I think I just read that China moved up to #2 in total connected households, but is still lagging in percentage of total populating. I think the number of connected households was something like 100 million.
If China ever does implement the Great Firewall their days as a superpower are over. They would fall behind technologically. I think they are too smart to make that mistake. China has used isolationist policies in the past and they haven't done much good.
And how can China afford to piss off the US? Who do you think buys most of the crap they make? China will need a much richer population before they have enough consumers to support their own industries.
Of course now all US citizens get 12 years of free education. We also get protection from pirates and bandits. There are no slaves or indentured servants. You don't need to be rich to speak your mind on the Internet. And most people live past the age of 50.
While the government has taken some freedom from us it has also given us freedom that we didn't have before. I value freedom from disease, freedom from armed thugs and freedom from ignorance. I appreciate the ultimate freedom, not being a slave. And I value the freedom to speak my mind in a very public forum.
If the government didn't allow stores to prevent minors from playing mature video games then some crackpot special-interest group would try to keep us all from exercising that freedom. It's not like minors have that much trouble sneaking into R-rated movies.
And actually crossing the street is often illegal (jaywalking), but you usually won't get a ticket for it:)
Are you blind? Didn't you notice that the average speed on the strip is like 1mph? I can't imagine that the traffic is worse elsewhere. Everyone wants to drive down the strip, to see and be seen.
Who modded this as a troll? It's a simple statement of fact. Anyone who's actually BEEN to Vegas can tell you that there are slot machines everywhere except the restrooms.
I agree that a company shouldn't have to pay for excessive personal use of company resources. But our lives go on whether we are at work or not. Sometimes my employer will ask me to work late or on weekends. And sometimes I will need to take time off for personal business. If I take too much time then I will get fired for not doing my job, not for taking too much time off.
My employer doesn't regulate our web usage much. If I spend all day looking at porn then I'll get fired because I'm not doing my job. That decision wouldn't require web monitoring at all.
If I ask for more disk space then our SA can check how much I'm using and how much others are using and if necessary tell me to free up space. In that case our SA hasn't gone through my personal files and has still fairly denied my request for more disk.
Our IT could be total Nazis about resources (and in some ways they still are), but it is possible to trust people to act like adults and still get some work done, because in the end if you don't get your job done you get fired and if you do get your job done then who cares how?
The phone has to be one of the most distracting elements in the modern office. If you and your team use an instant messenger instead you can really cut back on the distraction factor. I find I can hold my concentration better through a chat session than a phone conversation.
And stack your meetings on particular days if at all possible. This is often difficult since in many office cultures the managers proclaim meeting times and the workers learn to live with them. But if you have a choice then try to put all the distractions on the same days.
And for all you managers out there don't schedule a meeting that ends close to the end of the day. If the meeting ends at 4 and most people leave at 5 chances are your workers are doing only two things between 4 and 5: jack and shit.
I get from your comment that a worker should just put up with whatever equipment the company gives them and learn to like it. Well, that doesn't really leave any room for what an employee likes or dislikes.
The best coders are much more productive than the worst coders. If the best coders know they are the best then they will choose to work for the company that best satisfies their needs. Suddenly employee happiness is a major part of the productivity equation.
And even the worst coders do better work when they are happy than when they aren't. If I am a cheapskate employer and I give everyone 486s and 15" monitors for development then development will be slow because compiles take a long time and my coders can't see enough code at a time to make good decisions. And my turnover will be high because coders will become dissatisfied over time and quit.
Actually I don't think writing a novel is like writing a novel either, in many cases. Piers Anthony liked to include little snippets of his personal life in the back of his books for a while. Maybe he still does it, I don't read his stuff anymore.
After reading those snippets and looking at the sheer volume of his writing you get the impression that he pretty much churns out novels like VB forms. And when you look at the output volume of other commercially successful writers you realize that they do the same thing.
These writers don't suck; in fact they have worked on their professional writing to the point that the creative juices are a smaller part of the process.
