Male librarians are few and far between. We need a quota system to ensure males get their fair share of the librarians pie. Of course, if you ARE a male librarian already, the ratio is about 10:1, female to male, and under certain circumstances, such as when you are particularly interested in female company, that could be considered a very good thing, so you might not appreciate the competition. Hmm, I'm gonna have to think about this. P.S. I'm a male librarian. My sig proves it.
I was just there. I don't think you can pay by cell phone--it's a normal token for ticket system, but each garage has a billboard announcing how many spaces are left. This is also true of the interior spaces. You dare not venture into one that claims no spaces are left (Umm, we got stuck inside when we did that), but it's very helpful to know when it says '116' left that you are likely to get a space. You get either a ticket or a token at the beginning which you exchange for a 'get out of jail' ticket (or token) at the end by paying with cash, cedit, or debit. Much better than sticking dollar bills through a little hole, plus you actually get a printed receipt.
Though Gordon Moore certainly developed his law around the silicon chip, the interesting thing about his law is that it is retroactive and not restricted to silicon, leading to the possibility that even if there is a real limit to silicon, something else will come along to replace it and keep the law going through another iteration. Whether that turns out to be holographic, 3-D, biological, or whatever is anyone's guess at this point.
If you start out with the Hollerith census counting machines developed for the 1890 census (the ones that used cards the size of dollar bills because they had a bunch of dollar bill boxes, hench the size of the punched card and the 80-column screen), then move to electric relay switches, then to vacuum tubes, then to transistors, then to silicon, the whole thing is an exponential curve with a doubling every 18-24 months.
Every time I hear someone saying, "We're eaching the end of Moore's Law," I think: Not.
You can't use this. I can't use this. But a real pro can. I'm just a point and shooter with a small amount of knowledge to be dangerous. 5-6 mpix is probably all I need because I don't have a discerning eye. I only want to blow stuff up to 8 x 10 once in awhile when I accidentally take a great picture (like when the airplane went right by Mt. Rainier (REALLY close) and I just happened to have a window seat. I coulda seen a climber pee in the snow on there!)
But to a real pro I could see how this would be a must have, and if it is a must have they'll pay whatever it takes to get it, and the cost will be too much for both of us. And if producing this ultimately brings down the cost of my Nikon Coolpix 5700 next time I have to buy one, that's cool with me.
OK, most of you won't like this. I accept that. If you want to argue the point, go ahead. The sentiment here is decidedly left-leaning (I say that in a positive sort of way not intending to insult anyone.) but I'm expecting bricks and rocks. Nevertheless, here's the deal. Believe it or not, it's still the deal. This is not an attempt to flamebait or troll, but is a serious essay. The American invasion of Iraq was not a mistake. It was not done on false pretences. It was not an accident. It was and is a carefully articulated long range plan that has so far succeeded admirably well. This transcends party politics.
After 9/11 the US had several challenges to meet. First, it realized bin Laden was not just a thorn in the side, he was a serious threat, not so much as a person, but as a representative of a movement. How the US misjudged that movement is another story, but up until 9/11 the US had made half-hearted attempts to nab him. Clinton lobbed a few cruise missles at him and missed. It's arguable whether the Bush administration would have done the same thing, but its not arguable that the threat had changed and a few cruise missiles weren't going to cut it. They wouldn't have cut it if Gore or Kerry had been POTUS either. More or less the same thing would have happened. You'd just have blamed someone else.
First, the US went from a defensive position to an offensive position. Given the fact that the US controls the oceans of the world, it can send 5 acres of American soverign territory and 100,000 tons of American diplomacy anywhere in the world in a few days. Love em or hate em, a Carrier Strike Group cannot be ignored. That's simply a fact, and there are 11 of them.
There were two issues. One, the US had to take out the base of operations in Afghanistan and send bin Laden from the palaces of the Taliban into a cave. That was accomplished in fairly short order.
Second, the US had to prevent the formation of a pan-Arabic Caliphate that would have posed a serious threat to the power of the US. This was much more surgical because it had to be done in a way that inserted the American presence into the Middle East in a big way while not disrupting the flow of oil. Kuwait wasn't enough. Saudi Arabia was unthinkable. Iran would be too costly, yet sitting in the middle of this sandbox was Iraq. Not only was Saddam a bad boy of long standing, his militaristic threats were still no joke. Plus, nobody liked him. The invasion took him out for good and was hailed privately by Europe, which still got its oil without having to actually do anything, and even Iran, which had fought a bloody war with Saddam and needed him taken out as well. Best of all, they could celebrate privately and criticize publically, thus they could have their yellowcake and eat it, too. The Saudi's could breathe a sigh of relief not to have Iraq sniffing at its borders.
