I guess it's all about experience and perception. I've done a lot of both kinds of work and have found that - for me - it's just trading one set of variables for another.
I've worked in a garment factory, a restaurant kitchen, a construction site, and a meat packing plant while growing up. After school I've worked in design lofts, media production houses, and a lot of that time was spent in server rooms.
Yes, I don't have the threat of having my arm chopped off in a stamper anymore but I have deteriorating eye-motor skills (CRTs). Gone is the threat of burning my hand off with hot oil, but now I suffer from weakened hand strength (typing all day). No, I don't get pneumonia from standing on a steel skeleton in winter winds but I now have a cough from breathing stale HVAC air. I'm not lifting carcasses but I have back problems from sitting all day. Yadda yadda yadda.
But ultimately, it's not the quality of work but the quality of life that seems to suffer for me. My social skills have gone to pot since taking on computer work and my life outside of work has definitely suffered. I wonder if it's the 'macho culture' that makes it easy for us to dismiss the things that seem really important to having a good life like human interaction and actually seeing the sun during the day.
or even better: Phoenix Ain't Phoenix So Moveon Electronic Assembler Representatives! (PAP SMEAR)?
Okay. I'm going back to making turkey now. (Instead of corn.)
Density vs. Effective Range
on
The Wireless City
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Actually, NYC's density is both a godsend and a burden. Yes, there is some node overlap, but there are plenty of dead zones too. And although the theoretical range of 802.11b is measured in hundreds of feet, the heavy radio saturation in Manhattan (cordless phones, microwaves, etc) and older buildings (thick walls) can drop the effective range of these boxes to less than 100 ft. I know b/c I have three nodes on nycwirelss - one in Manhattan and two in Brooklyn. The one in Manhattan is within 500 feet of two universities and a major broadcaster. I had to install a high gain antenna on the midtown router to get coverage similar to the range i get on my two nodes in Bklyn.
Well, two days to do the code in FrontPage, and eighty-eight days to troubleshoot why the page wasn't showing up in Internet Explorer ("What's this damn NetNanny thing that keeps popping up?").
Seems like a nice enough kid to me, if not a bit like a rabbit caught in the headlights of instant fame.
Yeah, but how many rabbits are media savvy enough to realize her own novelty, avoid the talk show circuit, and hold out for a possibly more lucrative deal with MTV - despite having a major corportation [Apple] tell her to do otherwise?
That's what gets me is that she seems neither naive nor ignorant.
THEL is a great idea for defending the 51st state, but for us Americans, it's a wonderful solution to a 20th Century problem (those Russians you talk about)
But back to topic: what i did say was that i didn't care much for fudged results or press releases that parade as sci-tech items. This article seems like it was written to get a project more funding and get a company's stock price to rise. It floats the facts wonderfully but who knows if it's obscuring funding-related details by omission.
actually, it made me think back to previous laser or missile based "star wars" tests where they installed GPS transmitters in the targets. the target was destroyed, congress saw headlines like 'Missile Test A Success' and gave the program its continued funding, and it wasn't revealed until afterwards that the test was rigged. i hate being lied to.
If you give people a fish, they eat for a day. If you teach people to fish, they eat for a lifetime.
If you teach a community how to use/manipulate technology, they become better equipped to get employment. So you've given them #2: Self Sufficiency. By getting jobs using the technology you've taught them, they can take care of #1: Basic Needs. Once they have work, they can worry less about #1 and start concentrating on things like educating their children and participating in the political process (#3). And one day, when they're good little consumers like the rest of us, they'll be able to waste their time keeping up with the Joneses (#4)
Although i don't quite get how volunteering outside of your country is "lowest common denominator" i do agree that there are lots of opportunities to volunteer at home. There are lots of local community technology groups that do work around issues like bringing open source to the community like . Others like digitaldividenetwork/benton do work around bridging the digital divide. There are groups for people who want to volunteer tech services for schools and nonprofits like CompuMentor. And we can't forget the work that local User Groups have done for schools, nonprofits, and individuals over the years.
Although techie volunteer programs abroad are wonderful experiences (i've been fortunate to do community technology work in S. Africa and China), you don't have to travel thousands of miles away to do some tech good.
I don't fully understand the shut down Windows access to software "strategy" that people keep on bringing up - there are exponentially more winware developers than macware developers in the world. Thinking that someone could "buy up and dry up" winware is a little difficult to swallow. I don't care how much cash on hand you have - it's a futile and senseless task, and one Apple isn't doing.
