Seriously. If the ability to talk to a "supercomputer" makes a cell phone a supercomputer, then I'm a supermodel.
Marketing note: Apply the laugh test. Tell someone who actually works with supercomputers that your cell phone app makes a "pocket supercomputer". If milk comes out their nose, don't run the story.
Several people have mentioned this "several hours" bit. If you're focused on one thing for several hours at a time, you're not multitasking. I think I've been bitten by this well meaning curse, and task switches are dozens of seconds to a few minutes apart. Or I'm playing a game (or two), doing homework, having a conversation, and listening to TV. At the same time.
I think the article's point is well taken. I may successfully "do" 4 things at once, but I don't retain them nearly as well as if I do them sequentially.
That should be a strong hint to stick with _something_ in IT and become good at it. After that, look into becoming an IT manager if that is what you really want.
I respectfully suggest that this is very bad advice. Managing and in-the-trenches IT are different animals. It is generally not a good idea to spend a lot of effort becoming good at something you don't want to do. If you're going to spend the time, spend it becoming good at what you DO want to do.
A number of people have already pointed out that techies don't necessarily make good managers. They're right. If adminning systems or writing code excites you, understand that management is not about adminning systems or writing code. It's about schedules, people, resources, and making those decisions which you railed against when you were in the trenches.
Last time I got outraged by something like this I sent $100. Coincidentally, I'm wearing the T-shirt they sent me in return right now.
I don't generally get worked up about the music issue because I believe there IS a lot of copyright infringement. I get worked up by the claim, quickly retracted, that ripping your own CDs for your own use is illegal or otherwise wrong. I appreciated the EFF pointing out that the "making available" argument holds water as well as a bucket with no bottom, though. Busting people for breaking the law is one thing. Imagining extensions to the law to bust people who might have, but for which there is no evidence, is quite another. I should send another check for making sure that RIAA remembers that law is what's on the books, not what they'd like on the books.
Anywho, lawyers are expensive. Lawyers with a conscience who fight this on your behalf are paying a ton in opportunity cost. Get out the checkbook and tell them what they're doing is worth something to you.
Xerox is a brand name, not a way to make copies. Hackers are smart, inquisitive people who make things work, not bad guys who break into systems.
The meanings of words evolve. Bandwidth does equal capacity now. It didn't, but it's so much a part of the common lexicon that the tide is not going to be turned.
Secret ballots prevent coercion. You tell me to vote for Joe Blow. I go off on my own, vote for my real choice, Jim Schmoe, and tell you I voted for Joe Blow. Joe Blow loses, but you don't know which of your coerced voters lied to you and which didn't.
Alternatively, if I have a serial number, you can force me to check it in your presence. If my check comes back Jim Schmoe, I lose my kneecaps and become a lifelong proponent of secret ballots.
There are workarounds to this, like duress passwords, but they largely invalidate the value of the check.
Kudos to you, sir, for standing up for your rights. Please do keep us apprised of the outcome, especially with regard to the need for legal defense money. I will contribute.
I had a similar experience at a Wal-Mart, but for the fact that the store finally relented and the store manager actually complimented me for having the conviction to stand up for my principles. The whole affair probably took 20 minutes during which time I told then I'd be happy to stand by and wait while they summoned the police, but I had no intention of proving to them that I owned the merchandise their own cashier had just rung up for me.
These companies need to be made to understand that our rights do not evaporate once we step foot on their floor. If you have good faith reason to believe I'm a shoplifter, then prosecute. If you don't, then don't impede me when I'm trying to trade my money for your goods.
Maybe we should have a bit more respect this time.
This is a total tangent, and entirely contrary to nearly everything that happens on the net, but I'll say it anyway.
This time? Why this time? Because Hans and Nina are people you know?
Every tragedy, every joy, every loss, and every victory happen to people just like you and me. A wrestler and his family died recently, allegedly at the wrestler's hands. All of them were someone's child, someone's friend.
Maybe we should have a bit more respect every time.
Depending on the sensitivity of the position, you *will* have to do things like this. If you're a programmer in a financial services firm, you might be in a position to backdoor systems for financial gain. I can see why they'd want to make sure you're not a known criminal.
