You used a Mac for only one day and you "hated it"? That's insane. Do you think if you had never ever used Windows or Linux before, and had only one day on it, that you would be productive on that very first day? I don't know about you, but if I add up all the time I'm spent over the years learning all the things I know how to do in Windows, it's probably a few man-months.
I have used computers since the mid 80s. I have experience with many different kinds. During one of my jobs I learned to use Tandem's Guardian OS. (talk about learning to HATE an OS!) You are right, I went in with high expectations. All I had heard was how great OS X was, from techie people even. I never liked Macs all that much, so I was hoping it was different. It was, and it wasn't. I WANTED to like it, I tried to like it. I just couldn't. Having experience with computers allows me to know inherently what I need to do on them, and how they work. From the stupidly-brain-dead-treat-me-like-a-moron Windows, to you-had-damn-well-better-know-the-CLI Linux. Macs just confuse the crap out of me. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to browse our network at work. Maybe the thing wasn't configured properly for that, but I could get to websites on the net.
I guess I had heard that "it just works" so many times I actually believed it. I hate dragging and dropping. I don't like holding down the mouse buttons all the time. I just got really annoyed. It didn't seem like a challenge to me, it seemed like the damn thing was deliberately trying to confuse me. Good for those people who love them, I just don't get it.
What gets my fucking goat is all the assholes who are saying "oh well, what did you fucking expect based on where you live? Fuck em". They aren't joking, they aren't using "coping mechanisms". They are just cold-hearted fucktards who could give a crap about anything in life that doesn't directly affect them. Douchebags.
It is absolutely a sad, horrible, tragic thing that happened. And EVERYONE knew it would happen someday. It was a certainty. I visited New Orleans in '99, and I heard several times on a couple of different tours that the city was slowly sinking. The highest point in the entire city is just a few feet above sea-level. How they spend tons of money every year to pump the water off the land.
I am NOT saying they deserve it, but this was by no means a surprise. People knew this was coming, they just didn't think it would come now. Everyone was told "evacuate the city". Granted, some couldn't. But some said "We've seen this before, we aren't going anywhere".
Yeah, there will be asshats who will take a hard-line stance because they have no empathy or common decency. But I don't think ANYONE is surprised that this happened. It is an absolute tragedy. And when this is all over, if they try to rebuild New Orleans where it stands, they should have their asses kicked.
A Windows PCs is perfectly capable of running just fine without having to "tweak" the registry.
That's, um, sorta why it's called a "tweak", 'cause it's not necessary.
Until something changes. I have a Win98 machine at home that ran fine for years. I installed an updated video driver, and it freaked out. It took me weeks of uninstalling, reinstalling, and messing with that driver before it was stable again. And that was just a video driver. I haven't really touched that machine since. (It only gets booted when I want to play a game, or to do some DVD burning)
My rule of thumb with computers is that if it is stable, don't mess with it. Change seems to be the enemy of stability. It happens with Linux too, but I have found it to be harder to correct with Windows.
I'm guessing you brought a LOT of bais to that test.
Of course I did. I understand things in a certain way, that is how my brain works. OS X is hard *for me* to learn. My point on that thread was that it isn't simple for everyone. There seems to be a general belief that it is. I am just saying it isn't easy for me.
Actually, I find OS X the most difficult to use at times probably because it's the most "different" for me.
I have never been a Mac person. I just don't get it. Then OS X came out, and all I heard was how awesome it was. More unixy? Sounds good. I went into an Apple store in a mall where they had all the cool, shiny goodness. I played with it for a while. Hated it. Frustrating. It didn't make any sense to me. A couple of years later, and I acquired a Mac at work as a test machine. My machine was down for a day for some new hardware, so I used the Mac. Horrible, unproductive day. To me, that intuitive interface is like trying to pound nails with a carrot. A bright, shiny, pretty carrot, but just a carrot.
I am not bashing it, I am just saying it isn't for me. And I hope that I am not the only one out there.
I really doubt that anyone *needs* to edit their registry ever.
