I'm serious when I say this, but Tolkien did start a sequel to Lord of the Rings, which had as a plot device people finding an orc skeleton buried in the ground, and a cult formed up around worshipping the long dead orcs. He never got past a couple of pages, and threw it away becuase he said that magic had left the world, and there was really no good thing left to write other than a thriller story not a fantasy story. What is there of the story from his notes includes a wonderful definition of evil, which can be destilled down to the idea of evil being doing something contrary to ones own purpose or forcing something or someone else to do something which is contrary to their purpose. Fun stuff. ITs in the volumn 12 of Histories of Middle-earth if I remeber correctly.
I have a co-worker who just got her laptop stolen. Now if the computer could be tracked when the jerk logs it into the Internet, that would be helpful in tracking the guy down.
I bet someone else will post the exact same thing, but instead they will replace Java with Flash...
I think the point is that you don't need to insert an object or rely on a 3rd party enviroment. You can do it in Javascript.
Also, the reason this is so very cool is that it doesn't tie your applicaiton into a backend of any kind, you can scale your backend as long as it spits out XML. I think this is the reason so many of the big companies are going to it. They require a bit more flexibility on that end.
Re:Ripping off Ayn Rand... sort off
on
Blink, Take 2
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· Score: 1
Rand disagrees with both of them and says that knowledge comes from both the mind and experience.
Is there any other source of knowledge? Or is Rand simply trying to to synthisize the two prevailing viewpoints at the time when she wrote these things.
We have a saying at work, "If there is a standard, then we will support it." Be it Java,.NET, Oracle, MsSQL, SyBase, Perl, ASP. If it's a standard we will support it.
You also need them to support that on OSes other than XP. So they need to release standards support on all the OSes which are still under their support clock from MS. So 2000 would need to have all this as well.
The real question is will this raise the bar for minimum features supported by a browser. If they build IE7 and no one upgrades than we are still where we are today.... Screwed.
True, and this fits exactly what I'm saying. The question isn't how to save IT money / Jobs, but how to save your company Money / Jobs. The question the person asked is making an incorrect assumption. He isn't thinking with the whole long-term in mind, just his department.
A manager understands his company but he might not understand IT. What is needed is someone who understand the company and IT. And then the decision might be made to outsource. It might be a decision not to outsource. But all that requires you think with the Company as a whole in mind. If the company is publically traded, or has stock, think about penney's on the share price over time.
Another way to see that he is thinking wrong is to see that he thinks IT costs the company money. He should be saying, NO, we save you X amount of money.
He is already loosing the battle unless he changes the way he thinks and then he needs to change the way the company thinks. To do this he needs to do the things I mentioned above. What is the companies core business. My guess is that it's not IT. Learn that business, learn how to create solutions for that business which leverage technology as part of their solution. Learn how to manage people and groups (even if they are not present.)
Then he can say, I am not costing the company $X, I am saving it $Y becuase it use to cost $Z and now it costs $Y less. If he can't prove that he is saving the company this money, the company is better off without those positions (becuase when they loose those people they will at least be able to start the cost/benefit analysis of IT, and be able to make informed decisions)
I've saif this for years, IT should always be looking to put themselves out of a job. (Which interestingly enough is why I'm not concerned with the current fad of outsourcing.) There is always more things to bring under the control of IT automation.
And as a support organization, you need to position yourselves as such. There is a certain sense that you are like the electricity or the water. Now granted if you are not in the Business of IT, perhaps the company will look at focusing on their core business and out sourcing IT. Kinda like how most businesses don't generate their own elecricity or purify their own water.
With that said, why don't you look at becoming someone who provides your business complete solutions to their problems as opposed to just keeping Server X up or Program Y debugged. Each of those things can be done by someone else for cheaper. But knowing what your company does, and how to unify business processes and computerize them is not something they can get anybody to do.