If we try to charge extra at collection then most people will find some way around the approved collection points. Not everyone collects old computers; many people think 1 computer is too many:) If I had the choice of paying $25 to recycle or paying nothing to leave my old stuff in a college dorm parking lot then I would probably do the wrong thing.
Collecting for recycling at the point of purchase makes sense from that perspective. But if we could get some cash back when we recycle then there would be added incentive to recycle computer parts properly.
Does this sound just like our current recycling system? It sure does! Making folks pay for recycling up front and giving them a cash incentive to follow through is the best way to make recycling work.
Way to take a stand on employee abuse of corporate resources! Make sure to lock and guard the supply cabinets too, those bastards are always stealing pens and file folders. And what about web surfing on company time? That's stealing too! What time did you submit your comment?
While long distance carriers are already in trouble telcos that own the physical plant (the actual phone lines) are still in good shape. While their margins may shrink we still need them to maintain the plant.
Smart telcos will stop differentiating between phone and data service and provide one pipe with a protocol that supports both high latency/high bandwidth applications like internet access and low latency/low bandwidth applications like telephony. DSL is already kinda like that, except that it is viewed as an add-on rather than an integral part of the service.
The key part is integrated billing, where the bandwidth is not differentiated between data and phone services.
The proportion of metal in a planet should relate to the relative age of the star it orbits and the distance from this star. Older stars formed from primordial hydrogen and are therefore relatively poor in heavy elements. Newer stars contain more heavy elements created in the supernovas in old stars.
Closer planets get more solar energy and are therefore hotter than farther planets. This heat gives lighter elements like hydrogen the necessary energy to escape from the atmosphere, leaving behind the heavier elements to dominate the planets composition.
That said, most stars that are similar to the sun in mass will be no more than 4 billion years older or younger than our Sun. This should lead to a similar proportion of heavy elements. And since the distance requirements for an Earth-like planet are so precise this is unlikely to be a factor. So a similar metal core is almost a given.
Desktop apps are a hassle to maintain. If the hardware dies then the app dies with it. Lusers beat on the apps like a red-haired stepchild, screwing up the configuration. And Windows crashes and takes data with it.
Sun wants to sell servers, not commodity desktops with margins measured in cents. So Java is designed to run on the server. Why would Microsoft release.NET if they were only interested in desktop app development? They already own that segment and there's very little competition.
You're still thinking about traditional client-server or even client only apps. Java is making good progress in web-based apps, like shopping carts and dynamically configured websites. I've started noticing more large commercial websites written with JSPs, which are basically Java servlets.
Have you ever actually used a PS controller? They suck. You can't feel the difference between any of the buttons. And the menu control schemes were different for most games. There are too many shoulder buttons. And the analog sticks are awkward to use for real men with large hands. The only reason that anyone likes them is that so many people went to PlayStation boot camp and that was the standard equipment.
The GameCube controller works fine for other games, which you probably haven't bothered to try. Nintendo has recognized that analog control is more versatile and therefore emphasizes it over the D-pad. And most games have one main function at any given time, so it makes sense to have one big-ass button on the controller.
The press in the US is definitely biased towards large corporations. The media bias manifests as a lack of substantive reporting on issues that give corporations a black eye. The reason is that media conglomerates are supported by advertising. Guess who spends the most cash on advertisements?
And this problem is getting worse now that media conglomerates are getting into other businesses. A journalist is going to get even more pressure to ignore transgressions of the parent corporation.
Obviously the word "innovate" is being redefined before our very eyes. It looks like the new M$/Bill Jones definition is to do the same thing everyone else is doing and look like an asshole in the process.
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Drinking is almost mandatory before a lot of computer work! How else would I summon the courage and forget the past pain of maintaining Windows?
I think I just read that China moved up to #2 in total connected households, but is still lagging in percentage of total populating. I think the number of connected households was something like 100 million.
If China ever does implement the Great Firewall their days as a superpower are over. They would fall behind technologically. I think they are too smart to make that mistake. China has used isolationist policies in the past and they haven't done much good.
