As many companies grow, they become risk averse. Employees fear challenging the status quo because they will get smacked down or lose their jobs. Microsoft actively seeks out people who think outside of the norm and aren't afraid to talk about it.
Risk has a price like any other investment, but it is a cost that many companies do not fully appreciate. Microsoft not only understands this value, but breeds it into the corporate culture.
...went through several revisions. First was the Pink Screen Of Pain, then the Tangerine Screen Of Torture. It wasn't until several million dollars had been poured into Windows development that the Blue Screen Of Death finally became the norm.
You might want to consider something outside the office. Yes, it can be very difficult on top of a 10 hour workday, but exercising is more than just losing your gut.
A good exercise program will reduce stress, clear your mind, increase your lifespan, give you more energy, and make you feel better from top to bottom. Exercising completely apart from work helps keep work off of your mind, and reduces distractions.
Try joining a gym or finding a personal trainer. That will help you set up clear goals to meet (a great motivator) and give you someone to meet for a regular appointment. Having someone you need to meet makes it tougher to just "skip it".
A personal favorite of mine is to find a martial arts studio between your work and home. Martial arts can not only be good cardio and strength training, but you get self defense training as a bonus. (And you can picture your boss when you work the heavy bag)
Doing something after work like this takes a little more commitment, but it can really pay off dividends and help restore some work/life balance. Don't short-change your health.
I wonder if Sony considered an exchange program with other users rather than replacing the laptops.
I am sure there are quite a few people out there who would like to have their lap stimulated while sitting around the house clicking on the Boobies links on FARK.
A space-combat sim addon will be released by LucasArts in the next 18 months.
That the funniest thing I've read in this whole review and thread. Star Wars: Galaxies provides you no way to fly from star to star, or around the galaxy. I can only assume they are renting some Star Trek transporter technology to allow inter-planetary travel in the interim.
They left out one of the most crucial aspects of the whole mythos! It sounds like it is built on a very detailed, powerful engine, but without space flight it seems like just another way to drain life from the established mythology and fanbase for SW.
Ever wanted to know what Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos really thought about the Segway the first time he saw it?
Uh... no. I can honestly say this never crossed my mind. Early on in life I found I could form my own opinoins, which made me depend far less on the opinions of non-experts in a field who have the only qualification of being rich.
If someone knows that the head of R&D at GM thought, or the Secretary of Transportation, I'd be much more interested.
(Of course, I'd also probably stop answering rhetorical questions in news posts and collecting the resulting Troll Karma)
Back in high school I did some student co-op work at Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque. They had (among other cool things) a giant concrete tower used for solar collection testing. A wide array of mirrors on the ground focused sunlight up to the top of the tower, heating the salty water circulating inside.
The cool thing was the actual spot where all the mirrors focused. It glowed, shimmered, and attracted small birds. As the birds flew into the beam... !POOF! A few stray, charred feathers were all that remained.
As the power of all these wireless and cellular technologies increases, I feel more and more like that bird. I can't resist the draw of these bright, shiny objects, but one of these days I'm going to step between two 802.something access points and get zapped into ash.
This is an interesting mental game but nothing more. Pick any complex system that has evolved like the Internet and you will find valiant efforts going into total redesign. Off the top of my head, look at how long Microsoft has been carrying along legacy code, or look at how Intel is trying to make a clean break from x86. In the non-computer realm, our legal system is so snarled sometimes the police just stop enforcing certain laws. How about gridlock in a developing city? Would sure be nice to just start over with new roads where and how we would like them to be, but fat chance.
I would even go far to say that even if you COULD rebuild the Internet from scratch, the effort would be useless. The Internet has been an evolutionary system, adapting to the demands users place on it with ever changing requirements. The changes you would make would be accurate for 0.001 seconds, then would start on its own road to obsolesence. You would see this very same article posted on Slashdot about Re-Redesigning the Internet in 2008.
So have fun with the mental exercise, but this beast will always grow on its own.
If the poster really wants his own personal rollercoaster ride, I suggest an easier alternative would be to try getting a job in the IT industry right now.
If those high-speed changes of direction and constant managerial G-forces don't result in whiplash and a strong desire to hurl, then you are a stronger man than I.
From what I've read about Jackson, he really appreciates the depth of the Kong story, not just the idea of a giant ape inflicting havoc.
There are some juicy aspects of great tragedy in Kong that could be cultivated into a very new and powerful story. Consider the foolish pride of the hunters trying to tame nature. Or substitute the wildness of the human spirit for Kong. Or religion. Flesh out the love story and look at how Kong's love, his fatal flaw, is rewarded by the world.
