The problem wasn't that they never understood. As I explained things, they understood them perfectly. But then they would go home and talk about it for hours and hours and hours, and end up really confusing themselves. That's when I would have to re-explain things.
Or, at other instances, they would ask me questions I had already answered by email. Not stuff that was difficult to understand, just really basic questions with really basic answers. They just never remembered I had answered it already. By the end, I was including documentation with all of my answers, such as "For more details on this questions, see my email on dd/dd/dd titled 'abcxyz'"
Worst of all was when they got upset that I had added a specific feature to the website. It was a useful feature, but for other reasons they decided they didn't want it. I told them I could leave it in or take it out, but if they wanted the capability to turn the function on or off in their admin panel, I would have to bill them extra. They blew their top. "Why did you include this feature we never asked for, and now expect us to have to pay extra for you to take it off!?" By this time I was already used to documenting my responses, so I answered, "You did ask for it. It was clearly outlined in my proposal, that was attached to our contract. It is on row 80, columns B and H."
I understand your reaction, and if I heard this circumstance with somebody else, I would also wonder if it was techno-elitism at work. But I'm actually a very patient person. I put up with this behavior for five months before it started really annoying me. By the end, my wife would leave the room when I was on a conference call with them, because she was getting annoyed just listening to one side of a conversation with them.
I recently went through a hellish project. I was designing a website for some ex- print advertising execs who decided to start their own web business. First off, these two were pretty impossible themselves, they really didn't have much of a clue about the web, and no matter how basic I tried to explain things, I had to answer every question at least four times. That in itself was enough to drive somebody mad.
But the really awful boring part was the image generation. Now, being ex print advertisers, by the time we were finished approving mockups the site ended up being highly graphical. Don't like high bandwidth sites? Don't visit this one.
Then...and this is the killer...they decided that every section was to have its own color scheme. Requiring its own set of images. The same images--just different colors. There were eight sections at first -- but then there is a sister site as well, with eight more sections. Each section had it's own set of menu items (in normal, hover, and selected states), layout graphics, headers, subheaders, titles, etc. etc. etc.
In total, I had to generate over 1,000 images using the full-page mockup as a base. A very long, very dull process. One of the few times the keyboard really bothers my wrists.
So if 5,000 songs equals on CD, which is worth about $18 in a store....
Then those $3,000 out-of-court settlements you hear about between the RIAA and the P2P users equate to about 830,000 songs (something on the order of 3.3 Terabytes of MP3s).
No wonder the RIAA is trying to invalidate this data. Using this data, even a 200GB song collection (50,000 MP3s or so!) would only be 'worth' about $180.
(Plus, that's not even taking into account that the RIAA is getting the full monetary value in these settlements (not just their share of the $18), and they actually sued for a lot more than the $3,000 settlement.)
already added a set of drawers, plan to replace the top with some spiffy wood.
Here's my favorite tip: get veneer on ebay. While getting lumber on ebay isn't very cost effective because of shipping costs, veneer is very cheap. I've got a Paxton's in my area, which has the biggest veneer selection of a store I've seen, but veneer on ebay typically is 1/10 the cost, and you can get some really beautiful sheets, too. Exotic woods with beautiful figure.
Here are my favorite vendors, if you're interested in topping your desk with some amazing veneer (that's my own plan)
- greatdane6 - thouge (online store: ROSEBUD VENEERS -- this guy is great for enourmous quantities (300sqft) or matching veneers) - derwood7
I'm an amateur hobbyist woodworker -- it's nice to build things you can hold -- so I love seeing stuff like this, and hope one day I'll be good enough to make them, too.
The funny thing is how many people seem to be in my position. When reading newsgroups like rec.woodworking, I came across a lot of tech-types that have either turned to woodworking as a hobby in their spare time, or in their laid-off time.
Anybody else on this board that have moved toward woodworking?
The April '04 edition of Popular Science has an interesting article about the top seven or so engineering projects/dream-projects today. One of them was the in/famous space elevator. What was particularly interesting was that the estimated cost was only $10 billion. (that's 1/10 of what the US has already spent in Iraq, for those counting)
Now I've always thought that the reason we aren't already building space elevators is because we haven't got anything strong enough for the cables. But according to the guy the $10 billion figure came from, all we need is a little more nanotube development and we're there.