I have had to edit the registry many many times. Normally it is to tweak something that Windows doesn't want me to tweak, or to remove programs that Windows won't let me remove. Or to eliminate spyware and crap that inherently collects on a Windows machine.
Does this mean we might actually get some good new spices, once they start playing around with modifying existing ones somewhat gastronomically scientifically?
Do you really need more spices? Have you explored all the ones that we currenly have? I highly doubt it.
I love experimenting with different spices, but most of the time kosher salt and freshly ground pepper are all that you need.
I second your post. When it comes to server apps, *nix-based apps are golden and great for admins like me. But you will never catch me on a *nix workstation for the exact reason you have listed.
I want to be clear though. I use Linux at home, and have for years. It is quite capable, and I like it much better than Windows. But that is me. *IF* people want Linux to be more generally accepted, then they need to think of the user interface and experience. Not as a techie would, but as a general user would.
Now having said that, I don't necessarily think that it is, or should be, the "goal" of Linux to be a generally accepted OS. I would personally prefer if it remained more technical than the other OSes out there. For some reason, I don't find the Mac interface very usable. It just doesn't work for me. Windows a little less so, but maybe just because I have used it more.
And I think it also needs to be pointed out that Open Source apps don't necessarily equate to Linux. Open Office and Gimp are two good examples, because they are open and run on Windows as well as Linux.
I am by no means a fan of MS Office. But some of the big selling points with OO are because it does things a little more intuitively than MS Office. Yet, whenever "intuitiveness" is brought up with nearly every other app in Linux, people are told to RTFM, and "learn how it works, n00b".
Hmm, so which is it? If I ever bring up usability when it comes to Linux apss, I get lambasted (probably by people that weren't even born when I got into the computer game). So next time you tell someone to RTFM, ask yourself if there is a way to make that app a little better so they don't have to RTFM.
I think you're a bit out of line here. You're saying this guy's lack of interest in remote exploration of Mars is part of the problem with this country? As much as this stuff excites a geek like me, it's pretty wrongheaded to assume that someone is stupid because they're not interested in the same things as you.
Not exactly. If he said "I don't care about space exploration, I think it is a waste of money." I could have taken that as reasonable opinion. However, when the poster says this:
They need to excite the public, not continue the ho-hum exploration for the elusive "Martian Single-Cell Alien." The public wants Buck Rogers or Star Trek, not another Mars rover. Bleh!
THAT is a stupid statement. The American public is ignorant of science. The public should boost their knowledge, science shouldn't be dumbed down. Does anyone actually comprehend what it takes to put a freakin rover on Mars, let alone have it operate for about 3x longer than they had anticipated? The potential discovery of life on another planet is "ho-hum"? That reeks of ignorance - and not just plain ignorance, the kind where the ignorant try to defend their ignorance with stupid statements.
It is this kind of vapid mentality that is becoming more and more pervasive in this country. It shows EVERY DAY. I am getting sick of it.
Your personal reasons for feeling that space travel is vital to humanity might be at odds with Joe Beatnik who thinks that money would better enrich our people by funding art projects.
That's a totally different question. The fact of the matter is, NASA did something that nobody else in the history of (our) mankind has ever done. That is such an achievement in and of itself. We don't know what finding life on Mars would do. Some of it does seem like a pointless endeavor, just as digging up dinosaur bones is rather pointless. All it does is.... answer questions. Real, deep questions that affect us all. Think of the difference in the publicity given to the Mars rover, and the publicity given to Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston breaking up.
What was the point of going to the moon? To do it. We didn't understand the impacts of space travel at the time. But you can certainly do a little looking to find out what has come out of it. That is like asking "What is the point of reasearch?" If you don't understand why research is important, then you are very short-sighted. All you have to do is look at some significant accomplishments, and trace it backwards to where it came from. Chances are, there was some research along the way. How do you think the internet came about? Think it just popped up one day? What will our current research produce in the future? The point is - we don't know. Yet.
Let's try an alternate reading:
The doctor, Philip Mach, had a license to practice medicine in New Jersey but he 1: provided prescriptions to people throughout the United States 2: without ever evaluating them, both of which are big no-no's.
