Of all the silly things to say to someone like Tom Christiansen... do you have any idea how much _work_ TC has done? Do you have any idea how much software TC has contributed?
I'm sure TC doesn't justify himself solely on the amount of work he's done, but he's certainly safe from _your_ attacks, on that score.
Amazing doesn't begin to explain it, considering the ruthless demand for IT-savvy labor in this and nearly every other developed nation. No doubt Rasterman is being fabulously compensated for his work, and the situation was probably no different at RedHat.
It's startling to see so much complaining about work conditions in the IT industry. Even a moron like myself can make cash hand over fist and get respectful -- even obsequieous -- phone calls from recruiters as they pass around my modest resume. What's more, the employers I hear from are praising creative expression and friendly work environments.
"Wage slave" is as accurate as it is tasteless. The truth is that we're compensated for our work, and that's how it's supposed to be. The glass is more than half full, I daresay.
It was worse than that, it was stupid and boring. I thought the original Powers was brilliant, funny, and irreverent. The second was so pointless I fell asleep. Fell asleep! I don't remember the second half at all.
Have we ever seen Myers so annoying? Except for his Scottish accent as Fat Bastard (reprising yet another past movie role) he was unfunny in the extreme. C'mon, please, the little silhouette with Heather Graham pounding a tennis racquet into his ***hole was cheap, pandering, at best, to the dirty little man in all of us.
A highly forgettable movie, which is disappointing, considering how it will blemish my memory of the classic original.
There are quite a few DWDM-based technologies within striking distance, many of which are further along than Bell Labs' work. Many of them are startups, and don't have the luxury of immediate disclosure the way Bell Labs does.
I moved from Plano to North Dallas last year; TCI isn't in my area yet, either, so I phoned Southwestern Bell to ask about their Cheetah DSL service. They checked my distance from the local node on the phone, and verified that I was *too far* to get DSL access.
Looks like I'm stuck with my ridiculous 56K connection until I move again.
One would assume that '70k' means seventy kilobits per second, which is 8.75 kilobytes per second. I've never seen data rates that high on a 56K modem, myself, but they're more realistic than the seventy kilobytes you're apparently assuming.
No, I'm sorry, you can't wrap your comments up with a "you don't know what you're talking about" and walk away with that smug smile on your face. I know lots of musicians personally as friends; I've joined them on shopping trips for equipment, lent them money, sat through recording sessions, and listened to their frustrations over a drink or two.
All things considered, I think you're the one who hasn't got a clue what it's all about. I hope you fall in with the right group of artists, but in the meantime it would be good to ask yourself why you chose this path in the first place, rather than something safer? That's something I have to answer myself, as a software developer who doesn't toe the company line.
I know you think you're special, or different, or particularly put-upon. I dunno, go write a song about it or something. You must be one hell of a bluesman.
Good example, that's exactly what I meant. A lot of musicians have forsaken the art in what they do, instead favoring a profane sort of elitism, wrapped up in the sentiment and mysticism of their forbears: "pours out their heart", for instance, which is apparently intended to exclude the hard work done by software authors.
But musicians are not the only ones for whom stereotypes like the above can be effective; increasingly, the "geek" himself has been gaining recognition as a real talent, rather than a workaday grunt. The growing resentment from the "art" establishment is a good sign that things are improving for the geek.
You're the one fooling yourself if you think that musicians somehow work harder and spend more to obtain their skills than, for instance, a skilled software author. Yet some of us actually write software for the good of software because we consider it more akin to an art than to a job.
Maybe it's the ultimate irony that "geeks" who give away software for art's sake are fighting with musical "artists" who can't stand the thought of making beautiful music without being financially compensated.
It's very believable, in a certain sense. As long as Microsoft believes that it could compete at the OS level, it will. If it ceases to believe that, it will compete at a different level. In this case, that might be the productivity software market.
Either way, Microsoft builds consensus where it can win. It's not the sort of company that stubbornly sticks to markets it can't win (the way Apple has repeatedly done, despite myriad opportunities in other markets). The OS + productivity software combo is obviously preferable, but if it can't win that way, I doubt it will wait for the handwriting on the wall.
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> Doesn't he have some work to do?
