It's a gamble, but there are certainly people out there that will hire a person like you. Small businesses are hungry for people that aren't just CS people, or aren't just anything in particular. Small businesses commonly don't have computer guys, but could use them - and also use those same people to wear a lot of hats. If you have a degree in one area, but are proficient in another - find a job where you can do a lot of different things.
I'm one of those people - I wear a lot of hats. The best advice I ever got was to avoid pursuing a CS degree. A family member told me his greatest regret was pursuing a degree in his main area of interest. It's great if you want a Ph.D., but if not - you just made yourself less interesting and made your hobby into your job. He told me that, if I were interested in computers, pursue something else I like but wasn't good at. Now I have a degree in something I couldn't do before, but because I was interested, I stayed up to date in the CS areas I was interested in.
Now I'm not that good compared to a degreed and trained CS guy, but I'm good enough for my job, and I'm competent in many other areas I wouldn't otherwise be.
I think main challenge is the interaction between player and environment. On something like MW3 that is limited to blowing up the odd chicken, window or set piece designed into game.
I want to swish my ( virtual ) hand through a river and see ( and feel ) the water flow around it.
Any true physics model would require awesome cpu capacity.
I think this is always the dream - but when Duke Nukem 3D came out I thought we were there. I ended up upgrading my ram (maybe to 32mb? I can't remember) and just thought the graphics were extreme. Anything more and it would be like real life!
Now I get annoyed when I can't destroy or affect any one part of the environment in a game. By the time we get to "true physics model" we'll probably be wishing the ai were more realistic because it's easy to tell the difference between real people and ai...
ATT has someway to detect smartphones, at least iPhones, if you "upgrade" using a jailbroken iPhone and don't have a data plan. I used one on a smaller regional carrier for quite a while without any problem, but it seemed they didn't have a problem as long as it wasn't a subsidized phone.
However, last time I upgraded my iPhone with ATT (not being in the regional carriers territory anymore) they botched up the data plan and I got a txt message about 12 hours later saying that I was assigned to an appropriate plan - 2GB Business data for $45, plus billed at $1.99/mb for the data I'd used up to that point.
A very easy call to customer service fixed the issue and got everything straightened out - so I can't fault them there - but they were very serious about their policy.
I love how now that they have data caps, they STILL charge for tethering, even though they have no justification for doing so.
I also love how if you put a smartphone on their network, they will add a data plan and charge you for it, even if you have data BLOCKED on your account.
I think that always proved the point this article is making. Once they came out with data caps, they should have made tethering free. It's not a case where you use more data because you tether something, just that you use it differently.
I've had numerous people ask me about getting a smartphone without a data plan, because they would be fine with only making calls/txts while out and about, but spend most of their time in the office/home/other wifi zones.
It's ridiculous that you can buy an iPad in wifi or wifi+3g, and data is optional, but you can't buy a "normal" phone with an ipod touch built in. There are plenty of people that would be fine only using wifi for everything besides calls and texts.
Just let them try detecting the camera pointing at my monitor!
For some strange reason, I read "fraps" without the "r". Perhaps it had something to do with the industry pushing this.
They won't need too. Once the camera uploads a checksum to Sony before it will playback any of the video it recorded - they'll see your one of the camera pirates. Then DHS will watch you through said camera to see what your surroundings are like before they break down the door.
I don't really want a netflix plugin, a hulu plugin and a bank plugin. I kind of get the feeling most slashdotters would agree it's much better to have one plugin that runs on multiple platforms then a mess of single use plugins with widely varying platform support. Or even better, have a single interopable standard that makes browser plugins redundant.
No
That's why I started using Firebird 0.3 (which became Firefox). It didn't have the clunky stuff. I didn't ever have to worry about active x controls. I only put the features in that I wanted.
The last thing that I want is a browser built to deliver drm content-managed video. I'll download a program if I am interested in that.
When are they going to learn - these things don't stop piracy, or copying, and will be broken before they get popular enough to talk about.
Firefox updates are already enough, I don't want to do a new one every time the content industry decides they need a new flavor-of-the-month drm scheme.
Why stop at 2.45GHz? My monitor seems to put out some good interference, as well as the power cables that are run right next to the antenna wire in my car. I say we they get rid of all EM radiation.
A 5% increase, devoted mostly to energy research would make sense. Diverting all money from the Mars/Moon budget would certainly help. Near Earth orbit is research. Until we have a money-positive, energy positive use for the moon or Mars, they're hubris and nothing more.
