I am consulting for a publisher currently struggling with declining print revenue and anemic online revenue. This board has been filled with some pretty hare-brained economics and misunderstandings of publishing. As previously pointed out, advertising is the profit driver for almost all traditional media, both published and broadcast. The web has added an unfortunate twist for those who sell advertising vehicles (newspapers, magazines, sit-coms, etc.). With the web you no longer have a passive audience, and you have truly measurable results. Advertisers are demanding that rates be tied to click-through performance, etc. Companies that get this will have staff who constantly tweak and optimize, making realtime advances in performance. Who knows if this will ever be enough? But if what passes for independent journalism in this country cannot make money, we will end up with the type of corporate journalism that dominates the television news, like the Walmart-ABC Evening News or the GE-NBC Nightly News.
This is such a weak arguement, I am shocked seemingly intelligent people use it. The reason not to mention that some one is straight, hetero, a breeder, etc, is that people are not beat to death for being straight. There are not counties voting to ban and arrest straight people(Tennessee anyone?). There are not governments that arrest and execute straight people(most of the African continent and Caribean). I can pass as a straight man, and have never been mistreated for it. But I have been surrounded by five men and beat to the ground because I'm gay. If you support open-source and the progressive era of invention and discovery, how can you not see that the world does not judge men like Turing by their talent, only by the labels that are put on them?
Did Turing's affectional orientation effect his contribution to computer science? Certainly, even if only because his life was cut short by cruelty. But there are more important lessons to be learned as well. The permanent state of exception (extra-legal state of emergency, think Patriot Act) and the selection of a single group for sacrifice to the "good" of all (think not of gay marriage but of the response, several states have stripped LGBT individuals of even basic protection under civil law) exactly mirror the conditions of the democratically elected government of 1930's Germany. Several theoriticians like Giorgio Agamben have studing the juridical conditions that brought about the Nazi's Reich. Technology may be exactly the tool that prevents these things from ever happening again.
The current release of Flash, MX, does not contain tabbed palettes. The Adobe lawsuit forced an innovation in the interface that is in fact superior to the old tabbed palette system. So the assertion that Flash will be pulled from the market based on this case is simply wrong-headed. Almost as wrong-headed as Adobe's response to their own total failure to acknowledge the importance of the web or innovate- the "Microsoft" approcah of buy it or kill it....
And you have what evidence that a single piece of this SPAM you recieved was generated by a publisher using DARTMail? Use some facts to offset your flames.
DARTMail does NOT deliver SPAM. That's the facts. Read the dozen other posts pointing this out. It does deliver email based publications to subscribers and DARTMail traffics the ads in those publications.
Actually DARTMail is used to deliver email to OPT-IN customers of email publications. The DARTMail functionality simply allows publishers to make sure the ads in that opt-in mail are targeted to the correct audience based on non-personal data like geographical region or domain name. This entire thread is based on a gross misinterpretation of what DARTMail does.
I was a geek kid, like many other/. readers. For me it was complicated even more by being a gay kid as well. So finding worlds where I could be myself was a major liberation. I think much of the hatred spewed by flamers is actually pent up anger because after we all found a world where we could be safe, along come the masses...
The fact is anti-social behavior under any guise is wrong. The fact that you can hide behind a pseudonym doesn't excuse the behavior. Postings at f*ckedcompany are as bad as anything CmdrTaco mentions...
Way too many of us need serious therapy. Or better games. Vent your anger against a dragon, not some poor shmoo slogging away for a paycheck in the heart of a megacorp like HP.
For the record, being a geek doesn't force me to check my humanity at the door. The fact that CmdrTaco THINKS about our behavior is good. Any group should have voices that question prevailing mores. It is time for the juvenile attacks to stop before we lose all of our outlets (EfNet anyone?).
Legally of course one cannot consider age in hiring practices. One can only consider experiences and how the candidate presents themselves. This is an abstraction because every manager that makes hires has many underlying assumptions about candidates. In my case I hire technical trainers for a multimedia firm in NYC. I look for people who match our image, a cool hip place that focuses on high quality and excellent design. But I must also have 100% reliability... we can't simply say "sorry" to 12 corporate clients waiting to learn Flash because their instructor didn't show up. So I hope for some proof of reliability, that comes with job experience which often becomes an age issue. On the other hand, a "mature" candidate might not present as being hip enough for our target audience- primarily multimedia designers.
