Yeah, actually: "Let's go!". I mean there is one thing that really annoys me in all this TCO stuff. I work as a sysad in a huge german company and whenever I say "Linux" they answer "retraining cost".
C'mon, I KNOW my users now for almost 5 years and I can guarantee you the vast majority of them got never ever trained on their machines and will never be. They are totally clueless most of the time and only a few use more than two or three apps throughout the day. After upgrading them to XP they didn't even recognize a difference. It just can't be that hard to move them over to a Gnome or KDE desktop. We had a 18year old for practice here for two weeks who knew nothing about PCs except browsing the Web with IE. He installed Knoppix on a machine, and the only time he asked during install was when the drive had to be partitioned.
Bah, I just can't believe the fairytale of trainingcost anymore. As if companies would train their staff... They just replace them if they find someone else who does the same job in less time, regardless if it was just that one could use Words serial-letter features and the other had never heard of it...
The point is NOT to destroy the host. Just make it a silent slave on the net under your control. You need the host for nasty things and of course as a source to spread your virus across the super-information-highway. (does anybody rememeber this anymore?;-)
But don't you agree, on a rational basis, that we have seen stuff like this before? This might not be true with WinFS or whatever, but isn't it that the same promises rise from Redmond tower every single time they plan to release an OS? In the end their "revolutions" and integration plans never lived up to the hype. I would be very, truly and deeply surprised if this time it would be any different.
Yea, like my bloke that visited and asked me why his machine is so damn slow. I turned it up and it was an AMD K6 running WinXP. Yeah! But he had read on the box that it would make his machine faster. If he would have spent his 150$ on a new mainboard and a new CPU he would have been better off. I know this is not represantiev but I wanted to post this story since it's a trend I realized around here...
The funny thing is that most users prefer to stick with Win98SE instead of upgrading since they were never hit by any RPC worms. That's what will kill Microsoft eventually. Users won't upgrade since they don't trust their new stuff. Okay, it's crystal clear to all/.ers that a Win98 box is a desaster waiting to happen, but in the users expirience, for example my girlfriends, it feels safe since whenever they hear about a worm it's all those Win2k/XP users that get all the fun. They will stick with their old boxes and hopefully move to another machine when their local Linuxguru is holding their hands (as I will with my girlfriend if she finally has the money for a new box).
First they cancel WinFS, now the NextGen Security stuff, they just delayed it to 2006 and they just announced the hardware specs that are totally way off. Next thing they cancel is Avalon and they will delay it to december 2006. In the end it will be a minor upgrade such as WinXP was to 2k with some boring new stuff and an ugly new GUI-theme. We've seen this before. This won't stop them from calling it the biggest step since Windows 95. well, nothing to see here. Move along...
Actually, it's good for the Linux Community that Microsoft keeps making the same mistakes again and again. Ahh..old faithful!;-)
Maybe Miguel will now rethink his very stupid "I'm scared, I'm very scared" quote he made a few days ago...
I just dropped my neighbours WinXP Toshiba Notebook on my desk to install his E-Mail and wanted to go for Thunderbird anyways. That's what I call timing! Thanks folks!
good point. But you are pulling a cheap argumentive trick here: As long as you abstract far enough you will finally enter a state where good or bad doesn't exist. Well, it does, since you and me are human (I assume that you are not a bot that passes the Turing here;-). There is a very clear line for humans what good and bad means. It's easy: if it harms us it's evil. Of course the nanites would be competing with other self-replicating "species" on the surface of the planet but if they manage to get the energy they would be able to diassembly nearly everything. That's what makes them different from plants or humans that need other ressources to survive and can therefore be controlled. Am I wrong here? I am not a nanotech engineer (IANANTE?;-) but from what I gather this would be true...
Well, the main problem is that they might be only asleep. Nuclear Weapons in the wrong hands might be a reality pretty soon. With the sowjetunion down and a lot of underpayed scientists on the free market and some pretty rich saudis backing up terrorists this might just be a bigger threat in the shortterm than nanotech will be. Not playing Cassandra here but we've just been pretty lucky so far...
back when I first heard about nano this was my first thought. I tried to get my friends into a discussion about what ethical and sociological questions might arise from such a tech and they were all like "no, no you are worrying too much!" Most other people I heard talk about, even some Nanotech Professors seemed to enjoy the topic as a thoughtexperiment but never really took the threads serious. It was more that they enjoyed it as a theoretical construct. But this stuff scares the shit out of me. I would love to see it arrive since it is really the only way construction should be done, but on the other hand THIS could be the reason for the "Where is anybody?" theory that asks why all intelligent alien civilisations might be silent. Not Nuclear Weapons...
OMG, you just saved my day. I never ever laughed so many tears. My coworkers thought I finally went mad but when I mailed them the link (we work in quite a similar environment as George;-) they understood. This is terrific! Thank you, man!
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, actually: "Let's go!". I mean there is one thing that really annoys me in all this TCO stuff.
I work as a sysad in a huge german company and whenever I say "Linux" they answer "retraining cost".
C'mon, I KNOW my users now for almost 5 years and I can guarantee you the vast majority of them got never ever trained on their machines and will never be. They are totally clueless most of the time and only a few use more than two or three apps throughout the day. After upgrading them to XP they didn't even recognize a difference. It just can't be that hard to move them over to a Gnome or KDE desktop. We had a 18year old for practice here for two weeks who knew nothing about PCs except browsing the Web with IE. He installed Knoppix on a machine, and the only time he asked during install was when the drive had to be partitioned.
