I worked at one company where a meeting plan was mandatory BEFORE you could request a meeting (on... *cough* Lotus Notes... this was years ago- and yes Lotus was already obsolete then).
Anyhow, you had to have a meeting plan outlining what the meeting was about- and it was against company policy to discuss anything other than what was on the meeting notes. (you could leave things vague if there were predicted areas of vagueness).
I must say, it did work, meetings were short and too the point- and people took it seriously following the meeting plans (which had to be turned in as proof we wrote them and our pay raise was partially based on them). Now that was a small company- maybe 40 or 50 people in the office (another 80 to 100 in the factory but they never/rarely showed up to our meetings)- so maybe 40 or 50 people is easier to police for meetings- but for that company that was a good policy and it worked.
Conference calls do tend to waste some time, but the person who wrote this article is just a whiner. You take the good with the bad.
I don't find conference calls a waste of time... I put my phone on speaker and mute- and ignore what's being said whilst I continue on working as normal.
I only pay attention if I hear someone say my name... "I'm sorry, can you rephrase the question?"
If I've ever missed anything important in a conference call from not paying attention- I'm not aware of it. But is it a waste of time? Not mine- because I continue on working as normal. It's only a waste of time if you pay attention to the conference call.
One thing I like, is that it's popular to hate Facebook now. Several years ago I felt like a lonely island in the middle of a sea filled with facebook loving sharks who kept pestering me to join.
Now most people hate Facebook and see it for the toxic water that it is.
It's still a good sign. The ex can't just pop in and peek on you as you take a shower now. Instead they have to rely on the hidden cameras they left in your house and collect the pictures next time they visit...
But you control when the ex can visit now, so maybe, eventually, you'll get tired of opening the door to them over time... and stop letting them in.
I'm optimistic this is a positive sign. Give it a decade and Facebook could be the next MySpace.,
Unless its running from the surface to space. Between two satellites in space is more of a "Space Conveyor".
Regardless what you call it is still an interesting experiment and important to know long before any real Space Elevator could realistically ever be proposed even assuming all other technical hurdles have been overcome.
I work remotely. When I started a few years back, the company sent me a couple of Dell displays. Nothing too fancy, they do the job fine. No big deal. I was recently at the company offices (which they just recently redesigned) and they have brand new bezel-less Dell displays on the desks.
I really liked it when working with external displays. And I'd imagine I'd like it even more if my laptop were bezel-less to go along with those displays.
No, I don't think it makes any difference in a measurable way--it just looks better.
But would you rather a display that is bezelless, or a display that will have truer colours- more black blacks, etc... has an image that stays crisper longer for a longer life, etc. Nothing is free in life- and presumably the technology to go bezelless is more expensive or monitor manufacturers would have offered it a long time ago.
Assuming you have a specific budget for monitor purchases; $X will get you so far- you can spend it on a bezel free monitor- or a monitor that is better in some other way. To me, I'd rather the extra cost go to something functional. I can see times when mere-appearance is a benefit... in a showroom where you work with customers... etc.
All that said, contrary to what the manufacturers are pushing out- I actually think a thin bezel is aesthetically pleasing- I bet a decade from now we will see some companies offering bezelled devices- as a fashion statement the way bezel-free is a fashion statement today.
I don't even want a bezel-less laptop screen because when I'm opening it then it means I'm going to get some fingerprints onto the visible area instead of the bezel.
It's time to stop making everything thinner, lighter, with less of this, with more of that just because it's possible. The whole fab of making phones, laptops, and tablets as thin as possible has to stop. Go back a couple of years in thickness and give us the extra space in battery. We'll more than be able to manage in coping with the extra grams it'll add to the phone. And maybe you won't have to need the camera sticking out of the phone.
It is a ridiculous trend in the industry- they're going for fashion and appearance rather than form and functionality. I've never heard anyone say "I wish my phone were thinner" or "I wish my device had a thinner bezel". This whole- thin and bezelless direction is driven by manufacturers who are working based purely on fashion rather than common sense.
Yeah, flooding Europe with Muslims and Africans it a great peace-project whereas the US not waging war everywhere all the time is a huge problem..
Are you trying to make an actual point- or just looking for an excuse for a racist diatribe? I don't see any relevance to your comment to the discussion?
It has been going a lot longer than this with India. India has had a very protectionist economy for decades; it's probably one of the main reasons why China became an economic powerhouse- and India is growing much slower, despite being on better terms with most of the developed nations of the world than China.
