I'm inclined to believe it'll be things like cell phones, PDA's, automotive electronics. Perhaps futher down the road and slow to adoption, home electronics (i.e. the totally networked home with microwave, toaster, lights, TV, etc. all accessible by your neighbors hacker kid.)
Damn, the toast is burned again and Barney keeps interrupting Wallstreet Week!
That I have a hard time understanding a lot of people (yes, I work in The Valley) should be an indicator that this is a difficult thing to accomplish. Maybe in middle america it's easier. I don't even like to use it on the phone and hit buttons instead (lord knows these phone things are slow enough that you want to avoid making any mistakes and having to listen to the $&^%@ menu again)
And the're plenty of variation on people who were born in the US or UK or AU (or wherever else people natively speak some strain of english) that tone and inflection are significantly difficult to work with.
Expect either of the following:
computers are fast enough, have enough memory and storage to actually understand the butchered english of the worst Teaching Assistant
OR
There's a massive Hitlerian (this should be a word, if it didn't exist, I claim to have invented it) effort to violate all of our civil liberties and force everyone to correctly speak the same way or be shipped off to concentration camps (in New Jersey, probably.)*
*You may laugh, but there's actually schools which teach you not to speak with a southern drawl. Scary.
IIRC, porn (or Adult Entertainment, if you prefer) is the first market to make use of tech advances. I've got some old Apple ][ magazines from 1981 and they even feature porn ads. With the number of techies surviving by going to work for porn you can bet the quality will get better, or they'll just become more ruthless bastards at finding ways to launch from email and take over your PC.
Interesting to think about how this has gone over the years.
Old job: O/S, Software, Major maintenance, rewiring networks, etc. Fun stuff. Usually involved pizza and playing lots of video games when there wasn't anything to do.
Past job: Work on stuff, but slowly since most people you need to interact with are out of the office
Current: Take off Thanksgiving week because Xmas/NY will be end of year adjustments and closings. In two days it's gotta be done or people will be really sore. Fiddle around with VB or review projects for next year for a couple days.
Heh. I went to a bicycle auction as a kid. The city police auctioned off unclaimed bikes, some of which were in pretty rough shape. They knew how to run an auction, some people were paying more for bikes than they were in the store. We later got one out of the paper for a fraction.
There's a kind of auction fever that people get caught up in and if you're selling it's a good thing, if you're buying they you'd better learn to keep your trap shut, lest your friends find out and laugh at you. Lots of this goes on on eBay. I've sold items for insane amounts, but also sold things for far less than they are worth. You never know who's going to show up.
A bit of strategy if you're there competing with some purchasing drones. Walk around and audibly critique items, i.e.
"Oh, bummer this is the model without an internal power supply. It's as good as andfill."
"I think this one smells burnt, probably one of their parts boxen"
"This looks like the model which electrocuted workers, I wonder how it did that, could be a serious liability."
"Well no wonder they went out of business, this model is 5 years out of date and costs a fortune to maintain."
"Wow, I didn't know anyone even used these anymore, they only run a very expensive operating system based upon Cobol!"
I'm afraid people are reading too much into this auction. Expect office furniture, partitions and cubical related stuff, telephones, maybe some development tools and licenses (which might be good), promotional items (shirts, logo items), potted plants, company vehicles, office supplies, and maybe some outdated old equipment shoved off in a closet that they hadn't disposed of.
Much of the good stuff is pretty scarce by the time you get to these auctions. If any employees didn't get paid you can rest assured that they grabbed some goodies to make up for it. A shirt and maybe a decent office chair would be all I could hope for.
2 Pounds Kauai Expresso Beans and a couple Gavalia flavored coffees
10 pack of microbrews
1 lb. Almond butter candy
Jar of Wheatnuts and a tree ornament
Bought for myself:
Slinky Jr.
Spinning top which plays tune (Wild Irish Rose?) and has weapon, wand and shield stickers on it. (Pretty darn cool!)
