This is great. Microsoft may or may not have done a good job of providing valuable information to users of Chrome. Except users of Chrome can't view the video so what's the point? To convince someone using IE to not use Chrome. Do they hope that that using Chrome will switch to IE because they can't view the video? No, those users will simply disregard the video as typical Microsoft propaganda attempting to scare users into using Microsoft products. What a waste and proof of how stupid and arrogant large corporations have become.
No problem tracking Santa in Firefox 3.5 on Ubuntu
on
Does Santa Hate Linux?
·
· Score: 1
Sure, there may not be a kml file available, but my kids have thoroughly enjoyed (to the point of annoying us parents out of our mind) watching Santa travel the globe in full screen mode.
And located where a large enough number of IT professionals will be able to attend with minimal travel expense?
Travel and training budgets have been completely wiped out where I work. This means the only way I can attend anything is if it's free and local or out of my own pocket. There are some things I'm willing to pay for, some I'm not. A brand new conference with unknown quality of presenters falls into the not willing to pay for category.
I hardly think this will put any of Best Buy's internal units against each other. First off, there will be the $2500 service package they will sell you to configure your firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, and I suppose anti-nosy neighbor. Then the end user (being the technically inept we all know they will be because anyone technically capable will build it themselves, not buy it in a box) will lock themselves out of their very own home automation system requiring a mandatory Geek Squad service contract and on-site repair. "no, ma'am, we don't know your password, but for $99.95 we will come out and reset it for you"; "no ma'am, we don't know (or care) that its 32F in your house but we will gladly adjust your thermostat for a discounted fee of $69.95." I imagine the Best Buy execs are dreaming of all those wanna be techies with money and see this as the last great cash cow. In-fighting withing Best Buy, I doubt it!
Anything that gets people to build stuff instead of playing xbox is good.
Exaclty how I feel. That's why when my 7 year old expressed interest in robots when he was 5 I jumped at the opportunity to start teaching him how to build things. He's got a collection of Lego Galidor space robots he started building, morphing, and even hacking when he was 5. This summer he moved up to building a working model of an internal combustion engine and helped me build a mousey junkbot. I'm taking advantage of his interest to make sure gets a well rounded skill set to include both the mechanical and electronic.
I worked for a small firm a few years ago and spent more time doing mechanical engineering stuff than electronic. I was the only one in the office who had any idea how to prototype the mechanical side of our electronic products and who could design them in CAD to produce the necessary blueprints to send to production.
Because he was the first 'hacker' the public had the chance to put a face to and could truly be afraid of because of all the over-hype by the media. Mitnick's noteriety for his hackery will forever place him in infamy as far as the general public is concerned for the same reason serial killers such as John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, and Charles Manson are.
It's unfortunate that the masses have to succumb to the decisions of the elite. The elite who likely don't use the technology they are so afraid of. The elite who don't believe that anyone should have access to anything unless there is an exchange of payment in some form. It's too bad that they didn't learn anything from all those hours in college and all of the shared knowledge and experienced they gained so much from. For without the sharing of knowledge our society would be a hapless group of lemmings merely wandering in a senseless existence....oh wait....
Why not just leave the animation in the native language and add subtitles?
Because there's a whole range of wannabe's who don't want to read subtitles. So the only way to capitalize on those too lazy to read subtitles is to dub voice overs for those who don't wish to have the complete experience.
Many law enforcement agencies across the U.S. have the capability to remotely blast a person to another hemisphere should they choose. However, due to laws and policies on use of force these robots are used only to deploy less than lethal munitions as there can be no perceived threat of loss of life against the robot (an inanimate object). This technology has been in the hands of law enforcement since the mid '90's but for the lack of the need to remotely obilterate a human being the technology goes untested in the field.
If there is no shortage of IT/Tech workers then why is it that I can't find a half-way decent IT person at my organization? Why is it that at a recent multi-agency training session the one IT person attending was completely clueless about the most basic network stuff? Why is it that I am better off being my own IT person (for which I have no formal training) than I am to rely on anyone remotely associated with any IT department for any company I've ever worked for? I know there are still smart IT geeks out there, I just want to know where they are because this seems to be the only place I can find any and no one here is going to do a darn thing about any of my IT issues.
