While I am glad to see that we won't have this horrible policy shoved down our throats, I would rather have had M$ waste money on it for several years before finally getting a clue.
As long as M$ continues to be light on its feet it will continue to be very diffcult for a smaller rival to wedge its way into the larger markets.
This is why they get to charge you for additional IPs if you want to connect more than one computer. After all, DHCP isn't allowed.:-)
In practice however I've found that they are all quite happy to let you run a firewall with dhcp for your home network, as long as you realize that they don't support it.
This is all in the Seattle area for the half dozen ISP i've worked with in setting up a few small businesses.
Here is one of the calls that I had the most fun with. It may have helped that my roommate was listening and trying not to bust up the whole time.
One of the telemarketing calls that I enjoyed the most was when I recieved a call for a home security system. Since I had some time, I decided to play with the guy. He spent about 15 minutes telling me about the wonders of whatever it was he was selling, and every time he paused, I would exclaim about how wonderful it all sounded. I remarked on how cheap, easy to use and secure it all was.
The entire time I could tell from the sound in his voice how excited he was getting. As he wound up towards sheduling the install (I think he was running out of air anyway), I once more broke in with more praise of the AMAZING deal this was, and tossed in one comment, "Man, this makes me wish that I owned a home!!!"
The change in the guy's voice was worth it all.:-)
I have to echo whoever said it above. If we all wasted their time, telemarketing wounldn't be cost effective and would stop.
In my undergraduate work, teamwork wasn't talked about, but it was required for at least one project in each class. It sure made me learn a ton! Not just the details that I was tested on, but also about how to work with people. In the few years of wrok experience I have had, the skills I learned in working with (and occassionally manipulating) coworkers has proved invaluable!
As far as fairly evaluating contributions goes, it was rather hit and miss. Usually we were told to grade each of our teammates. Sometimes those grades were open to those same teammates scrutiny, other times they weren't. This worked in varying degrees. The most interesting system I saw was used in a business psych class where the prof was using the class as a test bed. He actively put people together so they would be most likely to have problems in their groups! Anyway, we were given a grade in points and had to choose how to divide the points among ourselves. The result had to be unanimous and you weren't alowed to give everyone the same number of points. Fortunately my group was fairly reasonable, but other groups came to screaming matches and occassional blows (catfights). It was something to remember. After the project was complete, we had to write a paper on the experience, of course applying the principles of the class.
In another group, I was not there the day that groups were selected and ended up getting placed with a group of friends, who were mostly interested in non-acedemic interests (read - partying all night and sleeping all day). I ended up doing all the work and then they all banded against me and said that if I didn't say they deserved an A, they would all say that I didn't do a thing. So, I said we all did equal work, and the prof didn't believe it! He asked them a few questions and marked them all down signifigantly! Just goes to show, that no matter what system you use, you have to have an impartial judge.
I work for SAFECO as a programmer and they have what I consider to be an enviable training policy.
They expect that you will have approx. 8 hours of training per month on company time. They also supply $2500 USD for training that isn't related to the work you do per year. This money can be spent however you like, as long as it is towards a degree or can loosely be described as being useful in your job. You do have to get a B or better however.
If the training is work related, you can usually take work time and have the company pay for the class and materials as well as reasonable travel costs. This is for ALL professional employees, not just IT.
In my opinion, this works out quite well. Training options are only limited by your own motivation. I don't know if the training time is 'required' since I never have had trouble spending time in training.
All that said, I do my best learning self-paced and self-taught. However, frequently I am able to get a good jump on the learning by taking a day or two of class or by buying a book. Also, it doen't look as official on a resume to say that you taught yourself. Universities may not be the best place to learn, but they do have official-looking pieces of paper to give you when you're done.:-)
I'm seeing a lot of comments that seem to imply that IDC should be providing research to help techies pick the best product. This isn't what they are paid for!
IDC is paid to provide research to institutional investors (for the most part). They don't care what the best technology is, only if it will make them a bunch of money if they buy the stock.
I would like to see someone perform research that was of more use to a techie like myself, but I think we get that job ourselves. Since we aren't willing to pay millions for that research, they don't provide it. 8-)
While I agree that the PC as we know it will not be going anywhere soon, I have to disagree with you. What is to say that PDA's and the like will not take over the role of PC's (including high-speed wireless access)? The ability to make products smaller, cheaper and faster will continue to make the technology of tomorrow less and less like the technology of today. We have to try to stop thinking of how we can improve the old technology with the newer tech, but rather ask, what can we do with the new tech that has never been done before.
