"Reveal Codes" is why it took me zero seconds to learn HTML. It took longer to wrap my head around "save it here, with this name, something.htm (Windows 3.1 FTW), then go to your browser and 'file -> open' that file to see it" than figuring out how tags work. I was like "oh, it's just like reveal codes" and then I just had to learn the tags themselves. Marked-up plain text is one of the greatest things in computerdom.
'I have a computer I browse the Internet with and I get my email on, and I do my taxes on. And then I have my writing computer, which is a DOS machine, not connected to the Internet.
Start with, what is the hard work that you're doing, and why -- specifically -- are you doing it? Installing patches? Writing scripts? For what reason? And never just "because that's what we do" or "because that's just what you do to keep things good" Describe everything as "What we did" -> "Why we did it" with a specific goal for each action. "Installed Acrobat and Java patches to keep desktops secure against 4 new exploits found this week." "Wrote a script to deploy patches in an automated fashion to reduce the risk of errors during deployment that would lead to downtime." "Added 10 TB to the SAN to provide necessary amount of redundant storage to meet current needs." I mean, some of the stuff will never sound exciting, but if the reasons you're doing them are understandable, that should help. If you're lucky, some of the things will be exciting with a big payoff: "Wrote a new bookkeeping app to cut the time needed to process timecards by 50%."
In all honesty, it is like trying to describe what a utility does, or what any normal person would do in their day-to-day life. "Replaced carbon in filter to prevent people from getting sick from drinking water." "Put gas in tank so I would continue to be able to drive places." "Cleaned my room to make it easier to find things later when needed." Maybe not exciting, but if it's understandable, that's a start. For everything you do, there needs to be a result, and the result should either be a benefit, or a necessary action to maintain a certain level of functionality. Spell it out every time.
Yes, it'll sound to yourself like you're just finding 100 different ways to say "I did my job because it needed to be done", but if that's what you need to do, that's what you need to do. I have to do the same kind of BS for my yearly job-performance stuff -- setting goals and then assessing myself. It's painful because my job just boils down to "Do whatever my boss says needs to be done", but I have to phrase it like it was my magical idea to get data from one system into another. "Created and implemented a plan to move data from A to B so the accounting department could continue to function" -- ugh. But it's what they want to hear.
One word: Vista. Years behind schedule with most big expected features cut.
Two more words: Windows 8.
Also: the original Surface. (Big-ass table.) Who thought that was worth shipping? (To the extent that it did.)
Seriously, what planet is this guy on? "Better" and "shipping" don't belong in the same sentence when talking about MS. What was the last thing that was good and shipped anywhere near on time and wasn't a steaming pile on release day? Windows 2000? The MS Natural mouse?
Sorry, I was off by one -- I had a 6800 first, then a 6820, then my iPhone, but the specs I posted were from the 6800, not the 6820. (Sorry for forgetting -- it's been 7 years.) The 6820 was indeed a bit shorter than narrower than the 6800 or iPhone, but still almost twice as thick as the iPhone.
Then don't buy phablets.:-) I was surprised that my first iPhone was actually a bit shorter than the Nokia 6820 that it replaced, and only a bit wider. (And of course much thinner. iPhone, 115x61x11.6mm; Nokia, 119x55x23mm) It just looked like this giant flat thing, compared to the more evenly-proportioned Nokia, but was actually smaller overall. I remember being surprised when I actually put them down next to each other. The iPhone was also a bit heavier, too, because of all the glass, which also made it seem bigger before I directly compared them.
> The only features I require of my phone is that > it make calls and sends/receive texts.
Well la-di-da and good for you. You can go hang out with this guy in the corner. I am more than willing to pay for all the things a modern smartphone does for me -- chief among them, maps with live traffic info, access to pretty much ANYTHING on the entire WWW at any time from any location, email, a bunch of USEFUL apps, and a very good camera. (Camera snobs please STFU; the camera is totally suitable for what I ask of it and I'm not going to lug my DSLR around 24/7. The fact is it's better than all the point-n-shoots I bought, and was totally happy with at the time, over the years.)
And thanks to T-Mobile, I get a decent price on a good amount of data WITH TETHERING. (Suck it, AT&T.)
And let's not forget 3 other tiny variables -- "who's doing the teaching", "what is being taught", and "how it's being taught." Different tools for different situations. Math class is different from history class is different from philosophy class. (Hell, even different types of math are different enough to warrant different approaches.) There were times I'd take 2 pages of dense notes in a class, and other times I'd write nothing but the date, the topic, and 2 or 3 key or interesting points.
Am I the only one bothered by the fact that my car needs A FEW SECONDS to shut down when being propelled uncontrollably down the road? 68 mph = 100 feet per second. 100kph = 27.8 meters per second.
If the RIAA, for example, spent $10 million last year on lobbyists, it wasn't because they only had $10 million to spend -- it's because they only needed to spend $10 million to get the results they wanted. If they have to spend more, they will.