All of this sounds like urban legend... even the $1000. I would guess that a judge would fine them the amount you paid to have your phone unlisted, then ordered them to take your name out of the next version of the phone book.
Not if you could prove damages by having your number listed. People unlist for all sorts of reasons, including avoiding harassment, stalking, interruption of privacy, etc. If you have any of these problems, a phone company listing your number when you pay for it not to, could be held liable.
I guess it just shows how much of a geek I am. When the title to this review showed up in my aggregator my first thought was, "Sweet! Free calculus books!"
I graduated in 2000. I have not required a calculus book in years, I simply feel stupid because I know how much knowledge I've lost. Therefore, textbooks excite me. When I go into used bookstores, I always check the old textbooks.
Yet what is true geekdom is the fact that I would freely admit this to anyone, not just on/.
We had sledge hammers located strategically throughout the building. In case of terrorist or Russian attack, we were supposed to smash our computers to bits on the way to the bomb shelter since we did not have time for proper disposal.
Why not have all the data on hot-swappable hard drives, which you could remove and drop in an incenerator on the way to the bomb shelter?
I like your keyword theory. It doesn't explain why XFree86 was chosen, but it does a pretty good job of explaining the other results.
But this:
"x sex" does not block. "xx sex" does not block. "xxx sex" blocks. "xxxx sex" blocks. "xxxxx sex" does not. "sex xxx lesbian" does not block. All of those searches do returns tons of porn, however.
Could also stregthen my argument. In my opinion at least, of these terms, "xxx sex" and "xxxx sex" are the one most likely to be used by someone searching for porn, and would therefore have the highest search frequencies. They all have more or less the same porn triggers, like the 'x' and 'sex', but the ones with the greatest theoretical frequency are the ones that get blocked.
The "sex xxx lesbian" is the exception, I would have assumed that to be more frequent as well. But it's also the only three word phrase, which means that while the concept of "sex xxx lesbian" might be frequence, perhaps that particular order is not very common.
To further the test: sex xxx lesbian PASS sex lesbian xxx PASS lesbian sex xxx BLOCK lesbian xxx sex PASS xxx lesbian sex BLOCK xxx sex lesbian PASS
What does that mean? I have no idea. The two blocked searches are what I was expecting to be the most common searches, but that's just my opinion. Actually, analyzing this, I think it supports your theory. The keyword could be "lesbian sex" and the attachment of "xxx" is just coincidence.
But it was fun to type in a bunch of sex terms and claim I was doing research for/.:)
Did you read my whole message? Those terms won't match because they aren't searched for frequently enough. My concept requires BOTH porn triggers AND high search frequency. So, where a lot of people might search for "XFree86", not a lot of people search for "XFree86 sex". That would give "XFree86" a higher porn score.
I wouldn't change careers because I have a great lifestyle with my current career.
I'm a web designer/developer/flash animator. There is still a small, but not completely gone, market for this work. And in the past, I've worked in whatever corporate environment would have me. Mostly in stodgy office cubicles surrounded by inept marketing twits. So I left that environment and molded my own.
Now I run my own company from a home office, mostly subcontracting through the same marketing companies I used to work at. But now I get to set my own hours, work in comfortable clothes, have my own music at however loud I like, fix my own meals (much cheaper than eating out), there's no commute, etc. etc. etc. Most importantly, when my wife has her baby in June and becomes a stay-at-home-mom, I'll be here with both of them too.
And I'm making much better money than I was before. Actually, it's easier to raise my rates in this situation than asking for a raise in my old situation. I can turn down projects if I want to, or work on extra projects if I want to.
And I get to read/. all day!
Bottom line -- I would have to get one hell of a job offer to convince me to go back to a button-down-shirt-and-commute lifestyle. A simple raise would not cut it. It would have to be enough to justify leaving a lifestyle I'm very comfortable and happy in.
MSN is apparently blocking the specific term 'XFree86' and not just filtering on something stupid like the 'X' or the 'Free', since you can search for 'XFree85' and 'XFree87' with no problem.
I don't consider this unusual behavior at all.
