I think the keyword is "fake". Why would Match.com, a successful and growing company (I know people who've had good luck with them), resort to such an obvious tactic that's doomed to fail? I suppose it's possible that some overly enthusiastic employee did some "rogue" actions to maintain a membership quota but even that is a stretch.
It's much more plausible to assume that this guy Matthew Evans is a loser who is trying to make a quick buck. That happens every day in America. Ya gotta feel sorry for him, though. How many women are going to feel secure around a guy who resorts to lawsuits when he gets stood up? And thanks to Google, every woman in the world will be able to get the story on him.
Hmm, I guess that kind of thing happens in journalism (recycled stories). As the first poster, you seemed awfully eager to point it out to the world. Why not just fast forward to some other story that you are interested in instead of dwelling on the dupedness of this one?
Regarding the topic of Linux-on-Dells, I would prefer to buy my desktops from a local supplier who makes them to order and has no problem leaving the OS to me. He runs a minimal WinXP OS to test the h/w and burn it in, then wipes it and hands them over. We take it from there. No fuss, no muss. Fedora installs in a few mouse clicks and we're up and running.
His prices are competitive with Dell's if not lower, and you don't need to go through config screens unclicking Norton Antivirus and MS Office to lower the price by hundreds of dollars, and you don't get a modem if you don't want one, and so forth.
I would think that corporations who still use Dell to stock hundreds or thousands of workstations probably are going to want to stick to Windows for the moment. Smaller operations who need on the order of 5-10 workstations, or fewer, probably can go with a local system integrator or PC builder who will do precisely what they need, and who is a quick drive down the road if something needs to be fixed or exchanged.
The bottom line is that Linux is still somewhat in the do-it-yourself category. It's sort of naive to expect Dell and Gateway and such companies to supply end user workstations running Linux. There is a market but it's rather small. Look in Linux Journal and similar places for ads for such computers. They're small potatoes right now, though of course we Linux enthusiasts all hope they'll grow.
If the headline were rephrased it would not be that unusual a situation. In the professional working world people need to and want to behave "professionally" toward coworkers and associates. A business can be made or broken over lack of diplomacy among its staff and towards its customers.
In the corporate world, anyone can be promoted over you. The annoying person in the next cubicle who drives you crazy with his nail biting and overly loud headphones might be your manager next year so you restrain your natural desires to complain to him or about him. If he's not a TOTAL moron, he'll try to restrain his mouth around you, as well. And you both are painstakingly courteous and helpful on the phone to customers and associates from different departments; the last thing you want is someone complaining that you were rude or difficult to deal with, either inside or outside the firm.
I have heard for years about how the vicious behavior of people in TV stations and the broadcasting industry in general. Not having worked in that field, I can't say for sure, but I know people who have been to a local TV station for some one-off show and heard one anchor say to another, "You f*cking b*tch! Don't you ever cut me off like that again!" and that sort of thing. It's hard to believe that people would put up with each other talking that way but they apparently do.
The last thing I want to hear when I go to work is someone complaining. Life is not fair. Suck it up. If something's broken, fix it, don't just whine about it. Complaining is a way of broadcasting how powerless one is, as well as an indication of one's lack of initiative and creativity. Let such people go work elsewhere.
Not sure I agree with "official policy" on whining but the reality is that people self-select away from whining so it's probably unnecessary (and will only damage a company's morale in the long run).
I agree with you... to a point. Sure, the public school system--and I assume you're referring to the U.S. system--teaches to the lowest common denominator.
High school kids, including and especially those at "underprivileged" inner city schools, have repeatedly said in study after study that they want to be challenged more.
This attitude flies in the face of the education establishment's approach which is to simply tread water, maintain discipline, try to get kids to behave and be regimented so that they will be able to "fit in" in the job market, try to ensure they have learned their basic literacy skills.
There's also the little issue of teachers' rights; teacher unions have as their priorities their pay, their working conditions, and their seniority. By their nature they care precious little about their productivity, which is so crucial to the future of our country.
Of course, the teachers blame parents, and we must face facts: American parents suck. They are more interested in seeing their kids win accolades and Little League games, whether honestly or underhandedly--it's winning that counts, not how you play the game. The extreme expression of this is the Blair Hornstine case (2003) in which a supposedly overachieving girl was denied "sole" valedictorian spot at her high school, and her parents sued.
What's the solution? Well, this Korean boy is a total anomaly in an educational system even more regimented than ours, and there are many cases of children skipping right to college in the U.S. When I lived in Taiwan in the early 80s, there was a front page news story about a 12-year-old Taiwan-born boy who graduated from Carnegie-Mellon Univ., the youngest person to receive a degree from that school and one of the youngest anywhere. The Taiwanese noted that probably, had his parents not emigrated to the U.S., he would not have been allowed to progress so quickly in their very rigid system.
I believe that we need to harness the things that make our system great--the flexibility, the allowance for creativity and self-expression, and at the same time reintroduce some discipline and high academic standards to both challenge the kids and give them greater self-respect. No one benefits from sailing through school; it's the challenges that make us grow and develop properly.
He sounds genuine but he doesn't say very much of substance, only that he doesn't plan to spend as much as $250 billion for hurricane damage.
The web could be used to powerful effect to outline one's policy stands and to encourage comments and feedback from his voters. This would be a true virtual town meeting.
Unfortunately, this will probably never come to pass because of the many who abuse the system and ruin it for everyone else. I have seen many forums degenerate from high quality postings by the original, idealistic people to rant sessions and flame wars by idiots who drive out the reasonable participants. It's hard to regulate this behavior.
Anyway, it's probably better that a blog exists at all, but I'd like to see a more meaningful exchange of ideas between the elected and the electorate.
By surcharge I meant that hybrid cars are more expensive, not that there's a special tax on them. I think there should be a progressive tax on cars based on their impact on the environment: the higher the gas mileage, coupled with better emissions, the lower the tax. Thus, a Ford Expedition would carry, say, $10,000 in taxes while a Toyota Prius would carry about $500, and so forth. Of course, this would be politically untenable.