I agree, I can't see any good energy research coming from trying to get to Mars. Once you get there it's just "drill baby drill!"
Says the guy who wants money spent on his pet programs.
I have a hard time believing that basic research is a pet program. Science research puts America ahead economically. It's an investment. I feel like pet programs generally benefit the few, and aren't of great concern, and generally lose money. Major infrastructure, like bridges around New York City, aren't pet programs because they must be taken care of for the good of the economy as a whole. Major bridges that are built when small bridges would work - those are pet projects. Basic science research in pretty much all areas is for the advancement of the whole economy.
We think of "research" as a collection of buzzwords like NASA, Stem Cells, and Genetic Engineering. Really, there is such a wide range of stuff that you can't cut out anything with a broad brush.
Whether you are researching the reduction of phosphates in cleaners (which affects all manufacturing - hard goods and food, as well a agriculture, waste treatment, and river systems) or living on Mars (a complete study of "quality of life" in a manufactured environment) - basic research and technology is an investment more than an expense.
Expenses? Those are things like tax subsidies and every bit of government that isn't "doing" something - like Congress.
"it" = the next wave of the "we are stopping piracy in defense of America" vs "screw you guys - you aren't as good as us - we'll take down your site to prove it"
The same war everyone has been having since Napster. These takedowns won't stop piracy. Site takedowns won't cause any harm to the lobbying organizations. Both sides will use the acts to fuel their respective fires.
In the end, the internet gets less open - the industry loses out on innovation because they are fighting - and the "costs of war" mean nobody wins.
However, it doesn't seem like the real pirates or the music/movie industry loses either - just the general population.
This sounds like a whistleblower series I went to a while back. Some guy from the Army Corps of Engineers stood up and started by saying he went through all he did and eventually lost his job to save 5-7 million. He was exposing a gross amount of money that wasn't being spent correctly, but received very little attention. He said, when the whole budget of the Army Corps of Engineers is less than the rounding error on the national budget, saving a small portion of it didn't amount to much.
Not just that, but there's cost as a major factor too. Why pay $20 or so for two movie tickets (assuming that you're in the minority of slashdotters and have a female companion) when you can just wait 4 months and buy it on blu-ray for the same price yet infinite replays at no additional charge?
Or rent it and watch it once for $1.50, and then wait for it to show up on Netflix if you want to see it again.
In my mind, songs are worth about $1 to purchase and movies are worth about $1 to watch once, provided they are recent popular releases, and not 2004 has-beens.
Wait...what? You want to make TVs larger than 32" illegal. That's brilliant! How much do we have to pay our Child-Protection Lobby to get it done? (We already have all the congressmen we need.)
- Future MPAA exec conversation
Sometimes I feel like we are in the same situation as the movie "The invention of lying" where all the movies are just histories because they can't create plot lines that didn't actually happen. It seems like sometimes we can't seem to create new characters or stories
But seriously, Ebert isn't talking about people not liking movies, it's about not going to the theater. It seems obvious to me that a lot of people don't go to the theater anymore because they have a better more comfortable setup at home. These people are lost to the theater and aren't coming back.
People that can't wait for a blockbuster are still going to go, but like Ebert is saying, that can only go on for so long. The main people I think that are interested in movies are people that are going on dates and/or are young.
You are more likely to ask someone to a very-neutral ground theater if it's a date than "do you want to come see my home theater?" You are also going to go to the theater if you don't want to be at your parent's house.
It seems like they need to make their experience better than a home experience, or aggressively target this audience.
You get convenience with banking too. I only watch over my bank account. I use visa/mastercard debit card too, so it is instantly removed from my account. Living on credit is stupid.
But when someone takes money from your checking account - it's gone. If it was fraudulent, you have to convince the bank to give you back your money. If it's fraudulent on the card, then you have roughly a month to contest it before the credit card puts any interest on it, and you still have money you can spend during that time. Most of the credit card companies are much more accommodating with fraud victims than people who have their debit cards stolen - at least in my experience.
I think it's wrong and anti-customer, but there are actually reasons and it's not just a money-grab.
No, it is just a money grab. If I can auto-pay with my credit card but get charged $2 to pay once - Verizon is just doing a money grab. They get the same transaction fees either way.
The fee is waived if you pay by electronic check or auto pay. This only effects last minute payments.
It appears this affects online payments, even if you make them early. Last minute has nothing to do with it. It's whether or not you give Verizon the ability to take money from you every month with blanket consent.