Of all the silly things to say to someone like Tom Christiansen... do you have any idea how much _work_ TC has done? Do you have any idea how much software TC has contributed?
I'm sure TC doesn't justify himself solely on the amount of work he's done, but he's certainly safe from _your_ attacks, on that score.
MJP
Amazing doesn't begin to explain it, considering the ruthless demand for IT-savvy labor in this and nearly every other developed nation. No doubt Rasterman is being fabulously compensated for his work, and the situation was probably no different at RedHat.
It's startling to see so much complaining about work conditions in the IT industry. Even a moron like myself can make cash hand over fist and get respectful -- even obsequieous -- phone calls from recruiters as they pass around my modest resume. What's more, the employers I hear from are praising creative expression and friendly work environments.
"Wage slave" is as accurate as it is tasteless. The truth is that we're compensated for our work, and that's how it's supposed to be. The glass is more than half full, I daresay.
MJP
It was worse than that, it was stupid and boring. I thought the original Powers was brilliant, funny, and irreverent. The second was so pointless I fell asleep. Fell asleep! I don't remember the second half at all.
Have we ever seen Myers so annoying? Except for his Scottish accent as Fat Bastard (reprising yet another past movie role) he was unfunny in the extreme. C'mon, please, the little silhouette with Heather Graham pounding a tennis racquet into his ***hole was cheap, pandering, at best, to the dirty little man in all of us.
A highly forgettable movie, which is disappointing, considering how it will blemish my memory of the classic original.
MJP
There are quite a few DWDM-based technologies within striking distance, many of which are further along than Bell Labs' work. Many of them are startups, and don't have the luxury of immediate disclosure the way Bell Labs does.
http://www.lightchip.com
I moved from Plano to North Dallas last year; TCI isn't in my area yet, either, so I phoned Southwestern Bell to ask about their Cheetah DSL service. They checked my distance from the local node on the phone, and verified that I was *too far* to get DSL access.
Looks like I'm stuck with my ridiculous 56K connection until I move again.
MJP
One would assume that '70k' means seventy kilobits per second, which is 8.75 kilobytes per second. I've never seen data rates that high on a 56K modem, myself, but they're more realistic than the seventy kilobytes you're apparently assuming.
MJP
No, I'm sorry, you can't wrap your comments up with a "you don't know what you're talking about" and walk away with that smug smile on your face. I know lots of musicians personally as friends; I've joined them on shopping trips for equipment, lent them money, sat through recording sessions, and listened to their frustrations over a drink or two.
All things considered, I think you're the one who hasn't got a clue what it's all about. I hope you fall in with the right group of artists, but in the meantime it would be good to ask yourself why you chose this path in the first place, rather than something safer? That's something I have to answer myself, as a software developer who doesn't toe the company line.
I know you think you're special, or different, or particularly put-upon. I dunno, go write a song about it or something. You must be one hell of a bluesman.
MJP
Good example, that's exactly what I meant. A lot of musicians have forsaken the art in what they do, instead favoring a profane sort of elitism, wrapped up in the sentiment and mysticism of their forbears: "pours out their heart", for instance, which is apparently intended to exclude the hard work done by software authors.
But musicians are not the only ones for whom stereotypes like the above can be effective; increasingly, the "geek" himself has been gaining recognition as a real talent, rather than a workaday grunt. The growing resentment from the "art" establishment is a good sign that things are improving for the geek.
MJP
You're the one fooling yourself if you think that musicians somehow work harder and spend more to obtain their skills than, for instance, a skilled software author. Yet some of us actually write software for the good of software because we consider it more akin to an art than to a job.
Maybe it's the ultimate irony that "geeks" who give away software for art's sake are fighting with musical "artists" who can't stand the thought of making beautiful music without being financially compensated.
MJP
It's very believable, in a certain sense. As long as Microsoft believes that it could compete at the OS level, it will. If it ceases to believe that, it will compete at a different level. In this case, that might be the productivity software market.
Either way, Microsoft builds consensus where it can win. It's not the sort of company that stubbornly sticks to markets it can't win (the way Apple has repeatedly done, despite myriad opportunities in other markets). The OS + productivity software combo is obviously preferable, but if it can't win that way, I doubt it will wait for the handwriting on the wall.
MJP