So focus on what your company does, and learn their business, and learn how computers will solve their problems. That way you might end up overseeing the group of developers over in India. Learn how to architect a solution, learn how to manage a project. These are the skills that IT needs these days.
ok, your right. Lets keep drilling for coal, and pumping oil. Cause global warming is in general a smaller problem than what you are proposing. And when the developing nations need energy to support their growing populations and economies we will just need in increase the use of these technologies.
Or I know, sense Nuclear is bad and can't be used we could just tell the poor developing people in other countries, Sorry you must figure out how to survive without power. Or we could take away all the power our economy needs to continue. No Internet, No computers, No Global communications. Sure, why not.
Or we could look for solutions to address the risks you bring up such as GPS tracking, or Identification systems on the transport containers, or we could lock the waste up in the facility which consumed it, or we could recycle it.
We need solutions, and many of the problems we are going to face will not be seen as problems until we encounter them first hand. Again, this is about risk midigation not avoidance. We need to take the risks. We didn't get to where we are a people without risk.
I know there are several ways to do this, but when taken with everything else, it's impressive. The thing that I think is cool is that at any other company a web project of this size would have been killed in its concept stage or changed radically to be done mostly on the server tier as opposed to the presentation tier because it is built of many of these 'tricks.' No normal manager would approve of such a 'risk'.
How about building a reactor which you know will produce x amount of Energy over Y years for a cost of Z. The energy is sold to the population so that over y years for Z amount of money. After Z years, the system is retired in place, and another system is built at the same location.
In general, a nuclear facility is pretty darn secure. By doing this you put all the waste in one secure location so that later when technology advances enough to process the waste, it can be found.
You really need to realize that life isn't about risk avoidance, but risk midigation.
The very words you use, RPGs, Al Queada, Irradiate, Manhatten, are all meant to scare people. How about talking about a way to midigate one risk in the place of another.
You will admit that there is a risk of using Oil. You also admit there is a risk of using Nuclear power.
It use to be that there wasn't a whole lot of risk around the use of Oil, as time has gone by we have learned about polution and we are now needing to purchase oil from people who don't really like us.
Now balance this with the advantages of Nuclear, and all their disadvantages. People are now starting to say that the risks with Nuclear are less than the risks now assoicated with Oil.
But reducing this conversation to an emotional rant about SUVs and Terrorism smacks of sensationalism and points to someone who doesn't want to midigate the risks involved.
Re:Cluster Computing For Better Sound?
on
iPod Shuffle RAID
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· Score: 1
You could make an musical instrament out of say 88 iPods shuffles, with a playlist of sounds to act as a funky synth. It might be a cool fun art project.
Please, let it die, no stupid save Enterprise campigns. Let the show die. After so many years it will be good to reboot the machine which is Paramount/Star Trek. It has been years sense there has been anything good out of that studio/show combo.
The future of news and the future of computing will be tied up in the idea of Trust. Information will become more valuable the more it is trusted. The question that needs to be asked is how do I trust you and how do you trust me online.
Which leads to the next question, who do you trust with vouching for yourself online. And realize the answer to the question will be the person who will know you, and not some false or pseudonym. Who do you trust saying you are you, and that you do indeed know what you are talking about regarding the subject you are speaking of.
I personally don't want any of the following as vouching for me exclusively: The Government, My Bank (or anyone I pay money to to vouch for me). Now do I trust my friends, do I trust my church to vouch for me, and which of those do you trust? Also, what happens when I go from being a citizen of one state to another? Or from one country to another? What happens when I'm trusted by a known non-trusted/enemy organization?
Granted there are a ton of solutions out there, but nothing which is accepted yet. And each of these solutions have problems.
Slashdot Mirror
No, I'm sorry, Gates will refer to the new security product from Microsoft.
MSGates, Security for the 21st Century.