Actually I grew up in the midwest and live in Boston, so I've seen both extremes personally, as regards transportation infrastructure. I believe that it is possible even in huge, spread-out western cities to ameliorate traffic problems with bus and light rail systems. These systems can work really well even in a large place, if they are well planned.
Regarding the inconvenience of public transportation, a lot of people ask, "But how can I carry the groceries home without a car? How can I get 20 miles across town to my job?" to which one might respond, "Why live 20 miles from your job?" and "When you go shopping once a week, take your car, or use a Zipcar." People out west with little knowledge of public transportation don't understand how it works in the east; you drive to a commuter lot, and take the train the rest of the way. The biggest issue in Boston is that the lots fill up too quickly; the people don't want to spend the money to build big enough garages or expand the lots to accommodate all who wish to take the train.
Another little inconvenience of cars is that you sometimes get killed or maimed while using one. This is much less common with trains and busses, though of course accidents happen there too. Go to your local rehab hospital and ask the quadraplegics and other crippled car accident victimes whether they believe in public transportation.
One could also interview the families of 2000 dead American soldiers and suggest that had the country invested in a good train system and public urban transportation, their sons would not have needed to die. See what they think.
The problem with "solutions" like this H2-from-Mg idea is that it doesn't solve the real problem, which is cars. We badly need alternatives to private automobiles in the U.S. for both energy reasons and for safety. 37,000 people dying a year in automobile accidents in the U.S. alone is ridiculous. If the U.S. went to war over 3,000 deaths in 2001 then surely it can get more worked up over the ongoing slaughter on the roads (albeit largely alcohol-induced).
Take some of that aluminum and magnesium and make bicycles out of it. Paint stripes on all the regular city thoroughfares reserving space for bike lanes. Give people health insurance discounts for riding bikes, and give them secure, covered spots to park at work. Let them carry bikes on public buses and trains.
Speaking of buses and trains, put hundreds of billions of $ into public transportation and solar power panels on all public buildings rather than defending some oil fields in some miserable patch of desert in the middle east.
I see these online discussions about how many years it would take to make a hybrid's cost pay for itself. I suggest taxing the heck out of gas guzzler cars and *make* the fuel efficient versions worthwhile. It's crazy that you have to pay a $3000 surcharge for a hybrid electric vehicle, for example, over a regular gas guzzler that is literally funding war and terrorism in the Middle East.
I guess it's handy to know that a story is redundant, but when most of the ensuing discussion is focussed on that point, it gets kind of boring, not to mention that the postings are themselves dupes of each other. I wish that the user options provided a way to hide such postings so that those of us interested in the story can discuss it. Although, I do tend to browse at -1 since some decent comments do get modded down by ignorant moderators.
I think it's really cool that NASA is partnering with Google; there seems to be some real synergy there. Someone at Google or at NASA is thinking creatively. NASA has data, and Google has data-processing technologies. Makes sense.
I disagree with the guy who thinks Google should share the partnership with Yahoo and Microsoft. Think of the complexities that would be involved in such a 4-way collaboration, with the three competitors jockeying for a dominant role while publicly acting like friendly partners, while secretly trying to steal each other's technologies, and so forth. No, Google is the premier search engine in the world; no one else comes close, and it seems unlikely that MS/Yahoo will become household search terms any time soon. "Let's just MSN that recipe when we get home!" "Did you yahoo this or did you write yourself?" No I don't think so somehow.
It would be interesting to see if NASA opens up its space probe data streams to Google searches in the future. Perhaps this will spawn a whole new cottage industry of weekend warriors who try to interpret the gigabytes of information streaming back from Mars probes and the like.
Give the guy a break. He's got a high pressure job. He works for the most demonized tech company in America, if not the world, and MS's products and services are constantly being hacked by hundreds of thousands of virus/worm writers with apparently nothing better to do than try to destroy his company.
On top of all that, his city, state, and federal governments are all hoping to find a way to grab his $46 billion either through lawsuits, taxes, or confiscation. That's the way of things. When you're successful, everyone else tries to tear you down.
I heard plenty of stories of such behavior when I was at Fidelity Investments. These upper level analysts who were getting high six figure salaries would scream and throw their phones against the wall when things didn't go their way. The pressure was really getting to them.
I'm not defending all of Microsoft's actions but you've got to feel for the guy when he's caught on tape/web/whatever acting like an ordinary, flawed human being with emotions. Frankly I'm rather relieved to hear that Ballmer is not some kind of icy monster. Heh. I wonder how many Aeron chairs he goes through in a month!
I like libraries but for me one of their main purposes from day to day is as a quiet place to study. Sure, it's nice to obtain books on loan or from reserve, but that's an occasional thing. Perhaps someone might get 10-15 books out while working on a term paper, and a graduate student writing a thesis might make more extensive use of the collections, but for the average, in-the-trenches day to day studying, a library is a wonderful place to just sit and pore over a textbook, work through a problem set or do some writing.
Now, this coffeehouse/cyber cafe idea sounds fine, but will it give the students space in which to do real work, or will it just be another Student Union recreational facility> My university has lots of computer terminals around the libraries and I see an awful lot of people doing IM, email, playing remote games, or checking sports scores. A big time waster, in other words.
Also, don't most students have a desktop, if not a laptop or wireless-enabled handtop these days? I would think that the pressing need is not a "social" computing space but rather a quiet space that has late hours so that people can get real work done either on paper or using their laptop. During crunch time, there's nothing like a 24-hour library that's quiet, has lots of study carrols plus many small rooms with blackboards for study groups. And ample trash cans for all the munchie wrappers!!!