I sure hope everyone elses experience with their IT departments is better than mine. It just seems that the longer I hang around the worse the IT personnel have become. I don't believe the shortage of IT workers can be determined by university registrations as many are no longer working in the industry because they became disgruntled and found they could do other things for similar or more money and be much happier at it while getting their geeky IT fill on their friends and relatives PC's and home networks. The only shortage in the IT industry is in the salary, benefits, and respect afforded those willing to work in IT who have the knowledge to actually handle what's going on and manage a business' IT infrastructure.
It appears that Tivo has been on a suicide march for some time now. I had been considering purchasing one to release my PC from it's DVR duties but refuse to relinquish total control of my recording activities nor do I desire to have a pre-determined commitment for service. Tivo started a revolution and is slowly marching itself into the abyss of once was, revolutionary companies that couldn't make it because they succumbed to corporate philosophy and lost sight of what gave them their start to begin with...technological innovation!!!
Cannot read with eyes open. Cannot read in an artificially or naturally lighted space. Cannot read in the presence of a mind reader or ESP. Cannot think while reading this book. Cannot read in the presence of a human being. Doh! Guess you just wasted your money since this is as far as you get to read.
What a way to make money. Then the company won't even have to worry about actually creating the text for the ebook. Just the license aggreement, everything beyond that will be blank space. And anyone that complains that they bought the ebook and the text of the book isn't present automagically goes to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $100.
I think I have a business plan, are there any interested VC's reading/.? If so, have your people contact my people and we'll talk about talking.
the actual internet access was provided by 1stup.com. So Alta Vista isn't the one pulling the plug. 1stup.com has gone belly up like so many other money burning dot coms. Personally I don't blame Alta Vista for deciding to stay out of the free internet access foray at this point in time. 1stup.com was the only free access provider who had a decent privacy policy and dependable service. I have been a happy user for a long time and am now left out in the cold.
Guess it's time to stop being so cheap and just get that darned cable modem even though I'm not fond of our local provider. I think Alta Vista and 1stup.com both deserve a lot of credit because out of all of the free access services I've seen theirs was by far the best. Both from a privacy standpoint and a service standpoint. I wish my free email provider was as reliable as my free access provider has been.
<emotional and teary eyed> Good Bye 1stup.com, you guys gave it a shot and did a heck of a good job in the process.</emotional and teary eyed>
I wouldn't be too worried about the mechanics of it just yet. Since you live there, help him to learn. Don't just do it for him every time he needs something and don't force him to learn it. Just help him to understand enough to be self sufficient in his pc use.
I have found that the best way to do this is with baby steps. Start by teaching him the simple things like changing wallpaper, colors, resolution, sounds, etc. Help him understand what a driver is and why it's needed. If he can just get the fundamentals fed to him slowly then he will eventually have a decent grasp on his own pc. Something that he needs to understand since it doesn't sound like the parents are very involved with his computer use is that he needs to be able to fix it if it breaks. He is entirely responsible for it but you are there when he needs help. This, of course isn't where you should start, but where you should lead him. This is how my father taught me about motorcycles. He helped me and showed me what I needed until I reached a certain level of experience at which point he said, "it's yours boy, you break it, you fix it." But of course he was still there to help me out when I was in over my head. And he made sure that I wasn't punished by his reactions, etc. if I made the wrong decisions (I had to suffer the consequences of these decisions by having to wait until I could afford parts or whatever).
The most important thing is going to be for you to be patient and remember that not everybody has the desire/ability to grok computers at whatever level you are at so jsut try to make him an informed user.
