But advertising does work, period. Not all ads work. But in general, companies pay billions of dollars to advertise because it makes them billions more. If it didn't, advertising wouldn't be a multi-billion-dollar industry. Even people with DVRs are not fast forwarding through commercials as much as producers and advertisers feared. Now, there's no guarantee people are watching those commercials. My twelve year old daughter likes for me to mute the commercials and we take turns making up our own audio. It's usually a lot of "look at this car. isn't it a cool car. it costs more than you can afford. Look at it drive in ways you can't safely drive. it's an awesome car you can't have...and here's a cute girl...sell everything you own and buy our car."
I'm always at a loss for what to say when the Cialis commercials come on.
Will standalone GPS units kill the map/atlas printing business? Will computers kill the pencil+paper industry? Will cars kill the bicycle industry? Will the internet kill the shopping mall industry?
In regards to screen size, research is already being done to move user interaction away from screens in general. Think projection, direct retinal display, etc.
Sure this is an attempt to be funny, but don't be surprised. When this 3 strikes thing doesn't prop up profits for the copyright regime like they expect, and the cops start yammering about the crypto tech used by the bad guys making it harder for them to do their job, banning encryption WILL be the next step.
Remember the "hey, let's force back doors in all encryption schemes" the US government was trying to pass not too long ago? Clipper chip ring a bell? Skipjack? Key escrow? It will be done.
These problems you're describing are management problems and have little to do with IT as an industry or career choice. Bad management is bad management. The management you describe are also likely mishandling sales, accounting, operations, and human resources.
The fix is not to get out of IT. It's to get out of those types of companies. Believe me, I've worked for company after company and even gave up on working for other companies to start my own. Then I found a customer that became my biggest customer and took up so much of my time I now work for them full time (but still own my consulting company).
This company has competent executive management, unlike the previous eight companies I had struggled with for a few years here and a few years there (three of which are now out of business and one of which is hanging on by a thread *due to terrible management*). Does the CEO still make an occasional wrong decision? He's human, of course he does. But the executive management team values skilled workers, listens to the advice given to it from employees whom it pays well for said advice, and provides all employees with the best tools they can in order to help them be successful at their jobs.
Find a company with competent management and IT is no more difficult a field than any other. In many ways it's better. And no, we're not hiring right now.
And for the record, I'm a Libertarian, now that Republicans are unpopular.
I just want to say as a lifelong little l libertarian leaner, (well, all my adult life anyway) that I find it really annoying how many Republicans are suddenly calling themselves libertarians. I'm perfectly happy with ALL political parties losing members and more people freeing themselves of any and all party affiliation but I just get annoyed that lately when people find out I lean libertarian they assume I used to be a Republican.
Yes, I screamed that loudly. I am frustrated. No, that doesn't even begin to capture the emotion. For the last nearly ten years I've read repeatedly about this cheap new solar thingamajig and that new solar breakthrough and how any time REAL SOON NOW cheap mass solar power will be available to all. Yet here we are, all these fucking years later after one anouncement after another of this breakthru and that front which will eventually lead to cheap solar with NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT.
And for crying out loud I WANT SOLAR POWER. But I'm sick to fucking death of hearing this bullshit news. So until I can install enough solar panels on my roof to reliably power my home with enough spare energy to handle spikes AFFORDABLY, it's all bullshit.
I confidently profess I will NOT SEE CHEAP SOLAR IN MY LIFETIME.
It has nothing to do with that. And it really doesn't matter what reason Apple has. The point is moot because people IN POSSESSION of these phones don't actually OWN them, Apple does. Welcome to the iphOwn.
I have both an N800 and an N810. I've recently been developing Maemo apps for them. I SO FREAKING WANT THIS PHONE but damn that's expensive. Still, I'll try to get one. Verizon can blow me.
I've only just begun getting into Android. I may be wrong there. I like what I've gotten into so far it just seems way too tied to Google. That's what I meant.
But I freely admit I could be wrong because I've really only just begun with it and have not gotten far enough in to figure out how easy it is to run Android on whatever device I want and not rely on Google's services. I believe it can be done as I seem to recall some story about Android powering set top boxes and even a netbook.
I own an N800 and an N810 and do some Maemo development work on them. They're IMHO awesome devices. I don't know or care about Nokia in general but they have been steadily improving this line of devices since the N770 and I just cannot begin to tell you how slick they are (again IMHO).
I use skype and gizmo to make VoIP phone calls on them at any Wi-Fi hotspot and they are just fun to play around with. The biggest problem with them, in my experience, is people expect them to be phones and don't get the idea that it's just a handheld PC. Adding cell phone capability with the N900 (and increased horsepower) will, I think, cross this device over from enthusiast toy to a more mainstream "smartphone" even though I think the term does the device a dis-service.
