1) Don't. 2) If you really feel you must, work out a coherent, intelligent business plan--one you can take to the bank if necessary to borrow money against. That means 1, 2, and 3 year projections, profit and loss statements, capital and other expenses. Be serious about it. Pay yourself a salary. Know precisely what your monthly living expenses are and how much you need to earn toward them. 3) Be sure that business plan includes (a) an exhaustive study of your target market; and (b) some realistic projections about how you're going to reach that market. Your list of contacts may be the best in the world, but you'll starve if you rely on referrals. 4) How/why should people find and pick you rather than one of the bazillion and one other Web designers out there? 5) Where did you attend art/design school? Know anything about color theory? The color wheel? How color is perceived by a human viewing a monitor vs. a human viewing an actual sunset? How about navigation? Typography and typefaces? Accessibility? Web standards? Any background in fine arts? Advertising? Marketing? How about computers themselves? Networks? ISP's, hosts, e-mail? How does a moitor work? How does HTTP (vs HTML) work? Do you have concrete resources for getting to the information you don't know?
Best to know the answers to all this and more. People who pick up a mouse and a copy of Frontpage make truly unfortunate websites. I'd have to say that if you haven't puzzled your way through all of this and a whole lot more, you're probably getting ready to waste a great deal of time and money.
I've actually had my business for almost three years, and I earn enough money to contribute my half to a two-income household--most months. I didn't thrive until I did my business plan. I know precisely how much work I need to do each month to survive, and I know how much selling and marketing I need to do to gain that work.
I hope this doesn't sound too grouchy. It is realistic.
My, undereducated guess is that AOL's done this because they have their own homogenated, cuticized, totally non-open-slammed-shut, AOL blogs. Yes, folks! According to their information:
"Everyone has a story to tell; what's yours? Create an AOL Journal about your summer vacation, being pregnant or trying to find a new job. AOL makes it easy, fast and fun!" "Get Started Today Create a Journal Build your own blog with our cool tools. "
It's all right there. I didn't have the heart to actually check out the blogs.
What do we need with an open-source, customizable system like LJ's, complete with lively, growing user communities? Who needs software that might foster an actual original thought? Interacting with strangers is so...icky! We can pay lots of money instead to record our sanitized inmost feelings on the AOL version.
They're probably staying awake nights figuring out how to block links from independent systems like Moveable Type. Could Slashdot be far behind?
I know it's supposed to be easy to forge a "from" address in the header of an e-mail. This is a favorite spammer trick.
Would one of you folks enlighten me on whether it's possible to easily forge or otherwise disguise a "bcc" or other portion of the "to" section?
I operate a website (hosted by a third party provider) that's been hammered this past week by someone who vainly hopes to exploit Formmail. He takes an unseemly interest in the cgi-bin and cgi-sys directories and is cheeky enough to blind-copy an e-mail address at AOL with the results.
He won't get anywhere because I haven't got Formmail installed, but he is as aggravating as hell, and not a little scary.
AOL's attitude is that if he is indeed one of their subscribers, he's entitled to their protection, and they won't lift a finger no matter what he's doing or who he's injuring. In other words, if you've got a commercial site and it's third-party hosted, you're fair game for any of their bad kids who wish to harm you, forge your domain name, or whatever, under the guise and protection of AOL. I was told this at about 5:30 p.m. today by one of their "customer service" representatives.
Before I talked to them, I was primarily annoyed. Now I'm really angry. I'd like to enhance my knowledge about this as I consider what to do. Knowledge is power; it's just sometimes difficult to acquire adequate knowledge while you've got so much else to do.
I say this in a spirit of respectful discussion and do not intend it as a flame: Flash may well be an open standard. But 90 percent of the developers out there who build Flash sites have no inkling or clue how to build open sites--sites that comply with the broader Web standards. Except when placed in the hands of an incredibly gifted few (for example Second Story ) it appears to be more of a way for one designer to impress other designers. For the bulk of the people who actually have to use the Flash sites--to read something, buy something, or acquire some information--the ubiquitous Flash intro with its interminable "Loading" message, its bouncing screen, and its cheezy porn musical background--is nothing but an obstacle to the information contained on the site itself. Again, this is offered as a topic of discussion, not a denigration of your expressed opinion.