The whole thing almost fell apart due to American arrogance and insensitivity, but the surge and, more importantly, the change in tactics of the counter-insurgency, has turned it around to the point it is feasible to withdraw troops. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we had a token withdrawl before the election. Meanwhile, Syria has just signed an intelligence cooperation agreement with (wait for it) Israel that will increase the Syrian presence in Lebanon and undercut Hezbollah. This also has the effect of distancing Syria from Iran, which is, of course, potentially the next target.
Now, the yellowcake issue is really not important except as a symbol in American politics. You will remember that the Left delighted in pointing out that the Niger yellowcake 'couldn't be found' and used this in attempts to discredit the Bush administration. Now that tons of yellowcake HAVE been found it is, yawn, no big deal because you can't make bombs with it anyway, we knew about it anyway, and yeah it was in Iraq instead of Niger, but really, no big deal. That's disingenuous at best, but I actually agree with the current sentiment--it's not only no big deal--it's not the
While we whine about 'environmental considerations' of grabbing free energy from the sun, other countries are actually doing something about it. I was just in Germany where solar cell farms have been built in many places along the autobahns. Further, there are huge windmills everywhere (turning VERY slowly--Any bird which hits one of these is not paying attention. In France they've gone whole-hog nuke for electricity. There isn't a project alive that we can't make take ten times longer and make ten times the cost over our 'concerns.'
I have to agree with you. I don't fly constantly like some people, but every flight I've had has been on time within 15 minutes. Security was rough when it started, but has improved dramatically and is much faster than it used to be. I've never had a luggage issue (though they are rough on the bags) My last 'late' flight was because a fuel truck crapped out underneath the wing. They made the time up in the air. The seats are cramped and the food, when available, is dismal, but as far as transportation, it works. Maybe I've just been lucky.
The point is that the FCC withheld evidence that contradicted their decision, something the ARRL caught them on. Judge Rogers said,
"It would appear to be a fairly obvious propositioon that studies upon which an agency relies in promulgating a rule must be made available during the rulemaking in order to afford interested persons meaningful notice and an opportunity for comment."
Another judge, David Tatel, wrote,
"In this very case the Commission redacted individual lines from certain pages on which it otherwise relied...there is little doubt that the Commission deliberately attempted to exclude from the record evidence adverse to its position."
Amateur radio may not enjoy the popularity it once did, but it still works when your precious ethernet is buried in mud and the cell phones are down (e.g. Katrina) and is an essential cog in rescue operations when your average laptop is utterly useless. And BPL, by the way, is deader than amateur radio. Dallas just threw in the towel. There isn't much left.
When I first got into computers it was exciting and new. The first computer at my work place was mine, an Apple ][. What could it do? Anything! Look at this Visicalc thing! Then I stuck a CP/M card in and got dBase II. That allowed us to build a complete accounts payable and payroll system (once we got to dBase III). More computers followed. I thought it would be very cool to get a computer on everyone's desk! People were interested and amazed at what you could do with one of these small desktop boxes. More people got involved. Then came Ethernet! Yes! We're networked! And what about gophers and email? And what was this www thing? It ws an exciting time when hobbyists and enthusiasts drove innovation and spearheaded the drive to compute the world. They were seen as intelligent, innovative saviors. To open up a box with a new computer and smell those polymers wafting in the air still gives a sense of progress! The future has arrived (it's just unevenly distributed--William Gibson) but we were evening the distribution! We were changing the world, increasing productivity.
Well.....Mission accomplished.
Now there IS a computer on every desk. Now there are more servers than you originally had computers. Now without a flashy web site you are hopelessly behind. Now everyone wants in on the action to tell you what to do. Now if you're down for a second it's all your fault and heads will roll. Now IT is a subservient class with deadlines and 'management.' The corporations, big and small finally got over their wide-eyed enthusiasm and ignorance of the field and yoked it in--hard. It has turned from an art to a science, from innovative to expected, from bleeding edge to basement cubicles.
The same thing happened with electricity. The same thing happened with radio. And now it's happened with IT. It has gone fom a hobbyist paradise to a mundane backwater. Too bad. Life was better then.
No kidding. When I visit an amusement park it's with an extended family and three generations. Not only do we not always want to do the same things, because of age and height limits we can't always do the same things. I absolutely refuse to go on "It's a Small World." For some extremely odd reason, my son-in-law absolutely must. The most common phrase anyone in our family ever says on a cell phone in an amusement park is, "Where are you?" What's with these comments that it annoys someone else to hear someone talking on your cell phone? I'm annoyed by some idiots getting into a marital argument in front of me, or seeing some kid who ought to know better going ballistic because he doesn't get his way. If you don't like to hear me keep in touch with my family, I suggest you plug your f'ing ears.