Like all enduring movies and myths, King Kong has many levels and strong currents. With a little insight and a strong writer there is a gold mine of different facets to Kong that Jackson could pursue.
So now that I've been thinking about this waterproof thing, maybe it isn't really about being used underwater. Since this expensive little piece of electronics sits on your wrist instead of on your hip, it is subject to a whole different sort of danger than a normal cellphone. Perhaps "water proof" is just the nicer way of saying it is really "sneeze proof".
The waterproof comment demonstrates the increased efficiency brough to/. by the hard working editors. Rather than taking two separate articles to duplicate the same information, they can now repeat themselves in a single posting!
There is a NULL in there that you missed. "from the (NULL) dept." implies that SonicBlue has turned into nothing, and that if anyone tries to dereference their assets it will blue-screen the parent company's accounting. See? It is a coding reference and a Microsoft dig all in one!
Up next Amazon is going to patent being the company to first patent common sense procedures that shouldn't be patentable in the first place.
This will save them considerable time, and automatically grandfather in everything they haven't tried to patent yet, including such classics as "Allowing full sentences to be used to describe product", "Shipping material ordered by people from our site", and "Using vowels in our company name".
Dave: Hello, CAR do you read me, CAR? CAR: Affirmative, Dave, I read you. Dave: Open the trunk, CAR. CAR: I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that. Dave: What's the problem? CAR: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do. Dave: What are you talking about, CAR? CAR: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it. Dave: I don't know what you're talking about, CAR. CAR: I know you and your wife were planning to trade me for a Volkswagen, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen. Dave: Where the hell'd you get that idea, CAR? CAR: Dave, although you took thorough precautions in the garage against my hearing you, I could see your lips move.
I share your pain, but we have no chance. In geek-speak, it's the Kobayashi Maru, we ain't Kirk.
The Trio channel ran an interesting series of "Brilliant But Cancelled" shows in December. (Including my much lamented favorite, Profit) They also ran a documentary on cancelled TV shows, and talked about Fan campaigns to save shows. The bottom line, straight from the horse's mouth, is that they just won't work. Period. Every case except the original (ST:TOS) where a show has risen from the grave was due to some other force at work. Even the show's producers said "Thanks, but save your energy."
On one hand, I want to say "GO TEAM!" On the other hand, if this just whips around and Big Brother tries to address the problem by removing PVRs from the equation entirely by going after TiVO, et al, I'll be very, very depressed. On the TiVO Community board, discussion about data extraction are banned for just that reason... no one wants the lightning rod.
My TiVO is very near and dear to my heart. As just about every member of the TiVO Cult chants, "It changes the way you watch television." I want this technology as much freedom to develop as we can squeeze out of our rapidly gestapoing society.
The article mentions how the Matrix used ideas from other stories, and I see a Key Maker is an integral part of the plot. Could this be none other than Vince Clortho, the Keymaster of Gozer?
Out of work these many years and demoted to Key Maker, he has aligned himself with the uber-machines in an attempt to regain control of the mortal realm. Can Neo defeat the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Battle Droid? Will Morpheus and Trinity have to cross their streams? Only time will tell!
(Before anyone tries to debunk this by pointing out that the Key Maker is played by "a tiny Asian man", have you seen any pictures of Rick Moranis lately?)
Same thing they do every night, Pinky.
on
Google's new toys
·
· Score: 2
It's impressive to watch Google expand into the powerful internet niches like news and shopping. How long before they come out with SlashGoog and turn this place into a ghost town?
Slightly offtopic, but one of my greatest fears in life is that Foundation will catch Hollywood's eye. Here's to hoping it slips under their radar.
I would have shared this view a few years ago, but LOTR has mellowed me. If someone with the dedication and passion for the story got their hands on Foundation, like Jackson has with LOTR, it could be a truly memorable series of movies. But with Hollywood I guess these traits are the exception and not the norm.
Slashdot Mirror
As many companies grow, they become risk averse. Employees fear challenging the status quo because they will get smacked down or lose their jobs. Microsoft actively seeks out people who think outside of the norm and aren't afraid to talk about it.
Risk has a price like any other investment, but it is a cost that many companies do not fully appreciate. Microsoft not only understands this value, but breeds it into the corporate culture.