Slashdot Mirror
While I am glad to see that we won't have this horrible policy shoved down our throats, I would rather have had M$ waste money on it for several years before finally getting a clue.
As long as M$ continues to be light on its feet it will continue to be very diffcult for a smaller rival to wedge its way into the larger markets.
This is why they get to charge you for additional IPs if you want to connect more than one computer. After all, DHCP isn't allowed. :-)
In practice however I've found that they are all quite happy to let you run a firewall with dhcp for your home network, as long as you realize that they don't support it.
This is all in the Seattle area for the half dozen ISP i've worked with in setting up a few small businesses.
Qwest uses Qmail already. Just not the SSL cert.
One of the telemarketing calls that I enjoyed the most was when I recieved a call for a home security system. Since I had some time, I decided to play with the guy. He spent about 15 minutes telling me about the wonders of whatever it was he was selling, and every time he paused, I would exclaim about how wonderful it all sounded. I remarked on how cheap, easy to use and secure it all was.
The entire time I could tell from the sound in his voice how excited he was getting. As he wound up towards sheduling the install (I think he was running out of air anyway), I once more broke in with more praise of the AMAZING deal this was, and tossed in one comment, "Man, this makes me wish that I owned a home!!!"
The change in the guy's voice was worth it all. :-)
I have to echo whoever said it above. If we all wasted their time, telemarketing wounldn't be cost effective and would stop.
As far as fairly evaluating contributions goes, it was rather hit and miss. Usually we were told to grade each of our teammates. Sometimes those grades were open to those same teammates scrutiny, other times they weren't. This worked in varying degrees. The most interesting system I saw was used in a business psych class where the prof was using the class as a test bed. He actively put people together so they would be most likely to have problems in their groups! Anyway, we were given a grade in points and had to choose how to divide the points among ourselves. The result had to be unanimous and you weren't alowed to give everyone the same number of points. Fortunately my group was fairly reasonable, but other groups came to screaming matches and occassional blows (catfights). It was something to remember. After the project was complete, we had to write a paper on the experience, of course applying the principles of the class.
In another group, I was not there the day that groups were selected and ended up getting placed with a group of friends, who were mostly interested in non-acedemic interests (read - partying all night and sleeping all day). I ended up doing all the work and then they all banded against me and said that if I didn't say they deserved an A, they would all say that I didn't do a thing. So, I said we all did equal work, and the prof didn't believe it! He asked them a few questions and marked them all down signifigantly! Just goes to show, that no matter what system you use, you have to have an impartial judge.
Look at this chart +1 month, and I'd surpised if MS lost any share at all because of code red.
No large company changes their webserver in a month! If you want to see a difference in the chart, look at least a year out.
--A good programmer is one who looks both ways before crossing a one-way street. -Doug Linder
They expect that you will have approx. 8 hours of training per month on company time. They also supply $2500 USD for training that isn't related to the work you do per year. This money can be spent however you like, as long as it is towards a degree or can loosely be described as being useful in your job. You do have to get a B or better however.
If the training is work related, you can usually take work time and have the company pay for the class and materials as well as reasonable travel costs. This is for ALL professional employees, not just IT.
In my opinion, this works out quite well. Training options are only limited by your own motivation. I don't know if the training time is 'required' since I never have had trouble spending time in training.
All that said, I do my best learning self-paced and self-taught. However, frequently I am able to get a good jump on the learning by taking a day or two of class or by buying a book. Also, it doen't look as official on a resume to say that you taught yourself. Universities may not be the best place to learn, but they do have official-looking pieces of paper to give you when you're done. :-)
IDC is paid to provide research to institutional investors (for the most part). They don't care what the best technology is, only if it will make them a bunch of money if they buy the stock.
I would like to see someone perform research that was of more use to a techie like myself, but I think we get that job ourselves. Since we aren't willing to pay millions for that research, they don't provide it. 8-)
...invention.
Therefore we will never run out of bandwidth! If this ever becomes a concern, a new method of carrying wireless data will be developed.
Politics are far too important to be left to politicians. If we don't get involved we have no-one to blame but ourselves. Contact your congressman!
80% of statistics are made up on the spot.
While I agree that the PC as we know it will not be going anywhere soon, I have to disagree with you. What is to say that PDA's and the like will not take over the role of PC's (including high-speed wireless access)?
The ability to make products smaller, cheaper and faster will continue to make the technology of tomorrow less and less like the technology of today. We have to try to stop thinking of how we can improve the old technology with the newer tech, but rather ask, what can we do with the new tech that has never been done before.