March is billed as "Womens' History Month." As such it's dear to the hearts of corporate types who are responsible for the "diversity" of their companies, much as Black History Month would receive a nod. Folks were asked for some input for the Womens' History do on the corporate intranet. I suggested that since we were an information-technology company, we might want to include some write-ups of women pioneers in computing. We could start out with Grace Hopper, of course, and then there would be Ada Lovelace, the women "computors" of WWII, those who worked on ENIAC--you could get up quite a respectable--and inspiring--presentation. I cited URLS and offered my services to assist.
Blank stares were the result. They put together their presentation without a single nod to the women on whose shoulders they are literally standing. I can only surmmise that a project to document men (or the history of computing in general) would fare just as badly.
Good for you! It's nice to see somebody reacting intelligently to the Microsoft Gestapo. I know a lot of school systems here in the US have reacted the same way, but yours is the first commercial-office implementation I've read much about.
Questions: What has been the reaction of your end-user community to StarOffice? Laying aside the technical issues, do they find it meets their requirements? What's the general nature of the business? The answers to these would give a very, very interesting perspective.
Anne
I can't believe it. I haven't though about Snipes in years. In one particular place where I worked (when people actually sat in offices with walls and doors), they put all the engineers on one corridor. Somebody would step out into the hallway and call out "Snipes!" and the game would be afoot.
It's not an action game, but the original incarnation of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy set has been handed down in our family. It originally came on 5 1/4" diskettes. I recall re-installing it on our first '386, which had drives of both sizes. When the time came to upgrade that one, I carefully copied it to 3 1/4" floppies, and it duly reinstalled. It's now on its fifth computer. I know it's available now on the Web, but we like our version--carefully handed down like a treasured sourdough culture.
The game I'd really like to get installed is a really obscure little number called Marco Polo. I haven't figured out how to get it going with the current sound card and o/s, but I haven't thought about it too hard either. Maybe I'll dust it off.
(We also have numerous versions of "Oregon Trail" from when our kids were younger--some for PC, some for Mac. Even the oldest can still be made to work.)
I've survived a recession or two, but then I'm older than dirt.:)
Until mid-August, I worked for a technology company. They've laid off thousands, in three waves, and I got hit in the second. The severance was pretty good, although I had to sign a statement promising I wouldn't sue for age discrimination (over 40). They just laid off another 10% of their technical workforce this week.
I contrast that with my husband, who works in a fairly non-technical industry. His company, which is about 80 years old, has also felt the sting of the economic downturn. But the company's reaction was quite different: Rather than shelve highly-skilled employees, they cut back. There's no overtime. Vacation schedules are pretty rigid. Shifts have been re-arranged. But everybody's still working.
I'm enjoying my newly independent life and schedule. I'm not earning nearly as much (yet), but I'm not spending as much either. The trick is in learning to market your own skills (no easy task!!) and doing so aggressively. I suspect it'll be a long, long time, if ever, before I place my faith in another corporation. And if I ever do, I'll be watching behind me.
If you are at all interested in this topic, there is a Website you should visit: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. These women are working, at great danger to themselves, to educate girls and other women. The punishment for what they are doing is death. In fact, the woman who founded the group several years ago was executed by the Taliban. The photographs are horrific; the childrens' drawings merely heartbreaking. The people of Afghanistan are truly crushed under the heels of the Taliban. Women suffer greatly, and as is often the case, when they suffer, children are also suffering. This issue has been pretty widely discussed in womens' groups in the U.S. Maybe it's time to give it a wider audience.
Well, if you're looking for something a little out of the ordinary, you could consider building a hovercraft. Or if you'd actually like to get rid of the motors, you could probably find a hovercraft lover who'd be delighted to take them off your hands. There's an astonishingly large community of people Out There who are real hovercraft fanciers. They build these things out of all kinds of junk in all kinds of configurations. It's surprising how well the vehicles function. (You may remember the hovercraft episode on "Junkyard Wars.") Run a search on "hoverlovers" and you'll find at least one very active group. With names like "Dumpster Diver," they can probably also tell you how to use the rest of your garage treasures. Have fun.