A drill is one thing. I had fire drills routinely as a child in school.
Telling a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds that there's really a man outside with a gun who wants to kill you is absolutely inhumane. Imagine the emotional impact if someone told you that. Now imagine you're a child and someone told you that. You know, those little people who get scared out of their skins by movies. These people need to be fired. Now.
It's not just America. Look at the Middle East, for example. Why are young men and sometimes women blowing themselves up? To get the US out? Maybe, but why are they blowing themselves up in crowds of their own countrymen?
I think you hit a very important point, though. The solution isn't more guns or less guns, more surveillance and security or less, or any of that. It's a saner society. It's more people actually giving a damn about each other. A little more live and let live. A little more human and a little less animal. It's possible, it just takes 6 billion people to make the choice and act on it.
A university can have a population larger than many small towns. I know of at least one where the campus police are certified by the local municipality and *do* have legal police authority.
I'm not saying the company is right, I'm just saying that a large company with a legal department wouldn't waste their money on a lawsuit unless they had at least a CHANCE to get some money.
Sure, if he's happy, good for him! If I had to choose between money and happiness, I'd take happiness hands down, every time.
That said, this is also a lesson for all of us who could not find happiness subsisting on the charity of others (eating food left by a dumpster, cooked in a van). It's a story of unmet potential. A brilliant man whose accomplishments are so much less than they could have been. I don't care how much money he does or doesn't have. I'm saddened to think what a difference he could have made, and didn't.
I know Grid is the buzzword of the day, but this isn't a grid. It's a cluster, or perhaps a beowulf, but it is not a grid. Buying a bunch of identical boxes and installing identical software on them doesn't make a grid.
One of the key features of a grid is that it "coordinates features that are not subject to centralized control". (What Is The Grid, Ian Foster, ANL). Grids by definition cross organizational or management boundaries. You can't buy a grid any more than you can buy an Internet. You can buy a network. You can buy a cluster. You can't buy a grid.
No, this really doesn't need to be on slashdot. Sure, it's newsworthy, relevant, and important, but it is also everywhere else. It's a great story for lots of web sites, just not this one.
September 11th was different. It was the unexpected and violent death of thousands in the largest terrorist act on our own soil in our history. It was the beginning of (a series of undeclared) wars. It had implications for everyone's future.
This is the natural passing of a single man. A former president with his share of controversy, sure, but this is nothing like September 11th.
Soooo many things work in mice, but not in people. This is a common theme. That's not to say this isn't interesting, but to expect a cure to materialize in people even if this is a cure in mice is premature. It's interesting. It's maybe even promising. It definitely warrants further research in animals that are more like people than mice, and if that works, it warrants human clinical trials.
We've been down this path lots of times. It's great science. If it works in people, then it'll be great medicine.
Microsoft's (probably patented) business model has long been known. Embrace, extend, extinguish.
It's just like a relationship. Everything's wonderful when it's all new. Your partner is wonderful, and together you're even better. Your confidence soars, and you try new things you'd never dreamed of before. Then she cuts you off in the knees, leaving you liquidating your assets to pay for hers. Watch out, Novell. That's your future. Enjoy the honeymoon. You're a banana in bed with the industry's 800 pound gorilla.
Of course, being a slashdot poster, all that relationship stuff is purely speculative.
I used to believe that was true, but watching the world's last remaining superpower with all it's might and weaponry unable to put down the insurgency in Iraq makes the truth clear. People who want to stand up for their rights, whatever they happen to believe they are, will find the means to do so. That's exactly what the framers of the Constitution meant. People ignore two facts. If the Second Amendment is about the military, it's the ONLY Amendment in the Bill of Rights which grants a power to the government, which is funny in a document whose purpose was quite the opposite. Second, the Constitution was written by people who had just won an armed rebellion against their own government (England).
It's hardly a stretch to think they'd feel it wise to enshrine the ability to do it again, should the need ever arise, as a fundamental right.
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously. If the ability to talk to a "supercomputer" makes a cell phone a supercomputer, then I'm a supermodel.