Better?
If it was written correctly, there would be only 1 way to read it. (and the way you reworded it isn't written correctly either.)
Part of me is tired of this whole "search for life on Mars" saga. What type of life are they talking about? An Amoeba? Oh boy, goodie goodie...Yay!
Which part of you, the stupid part or the apathetic part? (I realize this comment may get moderators panties in a bunch, but it had to be said)
I'm not flaming, rather frustrated. I mean if we already *know* (or have a strong feeling) there is water/ ice on Mars, then lets get the plans going for a Manned space mission in-the-works. They need to excite the public, not continue the ho-hum exploration for the elusive "Martian Single-Cell Alien." The public wants Buck Rogers or Star Trek, not another Mars rover. Bleh!
Then why don't you go watch MTV or E! or other drivel that can just barely keep you interested for the entirety of your 2 minute attention span. Yeah, let's not have another Mars rover, one of the most fantastic scientific achievements in space exploration in recent history. I am not even going to go into WHY that was such an amazing feat, it would be lost on you.
Your attitude is part of the problem with this country. I am starting to believe that old myth that some people only use 10% of their brains.
One removable hard drive.
Password protection in the BIOS.
One CD-ROM drive, no burner
No floppy drive
Remove any data transfer ports (USB, serial, network). If they can't be removed, don't just disable them via software, disable them via hardware. I am sure there are lockdown mechanisms out there, but superglue and old connectors, along with tamper stickers should suffice.
The only thing I can see that you would also need would be the ability to back up the work somehow. But you wouldn't want it to be portable to prevent unauthorized access. Maybe offline backups of the removable drive? (I assume there will be strict procedures around removing and connecting the drive, and it will be stored somewhere secure) However, if you don't have the computer networkable, and you can physically lock down the machine, it might be better to have a redundant drive system that isn't removable.
Obviously hoarding engineers and paying them well is something that the rest of the industry isn't doing so why shouldn't they resent Google?
They are probably resented because companies were able to keep good people with the FUD of "we're sorry there are no raises this year, but the economy is down. It's like that everywhere." I was told this. I was told it's a bad job market (which it was). That I was "lucky to have my job". Many people will keep lapping that up, but I went out and looked, and eventually took another job. When I left, I told my boss "Gee, I guess there are other jobs out there."
Companies will treat their employees like crap as long as they can get away with it. The grass may not be greener at Google, but it might be a different variety of grass.
There is nothing like classic video games and pinballs. MAME is great, but still can't capture it completely. I am glad I got to grow up during the great era of arcades.
Someone loses photos of their kid, and it ranks in the top 10 data recovery disasters? The whole list sounds like someone with no imagination made it up.
Microsoft makes money by providing Spam filtering and by suing spammers under CAN-SPAM. Anybody that expects Microsoft to be in favor of anything that reduces one or more of their revenue streams is obviously delusional.
Not to mention that if people weren't so concerned about SPAM, they might start to worry about the security of their OS.
What? New worm hit the internet? AHH! LOOK OVER THERE!!! SPAM!!!!
At work, I got extremely tired of a bug I am seeing with Windows. When I log in, explorer crashes, so the system is essentially dead. In order to get around this, I have to unplug my ethernet cable, log in, then once explorer starts I plug it back in. I have even reinstalled XP, same issue.
So I took my machine home over the weekend and installed FC4 on it. I run Mandrake at home, but our whole dev team uses FC4. In order to have a common user-base, I thought I'd try it out. I have a 2nd disk in the machine, and installed it to it. I found an excellent step-by-step guide on how to do this. Of course, the FC4 installer screwed that up. It never asked me to create a boot floppy. So after installing, there was no way to get into Linux. After f'ing with it for about 1/2 hour, I thought maybe I missed that option during the install. Installed it again, same thing. Knoppix to the rescue. Booted in, created a boot file, copied it to the Windows drive, and all was good.
