I've seen it where every process was documented - including those that were just common sense.
Did they really need a process to document how to arrange a meeting that had steps like "book a meeting room" and "invite participants to the meeting" plus a diagram showing the meeting with participants as an input.
I just imagine a guy sitting by himself in a meeting room wondering why he was all alone, checking the process manual and saying "Rats! I forgot step 37a - invite participants! At least I remembered step 62c so now all these cookies and all this coffee are just for me!"
Looking at the shops over here in Europe for Lego and Duplo sets for Christmas presents, the price seems pretty high, especially for some of the smaller sets that have only a few bricks and then some specialised pieces. How have the retail prices changed in real terms over the years? Have they gotten cheaper or have they become more expensive with all these character sets (Star Wars, Bob the Builder.
PS My favourite Lego add-on in the 70s was a large, motorised block that had a wired remote for forward and backward movement. You could put on wheels or caterpillar tracks and then stick on your favourite Lego parts. When we had two, my brother and I would use them for Robot Wars type battles (long before Robot Wars existed).
A lot of countries have or had the law - like the Net Book Agreement in the UK. It helped keep the average cost of book lower and ensured that a wider range and variety of books got published. It was abolished in the UK some years back, since when a lot of smaller book shops disappeared and it has gotten harder and harder to find shops with a wide range of books rather than those just pushing the most recent best sellers at discounted prices.
Germany has a similar system in place but is also facing problems because the Swiss have decided to allow discounted German books.
So the law gave readers a wider range of books and, on the whole, helped keep prices lower.
DOUGAL: I read somewhere, I think it was in an article about priest socks that priest socks are blacker than any other type of socks.
TED: That's right Dougal. Sometimes you see lay people wear what look like black socks but if you look closely you'll see they're very, very, very, very, very, very, very dark blue.
DOUGAL: Actually that's true. I thought my uncle Tommy was wearing black socks but when I looked at them closely they were just very, very, very, very, very, very, VERY, very, very, very dark blue.
TED: Never buy black socks in a normal shop. They'll shaft you every time!
Clippy pops up on my screen: "It looks like you are extremely frustrated with your current job? Would you like my assistance in composing your resume?"
It looks like your heart rate has dropped below 200 bpm. Would you like some more coffee?
... the shopping carts at my local have a small clipboard on them. You take along your own paper list and pencil, clip to the trolley and tick things off as you buy them... Oh and there's a static advert on the front of the trolley, on the shelves, and a list of this week's special offers at the door as you go in...
probably a lot cheaper to implement and maintain...
A lot of applications we use require ActiveX. This is probably true in a significant number of big businesses.
Firefox doesn't support ActiveX. The ActiveX plugins available don't fully support ActiveX- they're just set up to run embedded media files.
Some of the applications run using add-ons like IE Tab, but you still have to have IE installed, which means support for two browsers instead of just one - in which case Firefox gets dropped.
Perhaps if there were essential applications or environments that Fireox supported but IE didn't, then we would see a shift in numbers in Firefox's favour.
A motorcycle driver *knows* that he will very likely die if he crashes at high speed.
Which is presumably why they overtake whenever they can, weave in an out of traffic, drive without a helmet, tear along windy country roads, burn off other vehicles at traffic lights...
They might know they will die at high speed, but it doesn't seem to stop a lot of motorcyclists driving like they want to die young! I guess it's part of the thrill...
So implementing it is politically unacceptable for a company whose mandate is to maximize profit for its shareholders
Perhaps what is needed is a law that the companies should be obliged to maximize long term profits for its shareholders rather than the current, shirt-sighted trend which is to fill their shareholders' coffers today and screw thoughts about tomorrow.
Surely the level of bricking is proportional to the users level of expertise?
If my mother was to install this patch then for her the PC would be effectively bricked. If I was to install it, then I would have the know-how to recover it.
Just because you have to send it to the factory for repair, doesn't mean that a more tech-savvy user might not be able to pop out the old ROM, flash a new one and pop it in for himself. Does that mean that the device isn't bricked for him?
Perhaps the term is just evolving into a more useful terminology i.e. it's effectively brick for that user. Maybe you need a new term for something that has the ROM screwed so badly that not even a knowledgeable user can fix it.
but when the self steered car appears, it'd better be 100% safe, as people don't like to put their lives on a computer's hands.
