Heh! I yell at Claire all the time. That bitch hates me, I swear.
Try this the next time. Tell her to "Bite My Crank" (or any other expletive such as F U Bit). You'll get a LIVE billing rep within about 15 seconds, as opposed to saying "Billing" which leads to hold times of 5 minutes or more.
It's a LOT easier, and makes you look more the hero, to show up with the parts, and tools, you need, rather than sending the customer to Best Buy to purchase everything. And, of course, there's less risk of them just having Best Buy install that new modem.
Ask your local mom&pop ISP if they have an empty bay in their web server and just buy a big harddrive.
Of course, you'll still have to worry about bandwidth costs.
I can't speak for other ISP's, but one of the reasons we charge what we do for disk space is because of sustained throughput issues on bandwidth. IE: the more space you need, the more likely you are to load it with large files. The larger the file, the longer it takes to upload it to the net. The longer it takes to upload, the less overall bandwidth available to the host. The less overall bandwidth available to the host, the more bandwidth the host is required to have. The more bandwidth, the more cost. blah blah blah.
Generally an ISP will price bandwidth cheap and try to make the money back on the diskspace charges.
Of course the other reason ISPs charge what they do, is because they can. Obviously, you're either not willing to, or in a position to host all that data yourself. Simple supply and demand.
For the most part you can still do business with "a handshake and a smile".
The vast majority of people in the state come from a farming background, within a couple of generations anyway, and know how to actually "work" for a living, instead of playing the *office politics* BS. It's wonderful to work as a manager in an office of these types of folk.
Customers are generally agreeable to paying extra for services that weren't part of the original deal, without whining about it too much.
Just a quick few off the top of my head. NOTE: This are my experiences in general, there's always exceptions, and of course YMMV;)
Bad side, Personal Property tax in the state is bordering on criminal, as is the recently added taxes on services. We may have a unicameral goverment, but there's still plenty of bi-partisan politicking. Sen. Ernie Chambers is a pain in the ass sometimes, but he actually does a good job representing Omaha in general, as opposed to just his district.
You are correct. Employers are reqired by law to pay into the *State* unemployment fund. I think the point the original poster was trying to make is that rather than collecting unemployment from the state, you should be able to collect it from the employer, and preferably at the same rate you were being paid for working, for the duration of the NCA/NDA.
"There are some companies out there, that have a policy of initially contesting every unemployment claim in order to keep their experience rating "good" and reduce the amount of money they pay into the unemployment fund."
You betcha. If you get "Laid Off" make damn sure you get it in writing. That way the company can't claim they fired you, or that you quit.
One of the nice things about living in Nebraska. Non-competes cannot keep you from working in the field, only from working directly for a competitor, provided you're working on *exactly* the same type of project. As a widget developer, You can work for a competitor that develops gadgets, but not widgets.
Unemployment cannot deny you benifits as long as you make the required 2 contacts per week are actually "available" to work, and register with the state employment agency. They *cannot* force you to accept employment for which you are not skilled.
Any fool can work on a garbage route(I've actually done it) but if it's not something you've *trained* for, or have prior experience in, they can't make you accept work in that field.
I was out of work for two months, and ran throuh all my computer related employments contacts within the first two weeks. On all my apps for crap jobs I was qualified for (like the garbage route) I stated I expected salary comensurate with my experience. I was making 36K when I got laid off, so that's what I wanted to work at the local Kwik Shop.
Just so you understand I wasn't milking the system, believe me I'd much rather work, all of the "prviously skilled" positions I was looking at all wanted my computer skills in addition to my "job related" skills. I'll work on the garbage route for $8.00 an hour, sure. You want me to fix your computers also? I get paid for those skills, and $8.00 an hour doesn't begin to cover it.
Here's something to keep in mind. Which labels will Apple be able to distribute using this service? Music is distributed on a label basis, not an artist basis, (at least for "signed" artists), so if Virgin doesn't sign on to join the service, you can't download willy nilly from the Virgin catalog (which mostly sucks ass anyway it seems). You may be able to get a couple tracks from their current flavor of the week, but not something that was done a couple years ago probably.