This one has got a lot more chance of success than any of it's predecessors. Why? Two things:
AOL Gateway
Sure, it doesn't have any local storage, etc. but this is exactly what most older or less technically inclined people are looking for. I can already see Grandmas lining up to get at these things. Knowing that their trusty grandson/daughter geek won't have to come over and set anything up like they would with a pesky computer. They also won't have to worry about any of those annoying worms/trojan horse/MS macro or script viruses. For the ignorant internet user this is the ideal solution. The people who will flock to these are either already AOL users or have many friends/relatives who are. With two well known (to the common person) companies behind it these have a lot more going for them than any of the others. All of the failures so far have either been a) unheard of start-ups or b) well known for other things and people just weren't sure anout this new venture.
Wouldn't that be trademark infringement. I really don't think that the Sony PS2 even remotely resembles any IP that would have been patented in the IBM PS2(not that anything in a PS2 should be patentable mind you).
OK, so when you're finished caning him for leaving his laptop lying around there are many things that can be done. First off, I'd have to assume that this was an inside job. Most corporate spies who go to the trouble of physically breaking into a competitor's building will make it look like common thievery to cover their tracks. Personally, I have implemented a tiny app that runs at startup (prior to login). Upon the third failed attempt at the password the FAT structure is destroyed rendering the laptop useless. Yes, the data is still there but most people aren't going to figure that out or take the time or money to do it (not even corporate criminals, in most cases). This is not something that I would implement on all systems seeing as how most users forget their password on a regular basis. However, if a person can assume the responsibility that comes with being an officer of a company then they can certainly take on the resposnsibility of remembering their password.
Of course, other measures are taken as well, such as file encryption and regular back ups to a secure server. That way the data is much harder to retrieve and when it is lost because the CIO can't remember his fourth wifes name(nice password choice) most of his data can be restored.
Unfortunately, there really isn't that much you can do when it comes to getting management to prtotect IP from corporate espionage. If some teenager hacks it they are darn sure going to sue but most aren't willing to take the time to perform a little encryption and do regular backups to keep things safe. Some even laugh at the thought of physically securing the servers. I know of a company that spent over $100k on implementing all sorts of security solutions on their pc's and laptops to leave the servers sitting on a bench in the tech room, near an exterior window. Now that's secure! Good luck, this is an area where there are no easy solutions and only harder implementation and enforcement.
I feel for you. Where I currently work there are only 15 of us in a satellite office. So we all know each other and know who should be in the building. You have to have a card key to get in and yet if someone walks in without one nobody bothers to do anything. When I first started here I was astonished at seeing people walk right in (yes, there's a problem with our door sensor, something the company refuses to address) and wander around before anyone would bother to say anything to them. I have since found that I am the only one willing to approach people who obviously don't belong here.
Sound slike you all have lucked out in getting yours. My friendly RatShack.Com store made it an unbearable experience. With the exception of the first guy that I talked to. I usually get their commercial catalog and that is where most of my purchases come from. So I went to the parts counter and asked if the new parts catalog was out. The guy said not until September but if I wanted a cool little cat thing scanner I should go the the cash registers and get a regular RatShack catalog. Bingo, this was going to be easy. NOT!!! The only cashier was having big problems with the guy in line in front of me. So someone else finally comes up and asks what it is that I need. So I ask for the new catalog and he says no problem. He comes back with just the catalog. I asked about the CueCat and he acts like I've asked him to part the Red Sea. I end up waiting in line for a very long time before the guy finally figures out what he's doing and gets to me. Of course he now has to wait for a manager to approve becasue I'm not buying anything so he can't just let me have it. I'm not sure it was worth all that trouble.
Boy, does this article have good timing. I'm sitting here contemplateing Harry Carey because I can't stand my work environment. First off, we have 2 person cubicles with 5 ft walls on the E and W sides and only 3 1/2 foot walls on the N or S side (depending on cube location). I absolutely hate it. The guy in the cube next to me (on the short wall side) never shuts up! When he's got work to do he bitches about it non-stop. Then when he gets a break he talks about anything that comes to his mind! I think my son had more important things to say when he was about 6 months old! At first I thought it was just his insescant whining that I was sick of but this morning made me very aware of the fact that I hate it just as much when he has nothing to do. The bad part is that I am required to sit near him because he is on my project team. I think I need a new project! Of course, I discovered this morning that I'm less fearful of him when he has nothing to do. When he's actually got work there are several of us waiting for him to go postal because he just can't handle the day to day things like bug reports and stuff. And he doesn't seem to understand that if he would write better code to begin with he would get fewer bug reports. Oh well. I've tried headphones and they just make the annoyances a little more dull but no less painful.