But we've had autopilots on planes and ships for a long time now and people seem quite happy to put their lives in the computer's hands in these cases...
Forget Olympic Fencers on the Wii and precise Star Wars lightsaber battles - give me my broadsword and a decent Conan game with giant many-tentacled things from hell - and a few human opponents. You don't need accuracy then, just a good swing of the broadsword and a wipe with the Nunchuck to get the gore and guts off your face ready for the next battle;-)
if age 18 and male then hard porn and south park if age > 18 and male and lives at home then any sci-fi movie (plus points if it's a sequel) if age > 18 and female then any movie with Princess in the title
Whatever turns you on, dude, although, personally speaking, being greeted by a ten-tentacled monster by having those metallic arms plunged into various of my external orifices isn't the sort of interactive experience I would seek!
There's one in the outskirts of Paris near Villepinte. The idea is that if you drive the correct speed you hear a melody but too fast and it's just noisy. I can't say it works that well (at least I had no idea what the tune was supposed to be - maybe it was some French classic) but cars did seem to slow down on the bumps to try it out it seems to be reasonable at traffic calming...
With the worth of the US dollar dropping so rapidly, most Europeans could afford to buy a couple of these with the loose change in their pockets. $399 is about 3.99 Euro these days. Maybe a slight exaggeration there, but we're not so far off the 100 Euro laptop:-)
Slashdot Mirror
I've seen it where every process was documented - including those that were just common sense.
Did they really need a process to document how to arrange a meeting that had steps like "book a meeting room" and "invite participants to the meeting" plus a diagram showing the meeting with participants as an input.
I just imagine a guy sitting by himself in a meeting room wondering why he was all alone, checking the process manual and saying "Rats! I forgot step 37a - invite participants! At least I remembered step 62c so now all these cookies and all this coffee are just for me!"
Looking at the shops over here in Europe for Lego and Duplo sets for Christmas presents, the price seems pretty high, especially for some of the smaller sets that have only a few bricks and then some specialised pieces. How have the retail prices changed in real terms over the years? Have they gotten cheaper or have they become more expensive with all these character sets (Star Wars, Bob the Builder.
PS My favourite Lego add-on in the 70s was a large, motorised block that had a wired remote for forward and backward movement. You could put on wheels or caterpillar tracks and then stick on your favourite Lego parts. When we had two, my brother and I would use them for Robot Wars type battles (long before Robot Wars existed).
A lot of countries have or had the law - like the Net Book Agreement in the UK. It helped keep the average cost of book lower and ensured that a wider range and variety of books got published. It was abolished in the UK some years back, since when a lot of smaller book shops disappeared and it has gotten harder and harder to find shops with a wide range of books rather than those just pushing the most recent best sellers at discounted prices.
Germany has a similar system in place but is also facing problems because the Swiss have decided to allow discounted German books.
So the law gave readers a wider range of books and, on the whole, helped keep prices lower.
Father Ted - Series Three, Episode One
DOUGAL: Anyway, what else did you order?
TED: Priest socks. Really black ones.
DOUGAL: I read somewhere, I think it was in an article about priest socks that priest socks are blacker than any other type of socks.
TED: That's right Dougal. Sometimes you see lay people wear what look like black socks but if you look closely you'll see they're very, very, very, very, very, very, very dark blue.
DOUGAL: Actually that's true. I thought my uncle Tommy was wearing black socks but when I looked at them closely they were just very, very, very, very, very, very, VERY, very, very, very dark blue.
TED: Never buy black socks in a normal shop. They'll shaft you every time!
Clippy pops up on my screen: "It looks like you are extremely frustrated with your current job? Would you like my assistance in composing your resume?"
It looks like your heart rate has dropped below 200 bpm.
Would you like some more coffee?
... the shopping carts at my local have a small clipboard on them. You take along your own paper list and pencil, clip to the trolley and tick things off as you buy them...
Oh and there's a static advert on the front of the trolley, on the shelves, and a list of this week's special offers at the door as you go in...
probably a lot cheaper to implement and maintain...
A lot of applications we use require ActiveX. This is probably true in a significant number of big businesses.
Firefox doesn't support ActiveX. The ActiveX plugins available don't fully support ActiveX- they're just set up to run embedded media files.
Some of the applications run using add-ons like IE Tab, but you still have to have IE installed, which means support for two browsers instead of just one - in which case Firefox gets dropped.
