Many a night has been spent in front of a glowing dim console, applying a feather touch to an old worn dial to a hear a faint signal, a single voice coming from a hemisphere away
I think scarcity was meant as an economic term for limited resources. Even though everything is available, it still takes like 1/3 of your salary to buy a new vehicle, so it's not like you're able to have a new one every week.
I don't know if this applies to you, but I've been boozing, smoking weed and doing other drugs throughout college, and towards the end, right before graudation, I found myself frustratingly unfocused, unsharp, and demotivated. I was still doing all I needed to get done but in a real inefective manner. I would drive home and end up at work because my brain switched off and I drove where the instinct took me. Etc.
I haven't smoked or done drugs, and barely drank beer, since graduation in May. It's not a long time to claim being "clean" but I certainly find myself smarter. I work full time for a very demanding firm and I am real "high" on the fact that I can keep up. The difference between my mind now and while I was doing drugs is significant, and it didn't take all that long.
Cutting down on coffee and cigarettes and going to the gym probably factored in too. I still drink coffee but only when I "need" it rather than having at least 2 cups a day as a matter of habbit.
Like someone else suggested, snorting Rittalin would help the immediate problem but it doesn't seem like a long term solution to me. Like any drugs that speed you up (like extacy) you're just "borrowing" happiness/conventration/energy from yourself. Burning the candle from both ends, so to speak. I am sure it comes back to bite you eventually (I've snorted Rit to study for finals a few times, it does work wonders)
It's also important to not burn yourself out. I have coworkers who come in on the weekends and almost literally sleep in the office. I think it'll burn them out quick. If you take a two week span, we may be as productive on the first week, then they'll overtake me on the weekend because they're working and I am having fun or relaxing, and on the 2nd week I am sure to catch up and overtake because they're drained and I am rested.
What this all comes down to is equilibrium. Maintain the equilibrium between work and rest, and don't take chemicals into your body that'd offset your other levels one way or the other (neither depressants like weed and booze, nor speedy things like coke and Rit are good for your productivity, especially in the long run.)
How's it free if you pay per minute to the phone company? I understand tha it's 'more free' than if you had to pay the telco per minute fees AND an ISP rate, but that's about it. Are you having it more 'free' than an American who may have unlimited local calling for $20/m and pay another 5 bucks to an ISP? We'd have to do the math to see which model is cheaper.
I am sorry if I am totally off base here, I didn't read the article and I never worked for the government...
It is my understanding that all code has a likelyhood of bugs. There's some industry statistic that all projects have on average some % bugs. The question then becomes, how are bugs handled?
I work for a firm where deadlines and time to market are the most critical thing. By the time our competitors are doing their requirements document, we have our prototype out. Of course, the code suffers and is rather mish-mashy because of that. I would imagine that with government contracts, deadlines are key and the same "time to market" mentality dominates. However, here's where the difference lays.
If our version 1 has bugs that affect our users, we better come out with 1.1 FAST, or our competitors are going to start gaining customers. We know this and it's important to us, so any bug that affects the user is given critical priority. On the other hand there are bugs in the code, probably some of which we know about, that have been around for 20 years. But since they don't cause us to go out of business, we don't divert resources.
On the other hand, the government isn't going to lose customers, and neither is the contractor (his job is done, he got paid) So while deadline pressures may be the same in both cases, the priority of maintaining and fixing code is higher in the competitive business world than otherwise.
I can see why someone, in the business world, would want to instantly communicate, with translation, to someone who does not speak the same language. Obviously machine translation isn't good enough to translate documents with legal percision, but it's good enough for thing like warning the datacenter manager in Japan that the London centre has lost power and only's got 5 minutes of battery backup. Or any other of the gazilling things one might want to say to a foreign-language speaker in the business world.
It's also decent for customer support. Your firm may not be big enough to have support staff fluent in 10 languages, but with automatically translated IMs, there's some possibility to do this kind of thing.
The fact that Exchange can act as an MS Messenger (or whatever it's called, I forgot) server, suggests to me that MS is thinking of IM as a business tool, and not as a "casual method for communication"
Slashdot's been doing that for years. One writes a reasonably, well thought out post, only to have the server translate it into some formulaic rant about Microsoft being out to get you in some manner.
I also enjoy MS hardware - mice and keyboards. The one thing I like about the "silly unnecessary buttons" is that one of em opens email for me at a touch of a button. Previously I had some of the stupid browser keys mapped to "minimize all windows" - before I learned that Windowskey - M does the same function.
Umm... You find it disturbing that citizens of a country (most/.ers are American, aren't they?) find the idea of their country having greater inteligence overseas appealing while fearing the use of such technology domestically.
It seems to me that as soon as we leave space to the wealthy adventurers, the discoveries made from such exploration are put in the position of becoming private property.
Do you imagine the process of stellar discovery as a richy-rich type pointing out the window to a planet that no one noticed before and going "MINE!!!!" ?
Slashdot Mirror
Huh?
You mean... "XP sucks.. Mac better" and then somehow think KDE will come out looking better vs. Mac?
Many a night has been spent in front of a glowing dim console, applying a feather touch to an old worn dial to a hear a faint signal, a single voice coming from a hemisphere away
Sex on Acid rules!
I think scarcity was meant as an economic term for limited resources. Even though everything is available, it still takes like 1/3 of your salary to buy a new vehicle, so it's not like you're able to have a new one every week.
You geek
No one is going to use your shit w/o a GUI.
