Would this be the same CPUC that allowed the taxpayers to be royally raped by Enron and associates? Or that "demanded" that Northpoint continue to provide service for 30 days after they decided to unplug their network? The same CPUC that can't be bothered to negotiate with our neighboring states for water rights?
I'm sure they'll be just as effective in this as they were at all of those. Perhaps for their next act, they'll pretend they're King Canute, and order the tide not to come in?
CPUC is a joke. They're among the worst and least-effective agencies in this state, which is known for its bloated and useless government agencies.
Hey, if anyone wants a cushy government job, they're looking for a new executive director.
In the past I've had a lot of respect for this guy. But in the last year, it's been nearly completely eroded. He seems to think that it's still the 1990s, and you can run a business by jumping from one buzzword to another every couple of months.
Michael, here's a clue: concentrate on one thing until it's done, before you jump on to the next thing. And keep your personality out of it!
I've drunk the Lindows/Linspire Kool-Aid. It seems like a worthwhile project. I actually went out and bought copies, and I've installed them on friend's and family's machines. It's a nice distro, as far as it goes. Few Slashdotters would be happy with it, but for someone whose whole world has been Windows-based, it's perfect. And CNR is darn near brilliant.
For a couple of months, a lot of the Lindows developers' focus was going into one of Michael's pet projects, NVU, which was going to be a free, open-source replacement for MS FrontPage. Great idea, right? Well, it got to version 0.2, which almost-works but appears to be completely stalled. The announced 1st-quarter release date has long since come and gone.
This month his focus seems to have shifted over to this silly "shootout" between distros. Hey Mike, another clue: Lindows is a pretty nice thing, but you haven't got a chance in Hell of competing with Fedora or Mandrake. They're aimed at a much different target audience, and that audience doesn't need a pre-installed GUI. And your average Lindows user is going to take a look at Mandrake and run away fast.
Last month it was his VOIP startup, SIP-phone or whatever it's called. It sounds like a great idea, but I'm not buying it, because I don't know if his focus is going to shift to something else while this one falls by the wayside in a month or two, half finished.
I (often) half-jokingly describe Google as the compendium of all the world's knowledge. But I wonder how long that would continue if they actually did anything evil?
There are a lot of search engines out there, and while Google is currently at the top of the list, nobody stays there forever. I can remember a time when Netscape was on top [I hear jwz in my head: shut up!:-)] For awhile it was Yahoo! and Altavista had a turn. Now it's Google.
I'm just a lowly coder. I'm not enough of a visionary to know who will be on top in a year. I hope it's Google, but I'm entirely prepared for it to be Amazon or Altavista (again; has anybody noticed their recent changes?) or some brilliant kids from some community college somewhere who have nothing but a hosting account and some algorithms that will change the world.
Funding is not a problem. While I'm no Bill Gates, I can afford to give away five or six spindle's worth of CD-Rs a year.:-)
My local branch library is pretty small, but branch libraries are the heart and soul of libraries everywhere. If they can give away everything that I give them, I'm entirely prepared to give them way more. I could constantly burn CD-Rs from now until my dying day and not give back a tenth of what local public libraries have given me over the years.
In fact, I offer up this challenge to my fellow Slashdotters: every time you visit your local branch library, do what I do: drop off a few (or a whole bunch of) CD-Rs with free or open source software and let me know by email at library (at) hicinbothem.com. If there's any response, I'll do my best to get a FPP with details of our successes.
I am far from an anti-Microsoft zealot, but this is the way we will win that war: by showing computer users who can think, and yes, one by one, that there are better alternatives to IE and Outlook, and yes, there are even better OSes than Windows.
It probably doesn't answer the question, since my local library doesn't lend software. But every month or so I burn a handful of CD-Rs with Knoppix, Lindows^W Linspire, and OpenOffice and drop them in the public area of the lobby. I label them with a unique URL so I can see if anybody's paying attention. I get hits off maybe half of them, and occasionally an email to the tune of "hey, you got any more of this stuff?" Hopefully I'm collecting some good karma somewhere.:-)
Separating the data from the patient makes perfect sense. But consider this: someone has to match the data back up with the patient identification again later on. And that has to be *perfect*. Not pretty close, not five-nines close, *absolutely perfect*. One screwup and you've potentially killed someone. Do you trust your outsourced worker not to alter a digit of the patient identifier? Probably not, which means you're going to have to check the data constantly.
Where I work, we've looked at outsourcing our pathology transcription business. We decided against it, because we want to keep control of the entire process.
We keep our costs manageable by a fanatic concentration on efficiency and productivity. The process is as streamlined as it can be, and are constantly vigilant on how we can keep the process running smoothly.
We manage to stay profitable in a business that's as cutthroat as it gets. And we pay a decent salary (even by San Diego standards!) for good transcriptionists who can meet their accuracy and productivity standards.