But, never mind that, here's a more important question, given that the/. crowd is one of the major proponents of on-line distribution-
"When was the last time you actually bought music from an on-line service such as mp3.com?"
And yes, you can buy "signed artist" music, and not just indie music from some of these existing services.
I would LOVE to see a picture of this setup if you have one. I've been thinking about doing the same thing myself, but I'm having a hard time getting it right in my head *before* I fire up the skill saw.;)
Re:If you are not old enough (or American enough).
on
Digital Celebrities
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· Score: 1
Actually, MTV and the Coke commercials came *after* the show, but otherwise you are correct.
Of course my fave charecter was Reg, Hence my name. ^.^
Like anything, it depends on where you live and how good you are. I recently was laid off (due to buy out)from an ISP in Nebraska. I started at $7.50 an hr as a hell desk jockey. When I left I was the lead tech/sys admin, and was making more on salary than the owner was. About 36k year.
I just started at a new ISP (same town). $7.50 an hour. Part-time. In 2 years I'll probably be right back where I was, maybe a little sooner.
36k though, in Lincoln, is *good* money. In Omaha, it's chump change. Omaha is only 60 miles away.
I think your real question is how many iMacs to Apple sell. Answer: a LOT. One of the primary reasons the iMac did as well as it did, was due to the "Innovative" and "Spectacular" case design, and colors. (I can't remember where I read that, I *think* it was one of Dvorak's PCP induced ramblings. The cube sold well, the first year, due to the same reasons.
This isn't about a commercial product though, it's about modding. When it comes to modding, anything goes. If no one else but the modder likes it, who cares?
No functionality? Come on Man! Think outside the damn box. Or rather think *inside* the box, because it's only the hardware that means a damn thing in the long run. Cases are cheap enough you can replace them a couple times a year if you really want to. If the system runs, and allows the guy to do what he wants, I'd say it's pretty damn functional. Functionality? Is there somewhere to plug in your keyboard, monitor, and mouse? YES! How much more friggin functionality do you need? I mean really? Is an ATX case functional? The *only* difference is an ATX case is rectangular.
And No, I don't care for it much myself. Now, if it were translucent clear, I'd get in to it a bit more. But, that's just me.;)
Actually I'm in total agreement with you. There is simply no substitute for a properly organized and implemented backup system. The problem of course, is how much is enough?
I have what I think is a very good back up scheme for my 7 operational servers. 1 full back up on the first of the month, followed by daily (on some machines) weekly (on other machines) incrementals. I run a 3 month rotation.
The problem is, tape drives fail. tapes fail. So, I.tar.gz everything I need to get back to operational, like/etc/ (It sucks to have to recreate 800 users on a mail server by hand) and FTP it out to an offsite machine. Worst comes to worst, I reinstall a machine from scratch, then FTP back the.tar.gz file to recreate userland. I also make backups of websites weekly, and make a long-term (hopefully) archive if a customer moves their site somewhere else.
This is still not an ideal solution. It's quite common for a customer to call me a year after they've left my company and request we send them a copy of the website they had hosted with us (yes, they pay for it). Normally I can accomidate them, but what if those site archives are no longer accessible 5 years down the road?
Who do I pass the cost of storage media on to? Nobody will pay for it. So, I have to eat the cost. Eventually that has to be reflected somewhere, so the cost of hosting goes up. I lose business when I'm not competitive on price.
The simple truth is, as we begin to host more and more data, on drives that are getting larger and larger, we need a true long term solution. Again, tapes aren't long term. No matter how often you replace tapes, eventually the data will be corrupted. It's not realistic, to archive a site, then unarchive it to test the data everytime you switch tapes. If you're doing so, I'd have to guess that you work in government. CD/DVD are long term (supposedly) but the time investment in creating the archives isn't worthwhile. Backing up to an IDE drive, or an array of drives, is'nt long term either. Drives fail, just like tapes. In my experience however, they fail less often, thus they are becoming the standard backup media in my company.