Boba Fett Pez dispenser (getting a lot of use)
Pretty good, but quiet as family is 2500 miles away, friends all busy or traveling and no GF to hassel me. Probably go out for a bike ride or hike later. Hope everyone is doing at least as well if not better.
I can just see how this plays out with the Prez's missile defense shield:
"Mister President, our latest test during a midnight clear failed to pick up the intended target, again."
"Well, it's important you boys keep trying, we can't have anything sneaking into our borders, it's important I keep this campaign promise."
"Sir, it did strike a target, we confirm that it mistook an incoming large man wearing a red suit in a sleigh pulled by eight tiny reindeer. Apparently he had a large beard and its anti-terrorist homing zeroed in on it."
"Well, we'll just have to cover up this unfortunate incident. Can't be having children think Santa Claus is dead, it wouldn't do the economy any good. See if Ralph Reed is available to fill in, give the tykes some spiritual guidance."
I dropped a pile again this Christmas and shipped it all off to family back in the Midwest. I'm a westie and didn't fly back this Christmas so I miss out on all those looks and hanging out on present opening. So to cheer myself up a little I bought a few gifts for myself:
A Slinky Jr.
A spinning top which plays a tune and has little weapon stickers on it.
George Lucas had clout. For Peter Jackson that maybe the case now, but don't count on it. Thought, as has been noted, the episodes are numbered, and there's a lot of Star Wars fans ready to set induhviduals right (and be instantly identified as nerds, geeks or other sociallly unacceptable people who are capable of thought.)
Oh, and by the way, Amelie will be in my DVD collection when it comes out. The tragedy here is that it's probably one of the funniest films ever (with some damn effective computer animation!) and most people will never know it passed through.
Not really saying they're the best of all time, but I enjoyed them imensely. My measure of a good movie is one that I'd see again. The Matrix (go ahead and mod me down as flamebait!) isn't one I'd see again. I'd rather go see My Blue Heaven or Stange Brew or The Spanish Prisoner or Bladerunner (probably my all time favorite and a hell of a well put together movie if you see the directors cut.)
I'm finding I spend about 50/50 between The Nickelodeon and the usual Hollywood fronted flick houses. One can only stand so much crap and then one finds movies he or she actually likes.
The problem is that there are lots of newbies who recently began voting on IMDB hence this "all new - all beautiful" effect this had on the votes.
Yeah, but there's new people coming of age all the time. Don't expect a generation or two from now people to know what the Godfather was about. It's all subjective to the time a large population saw it. The GodFadda may have been the event movie of a generation and that generation (whoever said this was even a scientific or even pure poll anyway) votes. Ask 18-30 year olds what they like and they'll give you something else.
I never could understand what people saw in the Godfather. I've probably seen thousands of films by now and it wouldn't even make my top one hundred. Crossing Delancy is pretty cool, Run Lola Run is great also, both, IMHO are much better the the OddFadda. Citizen Kane's good, no doubt, but there are modern films which do very well, too, but many miss them because they visit the local artsy theaters where people fed up with orange fireballs and tom cruise (lower case letters used intentionally) and most people miss them. My recomendation: After LotR go see one or both of the following:
Haiku Tunnel
Amelie
Being John Malkovich
BTW, imdb is really beginning to suck with popup-over-under ads!
However, I'm wondering how many people are going to see the film because
LoTR is derigeur for the geek crowd?
I saw it, despite the massive line (Live in Santa Cruz:learn about patience and standing in line) mostly because of what was on the local megaplex (Santa Cruz 9) was less enticing that LotR. I don't think of Tolkien as 'de rigeur' for geeks, as lots of people are huge fans of his works and aren't what I'd ever consider geeks (freaks maybe or just some other branch of nerd, but they show no less dedication than geeks to tech)
But, did you know that for a large portion of the source code to Perl, after the usual copyright disclaimer, there is a quote
from something by J. R. R. Tolkien?
Dunno what you are refering to, which Perl source? The source to the compiler?
