I think the above is what CEOs, boards and shareholders want to see. IT gives them this. Whether they are smart enough to admit or not.
I just recently read this article at InformationWeek.com. It refers to Cisco CEO John Chambers, Cisco's positive third quarter report, and most importantly, the referred to study by the U.S. Labor Department. I quote, "The U.S. Labor Department on Tuesday said workforce productivity increased 8.6% in the first quarter of 2002, up from a 5.5% increase in the last quarter of 2001. According to Chambers, increased productivity is the impetus for U.S. companies to spend on high-tech computing and networking products.". Now, certainly Chambers is going to be biased, but I don't think the U.S. Labor Dept. is (at least I don't think so.)
Chambers also brought up and interesting point in another article I read. He said something to the affect of (I'm paraphrasing here) from the statistics he had seen concerning productivity over the past 3-5 years (or so) productivity is on an upswing, which meant to him that we are just now learning to utilize all of this IT stuff we've bought in the past few years and what's more important, we're still learning how to be productive with it.
I think those that criticize IT should stop and ask themselves if they are more productive with it. Do they like having shared drives to collaborate off of? Do they like having word processors, spreadsheets and of course databases? How about faster mainframes and servers that decrease the amount of time spent finalizing a transaction?
Without a doubt, time is money. I see IT as saving loads of time and thereby loads of money.
I saw another quote on Slashdot (different story, but applicable here IMHO) that talked about the DVD model for the movie industry. People are bootlegging movies to VCD/CD using DiVX, et al. But people are still buying DVDs in droves. Why? Because of the value add. DVDs are obviously better in quality, but they also have extra features. I think the music industry needs to adopt a similar model (as some artists already have - Paul Oakenfold is one recent example) and add extra features to their CDs.
I understand that the parent is rated as "Funny" but it is the truth (not to mention good advice). Sure, it may sound funny in its style of implementation, but it is great advice for the original poster. The only thing that I would add is to make damn sure you back up the "H:" drive server nightly (at the very least weekly - it depends how important your data is to you on a dialy basis) and and have some redundancy in your hard drive setup (e.g., a RAID system)
In my limited experience (I've only been using Linux and other GNU tools for about 4 years now) it seems like there is an underlying current of not knowing how to correctly pronounce so many of the names and acronyms (recursive and otherwise) like GNU. Is it pronounced "new" or "guh-new"? Then there is the classic "lin-nux", "lee-nux" or "lye-nux". Oh and of course there is the slew of GNU-inspired apps and tools: "nome" or "guh-nome"...."newtella" or "guh-new-tella" or "nuh-tella".....etc...
Anytime I meet a fellow geek for the first time and we find that we have an interest in Free Software or Open Source software in common, there are those uncomfortable moments while conversing about things when he/she won't pronounce a name as I do. Do you correct or don't you? How do you know you're pronunciation is correct?
Other than setting up sound on Red Hat using sndconfig and hearing Linus (that's pronounced "Lee-nus") pronounce his own name and that of Linux (pronounced "lih-nux"), I've never heard the "official" pronunciation of most of this stuff. Kinda funny huh?
The name. Cool for geeks, but for the general public, it sounds funny. It gives no indication whatsoever about the product and what it's used for. Granted 'mp3' isn't much better, but that leads to the next point.
mp3 was "first to market". It is deeply entrenched.
Ogg may be better sound quality-wise, but for the majority of mp3 users, mp3's "sound good enough" and Ogg doesn't offer enough of an improvement for people to encode all of their stuff over again.
Yes Ogg is FREE but again, the average Joe could care less about Free or Open Source software.
Sorry if I sound like I'm trolling. I'm not. I'm just being honest.
It seems to me the new free UNIX and UNIX-like OS's are the true way out. Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc. All run very well (arguably better than MS products) on inexpensive Intel x86 hardware. They also run on the current higher end 64 bit platforms (Sparc, Alpha, Itanium) and will run on the newer 64 bit procs from AMD. Incredibly flexible IMHO.
Sure, maybe proprietary UNIX on big iron is slowly being replaced, but free and open source UNIX/Linux will be there to take its place.
A lot of the selling points that MS is focusing on in the ad campaign actually speak better for the free/open UNIX and UNIX-like alternatives than of MS's own products.
"No wonder Unix makes you feel boxed in (Microsoft licensing anyone?). It ties you to an inflexible system (ahem, Microsoft?!?). It requires you to pay for expensive experts (MCSE |= EXPERT). It makes you struggle daily with a server environment that's more complex (Microsoft - The epitome of complexity) than ever."