It's just more than a phone. I've never used a cell phone that had a web experience remotely close to the desktop/laptop world. The N800/N810 is 100 times better than any cell phone @ web browsing. The games available (for the most part if it runs on Linux, it'll run on these devices and I've enjoyed playing MAME games on mine), the productivity tools, the multimedia capabilities, etc.
I've never developed apps for the iPhone but I've tinkered with BlackBerry development, Android development and Maemo development. While I think it's not as well-documented perhaps as Android or BlackBerry, and getting set up to do development on it is not as simple, it's easily manageable and *much less locked down* than the other platforms. Developing for Android isn't too bad but I think it still is a bit more locked down, developing for BlackBerry you are also definitely limited by what RIM (and the cell providers) will allow you to do. I hope that with Maemo 5 and the new cell-phone stuff, Nokia doesn't cave to cell providers and start locking shit down on these devices and instead keeps to the spirit of the original open-ness so I can still write apps that do what *I* want them to do, not what T-Mobile wants them to do.
I still have my 1200XL, tape drive, Atari/BASIC cartridge, Jumpman Jr. cartridge, floppy drive, original Zork disks, and my Mapping the Atari book. This computer and my then pre-teen self attending a 6502 assembly class started me off on my technology love affair. I also still have old issues of Compute magazine, including the one with the code for keying in Lunar Lander.
Lost my modem with acoustic coupler, unfortunately.
Speaking of accomplices, when I was about twelve years old, a cousin of mine and I were taking turns shooting a BB gun at an outdoor security light. When it turned out that we actually hit it and I was asked about it, I staunchly stuck to my "well we were just aiming up in the air, we might have *accidentally* hit it...but we weren't aiming at it or *trying* to shoot it out" defense AND IT WAS WORKING.
When he was asked, he told his father the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
So, I learned a long time ago, the quickest way to get caught doing something bad is to have an accomplice. I would've gotten away with it if it hadn't been for that meddling kid.
Slashdot Mirror
My neighbor's unsecured wireless router.
But advertising does work, period. Not all ads work. But in general, companies pay billions of dollars to advertise because it makes them billions more. If it didn't, advertising wouldn't be a multi-billion-dollar industry. Even people with DVRs are not fast forwarding through commercials as much as producers and advertisers feared. Now, there's no guarantee people are watching those commercials. My twelve year old daughter likes for me to mute the commercials and we take turns making up our own audio. It's usually a lot of "look at this car. isn't it a cool car. it costs more than you can afford. Look at it drive in ways you can't safely drive. it's an awesome car you can't have...and here's a cute girl...sell everything you own and buy our car."
I'm always at a loss for what to say when the Cialis commercials come on.
One just has more members than the other.
And one just has more lobbyists, more money, more power, and owns more government officials than the other. They're like two peas in a pod.
Continuing...
Will standalone GPS units kill the map/atlas printing business?
Will computers kill the pencil+paper industry?
Will cars kill the bicycle industry?
Will the internet kill the shopping mall industry?
etc.
In regards to screen size, research is already being done to move user interaction away from screens in general. Think projection, direct retinal display, etc.
Yes, but using the Fist of the North Star for ass-kicking is still okay.
Sure this is an attempt to be funny, but don't be surprised. When this 3 strikes thing doesn't prop up profits for the copyright regime like they expect, and the cops start yammering about the crypto tech used by the bad guys making it harder for them to do their job, banning encryption WILL be the next step. Remember the "hey, let's force back doors in all encryption schemes" the US government was trying to pass not too long ago? Clipper chip ring a bell? Skipjack? Key escrow? It will be done.
These problems you're describing are management problems and have little to do with IT as an industry or career choice. Bad management is bad management. The management you describe are also likely mishandling sales, accounting, operations, and human resources.
The fix is not to get out of IT. It's to get out of those types of companies. Believe me, I've worked for company after company and even gave up on working for other companies to start my own. Then I found a customer that became my biggest customer and took up so much of my time I now work for them full time (but still own my consulting company).
This company has competent executive management, unlike the previous eight companies I had struggled with for a few years here and a few years there (three of which are now out of business and one of which is hanging on by a thread *due to terrible management*). Does the CEO still make an occasional wrong decision? He's human, of course he does. But the executive management team values skilled workers, listens to the advice given to it from employees whom it pays well for said advice, and provides all employees with the best tools they can in order to help them be successful at their jobs.
Find a company with competent management and IT is no more difficult a field than any other. In many ways it's better. And no, we're not hiring right now.
Here is the church and here is the steeple. Open the doors and see all the sheeple.
Anathem
...already mentioned, how about "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow?
