably in another industry" sounds like a threat, which could really get you into trouble.
Um, don't you mean 'poorly written'?
No. "Poor" is a polite euphemism preferred by your third grade english teacher, who was also trying to get you to say "please" and "mister." Now that we're adults, we can come right out and say "bad," "badly," and "go away, you fucking nebbish."
I'm wondering if Debian was ever really meant to be a finished, polished, complete distribution- instead, maybe we should consider it raw material from which more polished distributions can be built- like Linux itself. Debian just takes Linux a little further- then leaves it for others to finish.
I say this because there have been some really nice, slick distributions based on Debian. Corel was the first I can remember. It wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but it had a slick installer that did everything automagically, and some desktop enhancements to make it easier for the average Windows user to handle. Storm Linux was another that was pretty nice- again, a slick installer almost anyone could use, plus some nice system management and configuration tools, similar to Mandrake's. Now, Libranet seems to be doing good things with Debian also. You can read about Libranet here. Finally, I tried Knoppix the other day. It's a neat distribution that runs live from a CD, so one can try Linux without actually installing it. It has all the basics, and a nice KDE desktop. It's incredibly slick- installing, configuring, and loading itself from a CD faster than any of my Linux machines have ever booted. It detected all the hardware and ran perfectly on my laptop, with the nicest KDE desktop I've seen. I've been a Win2k hostage lately, so I've been loading Knoppix to netsurf and use some of my favorite programs, like Lyx. I urge everyone to try it, just for kicks.
All of these distributions are Debian, with the finish work being done by someone else.
So maybe we shouldn't think of Debian as a finished distribution, but as a toolkit- raw material for other distibutors to work with. Some have, and have done a good job.
The spelling is the least of the problems these websites have. Most of them are so badly written in general that they're a real chore to read. The worst are the hardware sites like Anandtech, with pages and pages of stuff that a good writer could express in a couple of paragraphs. Reading these sites is like listening to a 14 year old blab on about his model airplanes or something.
I knew Slashdotters were just a big bunch of trainspotters, and now they're all coming out of the woodwork. This is amusing...
Don't compare old-tech, experimental turbines with what's available now. The whole reason for this project is that turbines are *more* efficient than diesels, not less. If diesels were more efficient, they'd be the first choice for electric powerplants, and they're not- turbines are.
Another reason for this project is that the service requirements of a passenger train are different from that of a freight train. Passenger trains pull lighter loads, travel faster, and need to accelerate more rapidly. Most locomotive technology in the US was designed with pulling freight in mind. Even the passenger locomotives are based on freigh-pulling designs. This project is a clean-slate design, with a specific purpose in mind. It should fulfill that purpose much more efficiently.
I don't understand- the whole point of Linux is that it's *open source,* meaning that anyone can read the source files. So how could anyone put a worm into them, without someone else seeing it?
I'm sure all kinds of crap could find its way into a Linux distribution, but if you download one from a trusted source like Debian (which is very well reviewed and tested), I don't see what the problem is.
...a way of going about something is a *method*, not a "methodology." Yeah, I know, everyone uses it, but it's still wrong. Don't they teach English in college these days?
Besides the other problems with batteries, there's the environmental one- production and disposal of noxious chemicals. Batteries used in cars have a very limited lifespan, and would have to be replaced every 2-5 years. Hydrogen is a much better storage medium on a mass scale.
Honestly, that's why I'm not a chef. It's definately a labor of love. For every wealthy Wolfgang Puck or Mario Batali, there are *thousands* of highly trained, mega-skilled, extramely talented, creative, ambitious, smart people working in the world's great restaurants and hotels, for less than $10/hr- even at age 40! Try living on that in NY or Napa- better have a trust fund to fall back on!
Escrow services for eBay-type transactions already exist. One that comes to mind is Tradenable, and htere are others too. So they're out there if you want to use them. eBay doesn't have their very own, but I predict they will before too long. The fees could generate too much money to ignore, especially if the service were integrated into eBay's website, like Paypal now is.
The worst part of this is that copyright isn't necessary to protect estalished *trademarks* like Pooh and Mickey. So this latest rewrite of copyright law isn't really to protect existing properties, it's a power grab by big business to control *everything else.*
There are telemarketing jobs that are "real," like selling long distance service to corportations, being a stockbroker, insurance agent, etc. But these "real" jobs, like any other, require some skills, training, smarts, and maybe even a college degree. Good companies with good products need good people on their front lines.