Perhaps if there were essential applications or environments that Fireox supported but IE didn't, then we would see a shift in numbers in Firefox's favour.
A motorcycle driver *knows* that he will very likely die if he crashes at high speed.
Which is presumably why they overtake whenever they can, weave in an out of traffic, drive without a helmet, tear along windy country roads, burn off other vehicles at traffic lights...
They might know they will die at high speed, but it doesn't seem to stop a lot of motorcyclists driving like they want to die young! I guess it's part of the thrill...
How could they miss out the ZX-81 - a flat, plastic, touch-sensitive membrane with almost no tactile feedback... it was like typing wearing gauntlets
It was only slightly improved with the spectrum keyboard which was like typing on a the back of a slightly tacky, warty toad...
Oh, what I wouldn't give for an +1/-1 "informative, but bloody rude" moderation option...
The moderator giveth for the info, but taketh away for the aggro...
As a former resident of Portland, I can confirm this is true.
I was born at 2727 Comic Book Guy Avenue but we moved to 1634 Nahasapeemapetilon Street when I was about 5.
Some characters are even named after the local nicknames for streets.
The area where the down and outs hang out were obviously called Itchy Way and Scratchy Street.
And the nickname for the road with the local gynecological clinic gave us the name for Springfield's mayor.
So implementing it is politically unacceptable for a company whose mandate is to maximize profit for its shareholders
Perhaps what is needed is a law that the companies should be obliged to maximize long term profits for its shareholders rather than the current, shirt-sighted trend which is to fill their shareholders' coffers today and screw thoughts about tomorrow.
Surely the level of bricking is proportional to the users level of expertise?
If my mother was to install this patch then for her the PC would be effectively bricked.
If I was to install it, then I would have the know-how to recover it.
Just because you have to send it to the factory for repair, doesn't mean that a more tech-savvy user might not be able to pop out the old ROM, flash a new one and pop it in for himself. Does that mean that the device isn't bricked for him?
Perhaps the term is just evolving into a more useful terminology i.e. it's effectively brick for that user. Maybe you need a new term for something that has the ROM screwed so badly that not even a knowledgeable user can fix it.
I propose we say the device is e-fucked...
but when the self steered car appears, it'd better be 100% safe, as people don't like to put their lives on a computer's hands.
But we've had autopilots on planes and ships for a long time now and people seem quite happy to put their lives in the computer's hands in these cases...
Lawyers represent their clients. You'd be doing better to direct your anger at the RIAA for the lawsuits and not their lawyers.
Isn't that the infamous "Ve vere only obeying orders" defence?
Your honour, I invoke Godwin here!
Ooops - Case closed!
The muppets, in particular, suffered from the loss of Kermit and Henson.
Kermit is dead?!? When did this happen?
How many genius aerospace engineers did we lose due to banning lawn darts?
;-)
Ah, but how many little brothers of potential genius aerospace engineers did we save?
Forget Olympic Fencers on the Wii and precise Star Wars lightsaber battles - give me my broadsword and a decent Conan game with giant many-tentacled things from hell - and a few human opponents. You don't need accuracy then, just a good swing of the broadsword and a wipe with the Nunchuck to get the gore and guts off your face ready for the next battle ;-)
some
if age 18 and male then hard porn and south park
if age > 18 and male and lives at home then any sci-fi movie (plus points if it's a sequel)
if age > 18 and female then any movie with Princess in the title
100% match up !
Whatever turns you on, dude, although, personally speaking, being greeted by a ten-tentacled monster by having those metallic arms plunged into various of my external orifices isn't the sort of interactive experience I would seek!
Eastworld in this case, surely!
There's one in the outskirts of Paris near Villepinte. The idea is that if you drive the correct speed you hear a melody but too fast and it's just noisy. I can't say it works that well (at least I had no idea what the tune was supposed to be - maybe it was some French classic) but cars did seem to slow down on the bumps to try it out it seems to be reasonable at traffic calming...
With the worth of the US dollar dropping so rapidly, most Europeans could afford to buy a couple of these with the loose change in their pockets. $399 is about 3.99 Euro these days. Maybe a slight exaggeration there, but we're not so far off the 100 Euro laptop :-)
I'm sure lots of lonely people out there would like to sign up to such a registry!