Now that I'm (past) 30, I sometimes wonder where all the paychecks get paid from.
The thing is, just because someone looks at a bunch of code doesn't mean they somehow assimilate the knowledge needed to produce said code. We have enough trouble reading other people's code that is uncommented.
I work for a small school district looking to put our grades online. We found an open source program, BASMATI (here and here), to export grades to. We use the open source code for free, and will pay for support. I can't be bothered with digging through the code, because I have other things that I am paid to do.
If they started charging for IE, AV, etc I would switch every one of my systems to Linux. They would lose millions in revenue from my workplace. It wouldn't be hard to justify the cost of it to the top anymore. The abstract cost in retraining and finding new software to use would be moot, since the dollar amount saved would overshadow it immensely. Hell, we could hire programmers to write software for us. No matter what other traditional vendors may die, Linux distros will always be here, and there will always be people to create OSS.
I hope Google can survive, but Microsoft is here, and Bill has not lost. Yet.
True. And there are areas where they have not won. Take the Xbox, for example. They really haven't "won" by any definition of the term, but they haven't lost either. Google may have to put up with an incrementally better search engine every year from Microsoft, but as of yet, I've never been impressed with MSN. Or any of the others for that matter.
When I visit a web site to search, I go to do just that. I don't go to be distracted by any periphery. I get enough information overload during the day as it is. Returning to that uncluttered Google web page when I do a search is like a small breath of fresh air reminding me that there are some things that are still simple.
Except that we know for a fact that N. Korea has nuclear weapons. I doubt that there are many Americans that would like vaporized troops, especially during an election year.
I don't think it's really comparable to that at all.
Upon further investigation, I agree. It was just what ran through my head in typical slashbot fashion as I read the summary, and I thought it was funny/interesting that the linked site was along those same lines. It wasn't my intent to make a particular statement one way or another.
I was at work late (2 AM) one night doing some maintenance on a few servers. A co-worker of mine and I went out for a walk to have a cigarette (can't smoke on public school property). As we were walking back in, a squad car rolled up behind us. Two officers got out.
Cop: What are you guys doing here?
Me: We're doing some computer mainentance. We work here.
Cop: Isn't it a little late to be here?
Me: Computers don't sleep. Sometimes we don't either.
Cop: Could we see your IDs?
Me: Sure thing.
As the cops check our IDs, my co-worker and I shoot the breeze while leaning up against the back of my car. Cop comes back out. Perhaps the "PC FXR" license plate on my car tipped them off.
Cop: Here are your IDs back. We figured to wait until morning to verify employment.
Me: That's real swell of you.
We talked a little more as the cops drove off, in no hurry to leave.
Now were these cops justified in asking for our IDs? Probably. The school board for my employer mandates that the school building and associated grounds are closed at 10 PM. It isn't real often that you see cars in the parking lot of a school in the wee hours of the morning. I was a bit irritated by it all, but that was probably because it was late. However, if we had just been in a public parking lot, things might have been different.
Tarantino would make a pile of shit that nobody would watch.
Indeed. Kill Bill Vol. 1 was some of the worst shit I've ever seen on a movie screen. It seemed like only the kids thought it was a good movie (and I'm 23 years old).
I work more than 40 hours a week as well, with no OT. I guess I just love my job that much.
Actually, part of why I do it right now is that my employer (a public school district) is going through budget cuts. I know I'm not irreplaceable, but I'll work hard to make sure I'm seen as a "vital member of the team".
I can't take anyone seriously that has a site like that. Their "diagram" of the device looks like it was drawn by a 5 year old. I mean, come on. Nobody is going to take you seriously with crap like that.
(No offense to any 5 year olds that may be reading.)
This cannot be understated enough. Sure, you can do it with just the books, but there is absolutely no replacement for the experience. I started on my CCNA a while back, and even though I understood the concepts presented in the material, it made much more sense once I set up a test lab to work with. I didn't just know the stuff. I felt it. Perhaps that's a rather abstract way to look at it, but it's the impression I got.