Anybody who uses Frontpage consistently has such a strong masochistic streak that the restrictions probably won't bother them. Relax and go get yourself a copy of Dreamweaver.
I have to second the LAMP comment, but with a few deeply-felt extras thrown in:
Make a commitment to Web standards, please! I live for the day when I can delete Netscape 4.x from my systems; it's still there, used as a lowest common denominator testing environment. Read A List Apart. Part of the commitment involves knowing how to write HTML off the top of your head.
Whatever else people say, an awful lot of stuff still gets done in JavaScript.
Macromedia Flash is the most abused piece of software in the world. Learn to communicate without it.
Much as we all dislike Microsoft, it is here for the foreseeable. Understand it and learn well how to work with it.
Even if you want the more glamourous and interesting work on the underside of things, make an effort to understand principles of good design and interface. I've had the sad experience this week of being asked to review a brilliantly conceived and executed site done with PHPNuke. It is tooth-grindingly ugly, so much so that the ugliness interferes with navigating around it.
Tighten your belt. Web developers aren't doing any better than anybody else at the moment, and they're always the first to go when a company decides to cut back
Your post really is insightful, and your first statement brings up a question that has bothered me at least since last Wednesday. The newsman was in "How could we let this happen" mode, and he was interviewing someone highly placed at the NSA. The NSA was talking about all of the sophisticated (mostly American) technology available to the terrorists and the difficulty of combatting it.
It occurred to me then that the NSA has no peer when it comes to technology and the gathering of information--even, many of us would say, in ways we don't especially appreciate. But how much of what occurred in the development of this attack relied on technology? And how much was plain old-fashioned talking, recruiting, development of loyal followers, fostering of relationships--stuff you do in person?
It seems to me that Internet sites such as this one and the one you refer to are the modern equivalent of coffee houses, marketplaces, and town squares--places where people gather to talk. Have our intelligence organizations foresaken old-fashioned human contact in favor of technological wonders? If so, I don't think it served any of us very well.
Anne
(I can answer your question about the Nisei, Navajo Code Talkers, and Tuskeegee Airmen. But I'll leave it as an excercise for the student.)
I'm afraid it's bound to happen. If you wear a turban (or veil) and don't look like them, you're automatically a suspect. They're thinking with the place they sit down, not with their brains. Unfortunately, anything that fosters bigotry and dis-unity now will serve to undermine our collective efforts to combat the real source of the problem.
An idea: Just for today, maybe each of us should take a minute to speak with, and get to know, somebody who doesn't look just like we do--somebody of a different race, religion, or ethnicity. Maybe we should encourage our children to do the same. Maybe we should try to make a habit of it.
I'm with you! And I'd have to add: AND FOR GOD'S SAKE, PLEASE STOP SENDING ME KNEE-JERK EMAILS!!
I'm staring in amazement at the "public" Hotmail inbox I maintain. I've been up towards my space quota at least twice this past week. Without recourse to how bad Hotmail is, my spam filters are working, and I'm not seeing any of the really offensive, mercenary spam. But what I'm getting is duplicates, triplicates and more, many times over, of the same tired old patriotic blurbs, GIFS, unattributed quotes and diatribes, really inflammatory screeds, and missives from people who feel they need to update me every hour on what is going on and what this or that pundit's reaction to it is. I'm so sick of badly-written parallels between this and Pearl Harbor, this and 1776, this and every other war we've fought. I've gotten the bogus Canada message five times.
Most of the acquaintances sending this junk are technical illiterates. But at least one set is from the CEO of a nice-sized software/shareware company whose newsletter I subscribe to.
I'll admit I'm puzzled by this--though not entirely. What's motivating it? Does it make people feel like they're sharing? Fighting back? Do they figure they're telling everybody something new?? Is it happening because we were home from work a great deal last week and nobody had anything better to do? Is it because e-mail is "free" so we might as well use it?
Unless somebody can suggest another outlook, I'm just going to keep quietly deleting the stuff. But I can't help thinking about how much real good these people could be doing by spending five minutes with checkbook or credit card and the charity of their choice.