Then I bring it back into work this morning, and go to configure it with dual displays (I have dual 21" LCDs) I have configured dual displays before at home, and it wasn't too bad. Of course, with FC4 it just doesn't work. X config looks good, it just don't want to bring up the 2nd display. I prefer KDE, so I have that as my desktop. Then I notice that the Configure option is missing from my Kmenu. (the red wrench icon) It is just GONE. One minute it was there, the next it was just not.
I quit using Redhat after 7.3, because they started monkeying with everything. I hate bluecurve, but understand the need for it (in concept). But let me run straight KDE! All the other developers here use dual-displays, but they have Nvidia cards and use their dual-display software. Since I don't have an Nvidia card, and since I had used Xinerama before, I thought it would be a snap.
So now in order to get work done, I have to boot into Windows (and get around that ANNOYING login issue). Yay! I have 1 machine with 2 crippled OSes installed on it. I prefer to use Linux so I will eventually get it working and have it be my main OS (running XP via VMWare). But I can't imagine being unfamiliar with Linux and trying to get it working and usable. At least I have a chance of getting Linux working the way I want, I have given up on Windows.
It was chaos. The first people who started running, I don't know what they were thinking, but after that, you HAD to run. There is just something about 12,000 people running at you from behind that kind of makes you run away.
Funny. Posted story said 1,000 people (which didn't make sense because there were 1,000 laptops, and there wouldn't be a riot), then someone else posted that there were 3,000 people. Now you say 12,000 people. I wonder how long before we hear about the "million moron imarch". And they were new Mac G7s with 30" displays, and they were $1. And Bill Gates was autographing them "Sorry my products aren't this good -Bill"
Its not video games, piracy, sequels, or crappy movies which are killing them, its DVD and home movie theatres. Why the hell would I want to see a movie in a theatre when I have a system at home with better audio, better video, no screaming idiots, no cell phones, and yay, the floor isn't sticky!
The emperor has no clothes.
What they don't realize, and the record industry too, is that we don't need them. We want them. We WANT them to produce good movies, we really really do. But I don't need to put up with all the crap to see them. I can wait until it comes out on DVD. And even if there is a movie I want to see, but am not willing to risk seeing it in the theater, and for some reason I don't rent it when it comes out on DVD, I am still OK.
See, they have tried to create this idea that we HAVE TO SEE THIS MOVIE!!! Even though it hasn't been released yet, all these people are quoted as saying it is "the best movie this year". It's a blockbuster, a movie event, a must see, something I can't afford to miss. You know what - they are full of shit. All it takes is seeing one over-hyped shitty movie for me to take notice. Look around, at TV, radio, etc. Everything is over-hyped. That "hit new series" on TV, that "television event", that "critically acclaimed" whatever - it is all BS. Nothing is genuine. It's all about getting money in the first two weekends. Pump and dump. Some Disney commercial for one of their pathetic animated movies said something to the effect that "if you have only seen this movie once, you haven't seen anything!" Oh, so now we have to watch it more than once in the theater?
Was in Blockbuster the other day. There was a rack that was 1/2 full of some "new release" that was a knockoff, straight-to-video movie. The title, cover, and premise was similar to some popular movie. It was obvious that the company had simply purchased the space on the rack. There was NO WAY that they needed 40 copies of that movie. But sure enough, some dope walked up and said "this looks good" and took one. It's all about catering to those who are distracted by shiny, pretty objects.
The thing is, people will hopefully eventually wake up. It happened with the record industry. Stuff they are releasing and pushing follows the formula to the letter - and people are sick of it. Back in the late 90s, when digital music was taking off, they had a real opportunity to tap into a known solid market by offering music digitally. People were screaming for it, and that screaming took the voice of Napster. Here we are 6 or 7 years later, and they are still fighting the digital music format. They create this aura of "you HAVE to have this!" Now now now! Get it before it is gone... Well, you created this culture of "gotta have it now", so why are you surprised that we aren't going to sit on our asses and wait for 10 or 15 years for you to figure out how to offer music digitally? The movie industry lives on hype, so they shall die by it. You'll push and push, even though people don't want a half hour of advertising before movies, you'll cram it down our throats anyway, won't you? You'll buy good movie reviews. You'll spend a big chunk of your budget on advertising and marketing, then wonder why people won't see your latest rehashed tripe. As soon as you hit on something that works, you will turn it into a formula and start force-feeding it. Then question why people aren't going to the theater as much?
and, above all, i want to be able to maintain sessions on a lot of sites. increasintly, if you don't have cookies, holding a session is impossible (unique id's on the getline are going the way of the dodo) and, increasingly, sites want you to maintain sessions to do anything useful.