The telemarketing jobs available to people without these skills are usually not "real" jobs at all. They're miserable, boiler-room slavery for fly-by-night sleazeball telemarketing contractors. Employees are lured into servitude with promises of big commissions, flexible hours, etc. The reality is being forced to work long hours to meet unrealistic quotas, for commissions that never materialize. After a couple of weeks of this (according to Dept. of Labor statistics), most people get disgusted and leave. But the contractor got plenty of work out of them almost for free, and there's always another sucker to replace the one who left. Most people leave these jobs in worse shape than when they started, even more broke, deeper in debt, completely demoralized, and without any new skills. In the time spent working for the telemarketing contractor, they would have been far better off washing dishes, cleaning toilets, or pounding nails.
The government would be doing *everyone* a favor by putting these bottom-feeders out of business.
We have do-not-call lists in the US, but they're hardly obeyed. Small companies just plead ignorance if they're caught, and large companies avoid the issue by using telemarketing "contractors." These operations spring up overnight, and disappear before they're caught. Some of them even operate from overseas, making them impossible to catch. Besides that, law enforcement has more important crimes to deal with than annoying phone calls.
This just one more reason to use Linux/BSD. It's more secure to begin with, has very few viruses written for it, and security updates are timely- and free. Debian and OpenBSD are looking better all the time.
Microsoft has seen how much Symantec has been making in this market, and they want a piece of the action.
Last year we decided to migrate off Windows.
We first moved to OpenOffice. Painful, when your clients all use MS Office, but it's possible.
But what kind of work does your company do? What are all those people doing with OpenOffice? Are you a bunch of programmers who occasionally write letters, a resume writing company, a real estate office, what? I keep hearing all these anecdotes about various offices in the abstract. Everyone works in these hypothetical, theoretical, nameless, faceless business office situations. I'm beginning to wonder if they really exist. I'm sure CIOs at big corporations do too, when they read this stuff...
"Mandrake also has dektop integration, my menues look the same in GNOME and KDE. The task oriented menues pick the best apps wherever they come from. It really feels integrated. But it looks like RH invented the concept. And this is simply not true."
Nope, it's not true. But Mandrake didn't invent it either. It came from Debian.
In fact, it sometimes didn't work in earlier versions of Mandrake, so there were plenty of newsgroup/BB posts about how to undo the "Debian menu hack."
"If you want a corporate-style OS, with actual help, support, integration, and consistency, then for christ's sake YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO PAY FOR IT."
"The support idea is hogwash. Support is good cash but it won't replace copies sold. Red Hat needed to win acceptance and dominance, and so it gave away binary copies of their OS."
The support idea *is* hogwash- at least what Redhat calls support. In my experience, the basic level of support included in the price of their software is completely useless- you'll get better, faster, more competent help in newsgroups. I can't comment on their premium support packages, but their basic offerings don't encourage me to spend any more money.
I don't know what you're talking about in referring to integration and consistency- Redhat is generally behind the curve in hardware support, drivers, and being able to set up stuff like Samba easily. As far as consistency goes, Redhat's hodgepodge of crude-as-hell, badly designed, old-style-Unix GUI tools leaves me cold.
Well, I just found out some more. I guess they're doing it already. Here's the new unit:
http://www.skycasters.com/4020.htm
I bet this is a shot in the arm for sattelite services. Too bad it took them so long to figure this out.
A couple of people have posted saying a custom TCP/IP stack is needed. Well, then, do it in the sattelite receiver, in the hardware and firmware! Proprietary secrets would be safe within the box, and the damned thing would actually work! Plug and play- no drivers, no tech support calls. Give us our ethernet, dammit!
Betcha this would be cheaper than creating and supporting software, too. They have to make the receiver/modem box anyway- so stick a router chip in there, and be done with it.
There's nothing wrong with postponing college- if and only if you have something else worthwhile you're going to be doing. This could include military service (get the gov to pay for college), other public service, a really neat internship, learning a marketable skill (paramedic, certified programmer, pilot, chef, whatever) so you can earn a living while in college. Travel is great too- but only if it's truly adventurous, and a learning experience. Moving to the beach to wait tables, get drunk, and chase babes doesn't count- unless it's somewhere you'll have to learn a foreign language or something. If you're putting off school so you can earn money for a cool car, forget it- you're a loser. This applies to the rest of your life, from now on. Pursue your dreams, whatever they may be, but never take a year *off.*
This is a great experiment, and the material is very useful. I'm sure I'll be using it myself in the coming years.
However, classroom learning *does not* really translate well online. Online coursework, if it's serious at all, requires a whole different approach- including several different kinds of interactivity. For MIT to offer *real* online coursework, it would require designing it specifically for that purpose, and probably producing it entirely separately. The reality is two separate universities- cyberspace and meatspace.
That said, this is still pretty neat.