It's not about saving transaction fees, it's about getting consumers to stop thinking about and analyzing their bill every month. That 1.99 data fee that was pissing everyone off? Now it's just a number on your statement that's pretty close to last month. Want to call an complain about it? They already have your money. Good luck getting it back. Most people are going to sit on the phone for 30 minutes to get back $1.99. However, many people will shortpay a bill when they are sure they aren't responsible for something. If you are a person that logs in to the website every month and views your bill and schedules a payment, you are probably looking at the details. If you are an autopay person, you probably aren't - and don't even remember your online password.
Is it cheaper for them to accept a payment via mail or at the store?
You'll never know. Last time I got a cellphone I demanded the Verizon employee tell me what my bill would be for a normal month. Not the "45 voice + 30 data" but what the number I would actually be billed after taxes, fees, interest, gratuity, and graft. They couldn't tell me. They said there was no way to get that number until the bill was calculated because of the taxes. ATT could tell me within a nickel without any hesitation.
Verizon has been struggling for a long time. If they don't get their activation fees, random fees, roaming charges, and payment fees - they would go broke. It's only fair that we consumers would help a struggling giant in this era where everyone is ditching their cell phones for landlines and carrier pigeons. We pay $35 to have the privilege of becoming their customer, $200 if we want to stop being a customer early - it's only fair we pay $24/year to stay their customer.
This is a prime example of "don't dress for the job you have, dress for the job you want". Do you want to be CIO or higher management someday? Show them you are willing to make things work easier.
Either your application is so simple it will work without maintenance but have limited features, or it is too complicated and will need maintenance. Either way it is going need to be revised and updated in the future. If it is simple, people will get comfortable using it and dream up new features that would be nice to have.
Start using the program and, if it's a success, let them know you are proud of the work you did during an annual review or when a new position is opening up. If it's a fail, then it's a failed attempt. If it's a fail and they paid you extra money for it, then you lose.
You are in a unique spot because you understand the needs of a unique place, and you've written software to address that need. Use it internally and fix it. If it's worth something, sell it to other places that could use it.
I worked on a simple excel-based task scheduling sheet for the company I work for (manufactuing). We give it away to customers because it fills a real need in a simple format that IT people don't notice because there is no additional software to install. Just having that has helped us get several large accounts.
It's helped me out a lot more that I went out of my way to fill a need for "free" than it would have if they paid me for my efforts.
The Republicans have signed a pledge that they will never vote to raise taxes on anybody for any reason whatsoever. If they violate that pledge, the head of the organization who created it can and will ensure they lose their seat by cutting off their campaign funding. So they really can't agree to raise taxes.
...
So in short, no they really can't, not without betraying everything they claim to stand for.
So true. They can't! Everything they believe in (i.e. staying in office and getting paid to do crap) rests on their ability to do whatever they are told by their respective party and contributing organizations!
If they did stuff we think politicians are supposed to do, like use their rational judgement to find solutions to the nations problems, they might not get re-elected! And then what? We might end up with people that don't know what they are doing!
Very powerful magnets in the drives. Open them up, take out the magnets, and throw away the drives. If you are really paranoid, pop the discs out. But definitely salvage the magnets. They come in handy.
I second that. I disassemble old drives at work when I'm on the phone with people. It keeps my hands busy while still allowing me to focus on the conversation. Otherwise I end up surfing the web and spacing out.
I take off all the circuit boards and non metallic parts - and then recycle all the metal and circuit boards separately. I keep the platters because they are super shiny, and the magnets are the best refrigerator magnets ever.
Also, I keep one on my bookshelf with just the cover off. It looks cool, and it allows people to see that hard drives are basically very small, dense, record players.
I wish I had been at that meeting. Someone must have been talking about smell-o-vision and thought "hey, let's patent that, and everything else that relates to having a "remote experience".
Then everyone else at the table, who had been talking in on the same conversation that day said "hey, I was part of this invention!"
It sounds dumb, but in two years when they settle with Cisco for 120 million and license telepresence everyone in the office will sue who even heard about it that fateful day
Now we'll get private companies saying "hey, if we get into space there is some serious money to be made"..
Just to let you know, I will gladly sell you a deed for some land on the new diamond planet! Get in now before all the parcels are sold out!
Space is limited, but you will receive a certified verified framed deed for your own acre of diamond land, along with your name listed in "who's who in planet sized diamond owners"
Act now! Get in on the ground floor! Put your money in something solid, like diamond planets! We do layaway!