Another example of shopping sites: if you add things to your cart, and come back to the site later, you can keep your cart if you have cookies enabled. That is a great convenience for shoppers. We do this at the ecommerce company I work for. There is no personal information in the cookie, just product data. One of our clients even recently asked for us to increase the life of the cookie from 7 to 30 days.
We can gather data on your purchases without cookies anyway. And as much as people want to think that Big Brother is always doing malicious things with their purchase info, sometimes they don't. We used Omniture tracking too. It is really quite amazing, you can track clicks, time on the page, and paths through the site. You can't, however, track it to a person (at least in our system). We had a client that was concerned about sales, and by looking through the Omniture data we came up with a plan to redesign the site. It helped to understand how the current client base was using the site, and how it could be improved.
it may work much better as a chick-magnet than you think. Any "chick" that goes "WoW! Debian too!", and means it - is a keeper.
Hmm, not sure about that. My wife is impressed with all my computer skillz because she isn't into computers that much. All I need is a wife who knows how to compile a kernel taunting me because she is running a newer version that I am.
The perfect "barbie" filter if you will.
I am pretty sure being a geek is a barbie filter in and of itself.
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I have used computers since the mid 80s. I have experience with many different kinds. During one of my jobs I learned to use Tandem's Guardian OS. (talk about learning to HATE an OS!) You are right, I went in with high expectations. All I had heard was how great OS X was, from techie people even. I never liked Macs all that much, so I was hoping it was different. It was, and it wasn't. I WANTED to like it, I tried to like it. I just couldn't. Having experience with computers allows me to know inherently what I need to do on them, and how they work. From the stupidly-brain-dead-treat-me-like-a-moron Windows, to you-had-damn-well-better-know-the-CLI Linux. Macs just confuse the crap out of me. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to browse our network at work. Maybe the thing wasn't configured properly for that, but I could get to websites on the net.
I guess I had heard that "it just works" so many times I actually believed it. I hate dragging and dropping. I don't like holding down the mouse buttons all the time. I just got really annoyed. It didn't seem like a challenge to me, it seemed like the damn thing was deliberately trying to confuse me. Good for those people who love them, I just don't get it.
It is absolutely a sad, horrible, tragic thing that happened. And EVERYONE knew it would happen someday. It was a certainty. I visited New Orleans in '99, and I heard several times on a couple of different tours that the city was slowly sinking. The highest point in the entire city is just a few feet above sea-level. How they spend tons of money every year to pump the water off the land.
I am NOT saying they deserve it, but this was by no means a surprise. People knew this was coming, they just didn't think it would come now. Everyone was told "evacuate the city". Granted, some couldn't. But some said "We've seen this before, we aren't going anywhere".
Yeah, there will be asshats who will take a hard-line stance because they have no empathy or common decency. But I don't think ANYONE is surprised that this happened. It is an absolute tragedy. And when this is all over, if they try to rebuild New Orleans where it stands, they should have their asses kicked.
Until something changes. I have a Win98 machine at home that ran fine for years. I installed an updated video driver, and it freaked out. It took me weeks of uninstalling, reinstalling, and messing with that driver before it was stable again. And that was just a video driver. I haven't really touched that machine since. (It only gets booted when I want to play a game, or to do some DVD burning)
My rule of thumb with computers is that if it is stable, don't mess with it. Change seems to be the enemy of stability. It happens with Linux too, but I have found it to be harder to correct with Windows.
I'm guessing you brought a LOT of bais to that test.
Of course I did. I understand things in a certain way, that is how my brain works. OS X is hard *for me* to learn. My point on that thread was that it isn't simple for everyone. There seems to be a general belief that it is. I am just saying it isn't easy for me.
