As a potential customer who had reservation for the Lake Express on August 16 (one of the days they cancelled), I say they deserve some bad press.
Just by dumb luck I checked the website to find more detailed directions to the Milwaukee dock, and barely saw the announcement on their homepage about the cancellations. I have yet to receive any email or phone call about our cancelled trip. (We did get a refund)
We were able to reroute our vacation plans to drive around the UP and take the SS Badger on the return trip. I can't imagine how terrible that vaction would have become if we'd gotten to Milwaukee to find out about the problems. Travelling with a 3 and 5 year old, suddenly having to drive around the lake through Chicago... (as a point of reference, the trip across the lake is 60-70 miles, but going around is more like 5-7 hours, depending on rush hour)
As a counterbalance, my father has used each ferry several times, running into delays on the Lake Express more than once. But given his bad luck, the last time he took the Badger, was the 1 trip in something like 4 years that they had mechanical problems.
Anyway, we are now faithful to the Badger from now on.
Or, think of how the airlines will use this to their pocket book advantage: When flights get cancelled they comp you a room while waiting for the next flight. Now they can meet their obligation with these little boxes rather than putting you up in a real room. God forbid you actually want the larger room, now _you_ can foot the difference.
Although I suppose it is in keeping with the below average real estate they give your butt and knees while you're flying...
That's because Apple is a hardware company. The only people that can steal their software are the same people who already bought the hardware. And Apple made money from those people already, and will make more money from them the next time they buy a hardware upgrade.
If Apple were to get draconion with product registration, people would be inclined to find a more convenient computing platform, and that would deprive Apple of hardware sales.
As it is, the costs for OS updates are simply a way to keep the initial sticker price of their hardware inline with the wintel world. If OSX was true profit center for Apple, they wouldn't give away 5 license family packs for less than the price of 2 single copies.
And I don't regret any of it: my family has legal licenses of panther on 3 laptops and a G5
"There are three major things every consumer and user of computers needs to do," Scott Charney, the security chief for Microsoft, said. "One, get antivirus software and keep it up to date. [...]"
I think this spin is one of the biggest problems with the public perception of computer security.
I find it appalling that we tolerate anti-virus software as a necessary solution. IMO, every virus is an exploitation of a bug in the software, and original vendor should be responsible for fixing the hole that allowed the virus to exist.
Why doesn't the press focus on the hypocrisy holding of software vendors more accountable for fixing their problems, while at the same time, advocating supporting a third part to fix the same problems?
I about blew my top when fixing my in-laws' machine for a case of blaster, and MS so "conveniently" linked one of the trusted anti-virus sites that offered removal tools. If it's microsoft's hole, why don't they provide a cleanup method?
(This is not to say we shouldn't have virus filters on SMTP and firewalls - there's nothing wrong with trying to block the spread of virii through multiple means)
I got a great explanation from my future sister-in-law who teaches 3rd grade.
The point of cursive is not the actual letters, but the practice in fine-grained motor control. For little-people hands, getting that amount of coordination pays off in many other skills.
I'll be the first post to bet is that this is a hoax. A nicely executed one by someone that wants to have fodder against the mac fans, but nonetheless, not something that is in apple's best interest.
My first thought on reading the title was that they figured out how to make the phone a wireless mouse for your laptop/desktop. That would be cool - your cell is always laying on the desk, what if you could just move it around and throw away your your old tethered mouse? Less desktop clutter!
I am extremely frightened for the future of the computing world as dominated by Microsoft. As I started debating 6 months ago what I could do to help unseat the operating system stranglehold they maintain, it came down to voting with my dollars.
I had a choice, I could buy into the OSX world (a nontrivial investment), or I could build an x86 base machine and install Linux. Where would I make the most difference? By buying an apple and OSX, I would support the only currently viable competitor to Microsoft in the consumer space. (If you want to argue that point, come back and talk to me when I can go to a national consumer electronics chain and buy a preconfigured linux machine off the shelf.)
Here's the thing that's liable to get me modded as flamebait. I considered Linux to be a much smaller vote against Microsoft than buying Apple. Not just because I would spend more money on the OSX vote, but because most of the money I would spend in the Linux choice goes to the hardware. I really wonder in the popular press how much they distinguish sale of Intel boxen from sale of Microsoft operating systems.