The physics makes sense. The hanging material could focus the superheated particles on a particular spot and burn a hole right through the tiles, or perhaps through a weak joint between tiles, and this entree will then pry open the heat shield like popping the yolk of an egg in the frying pan.
The question is, why is the system this fragile? Sure, it's incredible engineering. I've read that every single one of the hundreds of tiles is uniquely shaped, a miracle of 1970s engineering.
But wouldn't it have been simpler to just slather on a whomping ceramo-steel multi-layer heat shield, as the old capsules had? I don't care how thick. Make it 20 centimeters for godssake. Whatever it takes to have an impervious, smooth, crack-proof and meteorite-proof hunk of toughness between the fragile humanity within and the incredible heat of reentry.
But the shuttle wouldn't be reusable, people will say. It would then be the same as a single-use Apollo or Soyuz command capsule. To that I would respond: so what? If it costs hundreds of millions of dollars to turn around and launch a shuttle (some quote $1 billion) then surely some of that hard earned cash could be spent on reinstalling the damn heat shield. Would it be worth it to protect the humans aboard? Hell, yes!
The Russians have always criticized NASA for overengineering, and there's some validity to that. Soyuz hasn't lost a human life since 1971. Can NASA claim such a track record? Let's get away from this better-lighter-cheaper-stupider track and get back to where space exploration ought to be: engineer the machines to explore space and bring back their passengers in one piece, period.
Hmm, it sounds like an overgeneralization to me. "Office workers" is a pretty broad term that presumably encompasses pretty much all white collar jobs. Some jobs have always been interrupt-enabled, such as stock traders and financial analysts, and some are constantly on the phone, like sales and marketing types. Then you have people who are always on their feet, such as teachers and police. Writers such as journalists (like the guy in the article) have traditionally worked in open offices with phones ringing constantly.
This fellow Honore is probably thinking of certain professions such as computer programmers and IT professionals and architects and graphic designers, where you really do need periods of uninterruptedness to get some solid creative work done.
As a programmer, I'm willing to bet that most people in these fields have long since discovered the power of ear buds (and noise-cancelling headphones, my own favorite) to blot out the world around them. To a lot of us, IM and email are just a bit of line noise that we easily put up with. I usually welcome a little interruption now and then, and in fact it helps spur the creative juices sometimes to have a context shift.
Overall I think this article is a bit alarmist, though there's probably something to it in terms of the frenetic pace of life in modern offices.
HP has a fairly long history of getting rid of geniuses. Doubtlessly there are a few who remain well employed, but rejecting Wozniak and Jobs' idea for a personal computer has to rank with one of the all-time mistakes in corporate America, up there with the Coca-Cola Company not buying Pepsi when it had the chance, IBM giving a small software company a monopoly on its PC operating system, etc.
I suspect that somehow HP will muddle through, just as IBM did. They're still a good company, despite the damage Fiorina caused them with their expensive and ill-considered buyout of Compaq Computers.
Another silver lining to this new lawsuit is that it will put Amazon's patents to the test. If they are found to be invalid, this will be a good thing, no matter how evil Cendant may be.
The online commerce patent situation is long overdue for a shakeout. We have to get rid of all these ridiculous patents before it completely blocks startups from free access to the online marketplace. Without invalidating some of these patents, everyone is at risk of being sued simply for trying to conduct their business online, and that will kill internet commerce except for a few giants who can afford the patent royalties and litigation costs.
Sad, when the internet's original promise was to empower the little guy and gal and level the playing field.
I'm running RHN alert notification on Fedora Core 3, and my version of zlib has already been updated with a patch for CAN-2005-2096, the zlib overflow bug.
It's interesting to read about these as they occur, but it's a nice feeling that my operating system is so well taken care of. Too bad that all personal computers aren't set up for this kind of timely response. I wonder about those millions of library computers, home PCs, small business computers, and other institutional setups where no one even understands the concept of an update, let alone regularly runs the Windows "security" update program.
I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile and have been very happy with them except for lack of coverage in some places. I can dial up my favorite ISP with my bluetooth phone for no extra fee, and did I mention I got a bluetooth phone? Verizon Wireless appears to have only heard of bluetooth about 3 months ago, and they seem to have only a brushing acquaintance with that European phone maker, Nokia.
Unfortunately, T-mobile may be history pretty soon, and that likely means more consolidation and less competition in the U.S. mobile phone market.
What's the next best option? Cingular or Sprint? I hear terrible things about Sprint's service, and Cingular just merged with AT&T Wireless, which had a horrendous reputation for customer service.
To play the devil's advocate... keep in mind that amazon.com is only acting to protect its interests. If they don't patent all these obvious-sounding business processes, lots of little unknown startups will (1) patent them and then (2) sue deep pocketed firms such as Amazon. It already happens a lot; some nothing company sues Microsoft over some ridiculous patent having to do with hyperlinks in a browser, for example. The best defense is offense in this case. If you were in amazon.com's shoes, you'd probably conclude however relucantly that these actions are absolutely necessary.
The obvious place to end the "madness" is to fix the source of the problem, which is the Patent Office's recognition of business processes as a patentable thing, especially where implemented by software. Patenting a behavior is logically flawed; how long before someone patents making a profit? Where do you draw the line?
Originality of a product idea is one thing; for example, developing a machine which automatically flushes the toilet and does so in a unique and creative way (I'd rather not develop the details actually)--this is probably a reasonable thing to patent. But patenting abstractions like GUI-based book ordering--that's absurd and bound to fail a prior art test, but will encourage lots of frivolous lawsuits and the wasting of the PTO's precious time and resources.
When people like you stop thinking you have some right to grab anything you want off the internet for free. You want change? Support musicians and directors who distribute their work the way you think they should.
No, I'm not advocating bypassing legal distribution channels for music and movies. My fear is that this ruling will give the Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998 more teeth for borderline and grey area issues such as people reverse engineering "copyrighted" code inside a printer driver or inkjet cartridge chip, to take two recent and relevant cases.