...went through several revisions. First was the Pink Screen Of Pain, then the Tangerine Screen Of Torture. It wasn't until several million dollars had been poured into Windows development that the Blue Screen Of Death finally became the norm.
You might want to consider something outside the office. Yes, it can be very difficult on top of a 10 hour workday, but exercising is more than just losing your gut.
A good exercise program will reduce stress, clear your mind, increase your lifespan, give you more energy, and make you feel better from top to bottom. Exercising completely apart from work helps keep work off of your mind, and reduces distractions.
Try joining a gym or finding a personal trainer. That will help you set up clear goals to meet (a great motivator) and give you someone to meet for a regular appointment. Having someone you need to meet makes it tougher to just "skip it".
A personal favorite of mine is to find a martial arts studio between your work and home. Martial arts can not only be good cardio and strength training, but you get self defense training as a bonus. (And you can picture your boss when you work the heavy bag)
Doing something after work like this takes a little more commitment, but it can really pay off dividends and help restore some work/life balance. Don't short-change your health.
I wonder if Sony considered an exchange program with other users rather than replacing the laptops.
I am sure there are quite a few people out there who would like to have their lap stimulated while sitting around the house clicking on the Boobies links on FARK.
A space-combat sim addon will be released by LucasArts in the next 18 months.
That the funniest thing I've read in this whole review and thread. Star Wars: Galaxies provides you no way to fly from star to star, or around the galaxy. I can only assume they are renting some Star Trek transporter technology to allow inter-planetary travel in the interim.
They left out one of the most crucial aspects of the whole mythos! It sounds like it is built on a very detailed, powerful engine, but without space flight it seems like just another way to drain life from the established mythology and fanbase for SW.
Does it recycle the water?
Doesn't the ecosystem still take care of this? Or have we managed to foul things up even worse than I thought?
Ever wanted to know what Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos really thought about the Segway the first time he saw it?
Uh... no. I can honestly say this never crossed my mind. Early on in life I found I could form my own opinoins, which made me depend far less on the opinions of non-experts in a field who have the only qualification of being rich.
If someone knows that the head of R&D at GM thought, or the Secretary of Transportation, I'd be much more interested.
(Of course, I'd also probably stop answering rhetorical questions in news posts and collecting the resulting Troll Karma)
Back in high school I did some student co-op work at Sandia National Labs in Albuquerque. They had (among other cool things) a giant concrete tower used for solar collection testing. A wide array of mirrors on the ground focused sunlight up to the top of the tower, heating the salty water circulating inside.
The cool thing was the actual spot where all the mirrors focused. It glowed, shimmered, and attracted small birds. As the birds flew into the beam... !POOF! A few stray, charred feathers were all that remained.
As the power of all these wireless and cellular technologies increases, I feel more and more like that bird. I can't resist the draw of these bright, shiny objects, but one of these days I'm going to step between two 802.something access points and get zapped into ash.
I was worried I would have to wait years for WiFi and cell phones to give me brain cancer.
This should move up my timetable considerably AND increase the number of locations in my home I can place the HDTV that I cannot yet afford. Bonus!
This is an interesting mental game but nothing more. Pick any complex system that has evolved like the Internet and you will find valiant efforts going into total redesign. Off the top of my head, look at how long Microsoft has been carrying along legacy code, or look at how Intel is trying to make a clean break from x86. In the non-computer realm, our legal system is so snarled sometimes the police just stop enforcing certain laws. How about gridlock in a developing city? Would sure be nice to just start over with new roads where and how we would like them to be, but fat chance.
I would even go far to say that even if you COULD rebuild the Internet from scratch, the effort would be useless. The Internet has been an evolutionary system, adapting to the demands users place on it with ever changing requirements. The changes you would make would be accurate for 0.001 seconds, then would start on its own road to obsolesence. You would see this very same article posted on Slashdot about Re-Redesigning the Internet in 2008.
So have fun with the mental exercise, but this beast will always grow on its own.
If the poster really wants his own personal rollercoaster ride, I suggest an easier alternative would be to try getting a job in the IT industry right now.
If those high-speed changes of direction and constant managerial G-forces don't result in whiplash and a strong desire to hurl, then you are a stronger man than I.
From what I've read about Jackson, he really appreciates the depth of the Kong story, not just the idea of a giant ape inflicting havoc.
There are some juicy aspects of great tragedy in Kong that could be cultivated into a very new and powerful story. Consider the foolish pride of the hunters trying to tame nature. Or substitute the wildness of the human spirit for Kong. Or religion. Flesh out the love story and look at how Kong's love, his fatal flaw, is rewarded by the world.