Well, they've sold me. I'm sticking with Linux!:-)
I just saw this statement at the bottom of their front page:
distributed.net and United Devices join forces: distributed.net and United Devices have announced a partnership which will combine the skills and experience of distributed.net with the commercial backing of United Devices. Several distributed.net volunteers are leaving their old day jobs and joining United Devices full time. United Devices will be providing distributed.net with new hardware and hosting services, as well as sponsoring a donation program that will help support distributed.net's charitable activities."
Does anyone else think they should give up the LNUX ticker symbol and the Linux.com domain? Not that they should have to necessarily, but it might be a good idea, especially considering they have kind of gotten out of the "Linux business". Obviously they are still involved with Open Source software, but that is a much larger set than the subset that is "Linux".
Just my 2 cents.
Is anyone else wondering.....?
on
Battlefield Lasers
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Is anyone else wondering why we are spending so much money on the missile defense system? This seems to have solved the problem of missile defense much more elegantly (and more cost effectively?) Maybe I'm missing something.
No New Laws - The government has a habit of throwing more laws at a problem (yes and money too). We don't necessarily need more laws, just proper enforcement of the existing ones. (or maybe I should say, no laws just for the sake of creating them....no hollow laws to appease the general pulic and press...if new laws are made, they must be effective!)
Crypto - No more restrictions on crypto.
Tools and Methods - The government shouldn't ban tools and methods used to work in network security. These are very necessary to increase the level of security. Like another poster said, if you ban them (ie, make their use, possession, etc.) illegal only the "bad guys" will have them.
Surely you don't think that video over a mobile phone is being pushed merely to watch movies.
Please!!
The reason for video over a phone is simply to improve communication (oh and of course to show you advertisements so the companies can make more money;). With "video phones" another dimension will be added to distance impaired personal communications. Actually seeing the person you are talking to (their facial expressions) is what makes face-to-face communication so desireable, but when that is not possible, video-phones will be the next best thing.
I work for a broadband provider and one of the big products being developed is video conferencing over an IP/VPN. People want to see the people they are talking to. It's the next logical step after standard voice communications.
Check out this article at USAToday. See the small picture. There is a small video camera in the hinge of the phone. This is what video phones will/should be used for. Not movies.
I'm Surprised
on
This is IT?
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Actually, I'm really surprised.
I would have expected a lot more acceptance from the other readers of Slashdot. Or maybe it is simply a case of the "Slashdot Syndrome". (that would be not reading the entire article before you post.)
This is amazing technology!
From the Time article:
"Lean forward, go forward; lean back, go back; turn by twisting your wrist. The experience is the same going uphill, downhill or across any kind of terrain--even ice. It is nothing like riding a bike or a motorcycle. Instead, in the words of Vern Loucks, the former chairman of Baxter International and a Segway board member, "it's like skiing without the snow."
I don't know how many of you have ever been snow skiing, but it is amazing! There is a reason it's so popular.
Also from the article:
"Cars are great for going long distances," Kamen says, "but it makes no sense at all for people in cities to use a 4,000-lb. piece of metal to haul their 150-lb. asses around town."
This is so true! We are so wasteful as a nation in this way. It makes absolutely no sense!
Again, from the article:
"...Dean Kamen...The 50-year-old son of a comic-book artist, he is a college dropout, a self-taught physicist and mechanical engineer with a handful of honorary doctorates, a multimillionaire who wears the same outfit for every occasion: blue jeans, a blue work shirt and a pair of Timberland boots." and "But if Kamen's personality is half Willy Wonka, the other half is closer to Thomas Edison. While he was still struggling in college, Kamen invented the first drug-infusion pump, which enabled doctors to deliver steady, reliable doses to patients. In the years that followed, he invented the first portable insulin pump, the first portable dialysis machine and an array of heart stents, one of which now resides inside Vice President Dick Cheney."
This guy is a hackers hacker! Give the guy a break. I'll be the first to say it (on Slashdot anyway) I think it's going to be a huge hit!
I think you are missing the point of what he said.
Here is some more from the discussion:
"It's "directed mutation" on a microscopic level, but there is very little
macroscopic direction."
and
"I'd much rather have "brownian motion", where a lot of microscopic
directed improvements end up pushing the system slowly in a direction that
none of the individual developers really had the vision to see on their
own."
Certainly the smaller "details" are directed, but I think the point Linus is trying to make is that,
from the perspective of where the kernel was at version 1.0 and where it will be at v. 5.0, its
macro direction is ludicrous to try to predict/design/direct. So yes, its path is directed, but much
more so in micro sense rather than the macro sense.
Slashdot Mirror
Hmmmm...this should really help UnitedLinux. First Mandrake drops out, now TurboLinux is sold off. What next?
