Yup - except we don't have states in New Zealand. Or counties - unless you count Counties-Manukau, which is a Region.
We do have Government Departments, and Microsoft will have to go after each one, like any other vendor. That means tendering and the like. I imagine that many solutions will be provided by big vendors such as Gen-i and IBM. There are plenty of folk around to support roll outs.
Lobbyists get relatively little influence over here as well - they can be involved in the process like anybody else, but it is pretty transparent. The OSS folk are pretty good and pretty influential here - here's hoping they can keep pushing.
Why can't Microsoft give away Windows 7 for free here? At least if they sell it for very cheap, then there is no reason why OEMs won't put multiple versions of software on each netbook.
Then buyers can choose which OS they want, and Microsoft hopes and can reasonably expect that most will chose the free latest version of that old familiar - Windows.
After a while that the three application limit is begging to be broken, but Microsoft doesn't have to charge much for it - say $50. That fee will be collected directly, and even if this is relatively small, it is probably bigger than the OEM's are paying now.
Let's extend it - why not, if you are Microsoft, ship every computer with the free/crippled version, and take the OEM out of the equation entirely?
Actually that anaArtificial restrictions are quite common with motorcycles aimed at learners in many countries.
The power output is crippled somehow (e.g. a gear is locked out, a different chip used, air flow restrictor plate) to comply with learner laws, and once you get your license you can legally de-restrict the vehicle. Obviously many people don't wait for their license to do so.
It is, however, call uncrippling, not upgrading.
There is no excuse for the difference in length, and eBay is not only confusing search engines and us, but is also making their pages slower to load.
Note that the ebay.com.au and Trademe sites have about the same number of listings.
The url is a symptom, and a cursory analysis of the rest of the page and the site will see plenty of other examples of poor design for page loading speed.
ISP XNet was already cutting people off last year in anticipation of this law.
They sent one email to folk's ISP accounts (and who ever checks that) and then snip - the connection was down.
The ISP's have to disconnect you as if they do not then they are opening themselves up to a lawsuit from RIAA/RIANZ et al. The copyright holders will demonstrate that they have provided "proof" (from US based companies trawling the p2p sites) and there has been no action, and they will probably win. So the easiest thing for the ISPs to do it just warn then disconnect.
The proposed code of practice means the ISP has to give 3 warning over 3 months to their customers, and the customer can dispute them. But the ISPs will find this onerous, the chilling effect is frightening, and the kicker is that only the giants (RIAA etc.) are pre-authorized to send copyright notices to ISPs - the ISPs are not obliged to treat individual copyright holders with the same due process.
New Zealand ISP Xnet had already started taking down customers based on this law, and based on only one alleged infringement at that.
There is a good discussion on geekzone.
What is really sad is that they market themselves as the P2P ISP.
I'm definately NOT an apple man by any means, yet having now used OSX for a week and an ipod for a year, they just get (most) stuff right, logical and simple - just how it should be.
Well you sure sounds like you are an Apple man now. Oh - and Apple's come with spell-check.
email is a basic tool like the phone - it should just work.
I'm a management consultant (sorry sorry sorry), and my email box often hits the limit within days or weeks of arriving at a new client. It is annoying as anything, and it's an early sign of a poorly run stupid-rules-based IT shop.
I've seen people delete unread and unanswered emails just so that they can respond to a more urgent one. I've dealt with people who could seldom send email as their limits were always exceeded, and they didn't know what to do I've seen people adopt the only solution they can - archiving their email to their laptop HDD - not a great place to leave your only copy of your crucial business info. I've (sadly) written PPT preentations and spreadsheets that are to big to email versus the internal limits. zipped.