Slashdot Mirror
It's a gamble, but there are certainly people out there that will hire a person like you. Small businesses are hungry for people that aren't just CS people, or aren't just anything in particular. Small businesses commonly don't have computer guys, but could use them - and also use those same people to wear a lot of hats. If you have a degree in one area, but are proficient in another - find a job where you can do a lot of different things.
I'm one of those people - I wear a lot of hats. The best advice I ever got was to avoid pursuing a CS degree. A family member told me his greatest regret was pursuing a degree in his main area of interest. It's great if you want a Ph.D., but if not - you just made yourself less interesting and made your hobby into your job. He told me that, if I were interested in computers, pursue something else I like but wasn't good at. Now I have a degree in something I couldn't do before, but because I was interested, I stayed up to date in the CS areas I was interested in.
Now I'm not that good compared to a degreed and trained CS guy, but I'm good enough for my job, and I'm competent in many other areas I wouldn't otherwise be.
I think main challenge is the interaction between player and environment. On something like MW3 that is limited to blowing up the odd chicken, window or set piece designed into game.
I want to swish my ( virtual ) hand through a river and see ( and feel ) the water flow around it.
Any true physics model would require awesome cpu capacity.
I think this is always the dream - but when Duke Nukem 3D came out I thought we were there. I ended up upgrading my ram (maybe to 32mb? I can't remember) and just thought the graphics were extreme. Anything more and it would be like real life!
Now I get annoyed when I can't destroy or affect any one part of the environment in a game. By the time we get to "true physics model" we'll probably be wishing the ai were more realistic because it's easy to tell the difference between real people and ai...
ATT has someway to detect smartphones, at least iPhones, if you "upgrade" using a jailbroken iPhone and don't have a data plan. I used one on a smaller regional carrier for quite a while without any problem, but it seemed they didn't have a problem as long as it wasn't a subsidized phone.
However, last time I upgraded my iPhone with ATT (not being in the regional carriers territory anymore) they botched up the data plan and I got a txt message about 12 hours later saying that I was assigned to an appropriate plan - 2GB Business data for $45, plus billed at $1.99/mb for the data I'd used up to that point.
A very easy call to customer service fixed the issue and got everything straightened out - so I can't fault them there - but they were very serious about their policy.
I love how now that they have data caps, they STILL charge for tethering, even though they have no justification for doing so. I also love how if you put a smartphone on their network, they will add a data plan and charge you for it, even if you have data BLOCKED on your account.
I think that always proved the point this article is making. Once they came out with data caps, they should have made tethering free. It's not a case where you use more data because you tether something, just that you use it differently.
I've had numerous people ask me about getting a smartphone without a data plan, because they would be fine with only making calls/txts while out and about, but spend most of their time in the office/home/other wifi zones.
It's ridiculous that you can buy an iPad in wifi or wifi+3g, and data is optional, but you can't buy a "normal" phone with an ipod touch built in. There are plenty of people that would be fine only using wifi for everything besides calls and texts.
Just let them try detecting the camera pointing at my monitor!
For some strange reason, I read "fraps" without the "r". Perhaps it had something to do with the industry pushing this.
They won't need too. Once the camera uploads a checksum to Sony before it will playback any of the video it recorded - they'll see your one of the camera pirates. Then DHS will watch you through said camera to see what your surroundings are like before they break down the door.
I don't really want a netflix plugin, a hulu plugin and a bank plugin. I kind of get the feeling most slashdotters would agree it's much better to have one plugin that runs on multiple platforms then a mess of single use plugins with widely varying platform support. Or even better, have a single interopable standard that makes browser plugins redundant.
No
That's why I started using Firebird 0.3 (which became Firefox). It didn't have the clunky stuff. I didn't ever have to worry about active x controls. I only put the features in that I wanted.
The last thing that I want is a browser built to deliver drm content-managed video. I'll download a program if I am interested in that.
When are they going to learn - these things don't stop piracy, or copying, and will be broken before they get popular enough to talk about.
Firefox updates are already enough, I don't want to do a new one every time the content industry decides they need a new flavor-of-the-month drm scheme.
Why stop at 2.45GHz? My monitor seems to put out some good interference, as well as the power cables that are run right next to the antenna wire in my car. I say we they get rid of all EM radiation.
A 5% increase, devoted mostly to energy research would make sense. Diverting all money from the Mars/Moon budget would certainly help. Near Earth orbit is research. Until we have a money-positive, energy positive use for the moon or Mars, they're hubris and nothing more.
I agree, I can't see any good energy research coming from trying to get to Mars. Once you get there it's just "drill baby drill!"