I'm serious when I say this, but Tolkien did start a sequel to Lord of the Rings, which had as a plot device people finding an orc skeleton buried in the ground, and a cult formed up around worshipping the long dead orcs. He never got past a couple of pages, and threw it away becuase he said that magic had left the world, and there was really no good thing left to write other than a thriller story not a fantasy story. What is there of the story from his notes includes a wonderful definition of evil, which can be destilled down to the idea of evil being doing something contrary to ones own purpose or forcing something or someone else to do something which is contrary to their purpose. Fun stuff. ITs in the volumn 12 of Histories of Middle-earth if I remeber correctly.
Ted
I have a co-worker who just got her laptop stolen. Now if the computer could be tracked when the jerk logs it into the Internet, that would be helpful in tracking the guy down.
Ted Tschopp
I guess we live in a world which has doomed us to a certain fate.
Check out Apples site and their example
Very cool stuff.
I bet someone else will post the exact same thing, but instead they will replace Java with Flash...
I think the point is that you don't need to insert an object or rely on a 3rd party enviroment. You can do it in Javascript.
Also, the reason this is so very cool is that it doesn't tie your applicaiton into a backend of any kind, you can scale your backend as long as it spits out XML. I think this is the reason so many of the big companies are going to it. They require a bit more flexibility on that end.
Is there any other source of knowledge? Or is Rand simply trying to to synthisize the two prevailing viewpoints at the time when she wrote these things.
We have a saying at work, "If there is a standard, then we will support it." Be it Java, .NET, Oracle, MsSQL, SyBase, Perl, ASP. If it's a standard we will support it.
Wow, you own Office. How did that happen, Every time I talked to Microsoft about it they just sold the right to use it, not own it.
You also need them to support that on OSes other than XP. So they need to release standards support on all the OSes which are still under their support clock from MS. So 2000 would need to have all this as well.
The real question is will this raise the bar for minimum features supported by a browser. If they build IE7 and no one upgrades than we are still where we are today.... Screwed.
True, and this fits exactly what I'm saying. The question isn't how to save IT money / Jobs, but how to save your company Money / Jobs. The question the person asked is making an incorrect assumption. He isn't thinking with the whole long-term in mind, just his department.
A manager understands his company but he might not understand IT. What is needed is someone who understand the company and IT. And then the decision might be made to outsource. It might be a decision not to outsource. But all that requires you think with the Company as a whole in mind. If the company is publically traded, or has stock, think about penney's on the share price over time.
Another way to see that he is thinking wrong is to see that he thinks IT costs the company money. He should be saying, NO, we save you X amount of money.
He is already loosing the battle unless he changes the way he thinks and then he needs to change the way the company thinks. To do this he needs to do the things I mentioned above. What is the companies core business. My guess is that it's not IT. Learn that business, learn how to create solutions for that business which leverage technology as part of their solution. Learn how to manage people and groups (even if they are not present.)
Then he can say, I am not costing the company $X, I am saving it $Y becuase it use to cost $Z and now it costs $Y less. If he can't prove that he is saving the company this money, the company is better off without those positions (becuase when they loose those people they will at least be able to start the cost/benefit analysis of IT, and be able to make informed decisions)
Ted Tschopp
I've saif this for years, IT should always be looking to put themselves out of a job. (Which interestingly enough is why I'm not concerned with the current fad of outsourcing.) There is always more things to bring under the control of IT automation.
Ted Tschopp
And as a support organization, you need to position yourselves as such. There is a certain sense that you are like the electricity or the water. Now granted if you are not in the Business of IT, perhaps the company will look at focusing on their core business and out sourcing IT. Kinda like how most businesses don't generate their own elecricity or purify their own water.
With that said, why don't you look at becoming someone who provides your business complete solutions to their problems as opposed to just keeping Server X up or Program Y debugged. Each of those things can be done by someone else for cheaper. But knowing what your company does, and how to unify business processes and computerize them is not something they can get anybody to do.
So focus on what your company does, and learn their business, and learn how computers will solve their problems. That way you might end up overseeing the group of developers over in India. Learn how to architect a solution, learn how to manage a project. These are the skills that IT needs these days.