If I were creating a high-performance search engine that expected a lot of traffic and still wanted to block results that might be porn, I would want to optimize the matching process. I wouldn't want to consider every search term that raises even the smallest porn flag, that would take a ton of processing power and will block a lot of otherwise non-porn terms.
So, I would want to set up a system where I would only have to match a term against a database of search term porn scores. The actual scoring could be scheduled, and would only take up massive processing time once a week or so. This makes the search processing more efficient because instead of generating a porn score with every term it only has to collect the search for future processing, and retrieve any currently existing score. This also lets me optimize the scoring based on a larger data set.
So what data would I optimize the match with? Search frequency. Porn is without question the most searched for topic on the internet. So the best indication that something is porn is a ton of requests! I would create the porn score from a balance of possible porn triggers (such as 'X' and 'Free') with the frequency of the search term.
So my search engine would probably yield the same results. 'XFree86' has porn triggers -- just like 'XFree85' and 'XFree87'. But what the others don't have is frequency. 'XFree86', by virtue of its own popularity, gets blocked by the system.
However after googling a bit I did find some info, I think. James Aker seems to be a real lawyer at least.
Actually the HardOCP page had a link to the same page about halfway down. But the really interesting part is that the link has James Aker's email address.
jaker@icardmerrill.com
Now I wonder what the Slashdot crowd could do with that....
I don't know. You make good points, but still.... Throughout this whole long drawn-out drama, I've had the underlying sensation that Microsoft is pulling SCO's strings. And what better for SCO to spend their Microsoft settlement money on than to force a Microsoft opponent to battle on two fronts.
Oh, for crying out loud, does every irritating jackass who uses intimidation tactics have to be called a "terrorist" now?
Not that I don't agree with the sentiment....but SCO? They've been trying to single-handedly destroy the entire economy of Open Source. That's closer to my definition of 'terrorist' than some other examples I've heard that were actually tried and convicted.
...There are four things they have agreed not to say in Germany, on pain of a fine of 10,000 euros per offense -- that's about $12,500 USD...... I'm glad the european judicial systems are not as prone to SCO's legal guerilla tactics as the US system is.
Don't believe it. SCO must spend $12,500 USD every couple of days on their lawyers. I doubt this would stop them from making their claims at least a few times a month. It's like basketball players that have to occassionally pay fines for their behavior. It won't stop them from doing it again, because they can afford the penalty.
But that doens't mean that this isn't wonderful news. Germany is setting a very nice precedent, and hopefully it will encourage more legal systems to join in. Hopefully if enough legal systems make similar restrictions, SCO will bleed enough of its cash reserves that it will actually follow the restrictions.
According to the article, the only person saying that Linux is more costly is Steve Ballmer, so it's not a statement being made by Munich government itself.
Actually, the SuSE proposal that Munich acceptedwas the most expensive proposal, at $35.7 million. The Microsoft proposal started at $36.6 million, but when Balmer arrived it dropped to $31.9 million, and then to $23.7 million. And Munich still accepted the more expensive Linux proposal.
So Balmer wasn't lying - technically. What Balmer doesn't admit is that it is only the immediate costs that made Linux the more expensive solution. Munich knew the initial cost for Linux would be more. But they also knew that the savings down the road would be more than adequate justification.
I don't know about all free email services, but Hotmail does not allow this anymore.
Hotmail is definately not the only worry anymore. I go through my spam email headers every now and then, and there must be a million and one 'free email address' services. Not the full Hotmail deal, just a free address. One example (found in my current email Trash folder): cwazy.co.uk. It's just a simple sign on page, says you get a free 10MB email account.
Others are more involved, with full webmail capabilities. They might be $30/month, but come with a free month trial. One example: runbox.com (also found in my current email Trash folder).
It is so ridiculously easy to get free email addresses these days, no wonder the spammers are gaining ground.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem wasn't that they never understood. As I explained things, they understood them perfectly. But then they would go home and talk about it for hours and hours and hours, and end up really confusing themselves. That's when I would have to re-explain things.