And how can China afford to piss off the US? Who do you think buys most of the crap they make? China will need a much richer population before they have enough consumers to support their own industries.
Of course now all US citizens get 12 years of free education. We also get protection from pirates and bandits. There are no slaves or indentured servants. You don't need to be rich to speak your mind on the Internet. And most people live past the age of 50.
:)
While the government has taken some freedom from us it has also given us freedom that we didn't have before. I value freedom from disease, freedom from armed thugs and freedom from ignorance. I appreciate the ultimate freedom, not being a slave. And I value the freedom to speak my mind in a very public forum.
If the government didn't allow stores to prevent minors from playing mature video games then some crackpot special-interest group would try to keep us all from exercising that freedom. It's not like minors have that much trouble sneaking into R-rated movies.
And actually crossing the street is often illegal (jaywalking), but you usually won't get a ticket for it
Are you blind? Didn't you notice that the average speed on the strip is like 1mph? I can't imagine that the traffic is worse elsewhere. Everyone wants to drive down the strip, to see and be seen.
What a bunch of prudes! I hope they have a bar on the train so I don't have to sneak a flask onboard.
Who modded this as a troll? It's a simple statement of fact. Anyone who's actually BEEN to Vegas can tell you that there are slot machines everywhere except the restrooms.
I agree that a company shouldn't have to pay for excessive personal use of company resources. But our lives go on whether we are at work or not. Sometimes my employer will ask me to work late or on weekends. And sometimes I will need to take time off for personal business. If I take too much time then I will get fired for not doing my job, not for taking too much time off.
My employer doesn't regulate our web usage much. If I spend all day looking at porn then I'll get fired because I'm not doing my job. That decision wouldn't require web monitoring at all.
If I ask for more disk space then our SA can check how much I'm using and how much others are using and if necessary tell me to free up space. In that case our SA hasn't gone through my personal files and has still fairly denied my request for more disk.
Our IT could be total Nazis about resources (and in some ways they still are), but it is possible to trust people to act like adults and still get some work done, because in the end if you don't get your job done you get fired and if you do get your job done then who cares how?
The phone has to be one of the most distracting elements in the modern office. If you and your team use an instant messenger instead you can really cut back on the distraction factor. I find I can hold my concentration better through a chat session than a phone conversation.
And stack your meetings on particular days if at all possible. This is often difficult since in many office cultures the managers proclaim meeting times and the workers learn to live with them. But if you have a choice then try to put all the distractions on the same days.
And for all you managers out there don't schedule a meeting that ends close to the end of the day. If the meeting ends at 4 and most people leave at 5 chances are your workers are doing only two things between 4 and 5: jack and shit.
Sorry, I didn't make it past "get up at 5:00am" :)
Ditto, although shitting on the clock is even better if you have a mini-game system (I only have a Palm but it works).
I get from your comment that a worker should just put up with whatever equipment the company gives them and learn to like it. Well, that doesn't really leave any room for what an employee likes or dislikes.
The best coders are much more productive than the worst coders. If the best coders know they are the best then they will choose to work for the company that best satisfies their needs. Suddenly employee happiness is a major part of the productivity equation.
And even the worst coders do better work when they are happy than when they aren't. If I am a cheapskate employer and I give everyone 486s and 15" monitors for development then development will be slow because compiles take a long time and my coders can't see enough code at a time to make good decisions. And my turnover will be high because coders will become dissatisfied over time and quit.
Actually I don't think writing a novel is like writing a novel either, in many cases. Piers Anthony liked to include little snippets of his personal life in the back of his books for a while. Maybe he still does it, I don't read his stuff anymore.
After reading those snippets and looking at the sheer volume of his writing you get the impression that he pretty much churns out novels like VB forms. And when you look at the output volume of other commercially successful writers you realize that they do the same thing.
These writers don't suck; in fact they have worked on their professional writing to the point that the creative juices are a smaller part of the process.
