Judging from the typical 'the end-luser sucks!' attitude around here, I can't see many/.ers being very successful in the door-to-door PC support field. What a shame. There's probably a lot of money to be made and the 21 year old geeks with bad tudes isn't going to see much of it.
With the tags in place they can eliminate the checkout people, you push your cart through the scanner and up pops your bill on the ATM pad.
This is precisely why I never have and never will use the 'Self Checkout' lanes at the supermarket, Home Depot, etc. Not only are they eliminating some poor schmo's job, but they're getting ME to do it for them on top. When they start giving me a 10% discount to use those lanes, I'll reconsider. Until then, they can blow me. and forget the argument that the discount is built in... if that were the case the prices at the full service line would be higher. Of course, just like ATMs and bank tellers, I guess that's next. </rant>.
Sorry... just thoroughly disgusted with the system lately.
*shrug* I think the idea of trying to persuade the music industry to patch its leaks and to offer 101 different ways in which it might patch its leaks is odd... it is however crazy while said industry acts in such a petulant fashion.
Let the music industry worry about it's own leaks. The music industries lost billions is not something that should cause the EFF sleepness nights, and there are frankly better things it could concern itself with than where Popstar X is going to get their next gold plated toilet seat from.
People are trying to come up with a workable solution for several reasons --
They love music and want to have it legally so they're willing to invest a few brain cells in a solution.
There are wide ranging copyright, fair use and privacy implications involved in this debate. When there are large sums of money at stake and the lawyers, lobbyists and politicins are all drooling over the potential cash cow it's best for the music fans and the recording industry to come to an agreement without the vultures grabbing all the meat.
The idea here is NOT to bankrupt an entire industry as that will only hurt the artists AND the fans. So I think any mindshare contributions made by reputable organizations are worth the time.
go to any GNC store and get a bottle of any *magic* pills that promise to turn you into a pro-bodybuilder with an eleven-inch manhood. Then read what it says on the bottle... then, if you dare, go and use it. Then go and complain about your results if you find them to be unsatisfactory. At best, everybody is going to laugh at you.
At best, they'll laugh. Chances are better that you'll get your ass kicked.
Has it occurred to anyone that the reason the X Prize hasn't been won yet is becuase of the size of the prize? I mean, if I'm going to invest (and have others invest in ME) I think there needs to be a reasonable expectation of a return on that investment. 5, 10, 20 mil just doesn't seem to be enough to me.
...not on rock and roll. The Net was built on porn. If it weren't for the porn industry the net would still back in early 90s. Think about it: Porn was the original ecommerce app. So many major internet developments have been in someway infuenced by the porn industry that everyone else making a buck on the net should pay royalties. The recording industry should pay attention.
If what they are actually saying is that open source shouldn't be allowed to proceed simply because it doesn't have massive paperwork assigning every bit of code to some source, they've been hitting the crack again.
Exactly. Just like my tax files were being managed by EDS, an effing American Corporation with a piss poor employee reationship record. Not that I care it's a Yankee company...
Rule #1 -- NEVER trust an American company to do the "Right Thing(TM)". Even when they do, it for the wrong reasons.
Rule #2 -- See Rule #1.
I an American and I love my country. That doesn't mean I've got to love the corporate mindset.
And thus even those which have a lawful life but disliked for some reason by the govt can be monitored and the info used against themselves. Do you repsect law but have a mistress or are you homosexual ? well bad luck now camera can see that, and with face recognition signal to an operator he found the position of one of the person on its list, operator which then promptly make anotation of your activity on a memo.
And when you combine the capabilities of CCTV systems with this
you've got something REALLY scary because it will only be a matter of time before private corporations are given access to 'manage' these systems due to the large cost to the taxpayer.
This is a BAD idea. We may as well just all get our tracking implants now.
We want Linux and OpenOffice on every desktop. We want to be able to access customer data from a variety of clients, even including Windows. The same goes for Accounting data, HR data, QA data, you name it. Do we have to write our own system from scratch? I'm not sure that is very realistic."
It seems to me that you need to figure out why you want to use OSS because if you hinder the business unit's ability to interact with clients (internal and external) you're not going to be in business long enough for it to matter. Find the right and best product for the job regardless of whether it's open or closed.