Marketing note: Apply the laugh test. Tell someone who actually works with supercomputers that your cell phone app makes a "pocket supercomputer". If milk comes out their nose, don't run the story.
Several people have mentioned this "several hours" bit. If you're focused on one thing for several hours at a time, you're not multitasking. I think I've been bitten by this well meaning curse, and task switches are dozens of seconds to a few minutes apart. Or I'm playing a game (or two), doing homework, having a conversation, and listening to TV. At the same time.
I think the article's point is well taken. I may successfully "do" 4 things at once, but I don't retain them nearly as well as if I do them sequentially.
I respectfully suggest that this is very bad advice. Managing and in-the-trenches IT are different animals. It is generally not a good idea to spend a lot of effort becoming good at something you don't want to do. If you're going to spend the time, spend it becoming good at what you DO want to do.
A number of people have already pointed out that techies don't necessarily make good managers. They're right. If adminning systems or writing code excites you, understand that management is not about adminning systems or writing code. It's about schedules, people, resources, and making those decisions which you railed against when you were in the trenches.
Last time I got outraged by something like this I sent $100. Coincidentally, I'm wearing the T-shirt they sent me in return right now.
I don't generally get worked up about the music issue because I believe there IS a lot of copyright infringement. I get worked up by the claim, quickly retracted, that ripping your own CDs for your own use is illegal or otherwise wrong. I appreciated the EFF pointing out that the "making available" argument holds water as well as a bucket with no bottom, though. Busting people for breaking the law is one thing. Imagining extensions to the law to bust people who might have, but for which there is no evidence, is quite another. I should send another check for making sure that RIAA remembers that law is what's on the books, not what they'd like on the books.
Anywho, lawyers are expensive. Lawyers with a conscience who fight this on your behalf are paying a ton in opportunity cost. Get out the checkbook and tell them what they're doing is worth something to you.
Xerox is a brand name, not a way to make copies. Hackers are smart, inquisitive people who make things work, not bad guys who break into systems.
The meanings of words evolve. Bandwidth does equal capacity now. It didn't, but it's so much a part of the common lexicon that the tide is not going to be turned.
Secret ballots prevent coercion. You tell me to vote for Joe Blow. I go off on my own, vote for my real choice, Jim Schmoe, and tell you I voted for Joe Blow. Joe Blow loses, but you don't know which of your coerced voters lied to you and which didn't.
Alternatively, if I have a serial number, you can force me to check it in your presence. If my check comes back Jim Schmoe, I lose my kneecaps and become a lifelong proponent of secret ballots.
There are workarounds to this, like duress passwords, but they largely invalidate the value of the check.
This is quite possibly the best post I've ever read on this site.
Very, very well said.
...go into Medicine or Law?
Then you haven't been to a major hospital recently, or the big law offices that cluster around them.
Kudos to you, sir, for standing up for your rights. Please do keep us apprised of the outcome, especially with regard to the need for legal defense money. I will contribute.
I had a similar experience at a Wal-Mart, but for the fact that the store finally relented and the store manager actually complimented me for having the conviction to stand up for my principles. The whole affair probably took 20 minutes during which time I told then I'd be happy to stand by and wait while they summoned the police, but I had no intention of proving to them that I owned the merchandise their own cashier had just rung up for me.
These companies need to be made to understand that our rights do not evaporate once we step foot on their floor. If you have good faith reason to believe I'm a shoplifter, then prosecute. If you don't, then don't impede me when I'm trying to trade my money for your goods.
Rob
You'd have to redefine free(void*) to free(void**) in order to do this. Somehow, I think that would break a LOT of code.
This is a total tangent, and entirely contrary to nearly everything that happens on the net, but I'll say it anyway.
This time? Why this time? Because Hans and Nina are people you know?
Every tragedy, every joy, every loss, and every victory happen to people just like you and me. A wrestler and his family died recently, allegedly at the wrestler's hands. All of them were someone's child, someone's friend.
Maybe we should have a bit more respect every time.
Depending on the sensitivity of the position, you *will* have to do things like this. If you're a programmer in a financial services firm, you might be in a position to backdoor systems for financial gain. I can see why they'd want to make sure you're not a known criminal.