My guess is the bigger the company the more likely this is to happen. When I left my relatively small company (250 emplyees) I was 'instructed' to write a book containing everything I could think of from working there 27 years. I'm the one who took out my own access and erased my own e-mail account. I assume they changed root passwords after I left. Not really my problem, but even though I diodn't leave on the best of terms, we still trusted each other to do the right thing, which we both did.
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics. This is a perfect example. You're led to believe by the headline that Apple is doing so well. Next we have folks discussing the obvious problem with PCs and how could they be sinking so low. Then we have a riff on the dollar. But there's still that $1,000 caveat. The fact is that no one NEEDS to spend over $1000 for a perfectly capable PC, present un-representative of the population as a whole company excepted. The fact is that Apple's share has almost always been way less than 10%. The Mac's share was higher in 1983 than it is today. Take a look: http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/total-share.ars/10
"Mac maker Apple Inc. enjoyed strong retail sales during the first calendar quarter of 2008, boosting its share of the US personal computer market above 6 percent, according to a report released Wednesday by market research firm Gartner.....In total, the Cupertino-based company is said to have shipped over 1.01 million systems nationally, representing 32.5 percent growth and a 6.6 percent share of the US PC market, up from 762,000 systems and 5.2 percent share during the same three-month period last year." AppleInsider
Apple's position may have improved relative to a more recent quarter, but that's a narrow view. If you take an historical view, Apple's computer sales have slid from their high of just over 10% which happened in 1993-1995 or so. It's been significantly less ever since. Apple has always been high-priced, which is why they lost the market to PCs in the first place. They thought their target was IBM when it was actually the lower priced clones that blew them out of the water--permanently.
The fact is that for some people email is simply not a necessary part of their lives. Did you live a fulfilling life before email existed? Those of us old enough to remember a time when there was no email do not think of that time as one of deprivation any more than pre-Web (or even, Gasp! pre-gopher) days meant we could not function.
The funny thing is the implication that this is somehow a 'bad' thing requiring a remedy. OMG, Europe is ahead of us! Oh, dear, Singapore has a greater percetage of people online!
In my state (Washington) even if you are a resident of the city where you have an accident, the Fire Department is entitled to bill you for services rendered--this when you pay property taxes to support the fire department.
Perhaps this is a win for genetics research, or perhaps it is indicative of the size of DNA databases, which is more worrisome. Mr. Freeze wasn't really all that old, though. It's like saying they found a genetic link between you and your great great grandfather: Ancestry.com can do that. If they could do the same thing with the frozen remains of a 20,000 year old Neanderthal--now that would be interesting. Not only would it be ground-breaking research, it would mess up all the anthropological theories.
Blogger is easy. It allows Javascript (unlike Wordpress). Its newest templates are pathetically easy to set up--maybe two minutes. Automatic RSS feed built in. I have a standing offer to help newbies set up a blog. I'll set it up, populate it with appropriate widgets, make them an author and even an admin, and butt out of their lives. I can stick a blog roll on there in 30 seconds flat. If they want something else, they just email me. Google allows me as many blogs as I want. I know it sounds impossible, but some people can't do it. I use blogger because it really takes no time at all, but the newbie thinks I'm God. So what else is new? It doesn't do everything, but it doesn't NEED to. Remember the saying: Good, fast, cheap. Pick any two. Well, blogger is fast and cheap. And frankly, I think it is pretty good, too. I know it's not as good as vi, but Hey! Some of us have a life--and a girlfriend.
There is a lot of sentiment to the contrary here, but the fact is in the US this is already legal and has been for some time. Two court cases settled the matter years ago. I'm not going to be able to cite the exact cases, but one was a woman who worked for Epson Computers in California who was fired for an inappropriate email. (I even forget the subject!) The other was in the Washington State civil service where the state snooped on emails and discovered union activities being coordinated on company time. The person was fired and the firing upheld. So the precedent is set in the US. It's over. The company has the right to monitor your emails; end of story.
I don't understand how employees can legitimately claim their 'rights are being violated' when they are caught using a company computer on company time for personal issues. You can't use a company car to go grocery shopping for your family. You can't use company time to go see a baseball game. You can't use the company printing press to print your own book to sell on the side. You can't use the company copier to print your 'church bulletin.' Why should you be able to do those things? You are stealing company resources, whether time, gasoline, or paper, for personal use. These activities do not enhance the bottom line and make productivity (namely, yours) suffer. Like it or not, a non-profitable company won't be keeping you around long. I do realize a non-profitable company is ALWAYS the result of mis-management. Employees are NEVER at fault, by definition. But still, every little bit helps.