To really contribute to the vote against microsoft in the LInux space, you need to contribute to open software. I can code, but I want to do other things with my computer time than make my computer run. A weak analogy: not everyone feels the calling to be in the Peace Corps, but most of us can contribute some money to the people who do. Good things get done both ways.
Bottom line, by buying an intel box without an MS operating system, I'm taking a way a few dollars from their bottom line. By buying apple, I'm putting a much larger amount in the hands of a competitor.
An alternative, getting closer to a monetary apples vs apples instead of apples vs oranges (no pun intended), would be to buy the intel box and send a $1000 donation to the FSF. However, as in politics, a significant part of the process is evangelizing. As I talk with my friends and family, if I told them I made a non-trivial donation an open source foundation to balance my purchase of the hardware, they would rank me a crazy idealist. But if I show them the beautiful platform that they can get with an Apple, they might give it some thought.
So that's a big chunk of why OS X got my vote over Linux.
Ok, I'll clarify. It's known that a small percentage of users use a disproportionate amount of the bandwidth.
Without that top 5% of users, ISPs could support a much higher number of users per Mbit/second. They are faced with spreading their costs for this top 5% over everyone.
The 95% of us that don't use excessive amounts of bandwidth would rather not shoulder that additional cost. I would happily pay a reasonable fees for metered bandwidth so that my expenses are comparable to my usage. For the 5% that want to transfer gigs of data, let them pay for it.
Compare it to cell phones. The naive wish is for unlimited usage. Many plans exist that offer "virtually unlimited" options (1000 minutes/month? I certainly don't talk on the phone for 16 hours a month), but then we'd all pay $50/month for cells, instead of being able to get a basic plan for $15.
If you wish for unlimited unrestricted use, your costs WILL go up. Metering is the only way to let people some get in the door for less.
Per this thread, the cable companies are mistakenly assuming that VPN users are in that top 5%.
Actually, in many places you do pay extra for the bus/train/toll. Rates are often higher during rush hours, so even if you want to do some personal errand, you're going to pay more.
Charging more for VPN is a crude measurement, but the logic is if you're using a VPN, you're probably using more bandwidth.
We all wish for metered bandwidth but ignorant consumers are scared of that scheme because they don't know what 5G a month is. Until that is resolved, we have to live with these blunt tools.
-benJ
Passenger jets as bombs
on
The Year In Ideas
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
When I think of the last year and ideas that are "conceptual swerves... that mattered this year and may well continue to matter in years to come", I think of the idea of taking passenger jets, and viewing them as big bombs. They have navigation systems, a destructive payload (mass and jet fuel), and very few places in the world have defences against them.
It sure changed the perspectives of millions of people, lot the least of which includes the thousands in the direct application of the idea.
We shouldn't limit the list of ideas to humanitarian advances.
I'm surprised by the number of people bashing telecommuting, claiming "I wouldn't like it," or the harping the conspiracy theory of getting people to work more.
The trend reports are all well and good, but predicting X million telecommuters by 200X makes people think that everyone is going to working out of their homes in the future. This is NOT the case.
Telecommuting is not for everyone. If you're an extrovert or other social creature, stay at the office. (And don't you dare draw a corollary, that telecommuters are social outcasts.) If you don't like telecommuting, don't do it, but don't shoot down the option for people who it is good for.
Now for my experience: I recently moved 200 miles out of the metro. I work for a company that values people and their work/life balance. My boss is incrediblely supportive of the arrangements.
My drive to work is 3.5 hours each way, but I only have to do that once every 3-4 weeks. Even if I had to come in every other week, it's the same amount of time in the car as living in the city. Plus, since my official place of work is home, I get to submit mileage.
As for being out of touch for knowledge sharing and networking, I'm in better contact with people than I was at the office. Instant Messaging is a crucial tool to combat this.
I keep regular work hours. By the time 5pm rolls around, I've been coding all day, and I'm ready to QUIT. When you're so productive without the distractions, you don't need the long hours to get the same quantity of work done.
At the office, lunch was a productive time - I'd eat hunched at my desk glad that the phone and email deluge tapered off. Then I'd keep working all afternoon and wonder why I feel burnt out. At home, I get a good meal, and a wonderful mental break that prepares me for the afternoon efforts. If it's nice weather, I can take the dogs for a walk in the woods.
If you want telecommuting, pursue it. If you don't, stay out of the way of the people that do. It's paradise for some, but not the end of the world for others.