We named our PDP-11 Timesharing system (which still sliced time far better than windows ever will, i'm afraid) DTS Gandalf, though there were only a couple people in the department who had clue one who Gandalf was and if you mention elves they think of Keebler, dwarves as people tossed in bars, and hobbits are something nuns wear on their heads.
Jackson did make the film very accessible to people, my only concern is there are still a lot who don't read newspapers or magazines or pay attention to what is told them on TV (they just sit and watch the screen flash from one image to another and drool) and are unaware that The Fellowship of the Ring is only the first of three.
I'd certainly be a bit pissed if the producers or studio say, "We have to call it Lord of the Rings II, or the idiots won't be able to tell the difference." You just know there's dumb enough people in Hollywood to think that and even push it through.
Could It Be that the long suffering Tolkien Ring Network has risen from the Data Centers of Loth Lorien, the Cubical Kingdom of Gondor, The Network Centers of Rivendell and the Server Farms of the Shire to push the buttons many times?
Sure, why not?
Saw the flick on Saturday, and liked it very much, tho my only gripe was when they played the dramatic music it was really overdriven, at one point drowning out character dialogue lines. Hope they get that fixed in the DVD version.
Did it ever occur to you people that these residential broadband connections for $40 might actually have some controls
on them? Especially now that it's crunch time in the board rooms of the telcos and cable companies?
Did it ever occur to anyone that there should be a contract specifying terms of service, and if such restritions at the will of the provider are not in writing accepted by the client than it's a breach of contract? I'd look that sucker over before I accepted something for the good of the ISP, after all, they already got their golden parachutes.
Seems I'm constantly seeing articles of bombast and outright stupidity by those who hold the reigns of the net in.au Are aussies just sitting still for this crap or are they actually up in arms and taking their MPs or whatever they are to task? Is there anything particularly good to say about the net in Australia, or is it just going to drive people back to the telly?
IMHO Randal engaged in a bit of poor judgement and has been paying for it ever since. It's worse because Intel and Oregon have decided to make an example of him.
If anyone gets anything out of reading the accounts, from both sides, it's make sure your employer knows what you are doing and approves of it. Some are very cool about innovating and others, like Intel, punish the talented while the stupid and greedy prosper (for any of you who'd like to know why/. has such a pro AMD bent, this is a good place to start understanding.)
A couple years ago a complex off the Lawrence Expressway and 101 in Sunnyvale, CA (San Jose area) was supposed to have T1 access in each apartment. Last thing I heard there was T1, but the main feed was insufficient as many tenants decided to put up servers and maxed it out. An upgrade was supposed to be forthcoming, but I haven't checkin on it lately. Complex name was Tuscan or Tuscany something. ~2400/mo, IIRC
Oh, absolutely! The AP article should scare the hell out of consumers and urge them to mobilize to get on M$ and the DoJ's case, but it's so soft on them it reads like: "There's a bug but Microsoft assures people there's little to worry about if they just put their trust in us" -- without pointing out that this is how they got into this in the first place.
Sadly, consumers, more than Microsoft and the Government combined, are responsible for this mess for accepting Win*, but tell them that. It's like "Hey, if you don't want all those parking tickets, don't park in the loading zones," to which the average consumer would tell you you have nerve or to go fsck yourself. No helping some people.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm inclined to believe it'll be things like cell phones, PDA's, automotive electronics. Perhaps futher down the road and slow to adoption, home electronics (i.e. the totally networked home with microwave, toaster, lights, TV, etc. all accessible by your neighbors hacker kid.)
Damn, the toast is burned again and Barney keeps interrupting Wallstreet Week!
And the're plenty of variation on people who were born in the US or UK or AU (or wherever else people natively speak some strain of english) that tone and inflection are significantly difficult to work with.