I have never been a Mac person. I just don't get it. Then OS X came out, and all I heard was how awesome it was. More unixy? Sounds good. I went into an Apple store in a mall where they had all the cool, shiny goodness. I played with it for a while. Hated it. Frustrating. It didn't make any sense to me. A couple of years later, and I acquired a Mac at work as a test machine. My machine was down for a day for some new hardware, so I used the Mac. Horrible, unproductive day. To me, that intuitive interface is like trying to pound nails with a carrot. A bright, shiny, pretty carrot, but just a carrot.
I am not bashing it, I am just saying it isn't for me. And I hope that I am not the only one out there.
I have had to edit the registry many many times. Normally it is to tweak something that Windows doesn't want me to tweak, or to remove programs that Windows won't let me remove. Or to eliminate spyware and crap that inherently collects on a Windows machine.
Do you really need more spices? Have you explored all the ones that we currenly have? I highly doubt it.
I love experimenting with different spices, but most of the time kosher salt and freshly ground pepper are all that you need.
I want to be clear though. I use Linux at home, and have for years. It is quite capable, and I like it much better than Windows. But that is me. *IF* people want Linux to be more generally accepted, then they need to think of the user interface and experience. Not as a techie would, but as a general user would.
Now having said that, I don't necessarily think that it is, or should be, the "goal" of Linux to be a generally accepted OS. I would personally prefer if it remained more technical than the other OSes out there. For some reason, I don't find the Mac interface very usable. It just doesn't work for me. Windows a little less so, but maybe just because I have used it more.
And I think it also needs to be pointed out that Open Source apps don't necessarily equate to Linux. Open Office and Gimp are two good examples, because they are open and run on Windows as well as Linux.
Hmm, so which is it? If I ever bring up usability when it comes to Linux apss, I get lambasted (probably by people that weren't even born when I got into the computer game). So next time you tell someone to RTFM, ask yourself if there is a way to make that app a little better so they don't have to RTFM.
Not exactly. If he said "I don't care about space exploration, I think it is a waste of money." I could have taken that as reasonable opinion. However, when the poster says this:
THAT is a stupid statement. The American public is ignorant of science. The public should boost their knowledge, science shouldn't be dumbed down. Does anyone actually comprehend what it takes to put a freakin rover on Mars, let alone have it operate for about 3x longer than they had anticipated? The potential discovery of life on another planet is "ho-hum"? That reeks of ignorance - and not just plain ignorance, the kind where the ignorant try to defend their ignorance with stupid statements.
It is this kind of vapid mentality that is becoming more and more pervasive in this country. It shows EVERY DAY. I am getting sick of it.
Your personal reasons for feeling that space travel is vital to humanity might be at odds with Joe Beatnik who thinks that money would better enrich our people by funding art projects.
That's a totally different question. The fact of the matter is, NASA did something that nobody else in the history of (our) mankind has ever done. That is such an achievement in and of itself. We don't know what finding life on Mars would do. Some of it does seem like a pointless endeavor, just as digging up dinosaur bones is rather pointless. All it does is .... answer questions. Real, deep questions that affect us all. Think of the difference in the publicity given to the Mars rover, and the publicity given to Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston breaking up.
What was the point of going to the moon? To do it. We didn't understand the impacts of space travel at the time. But you can certainly do a little looking to find out what has come out of it. That is like asking "What is the point of reasearch?" If you don't understand why research is important, then you are very short-sighted. All you have to do is look at some significant accomplishments, and trace it backwards to where it came from. Chances are, there was some research along the way. How do you think the internet came about? Think it just popped up one day? What will our current research produce in the future? The point is - we don't know. Yet.
If it was written correctly, there would be only 1 way to read it. (and the way you reworded it isn't written correctly either.)