Bah, I just can't believe the fairytale of trainingcost anymore. As if companies would train their staff... They just replace them if they find someone else who does the same job in less time, regardless if it was just that one could use Words serial-letter features and the other had never heard of it...
The point is NOT to destroy the host. Just make it a silent slave on the net under your control. You need the host for nasty things and of course as a source to spread your virus across the super-information-highway. (does anybody rememeber this anymore? ;-)
Now there's your story. I just don't understand slashdot anymore. I bet you submitted it but it was rejected...hrm!
Agreed. Thats why some people like them as a competitor as well as an enemy. Mess with the best!
take care,
Lispy
Those were the days... ;-)
But don't you agree, on a rational basis, that we have seen stuff like this before? This might not be true with WinFS or whatever, but isn't it that the same promises rise from Redmond tower every single time they plan to release an OS? In the end their "revolutions" and integration plans never lived up to the hype. I would be very, truly and deeply surprised if this time it would be any different.
Yea, like my bloke that visited and asked me why his machine is so damn slow. I turned it up and it was an AMD K6 running WinXP. Yeah! But he had read on the box that it would make his machine faster. If he would have spent his 150$ on a new mainboard and a new CPU he would have been better off. I know this is not represantiev but I wanted to post this story since it's a trend I realized around here...
cu,
Lispy
The funny thing is that most users prefer to stick with Win98SE instead of upgrading since they were never hit by any RPC worms. That's what will kill Microsoft eventually. Users won't upgrade since they don't trust their new stuff. Okay, it's crystal clear to all /.ers that a Win98 box is a desaster waiting to happen, but in the users expirience, for example my girlfriends, it feels safe since whenever they hear about a worm it's all those Win2k/XP users that get all the fun. They will stick with their old boxes and hopefully move to another machine when their local Linuxguru is holding their hands (as I will with my girlfriend if she finally has the money for a new box).
First they cancel WinFS, now the NextGen Security stuff, they just delayed it to 2006 and they just announced the hardware specs that are totally way off. Next thing they cancel is Avalon and they will delay it to december 2006. In the end it will be a minor upgrade such as WinXP was to 2k with some boring new stuff and an ugly new GUI-theme. We've seen this before. This won't stop them from calling it the biggest step since Windows 95. well, nothing to see here. Move along...
;-)
Actually, it's good for the Linux Community that Microsoft keeps making the same mistakes again and again. Ahh..old faithful!
Maybe Miguel will now rethink his very stupid "I'm scared, I'm very scared" quote he made a few days ago...
welcome our flaky shower-curtain bacteria overlords.
;-)
Or maybe it's just the scientists that should get a shower from time to time?
Shouldn't this have been Hardware upgrades? ;-)
Nevermind. I have no clue about Macs. Running Slack..
I just dropped my neighbours WinXP Toshiba Notebook on my desk to install his E-Mail and wanted to go for Thunderbird anyways. That's what I call timing! Thanks folks!
;-)
PS: 1st post?
Nono, only those you have root access to. Post your pass as proof.
Err, german here. i meant the water that's left when you wash the dishes. Isn't it called "dishwater?" And if not, why did I get a +3 Insightful?? ;-)
"And you just thought that green tea was good to drink."
;-)
Actually I always thought it tastes like dishwater. Good to see it might at least be of some use.
good point. But you are pulling a cheap argumentive trick here: As long as you abstract far enough you will finally enter a state where good or bad doesn't exist. Well, it does, since you and me are human (I assume that you are not a bot that passes the Turing here ;-). There is a very clear line for humans what good and bad means. It's easy: if it harms us it's evil. Of course the nanites would be competing with other self-replicating "species" on the surface of the planet but if they manage to get the energy they would be able to diassembly nearly everything. That's what makes them different from plants or humans that need other ressources to survive and can therefore be controlled. Am I wrong here? I am not a nanotech engineer (IANANTE?;-) but from what I gather this would be true...
To be clear here: The right hands beeing those of them who a disarming them.
Well, the main problem is that they might be only asleep. Nuclear Weapons in the wrong hands might be a reality pretty soon. With the sowjetunion down and a lot of underpayed scientists on the free market and some pretty rich saudis backing up terrorists this might just be a bigger threat in the shortterm than nanotech will be. Not playing Cassandra here but we've just been pretty lucky so far...
back when I first heard about nano this was my first thought. I tried to get my friends into a discussion about what ethical and sociological questions might arise from such a tech and they were all like "no, no you are worrying too much!" Most other people I heard talk about, even some Nanotech Professors seemed to enjoy the topic as a thoughtexperiment but never really took the threads serious. It was more that they enjoyed it as a theoretical construct. But this stuff scares the shit out of me. I would love to see it arrive since it is really the only way construction should be done, but on the other hand THIS could be the reason for the "Where is anybody?" theory that asks why all intelligent alien civilisations might be silent. Not Nuclear Weapons...
why is it always a tradeoff between good and bad?
the Fusion cools you.
Omg, i can't believe I just did that...
Actually the US hired the german engineer (and not him alone) Wernher von Braun to build their rockets after WW2. The winner takes it all! ;-)
And now you posted it on Slashdot. Your going to hell for that... ;)
And I thought it was because we dont go outside. ;-)
OMG, you just saved my day. I never ever laughed so many tears. My coworkers thought I finally went mad but when I mailed them the link (we work in quite a similar environment as George ;-) they understood. This is terrific! Thank you, man!
That would be so cool, space tech loot in Everquest, but nah...it shouldn't be. ;-)