If you are really serious about implementing linux in the workplace and replacing/supplementing any other technology you currently have, then we need to talk.
I'm the CEO of a linux consulting firm that since 1999 has specialized in exactly that.
email: steve@NOSPAM.computernetdesign.com
We work with clients just like you ranging from 5 employees to 500. There are lots of options! I would be happy to answer any questions you have.
ok, I'll jump in and throw my $0.02 on this (being someone from the started learning c (enjoyed it), went to Perl, and then switched to Python club).
1) Perl gives the programmer an extreeme amount of freedom of style which makes it a powerful language for the vetran programmer and a BAD BAD BAD choice for a newbie who has no concept of style, form and coding practice. It's extreemely easy to write obfuscated code in Perl.
In contrast Python by it's nature/design enforces at least some basic concepts of good programming style (whether the new programmer knows it or not!). It's often called execuitable psudocode by programmers familiar with other languages.
Am I saying one is better or not? NO (that was already covered by one of the parents). But because it is so popular and in such wide use, it too often becomes the first programming language those NEW to programming choose. And it's just too easy to learn bad habits in (I'm thinking of the mentorless, self-taught here).
2) python users on slashdot == linux users on ZDnet. A proud (sometimes zelot) vocal minority who don't want to be overlooked in all of the noise.
way the DMCA is a huge pork filled POS that goes way above and beyond its original intent.
I, as a tax payer, have to foot the bill for the enforcement of something I dont agree with...so this guy can make even more money.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. We need 2 laws passed: 1) all riders and adendums[sp.] attached to a bill have to actually pertain to what the bill is about (spirit of the bill) 2) Soft money contributions are strictly regulated, monitored, and possibily made illegal altogether.
Of course the likelihood of that happening is just about the same as G(duhhhhhhhhhh)W choosing the environment over supporting big oil, creating a SANE budget proposal, or giving a shit what REAL middle class America is going through.
And to think of all the veterans that suffered and soilders that have died (and will die) so those Americans who liked their sister a little too much could vote their voice in office.
It's spirit crushing/optimism killing, and makes me truely sad.
I've been in this industry for over 6 years in an admin/developer role and I'm no windows newbie or technical novice.
I've been unemployed for almost 5 months now and am having to seriously consider work in another field for a lot less money (hopefully only temp. situation).
Hey, I've got a family to help support as well as a mortgage payment and bills that add up way too fast!
Hell, I'd work 70 hrs/week if need be and throw in a lot of distateful Winblows machines and lusers.
Some of us would love to be overworked and EMPLOYED!
Do your work, shut the fuck up and quit complaining!
Here, here! It works for me too....I like the lyrics.....I'd better, the damn thing's been in my head for the past 3 days (twice on tv, and once from video tape so the wife could watch it will do that to you!)
"It's been a long road..." AAHHHH!!! *must control tunes in head. Must control tunes in head*
"A horse is a horse of course, or course..."
Dang....just posted and already overwhelmed..
on
PS2 As PC
·
· Score: 1
"Let me be clear: Intellectual Property rights (IP) such as patents and copyrights are good things. But like anything in life too much of a good thing no longer is good. Too little vitamin D and you get bone diseases. Too much vitamin D will kill you. IP can be useful to independent inventors to protect their invention from being copied and marketed by larger distributors without compensation to the inventor. But today IP is mostly used by the armies of lawyers employed by the largest technology and publishing companies to squash potential competitors who don't have access to equivalent legal resources."
WOW! I could not have put it better myself. This is the most lucid, concise, simple explanation of what as a small business owner my greatest fear is, and why Microsoft(tm) - see is this really necessary....was brought to capital hill....although at this point it's looking more and more like an exercise in futility[sp?].
Just don't buy a Fujitisu drive. Corporate line is the bottom line. If a product or design implimentation isin't making money the model/line/product will go out of production in favor of one that does.
Detritus>: "The FCC has ordered the CATV industry to use open standards for digital cable set-top boxes, electronics store and plug in a conditional access card provided by the CATV provider. This is currently being implemented but isn't available yet."
Can someone post info on this? I would love to get confirmation on this! Really!