Just another Internet phenomenon, I guess--E-mail as bully pulpit and soapbox.
Anne
(Headed out the door to begin re-adding my tiny bit to the economy...)
Here's a Specific Way You Can Help
on
More On Tragedy
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I read an article earlier this evening on TechTV indicating that the New York Red Cross is in serious need of an enormous list of hardware, peripherals, consumables, and software to help facilitate their field operations, many of which are being carried out by paper. They also need Microsoft and Citrix certified volunteers. The list ranges from entire systems to network hubs, Cat5 cable, scanners, handhelds, and even things like diskettes and tie wraps.
I wrote to the contact person to verify this, and I have just heard back from her; apparently the story is entirely true, as she has asked me to phone her in the morning.
If you are looking for a way to help that is relevant to what you do and who you are, this certainly looks likely.
Anne
Here are the texts of my message to Ms. Webman and her answer to me:
-----Original Message-----
From: Anne Madison [mailto: ]
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 8:18 PM
To: dwebman@webmanassociates.com
Subject: Story on TechTV
Sorry to break in on you like this.
I am reading an article from TechTV that indicates you're in need of hardware and equipment. A detailed list is provided in the article. The URL is: http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/showtell/story/ 0,23008,3347294,00.html
If you're still in need of these things, a group of us here in Baltimore would like to help. We are wondering if the list is still current, and while we don't have a wealth to expend, we would like to try our utmost to cross at least one item off your list. If you could ask someone to let us know that the story is correct, and where and how to send the items, we would be grateful for the opportunity to assist in some small way.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. God bless!
Anne K. L. Madison
Ann,
The story is true. We will have a better sense of what has been donated by tomorrow morning. Would you be kind enough to call me in the morning and I will see what is left on the list.
I can't believe kids will ever stop playing with Legos. My sons started out in infancy with the great big ones and graduated to the smaller ones. They're grown now, but there are still thousands of Legos in this house, patiently awaiting the next generation.
OTOH, I knew my son was going to be an engineer when at age two, he picked up a wooden car that had lost its back wheels and constructed wheels and axle for it out of Tinker Toys. Those have probably long since been banned as unsafe.
From now on I'm going to give Lego sets any time there's an occasion requiring a gift for a youngster. Now, what's the prognosis for Tonka Trucks and Hotwheels??
Migrant Workers of the New Millenium?
on
Extreme Telecommuting
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I worry about this a great deal because the potential for abuse and exploitation seems very great. The vacation issue is really only the tip of the iceberg.
I had an experience about four years ago that has left a bad feeling ever since. I was working on a project where a headhunter brought in about 30 highly-trained programmers from a single Asian country--at a fraction of the hourly rate a U.S. programmer could command. They were all young men in their early twenties.
About a week into the project, one of them came down with measles--the old-fashioned "red measles" that U.S. kids are immunized for in infancy. Far from being just an annoying childhood disease, measles can rob you of your sight. It requires bed rest and protection for the eyes. This man's illness didn't slow the headhunter down for a second; his computer was moved to his apartment so he could code right there in his sickroom. No amount of reasoning, argument, pointing to medical articles, or petitions to management could make this idiot listen to reason. I didn't have any authority in the matter, and all those who were concerned were helpless.
I don't know the outcome. But I will always wonder if somewhere there is a talented individual robbed of his sight by callous and ignorant exploitation. So I have to ask: Whether locally or remotely, are we turning the talented people of other countries into a technological version of plain old-fashioned cheap/exploited labor?
I'd certainly get busy and cobble together a "System As Built" document. Describe the server, its configuration, and its functions as completely and concisely as you can. Think of it as a "snapshot" of the system on the day you last had control of it. Try not to leave anything out. Deliver it to your client with a memo saying you can't be responsible for any changes made from this point forward. Remind him of your bill rate without making any further comments.
Tedious? You bet! But you may find such an as-built document goes a long way towards covering your posterior if and when it's left flapping in the breeze.
Then go ahead and hand over the access with a clear mind. Relax and consider that you'll probably be called in to restore order.