Do whatever you can to get your hands on Cisco networking equipment.
You don't think of yourself as stealing another person's job. After all, all the bastards in Microsoft are stealing jobs from the rest of the world.
Right. Just tell that some married USian with two kids who just lost his(or her) job to an offshore firm that can do it for 1/6 of the salary, without the benefits. Now there is no job, a house to pay for, kids to feed with one income (if you are lucky) in a country with an extremely high cost of living. Not that it's wrong to not see the big picture, but I think that I'd be pissed too.
Where I live, houses sold for 75,000 USD in the early 80's. The same houses come in at almost 400,000 USD now. 90,000 USD for a half acre patch of dirt. The cost of living is so high, when you lose your job, savings don't really last that long. Of course, perhaps many USians don't like to "live below their means". Ramen, water, and multi-vitamins might be the way to go for a year or two while the you retrain.
If we became extremely poor for any length of time, our military would suffer, and someone would try to kick our ass. It doesn't matter who; take your pick. We've made more than our share of enemies over the history of the US.
Although, from the other side, we give out billions in foreign aid every year to other countries around the world, so maybe we might have some friends too. I sure hope so.
Not that I'm making excuses for Microsoft, but it probably does take time to patch a program that is installed on 66.3% of the world's computers (as of July 2003).
Given that there were over 605 million connected internet users (in September 2002), that's over 400 million users of your software, and probably more now that it's almost a year and a half later.
Your users span hundreds of thousands of different hardware and software environments. And that doesn't even include IE 5.5 and 5 that they need to patch as well.
They'd better be sure the patch doesn't break anything critical. I'm surprised they don't break things more often than they do.
AFAIK, Windows doesn't have this ability so an admin can't lock things down this way.
Windows 2000/XP does have this ability. Lots of settings (security and trivial) can be set through Group Policy, either on the local machine or applied to OUs from the domain level. Run gpedit.msc on your local machine to see what I mean.
User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System
Check out the "Don't run..." and "Run only..." items.
Having a couple of thousand Windows using rednecks in the same IP range gives me an excellent approximation of those Matrix screen savers that all the cool kids are running.
Hey! My work machine has three 17" LCD panels, it practically begged me to put that Matrix screen saver on there!
Slashdot Mirror
The thing is, just because someone looks at a bunch of code doesn't mean they somehow assimilate the knowledge needed to produce said code. We have enough trouble reading other people's code that is uncommented.
I work for a small school district looking to put our grades online. We found an open source program, BASMATI (here and here), to export grades to. We use the open source code for free, and will pay for support. I can't be bothered with digging through the code, because I have other things that I am paid to do.
Everybody gets paid.
And we, the tech-savvy, will rule as the bishops in times of old.
Now, you go tell your computer illiterate boss to fetch you a cup of coffee.
If they started charging for IE, AV, etc I would switch every one of my systems to Linux. They would lose millions in revenue from my workplace. It wouldn't be hard to justify the cost of it to the top anymore. The abstract cost in retraining and finding new software to use would be moot, since the dollar amount saved would overshadow it immensely. Hell, we could hire programmers to write software for us. No matter what other traditional vendors may die, Linux distros will always be here, and there will always be people to create OSS.
True. And there are areas where they have not won. Take the Xbox, for example. They really haven't "won" by any definition of the term, but they haven't lost either. Google may have to put up with an incrementally better search engine every year from Microsoft, but as of yet, I've never been impressed with MSN. Or any of the others for that matter.
When I visit a web site to search, I go to do just that. I don't go to be distracted by any periphery. I get enough information overload during the day as it is. Returning to that uncluttered Google web page when I do a search is like a small breath of fresh air reminding me that there are some things that are still simple.
So I could have been working/living on Apple computers with OS X now instead of dealing with problems with Microsoft products? Everyone could have?
I just wet myself!
I thought it was that the BMW is a better ride.
All your base are belong to us.