As for supporting performing artists, I believe that strong enforcement of copyright laws will actually damage artistic careers more than support them, much as a strict union shop will tend to limit job growth and career advancement rather than enhance them. By making it more difficult and expensive for a library to provide music recordings and videos, and for hotels, restaurants and clubs to play music over their ceiling speakers, we limit the exposure of performing artists.
Free and unsanctioned downloads of music and movies are an abuse of the superb distribution system that the internet has become, but the alternative of locking these items up so tightly with onerous legal restrictions will hamper distribution.
For example, the "buzz" that is generated by a hit comes not from people flocking to record stores and purchasing the single, but from hearing it on the radio, hearing it on a friend's stereo, and trading recordings. Cutting off this informal distribution system will damage the music industry something awful.
This ruling is disastrous. Now the burden of proof will be upon "device" and software makers to establish that they are not promoting copyright infringement.
The abuse that will arise from this precedent will force Congress to pass laws to clarify copyright infringement, and I fear that they will be unduly influenced by corporate interests such as RIAA and MPAA, so the new laws will only reinforce draconian interpretations such as the one the Supreme Court has just made.
All responsible ISPs have terms of service agreements that strictly prohibit abusive practices such as phishing, spamming, warez and media trading. They reserve the right to terminate anyone's service who is violating these agreements. Beyond that, it's not reasonable to expect the ISPs to be punished for other people's irresponsible or illegal behavior, any more than the car dealer should be punished for selling a car that is used in a bank robbery or the hunting goods store for selling ammo. You can't have freedom and also place that kind of restriction on third parties. That said, service providers such as Verizon are closing certain ports to reduce this kind of attack.
The bottom line is that the software is flawed and should be replaced. That's something that is happening over time; Apples and Linux and other OSes are pretty secure now, and Microsoft is really trying to catch up.
Eventually it will be a lot harder for a 17-year-old to command an army of zombie PCs. In the 1970s, it was incredibly easy to hack into sites via a modem, using easily guessed passwords (guest/guest) because it was such a rare thing even to have a computer and a modem. The teen hackers of that era would be clueless today, just as these punks will be clueless 5-10 years from now.
In fact, I would think the planet is a safer place to be than the moons. The moons would have no atmosphere to speak of and are therefore completely exposed to cosmic rays and meteorites that make space so dangerous. Plus, the vacuum requires greater relative internal pressure in the ship or base station. On the Martian surface, even though the atmosphere is not breathable, at least there's some pressure there.
Although, I suppose you'd want an underground facility on Mars because of those nasty sandstorms.
With regards to the pioneering spirit, while I'm with you 100%, I believe that it's really individuals and not countries that have the spirit of exploration. Remember that the U.S. only got its space act together because of perceived Soviet superiority and the fear they would dominate space militarily. Now, probably, China and the E.U. will provide the competition that pushes the U.S. back into space in the next couple of decades.
But with a cheap launch technology, it's the individuals who will truly explore space. Once we're out of Earth's gravity well, private explorers could pretty much go anywhere provided they stocked enough food. Solar cells will provide unlimited energy, and a solar sail the unlimited propulsion. Advanced recycling equipment will minimize the loss of water and other necessities, and a decent internet connection will keep the travelers from feeling too cut off.
"I.B.M. is really pushing this offshore outsourcing to relentlessly cut costs and to export skilled jobs abroad," said Marcus Courtney, president of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, or WashTech, a group that seeks to unionize such workers. "The winners are the richest corporations in the world, and American workers lose."
They just don't get it. The winners are the consumer who gets to pay lower prices for the products and services. The other winners are the stockholders of the corporation who get higher dividends and portfolio value. Now, we all are consumers of IBM and similar high tech goods and services--every time we use an ATM, an insurance company, a bank, a personal computer--we are benefiting from offshoring of high cost labor and parts.
I think this group that seeks to unionize tech workers needs to rethink its strategy a bit. Raising the cost of labor will not provide for secure employment, quite the opposite in fact.
I don't like to see rising unemployment in the tech sector, either, but unionizing and legislating are not the answers. Innovation, entrepreneurship, and low tax overhead will help. We also have to face up to the fact that there are industrious and hard working people out there who will do our job on the cheap. We in the West need to wake up, start thinking more innovatively, and compete with our best tools: our creativity, education, and tremendous freedom to explore new business opportunities.
This might help a little, but the problem is that others can activate automated services using your identification information. For example, whether you use automated or online services or not, someone can activate a credit card using your name and SSN, and as the article points out, they can file for unemployment in your name. They can also open a bank account in your name and thereby cash the unemployment checks.
I think the best solution will be to establish a true national ID card that includes numerical information (SSN, birthdate) as well as biometric (photograph, fingerprints, retinal scan, DNA). To build upon your idea, you would take your ID card to banks and other places of business to establish your identity with them, and from then on have a trusted relationship. No other human being would be able to do so because of the biometric data embedded in the card.
Of course, crooked employees at the ID card manufacturer will be able to create bogus cards but at a certain point you have to rely on an honest and ethical population. How do we achieve that? Maybe by incorporating moral development into K-12 education, encouraging civic responsibility, etc. Elect honest people to government to set better examples. We need to return to a nation of boy and girl scouts. Sigh. I guess we can dream, at least.
Yes, but 50 million spams a year is a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of millions sent out every day. This guy is small potatoes. Spam kings in developed countries like Australia and the U.S. tend to get shut down pretty fast. They need to go after China and eastern Europe where the real culprits are.
And someone needs to shut down those blasted zombie Windows computers that are relaying all this rubbish.
Just a thought: If only there were a way to make spam explode when opened, to discourage people from actually reading and responding to it. OK, the spammers are taking their money already but clearly that's not enough of a disincentive to those few morons out there who are keeping spam going.