Your reply seems to be one of the more thoughtful ones in the discussion, and I agree with you. I had to sit on a jury several years ago that decided a disability case, and it was gut-wrenching. In our case the person had done manual labor most of her life and was unsuited by education for any viable alternative.
What I can't figure out is why voice recognition was deemed impractical. It would appear to be the most suitable method here.
Like you, I hope never to have to find this out for myself.
Actually, I've been to Ottawa, and it wouldn't be a bad place to live and work at all.
I'm married with two children, and I can't separate my requirements as a technology worker from my requirements as the parent of a family: Good schools, reasonable housing, moderate taxes. I would add to that "access to outdoor recreation" and "liveable climate," which for me means on the cool side. But those are personal preferences that have nothing to do with technology.
Make the city attractive to average middle-class people and the technology workers will probably be happy. I'd suspect it would do more good to make the city attractive to technology companies.
I guess I never have thought of him as a hacker and gadfly. I guess I've been thinking of him as an engineer all this time.
The best way I can express my reason is the way I expressed it to a group of friends who are not employed in any computer-related field. Jailing this young man for what he did is almost exactly analogous to a pharmaceutical company being able to prosecute a doctor for discussing a specific disease--simply because the drug company has a patent on some medicine for it.
In addition to the utterly chilling general First Amendment issues, I greatly fear it will have an adverse effect on people concerned with topics related to computer security. If they can't talk about it, they can't improve it.
The Federal government has decided to make an example of someone who really hasn't done anything wrong. I've already written to express my views to my senators and congressional representative, and I hope everyone here who lives in the U.S. will take a moment to do the same thing.
You could do a lot worse than that page at MIT. It's readable and navigable, and it gets the job done. Things they did particularly right: It's navigable from just about wherever you are. It gives you a clearly delineated path back from where you came. It appears to be all text-based (therefore accessible to all.) It's easily searchable. If they made one mistake it was in not using anchor tags on that first index page to carry the user back to the top area of the page (where the path navigation and left-hand navigation are located).
Although it pains me horribly to say it, I think PDF is a good bet. (And I hope somebody comes up with a viable alternative soon.) I'd pick that, plain HTML, and some other format you decide on that prevails at your institution--whether it be.doc, text, or something else. You want above all to make it useful to the people who need to read it, so let their opinions prevail.
Slashdot Mirror
1) Don't.
2) If you really feel you must, work out a coherent, intelligent business plan--one you can take to the bank if necessary to borrow money against. That means 1, 2, and 3 year projections, profit and loss statements, capital and other expenses. Be serious about it. Pay yourself a salary. Know precisely what your monthly living expenses are and how much you need to earn toward them.
3) Be sure that business plan includes (a) an exhaustive study of your target market; and (b) some realistic projections about how you're going to reach that market. Your list of contacts may be the best in the world, but you'll starve if you rely on referrals.
4) How/why should people find and pick you rather than one of the bazillion and one other Web designers out there?
5) Where did you attend art/design school? Know anything about color theory? The color wheel? How color is perceived by a human viewing a monitor vs. a human viewing an actual sunset? How about navigation? Typography and typefaces? Accessibility? Web standards? Any background in fine arts? Advertising? Marketing? How about computers themselves? Networks? ISP's, hosts, e-mail? How does a moitor work? How does HTTP (vs HTML) work? Do you have concrete resources for getting to the information you don't know?
Best to know the answers to all this and more. People who pick up a mouse and a copy of Frontpage make truly unfortunate websites.
I'd have to say that if you haven't puzzled your way through all of this and a whole lot more, you're probably getting ready to waste a great deal of time and money.
I've actually had my business for almost three years, and I earn enough money to contribute my half to a two-income household--most months. I didn't thrive until I did my business plan. I know precisely how much work I need to do each month to survive, and I know how much selling and marketing I need to do to gain that work.
I hope this doesn't sound too grouchy. It is realistic.
Anne
My, undereducated guess is that AOL's done this because they have their own homogenated, cuticized, totally non-open-slammed-shut, AOL blogs. Yes, folks! According to their information:
"Everyone has a story to tell; what's yours? Create an AOL Journal about your summer vacation, being pregnant or trying to find a new job. AOL makes it easy, fast and fun!"