Says the guy who wants money spent on his pet programs.
I have a hard time believing that basic research is a pet program. Science research puts America ahead economically. It's an investment. I feel like pet programs generally benefit the few, and aren't of great concern, and generally lose money. Major infrastructure, like bridges around New York City, aren't pet programs because they must be taken care of for the good of the economy as a whole. Major bridges that are built when small bridges would work - those are pet projects. Basic science research in pretty much all areas is for the advancement of the whole economy.
We think of "research" as a collection of buzzwords like NASA, Stem Cells, and Genetic Engineering. Really, there is such a wide range of stuff that you can't cut out anything with a broad brush.
Whether you are researching the reduction of phosphates in cleaners (which affects all manufacturing - hard goods and food, as well a agriculture, waste treatment, and river systems) or living on Mars (a complete study of "quality of life" in a manufactured environment) - basic research and technology is an investment more than an expense.
Expenses? Those are things like tax subsidies and every bit of government that isn't "doing" something - like Congress.
It would be nice if all laws had a sunset scheme..
If only I had mod points.!
Why stop at laws? Let's make things like copyright expire too!
"it" = the next wave of the "we are stopping piracy in defense of America" vs "screw you guys - you aren't as good as us - we'll take down your site to prove it"
The same war everyone has been having since Napster. These takedowns won't stop piracy. Site takedowns won't cause any harm to the lobbying organizations. Both sides will use the acts to fuel their respective fires.
In the end, the internet gets less open - the industry loses out on innovation because they are fighting - and the "costs of war" mean nobody wins.
However, it doesn't seem like the real pirates or the music/movie industry loses either - just the general population.
it's begun!
This sounds like a whistleblower series I went to a while back. Some guy from the Army Corps of Engineers stood up and started by saying he went through all he did and eventually lost his job to save 5-7 million. He was exposing a gross amount of money that wasn't being spent correctly, but received very little attention. He said, when the whole budget of the Army Corps of Engineers is less than the rounding error on the national budget, saving a small portion of it didn't amount to much.
Not just that, but there's cost as a major factor too. Why pay $20 or so for two movie tickets (assuming that you're in the minority of slashdotters and have a female companion) when you can just wait 4 months and buy it on blu-ray for the same price yet infinite replays at no additional charge?
Or rent it and watch it once for $1.50, and then wait for it to show up on Netflix if you want to see it again.
In my mind, songs are worth about $1 to purchase and movies are worth about $1 to watch once, provided they are recent popular releases, and not 2004 has-beens.
Wait...what? You want to make TVs larger than 32" illegal. That's brilliant! How much do we have to pay our Child-Protection Lobby to get it done? (We already have all the congressmen we need.) - Future MPAA exec conversation
Sometimes I feel like we are in the same situation as the movie "The invention of lying" where all the movies are just histories because they can't create plot lines that didn't actually happen. It seems like sometimes we can't seem to create new characters or stories
But seriously, Ebert isn't talking about people not liking movies, it's about not going to the theater. It seems obvious to me that a lot of people don't go to the theater anymore because they have a better more comfortable setup at home. These people are lost to the theater and aren't coming back.
People that can't wait for a blockbuster are still going to go, but like Ebert is saying, that can only go on for so long. The main people I think that are interested in movies are people that are going on dates and/or are young.
You are more likely to ask someone to a very-neutral ground theater if it's a date than "do you want to come see my home theater?" You are also going to go to the theater if you don't want to be at your parent's house.
It seems like they need to make their experience better than a home experience, or aggressively target this audience.
You get convenience with banking too. I only watch over my bank account. I use visa/mastercard debit card too, so it is instantly removed from my account. Living on credit is stupid.
But when someone takes money from your checking account - it's gone. If it was fraudulent, you have to convince the bank to give you back your money. If it's fraudulent on the card, then you have roughly a month to contest it before the credit card puts any interest on it, and you still have money you can spend during that time. Most of the credit card companies are much more accommodating with fraud victims than people who have their debit cards stolen - at least in my experience.
I think it's wrong and anti-customer, but there are actually reasons and it's not just a money-grab.
No, it is just a money grab. If I can auto-pay with my credit card but get charged $2 to pay once - Verizon is just doing a money grab. They get the same transaction fees either way.
The fee is waived if you pay by electronic check or auto pay. This only effects last minute payments.
It appears this affects online payments, even if you make them early. Last minute has nothing to do with it. It's whether or not you give Verizon the ability to take money from you every month with blanket consent.