If laptops get so cheap that they supplant desktops, well, I'm all for it. Laptops are very convenient. I just don't see the miniaturization cost going away soon. Desktops just seem to always stay one step ahead on the cost/performance curve.
I agree that Ebay's a great place to buy laptops.
The only niche use I'd want a state of the art laptop for is music recording, where portability combined with capacious hard disks and CD burner comes in handy.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the keyword is "fake". Why would Match.com, a successful and growing company (I know people who've had good luck with them), resort to such an obvious tactic that's doomed to fail? I suppose it's possible that some overly enthusiastic employee did some "rogue" actions to maintain a membership quota but even that is a stretch.
It's much more plausible to assume that this guy Matthew Evans is a loser who is trying to make a quick buck. That happens every day in America. Ya gotta feel sorry for him, though. How many women are going to feel secure around a guy who resorts to lawsuits when he gets stood up? And thanks to Google, every woman in the world will be able to get the story on him.
Hmm, I guess that kind of thing happens in journalism (recycled stories). As the first poster, you seemed awfully eager to point it out to the world. Why not just fast forward to some other story that you are interested in instead of dwelling on the dupedness of this one?
Regarding the topic of Linux-on-Dells, I would prefer to buy my desktops from a local supplier who makes them to order and has no problem leaving the OS to me. He runs a minimal WinXP OS to test the h/w and burn it in, then wipes it and hands them over. We take it from there. No fuss, no muss. Fedora installs in a few mouse clicks and we're up and running.
His prices are competitive with Dell's if not lower, and you don't need to go through config screens unclicking Norton Antivirus and MS Office to lower the price by hundreds of dollars, and you don't get a modem if you don't want one, and so forth.
I would think that corporations who still use Dell to stock hundreds or thousands of workstations probably are going to want to stick to Windows for the moment. Smaller operations who need on the order of 5-10 workstations, or fewer, probably can go with a local system integrator or PC builder who will do precisely what they need, and who is a quick drive down the road if something needs to be fixed or exchanged.
The bottom line is that Linux is still somewhat in the do-it-yourself category. It's sort of naive to expect Dell and Gateway and such companies to supply end user workstations running Linux. There is a market but it's rather small. Look in Linux Journal and similar places for ads for such computers. They're small potatoes right now, though of course we Linux enthusiasts all hope they'll grow.
Beatings... heh... ;)
If the headline were rephrased it would not be that unusual a situation. In the professional working world people need to and want to behave "professionally" toward coworkers and associates. A business can be made or broken over lack of diplomacy among its staff and towards its customers.
In the corporate world, anyone can be promoted over you. The annoying person in the next cubicle who drives you crazy with his nail biting and overly loud headphones might be your manager next year so you restrain your natural desires to complain to him or about him. If he's not a TOTAL moron, he'll try to restrain his mouth around you, as well. And you both are painstakingly courteous and helpful on the phone to customers and associates from different departments; the last thing you want is someone complaining that you were rude or difficult to deal with, either inside or outside the firm.
I have heard for years about how the vicious behavior of people in TV stations and the broadcasting industry in general. Not having worked in that field, I can't say for sure, but I know people who have been to a local TV station for some one-off show and heard one anchor say to another, "You f*cking b*tch! Don't you ever cut me off like that again!" and that sort of thing. It's hard to believe that people would put up with each other talking that way but they apparently do.
The last thing I want to hear when I go to work is someone complaining. Life is not fair. Suck it up. If something's broken, fix it, don't just whine about it. Complaining is a way of broadcasting how powerless one is, as well as an indication of one's lack of initiative and creativity. Let such people go work elsewhere.
Not sure I agree with "official policy" on whining but the reality is that people self-select away from whining so it's probably unnecessary (and will only damage a company's morale in the long run).
I agree with you... to a point. Sure, the public school system--and I assume you're referring to the U.S. system--teaches to the lowest common denominator.
High school kids, including and especially those at "underprivileged" inner city schools, have repeatedly said in study after study that they want to be challenged more.
This attitude flies in the face of the education establishment's approach which is to simply tread water, maintain discipline, try to get kids to behave and be regimented so that they will be able to "fit in" in the job market, try to ensure they have learned their basic literacy skills.
There's also the little issue of teachers' rights; teacher unions have as their priorities their pay, their working conditions, and their seniority. By their nature they care precious little about their productivity, which is so crucial to the future of our country.
Of course, the teachers blame parents, and we must face facts: American parents suck. They are more interested in seeing their kids win accolades and Little League games, whether honestly or underhandedly--it's winning that counts, not how you play the game. The extreme expression of this is the Blair Hornstine case (2003) in which a supposedly overachieving girl was denied "sole" valedictorian spot at her high school, and her parents sued.
What's the solution? Well, this Korean boy is a total anomaly in an educational system even more regimented than ours, and there are many cases of children skipping right to college in the U.S. When I lived in Taiwan in the early 80s, there was a front page news story about a 12-year-old Taiwan-born boy who graduated from Carnegie-Mellon Univ., the youngest person to receive a degree from that school and one of the youngest anywhere. The Taiwanese noted that probably, had his parents not emigrated to the U.S., he would not have been allowed to progress so quickly in their very rigid system.
I believe that we need to harness the things that make our system great--the flexibility, the allowance for creativity and self-expression, and at the same time reintroduce some discipline and high academic standards to both challenge the kids and give them greater self-respect. No one benefits from sailing through school; it's the challenges that make us grow and develop properly.
He sounds genuine but he doesn't say very much of substance, only that he doesn't plan to spend as much as $250 billion for hurricane damage.
The web could be used to powerful effect to outline one's policy stands and to encourage comments and feedback from his voters. This would be a true virtual town meeting.
Unfortunately, this will probably never come to pass because of the many who abuse the system and ruin it for everyone else. I have seen many forums degenerate from high quality postings by the original, idealistic people to rant sessions and flame wars by idiots who drive out the reasonable participants. It's hard to regulate this behavior.