"Get Started Today
Create a Journal
Build your own blog
with our cool tools. "
It's all right there. I didn't have the heart to actually check out the blogs.
What do we need with an open-source, customizable system like LJ's, complete with lively, growing user communities? Who needs software that might foster an actual original thought? Interacting with strangers is so...icky! We can pay lots of money instead to record our sanitized inmost feelings on the AOL version.
They're probably staying awake nights figuring out how to block links from independent systems like Moveable Type. Could Slashdot be far behind?
Anne
If I had the Powers of Mod, I would mod you up to a ten. Son of a gun, that works!
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I know it's supposed to be easy to forge a "from" address in the header of an e-mail. This is a favorite spammer trick.
Would one of you folks enlighten me on whether it's possible to easily forge or otherwise disguise a "bcc" or other portion of the "to" section?
I operate a website (hosted by a third party provider) that's been hammered this past week by someone who vainly hopes to exploit Formmail. He takes an unseemly interest in the cgi-bin and cgi-sys directories and is cheeky enough to blind-copy an e-mail address at AOL with the results.
He won't get anywhere because I haven't got Formmail installed, but he is as aggravating as hell, and not a little scary.
AOL's attitude is that if he is indeed one of their subscribers, he's entitled to their protection, and they won't lift a finger no matter what he's doing or who he's injuring. In other words, if you've got a commercial site and it's third-party hosted, you're fair game for any of their bad kids who wish to harm you, forge your domain name, or whatever, under the guise and protection of AOL. I was told this at about 5:30 p.m. today by one of their "customer service" representatives.
Before I talked to them, I was primarily annoyed. Now I'm really angry. I'd like to enhance my knowledge about this as I consider what to do. Knowledge is power; it's just sometimes difficult to acquire adequate knowledge while you've got so much else to do.
Thanks!
Anne
I say this in a spirit of respectful discussion and do not intend it as a flame: Flash may well be an open standard. But 90 percent of the developers out there who build Flash sites have no inkling or clue how to build open sites--sites that comply with the broader Web standards. Except when placed in the hands of an incredibly gifted few (for example Second Story ) it appears to be more of a way for one designer to impress other designers. For the bulk of the people who actually have to use the Flash sites--to read something, buy something, or acquire some information--the ubiquitous Flash intro with its interminable "Loading" message, its bouncing screen, and its cheezy porn musical background--is nothing but an obstacle to the information contained on the site itself. Again, this is offered as a topic of discussion, not a denigration of your expressed opinion.
Blank stares were the result. They put together their presentation without a single nod to the women on whose shoulders they are literally standing. I can only surmmise that a project to document men (or the history of computing in general) would fare just as badly.
Good for you! It's nice to see somebody reacting intelligently to the Microsoft Gestapo. I know a lot of school systems here in the US have reacted the same way, but yours is the first commercial-office implementation I've read much about.
Questions: What has been the reaction of your end-user community to StarOffice? Laying aside the technical issues, do they find it meets their requirements? What's the general nature of the business? The answers to these would give a very, very interesting perspective.
Anne
I can't believe it. I haven't though about Snipes in years. In one particular place where I worked (when people actually sat in offices with walls and doors), they put all the engineers on one corridor. Somebody would step out into the hallway and call out "Snipes!" and the game would be afoot.
It's not an action game, but the original incarnation of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy set has been handed down in our family. It originally came on 5 1/4" diskettes. I recall re-installing it on our first '386, which had drives of both sizes. When the time came to upgrade that one, I carefully copied it to 3 1/4" floppies, and it duly reinstalled. It's now on its fifth computer. I know it's available now on the Web, but we like our version--carefully handed down like a treasured sourdough culture.
The game I'd really like to get installed is a really obscure little number called Marco Polo. I haven't figured out how to get it going with the current sound card and o/s, but I haven't thought about it too hard either. Maybe I'll dust it off.
(We also have numerous versions of "Oregon Trail" from when our kids were younger--some for PC, some for Mac. Even the oldest can still be made to work.)
I've survived a recession or two, but then I'm older than dirt. :)
Until mid-August, I worked for a technology company. They've laid off thousands, in three waves, and I got hit in the second. The severance was pretty good, although I had to sign a statement promising I wouldn't sue for age discrimination (over 40). They just laid off another 10% of their technical workforce this week.