Having said that, surfing on Slashdot on company time is perfectly legitimate. Once in awhile, believe it or not, you can actually learn somehing worthwhile that enhances your knowledge of IT and is of potential benefit to the company. Now back to work....
The galley slaves didn't need to read about it. They knew by experience. This proof was for the academics who only thought about rowing, but were not condemned to do it.
"That took scholars to figure out. "Think of the oar as a lever," Prof. Mark Schiefsky of the Harvard classics department said. "Think of the oarlock as a fulcrum, and think of the sea as the weight."
The longer the lever arm on the rower's side of the fulcrum, the easier to move the weight. In the middle of the ship, as the rowers knew, the distance from hands to oarlock was longest.
This explanation is given in Problem 4 of the classical Greek treatise "Mechanical Problems," from the third century B.C., the first known text on the science of mechanics and the first to explain how a lever works. It preceded, by at least a generation, Archimedes' "On the Equilibrium of Plane Figures," which presented the first formal proof of the law of the lever.
Actually I might just take up the practice of identifying EVERY positive gesture from a woman as sexual. I would become a total pig, of course - but that is to be expected.
That's not a bad tactic at all. Even if you're wrong 90% of the time, you still get laid on the 10% of the time you are right. Just be proactive and keep asking. Sooner or later, someone will say "Yes."
I believe I've written that myself, but I don't believe it. All public libraries do is get busier and busier. When they put terminals in place for the public they get mobbed. The terminals are busy all-day-long. There are never enough. Free WiFi is also busy all day long. these aren't all the 'information disenfranchised' who don't have computer at home either. Whether they have to compete with siblings at home, or find the library more convenient, or enjoy greater bandwidth (The local lib has fiber optic) I don't know. I just know they are busy.
Someone said the online resources are never used and are there to make administrators feel good?? How ignorant! Statistics show double digit increased use every year, from live homework help to academic magazine indexes, you can't get that at home without a subscription. Instead, the library pools its resources and buys subscriptions for the entire community. That's what government SHOULD do, leverage your taxes rather than simply tell you what to do. The average Return on Investment of a public library is over 800%, i.e.: If you had to purchase the information that a library gives out every year year and compare the purchase cost to the library budget (paid by taxes), you'd pay 8 times as much for the same thing. In my state the average cost to a homeowner for their local public library is about 25 cents per thousand dollars of value. In other words, a $400,000 house costs you $100 per year for the public library, less than $10 a month. What's that? Three lattes? It's not like the library breaks your taxpaying back. Look to the public schools for that. The library is flat out the best deal the taxpayer has, period.
Someone once described the Internet as a library with all the books dumped at random in the middle of the floor. What makes the library different is an organized body of knowledge with people assigned to help you. The people in public libraries generally have a Master's degree in Librarianship, and in academic libraries a second masters degree in their subject area. These folks are more familiar with your subject than you are and they've been doing database searches since well before you were born.
If you're one of these people who believe 'well-educated' means being able to search Google, read a blog, and search Wikipedia, then may God have mercy on your soul.
I've used Word since version 1.0 when it came on two 5-1/4" floppies and included a mouse in the box and ran on the original IBM 8088. Before that I used Word Factory, Wordstar and Zardax. I've used every version of Word since 1.0. It is now certainly bloated and busy. It's advanced features such as multiple indexing can drive you crazy with their ineptness, but at heart it is simply a blank screen for you to fill in. Turn off the Nazi grammar feature and it pretty well leaves you alone to do what you want. If you aren't creative, Word won't make you so. If you are creative, Word isn't going to regiment you into not being so. To claim otherwise is an excuse. Maybe you just aren't, like, creative at all. Blaming the software won't turn it around any more than the paper you use. If 8-1/2 x 11" paper is too authoritarian for you, try Charmin to better express your creativity. By all means use another word processor if it makes you feel better, but I don't think a few people looking for another cause are going to lead an exodus away from Word any time soon.
Hey, I thought EVERYBODY could contribute to Wikipedia and that the 'wisdom of the crowd' would prevail. How is 'some officer from Guantanamo' different than some left-wing whacko socialist pushing his own agenda? If it's the latter, you'll say this is an example of democracy in action. If the former, you say, "That's not fair!" Seems to me the bias is obvious. People don't want a 'free and open' encyclopedia; thay want an organ for their own politics, looked over by Big Brother Jimmy Wales making sure they say the 'right' things and don't step over the line into a point of view other than what is acceptable, including anything and everything the least bit pro American.