Let me get this straight....cd's in bulk cost about $.01 USD to make, the artist gets $.05-$.10 per cd, and they retail for $17.00 thanks to price gouging and needless expenses, and the RIAA has been KIND ENOUGH to detail out what *they* think is *FAIR* use?!?
>"Microsoft has the right to produce whatever kind of program it wants to, and we have no right to judge its endeavors."
Actually, we have every right. The quality of a product is judged not by those who develop it but by those who use it.
As far as "backwards compatability" is concerned and as an administrator, I have since win95b considered having to be familiar with winblow$ having to be backwards compatable. Removing this makes dealing with users client machines that much more inefficient and unnecessarily difficult to maintain. All the more reason to use Linux or BSD exclusively.
...Of course I look at the very bright side to this. My company has been replacing Winblow$ and SCO servers for months now with Linux, now is the chance to really make some headway into clients desktop machines.
>when Windows Millennium Edition ships, I'll be standing in line for my copy.
That makes one of us.
>and I'm not going to pretend I'm some how more important than Bill Gates.
You've got to be kidding. This isin't actually *too* bad. it does *kind of* look like a fear tainted/ignorant newbie point of view. on the other hand though, it is pretty ignorant....definitely thinly veiled troll material.
Ya know, I almost didn't even bother to post today because it seeemed the inbred outnumbered the intelligent 15 to 1, but slashdot is a forum for open discussion and if these morons aren't corrected, they will just keep repeating misinformation and FUD until they can't unlearn what they have mis-learned. So, here goes:
1) AOL
The MAIN reason that aol purchased netscape was because of the M$ anti-trust trial. Aol was called to in to testify aginst M$, but had a deal with them that their default browser would be based on IE if they could be included on the windows desktop as one of the "online service" choices for new computer buyers (think ultra newbie). M$ threatened to remove them and so aol purchased netscape (I think the message is obvious....take us off the desktop, and we switch our MILLIONS of users away from your product!)...don't think they would have spent money in this sort of fashion? How much money did it take to buy Time-Warner again? Don't kid yourself! I'm sure there were a lot of other reasons as well, but this was the main one.
2) "Browser Wars"
Oh please, spare me....This was a term cooked up (think "cola wars") to sell computer MAGAZINES! Anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves. BOTH browsers were/are available for download for personal use for FREE!
*warning this next paragraph is pretty much highly combustable flame material* ; )
In fact those who think this was/is a "real" issue are most likely the same dumbasses who went to comp UpaySA and had to ask one of their "knowledgeable" staff which BOX and version they should *BUY* !....of course these are the same poeple who decided they could become web "programmers" *cough* by buying M$ frontpage and then think netscape sucks when it dosen't display frontpage's barf-like code. GO FIGURE! (*dripping sarcasm*)
3) The web developers who posted this (and the subsequent additional posters) are idiots.
Yea sure, this one sounds like *flamebait*, but hear me out.
Only an idiot would scream for standards -in fact, base their whole mission statement on the needs for open standards- and then bash the developers working on this very request. And then top it off by endorsing the competition - a compeditor who has absolutely NO regard for open standards in the first place. Remember the Kerberos fiasco?
Someone even went as far as to say "Die netscape, may IE Devour you." To get a feel for how ASININE this kind of thinking is, try this. Just replace the word "netscape" with "linux" and "IE" with "windows." It's the same fscking thing - choosing NOT to have a CHOICE!
p.s. as a side note to the hiku writer, please stop it. Hiku is to poetry, as pun is to humor. Its lowest form!
4) IE more stable than Netscape ?!?
Not too long ago I had the mis-pleasure of finding out for a client why Outlook Express 5.x was throwing up errors every time a user checked an imap e-mail account. (BTW, It's a bug in OE that WON'T be fixed and users were told to work around it - this came straight from the M$ noknowledge base itself - no shit!)
On multiple tries on multiple windows machines using IE, going to M$'s web site that was using M$'s ASP, the browser consistantly barfed errors into a frame then within a frame within a frame...ad nausium (M$ products not working well with other M$ products....once again Go Figure! *more dripping sarcasm*).
Netscape on Linux worked flawlessly the first time (which incidently is where I found the info on that pos OE).
5) Level of expertise
I weined myself off of windoze years ago. EVERYTHING I do or need I acomplish on linux. In fact I love it so much and have so much faith in it, my company's business is now based on it.