Which part of you, the stupid part or the apathetic part? (I realize this comment may get moderators panties in a bunch, but it had to be said)
I'm not flaming, rather frustrated. I mean if we already *know* (or have a strong feeling) there is water/ ice on Mars, then lets get the plans going for a Manned space mission in-the-works. They need to excite the public, not continue the ho-hum exploration for the elusive "Martian Single-Cell Alien." The public wants Buck Rogers or Star Trek, not another Mars rover. Bleh!
Then why don't you go watch MTV or E! or other drivel that can just barely keep you interested for the entirety of your 2 minute attention span. Yeah, let's not have another Mars rover, one of the most fantastic scientific achievements in space exploration in recent history. I am not even going to go into WHY that was such an amazing feat, it would be lost on you.
Your attitude is part of the problem with this country. I am starting to believe that old myth that some people only use 10% of their brains.
I think you could have stopped after the first 6 words.
Password protection in the BIOS.
One CD-ROM drive, no burner
No floppy drive
Remove any data transfer ports (USB, serial, network). If they can't be removed, don't just disable them via software, disable them via hardware. I am sure there are lockdown mechanisms out there, but superglue and old connectors, along with tamper stickers should suffice.
The only thing I can see that you would also need would be the ability to back up the work somehow. But you wouldn't want it to be portable to prevent unauthorized access. Maybe offline backups of the removable drive? (I assume there will be strict procedures around removing and connecting the drive, and it will be stored somewhere secure) However, if you don't have the computer networkable, and you can physically lock down the machine, it might be better to have a redundant drive system that isn't removable.
They are probably resented because companies were able to keep good people with the FUD of "we're sorry there are no raises this year, but the economy is down. It's like that everywhere." I was told this. I was told it's a bad job market (which it was). That I was "lucky to have my job". Many people will keep lapping that up, but I went out and looked, and eventually took another job. When I left, I told my boss "Gee, I guess there are other jobs out there."
Companies will treat their employees like crap as long as they can get away with it. The grass may not be greener at Google, but it might be a different variety of grass.
www.klov.com
www.vaps.org
There is nothing like classic video games and pinballs. MAME is great, but still can't capture it completely. I am glad I got to grow up during the great era of arcades.
Someone loses photos of their kid, and it ranks in the top 10 data recovery disasters? The whole list sounds like someone with no imagination made it up.
Not to mention that if people weren't so concerned about SPAM, they might start to worry about the security of their OS.
What? New worm hit the internet? AHH! LOOK OVER THERE!!! SPAM!!!!
So I took my machine home over the weekend and installed FC4 on it. I run Mandrake at home, but our whole dev team uses FC4. In order to have a common user-base, I thought I'd try it out. I have a 2nd disk in the machine, and installed it to it. I found an excellent step-by-step guide on how to do this. Of course, the FC4 installer screwed that up. It never asked me to create a boot floppy. So after installing, there was no way to get into Linux. After f'ing with it for about 1/2 hour, I thought maybe I missed that option during the install. Installed it again, same thing. Knoppix to the rescue. Booted in, created a boot file, copied it to the Windows drive, and all was good.
Then I bring it back into work this morning, and go to configure it with dual displays (I have dual 21" LCDs) I have configured dual displays before at home, and it wasn't too bad. Of course, with FC4 it just doesn't work. X config looks good, it just don't want to bring up the 2nd display. I prefer KDE, so I have that as my desktop. Then I notice that the Configure option is missing from my Kmenu. (the red wrench icon) It is just GONE. One minute it was there, the next it was just not.
I quit using Redhat after 7.3, because they started monkeying with everything. I hate bluecurve, but understand the need for it (in concept). But let me run straight KDE! All the other developers here use dual-displays, but they have Nvidia cards and use their dual-display software. Since I don't have an Nvidia card, and since I had used Xinerama before, I thought it would be a snap.
So now in order to get work done, I have to boot into Windows (and get around that ANNOYING login issue). Yay! I have 1 machine with 2 crippled OSes installed on it. I prefer to use Linux so I will eventually get it working and have it be my main OS (running XP via VMWare). But I can't imagine being unfamiliar with Linux and trying to get it working and usable. At least I have a chance of getting Linux working the way I want, I have given up on Windows.
Hillbillies have been doing this for years.