Why do people want to keep all their emails? - I am not a lawyer, nor do I (I hope) write emails that are legaly dubious. - I want to keep records of all my business transactions - so my non spam non trivial email is not deleted. - Spotlight/google desktop are great for finding those old, vital emails. no need to sort them
How can emails get so big? Some organisations have a 'send the link, not the file' policy. Depressingly few however. Where this doesn't work then my inbox rapidly fills up with all sorts of (mainly MS Office) binaries. When working on a important document there will be multiple versions flying around. Keeping older versions is important, as you can see who did what and when. Spreadsheets and datasets are getting bigger - many of my key spreadsheets are over 10mb. Pictures, movies and sound are increasingly part of everything we do, e.g. powerpoint presentatons (yes I can't stand powerpoint, but people do use it) Zipping is a pain.
What should IT do?
I advocate nagging at certain points, but not a set limit.
Some users are data people, and they are sending around big datasets, be it on spreadsheets or otherwise. Get to know them, work with them but for goodness sakes help them as they are vital to the company. Whatever you do don't stop them from doing their stuff without implementing a better solution. (can you hear the voice of experience?)
follow your company's archive rule, but don't forget to check those laptops....
Times change. I live in wellington, (I am right under Mt Victoria), knowingly provide free 802.11g access & have an unlimited bandwidth deal with telecom NZ. The cost is insane however, at $80 ($50) per month for unlimited to 10GB at just 256k, then throttled to 128k after 10GB.
wellington has a great service in Citylink, which is a pay per MB downtown-wide wifi service. That's getting kicked hard because Citylink, who are also wellington's largest business ISP, and host NZ's largest site, were suddenly depeered from telecom late last week.
First the CD reduced the size and weight of my LP colllection to a shelf. Then I put the CD's into folders and reduced the collection to a few folders. Then the DVD reduced the size of Videos, so I now have a large movie collection is also just a few folders.
But I still have about 20 boxes of books, and have given/sold/thrown away countless other books over the years.
I move cities a lot.
So when this gets to maturity I'll be able to get rid of all those books, DVD's and CD's, and have all my media stored digitally.
and I won't have to wait or pay for 1 week shipping to NZ (or whereever I live) to get my hands on Woodward's latest expose.
The next MPAA/RIAA will be the Association of American Publishers (AAP, www.publishers.org). Watch for legal dramas as the AAP resists the relentless digitisation of books, criminalizes "scanners" who rip books to digital media and tries to shut down book trading over P2P networks. Watch the AAP fail at all of these tasks...
>1) Location. The programmer is nearby and likely in the same time zone making questions easier to ask and schedules easier to sync.
-Sure, but they are able to work "through the night" uninterrupted by constant PHB interference? -Can you hire 20 more highly educated programmers in 5 days to work at your location?
>2) Language. While most Indian programmers speak English, they speak it with a heavy accent that is difficult enough to understand. -You get used to it - just like you did for the English, Germans, Irish and Latinos.
>3) Labor laws. America has some of the most lax labor laws in the Western world. A huge strength of outsourcing is that you can change the number of people working for you very rapidly - and this does not mean they are fired from their company.
>4) Guaranteed ownership of ideas nothing a contract cannot solve - and I don't see how this differs in the US from other WTO countries.
The USA has crucial advantages though: -access to cheap capital -the world's biggest and wealthiest market -the world's best universities (and some of the worst) -the most experienced and advanced IT labor force
The USA IT labor force was in huge demand during the dot com craze, overpaid as a result and is now going through painful transition to more "normal" salary levels. Until people accept that the days of massive salaries are over then outsourcing will continue to be a great option for managers.
> I was thinking was there could be some sort of law for American companies that they would have to have the same minimum wage type laws apply to them even with internationally based employees.
mmmm How about we foreigners enforce a law like this for all software developers in the USA. Let's say we leglislate that all software in New Zealand must be written by people earning at least $US 10 per hour.....
goodbye linux goodbye apache goodbye open source Hello Microsoft Goodbye New Zealand economy
Like it or not, but this will logically extend to Mexicans and Canadians next - many have pointed out this hole in the security setup. After that the next logical step will then be US citizens returning to the USA, and after that - internal travel....