I contrast that with my husband, who works in a fairly non-technical industry. His company, which is about 80 years old, has also felt the sting of the economic downturn. But the company's reaction was quite different: Rather than shelve highly-skilled employees, they cut back. There's no overtime. Vacation schedules are pretty rigid. Shifts have been re-arranged. But everybody's still working.
I'm enjoying my newly independent life and schedule. I'm not earning nearly as much (yet), but I'm not spending as much either. The trick is in learning to market your own skills (no easy task!!) and doing so aggressively. I suspect it'll be a long, long time, if ever, before I place my faith in another corporation. And if I ever do, I'll be watching behind me.
If you are at all interested in this topic, there is a Website you should visit: The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. These women are working, at great danger to themselves, to educate girls and other women. The punishment for what they are doing is death. In fact, the woman who founded the group several years ago was executed by the Taliban. The photographs are horrific; the childrens' drawings merely heartbreaking. The people of Afghanistan are truly crushed under the heels of the Taliban. Women suffer greatly, and as is often the case, when they suffer, children are also suffering. This issue has been pretty widely discussed in womens' groups in the U.S. Maybe it's time to give it a wider audience.
Well, if you're looking for something a little out of the ordinary, you could consider building a hovercraft. Or if you'd actually like to get rid of the motors, you could probably find a hovercraft lover who'd be delighted to take them off your hands. There's an astonishingly large community of people Out There who are real hovercraft fanciers. They build these things out of all kinds of junk in all kinds of configurations. It's surprising how well the vehicles function. (You may remember the hovercraft episode on "Junkyard Wars.") Run a search on "hoverlovers" and you'll find at least one very active group. With names like "Dumpster Diver," they can probably also tell you how to use the rest of your garage treasures. Have fun.
Anybody who uses Frontpage consistently has such a strong masochistic streak that the restrictions probably won't bother them. Relax and go get yourself a copy of Dreamweaver.
I have to second the LAMP comment, but with a few deeply-felt extras thrown in:
Good luck,
Anne
Your post really is insightful, and your first statement brings up a question that has bothered me at least since last Wednesday. The newsman was in "How could we let this happen" mode, and he was interviewing someone highly placed at the NSA. The NSA was talking about all of the sophisticated (mostly American) technology available to the terrorists and the difficulty of combatting it.
It occurred to me then that the NSA has no peer when it comes to technology and the gathering of information--even, many of us would say, in ways we don't especially appreciate. But how much of what occurred in the development of this attack relied on technology? And how much was plain old-fashioned talking, recruiting, development of loyal followers, fostering of relationships--stuff you do in person?
It seems to me that Internet sites such as this one and the one you refer to are the modern equivalent of coffee houses, marketplaces, and town squares--places where people gather to talk. Have our intelligence organizations foresaken old-fashioned human contact in favor of technological wonders? If so, I don't think it served any of us very well.
Anne
(I can answer your question about the Nisei, Navajo Code Talkers, and Tuskeegee Airmen. But I'll leave it as an excercise for the student.)
I'm afraid it's bound to happen. If you wear a turban (or veil) and don't look like them, you're automatically a suspect. They're thinking with the place they sit down, not with their brains. Unfortunately, anything that fosters bigotry and dis-unity now will serve to undermine our collective efforts to combat the real source of the problem.
An idea: Just for today, maybe each of us should take a minute to speak with, and get to know, somebody who doesn't look just like we do--somebody of a different race, religion, or ethnicity. Maybe we should encourage our children to do the same. Maybe we should try to make a habit of it.
Anne
I'm with you! And I'd have to add: AND FOR GOD'S SAKE, PLEASE STOP SENDING ME KNEE-JERK EMAILS!!