Aside from the fact that at the moment M$ refuses to make products for the platform (THANK GOD!), I absolutely HATE, let me repeat - I LOTHE the way every thing fscking uses the web browser interface. I absolutely hate the mishmosh the windoze interface has become. Why does file utility have to look like the browser, which looks like an ftp utility, which looks like the new acrobat reader, which looks like.....you get the idea.
Joy is the diversity in the window managers and numerous applications for linux (and BSD, *nix, etc.- I didn't forget you guys ; )
I could go on, but this got a LOT longer than I had planed on and it gets a little tiring standing up here on this soap box. *sheesh* "...If some only had a brain..."
I formed my own corporation whose solutions are linux based. We advertise it! We are proud of it!
When our clients and customers aproach us, they have already made the informed decision to go with an open source solution. There is no sneaking around. We replace expensive and buggy proprietary systems with open ones in the bright light of day!
We also get to educate those users and managers with questions about why our open solutions are better than certain companys' closed solutions.
From what I gather from the 'con' arguments presented in the article, some politicians fear that companies will ONLY start using digital signatures and that some won't be able to "read the fine print" since they don't have internet access.
Correct me if I'm wrong here....If you were going to purchase something online, and agree to sign a contract digitally, then wouldn't you already be able to access all the fine print (via secured web sight, physically printing the contract, secure e-mail, etc.)?
How and why some of these people get elected to any office is absolutely flaberghasting!
It's good to read. It's good to see someone passionate about this. However, you're preaching to the choir.
The problem (if you want to call it that) is that most windoze users who I admin to (who have just barley heard of Linux) had no Idea that a version of the old netscape ran on it and have never heard of the Mozilla project. They hapilly live in a world where M$ spoon feeds them the apps (and bugs!) and the last thing they heard about Netscape was something that was glanced off the pages of a Ziff-Davis publication about the "Browser wars."
This is what the "shadow" is and it's really quite silly.
I thought this kind of sensationalist psudo-journalism just about as trite as the "cola-wars" (something cooked up by marketing companies and departments to sell more).
I've said it before and I'll say it again CONGRADULATIONS to the Mozilla Team for their hard work and persistance! When it's "Ready for Prime Time," "formallay" released, and periodical marketing machines get a hold of it, you will see a 180 degree turn around in what they say.
It is wonderful to see this type of passion expressed with such anger, wit, and sarcasm. And, while I don't necessarily agree with everything the piece goes into, the overall point and tone are ones I completely understand and agree with.
FWIW, those who prefer a "dryer" more "stale" approach would tend to be those who prefer reading code as opposed to prose - this is great - I prefer not looking for that which would cause a buffer overflow - but I'm damn glad there are those who do!
However, the typical congressman and/or elected official is not going to get the same enjoyment looking through apm.c to understand power management in the kernel as you or I would. Let's face facts. They wouldn't be able to even read on the same level and deal with the concepts unless they were driping with an underlying hint at their own naivete (which in this industry is synonymous with STUPID).
Remenber one voice can make a diference (remember that guy named Torvolds who didn't want to have to use inferior M$ products?).
...It's just that an insulting "bitch slap" gets more attention from those who would prefer not to listen than a doctorial dissertation does. (Think repetition, repetition, repetition..."If the glove dosen't fit, you have to acquit...."). It's for the benefit of the stupid. You should get the idea.
I love a good angry, 'dripping with sarcasm' article. It evokes an emotional response as well as informs. Thank you/. for occasionally posting articles of this nature.
I couldn't even finsh this piece of trash!....I Got 1/2 way through it and this loser is asked his position on the linux stance and his opinions of the future and he's fscking talking about emptyV!!!!
I am Insulted and offended that: a)/. actually submitted qustesions to this L-user and b) someone actually thought L-user kid was actually a somebody!
Slashdot Mirror
If you are really serious about implementing linux in the workplace and replacing/supplementing any other technology you currently have, then we need to talk.
I'm the CEO of a linux consulting firm that since 1999 has specialized in exactly that.
email: steve@NOSPAM.computernetdesign.com
We work with clients just like you ranging from 5 employees to 500. There are lots of options! I would be happy to answer any questions you have.
ok, I'll jump in and throw my $0.02 on this (being someone from the started learning c (enjoyed it), went to Perl, and then switched to Python club).