You're making the Look-and-Feel argument, which was legally thrown out in the 80s, not a patent argument.
Thanks for playing. Please try again.
A drill is one thing. I had fire drills routinely as a child in school.
Telling a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds that there's really a man outside with a gun who wants to kill you is absolutely inhumane. Imagine the emotional impact if someone told you that. Now imagine you're a child and someone told you that. You know, those little people who get scared out of their skins by movies. These people need to be fired. Now.
It's not just America. Look at the Middle East, for example. Why are young men and sometimes women blowing themselves up? To get the US out? Maybe, but why are they blowing themselves up in crowds of their own countrymen?
I think you hit a very important point, though. The solution isn't more guns or less guns, more surveillance and security or less, or any of that. It's a saner society. It's more people actually giving a damn about each other. A little more live and let live. A little more human and a little less animal. It's possible, it just takes 6 billion people to make the choice and act on it.
as this:
and I wanted to know who's been snooping around my orkplace.
A university can have a population larger than many small towns. I know of at least one where the campus police are certified by the local municipality and *do* have legal police authority.
Never underestimate stupidity or ego.
Sure, if he's happy, good for him! If I had to choose between money and happiness, I'd take happiness hands down, every time.
That said, this is also a lesson for all of us who could not find happiness subsisting on the charity of others (eating food left by a dumpster, cooked in a van). It's a story of unmet potential. A brilliant man whose accomplishments are so much less than they could have been. I don't care how much money he does or doesn't have. I'm saddened to think what a difference he could have made, and didn't.
I know Grid is the buzzword of the day, but this isn't a grid. It's a cluster, or perhaps a beowulf, but it is not a grid. Buying a bunch of identical boxes and installing identical software on them doesn't make a grid.
One of the key features of a grid is that it "coordinates features that are not subject to centralized control". (What Is The Grid, Ian Foster, ANL). Grids by definition cross organizational or management boundaries. You can't buy a grid any more than you can buy an Internet. You can buy a network. You can buy a cluster. You can't buy a grid.
"AAAaaaaggghhh...."
*thump*
You killed Kenny! You bastard!
No, this really doesn't need to be on slashdot. Sure, it's newsworthy, relevant, and important, but it is also everywhere else. It's a great story for lots of web sites, just not this one.
September 11th was different. It was the unexpected and violent death of thousands in the largest terrorist act on our own soil in our history. It was the beginning of (a series of undeclared) wars. It had implications for everyone's future.
This is the natural passing of a single man. A former president with his share of controversy, sure, but this is nothing like September 11th.
Soooo many things work in mice, but not in people. This is a common theme. That's not to say this isn't interesting, but to expect a cure to materialize in people even if this is a cure in mice is premature. It's interesting. It's maybe even promising. It definitely warrants further research in animals that are more like people than mice, and if that works, it warrants human clinical trials.
We've been down this path lots of times. It's great science. If it works in people, then it'll be great medicine.
Microsoft's (probably patented) business model has long been known. Embrace, extend, extinguish.
It's just like a relationship. Everything's wonderful when it's all new. Your partner is wonderful, and together you're even better. Your confidence soars, and you try new things you'd never dreamed of before. Then she cuts you off in the knees, leaving you liquidating your assets to pay for hers. Watch out, Novell. That's your future. Enjoy the honeymoon. You're a banana in bed with the industry's 800 pound gorilla.
Of course, being a slashdot poster, all that relationship stuff is purely speculative.
I used to believe that was true, but watching the world's last remaining superpower with all it's might and weaponry unable to put down the insurgency in Iraq makes the truth clear. People who want to stand up for their rights, whatever they happen to believe they are, will find the means to do so. That's exactly what the framers of the Constitution meant. People ignore two facts. If the Second Amendment is about the military, it's the ONLY Amendment in the Bill of Rights which grants a power to the government, which is funny in a document whose purpose was quite the opposite. Second, the Constitution was written by people who had just won an armed rebellion against their own government (England).
It's hardly a stretch to think they'd feel it wise to enshrine the ability to do it again, should the need ever arise, as a fundamental right.