Slashdot Mirror
As a potential customer who had reservation for the Lake Express on August 16 (one of the days they cancelled), I say they deserve some bad press.
Just by dumb luck I checked the website to find more detailed directions to the Milwaukee dock, and barely saw the announcement on their homepage about the cancellations. I have yet to receive any email or phone call about our cancelled trip. (We did get a refund)
We were able to reroute our vacation plans to drive around the UP and take the SS Badger on the return trip. I can't imagine how terrible that vaction would have become if we'd gotten to Milwaukee to find out about the problems. Travelling with a 3 and 5 year old, suddenly having to drive around the lake through Chicago... (as a point of reference, the trip across the lake is 60-70 miles, but going around is more like 5-7 hours, depending on rush hour)
As a counterbalance, my father has used each ferry several times, running into delays on the Lake Express more than once. But given his bad luck, the last time he took the Badger, was the 1 trip in something like 4 years that they had mechanical problems.
Anyway, we are now faithful to the Badger from now on.
Or, think of how the airlines will use this to their pocket book advantage: When flights get cancelled they comp you a room while waiting for the next flight. Now they can meet their obligation with these little boxes rather than putting you up in a real room. God forbid you actually want the larger room, now _you_ can foot the difference.
Although I suppose it is in keeping with the below average real estate they give your butt and knees while you're flying...
That's because Apple is a hardware company. The only people that can steal their software are the same people who already bought the hardware. And Apple made money from those people already, and will make more money from them the next time they buy a hardware upgrade.
If Apple were to get draconion with product registration, people would be inclined to find a more convenient computing platform, and that would deprive Apple of hardware sales.
As it is, the costs for OS updates are simply a way to keep the initial sticker price of their hardware inline with the wintel world. If OSX was true profit center for Apple, they wouldn't give away 5 license family packs for less than the price of 2 single copies.
And I don't regret any of it: my family has legal licenses of panther on 3 laptops and a G5
I find it appalling that we tolerate anti-virus software as a necessary solution. IMO, every virus is an exploitation of a bug in the software, and original vendor should be responsible for fixing the hole that allowed the virus to exist.
Why doesn't the press focus on the hypocrisy holding of software vendors more accountable for fixing their problems, while at the same time, advocating supporting a third part to fix the same problems?
I about blew my top when fixing my in-laws' machine for a case of blaster, and MS so "conveniently" linked one of the trusted anti-virus sites that offered removal tools. If it's microsoft's hole, why don't they provide a cleanup method?
(This is not to say we shouldn't have virus filters on SMTP and firewalls - there's nothing wrong with trying to block the spread of virii through multiple means)
I got a great explanation from my future sister-in-law who teaches 3rd grade.
The point of cursive is not the actual letters, but the practice in fine-grained motor control. For little-people hands, getting that amount of coordination pays off in many other skills.
I'll be the first post to bet is that this is a hoax. A nicely executed one by someone that wants to have fodder against the mac fans, but nonetheless, not something that is in apple's best interest.
My first thought on reading the title was that they figured out how to make the phone a wireless mouse for your laptop/desktop. That would be cool - your cell is always laying on the desk, what if you could just move it around and throw away your your old tethered mouse? Less desktop clutter!
I am extremely frightened for the future of the computing world as dominated by Microsoft. As I started debating 6 months ago what I could do to help unseat the operating system stranglehold they maintain, it came down to voting with my dollars.
I had a choice, I could buy into the OSX world (a nontrivial investment), or I could build an x86 base machine and install Linux. Where would I make the most difference? By buying an apple and OSX, I would support the only currently viable competitor to Microsoft in the consumer space. (If you want to argue that point, come back and talk to me when I can go to a national consumer electronics chain and buy a preconfigured linux machine off the shelf.)
Here's the thing that's liable to get me modded as flamebait. I considered Linux to be a much smaller vote against Microsoft than buying Apple. Not just because I would spend more money on the OSX vote, but because most of the money I would spend in the Linux choice goes to the hardware. I really wonder in the popular press how much they distinguish sale of Intel boxen from sale of Microsoft operating systems.
To really contribute to the vote against microsoft in the LInux space, you need to contribute to open software. I can code, but I want to do other things with my computer time than make my computer run. A weak analogy: not everyone feels the calling to be in the Peace Corps, but most of us can contribute some money to the people who do. Good things get done both ways.