1) Perl gives the programmer an extreeme amount of freedom of style which makes it a powerful language for the vetran programmer and a BAD BAD BAD choice for a newbie who has no concept of style, form and coding practice. It's extreemely easy to write obfuscated code in Perl.
In contrast Python by it's nature/design enforces at least some basic concepts of good programming style (whether the new programmer knows it or not!). It's often called execuitable psudocode by programmers familiar with other languages.
Am I saying one is better or not? NO (that was already covered by one of the parents). But because it is so popular and in such wide use, it too often becomes the first programming language those NEW to programming choose. And it's just too easy to learn bad habits in (I'm thinking of the mentorless, self-taught here).
2) python users on slashdot == linux users on ZDnet. A proud (sometimes zelot) vocal minority who don't want to be overlooked in all of the noise.
Astorsmash, I lost an entire DAY reading this!
/. wasn't bad enough.
The writer is funny, has my kind of humor, and writes in a style that is extreemely addictive to read.
What a great link.
Just what I needed. Intelectual heroin....As if
way the DMCA is a huge pork filled POS that goes way above and beyond its original intent.
I, as a tax payer, have to foot the bill for the enforcement of something I dont agree with...so this guy can make even more money.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. We need 2 laws passed:
1) all riders and adendums[sp.] attached to a bill have to actually pertain to what the bill is about (spirit of the bill)
2) Soft money contributions are strictly regulated, monitored, and possibily made illegal altogether.
Of course the likelihood of that happening is just about the same as G(duhhhhhhhhhh)W choosing the environment over supporting big oil, creating a SANE budget proposal, or giving a shit what REAL middle class America is going through.
And to think of all the veterans that suffered and soilders that have died (and will die) so those Americans who liked their sister a little too much could vote their voice in office.
It's spirit crushing/optimism killing, and makes me truely sad.
I've been in this industry for over 6 years in an admin/developer role and I'm no windows newbie or technical novice.
I've been unemployed for almost 5 months now and am having to seriously consider work in another field for a lot less money (hopefully only temp. situation).
Hey, I've got a family to help support as well as a mortgage payment and bills that add up way too fast!
Hell, I'd work 70 hrs/week if need be and throw in a lot of distateful Winblows machines and lusers.
Some of us would love to be overworked and EMPLOYED!
Do your work, shut the fuck up and quit complaining!
..."PleaseForTheLoveOfGodGoToSleep.mp3"
As a new fairly new father whose daughter is teething[sp.] and getting a cold...
that's pretty damn funny : ) !
"...smarty pants".
MMmmpphhffftttt.....Ow! Coffee out my nose!
Damn I wish I had moderater points right now. Funny.
Truely
: )
Here, here! It works for me too....I like the lyrics.....I'd better, the damn thing's been in my head for the past 3 days (twice on tv, and once from video tape so the wife could watch it will do that to you!)
"It's been a long road..." AAHHHH!!! *must control tunes in head. Must control tunes in head*
"A horse is a horse of course, or course..."
Slashdot effect if full force.
: )
"Let me be clear: Intellectual Property rights (IP) such as patents and copyrights are good things. But like anything in life too much of a good thing no longer is good. Too little vitamin D and you get bone diseases. Too much vitamin D will kill you. IP can be useful to independent inventors to protect their invention from being copied and marketed by larger distributors without compensation to the inventor. But today IP is mostly used by the armies of lawyers employed by the largest technology and publishing companies to squash potential competitors who don't have access to equivalent legal resources."
WOW! I could not have put it better myself. This is the most lucid, concise, simple explanation of what as a small business owner my greatest fear is, and why Microsoft(tm) - see is this really necessary....was brought to capital hill....although at this point it's looking more and more like an exercise in futility[sp?].
Just don't buy a Fujitisu drive. Corporate line is the bottom line. If a product or design implimentation isin't making money the model/line/product will go out of production in favor of one that does.
simple.
-ravage
Really?!?
Detritus>: "The FCC has ordered the CATV industry to use open standards for digital cable set-top boxes, electronics store and plug in a conditional access card provided by the CATV provider. This is currently being implemented but isn't available yet."
Can someone post info on this? I would love to get confirmation on this! Really!