I used to work for an HMO that dealt with mental health records and claims. The information that we had access to is EXACTLY the type of information many corporate and government entities would LOVE to get their hands on. At one point, our company wanted to build a web based app to allow providers (shrinks) enter clinical data to chart progress, among other things. The flip side was that the system allowed 'us' to 'manage care'. I wasn't involved in the project until it was almost in final beta but when I DID get involved, the complete and utter lack of security for the entire system blew my mind. Ultimately, I was successful in having the system redesigned and then scrapped.
I guess the points I'm making are:
There was a really cool upside to this system. It really could have been a benefit to the doctors and patients in providing them better care. It could, and also would, have been used to deny care to cuts costs.
Corporations generally do not care about data security until the lack of said security jeapordizes their bottom line or places them at legal risk.
If the system ever DID make it into production, the information contained within could have easily been made available to the governement and/or highest bidder -- as is the case with the company running the MATRIX system.
The way I see it is that the benefits don't outway the risks. Just because we can doesn't mean we should.
Sorry.... mod this down if like.... but you get what you pay for and when you buy Dell you're not paying a lot. I don't own an iPod nor am I a fan of Apple but I have extensive experience with Dell products and wouldn't spend a dime of my hard-earned cash on anything they sell.
You mean, a big bag of money showed up on some spammer's doorstep with a note promising much more if a DDoS against www.sco.com is included in the next release?
Completely untraceable, even if caught: the spammer wouldn't know who sent the money, and could even claim, "I think it was some Linux Zealot."
I'm sure they would just figure that their Nigerian friend finally got lucky.
I'm thinking of patenting: - "A Process to patent Methods that are Obvious"
- "A Process to Patent Methods that have Prior Art"
Then, all of these people will be violating my patents when they do these sorts of things. It'll stop the stupid patents and/or make me rich. Either way, I'm happy.
Heh. I think you should do it. I can't see why you'd have any problems getting it through.
Also small companies should have different rights from big companies. Personally I cant afford to pay 100 grand to lawyers for years after years of appeals. If that is what it takes to protect a copyright, then a large corporation could just force me out.
Thanks to Bushes tax cuts, larger corporations now pay a smaller percentage of their earnings to the gov't. Giving them even more money. Smaller companies just cant compete with that. Creating an unfair advantage which leads to monopolies.
You're kidding right? In essence, you're suggesting an 'affirmative action' type setup in which small companies are given preferential treatment because of their size, rather than on the merits of their products.
I agree that there are problems with the enforcement of anti-trust laws and that the US tax code is a joke but affirmative action is NOT the answer to the problem. Personally, I'd vote for any tax law that placed a larger tax on corporations that did not maintain at least 75% of their employees, manufacturiing facilities, and so on in the U.S. Right now it's too attractive to 'off-shore' operations.
It sucks that stuff like this could be so cool but that we can't trust that the providers won't take advantage of the huge marketing potential. Add to that the fact that most Americans think that the Constitution applies only to them personally and observance of any particular article is completely optional as long as it fits within their narrow mindset and its easy to see the potential for government abuse of the wealth of information that could be available.
That said, if I could be guaranteed that the locator service information was only good for the time of the query and wasn't logged in any way and that I could, from my phone, turn the feature on and off at will, I think I would try it.
When executive management has this type of meeting with the entire department it means they do not have confidence in their manager's ability to manage otherwise they wouldn't have (or need) the meeting. It's a sure sign of more serious problems within the company.
As head of an IT department, it's my job to communicate the problems/concerns my staff bring to my attention that I can not address at my level. It is equally important for the staff to understand that, unless they are working for a charity, the object of the game is profit and they are there to make the company money (or at least not cost it as much). The value of a good management team is that this type of communication is natural and automatic.
Isn't that what managers are for? It's not your job to inform CxOs that there are problems.
I agree entirely. When executive management has this type of meeting with the entire department it means they do not have confidence in their manager's ability to manage otherwise they wouldn't have (or need) the meeting. It's a sure sign of more serious problems within the company.
As head of an IT department, it's my job to communicate the problems/concerns my staff bring to my attention that I can not address at my level. It is equally important for the staff to understand that, unless they are working for a charity, the object of the game is profit and they are there to make the company money (or at least not cost it as much). The value of a good management team is that this type of communication is natural and automatic.
Re:Hey baby, wanna take ride in my X-wing?
on
The Star Wars Car
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Images of the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons spring to mind.... "No! Girls may NOT ride in my X-Wing unless dressed as Princess Lea. Go away!"