Ted Tschopp
ok, your right. Lets keep drilling for coal, and pumping oil. Cause global warming is in general a smaller problem than what you are proposing. And when the developing nations need energy to support their growing populations and economies we will just need in increase the use of these technologies.
Or I know, sense Nuclear is bad and can't be used we could just tell the poor developing people in other countries, Sorry you must figure out how to survive without power. Or we could take away all the power our economy needs to continue. No Internet, No computers, No Global communications. Sure, why not.
Or we could look for solutions to address the risks you bring up such as GPS tracking, or Identification systems on the transport containers, or we could lock the waste up in the facility which consumed it, or we could recycle it.
We need solutions, and many of the problems we are going to face will not be seen as problems until we encounter them first hand. Again, this is about risk midigation not avoidance. We need to take the risks. We didn't get to where we are a people without risk.
Ted Tschopp
I know there are several ways to do this, but when taken with everything else, it's impressive. The thing that I think is cool is that at any other company a web project of this size would have been killed in its concept stage or changed radically to be done mostly on the server tier as opposed to the presentation tier because it is built of many of these 'tricks.' No normal manager would approve of such a 'risk'.
Trust me, getting PNG transparancy / Alpha Channel support in IE is a backflip.
But nuclear waste isn't transported through places like Manhattan.
I know at least out here on the West Coast, all the nuclear plants are on US military bases or are surrounded by a military base.
How about building a reactor which you know will produce x amount of Energy over Y years for a cost of Z. The energy is sold to the population so that over y years for Z amount of money. After Z years, the system is retired in place, and another system is built at the same location.
In general, a nuclear facility is pretty darn secure. By doing this you put all the waste in one secure location so that later when technology advances enough to process the waste, it can be found.
You really need to realize that life isn't about risk avoidance, but risk midigation.
The very words you use, RPGs, Al Queada, Irradiate, Manhatten, are all meant to scare people. How about talking about a way to midigate one risk in the place of another.
You will admit that there is a risk of using Oil. You also admit there is a risk of using Nuclear power.
It use to be that there wasn't a whole lot of risk around the use of Oil, as time has gone by we have learned about polution and we are now needing to purchase oil from people who don't really like us.
Now balance this with the advantages of Nuclear, and all their disadvantages. People are now starting to say that the risks with Nuclear are less than the risks now assoicated with Oil.
But reducing this conversation to an emotional rant about SUVs and Terrorism smacks of sensationalism and points to someone who doesn't want to midigate the risks involved.
You could make an musical instrament out of say 88 iPods shuffles, with a playlist of sounds to act as a funky synth. It might be a cool fun art project.
Ted Tschopp
Please, let it die, no stupid save Enterprise campigns. Let the show die. After so many years it will be good to reboot the machine which is Paramount/Star Trek. It has been years sense there has been anything good out of that studio/show combo.
Ted Tschopp
Care to share how you do that with PDF's. I thought I knew a bunch about CSS, but obviously I was wrong.
Will that work in IE? Just curious before I go wacking away at my local CSS file...
The future of news and the future of computing will be tied up in the idea of Trust. Information will become more valuable the more it is trusted. The question that needs to be asked is how do I trust you and how do you trust me online.
Which leads to the next question, who do you trust with vouching for yourself online. And realize the answer to the question will be the person who will know you, and not some false or pseudonym. Who do you trust saying you are you, and that you do indeed know what you are talking about regarding the subject you are speaking of.
I personally don't want any of the following as vouching for me exclusively: The Government, My Bank (or anyone I pay money to to vouch for me). Now do I trust my friends, do I trust my church to vouch for me, and which of those do you trust? Also, what happens when I go from being a citizen of one state to another? Or from one country to another? What happens when I'm trusted by a known non-trusted/enemy organization?
Granted there are a ton of solutions out there, but nothing which is accepted yet. And each of these solutions have problems.
Now what is typical, Microsoft acting this way, or someone on Slashdot basing Microsoft?