I just want to say as a lifelong little l libertarian leaner, (well, all my adult life anyway) that I find it really annoying how many Republicans are suddenly calling themselves libertarians. I'm perfectly happy with ALL political parties losing members and more people freeing themselves of any and all party affiliation but I just get annoyed that lately when people find out I lean libertarian they assume I used to be a Republican.
Uhh..this is slashdot. He's never even had a girlfriend.
Your real doll?
Yes, I screamed that loudly. I am frustrated. No, that doesn't even begin to capture the emotion. For the last nearly ten years I've read repeatedly about this cheap new solar thingamajig and that new solar breakthrough and how any time REAL SOON NOW cheap mass solar power will be available to all. Yet here we are, all these fucking years later after one anouncement after another of this breakthru and that front which will eventually lead to cheap solar with NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT.
And for crying out loud I WANT SOLAR POWER. But I'm sick to fucking death of hearing this bullshit news. So until I can install enough solar panels on my roof to reliably power my home with enough spare energy to handle spikes AFFORDABLY, it's all bullshit.
I confidently profess I will NOT SEE CHEAP SOLAR IN MY LIFETIME.
And I'd gladly be proven wrong.
But I won't.
It has nothing to do with that. And it really doesn't matter what reason Apple has. The point is moot because people IN POSSESSION of these phones don't actually OWN them, Apple does. Welcome to the iphOwn.
I have not yet. I use 4.1.2 on xubuntu.
But I'm thinking now I should get the 5 SDK (still in Beta status) and start working with it.
I have both an N800 and an N810. I've recently been developing Maemo apps for them. I SO FREAKING WANT THIS PHONE but damn that's expensive. Still, I'll try to get one. Verizon can blow me.
I've only just begun getting into Android. I may be wrong there. I like what I've gotten into so far it just seems way too tied to Google. That's what I meant.
But I freely admit I could be wrong because I've really only just begun with it and have not gotten far enough in to figure out how easy it is to run Android on whatever device I want and not rely on Google's services. I believe it can be done as I seem to recall some story about Android powering set top boxes and even a netbook.
This will likely be my next major phone upgrade.
I own an N800 and an N810 and do some Maemo development work on them. They're IMHO awesome devices. I don't know or care about Nokia in general but they have been steadily improving this line of devices since the N770 and I just cannot begin to tell you how slick they are (again IMHO).
I use skype and gizmo to make VoIP phone calls on them at any Wi-Fi hotspot and they are just fun to play around with. The biggest problem with them, in my experience, is people expect them to be phones and don't get the idea that it's just a handheld PC. Adding cell phone capability with the N900 (and increased horsepower) will, I think, cross this device over from enthusiast toy to a more mainstream "smartphone" even though I think the term does the device a dis-service.
It's just more than a phone. I've never used a cell phone that had a web experience remotely close to the desktop/laptop world. The N800/N810 is 100 times better than any cell phone @ web browsing. The games available (for the most part if it runs on Linux, it'll run on these devices and I've enjoyed playing MAME games on mine), the productivity tools, the multimedia capabilities, etc.
I've never developed apps for the iPhone but I've tinkered with BlackBerry development, Android development and Maemo development. While I think it's not as well-documented perhaps as Android or BlackBerry, and getting set up to do development on it is not as simple, it's easily manageable and *much less locked down* than the other platforms. Developing for Android isn't too bad but I think it still is a bit more locked down, developing for BlackBerry you are also definitely limited by what RIM (and the cell providers) will allow you to do. I hope that with Maemo 5 and the new cell-phone stuff, Nokia doesn't cave to cell providers and start locking shit down on these devices and instead keeps to the spirit of the original open-ness so I can still write apps that do what *I* want them to do, not what T-Mobile wants them to do.
This is Google. Didn't you get that part? IT'S GOOGLE!!!! (swoon)
I still have my 1200XL, tape drive, Atari /BASIC cartridge, Jumpman Jr. cartridge, floppy drive, original Zork disks, and my Mapping the Atari book. This computer and my then pre-teen self attending a 6502 assembly class started me off on my technology love affair. I also still have old issues of Compute magazine, including the one with the code for keying in Lunar Lander.
Lost my modem with acoustic coupler, unfortunately.
same diff
Speaking of accomplices, when I was about twelve years old, a cousin of mine and I were taking turns shooting a BB gun at an outdoor security light. When it turned out that we actually hit it and I was asked about it, I staunchly stuck to my "well we were just aiming up in the air, we might have *accidentally* hit it...but we weren't aiming at it or *trying* to shoot it out" defense AND IT WAS WORKING.
When he was asked, he told his father the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
So, I learned a long time ago, the quickest way to get caught doing something bad is to have an accomplice. I would've gotten away with it if it hadn't been for that meddling kid.
I'd say the smart ones are running multinational corporations.