What they are doing - and quite a few people have pointed this out already - is mimicking the strategy behind their recent successes with iTunes, Final Cut Pro, and DVD Studio Pro: buy someone else's technology, optimize it for your hw and sell it at a (relatively) low price point. iTunes was Soundjam. Final Cut Pro belonged to Macromedia. DVD Studio Pro was developed by Astarte.
Personally, i don't care who wins the "My Billionaire CEO can beat your Billionaire CEO" contest (if there even is one). I'm not important enough to care. I'm just looking forward to seeing what audio editing and video compositing software comes bundled with my next iBook.
i wasn't at ground zero but right across the river in cobble hill.
every morning i climb out my window to sit on my roof, eat my cereal and watch the staten island ferry go back and forth in the harbor. today, when i looked up i saw the north trade tower on fire. i went back inside and turned on the television. they were reporting that a plane had crashed into the world trade center. i called a friend to see if she was watching and a few minutes later, went back onto the roof with my digicam. someone on an adjoining roof yells out "holy fuck" and i look up to see something big and dark hit the second tower about half way up and debris and a big fireball blows out of the other side. a second later i hear the explosion. dark smoke and fire poured out of gaping holes in the buildings and south towards the verrazano bridge and south jersey. my neighbors and i watched the buildings and answered cell phones as we watched paper and soot fall on brooklyn. everyone down on the street looked lost. fighter jets flew overhead as we listened to a radio report that the pentagon was hit. a little while later the tower closest to us started crumbling. there was a plume of smoke and a rumble and the tower was gone. by this time the air was thick with smoke and it was getting harder to breathe. my nose and throat burned and i had a horrible feeling in my belly. it smelled like someone let off a giant cherry bomb. when the second tower fell all we could see was more smoke and debris as it had all blown into brooklyn obscuring our view of whatever was left of lower manhattan. my cell phone rang like crazy until the network got overloaded; so many friends lived and worked in and around the WTC. everybody was calling everyone trying to find out who was accounted for and who was missing. the whole thing felt so sick. now i'm staying across town at a friend's place in park slope, further away from the carnage. it's been twelve hours since the first explosion and you can still smell the fire. sad. sad. sad. pics from my roof are at www.kenyattacheese.net.
Slashdot Mirror
I guess it's all about experience and perception. I've done a lot of both kinds of work and have found that - for me - it's just trading one set of variables for another.
I've worked in a garment factory, a restaurant kitchen, a construction site, and a meat packing plant while growing up. After school I've worked in design lofts, media production houses, and a lot of that time was spent in server rooms.
Yes, I don't have the threat of having my arm chopped off in a stamper anymore but I have deteriorating eye-motor skills (CRTs). Gone is the threat of burning my hand off with hot oil, but now I suffer from weakened hand strength (typing all day). No, I don't get pneumonia from standing on a steel skeleton in winter winds but I now have a cough from breathing stale HVAC air. I'm not lifting carcasses but I have back problems from sitting all day. Yadda yadda yadda.
But ultimately, it's not the quality of work but the quality of life that seems to suffer for me. My social skills have gone to pot since taking on computer work and my life outside of work has definitely suffered. I wonder if it's the 'macho culture' that makes it easy for us to dismiss the things that seem really important to having a good life like human interaction and actually seeing the sun during the day.
...PNP?
or: 'Phoenix's Not The Other Phoenix' PNTOP?
or: Phoenix Ain't Phoenix (PAP)?
or even better: Phoenix Ain't Phoenix So Moveon Electronic Assembler Representatives! (PAP SMEAR)?
Okay. I'm going back to making turkey now. (Instead of corn.)
Actually, NYC's density is both a godsend and a burden. Yes, there is some node overlap, but there are plenty of dead zones too. And although the theoretical range of 802.11b is measured in hundreds of feet, the heavy radio saturation in Manhattan (cordless phones, microwaves, etc) and older buildings (thick walls) can drop the effective range of these boxes to less than 100 ft. I know b/c I have three nodes on nycwirelss - one in Manhattan and two in Brooklyn. The one in Manhattan is within 500 feet of two universities and a major broadcaster. I had to install a high gain antenna on the midtown router to get coverage similar to the range i get on my two nodes in Bklyn.
Well, two days to do the code in FrontPage, and eighty-eight days to troubleshoot why the page wasn't showing up in Internet Explorer ("What's this damn NetNanny thing that keeps popping up?").
Seems like a nice enough kid to me, if not a bit like a rabbit caught in the headlights of instant fame.