I don't like it, but those are the realities of the situation. Until something better comes along.
Anyone know where I can get 2GB sticks of ROM and a burner?
Obviously, you've never had a tape physically fail.
Maybe it's just me, but after the experiences I've had the last year with crappy tapes, I'm surprised the "tape as a backup medium" idea hasn't been seen for the farce that it is.
Backing up to IDE or SCSI? Good short term solution, but I don't think I'd trust my backup drives for more than 1 year, tops.
Burn to CD? Good long term solution, just not practical due to the file sizes involved. Burn to DVD isn't much better.
It's time for something new. Hell, maybe it will turn into the next "killer thing" and revitalize the economy.
Works great. I just need to upgrade it to allow other users to make chages to their list via a web interface instead of by sending mail to themselves, because people are to stupid to understand that, yes, you can send yourself an e-Mail.
I went from more than 100 spam messages per day to 0. I still receive all my important mail.
'WorldCom is currently experiencing an interruption of service in various hubs in the U.S. We are working to restore a routing anomaly, and making necessary progress toward resolving this disruption in service.'
Maybe it's just me, but shouldn't they be trying to remove they anomoly?
Hell, I've been fighting this problem for the last 5 weeks on my KC router. Trouble is, it's intermittent as hell. By the time I get a tech on the phone, the problem is gone. Now I know how the UFO folks feel when they try to share their experiences.
Slashdot Mirror
Heh!
I yell at Claire all the time. That bitch hates me, I swear.
Try this the next time.
Tell her to "Bite My Crank" (or any other expletive such as F U Bit).
You'll get a LIVE billing rep within about 15 seconds, as opposed to saying "Billing" which leads to hold times of 5 minutes or more.
YYMV of course, but it works for me.
Duct Tape is the proper name for the silver tape used by the HVAC technician.
Duck Tape is a brand name.
It's a LOT easier, and makes you look more the hero, to show up with the parts, and tools, you need, rather than sending the customer to Best Buy to purchase everything.
And, of course, there's less risk of them just having Best Buy install that new modem.
Hey, it's great I can keep my same number now, though I don't like the one I have; Mnmeonics are crappy with this one.
I'd rather be able to have PHONE poratability between providers though.
Personally I'm getting tired of dishing out for a new phone every time.
Ask your local mom&pop ISP if they have an empty bay in their web server and just buy a big harddrive.
Of course, you'll still have to worry about bandwidth costs.
I can't speak for other ISP's, but one of the reasons we charge what we do for disk space is because of sustained throughput issues on bandwidth.
IE: the more space you need, the more likely you are to load it with large files. The larger the file, the longer it takes to upload it to the net.
The longer it takes to upload, the less overall bandwidth available to the host. The less overall bandwidth available to the host, the more bandwidth the host is required to have. The more bandwidth, the more cost. blah blah blah.
Generally an ISP will price bandwidth cheap and try to make the money back on the diskspace charges.
Of course the other reason ISPs charge what they do, is because they can.
Obviously, you're either not willing to, or in a position to host all that data yourself.
Simple supply and demand.
Heh.
;)
For the most part you can still do business with "a handshake and a smile".
The vast majority of people in the state come from a farming background, within a couple of generations anyway, and know how to actually "work" for a living, instead of playing the *office politics* BS.
It's wonderful to work as a manager in an office of these types of folk.
Customers are generally agreeable to paying extra for services that weren't part of the original deal, without whining about it too much.
Just a quick few off the top of my head.
NOTE: This are my experiences in general, there's always exceptions, and of course YMMV
Bad side, Personal Property tax in the state is bordering on criminal, as is the recently added taxes on services.
We may have a unicameral goverment, but there's still plenty of bi-partisan politicking. Sen. Ernie Chambers is a pain in the ass sometimes, but he actually does a good job representing Omaha in general, as opposed to just his district.
Employers are reqired by law to pay into the *State* unemployment fund.
I think the point the original poster was trying to make is that rather than collecting unemployment from the state, you should be able to collect it from the employer, and preferably at the same rate you were being paid for working, for the duration of the NCA/NDA.