You know, I actually worked at a startup where we were all stuffed into this tiny little garage. I complained because my desk was against the garage door that faced south. Mmmm, 120 degree Arizona heat. Right now I actually miss that. We were allowed to listen to music without headphones, we all just agreed and took turns listening to what we wanted. We actually talked to each other and cared about what the other guy/girl was doing. Too bad I'm stuck here with a bunch of people that don't give a crap about the people they work with and attempting to have an intelligent conversation with any of them is about as enjoyable as having your wisdom teeth removed a la Vise-Grips. I envy those of you who work for companies that recognize the fact that happy employees are productive employees. The president of the company I now work for believes that the more sparse the working environment the more productive the employees are. The less distractions (ie: family pictures, comfort, etc.) the more work that will get done. I can't wait until we all have to bow down before his excellency and salute his astute business skills. Of course, our stock very regulalry reflects his skills at running the business. You'd think the BOD would do something about it but I think they were all hand picked by him so there probably isn't any hope. It must be time to update my resume, I hate this more that I thought. Thanks for listening.
Thanks for replying with an intelligent comment. Moody defenitely missed the boat on this one. But you do ahve a valid point. As an embedded systems software engineer I'm no dummy, but earlier this year I decided to tackle Linux for my home server. I was sick and tired of the problems with WinNT. So I set the machine up to dual boot and to this day my server is WinNT, and Linux is just there for me to play with. I personally do not have the time that it takes to get Linux properly configured. I complained when I had to reboot NT 3 times when I set my network up, but compared to having to recompile the kernel, rebooting was a breeze. Indeed, I am not sure Linux is ready for the mainstream, and I am positive that the mainstream is not ready for Linux. I am not saying that Linux is bad or that NT is good. I am just saying that after spending 50 hrs sitting in front of a computer at work I don't personally have the desire to spend so much time on my home network. My idea of a home network is set it and forget it, which I figure Linux would provide me since NT requires regular attention. However, I found that it is much easier for me to pay a little attention to NT now and then than it is to pay a lot of attention to Linux now.
I was lucky enough to have a high school comp. teacher who let us decide what kind of projects we would take on once we had proven to her that we could handle them. So after just a couple of weeks of the monotonous book stuff she would set us free on our own ideas. At the time my dad had his own business, which I had been working at since 12. He was also very anti-computer but was required to have an IBM by the manufacturer. So I set out to turn it into a useful tool instead of where I would spend my time playing pinball when there were no customers to help. I ended up writing an inventory program and a payroll program. They weren't much but they provided me with a great amount of programming experience in a real world situation. I wish my college professors would have done the same thing. I absolutely hated programming in college. I mean, as an engineering student how many times am I supposed to be interested in converting British and American currency? So many thanks go out to my high school comp teacher who had the foresight and knowledge to let us do things that interested us! She was truly an inspiration that lead to my becoming a software engineer.
Two errors here. 1) Make sure that anytime you work on a modern vehicle you use only a high impedance multimeter and never use an analog one unless specified by the manufacturer (ie: Ford EEC IV diagnosis). Using the wrong multimeter could cost you a lot more than the $40 it's costing you now. 2) A digital multimeter will not react fast enough for you to read the codes that are produced. On a GM vehicle this is really a simple task. See my response below for more info on how to go about doing it.
Slashdot Mirror
This is great. Microsoft may or may not have done a good job of providing valuable information to users of Chrome. Except users of Chrome can't view the video so what's the point? To convince someone using IE to not use Chrome. Do they hope that that using Chrome will switch to IE because they can't view the video? No, those users will simply disregard the video as typical Microsoft propaganda attempting to scare users into using Microsoft products. What a waste and proof of how stupid and arrogant large corporations have become.