Bottom line, by buying an intel box without an MS operating system, I'm taking a way a few dollars from their bottom line. By buying apple, I'm putting a much larger amount in the hands of a competitor.
An alternative, getting closer to a monetary apples vs apples instead of apples vs oranges (no pun intended), would be to buy the intel box and send a $1000 donation to the FSF. However, as in politics, a significant part of the process is evangelizing. As I talk with my friends and family, if I told them I made a non-trivial donation an open source foundation to balance my purchase of the hardware, they would rank me a crazy idealist. But if I show them the beautiful platform that they can get with an Apple, they might give it some thought.
So that's a big chunk of why OS X got my vote over Linux.
"we all wish for metered bandwidth"
Ok, I'll clarify. It's known that a small percentage of users use a disproportionate amount of the bandwidth.
Without that top 5% of users, ISPs could support a much higher number of users per Mbit/second. They are faced with spreading their costs for this top 5% over everyone.
The 95% of us that don't use excessive amounts of bandwidth would rather not shoulder that additional cost. I would happily pay a reasonable fees for metered bandwidth so that my expenses are comparable to my usage. For the 5% that want to transfer gigs of data, let them pay for it.
Compare it to cell phones. The naive wish is for unlimited usage. Many plans exist that offer "virtually unlimited" options (1000 minutes/month? I certainly don't talk on the phone for 16 hours a month), but then we'd all pay $50/month for cells, instead of being able to get a basic plan for $15.
If you wish for unlimited unrestricted use, your costs WILL go up. Metering is the only way to let people some get in the door for less.
Per this thread, the cable companies are mistakenly assuming that VPN users are in that top 5%.
Actually, in many places you do pay extra for the bus/train/toll. Rates are often higher during rush hours, so even if you want to do some personal errand, you're going to pay more.
Charging more for VPN is a crude measurement, but the logic is if you're using a VPN, you're probably using more bandwidth.
We all wish for metered bandwidth but ignorant consumers are scared of that scheme because they don't know what 5G a month is. Until that is resolved, we have to live with these blunt tools.
-benJ
When I think of the last year and ideas that are "conceptual swerves ... that mattered this year and may well continue to matter in years to come", I think of the idea of taking passenger jets, and viewing them as big bombs. They have navigation systems, a destructive payload (mass and jet fuel), and very few places in the world have defences against them.
It sure changed the perspectives of millions of people, lot the least of which includes the thousands in the direct application of the idea.
We shouldn't limit the list of ideas to humanitarian advances.
-benJ
The Dreams Our Stuff is Made Of, by Thomas Disch. A nice coverage of classic sci-fi and the products, culture, philosophies it has influenced.
I'm surprised by the number of people bashing telecommuting, claiming "I wouldn't like it," or the harping the conspiracy theory of getting people to work more.
The trend reports are all well and good, but predicting X million telecommuters by 200X makes people think that everyone is going to working out of their homes in the future. This is NOT the case.
Telecommuting is not for everyone. If you're an extrovert or other social creature, stay at the office. (And don't you dare draw a corollary, that telecommuters are social outcasts.) If you don't like telecommuting, don't do it, but don't shoot down the option for people who it is good for.
Now for my experience: I recently moved 200 miles out of the metro. I work for a company that values people and their work/life balance. My boss is incrediblely supportive of the arrangements.
My drive to work is 3.5 hours each way, but I only have to do that once every 3-4 weeks. Even if I had to come in every other week, it's the same amount of time in the car as living in the city. Plus, since my official place of work is home, I get to submit mileage.
As for being out of touch for knowledge sharing and networking, I'm in better contact with people than I was at the office. Instant Messaging is a crucial tool to combat this.
I keep regular work hours. By the time 5pm rolls around, I've been coding all day, and I'm ready to QUIT. When you're so productive without the distractions, you don't need the long hours to get the same quantity of work done.
At the office, lunch was a productive time - I'd eat hunched at my desk glad that the phone and email deluge tapered off. Then I'd keep working all afternoon and wonder why I feel burnt out. At home, I get a good meal, and a wonderful mental break that prepares me for the afternoon efforts. If it's nice weather, I can take the dogs for a walk in the woods.
If you want telecommuting, pursue it. If you don't, stay out of the way of the people that do. It's paradise for some, but not the end of the world for others.