Slashdot Mirror
Male librarians are few and far between. We need a quota system to ensure males get their fair share of the librarians pie. Of course, if you ARE a male librarian already, the ratio is about 10:1, female to male, and under certain circumstances, such as when you are particularly interested in female company, that could be considered a very good thing, so you might not appreciate the competition. Hmm, I'm gonna have to think about this. P.S. I'm a male librarian. My sig proves it.
I was just there. I don't think you can pay by cell phone--it's a normal token for ticket system, but each garage has a billboard announcing how many spaces are left. This is also true of the interior spaces. You dare not venture into one that claims no spaces are left (Umm, we got stuck inside when we did that), but it's very helpful to know when it says '116' left that you are likely to get a space. You get either a ticket or a token at the beginning which you exchange for a 'get out of jail' ticket (or token) at the end by paying with cash, cedit, or debit. Much better than sticking dollar bills through a little hole, plus you actually get a printed receipt.
Though Gordon Moore certainly developed his law around the silicon chip, the interesting thing about his law is that it is retroactive and not restricted to silicon, leading to the possibility that even if there is a real limit to silicon, something else will come along to replace it and keep the law going through another iteration. Whether that turns out to be holographic, 3-D, biological, or whatever is anyone's guess at this point.
If you start out with the Hollerith census counting machines developed for the 1890 census (the ones that used cards the size of dollar bills because they had a bunch of dollar bill boxes, hench the size of the punched card and the 80-column screen), then move to electric relay switches, then to vacuum tubes, then to transistors, then to silicon, the whole thing is an exponential curve with a doubling every 18-24 months.
Every time I hear someone saying, "We're eaching the end of Moore's Law," I think: Not.
You can't use this. I can't use this. But a real pro can. I'm just a point and shooter with a small amount of knowledge to be dangerous. 5-6 mpix is probably all I need because I don't have a discerning eye. I only want to blow stuff up to 8 x 10 once in awhile when I accidentally take a great picture (like when the airplane went right by Mt. Rainier (REALLY close) and I just happened to have a window seat. I coulda seen a climber pee in the snow on there!)
But to a real pro I could see how this would be a must have, and if it is a must have they'll pay whatever it takes to get it, and the cost will be too much for both of us. And if producing this ultimately brings down the cost of my Nikon Coolpix 5700 next time I have to buy one, that's cool with me.
OK, most of you won't like this. I accept that. If you want to argue the point, go ahead. The sentiment here is decidedly left-leaning (I say that in a positive sort of way not intending to insult anyone.) but I'm expecting bricks and rocks. Nevertheless, here's the deal. Believe it or not, it's still the deal. This is not an attempt to flamebait or troll, but is a serious essay. The American invasion of Iraq was not a mistake. It was not done on false pretences. It was not an accident. It was and is a carefully articulated long range plan that has so far succeeded admirably well. This transcends party politics.
After 9/11 the US had several challenges to meet. First, it realized bin Laden was not just a thorn in the side, he was a serious threat, not so much as a person, but as a representative of a movement. How the US misjudged that movement is another story, but up until 9/11 the US had made half-hearted attempts to nab him. Clinton lobbed a few cruise missles at him and missed. It's arguable whether the Bush administration would have done the same thing, but its not arguable that the threat had changed and a few cruise missiles weren't going to cut it. They wouldn't have cut it if Gore or Kerry had been POTUS either. More or less the same thing would have happened. You'd just have blamed someone else.
First, the US went from a defensive position to an offensive position. Given the fact that the US controls the oceans of the world, it can send 5 acres of American soverign territory and 100,000 tons of American diplomacy anywhere in the world in a few days. Love em or hate em, a Carrier Strike Group cannot be ignored. That's simply a fact, and there are 11 of them.
There were two issues. One, the US had to take out the base of operations in Afghanistan and send bin Laden from the palaces of the Taliban into a cave. That was accomplished in fairly short order.
Second, the US had to prevent the formation of a pan-Arabic Caliphate that would have posed a serious threat to the power of the US. This was much more surgical because it had to be done in a way that inserted the American presence into the Middle East in a big way while not disrupting the flow of oil. Kuwait wasn't enough. Saudi Arabia was unthinkable. Iran would be too costly, yet sitting in the middle of this sandbox was Iraq. Not only was Saddam a bad boy of long standing, his militaristic threats were still no joke. Plus, nobody liked him. The invasion took him out for good and was hailed privately by Europe, which still got its oil without having to actually do anything, and even Iran, which had fought a bloody war with Saddam and needed him taken out as well. Best of all, they could celebrate privately and criticize publically, thus they could have their yellowcake and eat it, too. The Saudi's could breathe a sigh of relief not to have Iraq sniffing at its borders.