Or, at other instances, they would ask me questions I had already answered by email. Not stuff that was difficult to understand, just really basic questions with really basic answers. They just never remembered I had answered it already. By the end, I was including documentation with all of my answers, such as "For more details on this questions, see my email on dd/dd/dd titled 'abcxyz'"
Worst of all was when they got upset that I had added a specific feature to the website. It was a useful feature, but for other reasons they decided they didn't want it. I told them I could leave it in or take it out, but if they wanted the capability to turn the function on or off in their admin panel, I would have to bill them extra. They blew their top. "Why did you include this feature we never asked for, and now expect us to have to pay extra for you to take it off!?" By this time I was already used to documenting my responses, so I answered, "You did ask for it. It was clearly outlined in my proposal, that was attached to our contract. It is on row 80, columns B and H."
I understand your reaction, and if I heard this circumstance with somebody else, I would also wonder if it was techno-elitism at work. But I'm actually a very patient person. I put up with this behavior for five months before it started really annoying me. By the end, my wife would leave the room when I was on a conference call with them, because she was getting annoyed just listening to one side of a conversation with them.
I recently went through a hellish project. I was designing a website for some ex- print advertising execs who decided to start their own web business. First off, these two were pretty impossible themselves, they really didn't have much of a clue about the web, and no matter how basic I tried to explain things, I had to answer every question at least four times. That in itself was enough to drive somebody mad.
But the really awful boring part was the image generation. Now, being ex print advertisers, by the time we were finished approving mockups the site ended up being highly graphical. Don't like high bandwidth sites? Don't visit this one.
Then...and this is the killer...they decided that every section was to have its own color scheme. Requiring its own set of images. The same images--just different colors. There were eight sections at first -- but then there is a sister site as well, with eight more sections. Each section had it's own set of menu items (in normal, hover, and selected states), layout graphics, headers, subheaders, titles, etc. etc. etc.
In total, I had to generate over 1,000 images using the full-page mockup as a base. A very long, very dull process. One of the few times the keyboard really bothers my wrists.
So if 5,000 songs equals on CD, which is worth about $18 in a store....
Then those $3,000 out-of-court settlements you hear about between the RIAA and the P2P users equate to about 830,000 songs (something on the order of 3.3 Terabytes of MP3s).
No wonder the RIAA is trying to invalidate this data. Using this data, even a 200GB song collection (50,000 MP3s or so!) would only be 'worth' about $180.
(Plus, that's not even taking into account that the RIAA is getting the full monetary value in these settlements (not just their share of the $18), and they actually sued for a lot more than the $3,000 settlement.)
already added a set of drawers, plan to replace the top with some spiffy wood.
Here's my favorite tip: get veneer on ebay. While getting lumber on ebay isn't very cost effective because of shipping costs, veneer is very cheap. I've got a Paxton's in my area, which has the biggest veneer selection of a store I've seen, but veneer on ebay typically is 1/10 the cost, and you can get some really beautiful sheets, too. Exotic woods with beautiful figure.
Here are my favorite vendors, if you're interested in topping your desk with some amazing veneer (that's my own plan)
- greatdane6
- thouge (online store: ROSEBUD VENEERS -- this guy is great for enourmous quantities (300sqft) or matching veneers)
- derwood7
I'm an amateur hobbyist woodworker -- it's nice to build things you can hold -- so I love seeing stuff like this, and hope one day I'll be good enough to make them, too.
The funny thing is how many people seem to be in my position. When reading newsgroups like rec.woodworking, I came across a lot of tech-types that have either turned to woodworking as a hobby in their spare time, or in their laid-off time.
Anybody else on this board that have moved toward woodworking?
The April '04 edition of Popular Science has an interesting article about the top seven or so engineering projects/dream-projects today. One of them was the in/famous space elevator. What was particularly interesting was that the estimated cost was only $10 billion. (that's 1/10 of what the US has already spent in Iraq, for those counting)
Now I've always thought that the reason we aren't already building space elevators is because we haven't got anything strong enough for the cables. But according to the guy the $10 billion figure came from, all we need is a little more nanotube development and we're there.
All of this sounds like urban legend... even the $1000. I would guess that a judge would fine them the amount you paid to have your phone unlisted, then ordered them to take your name out of the next version of the phone book.
Not if you could prove damages by having your number listed. People unlist for all sorts of reasons, including avoiding harassment, stalking, interruption of privacy, etc. If you have any of these problems, a phone company listing your number when you pay for it not to, could be held liable.