Anyway, it's probably better that a blog exists at all, but I'd like to see a more meaningful exchange of ideas between the elected and the electorate.
By surcharge I meant that hybrid cars are more expensive, not that there's a special tax on them. I think there should be a progressive tax on cars based on their impact on the environment: the higher the gas mileage, coupled with better emissions, the lower the tax. Thus, a Ford Expedition would carry, say, $10,000 in taxes while a Toyota Prius would carry about $500, and so forth. Of course, this would be politically untenable.
Actually I grew up in the midwest and live in Boston, so I've seen both extremes personally, as regards transportation infrastructure. I believe that it is possible even in huge, spread-out western cities to ameliorate traffic problems with bus and light rail systems. These systems can work really well even in a large place, if they are well planned.
Regarding the inconvenience of public transportation, a lot of people ask, "But how can I carry the groceries home without a car? How can I get 20 miles across town to my job?" to which one might respond, "Why live 20 miles from your job?" and "When you go shopping once a week, take your car, or use a Zipcar." People out west with little knowledge of public transportation don't understand how it works in the east; you drive to a commuter lot, and take the train the rest of the way. The biggest issue in Boston is that the lots fill up too quickly; the people don't want to spend the money to build big enough garages or expand the lots to accommodate all who wish to take the train.
Another little inconvenience of cars is that you sometimes get killed or maimed while using one. This is much less common with trains and busses, though of course accidents happen there too. Go to your local rehab hospital and ask the quadraplegics and other crippled car accident victimes whether they believe in public transportation.
One could also interview the families of 2000 dead American soldiers and suggest that had the country invested in a good train system and public urban transportation, their sons would not have needed to die. See what they think.
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The problem with "solutions" like this H2-from-Mg idea is that it doesn't solve the real problem, which is cars. We badly need alternatives to private automobiles in the U.S. for both energy reasons and for safety. 37,000 people dying a year in automobile accidents in the U.S. alone is ridiculous. If the U.S. went to war over 3,000 deaths in 2001 then surely it can get more worked up over the ongoing slaughter on the roads (albeit largely alcohol-induced).
Take some of that aluminum and magnesium and make bicycles out of it. Paint stripes on all the regular city thoroughfares reserving space for bike lanes. Give people health insurance discounts for riding bikes, and give them secure, covered spots to park at work. Let them carry bikes on public buses and trains.
Speaking of buses and trains, put hundreds of billions of $ into public transportation and solar power panels on all public buildings rather than defending some oil fields in some miserable patch of desert in the middle east.
I see these online discussions about how many years it would take to make a hybrid's cost pay for itself. I suggest taxing the heck out of gas guzzler cars and *make* the fuel efficient versions worthwhile. It's crazy that you have to pay a $3000 surcharge for a hybrid electric vehicle, for example, over a regular gas guzzler that is literally funding war and terrorism in the Middle East.
I guess it's handy to know that a story is redundant, but when most of the ensuing discussion is focussed on that point, it gets kind of boring, not to mention that the postings are themselves dupes of each other. I wish that the user options provided a way to hide such postings so that those of us interested in the story can discuss it. Although, I do tend to browse at -1 since some decent comments do get modded down by ignorant moderators.
I think it's really cool that NASA is partnering with Google; there seems to be some real synergy there. Someone at Google or at NASA is thinking creatively. NASA has data, and Google has data-processing technologies. Makes sense.
I disagree with the guy who thinks Google should share the partnership with Yahoo and Microsoft. Think of the complexities that would be involved in such a 4-way collaboration, with the three competitors jockeying for a dominant role while publicly acting like friendly partners, while secretly trying to steal each other's technologies, and so forth. No, Google is the premier search engine in the world; no one else comes close, and it seems unlikely that MS/Yahoo will become household search terms any time soon. "Let's just MSN that recipe when we get home!" "Did you yahoo this or did you write yourself?" No I don't think so somehow.
It would be interesting to see if NASA opens up its space probe data streams to Google searches in the future. Perhaps this will spawn a whole new cottage industry of weekend warriors who try to interpret the gigabytes of information streaming back from Mars probes and the like.
Give the guy a break. He's got a high pressure job. He works for the most demonized tech company in America, if not the world, and MS's products and services are constantly being hacked by hundreds of thousands of virus/worm writers with apparently nothing better to do than try to destroy his company.
On top of all that, his city, state, and federal governments are all hoping to find a way to grab his $46 billion either through lawsuits, taxes, or confiscation. That's the way of things. When you're successful, everyone else tries to tear you down.
I heard plenty of stories of such behavior when I was at Fidelity Investments. These upper level analysts who were getting high six figure salaries would scream and throw their phones against the wall when things didn't go their way. The pressure was really getting to them.
I'm not defending all of Microsoft's actions but you've got to feel for the guy when he's caught on tape/web/whatever acting like an ordinary, flawed human being with emotions. Frankly I'm rather relieved to hear that Ballmer is not some kind of icy monster. Heh. I wonder how many Aeron chairs he goes through in a month!
I like libraries but for me one of their main purposes from day to day is as a quiet place to study. Sure, it's nice to obtain books on loan or from reserve, but that's an occasional thing. Perhaps someone might get 10-15 books out while working on a term paper, and a graduate student writing a thesis might make more extensive use of the collections, but for the average, in-the-trenches day to day studying, a library is a wonderful place to just sit and pore over a textbook, work through a problem set or do some writing.
Now, this coffeehouse/cyber cafe idea sounds fine, but will it give the students space in which to do real work, or will it just be another Student Union recreational facility> My university has lots of computer terminals around the libraries and I see an awful lot of people doing IM, email, playing remote games, or checking sports scores. A big time waster, in other words.