Except that we know for a fact that N. Korea has nuclear weapons. I doubt that there are many Americans that would like vaporized troops, especially during an election year.
Upon further investigation, I agree. It was just what ran through my head in typical slashbot fashion as I read the summary, and I thought it was funny/interesting that the linked site was along those same lines. It wasn't my intent to make a particular statement one way or another.
Cop: What are you guys doing here?
Me: We're doing some computer mainentance. We work here.
Cop: Isn't it a little late to be here?
Me: Computers don't sleep. Sometimes we don't either.
Cop: Could we see your IDs?
Me: Sure thing.
As the cops check our IDs, my co-worker and I shoot the breeze while leaning up against the back of my car. Cop comes back out. Perhaps the "PC FXR" license plate on my car tipped them off.
Cop: Here are your IDs back. We figured to wait until morning to verify employment.
Me: That's real swell of you.
We talked a little more as the cops drove off, in no hurry to leave.
Now were these cops justified in asking for our IDs? Probably. The school board for my employer mandates that the school building and associated grounds are closed at 10 PM. It isn't real often that you see cars in the parking lot of a school in the wee hours of the morning. I was a bit irritated by it all, but that was probably because it was late. However, if we had just been in a public parking lot, things might have been different.
Imagine my surprise when the site of the article is papersplease.org.
Indeed. Kill Bill Vol. 1 was some of the worst shit I've ever seen on a movie screen. It seemed like only the kids thought it was a good movie (and I'm 23 years old).
Actually, part of why I do it right now is that my employer (a public school district) is going through budget cuts. I know I'm not irreplaceable, but I'll work hard to make sure I'm seen as a "vital member of the team".
(No offense to any 5 year olds that may be reading.)
Yes, I do mean overstated. My bad. 24 hours since I was asleep. Stupid tape drive.
This cannot be understated enough. Sure, you can do it with just the books, but there is absolutely no replacement for the experience. I started on my CCNA a while back, and even though I understood the concepts presented in the material, it made much more sense once I set up a test lab to work with. I didn't just know the stuff. I felt it. Perhaps that's a rather abstract way to look at it, but it's the impression I got.
Do whatever you can to get your hands on Cisco networking equipment.
Right. Just tell that some married USian with two kids who just lost his(or her) job to an offshore firm that can do it for 1/6 of the salary, without the benefits. Now there is no job, a house to pay for, kids to feed with one income (if you are lucky) in a country with an extremely high cost of living. Not that it's wrong to not see the big picture, but I think that I'd be pissed too.
Where I live, houses sold for 75,000 USD in the early 80's. The same houses come in at almost 400,000 USD now. 90,000 USD for a half acre patch of dirt. The cost of living is so high, when you lose your job, savings don't really last that long. Of course, perhaps many USians don't like to "live below their means". Ramen, water, and multi-vitamins might be the way to go for a year or two while the you retrain.
But I'd still be pissed.
Although, from the other side, we give out billions in foreign aid every year to other countries around the world, so maybe we might have some friends too. I sure hope so.
But that's a whole different issue.
Given that there were over 605 million connected internet users (in September 2002), that's over 400 million users of your software, and probably more now that it's almost a year and a half later.
Your users span hundreds of thousands of different hardware and software environments. And that doesn't even include IE 5.5 and 5 that they need to patch as well.
They'd better be sure the patch doesn't break anything critical. I'm surprised they don't break things more often than they do.
"Go ahead! I'll even give you Power User privs if you promise never to use IE again!"
I don't care what Mom & Pop computer user do; the comment was what am admin can do.
Windows 2000/XP does have this ability. Lots of settings (security and trivial) can be set through Group Policy, either on the local machine or applied to OUs from the domain level. Run gpedit.msc on your local machine to see what I mean.
User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System
Check out the "Don't run..." and "Run only..." items.
Hey! My work machine has three 17" LCD panels, it practically begged me to put that Matrix screen saver on there!
"Huh. QNX. SCO. BSD. Uhh... OW!"
4) Win lawsuits