...today's "Foxtrot" touches on the same subject! He just needed to change the very last speech bubble (Jason's) to say "Maybe there will be...."
(3/11/04 if you need to look through the archives)
I guess it just shows how much of a geek I am. When the title to this review showed up in my aggregator my first thought was, "Sweet! Free calculus books!"
/.
I graduated in 2000. I have not required a calculus book in years, I simply feel stupid because I know how much knowledge I've lost. Therefore, textbooks excite me. When I go into used bookstores, I always check the old textbooks.
Yet what is true geekdom is the fact that I would freely admit this to anyone, not just on
We had sledge hammers located strategically throughout the building. In case of terrorist or Russian attack, we were supposed to smash our computers to bits on the way to the bomb shelter since we did not have time for proper disposal.
Why not have all the data on hot-swappable hard drives, which you could remove and drop in an incenerator on the way to the bomb shelter?
8) ... He also has crazy ideas about putting "stamps" on email.
What a coincidence, so does Bill Gates
You could always dual-boot.. Try it, and you'll find there are very few things you can't do.
Yes, and you could even catch up on your reading while you reboot 20 times a day.
I like your keyword theory. It doesn't explain why XFree86 was chosen, but it does a pretty good job of explaining the other results.
/. :)
But this:
"x sex" does not block. "xx sex" does not block. "xxx sex" blocks. "xxxx sex" blocks. "xxxxx sex" does not. "sex xxx lesbian" does not block. All of those searches do returns tons of porn, however.
Could also stregthen my argument. In my opinion at least, of these terms, "xxx sex" and "xxxx sex" are the one most likely to be used by someone searching for porn, and would therefore have the highest search frequencies. They all have more or less the same porn triggers, like the 'x' and 'sex', but the ones with the greatest theoretical frequency are the ones that get blocked.
The "sex xxx lesbian" is the exception, I would have assumed that to be more frequent as well. But it's also the only three word phrase, which means that while the concept of "sex xxx lesbian" might be frequence, perhaps that particular order is not very common.
To further the test:
sex xxx lesbian PASS
sex lesbian xxx PASS
lesbian sex xxx BLOCK
lesbian xxx sex PASS
xxx lesbian sex BLOCK
xxx sex lesbian PASS
What does that mean? I have no idea. The two blocked searches are what I was expecting to be the most common searches, but that's just my opinion. Actually, analyzing this, I think it supports your theory. The keyword could be "lesbian sex" and the attachment of "xxx" is just coincidence.
But it was fun to type in a bunch of sex terms and claim I was doing research for
Did you read my whole message? Those terms won't match because they aren't searched for frequently enough. My concept requires BOTH porn triggers AND high search frequency. So, where a lot of people might search for "XFree86", not a lot of people search for "XFree86 sex". That would give "XFree86" a higher porn score.
I wouldn't change careers because I have a great lifestyle with my current career.
/. all day!
I'm a web designer/developer/flash animator. There is still a small, but not completely gone, market for this work. And in the past, I've worked in whatever corporate environment would have me. Mostly in stodgy office cubicles surrounded by inept marketing twits. So I left that environment and molded my own.
Now I run my own company from a home office, mostly subcontracting through the same marketing companies I used to work at. But now I get to set my own hours, work in comfortable clothes, have my own music at however loud I like, fix my own meals (much cheaper than eating out), there's no commute, etc. etc. etc. Most importantly, when my wife has her baby in June and becomes a stay-at-home-mom, I'll be here with both of them too.
And I'm making much better money than I was before. Actually, it's easier to raise my rates in this situation than asking for a raise in my old situation. I can turn down projects if I want to, or work on extra projects if I want to.
And I get to read
Bottom line -- I would have to get one hell of a job offer to convince me to go back to a button-down-shirt-and-commute lifestyle. A simple raise would not cut it. It would have to be enough to justify leaving a lifestyle I'm very comfortable and happy in.
MSN is apparently blocking the specific term 'XFree86' and not just filtering on something stupid like the 'X' or the 'Free', since you can search for 'XFree85' and 'XFree87' with no problem.
I don't consider this unusual behavior at all.