It's bad enough that TiVo is mostly gone -- even the plain-vanilla DVR that comes with DirecTV is decent and is WAY better than the shit that comes with U-Verse. My sister has U-verse and hates it. I tried it for a month when AT&T upgraded my internet connection (DSL to fiber-to-the-curb) and I also hated it. It so is ungodly bad in so many ways I can't even begin to list them all. On top of the horrible UI, my sister came back from a 2-week business trip to find that her DVR lost all of its shows. And that has happened to her a few times since then.
No, developers (the ones who want to earn a living, at least) care about MONEY, and again, iOS still dominates here.
"An average Android app makes 5 times less money per download than an iOS app. Even though Android has by far passed iOS in terms of global market share, the picture is not so clear-cut in terms of revenue. Despite Android's dominant market share, for many app developers, iOS is still the biggest platform."
> The '12 drop looks pretty sharp to me, and flat since then.
Tip: READ THE NUMBERS. That "drop" was from about 70% to about 62%. It's not like they went from 90 to 10. And as you said, it then leveled out. As in, did not continue to fall.
>> They could probably drop to 10% market share >> and still make the most money in the industry.
> How, by selling products for ten times the going price?
No -- by letting everyone else win the race to the bottom. If you look into the data behind the graph, you'll see that the percentages of Samsung plus Apple total over 100% because other players in the industry are losing money. Apple won't sell products at a loss.
> This is probably worse for iOS than being insecure. > Their marketshare has fallen so far...
Ha. Apple won't care until this graph takes a sharp downward turn. They could probably drop to 10% market share and still make the most money in the industry.
1) Set phone to "silent". 2) Put it on the passenger seat, face down. 3) There is no step 3! (Except for "have an ounce of willpower to not pick it up and check Twitter at every light.")
If you MUST see SOME info -- eg., calls from important people, just skip to step 3.
Optional: on an iPhone with iOS 7, swipe up and press the moon icon for "Do not disturb." Exceptions can be configured in Settings. I'm guessing Android has, or will soon have, something similar.
But if you want the phone to read your mind -- "don't alert me unless it's *really* important" -- then Step 1 is "Invent A.I."
Slashdot Mirror
"Reveal Codes" is why it took me zero seconds to learn HTML. It took longer to wrap my head around "save it here, with this name, something.htm (Windows 3.1 FTW), then go to your browser and 'file -> open' that file to see it" than figuring out how tags work. I was like "oh, it's just like reveal codes" and then I just had to learn the tags themselves. Marked-up plain text is one of the greatest things in computerdom.
'I have a computer I browse the Internet with and I get my email on, and I do my taxes on. And then I have my writing computer, which is a DOS machine, not connected to the Internet.
And for the ultimate in security, he also uses 8" floppies.
... the consultants got rich and the kids got nothing. Good work, guys. There's a special spot in hell for you.
Next on Slashdot: "Army tanks are uncomfortable, get horrible mileage."
Start with, what is the hard work that you're doing, and why -- specifically -- are you doing it? Installing patches? Writing scripts? For what reason? And never just "because that's what we do" or "because that's just what you do to keep things good" Describe everything as "What we did" -> "Why we did it" with a specific goal for each action. "Installed Acrobat and Java patches to keep desktops secure against 4 new exploits found this week." "Wrote a script to deploy patches in an automated fashion to reduce the risk of errors during deployment that would lead to downtime." "Added 10 TB to the SAN to provide necessary amount of redundant storage to meet current needs." I mean, some of the stuff will never sound exciting, but if the reasons you're doing them are understandable, that should help. If you're lucky, some of the things will be exciting with a big payoff: "Wrote a new bookkeeping app to cut the time needed to process timecards by 50%."
In all honesty, it is like trying to describe what a utility does, or what any normal person would do in their day-to-day life. "Replaced carbon in filter to prevent people from getting sick from drinking water." "Put gas in tank so I would continue to be able to drive places." "Cleaned my room to make it easier to find things later when needed." Maybe not exciting, but if it's understandable, that's a start. For everything you do, there needs to be a result, and the result should either be a benefit, or a necessary action to maintain a certain level of functionality. Spell it out every time.
Yes, it'll sound to yourself like you're just finding 100 different ways to say "I did my job because it needed to be done", but if that's what you need to do, that's what you need to do. I have to do the same kind of BS for my yearly job-performance stuff -- setting goals and then assessing myself. It's painful because my job just boils down to "Do whatever my boss says needs to be done", but I have to phrase it like it was my magical idea to get data from one system into another. "Created and implemented a plan to move data from A to B so the accounting department could continue to function" -- ugh. But it's what they want to hear.
> Oh and if you report on a project, use a traffic
> light that is green or use smileys...
Reminds me of my all-time favorite picture example.
The patent is actually for taking a photo on a seamless white background with one click. So, yeah, totally legit. :-)
"We want to make things better and ship them."
One word: Vista. Years behind schedule with most big expected features cut.
Two more words: Windows 8.
Also: the original Surface. (Big-ass table.) Who thought that was worth shipping? (To the extent that it did.)
Seriously, what planet is this guy on? "Better" and "shipping" don't belong in the same sentence when talking about MS. What was the last thing that was good and shipped anywhere near on time and wasn't a steaming pile on release day? Windows 2000? The MS Natural mouse?