Funny. Posted story said 1,000 people (which didn't make sense because there were 1,000 laptops, and there wouldn't be a riot), then someone else posted that there were 3,000 people. Now you say 12,000 people. I wonder how long before we hear about the "million moron imarch". And they were new Mac G7s with 30" displays, and they were $1. And Bill Gates was autographing them "Sorry my products aren't this good -Bill"
The emperor has no clothes.
What they don't realize, and the record industry too, is that we don't need them. We want them. We WANT them to produce good movies, we really really do. But I don't need to put up with all the crap to see them. I can wait until it comes out on DVD. And even if there is a movie I want to see, but am not willing to risk seeing it in the theater, and for some reason I don't rent it when it comes out on DVD, I am still OK.
See, they have tried to create this idea that we HAVE TO SEE THIS MOVIE!!! Even though it hasn't been released yet, all these people are quoted as saying it is "the best movie this year". It's a blockbuster, a movie event, a must see, something I can't afford to miss. You know what - they are full of shit. All it takes is seeing one over-hyped shitty movie for me to take notice. Look around, at TV, radio, etc. Everything is over-hyped. That "hit new series" on TV, that "television event", that "critically acclaimed" whatever - it is all BS. Nothing is genuine. It's all about getting money in the first two weekends. Pump and dump. Some Disney commercial for one of their pathetic animated movies said something to the effect that "if you have only seen this movie once, you haven't seen anything!" Oh, so now we have to watch it more than once in the theater?
Was in Blockbuster the other day. There was a rack that was 1/2 full of some "new release" that was a knockoff, straight-to-video movie. The title, cover, and premise was similar to some popular movie. It was obvious that the company had simply purchased the space on the rack. There was NO WAY that they needed 40 copies of that movie. But sure enough, some dope walked up and said "this looks good" and took one. It's all about catering to those who are distracted by shiny, pretty objects.
The thing is, people will hopefully eventually wake up. It happened with the record industry. Stuff they are releasing and pushing follows the formula to the letter - and people are sick of it. Back in the late 90s, when digital music was taking off, they had a real opportunity to tap into a known solid market by offering music digitally. People were screaming for it, and that screaming took the voice of Napster. Here we are 6 or 7 years later, and they are still fighting the digital music format. They create this aura of "you HAVE to have this!" Now now now! Get it before it is gone... Well, you created this culture of "gotta have it now", so why are you surprised that we aren't going to sit on our asses and wait for 10 or 15 years for you to figure out how to offer music digitally? The movie industry lives on hype, so they shall die by it. You'll push and push, even though people don't want a half hour of advertising before movies, you'll cram it down our throats anyway, won't you? You'll buy good movie reviews. You'll spend a big chunk of your budget on advertising and marketing, then wonder why people won't see your latest rehashed tripe. As soon as you hit on something that works, you will turn it into a formula and start force-feeding it. Then question why people aren't going to the theater as much?
Reap what you sow, motherfuckers.
Another example of shopping sites: if you add things to your cart, and come back to the site later, you can keep your cart if you have cookies enabled. That is a great convenience for shoppers. We do this at the ecommerce company I work for. There is no personal information in the cookie, just product data. One of our clients even recently asked for us to increase the life of the cookie from 7 to 30 days.
We can gather data on your purchases without cookies anyway. And as much as people want to think that Big Brother is always doing malicious things with their purchase info, sometimes they don't. We used Omniture tracking too. It is really quite amazing, you can track clicks, time on the page, and paths through the site. You can't, however, track it to a person (at least in our system). We had a client that was concerned about sales, and by looking through the Omniture data we came up with a plan to redesign the site. It helped to understand how the current client base was using the site, and how it could be improved.
Hmm, not sure about that. My wife is impressed with all my computer skillz because she isn't into computers that much. All I need is a wife who knows how to compile a kernel taunting me because she is running a newer version that I am.
The perfect "barbie" filter if you will.
I am pretty sure being a geek is a barbie filter in and of itself.
I really can't wait for the day when you don't have to justify why you use anything other than Microsoft's products.