The whole thing almost fell apart due to American arrogance and insensitivity, but the surge and, more importantly, the change in tactics of the counter-insurgency, has turned it around to the point it is feasible to withdraw troops. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we had a token withdrawl before the election. Meanwhile, Syria has just signed an intelligence cooperation agreement with (wait for it) Israel that will increase the Syrian presence in Lebanon and undercut Hezbollah. This also has the effect of distancing Syria from Iran, which is, of course, potentially the next target.
Now, the yellowcake issue is really not important except as a symbol in American politics. You will remember that the Left delighted in pointing out that the Niger yellowcake 'couldn't be found' and used this in attempts to discredit the Bush administration. Now that tons of yellowcake HAVE been found it is, yawn, no big deal because you can't make bombs with it anyway, we knew about it anyway, and yeah it was in Iraq instead of Niger, but really, no big deal. That's disingenuous at best, but I actually agree with the current sentiment--it's not only no big deal--it's not the
While we whine about 'environmental considerations' of grabbing free energy from the sun, other countries are actually doing something about it. I was just in Germany where solar cell farms have been built in many places along the autobahns. Further, there are huge windmills everywhere (turning VERY slowly--Any bird which hits one of these is not paying attention. In France they've gone whole-hog nuke for electricity. There isn't a project alive that we can't make take ten times longer and make ten times the cost over our 'concerns.'
I have to agree with you. I don't fly constantly like some people, but every flight I've had has been on time within 15 minutes. Security was rough when it started, but has improved dramatically and is much faster than it used to be. I've never had a luggage issue (though they are rough on the bags) My last 'late' flight was because a fuel truck crapped out underneath the wing. They made the time up in the air. The seats are cramped and the food, when available, is dismal, but as far as transportation, it works. Maybe I've just been lucky.
The point is that the FCC withheld evidence that contradicted their decision, something the ARRL caught them on. Judge Rogers said,
"It would appear to be a fairly obvious propositioon that studies upon which an agency relies in promulgating a rule must be made available during the rulemaking in order to afford interested persons meaningful notice and an opportunity for comment."
Another judge, David Tatel, wrote,
"In this very case the Commission redacted individual lines from certain pages on which it otherwise relied...there is little doubt that the Commission deliberately attempted to exclude from the record evidence adverse to its position."
Amateur radio may not enjoy the popularity it once did, but it still works when your precious ethernet is buried in mud and the cell phones are down (e.g. Katrina) and is an essential cog in rescue operations when your average laptop is utterly useless. And BPL, by the way, is deader than amateur radio. Dallas just threw in the towel. There isn't much left.
KZ7B
When I first got into computers it was exciting and new. The first computer at my work place was mine, an Apple ][. What could it do? Anything! Look at this Visicalc thing! Then I stuck a CP/M card in and got dBase II. That allowed us to build a complete accounts payable and payroll system (once we got to dBase III). More computers followed. I thought it would be very cool to get a computer on everyone's desk! People were interested and amazed at what you could do with one of these small desktop boxes. More people got involved. Then came Ethernet! Yes! We're networked! And what about gophers and email? And what was this www thing? It ws an exciting time when hobbyists and enthusiasts drove innovation and spearheaded the drive to compute the world. They were seen as intelligent, innovative saviors. To open up a box with a new computer and smell those polymers wafting in the air still gives a sense of progress! The future has arrived (it's just unevenly distributed--William Gibson) but we were evening the distribution! We were changing the world, increasing productivity.
Well.....Mission accomplished.
Now there IS a computer on every desk. Now there are more servers than you originally had computers. Now without a flashy web site you are hopelessly behind. Now everyone wants in on the action to tell you what to do. Now if you're down for a second it's all your fault and heads will roll. Now IT is a subservient class with deadlines and 'management.' The corporations, big and small finally got over their wide-eyed enthusiasm and ignorance of the field and yoked it in--hard. It has turned from an art to a science, from innovative to expected, from bleeding edge to basement cubicles.
The same thing happened with electricity. The same thing happened with radio. And now it's happened with IT. It has gone fom a hobbyist paradise to a mundane backwater. Too bad. Life was better then.
No kidding. When I visit an amusement park it's with an extended family and three generations. Not only do we not always want to do the same things, because of age and height limits we can't always do the same things. I absolutely refuse to go on "It's a Small World." For some extremely odd reason, my son-in-law absolutely must. The most common phrase anyone in our family ever says on a cell phone in an amusement park is, "Where are you?" What's with these comments that it annoys someone else to hear someone talking on your cell phone? I'm annoyed by some idiots getting into a marital argument in front of me, or seeing some kid who ought to know better going ballistic because he doesn't get his way. If you don't like to hear me keep in touch with my family, I suggest you plug your f'ing ears.