My bank allows letters and numbers only and is not case-sensitive. This is so the password can be used on phone keypads.
In other security news, AmEx requires a number or special character IN YOUR USERNAME. WTF?
I probably won't even bother checking this out. Here's why.
Sorry, I was off by one -- I had a 6800 first, then a 6820, then my iPhone, but the specs I posted were from the 6800, not the 6820. (Sorry for forgetting -- it's been 7 years.) The 6820 was indeed a bit shorter than narrower than the 6800 or iPhone, but still almost twice as thick as the iPhone.
> actually fit in your pocket
Then don't buy phablets. :-) I was surprised that my first iPhone was actually a bit shorter than the Nokia 6820 that it replaced, and only a bit wider. (And of course much thinner. iPhone, 115x61x11.6mm; Nokia, 119x55x23mm) It just looked like this giant flat thing, compared to the more evenly-proportioned Nokia, but was actually smaller overall. I remember being surprised when I actually put them down next to each other. The iPhone was also a bit heavier, too, because of all the glass, which also made it seem bigger before I directly compared them.
> The only features I require of my phone is that
> it make calls and sends/receive texts.
Well la-di-da and good for you. You can go hang out with this guy in the corner. I am more than willing to pay for all the things a modern smartphone does for me -- chief among them, maps with live traffic info, access to pretty much ANYTHING on the entire WWW at any time from any location, email, a bunch of USEFUL apps, and a very good camera. (Camera snobs please STFU; the camera is totally suitable for what I ask of it and I'm not going to lug my DSLR around 24/7. The fact is it's better than all the point-n-shoots I bought, and was totally happy with at the time, over the years.)
And thanks to T-Mobile, I get a decent price on a good amount of data WITH TETHERING. (Suck it, AT&T.)
And let's not forget 3 other tiny variables -- "who's doing the teaching", "what is being taught", and "how it's being taught." Different tools for different situations. Math class is different from history class is different from philosophy class. (Hell, even different types of math are different enough to warrant different approaches.) There were times I'd take 2 pages of dense notes in a class, and other times I'd write nothing but the date, the topic, and 2 or 3 key or interesting points.
As long as they install a key-holder in a convenient spot. :-)
Am I the only one bothered by the fact that my car needs A FEW SECONDS to shut down when being propelled uncontrollably down the road? 68 mph = 100 feet per second. 100kph = 27.8 meters per second.
If the RIAA, for example, spent $10 million last year on lobbyists, it wasn't because they only had $10 million to spend -- it's because they only needed to spend $10 million to get the results they wanted. If they have to spend more, they will.
Short version: "Bennett Haselton writes 1300 words on something that has been hashed to death a million times already."
Next!
Seriously, what is this shit doing on Slashdot?
ooooooooooooooooooooo!
It's bad enough that TiVo is mostly gone -- even the plain-vanilla DVR that comes with DirecTV is decent and is WAY better than the shit that comes with U-Verse. My sister has U-verse and hates it. I tried it for a month when AT&T upgraded my internet connection (DSL to fiber-to-the-curb) and I also hated it. It so is ungodly bad in so many ways I can't even begin to list them all. On top of the horrible UI, my sister came back from a 2-week business trip to find that her DVR lost all of its shows. And that has happened to her a few times since then.
No, developers (the ones who want to earn a living, at least) care about MONEY, and again, iOS still dominates here.
"An average Android app makes 5 times less money per download than an iOS app. Even though Android has by far passed iOS in terms of global market share, the picture is not so clear-cut in terms of revenue. Despite Android's dominant market share, for many app developers, iOS is still the biggest platform."
From
http://venturebeat.com/2014/02...
referencing
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tr...
> The '12 drop looks pretty sharp to me, and flat since then.
Tip: READ THE NUMBERS. That "drop" was from about 70% to about 62%. It's not like they went from 90 to 10. And as you said, it then leveled out. As in, did not continue to fall.
>> They could probably drop to 10% market share
>> and still make the most money in the industry.
> How, by selling products for ten times the going price?
No -- by letting everyone else win the race to the bottom. If you look into the data behind the graph, you'll see that the percentages of Samsung plus Apple total over 100% because other players in the industry are losing money. Apple won't sell products at a loss.
Artificial intelligence, while seemingly tasty on the surface, tends to be underwhelmed by insufficient fish, with regard to warrantless searches.
> This is probably worse for iOS than being insecure.
> Their marketshare has fallen so far...
Ha. Apple won't care until this graph takes a sharp downward turn. They could probably drop to 10% market share and still make the most money in the industry.
1) Set phone to "silent".
2) Put it on the passenger seat, face down.
3) There is no step 3! (Except for "have an ounce of willpower to not pick it up and check Twitter at every light.")
If you MUST see SOME info -- eg., calls from important people, just skip to step 3.
Optional: on an iPhone with iOS 7, swipe up and press the moon icon for "Do not disturb." Exceptions can be configured in Settings. I'm guessing Android has, or will soon have, something similar.
But if you want the phone to read your mind -- "don't alert me unless it's *really* important" -- then Step 1 is "Invent A.I."
He told me how it was to do things by hand because programmer time was cheap and machine time was expensive.