Sure, there may not be a kml file available, but my kids have thoroughly enjoyed (to the point of annoying us parents out of our mind) watching Santa travel the globe in full screen mode.
And located where a large enough number of IT professionals will be able to attend with minimal travel expense?
Travel and training budgets have been completely wiped out where I work. This means the only way I can attend anything is if it's free and local or out of my own pocket. There are some things I'm willing to pay for, some I'm not. A brand new conference with unknown quality of presenters falls into the not willing to pay for category.
I hardly think this will put any of Best Buy's internal units against each other. First off, there will be the $2500 service package they will sell you to configure your firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware, and I suppose anti-nosy neighbor. Then the end user (being the technically inept we all know they will be because anyone technically capable will build it themselves, not buy it in a box) will lock themselves out of their very own home automation system requiring a mandatory Geek Squad service contract and on-site repair. "no, ma'am, we don't know your password, but for $99.95 we will come out and reset it for you"; "no ma'am, we don't know (or care) that its 32F in your house but we will gladly adjust your thermostat for a discounted fee of $69.95." I imagine the Best Buy execs are dreaming of all those wanna be techies with money and see this as the last great cash cow. In-fighting withing Best Buy, I doubt it!
Prototype Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon chassis and suspension (yes, fabricated by hand); five years before they were in full production.
I worked for a small firm a few years ago and spent more time doing mechanical engineering stuff than electronic. I was the only one in the office who had any idea how to prototype the mechanical side of our electronic products and who could design them in CAD to produce the necessary blueprints to send to production.
Because he was the first 'hacker' the public had the chance to put a face to and could truly be afraid of because of all the over-hype by the media. Mitnick's noteriety for his hackery will forever place him in infamy as far as the general public is concerned for the same reason serial killers such as John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, and Charles Manson are.
It's unfortunate that the masses have to succumb to the decisions of the elite. The elite who likely don't use the technology they are so afraid of. The elite who don't believe that anyone should have access to anything unless there is an exchange of payment in some form. It's too bad that they didn't learn anything from all those hours in college and all of the shared knowledge and experienced they gained so much from. For without the sharing of knowledge our society would be a hapless group of lemmings merely wandering in a senseless existence....oh wait....
and discovering, tracing, and whois'ing an ip address is the hippest thing for the kiddies to do on a Saturday night.
Many law enforcement agencies across the U.S. have the capability to remotely blast a person to another hemisphere should they choose. However, due to laws and policies on use of force these robots are used only to deploy less than lethal munitions as there can be no perceived threat of loss of life against the robot (an inanimate object). This technology has been in the hands of law enforcement since the mid '90's but for the lack of the need to remotely obilterate a human being the technology goes untested in the field.
If there is no shortage of IT/Tech workers then why is it that I can't find a half-way decent IT person at my organization? Why is it that at a recent multi-agency training session the one IT person attending was completely clueless about the most basic network stuff? Why is it that I am better off being my own IT person (for which I have no formal training) than I am to rely on anyone remotely associated with any IT department for any company I've ever worked for? I know there are still smart IT geeks out there, I just want to know where they are because this seems to be the only place I can find any and no one here is going to do a darn thing about any of my IT issues.
I sure hope everyone elses experience with their IT departments is better than mine. It just seems that the longer I hang around the worse the IT personnel have become. I don't believe the shortage of IT workers can be determined by university registrations as many are no longer working in the industry because they became disgruntled and found they could do other things for similar or more money and be much happier at it while getting their geeky IT fill on their friends and relatives PC's and home networks. The only shortage in the IT industry is in the salary, benefits, and respect afforded those willing to work in IT who have the knowledge to actually handle what's going on and manage a business' IT infrastructure.