If I were creating a high-performance search engine that expected a lot of traffic and still wanted to block results that might be porn, I would want to optimize the matching process. I wouldn't want to consider every search term that raises even the smallest porn flag, that would take a ton of processing power and will block a lot of otherwise non-porn terms.
So, I would want to set up a system where I would only have to match a term against a database of search term porn scores. The actual scoring could be scheduled, and would only take up massive processing time once a week or so. This makes the search processing more efficient because instead of generating a porn score with every term it only has to collect the search for future processing, and retrieve any currently existing score. This also lets me optimize the scoring based on a larger data set.
So what data would I optimize the match with? Search frequency. Porn is without question the most searched for topic on the internet. So the best indication that something is porn is a ton of requests! I would create the porn score from a balance of possible porn triggers (such as 'X' and 'Free') with the frequency of the search term.
So my search engine would probably yield the same results. 'XFree86' has porn triggers -- just like 'XFree85' and 'XFree87'. But what the others don't have is frequency. 'XFree86', by virtue of its own popularity, gets blocked by the system.
However after googling a bit I did find some info, I think. James Aker seems to be a real lawyer at least.
Actually the HardOCP page had a link to the same page about halfway down. But the really interesting part is that the link has James Aker's email address.
jaker@icardmerrill.com
Now I wonder what the Slashdot crowd could do with that....
That seems unlikely.
I don't know. You make good points, but still.... Throughout this whole long drawn-out drama, I've had the underlying sensation that Microsoft is pulling SCO's strings. And what better for SCO to spend their Microsoft settlement money on than to force a Microsoft opponent to battle on two fronts.
Now all they need to do is invent a UPS box that can store 30 minutes of surfing for backup when the power goes out....
Oh, for crying out loud, does every irritating jackass who uses intimidation tactics have to be called a "terrorist" now?
Not that I don't agree with the sentiment....but SCO? They've been trying to single-handedly destroy the entire economy of Open Source. That's closer to my definition of 'terrorist' than some other examples I've heard that were actually tried and convicted.
...There are four things they have agreed not to say in Germany, on pain of a fine of 10,000 euros per offense -- that's about $12,500 USD... ...
I'm glad the european judicial systems are not as prone to SCO's legal guerilla tactics as the US system is.
Don't believe it. SCO must spend $12,500 USD every couple of days on their lawyers. I doubt this would stop them from making their claims at least a few times a month. It's like basketball players that have to occassionally pay fines for their behavior. It won't stop them from doing it again, because they can afford the penalty.
But that doens't mean that this isn't wonderful news. Germany is setting a very nice precedent, and hopefully it will encourage more legal systems to join in. Hopefully if enough legal systems make similar restrictions, SCO will bleed enough of its cash reserves that it will actually follow the restrictions.
For him, there is 'no difference between an ivory keyboard and a QWERTY keyboard.'
Then I don't want to hear his music, because it must all be played at the same volume, straight through.
According to the article, the only person saying that Linux is more costly is Steve Ballmer, so it's not a statement being made by Munich government itself.
Actually, the SuSE proposal that Munich accepted was the most expensive proposal, at $35.7 million. The Microsoft proposal started at $36.6 million, but when Balmer arrived it dropped to $31.9 million, and then to $23.7 million. And Munich still accepted the more expensive Linux proposal.
So Balmer wasn't lying - technically. What Balmer doesn't admit is that it is only the immediate costs that made Linux the more expensive solution. Munich knew the initial cost for Linux would be more. But they also knew that the savings down the road would be more than adequate justification.
I don't know about all free email services, but Hotmail does not allow this anymore.
Hotmail is definately not the only worry anymore. I go through my spam email headers every now and then, and there must be a million and one 'free email address' services. Not the full Hotmail deal, just a free address. One example (found in my current email Trash folder): cwazy.co.uk. It's just a simple sign on page, says you get a free 10MB email account.
Others are more involved, with full webmail capabilities. They might be $30/month, but come with a free month trial. One example: runbox.com (also found in my current email Trash folder).
It is so ridiculously easy to get free email addresses these days, no wonder the spammers are gaining ground.
Yes, and it's not nearly as embarrassing as drinking Budweiser