India doesn't like foreign companies operating on their seas- they used to keep out grocery stores, department stores from over seas- now they are pushing against IT. I understand why they're doing it, and the history there... but it's shooting themselves in the foot. Once they stop being a protectionist state, they could start to rise in power and eventually challenge the US and China.
Well, let's not forget that Merkel and co are not overwhelmed by Trump either and see him as a threat to global peace.
That's two presidents in a row that Germany has had legitimate grievances with, and they came from either side of the political spectrum. It is perfectly understandable why Germany might not see the US as a very reliable ally.
Excess bad of writers, atheletes, historians, mathematicians, wtf.
Indeed. "Some people are bad at X, therefore we shouldn't teach X" is a dumb argument.
My kids learned Scratch, then Python, then C++, then Java. My daughter got a 5 on her CS AP test. My son just completed an "AI bootcamp" summer program for teens. CS is the most-in-demand college degree. If you have bright kids, you are negligent if you are not teaching them this stuff.
But if you don't, no problem. My kids can use part of their $150k starting salary to pay your kids to clean their toilets. Please teach them to scrub under the rim.
My son is learning a lot of computer science stuff and learning several subjects because he wants to.
I'm not encouraging my kids into CS if they don't want to though... all in all it's a boring degree and leads to a boring work life. I wouldn't wish my kids to live through the same career I have. I'd much rather they go into medicine or law... like I should have done. I don't regret not going to med school, yeah, would have made 3 times the salary, but it wouldn't have been worth it; I do regret not going to law school though. As a college kid, lawyer seemed a really boring career choice. Now as an adult I realize, law would probably have been much more interesting than what I do do, and pay a heck of a lot more too. I've never been too driven by money (or I would have done medicine); but if you can get a more interesting job AND more money... heck... sign me up.
Yeah, same here in mid-sized Southern city. A house in the city costs about 40-50% more than one in the suburbs. I think this is the case in most places, because most people would probably rather be where all the facilities are, where work is, where the shops are, where the better schools are.
Commutes in cities themselves are often short. The problem is commuting in from the sub-BURPS, if you want a 4 bedroom McHouse on a quarter-acre lot like all the people you hated from high school now have.
Homes within most cities usually fall under one of two realms: 1) Ridiculously Expensive 2) Not Ridiculously Expensive but high crime.
If you're happy living in a city, you're either in an unusual city, or you're wealthy and can afford to live in a good spot. Not everyone is wealthy or live in such a city.
Sure, I'd love to be able to live close to where I work- but are there any affordable places within 20 mins of work. Absolutely not. The only areas that might work are the type of areas you lock your door and hope you don't get stopped at a traffic light passing through.
Not all cities are "livable"- some cities you have to live in the suburbs.
They are not all doing the same thing, not even close. Try requesting the information they have collected about you from those 3, the one from Google will be substantially longer and more detailed than the other 2 combined.
That's because Google does more that is valuable for advertisers to track. Microsoft and Apple will track you just the same if there is incentive. The fact that Google has the #1 search engine, mapping software, e-mail, etc means that they collect more information from more people and have more data. Microsoft and Apple will violate your privacy as much as it is monetarily useful too. Microsoft and Apple also have advertising arms, it's not just Google.
So, you bought them a computer which comes with spyware preinstalled.
You mean, as opposed to Microsoft and Apple which also track everything you do? I'm not getting my kids a friggin' Linux- they need to learn real world skills. Once there out at University if they want to dabble with Linux that's fine.
I had a (stupid) friend who ran an open wifi that got raided for the police for child porn because they tied it to his IP address. Never found any evidence on his PCs (after they sent drive copies to the FBI) or hidden stashes in his house, never arrested and the case was quietly dropped a year later.
As an IT admin you'd think he'd have known better -
I'm sure they've left "eyes" in his home network to keep a look out after they dropped the case. If he ever does anything illegal online I'm sure he'll quickly be called for it.
Slashdot Mirror
I worked at one company where a meeting plan was mandatory BEFORE you could request a meeting (on... *cough* Lotus Notes... this was years ago- and yes Lotus was already obsolete then).
Anyhow, you had to have a meeting plan outlining what the meeting was about- and it was against company policy to discuss anything other than what was on the meeting notes. (you could leave things vague if there were predicted areas of vagueness).