My guess is the bigger the company the more likely this is to happen. When I left my relatively small company (250 emplyees) I was 'instructed' to write a book containing everything I could think of from working there 27 years. I'm the one who took out my own access and erased my own e-mail account. I assume they changed root passwords after I left. Not really my problem, but even though I diodn't leave on the best of terms, we still trusted each other to do the right thing, which we both did.
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics. This is a perfect example. You're led to believe by the headline that Apple is doing so well. Next we have folks discussing the obvious problem with PCs and how could they be sinking so low. Then we have a riff on the dollar. But there's still that $1,000 caveat. The fact is that no one NEEDS to spend over $1000 for a perfectly capable PC, present un-representative of the population as a whole company excepted. The fact is that Apple's share has almost always been way less than 10%. The Mac's share was higher in 1983 than it is today. Take a look: http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/total-share.ars/10
"Mac maker Apple Inc. enjoyed strong retail sales during the first calendar quarter of 2008, boosting its share of the US personal computer market above 6 percent, according to a report released Wednesday by market research firm Gartner.....In total, the Cupertino-based company is said to have shipped over 1.01 million systems nationally, representing 32.5 percent growth and a 6.6 percent share of the US PC market, up from 762,000 systems and 5.2 percent share during the same three-month period last year." AppleInsider
Apple's position may have improved relative to a more recent quarter, but that's a narrow view. If you take an historical view, Apple's computer sales have slid from their high of just over 10% which happened in 1993-1995 or so. It's been significantly less ever since. Apple has always been high-priced, which is why they lost the market to PCs in the first place. They thought their target was IBM when it was actually the lower priced clones that blew them out of the water--permanently.
The fact is that for some people email is simply not a necessary part of their lives. Did you live a fulfilling life before email existed? Those of us old enough to remember a time when there was no email do not think of that time as one of deprivation any more than pre-Web (or even, Gasp! pre-gopher) days meant we could not function.
The funny thing is the implication that this is somehow a 'bad' thing requiring a remedy. OMG, Europe is ahead of us! Oh, dear, Singapore has a greater percetage of people online!
i say count your blessings.
Sure. Write to me at: michael -at- schuyler.com
In my state (Washington) even if you are a resident of the city where you have an accident, the Fire Department is entitled to bill you for services rendered--this when you pay property taxes to support the fire department.
Perhaps this is a win for genetics research, or perhaps it is indicative of the size of DNA databases, which is more worrisome. Mr. Freeze wasn't really all that old, though. It's like saying they found a genetic link between you and your great great grandfather: Ancestry.com can do that. If they could do the same thing with the frozen remains of a 20,000 year old Neanderthal--now that would be interesting. Not only would it be ground-breaking research, it would mess up all the anthropological theories.
Blogger is easy. It allows Javascript (unlike Wordpress). Its newest templates are pathetically easy to set up--maybe two minutes. Automatic RSS feed built in. I have a standing offer to help newbies set up a blog. I'll set it up, populate it with appropriate widgets, make them an author and even an admin, and butt out of their lives. I can stick a blog roll on there in 30 seconds flat. If they want something else, they just email me. Google allows me as many blogs as I want. I know it sounds impossible, but some people can't do it. I use blogger because it really takes no time at all, but the newbie thinks I'm God. So what else is new? It doesn't do everything, but it doesn't NEED to. Remember the saying: Good, fast, cheap. Pick any two. Well, blogger is fast and cheap. And frankly, I think it is pretty good, too. I know it's not as good as vi, but Hey! Some of us have a life--and a girlfriend.
Here's a cute little rendition: http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/journey/ which includes the 70K reduction along with a few others.
There is a lot of sentiment to the contrary here, but the fact is in the US this is already legal and has been for some time. Two court cases settled the matter years ago. I'm not going to be able to cite the exact cases, but one was a woman who worked for Epson Computers in California who was fired for an inappropriate email. (I even forget the subject!) The other was in the Washington State civil service where the state snooped on emails and discovered union activities being coordinated on company time. The person was fired and the firing upheld. So the precedent is set in the US. It's over. The company has the right to monitor your emails; end of story.
I don't understand how employees can legitimately claim their 'rights are being violated' when they are caught using a company computer on company time for personal issues. You can't use a company car to go grocery shopping for your family. You can't use company time to go see a baseball game. You can't use the company printing press to print your own book to sell on the side. You can't use the company copier to print your 'church bulletin.' Why should you be able to do those things? You are stealing company resources, whether time, gasoline, or paper, for personal use. These activities do not enhance the bottom line and make productivity (namely, yours) suffer. Like it or not, a non-profitable company won't be keeping you around long. I do realize a non-profitable company is ALWAYS the result of mis-management. Employees are NEVER at fault, by definition. But still, every little bit helps.