Also, don't most students have a desktop, if not a laptop or wireless-enabled handtop these days? I would think that the pressing need is not a "social" computing space but rather a quiet space that has late hours so that people can get real work done either on paper or using their laptop. During crunch time, there's nothing like a 24-hour library that's quiet, has lots of study carrols plus many small rooms with blackboards for study groups. And ample trash cans for all the munchie wrappers!!!
The physics makes sense. The hanging material could focus the superheated particles on a particular spot and burn a hole right through the tiles, or perhaps through a weak joint between tiles, and this entree will then pry open the heat shield like popping the yolk of an egg in the frying pan.
The question is, why is the system this fragile? Sure, it's incredible engineering. I've read that every single one of the hundreds of tiles is uniquely shaped, a miracle of 1970s engineering.
But wouldn't it have been simpler to just slather on a whomping ceramo-steel multi-layer heat shield, as the old capsules had? I don't care how thick. Make it 20 centimeters for godssake. Whatever it takes to have an impervious, smooth, crack-proof and meteorite-proof hunk of toughness between the fragile humanity within and the incredible heat of reentry.
But the shuttle wouldn't be reusable, people will say. It would then be the same as a single-use Apollo or Soyuz command capsule. To that I would respond: so what? If it costs hundreds of millions of dollars to turn around and launch a shuttle (some quote $1 billion) then surely some of that hard earned cash could be spent on reinstalling the damn heat shield. Would it be worth it to protect the humans aboard? Hell, yes!
The Russians have always criticized NASA for overengineering, and there's some validity to that. Soyuz hasn't lost a human life since 1971. Can NASA claim such a track record? Let's get away from this better-lighter-cheaper-stupider track and get back to where space exploration ought to be: engineer the machines to explore space and bring back their passengers in one piece, period.
Hmm, it sounds like an overgeneralization to me. "Office workers" is a pretty broad term that presumably encompasses pretty much all white collar jobs. Some jobs have always been interrupt-enabled, such as stock traders and financial analysts, and some are constantly on the phone, like sales and marketing types. Then you have people who are always on their feet, such as teachers and police. Writers such as journalists (like the guy in the article) have traditionally worked in open offices with phones ringing constantly.
This fellow Honore is probably thinking of certain professions such as computer programmers and IT professionals and architects and graphic designers, where you really do need periods of uninterruptedness to get some solid creative work done.
As a programmer, I'm willing to bet that most people in these fields have long since discovered the power of ear buds (and noise-cancelling headphones, my own favorite) to blot out the world around them. To a lot of us, IM and email are just a bit of line noise that we easily put up with. I usually welcome a little interruption now and then, and in fact it helps spur the creative juices sometimes to have a context shift.
Overall I think this article is a bit alarmist, though there's probably something to it in terms of the frenetic pace of life in modern offices.
HP has a fairly long history of getting rid of geniuses. Doubtlessly there are a few who remain well employed, but rejecting Wozniak and Jobs' idea for a personal computer has to rank with one of the all-time mistakes in corporate America, up there with the Coca-Cola Company not buying Pepsi when it had the chance, IBM giving a small software company a monopoly on its PC operating system, etc.
I suspect that somehow HP will muddle through, just as IBM did. They're still a good company, despite the damage Fiorina caused them with their expensive and ill-considered buyout of Compaq Computers.
Another silver lining to this new lawsuit is that it will put Amazon's patents to the test. If they are found to be invalid, this will be a good thing, no matter how evil Cendant may be.
The online commerce patent situation is long overdue for a shakeout. We have to get rid of all these ridiculous patents before it completely blocks startups from free access to the online marketplace. Without invalidating some of these patents, everyone is at risk of being sued simply for trying to conduct their business online, and that will kill internet commerce except for a few giants who can afford the patent royalties and litigation costs.
Sad, when the internet's original promise was to empower the little guy and gal and level the playing field.
I'm running RHN alert notification on Fedora Core 3, and my version of zlib has already been updated with a patch for CAN-2005-2096, the zlib overflow bug.
It's interesting to read about these as they occur, but it's a nice feeling that my operating system is so well taken care of. Too bad that all personal computers aren't set up for this kind of timely response. I wonder about those millions of library computers, home PCs, small business computers, and other institutional setups where no one even understands the concept of an update, let alone regularly runs the Windows "security" update program.
Another reason to use Linux!
I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile and have been very happy with them except for lack of coverage in some places. I can dial up my favorite ISP with my bluetooth phone for no extra fee, and did I mention I got a bluetooth phone? Verizon Wireless appears to have only heard of bluetooth about 3 months ago, and they seem to have only a brushing acquaintance with that European phone maker, Nokia.
Unfortunately, T-mobile may be history pretty soon, and that likely means more consolidation and less competition in the U.S. mobile phone market.
What's the next best option? Cingular or Sprint? I hear terrible things about Sprint's service, and Cingular just merged with AT&T Wireless, which had a horrendous reputation for customer service.
To play the devil's advocate... keep in mind that amazon.com is only acting to protect its interests. If they don't patent all these obvious-sounding business processes, lots of little unknown startups will (1) patent them and then (2) sue deep pocketed firms such as Amazon. It already happens a lot; some nothing company sues Microsoft over some ridiculous patent having to do with hyperlinks in a browser, for example. The best defense is offense in this case. If you were in amazon.com's shoes, you'd probably conclude however relucantly that these actions are absolutely necessary.
The obvious place to end the "madness" is to fix the source of the problem, which is the Patent Office's recognition of business processes as a patentable thing, especially where implemented by software. Patenting a behavior is logically flawed; how long before someone patents making a profit? Where do you draw the line?
Originality of a product idea is one thing; for example, developing a machine which automatically flushes the toilet and does so in a unique and creative way (I'd rather not develop the details actually)--this is probably a reasonable thing to patent. But patenting abstractions like GUI-based book ordering--that's absurd and bound to fail a prior art test, but will encourage lots of frivolous lawsuits and the wasting of the PTO's precious time and resources.