I must say, it did work, meetings were short and too the point- and people took it seriously following the meeting plans (which had to be turned in as proof we wrote them and our pay raise was partially based on them). Now that was a small company- maybe 40 or 50 people in the office (another 80 to 100 in the factory but they never/rarely showed up to our meetings)- so maybe 40 or 50 people is easier to police for meetings- but for that company that was a good policy and it worked.
Conference calls do tend to waste some time, but the person who wrote this article is just a whiner. You take the good with the bad.
I don't find conference calls a waste of time... I put my phone on speaker and mute- and ignore what's being said whilst I continue on working as normal.
I only pay attention if I hear someone say my name... "I'm sorry, can you rephrase the question?"
If I've ever missed anything important in a conference call from not paying attention- I'm not aware of it. But is it a waste of time? Not mine- because I continue on working as normal. It's only a waste of time if you pay attention to the conference call.
Horses make terrible programmers. They don't have the dexterity of digits that allow tthem to type fast.
One thing I like, is that it's popular to hate Facebook now. Several years ago I felt like a lonely island in the middle of a sea filled with facebook loving sharks who kept pestering me to join.
Now most people hate Facebook and see it for the toxic water that it is.
Friends and family in my cellar?
I do hope they're restrained properly or they might escape.
It's still a good sign. The ex can't just pop in and peek on you as you take a shower now. Instead they have to rely on the hidden cameras they left in your house and collect the pictures next time they visit...
But you control when the ex can visit now, so maybe, eventually, you'll get tired of opening the door to them over time... and stop letting them in.
I'm optimistic this is a positive sign. Give it a decade and Facebook could be the next MySpace.,
Predicting Landslides has always been a challenge. Predicting Mudslides less so- just look for spikes in sales of Kahlua and Vodka in college towns.
Unless its running from the surface to space. Between two satellites in space is more of a "Space Conveyor".
Regardless what you call it is still an interesting experiment and important to know long before any real Space Elevator could realistically ever be proposed even assuming all other technical hurdles have been overcome.
I was banned from /r/Futurology.
Fuck them.
Can't you leave your disagreement with /r/Futurology in the past?
I had a laptop with a second aloe strip that lathers, but I kept cutting my fingers everytime I typed an e-mail.
Well, that can depend.
I work remotely. When I started a few years back, the company sent me a couple of Dell displays. Nothing too fancy, they do the job fine. No big deal. I was recently at the company offices (which they just recently redesigned) and they have brand new bezel-less Dell displays on the desks.
I really liked it when working with external displays. And I'd imagine I'd like it even more if my laptop were bezel-less to go along with those displays.
No, I don't think it makes any difference in a measurable way--it just looks better.
But would you rather a display that is bezelless, or a display that will have truer colours- more black blacks, etc... has an image that stays crisper longer for a longer life, etc. Nothing is free in life- and presumably the technology to go bezelless is more expensive or monitor manufacturers would have offered it a long time ago.
Assuming you have a specific budget for monitor purchases; $X will get you so far- you can spend it on a bezel free monitor- or a monitor that is better in some other way. To me, I'd rather the extra cost go to something functional. I can see times when mere-appearance is a benefit... in a showroom where you work with customers... etc.
All that said, contrary to what the manufacturers are pushing out- I actually think a thin bezel is aesthetically pleasing- I bet a decade from now we will see some companies offering bezelled devices- as a fashion statement the way bezel-free is a fashion statement today.
I don't even want a bezel-less laptop screen because when I'm opening it then it means I'm going to get some fingerprints onto the visible area instead of the bezel.
It's time to stop making everything thinner, lighter, with less of this, with more of that just because it's possible. The whole fab of making phones, laptops, and tablets as thin as possible has to stop. Go back a couple of years in thickness and give us the extra space in battery. We'll more than be able to manage in coping with the extra grams it'll add to the phone. And maybe you won't have to need the camera sticking out of the phone.
It is a ridiculous trend in the industry- they're going for fashion and appearance rather than form and functionality. I've never heard anyone say "I wish my phone were thinner" or "I wish my device had a thinner bezel". This whole- thin and bezelless direction is driven by manufacturers who are working based purely on fashion rather than common sense.
Yeah, flooding Europe with Muslims and Africans it a great peace-project whereas the US not waging war everywhere all the time is a huge problem ..
Are you trying to make an actual point- or just looking for an excuse for a racist diatribe? I don't see any relevance to your comment to the discussion?
Begun, the trade wars has. -Yoda
It has been going a lot longer than this with India. India has had a very protectionist economy for decades; it's probably one of the main reasons why China became an economic powerhouse- and India is growing much slower, despite being on better terms with most of the developed nations of the world than China.