Adventure motorcyclists (or bike couriers in big cities) will find this useful - once it reaches the second or third generation.
Already when we travel across vast distances (e.g. South America), most motorcyclists carry a GPS unit, which is attached to the bike, and use it to record where they went, as well as to decide where to go. Having a heads-up display will be a lot less dangerous than peering down at a vibrating, polarized GPS unit attached to the handlebars. It will also be one less thing to worry about losing.
Motorbikes are easilty the fastest way around a city, but map-reading is a nightmare and extremely dangerous while moving. For bike couriers in a city like London a heads up map display will be awesome, especially when tied into a traffic tracking and route planning system. Can't wait.
but we'd have to be able to turn it off for those times when we don't want to be distracted
oh - and if you have the urge to ride your motorcycle into the sunset, then check out the Adventure Motorcycling Handbook by Chris Scott, or horizonsunlimited.com.
if you are still struggling to understand basic economics after the excellent replies, just consider one case study: Japan. we don't tend to complain about their child labor these days...
violating entropy would mean the obsolete mice were lined up row by row, cords streaming in parallel behind them while a thousand dead cats were standing in columns shoulder to shoulder while facing a million dead flies on the ground in front of them whic hwhen viewed from above spell "entropy is the lack of order"
Normal and online CD Stores (shameless plug) are making razor thin margins on declining industry sales and are faced with industry pressures from: - the movement of the market to the gaming industry and DVD's, - supplier power from RIAA members keeping wholesale prices high - changes in the distribution method from CD to digital delivery.
Looking to the future, what would you do if you owned an online CD store?
Slashdot Mirror
We do have Government Departments, and Microsoft will have to go after each one, like any other vendor. That means tendering and the like. I imagine that many solutions will be provided by big vendors such as Gen-i and IBM. There are plenty of folk around to support roll outs.
Lobbyists get relatively little influence over here as well - they can be involved in the process like anybody else, but it is pretty transparent. The OSS folk are pretty good and pretty influential here - here's hoping they can keep pushing.
Then buyers can choose which OS they want, and Microsoft hopes and can reasonably expect that most will chose the free latest version of that old familiar - Windows.
After a while that the three application limit is begging to be broken, but Microsoft doesn't have to charge much for it - say $50. That fee will be collected directly, and even if this is relatively small, it is probably bigger than the OEM's are paying now.
Let's extend it - why not, if you are Microsoft, ship every computer with the free/crippled version, and take the OEM out of the equation entirely?
Actually that anaArtificial restrictions are quite common with motorcycles aimed at learners in many countries. The power output is crippled somehow (e.g. a gear is locked out, a different chip used, air flow restrictor plate) to comply with learner laws, and once you get your license you can legally de-restrict the vehicle. Obviously many people don't wait for their license to do so. It is, however, call uncrippling, not upgrading.
A sticker over the lens will usually keep the casual inspector at bay...
Failing that just apply force using a pointy object or a drill.
eBay url for an electronic item for sale:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/SONY-5-1-Home-Theatre-Amplifier-Receiver-STRDE497_W0QQitemZ180339459830QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_HOME_CINEMA_SYSTEMS?hash=item180339459830&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A1%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318
NZ's Trade Me url for a piece of electronic equipment:
http://www.trademe.co.nz/Electronics-photography/Home-audio/Headphones/auction-210021888.htm
There is no excuse for the difference in length, and eBay is not only confusing search engines and us, but is also making their pages slower to load.
Note that the ebay.com.au and Trademe sites have about the same number of listings. The url is a symptom, and a cursory analysis of the rest of the page and the site will see plenty of other examples of poor design for page loading speed.
Except the ISPs will not listen to you - under the draft code they will only listen to RIAA and the like.
Mod parent up - the author is the leader of the #blackout campaign and the main voice of reason against this bill.