Slashdot Mirror
Judging from the typical 'the end-luser sucks!' attitude around here, I can't see many /.ers being very successful in the door-to-door PC support field. What a shame. There's probably a lot of money to be made and the 21 year old geeks with bad tudes isn't going to see much of it.
With the tags in place they can eliminate the checkout people, you push your cart through the scanner and up pops your bill on the ATM pad.
This is precisely why I never have and never will use the 'Self Checkout' lanes at the supermarket, Home Depot, etc. Not only are they eliminating some poor schmo's job, but they're getting ME to do it for them on top. When they start giving me a 10% discount to use those lanes, I'll reconsider. Until then, they can blow me. and forget the argument that the discount is built in... if that were the case the prices at the full service line would be higher. Of course, just like ATMs and bank tellers, I guess that's next. </rant>.
Sorry... just thoroughly disgusted with the system lately.
People are trying to come up with a workable solution for several reasons --
- They love music and want to have it legally so they're willing to invest a few brain cells in a solution.
- There are wide ranging copyright, fair use and privacy implications involved in this debate. When there are large sums of money at stake and the lawyers, lobbyists and politicins are all drooling over the potential cash cow it's best for the music fans and the recording industry to come to an agreement without the vultures grabbing all the meat.
The idea here is NOT to bankrupt an entire industry as that will only hurt the artists AND the fans. So I think any mindshare contributions made by reputable organizations are worth the time....and welcome to WalMart. My name is Cletis and I will be your personal saleman.
You forgot to add "Can I hep youuuu? What I can do fer youuuu?"
It is not advisable to completely abandon IE on Windows, however. Firefox won't work for grabbing updates from windowsupdate.com.
The IE View extension works great. It adds a context menu option to view whatever page you're on in IE. Definitely beats copying and pasting the URL.
go to any GNC store and get a bottle of any *magic* pills that promise to turn you into a pro-bodybuilder with an eleven-inch manhood. Then read what it says on the bottle... then, if you dare, go and use it. Then go and complain about your results if you find them to be unsatisfactory. At best, everybody is going to laugh at you.
At best , they'll laugh. Chances are better that you'll get your ass kicked.
Has it occurred to anyone that the reason the X Prize hasn't been won yet is becuase of the size of the prize? I mean, if I'm going to invest (and have others invest in ME) I think there needs to be a reasonable expectation of a return on that investment. 5, 10, 20 mil just doesn't seem to be enough to me.
...not on rock and roll. The Net was built on porn. If it weren't for the porn industry the net would still back in early 90s. Think about it: Porn was the original ecommerce app. So many major internet developments have been in someway infuenced by the porn industry that everyone else making a buck on the net should pay royalties. The recording industry should pay attention.
By golly, you're RIGHT! I wish I could mod you reply up.
If what they are actually saying is that open source shouldn't be allowed to proceed simply because it doesn't have massive paperwork assigning every bit of code to some source, they've been hitting the crack again.
Yep... that is EXACTLY what they're saying.
There were 724,970 Visitors since 2.15.99.
As of 8:16PM EST on 2.8.04... they're going to need a bigger hit counter.
There's nothing in the TOS about slashdotting the site. If they really cared, it'd be in there.
Exactly. Just like my tax files were being managed by EDS, an effing American Corporation with a piss poor employee reationship record. Not that I care it's a Yankee company...
Rule #1 -- NEVER trust an American company to do the "Right Thing(TM)". Even when they do, it for the wrong reasons.
Rule #2 -- See Rule #1.
I an American and I love my country. That doesn't mean I've got to love the corporate mindset.
And thus even those which have a lawful life but disliked for some reason by the govt can be monitored and the info used against themselves. Do you repsect law but have a mistress or are you homosexual ? well bad luck now camera can see that, and with face recognition signal to an operator he found the position of one of the person on its list, operator which then promptly make anotation of your activity on a memo.
And when you combine the capabilities of CCTV systems with this you've got something REALLY scary because it will only be a matter of time before private corporations are given access to 'manage' these systems due to the large cost to the taxpayer.
This is a BAD idea. We may as well just all get our tracking implants now.
We want Linux and OpenOffice on every desktop. We want to be able to access customer data from a variety of clients, even including Windows. The same goes for Accounting data, HR data, QA data, you name it. Do we have to write our own system from scratch? I'm not sure that is very realistic."