Having said that, surfing on Slashdot on company time is perfectly legitimate. Once in awhile, believe it or not, you can actually learn somehing worthwhile that enhances your knowledge of IT and is of potential benefit to the company. Now back to work....
The galley slaves didn't need to read about it. They knew by experience. This proof was for the academics who only thought about rowing, but were not condemned to do it.
You obviously didn't read the article:
"That took scholars to figure out. "Think of the oar as a lever," Prof. Mark Schiefsky of the Harvard classics department said. "Think of the oarlock as a fulcrum, and think of the sea as the weight."
The longer the lever arm on the rower's side of the fulcrum, the easier to move the weight. In the middle of the ship, as the rowers knew, the distance from hands to oarlock was longest.
This explanation is given in Problem 4 of the classical Greek treatise "Mechanical Problems," from the third century B.C., the first known text on the science of mechanics and the first to explain how a lever works. It preceded, by at least a generation, Archimedes' "On the Equilibrium of Plane Figures," which presented the first formal proof of the law of the lever.
Actually I might just take up the practice of identifying EVERY positive gesture from a woman as sexual. I would become a total pig, of course - but that is to be expected.
That's not a bad tactic at all. Even if you're wrong 90% of the time, you still get laid on the 10% of the time you are right. Just be proactive and keep asking. Sooner or later, someone will say "Yes."
I believe I've written that myself, but I don't believe it. All public libraries do is get busier and busier. When they put terminals in place for the public they get mobbed. The terminals are busy all-day-long. There are never enough. Free WiFi is also busy all day long. these aren't all the 'information disenfranchised' who don't have computer at home either. Whether they have to compete with siblings at home, or find the library more convenient, or enjoy greater bandwidth (The local lib has fiber optic) I don't know. I just know they are busy.
Someone said the online resources are never used and are there to make administrators feel good?? How ignorant! Statistics show double digit increased use every year, from live homework help to academic magazine indexes, you can't get that at home without a subscription. Instead, the library pools its resources and buys subscriptions for the entire community. That's what government SHOULD do, leverage your taxes rather than simply tell you what to do. The average Return on Investment of a public library is over 800%, i.e.: If you had to purchase the information that a library gives out every year year and compare the purchase cost to the library budget (paid by taxes), you'd pay 8 times as much for the same thing. In my state the average cost to a homeowner for their local public library is about 25 cents per thousand dollars of value. In other words, a $400,000 house costs you $100 per year for the public library, less than $10 a month. What's that? Three lattes? It's not like the library breaks your taxpaying back. Look to the public schools for that. The library is flat out the best deal the taxpayer has, period.
Someone once described the Internet as a library with all the books dumped at random in the middle of the floor. What makes the library different is an organized body of knowledge with people assigned to help you. The people in public libraries generally have a Master's degree in Librarianship, and in academic libraries a second masters degree in their subject area. These folks are more familiar with your subject than you are and they've been doing database searches since well before you were born.
If you're one of these people who believe 'well-educated' means being able to search Google, read a blog, and search Wikipedia, then may God have mercy on your soul.
I've used Word since version 1.0 when it came on two 5-1/4" floppies and included a mouse in the box and ran on the original IBM 8088. Before that I used Word Factory, Wordstar and Zardax. I've used every version of Word since 1.0. It is now certainly bloated and busy. It's advanced features such as multiple indexing can drive you crazy with their ineptness, but at heart it is simply a blank screen for you to fill in. Turn off the Nazi grammar feature and it pretty well leaves you alone to do what you want. If you aren't creative, Word won't make you so. If you are creative, Word isn't going to regiment you into not being so. To claim otherwise is an excuse. Maybe you just aren't, like, creative at all. Blaming the software won't turn it around any more than the paper you use. If 8-1/2 x 11" paper is too authoritarian for you, try Charmin to better express your creativity. By all means use another word processor if it makes you feel better, but I don't think a few people looking for another cause are going to lead an exodus away from Word any time soon.
Hey, I thought EVERYBODY could contribute to Wikipedia and that the 'wisdom of the crowd' would prevail. How is 'some officer from Guantanamo' different than some left-wing whacko socialist pushing his own agenda? If it's the latter, you'll say this is an example of democracy in action. If the former, you say, "That's not fair!" Seems to me the bias is obvious. People don't want a 'free and open' encyclopedia; thay want an organ for their own politics, looked over by Big Brother Jimmy Wales making sure they say the 'right' things and don't step over the line into a point of view other than what is acceptable, including anything and everything the least bit pro American.