India doesn't like foreign companies operating on their seas- they used to keep out grocery stores, department stores from over seas- now they are pushing against IT. I understand why they're doing it, and the history there... but it's shooting themselves in the foot. Once they stop being a protectionist state, they could start to rise in power and eventually challenge the US and China.
... after Obama wiretapped the German leader's 'phone.
Well, let's not forget that Merkel and co are not overwhelmed by Trump either and see him as a threat to global peace.
That's two presidents in a row that Germany has had legitimate grievances with, and they came from either side of the political spectrum. It is perfectly understandable why Germany might not see the US as a very reliable ally.
Excess bad of writers, atheletes, historians, mathematicians, wtf.
Indeed. "Some people are bad at X, therefore we shouldn't teach X" is a dumb argument.
My kids learned Scratch, then Python, then C++, then Java. My daughter got a 5 on her CS AP test. My son just completed an "AI bootcamp" summer program for teens. CS is the most-in-demand college degree. If you have bright kids, you are negligent if you are not teaching them this stuff.
But if you don't, no problem. My kids can use part of their $150k starting salary to pay your kids to clean their toilets. Please teach them to scrub under the rim.
My son is learning a lot of computer science stuff and learning several subjects because he wants to.
I'm not encouraging my kids into CS if they don't want to though... all in all it's a boring degree and leads to a boring work life. I wouldn't wish my kids to live through the same career I have. I'd much rather they go into medicine or law... like I should have done. I don't regret not going to med school, yeah, would have made 3 times the salary, but it wouldn't have been worth it; I do regret not going to law school though. As a college kid, lawyer seemed a really boring career choice. Now as an adult I realize, law would probably have been much more interesting than what I do do, and pay a heck of a lot more too. I've never been too driven by money (or I would have done medicine); but if you can get a more interesting job AND more money... heck... sign me up.
Useless without Esperanto.
Yeah, same here in mid-sized Southern city. A house in the city costs about 40-50% more than one in the suburbs. I think this is the case in most places, because most people would probably rather be where all the facilities are, where work is, where the shops are, where the better schools are.
I knew you people were wrong about Russian leaks. Look, here's proof!!!
When life gives you Russian leeks, buy some potatoes and make leek and potato soup.
Apparently Julia moves quick and has been used by a lot of people in the last 6 years. I think I know Julia.
Commutes in cities themselves are often short. The problem is commuting in from the sub-BURPS, if you want a 4 bedroom McHouse on a quarter-acre lot like all the people you hated from high school now have.
Homes within most cities usually fall under one of two realms:
1) Ridiculously Expensive
2) Not Ridiculously Expensive but high crime.
If you're happy living in a city, you're either in an unusual city, or you're wealthy and can afford to live in a good spot. Not everyone is wealthy or live in such a city.
Sure, I'd love to be able to live close to where I work- but are there any affordable places within 20 mins of work. Absolutely not. The only areas that might work are the type of areas you lock your door and hope you don't get stopped at a traffic light passing through.
Not all cities are "livable"- some cities you have to live in the suburbs.
They are not all doing the same thing, not even close. Try requesting the information they have collected about you from those 3, the one from Google will be substantially longer and more detailed than the other 2 combined.
That's because Google does more that is valuable for advertisers to track. Microsoft and Apple will track you just the same if there is incentive. The fact that Google has the #1 search engine, mapping software, e-mail, etc means that they collect more information from more people and have more data. Microsoft and Apple will violate your privacy as much as it is monetarily useful too. Microsoft and Apple also have advertising arms, it's not just Google.
I don't want them getting spyware
So, you bought them a computer which comes with spyware preinstalled.
You mean, as opposed to Microsoft and Apple which also track everything you do? I'm not getting my kids a friggin' Linux- they need to learn real world skills. Once there out at University if they want to dabble with Linux that's fine.
I had a (stupid) friend who ran an open wifi that got raided for the police for child porn because they tied it to his IP address. Never found any evidence on his PCs (after they sent drive copies to the FBI) or hidden stashes in his house, never arrested and the case was quietly dropped a year later.
As an IT admin you'd think he'd have known better -
I'm sure they've left "eyes" in his home network to keep a look out after they dropped the case. If he ever does anything illegal online I'm sure he'll quickly be called for it.
You can learn a language for free. There are even some businesses on mainland Europe that use English as their default working language.
The rest of the things on your list will cost a fair penny.