ISP XNet was already cutting people off last year in anticipation of this law. They sent one email to folk's ISP accounts (and who ever checks that) and then snip - the connection was down. The ISP's have to disconnect you as if they do not then they are opening themselves up to a lawsuit from RIAA/RIANZ et al. The copyright holders will demonstrate that they have provided "proof" (from US based companies trawling the p2p sites) and there has been no action, and they will probably win. So the easiest thing for the ISPs to do it just warn then disconnect. The proposed code of practice means the ISP has to give 3 warning over 3 months to their customers, and the customer can dispute them. But the ISPs will find this onerous, the chilling effect is frightening, and the kicker is that only the giants (RIAA etc.) are pre-authorized to send copyright notices to ISPs - the ISPs are not obliged to treat individual copyright holders with the same due process.
NO - only the RIAA and similar can do this and have the ISPs listen. Under the proposed code of practice the little guys can't easily make complaints.
New Zealand ISP Xnet had already started taking down customers based on this law, and based on only one alleged infringement at that. There is a good discussion on geekzone. What is really sad is that they market themselves as the P2P ISP.
thanks! no really.
Well you sure sounds like you are an Apple man now. Oh - and Apple's come with spell-check.
Welcome to the light side.
tell that to my region locked mbp.....
email is a basic tool like the phone - it should just work.
I'm a management consultant (sorry sorry sorry), and my email box often hits the limit within days or weeks of arriving at a new client. It is annoying as anything, and it's an early sign of a poorly run stupid-rules-based IT shop.
I've seen people delete unread and unanswered emails just so that they can respond to a more urgent one.
I've dealt with people who could seldom send email as their limits were always exceeded, and they didn't know what to do
I've seen people adopt the only solution they can - archiving their email to their laptop HDD - not a great place to leave your only copy of your crucial business info.
I've (sadly) written PPT preentations and spreadsheets that are to big to email versus the internal limits. zipped.
Why do people want to keep all their emails?
- I am not a lawyer, nor do I (I hope) write emails that are legaly dubious.
- I want to keep records of all my business transactions - so my non spam non trivial email is not deleted.
- Spotlight/google desktop are great for finding those old, vital emails. no need to sort them
How can emails get so big?
Some organisations have a 'send the link, not the file' policy. Depressingly few however. Where this doesn't work then my inbox rapidly fills up with all sorts of (mainly MS Office) binaries.
When working on a important document there will be multiple versions flying around. Keeping older versions is important, as you can see who did what and when.
Spreadsheets and datasets are getting bigger - many of my key spreadsheets are over 10mb.
Pictures, movies and sound are increasingly part of everything we do, e.g. powerpoint presentatons (yes I can't stand powerpoint, but people do use it)
Zipping is a pain.
What should IT do?
I advocate nagging at certain points, but not a set limit.
Some users are data people, and they are sending around big datasets, be it on spreadsheets or otherwise. Get to know them, work with them but for goodness sakes help them as they are vital to the company. Whatever you do don't stop them from doing their stuff without implementing a better solution. (can you hear the voice of experience?)
follow your company's archive rule, but don't forget to check those laptops....
Times change.
I live in wellington, (I am right under Mt Victoria), knowingly provide free 802.11g access & have an unlimited bandwidth deal with telecom NZ. The cost is insane however, at $80 ($50) per month for unlimited to 10GB at just 256k, then throttled to 128k after 10GB.
wellington has a great service in Citylink, which is a pay per MB downtown-wide wifi service. That's getting kicked hard because Citylink, who are also wellington's largest business ISP, and host NZ's largest site, were suddenly depeered from telecom late last week.
I can't wait.
First the CD reduced the size and weight of my LP colllection to a shelf.
Then I put the CD's into folders and reduced the collection to a few folders.
Then the DVD reduced the size of Videos, so I now have a large movie collection is also just a few folders.
But I still have about 20 boxes of books, and have given/sold/thrown away countless other books over the years.
I move cities a lot.