It appears that Tivo has been on a suicide march for some time now. I had been considering purchasing one to release my PC from it's DVR duties but refuse to relinquish total control of my recording activities nor do I desire to have a pre-determined commitment for service. Tivo started a revolution and is slowly marching itself into the abyss of once was, revolutionary companies that couldn't make it because they succumbed to corporate philosophy and lost sight of what gave them their start to begin with...technological innovation!!!
Cannot read in an artificially or naturally lighted space.
Cannot read in the presence of a mind reader or ESP.
Cannot think while reading this book.
Cannot read in the presence of a human being. Doh! Guess you just wasted your money since this is as far as you get to read.
What a way to make money. Then the company won't even have to worry about actually creating the text for the ebook. Just the license aggreement, everything beyond that will be blank space. And anyone that complains that they bought the ebook and the text of the book isn't present automagically goes to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $100.
I think I have a business plan, are there any interested VC's reading /.? If so, have your people contact my people and we'll talk about talking.
the actual internet access was provided by 1stup.com. So Alta Vista isn't the one pulling the plug. 1stup.com has gone belly up like so many other money burning dot coms. Personally I don't blame Alta Vista for deciding to stay out of the free internet access foray at this point in time. 1stup.com was the only free access provider who had a decent privacy policy and dependable service. I have been a happy user for a long time and am now left out in the cold.
Guess it's time to stop being so cheap and just get that darned cable modem even though I'm not fond of our local provider. I think Alta Vista and 1stup.com both deserve a lot of credit because out of all of the free access services I've seen theirs was by far the best. Both from a privacy standpoint and a service standpoint. I wish my free email provider was as reliable as my free access provider has been.
<emotional and teary eyed> Good Bye 1stup.com, you guys gave it a shot and did a heck of a good job in the process.</emotional and teary eyed>
I have found that the best way to do this is with baby steps. Start by teaching him the simple things like changing wallpaper, colors, resolution, sounds, etc. Help him understand what a driver is and why it's needed. If he can just get the fundamentals fed to him slowly then he will eventually have a decent grasp on his own pc. Something that he needs to understand since it doesn't sound like the parents are very involved with his computer use is that he needs to be able to fix it if it breaks. He is entirely responsible for it but you are there when he needs help. This, of course isn't where you should start, but where you should lead him. This is how my father taught me about motorcycles. He helped me and showed me what I needed until I reached a certain level of experience at which point he said, "it's yours boy, you break it, you fix it." But of course he was still there to help me out when I was in over my head. And he made sure that I wasn't punished by his reactions, etc. if I made the wrong decisions (I had to suffer the consequences of these decisions by having to wait until I could afford parts or whatever).
The most important thing is going to be for you to be patient and remember that not everybody has the desire/ability to grok computers at whatever level you are at so jsut try to make him an informed user.
Gateway
Sure, it doesn't have any local storage, etc. but this is exactly what most older or less technically inclined people are looking for. I can already see Grandmas lining up to get at these things. Knowing that their trusty grandson/daughter geek won't have to come over and set anything up like they would with a pesky computer. They also won't have to worry about any of those annoying worms/trojan horse/MS macro or script viruses. For the ignorant internet user this is the ideal solution. The people who will flock to these are either already AOL users or have many friends/relatives who are. With two well known (to the common person) companies behind it these have a lot more going for them than any of the others. All of the failures so far have either been a) unheard of start-ups or b) well known for other things and people just weren't sure anout this new venture.
Of course, this is all just in theory.
Wouldn't that be trademark infringement. I really don't think that the Sony PS2 even remotely resembles any IP that would have been patented in the IBM PS2(not that anything in a PS2 should be patentable mind you).
Yo quiero Taco Bell(tm)
Of course, other measures are taken as well, such as file encryption and regular back ups to a secure server. That way the data is much harder to retrieve and when it is lost because the CIO can't remember his fourth wifes name(nice password choice) most of his data can be restored.