You betcha. If you get "Laid Off" make damn sure you get it in writing. That way the company can't claim they fired you, or that you quit.
One of the nice things about living in Nebraska.
Non-competes cannot keep you from working in the field, only from working directly for a competitor, provided you're working on *exactly* the same type of project.
As a widget developer, You can work for a competitor that develops gadgets, but not widgets.
Unemployment cannot deny you benifits as long as you make the required 2 contacts per week are actually "available" to work, and register with the state employment agency.
They *cannot* force you to accept employment for which you are not skilled.
Any fool can work on a garbage route(I've actually done it) but if it's not something you've *trained* for, or have prior experience in, they can't make you accept work in that field.
I was out of work for two months, and ran throuh all my computer related employments contacts within the first two weeks. On all my apps for crap jobs I was qualified for (like the garbage route) I stated I expected salary comensurate with my experience. I was making 36K when I got laid off, so that's what I wanted to work at the local Kwik Shop.
Just so you understand I wasn't milking the system, believe me I'd much rather work, all of the "prviously skilled" positions I was looking at all wanted my computer skills in addition to my "job related" skills. I'll work on the garbage route for $8.00 an hour, sure. You want me to fix your computers also? I get paid for those skills, and $8.00 an hour doesn't begin to cover it.
Haven't climbed Fuji, and can't afford the GHB, but maybe one day. When I finally finger out how to make this chanter thingy do what I want it to do.
Chooks!
I know that one!
Chickens!
Actually, Ping-Chan was in the story *before* Chobits came out.
Though, I suppose, the idea itself is probably a pretty old one.
I don't really see what the fuss is.
Here in Nebraska I always seem to hear it pronounced just like Steve does: Jag-Wire.
The only time I hear it any other way is on the commercials for Jaguar cars, and of course the narrator sounds pretentious anyway.
Toe-MAY-toe? Toe-MAH-toe? who gives a rats ass?
Oh Crap, Oh Crap, Oh Crap.
My Satellite TV Reciever does this all the time. Does that mean they're watching me sleep, or are they just looking at my pr0n stash on my PVR?
This will be great.
/. crowd is one of the major proponents of on-line distribution-
Here's something to keep in mind. Which labels will Apple be able to distribute using this service?
Music is distributed on a label basis, not an artist basis, (at least for "signed" artists), so if Virgin doesn't sign on to join the service, you can't download willy nilly from the Virgin catalog (which mostly sucks ass anyway it seems).
You may be able to get a couple tracks from their current flavor of the week, but not something that was done a couple years ago probably.
But, never mind that, here's a more important question, given that the
"When was the last time you actually bought music from an on-line service such as mp3.com?"
And yes, you can buy "signed artist" music, and not just indie music from some of these existing services.
I would LOVE to see a picture of this setup if you have one. I've been thinking about doing the same thing myself, but I'm having a hard time getting it right in my head *before* I fire up the skill saw. ;)
Actually, MTV and the Coke commercials came *after* the show, but otherwise you are correct.
Of course my fave charecter was Reg, Hence my name. ^.^
in 18 months ;)
Like anything, it depends on where you live and how good you are.
I recently was laid off (due to buy out)from an ISP in Nebraska. I started at $7.50 an hr as a hell desk jockey. When I left I was the lead tech/sys admin, and was making more on salary than the owner was. About 36k year.
I just started at a new ISP (same town). $7.50 an hour. Part-time. In 2 years I'll probably be right back where I was, maybe a little sooner.
36k though, in Lincoln, is *good* money. In Omaha, it's chump change. Omaha is only 60 miles away.
You'd think some of the time you spend reading /. would be better spent working on improving your reading comprehension skills.
Correction: It *is* a commercial product.
Cool!
Now make a translucent one, and I'll buy it.
I think your real question is how many iMacs to Apple sell.
;)
Answer: a LOT. One of the primary reasons the iMac did as well as it did, was due to the "Innovative" and "Spectacular" case design, and colors. (I can't remember where I read that, I *think* it was one of Dvorak's PCP induced ramblings.