At 37, I was the oldest person in my company for a long time. I don't want to exclude an individual because they are too old OR too young. Hiring is incredibly difficult... probably one of the hardest tasks a manager must undertake because all other successes and failure flow from good or bad hires.
Would I hire a 20 year old? Yes, in fact I did last summer. He was very successful on the job, and only left me after he was arrested (hey, it's his personal life at issue....)
The more complex issue for me is instructor credibility. People don't respect very young teachers. Which reinforces the original poster's point. So I sturggle to teach my young instructors how to establish their credibility in the classroom.
Hip to be hired, geek to get ahead...
Most minorities are easy to identify. In some cases this is due to their race, language, or even surnames. And in most cases (excepting the disabled) they are raised in a family full of others like themselves. This is seldom the case with gay and lesbian citizens. We are raised in straight households and live in a straight world. Everyone is presumed to be heterosexual. Straights get tax breaks and preferential treatment everywhere.
More importantly, the third largest group killed in the Holocaust were homosexuals. We can never let that happen again. If being openly gay or "advertising" prevents one gay teenager from committing suicide, prevents on person from acting out violently against minorities, it is worth ANY risk to my own career.
Interestingly enough, because most of us were "outsiders" during our school days, geeks seldom marginalize gay and lesbian geeks. Good code is good code....
While I agree with many of User 35416's peeves, I think he is missing a very important point. The web is no longer JUST a vehicle for transmitting information. It is also a tool for entertaining and marketing. As such, it needs the abilitites provided by tools like Shockwave. 14.4 connections? You might as well expect networks to film black and white television! Macromedia has been a fairly decent company in terms of opening their code. Problems should be indetified and dealt with- but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
While South Africa has many problems after decades of apartheid, its new constituion is, in my opinion, the best document out there today. It can be found at http://www.gov.za/structure/constitution.htm
Thomas Jefferson noted that laws and constitions must change with the times, stating that you would (paraphrasing) ask a man to wear still the coat that fit him as a boy as to ask a nation to be governed under the regimens of its barberous acncestors.
As a gay man I find few nations offer me equal protection under the law. South Africa does, as do several EU nations, with the Netherlands taking the lead.
For kids, I believe immediate fedback and a strong foundation in logic and syntax is important. So at risk of intense flames, I'm going to suggest a scripting langauge... Lingo for Director. The kids can create games and have the media rich visuals they are accustomed to already. I realise that this is neither open code nor free... but I have known teachers that found this approach a good foothold for kids already mastering the complexities of our spoken languages...
Where to start reading...
on
The Truth
·
· Score: 1
I was pleased to see the first two books, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic rereleased in the US last year. One can break TP's books into broad categories based on the focus of the story. The four primary categories being a)The Witches, b)The Wizards, c) The Town Watch, and d) Death. Some novels fit none of these categories (eg, Pyramids). To best read "The Truth" one might start with "Men at Arms." I find this book, though not the first Ankh Morpork story, is an excellent introduction to the Town Watch. The only book I was never able to make it through was "Moving Pictures". And I'm still waiting for "The Fifth Element" to hit paperback...
Anyone with even the slightest understanding of equity markets knew that stock in a company that made no money and had no tangible assets (that includes intellectual property like patents) was worthless. The dotcom boom was driven by the essential irrationality of our current equity trading system (to borrow a Greenspan-ism). The fundamental problem is not technology but some of our basic econimic structures. Reality #1 Technology has dramatically improved productivity, generating a dramatic increase in profit and a higher standard of living. Reality #2 A handful of individuals carry enough influence to make or break individual companies, market sectors, or even the entire economy with a single comment. Reality #3 The American public is just as irrational, basing consumer confidence on our perception of our leadership, hence the mentioned correlation between GOP administrations and economic slumps. Reality #4 For the most part, individuals who produce quality work appear to be finding jobs quickly because technology- especially the web and multimedia is here to stay. And a final Reality #5 If Americans would READ what financial analysts are saying they would know how ridiculous the current system is (eg. a company made a large profit, but its profit only increased by 6% instead of the projected 6.5% therefore the company loses value?)
We are building a better world. Technology isn't the ends, it is the means. Let's not bellyache about the silliness of dotcom-ism and instead go make good stuff.