It's not about saving transaction fees, it's about getting consumers to stop thinking about and analyzing their bill every month. That 1.99 data fee that was pissing everyone off? Now it's just a number on your statement that's pretty close to last month. Want to call an complain about it? They already have your money. Good luck getting it back. Most people are going to sit on the phone for 30 minutes to get back $1.99. However, many people will shortpay a bill when they are sure they aren't responsible for something. If you are a person that logs in to the website every month and views your bill and schedules a payment, you are probably looking at the details. If you are an autopay person, you probably aren't - and don't even remember your online password.
Is it cheaper for them to accept a payment via mail or at the store?
You'll never know. Last time I got a cellphone I demanded the Verizon employee tell me what my bill would be for a normal month. Not the "45 voice + 30 data" but what the number I would actually be billed after taxes, fees, interest, gratuity, and graft. They couldn't tell me. They said there was no way to get that number until the bill was calculated because of the taxes. ATT could tell me within a nickel without any hesitation.
Verizon has been struggling for a long time. If they don't get their activation fees, random fees, roaming charges, and payment fees - they would go broke. It's only fair that we consumers would help a struggling giant in this era where everyone is ditching their cell phones for landlines and carrier pigeons. We pay $35 to have the privilege of becoming their customer, $200 if we want to stop being a customer early - it's only fair we pay $24/year to stay their customer.
This is a prime example of "don't dress for the job you have, dress for the job you want". Do you want to be CIO or higher management someday? Show them you are willing to make things work easier.
Either your application is so simple it will work without maintenance but have limited features, or it is too complicated and will need maintenance. Either way it is going need to be revised and updated in the future. If it is simple, people will get comfortable using it and dream up new features that would be nice to have.
Start using the program and, if it's a success, let them know you are proud of the work you did during an annual review or when a new position is opening up. If it's a fail, then it's a failed attempt. If it's a fail and they paid you extra money for it, then you lose.
You are in a unique spot because you understand the needs of a unique place, and you've written software to address that need. Use it internally and fix it. If it's worth something, sell it to other places that could use it.
I worked on a simple excel-based task scheduling sheet for the company I work for (manufactuing). We give it away to customers because it fills a real need in a simple format that IT people don't notice because there is no additional software to install. Just having that has helped us get several large accounts.
It's helped me out a lot more that I went out of my way to fill a need for "free" than it would have if they paid me for my efforts.
The Republicans have signed a pledge that they will never vote to raise taxes on anybody for any reason whatsoever. If they violate that pledge, the head of the organization who created it can and will ensure they lose their seat by cutting off their campaign funding. So they really can't agree to raise taxes.
...
So in short, no they really can't, not without betraying everything they claim to stand for.
So true. They can't! Everything they believe in (i.e. staying in office and getting paid to do crap) rests on their ability to do whatever they are told by their respective party and contributing organizations!
If they did stuff we think politicians are supposed to do, like use their rational judgement to find solutions to the nations problems, they might not get re-elected! And then what? We might end up with people that don't know what they are doing!
Very powerful magnets in the drives. Open them up, take out the magnets, and throw away the drives. If you are really paranoid, pop the discs out. But definitely salvage the magnets. They come in handy.
I second that. I disassemble old drives at work when I'm on the phone with people. It keeps my hands busy while still allowing me to focus on the conversation. Otherwise I end up surfing the web and spacing out.
I take off all the circuit boards and non metallic parts - and then recycle all the metal and circuit boards separately. I keep the platters because they are super shiny, and the magnets are the best refrigerator magnets ever.
Also, I keep one on my bookshelf with just the cover off. It looks cool, and it allows people to see that hard drives are basically very small, dense, record players.
I wish I had been at that meeting. Someone must have been talking about smell-o-vision and thought "hey, let's patent that, and everything else that relates to having a "remote experience".
Then everyone else at the table, who had been talking in on the same conversation that day said "hey, I was part of this invention!"
It sounds dumb, but in two years when they settle with Cisco for 120 million and license telepresence everyone in the office will sue who even heard about it that fateful day
Now we'll get private companies saying "hey, if we get into space there is some serious money to be made". .
Just to let you know, I will gladly sell you a deed for some land on the new diamond planet! Get in now before all the parcels are sold out!
Space is limited, but you will receive a certified verified framed deed for your own acre of diamond land, along with your name listed in "who's who in planet sized diamond owners"
Act now! Get in on the ground floor! Put your money in something solid, like diamond planets! We do layaway!