The cube sold well, the first year, due to the same reasons.
This isn't about a commercial product though, it's about modding. When it comes to modding, anything goes. If no one else but the modder likes it, who cares?
No functionality? Come on Man! Think outside the damn box. Or rather think *inside* the box, because it's only the hardware that means a damn thing in the long run. Cases are cheap enough you can replace them a couple times a year if you really want to. If the system runs, and allows the guy to do what he wants, I'd say it's pretty damn functional.
Functionality? Is there somewhere to plug in your keyboard, monitor, and mouse? YES! How much more friggin functionality do you need? I mean really?
Is an ATX case functional? The *only* difference is an ATX case is rectangular.
And No, I don't care for it much myself. Now, if it were translucent clear, I'd get in to it a bit more. But, that's just me.
Actually I'm in total agreement with you.
.tar.gz everything I need to get back to operational, like /etc/ (It sucks to have to recreate 800 users on a mail server by hand) and FTP it out to an offsite machine. Worst comes to worst, I reinstall a machine from scratch, then FTP back the .tar.gz file to recreate userland.
There is simply no substitute for a properly organized and implemented backup system.
The problem of course, is how much is enough?
I have what I think is a very good back up scheme for my 7 operational servers.
1 full back up on the first of the month, followed by daily (on some machines) weekly (on other machines) incrementals. I run a 3 month rotation.
The problem is, tape drives fail. tapes fail. So, I
I also make backups of websites weekly, and make a long-term (hopefully) archive if a customer moves their site somewhere else.
This is still not an ideal solution. It's quite common for a customer to call me a year after they've left my company and request we send them a copy of the website they had hosted with us (yes, they pay for it).
Normally I can accomidate them, but what if those site archives are no longer accessible 5 years down the road?
Who do I pass the cost of storage media on to?
Nobody will pay for it. So, I have to eat the cost. Eventually that has to be reflected somewhere, so the cost of hosting goes up. I lose business when I'm not competitive on price.
The simple truth is, as we begin to host more and more data, on drives that are getting larger and larger, we need a true long term solution.
Again, tapes aren't long term. No matter how often you replace tapes, eventually the data will be corrupted. It's not realistic, to archive a site, then unarchive it to test the data everytime you switch tapes.
If you're doing so, I'd have to guess that you work in government.
CD/DVD are long term (supposedly) but the time investment in creating the archives isn't worthwhile.
Backing up to an IDE drive, or an array of drives, is'nt long term either. Drives fail, just like tapes. In my experience however, they fail less often, thus they are becoming the standard backup media in my company.
I don't like it, but those are the realities of the situation. Until something better comes along.
Anyone know where I can get 2GB sticks of ROM and a burner?
Obviously, you've never had a tape physically fail.
Maybe it's just me, but after the experiences I've had the last year with crappy tapes, I'm surprised the "tape as a backup medium" idea hasn't been seen for the farce that it is.
Backing up to IDE or SCSI? Good short term solution, but I don't think I'd trust my backup drives for more than 1 year, tops.
Burn to CD? Good long term solution, just not practical due to the file sizes involved. Burn to DVD isn't much better.
It's time for something new. Hell, maybe it will turn into the next "killer thing" and revitalize the economy.
I vote for soft bubble memory
Works great.
I just need to upgrade it to allow other users to make chages to their list via a web interface instead of by sending mail to themselves, because people are to stupid to understand that, yes, you can send yourself an e-Mail.
I went from more than 100 spam messages per day to 0. I still receive all my important mail.
'WorldCom is currently experiencing an interruption of service in various hubs in the U.S. We are working to restore a routing anomaly, and making necessary progress toward resolving this disruption in service.'
Maybe it's just me, but shouldn't they be trying to remove they anomoly?
Hell, I've been fighting this problem for the last 5 weeks on my KC router. Trouble is, it's intermittent as hell. By the time I get a tech on the phone, the problem is gone.
Now I know how the UFO folks feel when they try to share their experiences.