(a happy cable modem/linux user ; )
-ravage
Let me get this straight....cd's in bulk cost about $.01 USD to make, the artist gets $.05-$.10 per cd, and they retail for $17.00 thanks to price gouging and needless expenses, and the RIAA has been KIND ENOUGH to detail out what *they* think is *FAIR* use?!?
screw em!
Moderators, please mark this as troll material.
>"Microsoft has the right to produce whatever kind of program it wants to, and we have no right to judge its endeavors."
Actually, we have every right. The quality of a product is judged not by those who develop it but by those who use it.
As far as "backwards compatability" is concerned and as an administrator, I have since win95b considered having to be familiar with winblow$ having to be backwards compatable. Removing this makes dealing with users client machines that much more inefficient and unnecessarily difficult to maintain. All the more reason to use Linux or BSD exclusively.
...Of course I look at the very bright side to this. My company has been replacing Winblow$ and SCO servers for months now with Linux, now is the chance to really make some headway into clients desktop machines.
>when Windows Millennium Edition ships, I'll be standing in line for my copy.
That makes one of us.
>and I'm not going to pretend I'm some how more important than Bill Gates.
You've got to be kidding. This isin't actually *too* bad. it does *kind of* look like a fear tainted/ignorant newbie point of view. on the other hand though, it is pretty ignorant....definitely thinly veiled troll material.
Ya know, I almost didn't even bother to post today because it seeemed the inbred outnumbered the intelligent 15 to 1, but slashdot is a forum for open discussion and if these morons aren't corrected, they will just keep repeating misinformation and FUD until they can't unlearn what they have mis-learned. So, here goes:
....of course these are the same poeple who decided they could become web "programmers" *cough* by buying M$ frontpage and then think netscape sucks when it dosen't display frontpage's barf-like code. GO FIGURE! (*dripping sarcasm*)
...ad nausium (M$ products not working well with other M$ products....once again Go Figure! *more dripping sarcasm*).
.....you get the idea.
1) AOL
The MAIN reason that aol purchased netscape was because of the M$ anti-trust trial. Aol was called to in to testify aginst M$, but had a deal with them that their default browser would be based on IE if they could be included on the windows desktop as one of the "online service" choices for new computer buyers (think ultra newbie). M$ threatened to remove them and so aol purchased netscape (I think the message is obvious....take us off the desktop, and we switch our MILLIONS of users away from your product!)...don't think they would have spent money in this sort of fashion? How much money did it take to buy Time-Warner again? Don't kid yourself! I'm sure there were a lot of other reasons as well, but this was the main one.
2) "Browser Wars"
Oh please, spare me....This was a term cooked up (think "cola wars") to sell computer MAGAZINES! Anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves. BOTH browsers were/are available for download for personal use for FREE!
*warning this next paragraph is pretty much highly combustable flame material* ; )
In fact those who think this was/is a "real" issue are most likely the same dumbasses who went to comp UpaySA and had to ask one of their "knowledgeable" staff which BOX and version they should *BUY* !
3) The web developers who posted this (and the subsequent additional posters) are idiots.
Yea sure, this one sounds like *flamebait*, but hear me out.
Only an idiot would scream for standards -in fact, base their whole mission statement on the needs for open standards- and then bash the developers working on this very request. And then top it off by endorsing the competition - a compeditor who has absolutely NO regard for open standards in the first place. Remember the Kerberos fiasco?
Someone even went as far as to say "Die netscape, may IE Devour you." To get a feel for how ASININE this kind of thinking is, try this. Just replace the word "netscape" with "linux" and "IE" with "windows." It's the same fscking thing - choosing NOT to have a CHOICE!
p.s. as a side note to the hiku writer, please stop it. Hiku is to poetry, as pun is to humor. Its lowest form!
4) IE more stable than Netscape ?!?
Not too long ago I had the mis-pleasure of finding out for a client why Outlook Express 5.x was throwing up errors every time a user checked an imap e-mail account. (BTW, It's a bug in OE that WON'T be fixed and users were told to work around it - this came straight from the M$ noknowledge base itself - no shit!)
On multiple tries on multiple windows machines using IE, going to M$'s web site that was using M$'s ASP, the browser consistantly barfed errors into a frame then within a frame within a frame
Netscape on Linux worked flawlessly the first time (which incidently is where I found the info on that pos OE).