For "clearly written books/articles about the concepts of Java and OOP"
Check out the Open Book Project - Java Version a.k.a. "How to Think Like a Computer Scientist".
I think the above is what CEOs, boards and shareholders want to see. IT gives them this. Whether they are smart enough to admit or not.
I just recently read this article at InformationWeek.com. It refers to Cisco CEO John Chambers, Cisco's positive third quarter report, and most importantly, the referred to study by the U.S. Labor Department. I quote, "The U.S. Labor Department on Tuesday said workforce productivity increased 8.6% in the first quarter of 2002, up from a 5.5% increase in the last quarter of 2001. According to Chambers, increased productivity is the impetus for U.S. companies to spend on high-tech computing and networking products.". Now, certainly Chambers is going to be biased, but I don't think the U.S. Labor Dept. is (at least I don't think so.)
Chambers also brought up and interesting point in another article I read. He said something to the affect of (I'm paraphrasing here) from the statistics he had seen concerning productivity over the past 3-5 years (or so) productivity is on an upswing, which meant to him that we are just now learning to utilize all of this IT stuff we've bought in the past few years and what's more important, we're still learning how to be productive with it.
I think those that criticize IT should stop and ask themselves if they are more productive with it. Do they like having shared drives to collaborate off of? Do they like having word processors, spreadsheets and of course databases? How about faster mainframes and servers that decrease the amount of time spent finalizing a transaction?
Without a doubt, time is money. I see IT as saving loads of time and thereby loads of money.
Just my 2 cents. YMMV.
"...and new merchandise soon to be available with the help of ThinkGeek."
How about (at least) $1000 difference?
"Seems that they have had success as far back as 1987, creating rain to help put out a raging forest fire."
It sure would be a fantastic show of goodwill if China were to help us out a bit here in the states before the entire West burns to a cinder.
I saw another quote on Slashdot (different story, but applicable here IMHO) that talked about the DVD model for the movie industry. People are bootlegging movies to VCD/CD using DiVX, et al. But people are still buying DVDs in droves. Why? Because of the value add. DVDs are obviously better in quality, but they also have extra features. I think the music industry needs to adopt a similar model (as some artists already have - Paul Oakenfold is one recent example) and add extra features to their CDs.
I understand that the parent is rated as "Funny" but it is the truth (not to mention good advice). Sure, it may sound funny in its style of implementation, but it is great advice for the original poster. The only thing that I would add is to make damn sure you back up the "H:" drive server nightly (at the very least weekly - it depends how important your data is to you on a dialy basis) and and have some redundancy in your hard drive setup (e.g., a RAID system)
I agree with Linus. I think such decisions and actions are best made with little steps.
In my limited experience (I've only been using Linux and other GNU tools for about 4 years now) it seems like there is an underlying current of not knowing how to correctly pronounce so many of the names and acronyms (recursive and otherwise) like GNU. Is it pronounced "new" or "guh-new" ? Then there is the classic "lin-nux" , "lee-nux" or "lye-nux" . Oh and of course there is the slew of GNU-inspired apps and tools: "nome" or "guh-nome"
Anytime I meet a fellow geek for the first time and we find that we have an interest in Free Software or Open Source software in common, there are those uncomfortable moments while conversing about things when he/she won't pronounce a name as I do. Do you correct or don't you? How do you know you're pronunciation is correct?
Other than setting up sound on Red Hat using sndconfig and hearing Linus (that's pronounced "Lee-nus") pronounce his own name and that of Linux (pronounced "lih-nux"), I've never heard the "official" pronunciation of most of this stuff. Kinda funny huh?
Or, maybe it's just me...
Technica Corporation
We're located in VA right outside of D.C.
Sorry if I sound like I'm trolling. I'm not. I'm just being honest.
Pretty fishy, especially after this almost duplicate story posted just the other day?
Hmmmmmm...
Ahhhh....so, supercooling the quickcam is the secret! Stupid me!
;-)
It seems to me the new free UNIX and UNIX-like OS's are the true way out. Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc. All run very well (arguably better than MS products) on inexpensive Intel x86 hardware. They also run on the current higher end 64 bit platforms (Sparc, Alpha, Itanium) and will run on the newer 64 bit procs from AMD. Incredibly flexible IMHO.
Sure, maybe proprietary UNIX on big iron is slowly being replaced, but free and open source UNIX/Linux will be there to take its place.
A lot of the selling points that MS is focusing on in the ad campaign actually speak better for the free/open UNIX and UNIX-like alternatives than of MS's own products.