Perhaps I spend to much time in a Windoze world, but I like having everything installable from one big honkin' exe file that I can pop onto my USB dongle. Moz, plus a couple of the essential XPIs, and I wander around dispensing open-source goodness to the multitudes!:-)
So how do you actually convince your company and/or cohorts to make this conversion? Or even do some trials or testing?
I'm not trolling here. I work for a large company in the medical business, and I can't even get anybody to take an interest in this kind of stuff. And I'm an alpha geek here! My phone guy couldn't care less. Our CIO wouldn't know a VOIP connection if it jumped up and bit him. "Phone" here means "tip and ring" and no one seems to care whether we spend a bazillion bucks every month paying PacBell when we've got an OC3 that spends most if its time idle.
My knee-jerk reaction is to say "ewwww! I would never eat that!" Then I started to think it through.
We USians have not had to deal with outbreaks of BSE/CJD yet. Sooner or later it will probably happen. When it does, the dynamics of food consumption will change.
In my area, you can buy prime cuts of beef for approximately US$10/lb (that's $22/kg for our non-USian friends.) The market fluctuates considerably, based on seasons, market decisions, and store policies. The price is held fairly low because there is an excess of product.
But all the meat I buy comes from three or four sources, all mass commercial herds and corporate processors. Say half that source becomes unavailable, either because it has to be quarantined, or because it is actually infected and must be destroyed.
All of a sudden, there's no longer an excess of product. Beef becomes a commodity, and prices soar. Instead of $10/lb, it's $100/lb, if you can get it.
And imagine the hysteria and suspicion. We Americans are pretty good at that, especially after being whipped into a frenzy by the talking heads on the six o'clock news.
If a clean, lab-grown alternative product that seems vaguely the same is available, it will fly off the grocery store shelves.
Yep. I'm a geek. I'm a gadget freak. I share many similarities with others like myself. So sure, it's a label, but it fits, and I don't find it derogatory when I (or other geeks) use it.
And now it's time to take off my geek costume and crawl into my nice warm bed under the computer-controlled electric blanket that reacts to the temperature differential between outside air and the sensors in the mattress.
And yes, in proper geekish tradition, I shall probably dream of supermodels, Slashdot, and amusing ways to interface differential universes.:-)
I have a girlfriend who brought me back a bagful of these from Japan last summer. There's a reason why they're popular: they're fairly cool, relatively cheap, and they appeal to the geek-gadget demographic. And most of mine are still working, pretty odd for a cheap toy. I wonder how many of the second-generation knockoffs will still be working six months later.
Slashdot Mirror
Would this be the same CPUC that allowed the taxpayers to be royally raped by Enron and associates? Or that "demanded" that Northpoint continue to provide service for 30 days after they decided to unplug their network? The same CPUC that can't be bothered to negotiate with our neighboring states for water rights?
I'm sure they'll be just as effective in this as they were at all of those. Perhaps for their next act, they'll pretend they're King Canute, and order the tide not to come in?
CPUC is a joke. They're among the worst and least-effective agencies in this state, which is known for its bloated and useless government agencies.
Hey, if anyone wants a cushy government job, they're looking for a new executive director.
In the past I've had a lot of respect for this guy. But in the last year, it's been nearly completely eroded. He seems to think that it's still the 1990s, and you can run a business by jumping from one buzzword to another every couple of months.
Michael, here's a clue: concentrate on one thing until it's done, before you jump on to the next thing. And keep your personality out of it!
I've drunk the Lindows/Linspire Kool-Aid. It seems like a worthwhile project. I actually went out and bought copies, and I've installed them on friend's and family's machines. It's a nice distro, as far as it goes. Few Slashdotters would be happy with it, but for someone whose whole world has been Windows-based, it's perfect. And CNR is darn near brilliant.
For a couple of months, a lot of the Lindows developers' focus was going into one of Michael's pet projects, NVU, which was going to be a free, open-source replacement for MS FrontPage. Great idea, right? Well, it got to version 0.2, which almost-works but appears to be completely stalled. The announced 1st-quarter release date has long since come and gone.
This month his focus seems to have shifted over to this silly "shootout" between distros. Hey Mike, another clue: Lindows is a pretty nice thing, but you haven't got a chance in Hell of competing with Fedora or Mandrake. They're aimed at a much different target audience, and that audience doesn't need a pre-installed GUI. And your average Lindows user is going to take a look at Mandrake and run away fast.
Last month it was his VOIP startup, SIP-phone or whatever it's called. It sounds like a great idea, but I'm not buying it, because I don't know if his focus is going to shift to something else while this one falls by the wayside in a month or two, half finished.
Yeah, I remember when we had to find a box, mail the deck of cards to the next guy, find an address of that guy at UICU to mail the last deck to....
I (often) half-jokingly describe Google as the compendium of all the world's knowledge. But I wonder how long that would continue if they actually did anything evil?
:-)] For awhile it was Yahoo! and Altavista had a turn. Now it's Google.
There are a lot of search engines out there, and while Google is currently at the top of the list, nobody stays there forever. I can remember a time when Netscape was on top [I hear jwz in my head: shut up!