Slashdot Mirror
I am consulting for a publisher currently struggling with declining print revenue and anemic online revenue. This board has been filled with some pretty hare-brained economics and misunderstandings of publishing. As previously pointed out, advertising is the profit driver for almost all traditional media, both published and broadcast. The web has added an unfortunate twist for those who sell advertising vehicles (newspapers, magazines, sit-coms, etc.). With the web you no longer have a passive audience, and you have truly measurable results. Advertisers are demanding that rates be tied to click-through performance, etc. Companies that get this will have staff who constantly tweak and optimize, making realtime advances in performance. Who knows if this will ever be enough? But if what passes for independent journalism in this country cannot make money, we will end up with the type of corporate journalism that dominates the television news, like the Walmart-ABC Evening News or the GE-NBC Nightly News.
This is such a weak arguement, I am shocked seemingly intelligent people use it. The reason not to mention that some one is straight, hetero, a breeder, etc, is that people are not beat to death for being straight. There are not counties voting to ban and arrest straight people(Tennessee anyone?). There are not governments that arrest and execute straight people(most of the African continent and Caribean). I can pass as a straight man, and have never been mistreated for it. But I have been surrounded by five men and beat to the ground because I'm gay. If you support open-source and the progressive era of invention and discovery, how can you not see that the world does not judge men like Turing by their talent, only by the labels that are put on them?
Did Turing's affectional orientation effect his contribution to computer science? Certainly, even if only because his life was cut short by cruelty. But there are more important lessons to be learned as well. The permanent state of exception (extra-legal state of emergency, think Patriot Act) and the selection of a single group for sacrifice to the "good" of all (think not of gay marriage but of the response, several states have stripped LGBT individuals of even basic protection under civil law) exactly mirror the conditions of the democratically elected government of 1930's Germany. Several theoriticians like Giorgio Agamben have studing the juridical conditions that brought about the Nazi's Reich. Technology may be exactly the tool that prevents these things from ever happening again.
The current release of Flash, MX, does not contain tabbed palettes. The Adobe lawsuit forced an innovation in the interface that is in fact superior to the old tabbed palette system. So the assertion that Flash will be pulled from the market based on this case is simply wrong-headed. Almost as wrong-headed as Adobe's response to their own total failure to acknowledge the importance of the web or innovate- the "Microsoft" approcah of buy it or kill it....
And you have what evidence that a single piece of this SPAM you recieved was generated by a publisher using DARTMail? Use some facts to offset your flames.
DARTMail does NOT deliver SPAM. That's the facts. Read the dozen other posts pointing this out. It does deliver email based publications to subscribers and DARTMail traffics the ads in those publications.
Actually DARTMail is used to deliver email to OPT-IN customers of email publications. The DARTMail functionality simply allows publishers to make sure the ads in that opt-in mail are targeted to the correct audience based on non-personal data like geographical region or domain name. This entire thread is based on a gross misinterpretation of what DARTMail does.
I was a geek kid, like many other /. readers. For me it was complicated even more by being a gay kid as well. So finding worlds where I could be myself was a major liberation. I think much of the hatred spewed by flamers is actually pent up anger because after we all found a world where we could be safe, along come the masses...
The fact is anti-social behavior under any guise is wrong. The fact that you can hide behind a pseudonym doesn't excuse the behavior. Postings at f*ckedcompany are as bad as anything CmdrTaco mentions...
Way too many of us need serious therapy. Or better games. Vent your anger against a dragon, not some poor shmoo slogging away for a paycheck in the heart of a megacorp like HP.
For the record, being a geek doesn't force me to check my humanity at the door. The fact that CmdrTaco THINKS about our behavior is good. Any group should have voices that question prevailing mores. It is time for the juvenile attacks to stop before we lose all of our outlets (EfNet anyone?).
Legally of course one cannot consider age in hiring practices. One can only consider experiences and how the candidate presents themselves. This is an abstraction because every manager that makes hires has many underlying assumptions about candidates.
In my case I hire technical trainers for a multimedia firm in NYC. I look for people who match our image, a cool hip place that focuses on high quality and excellent design. But I must also have 100% reliability... we can't simply say "sorry" to 12 corporate clients waiting to learn Flash because their instructor didn't show up. So I hope for some proof of reliability, that comes with job experience which often becomes an age issue. On the other hand, a "mature" candidate might not present as being hip enough for our target audience- primarily multimedia designers.