If we try to charge extra at collection then most people will find some way around the approved collection points. Not everyone collects old computers; many people think 1 computer is too many :) If I had the choice of paying $25 to recycle or paying nothing to leave my old stuff in a college dorm parking lot then I would probably do the wrong thing.
Collecting for recycling at the point of purchase makes sense from that perspective. But if we could get some cash back when we recycle then there would be added incentive to recycle computer parts properly.
Does this sound just like our current recycling system? It sure does! Making folks pay for recycling up front and giving them a cash incentive to follow through is the best way to make recycling work.
The great thing about these is you can make them store twice as much data with nothing more than a hole punch. Those were the days...
Way to take a stand on employee abuse of corporate resources! Make sure to lock and guard the supply cabinets too, those bastards are always stealing pens and file folders. And what about web surfing on company time? That's stealing too! What time did you submit your comment?
I'm glad I don't work for your company.
While long distance carriers are already in trouble telcos that own the physical plant (the actual phone lines) are still in good shape. While their margins may shrink we still need them to maintain the plant.
Smart telcos will stop differentiating between phone and data service and provide one pipe with a protocol that supports both high latency/high bandwidth applications like internet access and low latency/low bandwidth applications like telephony. DSL is already kinda like that, except that it is viewed as an add-on rather than an integral part of the service.
The key part is integrated billing, where the bandwidth is not differentiated between data and phone services.
The proportion of metal in a planet should relate to the relative age of the star it orbits and the distance from this star. Older stars formed from primordial hydrogen and are therefore relatively poor in heavy elements. Newer stars contain more heavy elements created in the supernovas in old stars.
Closer planets get more solar energy and are therefore hotter than farther planets. This heat gives lighter elements like hydrogen the necessary energy to escape from the atmosphere, leaving behind the heavier elements to dominate the planets composition.
That said, most stars that are similar to the sun in mass will be no more than 4 billion years older or younger than our Sun. This should lead to a similar proportion of heavy elements. And since the distance requirements for an Earth-like planet are so precise this is unlikely to be a factor. So a similar metal core is almost a given.
Desktop apps are a hassle to maintain. If the hardware dies then the app dies with it. Lusers beat on the apps like a red-haired stepchild, screwing up the configuration. And Windows crashes and takes data with it.
.NET if they were only interested in desktop app development? They already own that segment and there's very little competition.
Sun wants to sell servers, not commodity desktops with margins measured in cents. So Java is designed to run on the server. Why would Microsoft release
Right, just like Unix killed the mainframe. I think I have some clay tablets somewhere proclaiming this inevatability...
You're still thinking about traditional client-server or even client only apps. Java is making good progress in web-based apps, like shopping carts and dynamically configured websites. I've started noticing more large commercial websites written with JSPs, which are basically Java servlets.
I thought Oracle's standard answer to how much their software costs is "How much money do you have?"
Have you ever actually used a PS controller? They suck. You can't feel the difference between any of the buttons. And the menu control schemes were different for most games. There are too many shoulder buttons. And the analog sticks are awkward to use for real men with large hands. The only reason that anyone likes them is that so many people went to PlayStation boot camp and that was the standard equipment.
The GameCube controller works fine for other games, which you probably haven't bothered to try. Nintendo has recognized that analog control is more versatile and therefore emphasizes it over the D-pad. And most games have one main function at any given time, so it makes sense to have one big-ass button on the controller.
The press in the US is definitely biased towards large corporations. The media bias manifests as a lack of substantive reporting on issues that give corporations a black eye. The reason is that media conglomerates are supported by advertising. Guess who spends the most cash on advertisements?
And this problem is getting worse now that media conglomerates are getting into other businesses. A journalist is going to get even more pressure to ignore transgressions of the parent corporation.
Obviously the word "innovate" is being redefined before our very eyes. It looks like the new M$/Bill Jones definition is to do the same thing everyone else is doing and look like an asshole in the process.