5) Level of expertise
I weined myself off of windoze years ago. EVERYTHING I do or need I acomplish on linux. In fact I love it so much and have so much faith in it, my company's business is now based on it.
Aside from the fact that at the moment M$ refuses to make products for the platform (THANK GOD!), I absolutely HATE, let me repeat - I LOTHE the way every thing fscking uses the web browser interface. I absolutely hate the mishmosh the windoze interface has become. Why does file utility have to look like the browser, which looks like an ftp utility, which looks like the new acrobat reader, which looks like
Joy is the diversity in the window managers and numerous applications for linux (and BSD, *nix, etc.- I didn't forget you guys ; )
I could go on, but this got a LOT longer than I had planed on and it gets a little tiring standing up here on this soap box. *sheesh* "...If some only had a brain..."
-ravage
I formed my own corporation whose solutions are linux based. We advertise it! We are proud of it!
When our clients and customers aproach us, they have already made the informed decision to go with an open source solution. There is no sneaking around. We replace expensive and buggy proprietary systems with open ones in the bright light of day!
We also get to educate those users and managers with questions about why our open solutions are better than certain companys' closed solutions.
*choking on his morning coffee* Damn, that was funny! : )
From what I gather from the 'con' arguments presented in the article, some politicians fear that companies will ONLY start using digital signatures and that some won't be able to "read the fine print" since they don't have internet access.
Correct me if I'm wrong here....If you were going to purchase something online, and agree to sign a contract digitally, then wouldn't you already be able to access all the fine print (via secured web sight, physically printing the contract, secure e-mail, etc.)?
How and why some of these people get elected to any office is absolutely flaberghasting!
It's good to read. It's good to see someone passionate about this. However, you're preaching to the choir.
The problem (if you want to call it that) is that most windoze users who I admin to (who have just barley heard of Linux) had no Idea that a version of the old netscape ran on it and have never heard of the Mozilla project. They hapilly live in a world where M$ spoon feeds them the apps (and bugs!) and the last thing they heard about Netscape was something that was glanced off the pages of a Ziff-Davis publication about the "Browser wars."
This is what the "shadow" is and it's really quite silly.
I thought this kind of sensationalist psudo-journalism just about as trite as the "cola-wars" (something cooked up by marketing companies and departments to sell more).
I've said it before and I'll say it again CONGRADULATIONS to the Mozilla Team for their hard work and persistance! When it's "Ready for Prime Time," "formallay" released, and periodical marketing machines get a hold of it, you will see a 180 degree turn around in what they say.
GO Mozilla!
-ravage
It is wonderful to see this type of passion expressed with such anger, wit, and sarcasm. And, while I don't necessarily agree with everything the piece goes into, the overall point and tone are ones I completely understand and agree with.
/. for occasionally posting articles of this nature.
FWIW, those who prefer a "dryer" more "stale" approach would tend to be those who prefer reading code as opposed to prose - this is great - I prefer not looking for that which would cause a buffer overflow - but I'm damn glad there are those who do!
However, the typical congressman and/or elected official is not going to get the same enjoyment looking through apm.c to understand power management in the kernel as you or I would. Let's face facts. They wouldn't be able to even read on the same level and deal with the concepts unless they were driping with an underlying hint at their own naivete (which in this industry is synonymous with STUPID).
Remenber one voice can make a diference (remember that guy named Torvolds who didn't want to have to use inferior M$ products?).
...It's just that an insulting "bitch slap" gets more attention from those who would prefer not to listen than a doctorial dissertation does. (Think repetition, repetition, repetition..."If the glove dosen't fit, you have to acquit...."). It's for the benefit of the stupid. You should get the idea.
I love a good angry, 'dripping with sarcasm' article. It evokes an emotional response as well as informs. Thank you
-ravage
I couldn't even finsh this piece of trash!....I Got 1/2 way through it and this loser is asked his position on the linux stance and his opinions of the future and he's fscking talking about emptyV!!!!
/. actually submitted qustesions to this L-user and
I am Insulted and offended that:
a)
b) someone actually thought L-user kid was actually a somebody!
always from the heart of my mind!
-Ravage
really.
: )