I'm just a lowly coder. I'm not enough of a visionary to know who will be on top in a year. I hope it's Google, but I'm entirely prepared for it to be Amazon or Altavista (again; has anybody noticed their recent changes?) or some brilliant kids from some community college somewhere who have nothing but a hosting account and some algorithms that will change the world.
Funding is not a problem. While I'm no Bill Gates, I can afford to give away five or six spindle's worth of CD-Rs a year. :-)
My local branch library is pretty small, but branch libraries are the heart and soul of libraries everywhere. If they can give away everything that I give them, I'm entirely prepared to give them way more. I could constantly burn CD-Rs from now until my dying day and not give back a tenth of what local public libraries have given me over the years.
In fact, I offer up this challenge to my fellow Slashdotters: every time you visit your local branch library, do what I do: drop off a few (or a whole bunch of) CD-Rs with free or open source software and let me know by email at library (at) hicinbothem.com. If there's any response, I'll do my best to get a FPP with details of our successes.
I am far from an anti-Microsoft zealot, but this is the way we will win that war: by showing computer users who can think, and yes, one by one, that there are better alternatives to IE and Outlook, and yes, there are even better OSes than Windows.
It probably doesn't answer the question, since my local library doesn't lend software. But every month or so I burn a handful of CD-Rs with Knoppix, Lindows^W Linspire, and OpenOffice and drop them in the public area of the lobby. I label them with a unique URL so I can see if anybody's paying attention. I get hits off maybe half of them, and occasionally an email to the tune of "hey, you got any more of this stuff?" Hopefully I'm collecting some good karma somewhere. :-)
Separating the data from the patient makes perfect sense. But consider this: someone has to match the data back up with the patient identification again later on. And that has to be *perfect*. Not pretty close, not five-nines close, *absolutely perfect*. One screwup and you've potentially killed someone. Do you trust your outsourced worker not to alter a digit of the patient identifier? Probably not, which means you're going to have to check the data constantly.
Where I work, we've looked at outsourcing our pathology transcription business. We decided against it, because we want to keep control of the entire process.
We keep our costs manageable by a fanatic concentration on efficiency and productivity. The process is as streamlined as it can be, and are constantly vigilant on how we can keep the process running smoothly.
We manage to stay profitable in a business that's as cutthroat as it gets. And we pay a decent salary (even by San Diego standards!) for good transcriptionists who can meet their accuracy and productivity standards.
Perhaps I spend to much time in a Windoze world, but I like having everything installable from one big honkin' exe file that I can pop onto my USB dongle. Moz, plus a couple of the essential XPIs, and I wander around dispensing open-source goodness to the multitudes! :-)
So how do you actually convince your company and/or cohorts to make this conversion? Or even do some trials or testing?
I'm not trolling here. I work for a large company in the medical business, and I can't even get anybody to take an interest in this kind of stuff. And I'm an alpha geek here! My phone guy couldn't care less. Our CIO wouldn't know a VOIP connection if it jumped up and bit him. "Phone" here means "tip and ring" and no one seems to care whether we spend a bazillion bucks every month paying PacBell when we've got an OC3 that spends most if its time idle.
My knee-jerk reaction is to say "ewwww! I would never eat that!" Then I started to think it through.
We USians have not had to deal with outbreaks of BSE/CJD yet. Sooner or later it will probably happen. When it does, the dynamics of food consumption will change.
In my area, you can buy prime cuts of beef for approximately US$10/lb (that's $22/kg for our non-USian friends.) The market fluctuates considerably, based on seasons, market decisions, and store policies. The price is held fairly low because there is an excess of product.
But all the meat I buy comes from three or four sources, all mass commercial herds and corporate processors. Say half that source becomes unavailable, either because it has to be quarantined, or because it is actually infected and must be destroyed.
All of a sudden, there's no longer an excess of product. Beef becomes a commodity, and prices soar. Instead of $10/lb, it's $100/lb, if you can get it.
And imagine the hysteria and suspicion. We Americans are pretty good at that, especially after being whipped into a frenzy by the talking heads on the six o'clock news.
If a clean, lab-grown alternative product that seems vaguely the same is available, it will fly off the grocery store shelves.
Yep. I'm a geek. I'm a gadget freak. I share many similarities with others like myself. So sure, it's a label, but it fits, and I don't find it derogatory when I (or other geeks) use it.
:-)
And now it's time to take off my geek costume and crawl into my nice warm bed under the computer-controlled electric blanket that reacts to the temperature differential between outside air and the sensors in the mattress.
And yes, in proper geekish tradition, I shall probably dream of supermodels, Slashdot, and amusing ways to interface differential universes.
I have a girlfriend who brought me back a bagful of these from Japan last summer. There's a reason why they're popular: they're fairly cool, relatively cheap, and they appeal to the geek-gadget demographic. And most of mine are still working, pretty odd for a cheap toy. I wonder how many of the second-generation knockoffs will still be working six months later.