It seems to me that you need to figure out why you want to use OSS because if you hinder the business unit's ability to interact with clients (internal and external) you're not going to be in business long enough for it to matter. Find the right and best product for the job regardless of whether it's open or closed.
I guess the points I'm making are:
-
There was a really cool upside to this system. It really could have been a benefit to the doctors and patients in providing them better care. It could, and also would, have been used to deny care to cuts costs.
-
Corporations generally do not care about data security until the lack of said security jeapordizes their bottom line or places them at legal risk.
-
If the system ever DID make it into production, the information contained within could have easily been made available to the governement and/or highest bidder -- as is the case with the company running the MATRIX system.
The way I see it is that the benefits don't outway the risks. Just because we can doesn't mean we should.Sorry.... mod this down if like.... but you get what you pay for and when you buy Dell you're not paying a lot. I don't own an iPod nor am I a fan of Apple but I have extensive experience with Dell products and wouldn't spend a dime of my hard-earned cash on anything they sell.
So why don't you download one that you like?
Too complicated.
You mean, a big bag of money showed up on some spammer's doorstep with a note promising much more if a DDoS against www.sco.com is included in the next release?
Completely untraceable, even if caught: the spammer wouldn't know who sent the money, and could even claim, "I think it was some Linux Zealot."
I'm sure they would just figure that their Nigerian friend finally got lucky.
I'm thinking of patenting:
- "A Process to patent Methods that are Obvious"
- "A Process to Patent Methods that have Prior Art"
Then, all of these people will be violating my patents when they do these sorts of things. It'll stop the stupid patents and/or make me rich. Either way, I'm happy.
Heh. I think you should do it. I can't see why you'd have any problems getting it through.
Also small companies should have different rights from big companies. Personally I cant afford to pay 100 grand to lawyers for years after years of appeals. If that is what it takes to protect a copyright, then a large corporation could just force me out. Thanks to Bushes tax cuts, larger corporations now pay a smaller percentage of their earnings to the gov't. Giving them even more money. Smaller companies just cant compete with that. Creating an unfair advantage which leads to monopolies.
You're kidding right? In essence, you're suggesting an 'affirmative action' type setup in which small companies are given preferential treatment because of their size, rather than on the merits of their products.
I agree that there are problems with the enforcement of anti-trust laws and that the US tax code is a joke but affirmative action is NOT the answer to the problem. Personally, I'd vote for any tax law that placed a larger tax on corporations that did not maintain at least 75% of their employees, manufacturiing facilities, and so on in the U.S. Right now it's too attractive to 'off-shore' operations.
It sucks that stuff like this could be so cool but that we can't trust that the providers won't take advantage of the huge marketing potential. Add to that the fact that most Americans think that the Constitution applies only to them personally and observance of any particular article is completely optional as long as it fits within their narrow mindset and its easy to see the potential for government abuse of the wealth of information that could be available.
That said, if I could be guaranteed that the locator service information was only good for the time of the query and wasn't logged in any way and that I could, from my phone, turn the feature on and off at will, I think I would try it.
When executive management has this type of meeting with the entire department it means they do not have confidence in their manager's ability to manage otherwise they wouldn't have (or need) the meeting. It's a sure sign of more serious problems within the company.
As head of an IT department, it's my job to communicate the problems/concerns my staff bring to my attention that I can not address at my level. It is equally important for the staff to understand that, unless they are working for a charity, the object of the game is profit and they are there to make the company money (or at least not cost it as much). The value of a good management team is that this type of communication is natural and automatic.
Isn't that what managers are for? It's not your job to inform CxOs that there are problems.
I agree entirely. When executive management has this type of meeting with the entire department it means they do not have confidence in their manager's ability to manage otherwise they wouldn't have (or need) the meeting. It's a sure sign of more serious problems within the company.
As head of an IT department, it's my job to communicate the problems/concerns my staff bring to my attention that I can not address at my level. It is equally important for the staff to understand that, unless they are working for a charity, the object of the game is profit and they are there to make the company money (or at least not cost it as much). The value of a good management team is that this type of communication is natural and automatic.
Images of the Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons spring to mind.... "No! Girls may NOT ride in my X-Wing unless dressed as Princess Lea. Go away!"