Expect either of the following:
computers are fast enough, have enough memory and storage to actually understand the butchered english of the worst Teaching Assistant
OR
There's a massive Hitlerian (this should be a word, if it didn't exist, I claim to have invented it) effort to violate all of our civil liberties and force everyone to correctly speak the same way or be shipped off to concentration camps (in New Jersey, probably.)*
*You may laugh, but there's actually schools which teach you not to speak with a southern drawl. Scary.
IIRC, porn (or Adult Entertainment, if you prefer) is the first market to make use of tech advances. I've got some old Apple ][ magazines from 1981 and they even feature porn ads. With the number of techies surviving by going to work for porn you can bet the quality will get better, or they'll just become more ruthless bastards at finding ways to launch from email and take over your PC.
How will this be different from 2001. By the way, your email box needs cleaning.
Old job: O/S, Software, Major maintenance, rewiring networks, etc. Fun stuff. Usually involved pizza and playing lots of video games when there wasn't anything to do.
Past job: Work on stuff, but slowly since most people you need to interact with are out of the office
Current: Take off Thanksgiving week because Xmas/NY will be end of year adjustments and closings. In two days it's gotta be done or people will be really sore. Fiddle around with VB or review projects for next year for a couple days.
I miss the old days.
There's a kind of auction fever that people get caught up in and if you're selling it's a good thing, if you're buying they you'd better learn to keep your trap shut, lest your friends find out and laugh at you. Lots of this goes on on eBay. I've sold items for insane amounts, but also sold things for far less than they are worth. You never know who's going to show up.
A bit of strategy if you're there competing with some purchasing drones. Walk around and audibly critique items, i.e.
"Oh, bummer this is the model without an internal power supply. It's as good as andfill."
"I think this one smells burnt, probably one of their parts boxen"
"This looks like the model which electrocuted workers, I wonder how it did that, could be a serious liability."
"Well no wonder they went out of business, this model is 5 years out of date and costs a fortune to maintain."
"Wow, I didn't know anyone even used these anymore, they only run a very expensive operating system based upon Cobol!"
Any idea if the domain will be put up, too?
Much of the good stuff is pretty scarce by the time you get to these auctions. If any employees didn't get paid you can rest assured that they grabbed some goodies to make up for it. A shirt and maybe a decent office chair would be all I could hope for.
2 Pounds Kauai Expresso Beans and a couple Gavalia flavored coffees
10 pack of microbrews
1 lb. Almond butter candy
Jar of Wheatnuts and a tree ornament
Bought for myself:
Slinky Jr.
Spinning top which plays tune (Wild Irish Rose?) and has weapon, wand and shield stickers on it. (Pretty darn cool!)
Boba Fett Pez dispenser (getting a lot of use)
Pretty good, but quiet as family is 2500 miles away, friends all busy or traveling and no GF to hassel me. Probably go out for a bike ride or hike later. Hope everyone is doing at least as well if not better.
"Mister President, our latest test during a midnight clear failed to pick up the intended target, again."
"Well, it's important you boys keep trying, we can't have anything sneaking into our borders, it's important I keep this campaign promise."
"Sir, it did strike a target, we confirm that it mistook an incoming large man wearing a red suit in a sleigh pulled by eight tiny reindeer. Apparently he had a large beard and its anti-terrorist homing zeroed in on it."
"Well, we'll just have to cover up this unfortunate incident. Can't be having children think Santa Claus is dead, it wouldn't do the economy any good. See if Ralph Reed is available to fill in, give the tykes some spiritual guidance."
A Slinky Jr.
A spinning top which plays a tune and has little weapon stickers on it.
A Boba Fett Pez dispenser
Works for me. I feel great!
Anyone else buy themselves presents?
George Lucas had clout. For Peter Jackson that maybe the case now, but don't count on it. Thought, as has been noted, the episodes are numbered, and there's a lot of Star Wars fans ready to set induhviduals right (and be instantly identified as nerds, geeks or other sociallly unacceptable people who are capable of thought.)
Oh, and by the way, Amelie will be in my DVD collection when it comes out. The tragedy here is that it's probably one of the funniest films ever (with some damn effective computer animation!) and most people will never know it passed through.