Yeah, but how many rabbits are media savvy enough to realize her own novelty, avoid the talk show circuit, and hold out for a possibly more lucrative deal with MTV - despite having a major corportation [Apple] tell her to do otherwise?
That's what gets me is that she seems neither naive nor ignorant.
THEL is a great idea for defending the 51st state, but for us Americans, it's a wonderful solution to a 20th Century problem (those Russians you talk about)
But back to topic: what i did say was that i didn't care much for fudged results or press releases that parade as sci-tech items. This article seems like it was written to get a project more funding and get a company's stock price to rise. It floats the facts wonderfully but who knows if it's obscuring funding-related details by omission.
actually, it made me think back to previous laser or missile based "star wars" tests where they installed GPS transmitters in the targets. the target was destroyed, congress saw headlines like 'Missile Test A Success' and gave the program its continued funding, and it wasn't revealed until afterwards that the test was rigged. i hate being lied to.
How's the saying go?
:)
If you give people a fish, they eat for a day. If you teach people to fish, they eat for a lifetime.
If you teach a community how to use/manipulate technology, they become better equipped to get employment. So you've given them #2: Self Sufficiency. By getting jobs using the technology you've taught them, they can take care of #1: Basic Needs. Once they have work, they can worry less about #1 and start concentrating on things like educating their children and participating in the political process (#3). And one day, when they're good little consumers like the rest of us, they'll be able to waste their time keeping up with the Joneses (#4)
Although i don't quite get how volunteering outside of your country is "lowest common denominator" i do agree that there are lots of opportunities to volunteer at home. There are lots of local community technology groups that do work around issues like bringing open source to the community like . Others like digitaldividenetwork/benton do work around bridging the digital divide. There are groups for people who want to volunteer tech services for schools and nonprofits like CompuMentor. And we can't forget the work that local User Groups have done for schools, nonprofits, and individuals over the years.
Although techie volunteer programs abroad are wonderful experiences (i've been fortunate to do community technology work in S. Africa and China), you don't have to travel thousands of miles away to do some tech good.
I don't fully understand the shut down Windows access to software "strategy" that people keep on bringing up - there are exponentially more winware developers than macware developers in the world. Thinking that someone could "buy up and dry up" winware is a little difficult to swallow. I don't care how much cash on hand you have - it's a futile and senseless task, and one Apple isn't doing.
What they are doing - and quite a few people have pointed this out already - is mimicking the strategy behind their recent successes with iTunes, Final Cut Pro, and DVD Studio Pro: buy someone else's technology, optimize it for your hw and sell it at a (relatively) low price point. iTunes was Soundjam. Final Cut Pro belonged to Macromedia. DVD Studio Pro was developed by Astarte.
Personally, i don't care who wins the "My Billionaire CEO can beat your Billionaire CEO" contest (if there even is one). I'm not important enough to care. I'm just looking forward to seeing what audio editing and video compositing software comes bundled with my next iBook.
i wasn't at ground zero but right across the river in cobble hill.
every morning i climb out my window to sit on my roof, eat my cereal and watch the staten island ferry go back and forth in the harbor. today, when i looked up i saw the north trade tower on fire. i went back inside and turned on the television. they were reporting that a plane had crashed into the world trade center. i called a friend to see if she was watching and a few minutes later, went back onto the roof with my digicam. someone on an adjoining roof yells out "holy fuck" and i look up to see something big and dark hit the second tower about half way up and debris and a big fireball blows out of the other side. a second later i hear the explosion. dark smoke and fire poured out of gaping holes in the buildings and south towards the verrazano bridge and south jersey. my neighbors and i watched the buildings and answered cell phones as we watched paper and soot fall on brooklyn. everyone down on the street looked lost. fighter jets flew overhead as we listened to a radio report that the pentagon was hit. a little while later the tower closest to us started crumbling. there was a plume of smoke and a rumble and the tower was gone. by this time the air was thick with smoke and it was getting harder to breathe. my nose and throat burned and i had a horrible feeling in my belly. it smelled like someone let off a giant cherry bomb. when the second tower fell all we could see was more smoke and debris as it had all blown into brooklyn obscuring our view of whatever was left of lower manhattan. my cell phone rang like crazy until the network got overloaded; so many friends lived and worked in and around the WTC. everybody was calling everyone trying to find out who was accounted for and who was missing. the whole thing felt so sick. now i'm staying across town at a friend's place in park slope, further away from the carnage. it's been twelve hours since the first explosion and you can still smell the fire. sad. sad. sad. pics from my roof are at www.kenyattacheese.net.