At 37, I was the oldest person in my company for a long time. I don't want to exclude an individual because they are too old OR too young. Hiring is incredibly difficult... probably one of the hardest tasks a manager must undertake because all other successes and failure flow from good or bad hires.
Would I hire a 20 year old? Yes, in fact I did last summer. He was very successful on the job, and only left me after he was arrested (hey, it's his personal life at issue....)
The more complex issue for me is instructor credibility. People don't respect very young teachers. Which reinforces the original poster's point. So I sturggle to teach my young instructors how to establish their credibility in the classroom.
Hip to be hired, geek to get ahead...
Most minorities are easy to identify. In some cases this is due to their race, language, or even surnames. And in most cases (excepting the disabled) they are raised in a family full of others like themselves. This is seldom the case with gay and lesbian citizens. We are raised in straight households and live in a straight world. Everyone is presumed to be heterosexual. Straights get tax breaks and preferential treatment everywhere. More importantly, the third largest group killed in the Holocaust were homosexuals. We can never let that happen again. If being openly gay or "advertising" prevents one gay teenager from committing suicide, prevents on person from acting out violently against minorities, it is worth ANY risk to my own career. Interestingly enough, because most of us were "outsiders" during our school days, geeks seldom marginalize gay and lesbian geeks. Good code is good code....
While I agree with many of User 35416's peeves, I think he is missing a very important point. The web is no longer JUST a vehicle for transmitting information. It is also a tool for entertaining and marketing. As such, it needs the abilitites provided by tools like Shockwave. 14.4 connections? You might as well expect networks to film black and white television! Macromedia has been a fairly decent company in terms of opening their code. Problems should be indetified and dealt with- but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
While South Africa has many problems after decades of apartheid, its new constituion is, in my opinion, the best document out there today. It can be found at http://www.gov.za/structure/constitution.htm Thomas Jefferson noted that laws and constitions must change with the times, stating that you would (paraphrasing) ask a man to wear still the coat that fit him as a boy as to ask a nation to be governed under the regimens of its barberous acncestors. As a gay man I find few nations offer me equal protection under the law. South Africa does, as do several EU nations, with the Netherlands taking the lead.
For kids, I believe immediate fedback and a strong foundation in logic and syntax is important. So at risk of intense flames, I'm going to suggest a scripting langauge... Lingo for Director. The kids can create games and have the media rich visuals they are accustomed to already. I realise that this is neither open code nor free... but I have known teachers that found this approach a good foothold for kids already mastering the complexities of our spoken languages...
I was pleased to see the first two books, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic rereleased in the US last year. One can break TP's books into broad categories based on the focus of the story. The four primary categories being a)The Witches, b)The Wizards, c) The Town Watch, and d) Death. Some novels fit none of these categories (eg, Pyramids). To best read "The Truth" one might start with "Men at Arms." I find this book, though not the first Ankh Morpork story, is an excellent introduction to the Town Watch.
The only book I was never able to make it through was "Moving Pictures". And I'm still waiting for "The Fifth Element" to hit paperback...
Anyone with even the slightest understanding of equity markets knew that stock in a company that made no money and had no tangible assets (that includes intellectual property like patents) was worthless. The dotcom boom was driven by the essential irrationality of our current equity trading system (to borrow a Greenspan-ism). The fundamental problem is not technology but some of our basic econimic structures. Reality #1 Technology has dramatically improved productivity, generating a dramatic increase in profit and a higher standard of living. Reality #2 A handful of individuals carry enough influence to make or break individual companies, market sectors, or even the entire economy with a single comment. Reality #3 The American public is just as irrational, basing consumer confidence on our perception of our leadership, hence the mentioned correlation between GOP administrations and economic slumps. Reality #4 For the most part, individuals who produce quality work appear to be finding jobs quickly because technology- especially the web and multimedia is here to stay. And a final Reality #5 If Americans would READ what financial analysts are saying they would know how ridiculous the current system is (eg. a company made a large profit, but its profit only increased by 6% instead of the projected 6.5% therefore the company loses value?) We are building a better world. Technology isn't the ends, it is the means. Let's not bellyache about the silliness of dotcom-ism and instead go make good stuff.