I'm finding I spend about 50/50 between The Nickelodeon and the usual Hollywood fronted flick houses. One can only stand so much crap and then one finds movies he or she actually likes.
Yeah, but there's new people coming of age all the time. Don't expect a generation or two from now people to know what the Godfather was about. It's all subjective to the time a large population saw it. The GodFadda may have been the event movie of a generation and that generation (whoever said this was even a scientific or even pure poll anyway) votes. Ask 18-30 year olds what they like and they'll give you something else.
Haiku Tunnel
Amelie
Being John Malkovich
BTW, imdb is really beginning to suck with popup-over-under ads!
I saw it, despite the massive line (Live in Santa Cruz:learn about patience and standing in line) mostly because of what was on the local megaplex (Santa Cruz 9) was less enticing that LotR. I don't think of Tolkien as 'de rigeur' for geeks, as lots of people are huge fans of his works and aren't what I'd ever consider geeks (freaks maybe or just some other branch of nerd, but they show no less dedication than geeks to tech)
But, did you know that for a large portion of the source code to Perl, after the usual copyright disclaimer, there is a quote from something by J. R. R. Tolkien?
Dunno what you are refering to, which Perl source? The source to the compiler?
We named our PDP-11 Timesharing system (which still sliced time far better than windows ever will, i'm afraid) DTS Gandalf, though there were only a couple people in the department who had clue one who Gandalf was and if you mention elves they think of Keebler, dwarves as people tossed in bars, and hobbits are something nuns wear on their heads.
I'd certainly be a bit pissed if the producers or studio say, "We have to call it Lord of the Rings II, or the idiots won't be able to tell the difference." You just know there's dumb enough people in Hollywood to think that and even push it through.
Sure, why not?
Saw the flick on Saturday, and liked it very much, tho my only gripe was when they played the dramatic music it was really overdriven, at one point drowning out character dialogue lines. Hope they get that fixed in the DVD version.
Big Kick off, throw around lots of money, parties, PR spin
Spend money in an unfocused manner because it'll never run out anyway
Overcommit
Underservice
Finally listen to beancounters who've been screaming that it can't go on like this
Blame: The economy, other companies, other people
Quit and drive off with what cash to kept for yourself or funneled off into friend's companies and got back in kickbacks
Hide where noone (particularly VC's and stock holders) will ever find you, then bitch about how the world is going to hell
Did it ever occur to anyone that there should be a contract specifying terms of service, and if such restritions at the will of the provider are not in writing accepted by the client than it's a breach of contract? I'd look that sucker over before I accepted something for the good of the ISP, after all, they already got their golden parachutes.
Seems I'm constantly seeing articles of bombast and outright stupidity by those who hold the reigns of the net in .au Are aussies just sitting still for this crap or are they actually up in arms and taking their MPs or whatever they are to task? Is there anything particularly good to say about the net in Australia, or is it just going to drive people back to the telly?
If anyone gets anything out of reading the accounts, from both sides, it's make sure your employer knows what you are doing and approves of it. Some are very cool about innovating and others, like Intel, punish the talented while the stupid and greedy prosper (for any of you who'd like to know why /. has such a pro AMD bent, this is a good place to start understanding.)
@ Intel it's "CYA" or "See Ya Later"
A couple years ago a complex off the Lawrence Expressway and 101 in Sunnyvale, CA (San Jose area) was supposed to have T1 access in each apartment. Last thing I heard there was T1, but the main feed was insufficient as many tenants decided to put up servers and maxed it out. An upgrade was supposed to be forthcoming, but I haven't checkin on it lately. Complex name was Tuscan or Tuscany something. ~2400/mo, IIRC
Sadly, consumers, more than Microsoft and the Government combined, are responsible for this mess for accepting Win*, but tell them that. It's like "Hey, if you don't want all those parking tickets, don't park in the loading zones," to which the average consumer would tell you you have nerve or to go fsck yourself. No helping some people.