As for supporting performing artists, I believe that strong enforcement of copyright laws will actually damage artistic careers more than support them, much as a strict union shop will tend to limit job growth and career advancement rather than enhance them. By making it more difficult and expensive for a library to provide music recordings and videos, and for hotels, restaurants and clubs to play music over their ceiling speakers, we limit the exposure of performing artists.
Free and unsanctioned downloads of music and movies are an abuse of the superb distribution system that the internet has become, but the alternative of locking these items up so tightly with onerous legal restrictions will hamper distribution.
For example, the "buzz" that is generated by a hit comes not from people flocking to record stores and purchasing the single, but from hearing it on the radio, hearing it on a friend's stereo, and trading recordings. Cutting off this informal distribution system will damage the music industry something awful.
This ruling is disastrous. Now the burden of proof will be upon "device" and software makers to establish that they are not promoting copyright infringement.
The abuse that will arise from this precedent will force Congress to pass laws to clarify copyright infringement, and I fear that they will be unduly influenced by corporate interests such as RIAA and MPAA, so the new laws will only reinforce draconian interpretations such as the one the Supreme Court has just made.
When will this madness cease?
All responsible ISPs have terms of service agreements that strictly prohibit abusive practices such as phishing, spamming, warez and media trading. They reserve the right to terminate anyone's service who is violating these agreements. Beyond that, it's not reasonable to expect the ISPs to be punished for other people's irresponsible or illegal behavior, any more than the car dealer should be punished for selling a car that is used in a bank robbery or the hunting goods store for selling ammo. You can't have freedom and also place that kind of restriction on third parties. That said, service providers such as Verizon are closing certain ports to reduce this kind of attack.
The bottom line is that the software is flawed and should be replaced. That's something that is happening over time; Apples and Linux and other OSes are pretty secure now, and Microsoft is really trying to catch up.
Eventually it will be a lot harder for a 17-year-old to command an army of zombie PCs. In the 1970s, it was incredibly easy to hack into sites via a modem, using easily guessed passwords (guest/guest) because it was such a rare thing even to have a computer and a modem. The teen hackers of that era would be clueless today, just as these punks will be clueless 5-10 years from now.
In fact, I would think the planet is a safer place to be than the moons. The moons would have no atmosphere to speak of and are therefore completely exposed to cosmic rays and meteorites that make space so dangerous. Plus, the vacuum requires greater relative internal pressure in the ship or base station. On the Martian surface, even though the atmosphere is not breathable, at least there's some pressure there.
Although, I suppose you'd want an underground facility on Mars because of those nasty sandstorms.
With regards to the pioneering spirit, while I'm with you 100%, I believe that it's really individuals and not countries that have the spirit of exploration. Remember that the U.S. only got its space act together because of perceived Soviet superiority and the fear they would dominate space militarily. Now, probably, China and the E.U. will provide the competition that pushes the U.S. back into space in the next couple of decades.
But with a cheap launch technology, it's the individuals who will truly explore space. Once we're out of Earth's gravity well, private explorers could pretty much go anywhere provided they stocked enough food. Solar cells will provide unlimited energy, and a solar sail the unlimited propulsion. Advanced recycling equipment will minimize the loss of water and other necessities, and a decent internet connection will keep the travelers from feeling too cut off.
They just don't get it. The winners are the consumer who gets to pay lower prices for the products and services. The other winners are the stockholders of the corporation who get higher dividends and portfolio value. Now, we all are consumers of IBM and similar high tech goods and services--every time we use an ATM, an insurance company, a bank, a personal computer--we are benefiting from offshoring of high cost labor and parts.
I think this group that seeks to unionize tech workers needs to rethink its strategy a bit. Raising the cost of labor will not provide for secure employment, quite the opposite in fact.
I don't like to see rising unemployment in the tech sector, either, but unionizing and legislating are not the answers. Innovation, entrepreneurship, and low tax overhead will help. We also have to face up to the fact that there are industrious and hard working people out there who will do our job on the cheap. We in the West need to wake up, start thinking more innovatively, and compete with our best tools: our creativity, education, and tremendous freedom to explore new business opportunities.
This might help a little, but the problem is that others can activate automated services using your identification information. For example, whether you use automated or online services or not, someone can activate a credit card using your name and SSN, and as the article points out, they can file for unemployment in your name. They can also open a bank account in your name and thereby cash the unemployment checks.
I think the best solution will be to establish a true national ID card that includes numerical information (SSN, birthdate) as well as biometric (photograph, fingerprints, retinal scan, DNA). To build upon your idea, you would take your ID card to banks and other places of business to establish your identity with them, and from then on have a trusted relationship. No other human being would be able to do so because of the biometric data embedded in the card.
Of course, crooked employees at the ID card manufacturer will be able to create bogus cards but at a certain point you have to rely on an honest and ethical population. How do we achieve that? Maybe by incorporating moral development into K-12 education, encouraging civic responsibility, etc. Elect honest people to government to set better examples. We need to return to a nation of boy and girl scouts. Sigh. I guess we can dream, at least.
Yes, but 50 million spams a year is a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of millions sent out every day. This guy is small potatoes. Spam kings in developed countries like Australia and the U.S. tend to get shut down pretty fast. They need to go after China and eastern Europe where the real culprits are.
And someone needs to shut down those blasted zombie Windows computers that are relaying all this rubbish.
Just a thought: If only there were a way to make spam explode when opened, to discourage people from actually reading and responding to it. OK, the spammers are taking their money already but clearly that's not enough of a disincentive to those few morons out there who are keeping spam going.
If laptops get so cheap that they supplant desktops, well, I'm all for it. Laptops are very convenient. I just don't see the miniaturization cost going away soon. Desktops just seem to always stay one step ahead on the cost/performance curve.
I agree that Ebay's a great place to buy laptops.
The only niche use I'd want a state of the art laptop for is music recording, where portability combined with capacious hard disks and CD burner comes in handy.