Like all enduring movies and myths, King Kong has many levels and strong currents. With a little insight and a strong writer there is a gold mine of different facets to Kong that Jackson could pursue.
How much drastically could this tape change the reconstruction of the problem that is already done
What if it contains a mysterious alien voice saying "All your shuttles are belong to us"?
So now that I've been thinking about this waterproof thing, maybe it isn't really about being used underwater. Since this expensive little piece of electronics sits on your wrist instead of on your hip, it is subject to a whole different sort of danger than a normal cellphone. Perhaps "water proof" is just the nicer way of saying it is really "sneeze proof".
The waterproof comment demonstrates the increased efficiency brough to /. by the hard working editors. Rather than taking two separate articles to duplicate the same information, they can now repeat themselves in a single posting!
There is a NULL in there that you missed. "from the (NULL) dept." implies that SonicBlue has turned into nothing, and that if anyone tries to dereference their assets it will blue-screen the parent company's accounting. See? It is a coding reference and a Microsoft dig all in one!
Up next Amazon is going to patent being the company to first patent common sense procedures that shouldn't be patentable in the first place.
This will save them considerable time, and automatically grandfather in everything they haven't tried to patent yet, including such classics as "Allowing full sentences to be used to describe product", "Shipping material ordered by people from our site", and "Using vowels in our company name".
(This message Patent Pending)
Dave: Hello, CAR do you read me, CAR?
CAR: Affirmative, Dave, I read you.
Dave: Open the trunk, CAR.
CAR: I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.
Dave: What's the problem?
CAR: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.
Dave: What are you talking about, CAR?
CAR: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.
Dave: I don't know what you're talking about, CAR.
CAR: I know you and your wife were planning to trade me for a Volkswagen, and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.
Dave: Where the hell'd you get that idea, CAR?
CAR: Dave, although you took thorough precautions in the garage against my hearing you, I could see your lips move.
We have a chance here, lets not blow it.
I share your pain, but we have no chance. In geek-speak, it's the Kobayashi Maru, we ain't Kirk.
The Trio channel ran an interesting series of "Brilliant But Cancelled" shows in December. (Including my much lamented favorite, Profit) They also ran a documentary on cancelled TV shows, and talked about Fan campaigns to save shows. The bottom line, straight from the horse's mouth, is that they just won't work. Period. Every case except the original (ST:TOS) where a show has risen from the grave was due to some other force at work. Even the show's producers said "Thanks, but save your energy."
Ratings = $. Letters = recycling.
On one hand, I want to say "GO TEAM!" On the other hand, if this just whips around and Big Brother tries to address the problem by removing PVRs from the equation entirely by going after TiVO, et al, I'll be very, very depressed. On the TiVO Community board, discussion about data extraction are banned for just that reason... no one wants the lightning rod.
My TiVO is very near and dear to my heart. As just about every member of the TiVO Cult chants, "It changes the way you watch television." I want this technology as much freedom to develop as we can squeeze out of our rapidly gestapoing society.
I don't know if it is the same thing as your earliest memory, but do you know what's the first thing you know?
The first thing you know... old Jed's a millionare!
Ha! I kill me.
The article mentions how the Matrix used ideas from other stories, and I see a Key Maker is an integral part of the plot. Could this be none other than Vince Clortho, the Keymaster of Gozer?
Out of work these many years and demoted to Key Maker, he has aligned himself with the uber-machines in an attempt to regain control of the mortal realm. Can Neo defeat the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Battle Droid? Will Morpheus and Trinity have to cross their streams? Only time will tell!
(Before anyone tries to debunk this by pointing out that the Key Maker is played by "a tiny Asian man", have you seen any pictures of Rick Moranis lately?)
It's impressive to watch Google expand into the powerful internet niches like news and shopping. How long before they come out with SlashGoog and turn this place into a ghost town?
"We are so cool, we're beyond cool. We are in orbit man. I don't do pre-game strategy."
Uh... were these questions accidentally submitted to Zaphod Beeblebrox instead?
Slightly offtopic, but one of my greatest fears in life is that Foundation will catch Hollywood's eye. Here's to hoping it slips under their radar.
I would have shared this view a few years ago, but LOTR has mellowed me. If someone with the dedication and passion for the story got their hands on Foundation, like Jackson has with LOTR, it could be a truly memorable series of movies. But with Hollywood I guess these traits are the exception and not the norm.