"No wonder Unix makes you feel boxed in (Microsoft licensing anyone?). It ties you to an inflexible system (ahem, Microsoft?!?). It requires you to pay for expensive experts (MCSE |= EXPERT). It makes you struggle daily with a server environment that's more complex (Microsoft - The epitome of complexity) than ever."
Well, they've sold me. I'm sticking with Linux!
I just saw this statement at the bottom of their front page:
distributed.net and United Devices join forces: distributed.net and United Devices have announced a partnership which will combine the skills and experience of distributed.net with the commercial backing of United Devices. Several distributed.net volunteers are leaving their old day jobs and joining United Devices full time. United Devices will be providing distributed.net with new hardware and hosting services, as well as sponsoring a donation program that will help support distributed.net's charitable activities."
I guess they are okay for the time being?
Now taking bids on #2512 w/ 49 Karma points.
:-)
WTF?!?!
Sorry, couldn't resist. This guys actually sounds serious and he was marked up for being "Informative"? Okay....
Does anyone else think they should give up the LNUX ticker symbol and the Linux.com domain? Not that they should have to necessarily, but it might be a good idea, especially considering they have kind of gotten out of the "Linux business". Obviously they are still involved with Open Source software, but that is a much larger set than the subset that is "Linux".
Just my 2 cents.
Is anyone else wondering why we are spending so much money on the missile defense system? This seems to have solved the problem of missile defense much more elegantly (and more cost effectively?) Maybe I'm missing something.
Surely you don't think that video over a mobile phone is being pushed merely to watch movies.
Please!!
The reason for video over a phone is simply to improve communication (oh and of course to show you advertisements so the companies can make more money
I work for a broadband provider and one of the big products being developed is video conferencing over an IP/VPN. People want to see the people they are talking to. It's the next logical step after standard voice communications.
Check out this article at USAToday. See the small picture. There is a small video camera in the hinge of the phone. This is what video phones will/should be used for. Not movies.
Actually, I'm really surprised.
I would have expected a lot more acceptance from the other readers of Slashdot. Or maybe it is simply a case of the "Slashdot Syndrome". (that would be not reading the entire article before you post.)
This is amazing technology!
From the Time article:
"Lean forward, go forward; lean back, go back; turn by twisting your wrist. The experience is the same going uphill, downhill or across any kind of terrain--even ice. It is nothing like riding a bike or a motorcycle. Instead, in the words of Vern Loucks, the former chairman of Baxter International and a Segway board member, "it's like skiing without the snow."
I don't know how many of you have ever been snow skiing, but it is amazing! There is a reason it's so popular.
Also from the article:
"Cars are great for going long distances," Kamen says, "but it makes no sense at all for people in cities to use a 4,000-lb. piece of metal to haul their 150-lb. asses around town."
This is so true! We are so wasteful as a nation in this way. It makes absolutely no sense!
Again, from the article:
"...Dean Kamen...The 50-year-old son of a comic-book artist, he is a college dropout, a self-taught physicist and mechanical engineer with a handful of honorary doctorates, a multimillionaire who wears the same outfit for every occasion: blue jeans, a blue work shirt and a pair of Timberland boots." and "But if Kamen's personality is half Willy Wonka, the other half is closer to Thomas Edison. While he was still struggling in college, Kamen invented the first drug-infusion pump, which enabled doctors to deliver steady, reliable doses to patients. In the years that followed, he invented the first portable insulin pump, the first portable dialysis machine and an array of heart stents, one of which now resides inside Vice President Dick Cheney."
This guy is a hackers hacker! Give the guy a break. I'll be the first to say it (on Slashdot anyway) I think it's going to be a huge hit!
I think you are missing the point of what he said.
Here is some more from the discussion:
"It's "directed mutation" on a microscopic level, but there is very little
macroscopic direction."
and
"I'd much rather have "brownian motion", where a lot of microscopic
directed improvements end up pushing the system slowly in a direction that
none of the individual developers really had the vision to see on their
own."
Certainly the smaller "details" are directed, but I think the point Linus is trying to make is that,
from the perspective of where the kernel was at version 1.0 and where it will be at v. 5.0, its
macro direction is ludicrous to try to predict/design/direct. So yes, its path is directed, but much
more so in micro sense rather than the macro sense.
Perhaps I don't like to go outside.
Needlessly dirtying my hide.
Perhaps I have better things to do.
Inside warm and cozy too.
I don't understand all of the fuss.
The outdoors may not be for all of us.
Television is great and entertains.
I'll watch if I want despite your complaints.
Leave me alone, be on your way.
I'm watching TV, right here I'll stay.
Not how I always feel, but I just couldn't resist!