Unfortunately, there really isn't that much you can do when it comes to getting management to prtotect IP from corporate espionage. If some teenager hacks it they are darn sure going to sue but most aren't willing to take the time to perform a little encryption and do regular backups to keep things safe. Some even laugh at the thought of physically securing the servers. I know of a company that spent over $100k on implementing all sorts of security solutions on their pc's and laptops to leave the servers sitting on a bench in the tech room, near an exterior window. Now that's secure! Good luck, this is an area where there are no easy solutions and only harder implementation and enforcement.
I feel for you. Where I currently work there are only 15 of us in a satellite office. So we all know each other and know who should be in the building. You have to have a card key to get in and yet if someone walks in without one nobody bothers to do anything. When I first started here I was astonished at seeing people walk right in (yes, there's a problem with our door sensor, something the company refuses to address) and wander around before anyone would bother to say anything to them. I have since found that I am the only one willing to approach people who obviously don't belong here.
Sound slike you all have lucked out in getting yours. My friendly RatShack.Com store made it an unbearable experience. With the exception of the first guy that I talked to. I usually get their commercial catalog and that is where most of my purchases come from. So I went to the parts counter and asked if the new parts catalog was out. The guy said not until September but if I wanted a cool little cat thing scanner I should go the the cash registers and get a regular RatShack catalog. Bingo, this was going to be easy. NOT!!! The only cashier was having big problems with the guy in line in front of me. So someone else finally comes up and asks what it is that I need. So I ask for the new catalog and he says no problem. He comes back with just the catalog. I asked about the CueCat and he acts like I've asked him to part the Red Sea. I end up waiting in line for a very long time before the guy finally figures out what he's doing and gets to me. Of course he now has to wait for a manager to approve becasue I'm not buying anything so he can't just let me have it. I'm not sure it was worth all that trouble.
You know, I actually worked at a startup where we were all stuffed into this tiny little garage. I complained because my desk was against the garage door that faced south. Mmmm, 120 degree Arizona heat. Right now I actually miss that. We were allowed to listen to music without headphones, we all just agreed and took turns listening to what we wanted. We actually talked to each other and cared about what the other guy/girl was doing. Too bad I'm stuck here with a bunch of people that don't give a crap about the people they work with and attempting to have an intelligent conversation with any of them is about as enjoyable as having your wisdom teeth removed a la Vise-Grips. I envy those of you who work for companies that recognize the fact that happy employees are productive employees. The president of the company I now work for believes that the more sparse the working environment the more productive the employees are. The less distractions (ie: family pictures, comfort, etc.) the more work that will get done. I can't wait until we all have to bow down before his excellency and salute his astute business skills. Of course, our stock very regulalry reflects his skills at running the business. You'd think the BOD would do something about it but I think they were all hand picked by him so there probably isn't any hope. It must be time to update my resume, I hate this more that I thought. Thanks for listening.
Let the flaming begin.
I was lucky enough to have a high school comp. teacher who let us decide what kind of projects we would take on once we had proven to her that we could handle them. So after just a couple of weeks of the monotonous book stuff she would set us free on our own ideas. At the time my dad had his own business, which I had been working at since 12. He was also very anti-computer but was required to have an IBM by the manufacturer. So I set out to turn it into a useful tool instead of where I would spend my time playing pinball when there were no customers to help. I ended up writing an inventory program and a payroll program. They weren't much but they provided me with a great amount of programming experience in a real world situation. I wish my college professors would have done the same thing. I absolutely hated programming in college. I mean, as an engineering student how many times am I supposed to be interested in converting British and American currency? So many thanks go out to my high school comp teacher who had the foresight and knowledge to let us do things that interested us! She was truly an inspiration that lead to my becoming a software engineer.
Two errors here. 1) Make sure that anytime you work on a modern vehicle you use only a high impedance multimeter and never use an analog one unless specified by the manufacturer (ie: Ford EEC IV diagnosis). Using the wrong multimeter could cost you a lot more than the $40 it's costing you now. 2) A digital multimeter will not react fast enough for you to read the codes that are produced. On a GM vehicle this is really a simple task. See my response below for more info on how to go about doing it.