So when this gets to maturity I'll be able to get rid of all those books, DVD's and CD's, and have all my media stored digitally.
and I won't have to wait or pay for 1 week shipping to NZ (or whereever I live) to get my hands on Woodward's latest expose.
The next MPAA/RIAA will be the Association of American Publishers (AAP, www.publishers.org). Watch for legal dramas as the AAP resists the relentless digitisation of books, criminalizes "scanners" who rip books to digital media and tries to shut down book trading over P2P networks. Watch the AAP fail at all of these tasks...
>1) Location. The programmer is nearby and likely in the same time zone making questions easier to ask and schedules easier to sync.
-Sure, but they are able to work "through the night" uninterrupted by constant PHB interference?
-Can you hire 20 more highly educated programmers in 5 days to work at your location?
>2) Language. While most Indian programmers speak English, they speak it with a heavy accent that is difficult enough to understand.
-You get used to it - just like you did for the English, Germans, Irish and Latinos.
>3) Labor laws. America has some of the most lax labor laws in the Western world.
A huge strength of outsourcing is that you can change the number of people working for you very rapidly - and this does not mean they are fired from their company.
>4) Guaranteed ownership of ideas
nothing a contract cannot solve - and I don't see how this differs in the US from other WTO countries.
The USA has crucial advantages though:
-access to cheap capital
-the world's biggest and wealthiest market
-the world's best universities (and some of the worst)
-the most experienced and advanced IT labor force
The USA IT labor force was in huge demand during the dot com craze, overpaid as a result and is now going through painful transition to more "normal" salary levels. Until people accept that the days of massive salaries are over then outsourcing will continue to be a great option for managers.
> I was thinking was there could be some sort of law for American companies that they would have to have the same minimum wage type laws apply to them even with internationally based employees.
mmmm How about we foreigners enforce a law like this for all software developers in the USA. Let's say we leglislate that all software in New Zealand must be written by people earning at least $US 10 per hour.....
goodbye linux
goodbye apache
goodbye open source
Hello Microsoft
Goodbye New Zealand economy
Like it or not, but this will logically extend to Mexicans and Canadians next - many have pointed out this hole in the security setup.
After that the next logical step will then be US citizens returning to the USA, and after that - internal travel....
Already when we travel across vast distances (e.g. South America), most motorcyclists carry a GPS unit, which is attached to the bike, and use it to record where they went, as well as to decide where to go. Having a heads-up display will be a lot less dangerous than peering down at a vibrating, polarized GPS unit attached to the handlebars. It will also be one less thing to worry about losing.
Motorbikes are easilty the fastest way around a city, but map-reading is a nightmare and extremely dangerous while moving. For bike couriers in a city like London a heads up map display will be awesome, especially when tied into a traffic tracking and route planning system. Can't wait.
but we'd have to be able to turn it off for those times when we don't want to be distracted
oh - and if you have the urge to ride your motorcycle into the sunset, then check out the Adventure Motorcycling Handbook by Chris Scott, or horizonsunlimited.com.
if you are still struggling to understand basic economics after the excellent replies, just consider one case study: Japan. we don't tend to complain about their child labor these days...
modded as funny - but it's true - vodafone renamed their wellington cells to "middle earth"...
violating entropy would mean the obsolete mice were lined up row by row, cords streaming in parallel behind them while a thousand dead cats were standing in columns shoulder to shoulder while facing a million dead flies on the ground in front of them whic hwhen viewed from above spell "entropy is the lack of order"
so they are going to stop card counting by developing technology to.... ...count cards.
all based on technology that will only get smaller and smaller over time.
Normal and online CD Stores (shameless plug) are making razor thin margins on declining industry sales and are faced with industry pressures from:
:-)
- the movement of the market to the gaming industry and DVD's,
- supplier power from RIAA members keeping wholesale prices high
- changes in the distribution method from CD to digital delivery.
Looking to the future, what would you do if you owned an online CD store?
(selling out is not an option
Lance