I don't know if this applies to you, but I've been boozing, smoking weed and doing other drugs throughout college, and towards the end, right before graudation, I found myself frustratingly unfocused, unsharp, and demotivated. I was still doing all I needed to get done but in a real inefective manner. I would drive home and end up at work because my brain switched off and I drove where the instinct took me. Etc.
I haven't smoked or done drugs, and barely drank beer, since graduation in May. It's not a long time to claim being "clean" but I certainly find myself smarter. I work full time for a very demanding firm and I am real "high" on the fact that I can keep up. The difference between my mind now and while I was doing drugs is significant, and it didn't take all that long.
Cutting down on coffee and cigarettes and going to the gym probably factored in too. I still drink coffee but only when I "need" it rather than having at least 2 cups a day as a matter of habbit.
Like someone else suggested, snorting Rittalin would help the immediate problem but it doesn't seem like a long term solution to me. Like any drugs that speed you up (like extacy) you're just "borrowing" happiness/conventration/energy from yourself. Burning the candle from both ends, so to speak. I am sure it comes back to bite you eventually (I've snorted Rit to study for finals a few times, it does work wonders)
It's also important to not burn yourself out. I have coworkers who come in on the weekends and almost literally sleep in the office. I think it'll burn them out quick. If you take a two week span, we may be as productive on the first week, then they'll overtake me on the weekend because they're working and I am having fun or relaxing, and on the 2nd week I am sure to catch up and overtake because they're drained and I am rested.
What this all comes down to is equilibrium. Maintain the equilibrium between work and rest, and don't take chemicals into your body that'd offset your other levels one way or the other (neither depressants like weed and booze, nor speedy things like coke and Rit are good for your productivity, especially in the long run.)
Hope this helps.
Why shouldn't it still run??
y2k
How's it free if you pay per minute to the phone company? I understand tha it's 'more free' than if you had to pay the telco per minute fees AND an ISP rate, but that's about it. Are you having it more 'free' than an American who may have unlimited local calling for $20/m and pay another 5 bucks to an ISP? We'd have to do the math to see which model is cheaper.
I am sorry if I am totally off base here, I didn't read the article and I never worked for the government...
It is my understanding that all code has a likelyhood of bugs. There's some industry statistic that all projects have on average some % bugs. The question then becomes, how are bugs handled?
I work for a firm where deadlines and time to market are the most critical thing. By the time our competitors are doing their requirements document, we have our prototype out. Of course, the code suffers and is rather mish-mashy because of that. I would imagine that with government contracts, deadlines are key and the same "time to market" mentality dominates. However, here's where the difference lays.
If our version 1 has bugs that affect our users, we better come out with 1.1 FAST, or our competitors are going to start gaining customers. We know this and it's important to us, so any bug that affects the user is given critical priority. On the other hand there are bugs in the code, probably some of which we know about, that have been around for 20 years. But since they don't cause us to go out of business, we don't divert resources.
On the other hand, the government isn't going to lose customers, and neither is the contractor (his job is done, he got paid) So while deadline pressures may be the same in both cases, the priority of maintaining and fixing code is higher in the competitive business world than otherwise.
And if you don't want to pay for PPV, I know where you can get a ***************** LEGAL CABLE DESCRAMBLER ***************
I wonder where spammed pick up your e-mail addr.
You get more hit for Linux because of all the goddamn HOWTOS needed to explain how to get your sound to work.
Your knowledge of history is terrible.
lowest off-the-showrrom price or what they've let Amdison Avenue convince them they want.
Hey, I work right off of Amdison. Well, between Amdison and kraP Ave.
I can see why someone, in the business world, would want to instantly communicate, with translation, to someone who does not speak the same language. Obviously machine translation isn't good enough to translate documents with legal percision, but it's good enough for thing like warning the datacenter manager in Japan that the London centre has lost power and only's got 5 minutes of battery backup. Or any other of the gazilling things one might want to say to a foreign-language speaker in the business world.
It's also decent for customer support. Your firm may not be big enough to have support staff fluent in 10 languages, but with automatically translated IMs, there's some possibility to do this kind of thing.
The fact that Exchange can act as an MS Messenger (or whatever it's called, I forgot) server, suggests to me that MS is thinking of IM as a business tool, and not as a "casual method for communication"
Slashdot's been doing that for years. One writes a reasonably, well thought out post, only to have the server translate it into some formulaic rant about Microsoft being out to get you in some manner.
Maybe they got hax0red?
I also enjoy MS hardware - mice and keyboards. The one thing I like about the "silly unnecessary buttons" is that one of em opens email for me at a touch of a button. Previously I had some of the stupid browser keys mapped to "minimize all windows" - before I learned that Windowskey - M does the same function.
Of course I enjoy MS software too.
Exactly. Just buy a new scanner and hush up!
just kidding...
Umm isn't it because your fingers are supposed to come in at an angle (a 'natural keyboard fasciliates this even better) ?
Watching the entire population of the US go about their daily lives is about 99999*10^99999999 times more boring than the truman show.
Umm... You find it disturbing that citizens of a country (most /.ers are American, aren't they?) find the idea of their country having greater inteligence overseas appealing while fearing the use of such technology domestically.
Sounds "reasonable" to me.
20 years behind schedule and grossly over budget. This should make the list of "how NOT to manage a project"
It seems to me that as soon as we leave space to the wealthy adventurers, the discoveries made from such exploration are put in the position of becoming private property.
Do you imagine the process of stellar discovery as a richy-rich type pointing out the window to a planet that no one noticed before and going "MINE!!!!" ?
... are now able to do for leisure, what once only an entire nation could afford!
Something to the effect of your sentiments could be expressed about computing.
but would linux itself really qualify as a competitor?
That's what I've been saying for a long time...