I'm staring in amazement at the "public" Hotmail inbox I maintain. I've been up towards my space quota at least twice this past week. Without recourse to how bad Hotmail is, my spam filters are working, and I'm not seeing any of the really offensive, mercenary spam. But what I'm getting is duplicates, triplicates and more, many times over, of the same tired old patriotic blurbs, GIFS, unattributed quotes and diatribes, really inflammatory screeds, and missives from people who feel they need to update me every hour on what is going on and what this or that pundit's reaction to it is. I'm so sick of badly-written parallels between this and Pearl Harbor, this and 1776, this and every other war we've fought. I've gotten the bogus Canada message five times.
Most of the acquaintances sending this junk are technical illiterates. But at least one set is from the CEO of a nice-sized software/shareware company whose newsletter I subscribe to.
I'll admit I'm puzzled by this--though not entirely. What's motivating it? Does it make people feel like they're sharing? Fighting back? Do they figure they're telling everybody something new?? Is it happening because we were home from work a great deal last week and nobody had anything better to do? Is it because e-mail is "free" so we might as well use it?
Unless somebody can suggest another outlook, I'm just going to keep quietly deleting the stuff. But I can't help thinking about how much real good these people could be doing by spending five minutes with checkbook or credit card and the charity of their choice.
Just another Internet phenomenon, I guess--E-mail as bully pulpit and soapbox.
Anne
(Headed out the door to begin re-adding my tiny bit to the economy...)
I read an article earlier this evening on TechTV indicating that the New York Red Cross is in serious need of an enormous list of hardware, peripherals, consumables, and software to help facilitate their field operations, many of which are being carried out by paper. They also need Microsoft and Citrix certified volunteers. The list ranges from entire systems to network hubs, Cat5 cable, scanners, handhelds, and even things like diskettes and tie wraps.
I wrote to the contact person to verify this, and I have just heard back from her; apparently the story is entirely true, as she has asked me to phone her in the morning.
If you are looking for a way to help that is relevant to what you do and who you are, this certainly looks likely.Anne
Here are the texts of my message to Ms. Webman and her answer to me:
-----Original Message----- From: Anne Madison [mailto: ]
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 8:18 PM
To: dwebman@webmanassociates.com
Subject: Story on TechTV
Sorry to break in on you like this.
I am reading an article from TechTV that indicates you're in need of hardware and equipment. A detailed list is provided in the article. The URL is: http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/showtell/story/ 0,23008,3347294,00.html
If you're still in need of these things, a group of us here in Baltimore would like to help. We are wondering if the list is still current, and while we don't have a wealth to expend, we would like to try our utmost to cross at least one item off your list. If you could ask someone to let us know that the story is correct, and where and how to send the items, we would be grateful for the opportunity to assist in some small way.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. God bless!
Anne K. L. Madison
Ann,
The story is true. We will have a better sense of what has been donated by tomorrow morning. Would you be kind enough to call me in the morning and I will see what is left on the list.
Thank you!!!
Dorothy
Dorothy Webman, D.S.W.
President/CEO
Webman Associates
dwebman@webmanassociates.com
4 Brattle Street, Suite 207
Cambridge, MA 02138
(617) 864-6769 [Telephone]
(617) 492-3673 [Facsimile]
New York Office:
1650 Broadway, Suite 701
New York, NY 10019
(212) 459-0944 [Telephone]
(212) 586-4306 [Facsimile]
I can't believe kids will ever stop playing with Legos. My sons started out in infancy with the great big ones and graduated to the smaller ones. They're grown now, but there are still thousands of Legos in this house, patiently awaiting the next generation.
OTOH, I knew my son was going to be an engineer when at age two, he picked up a wooden car that had lost its back wheels and constructed wheels and axle for it out of Tinker Toys. Those have probably long since been banned as unsafe.
From now on I'm going to give Lego sets any time there's an occasion requiring a gift for a youngster. Now, what's the prognosis for Tonka Trucks and Hotwheels??
I worry about this a great deal because the potential for abuse and exploitation seems very great. The vacation issue is really only the tip of the iceberg.
I had an experience about four years ago that has left a bad feeling ever since. I was working on a project where a headhunter brought in about 30 highly-trained programmers from a single Asian country--at a fraction of the hourly rate a U.S. programmer could command. They were all young men in their early twenties.
About a week into the project, one of them came down with measles--the old-fashioned "red measles" that U.S. kids are immunized for in infancy. Far from being just an annoying childhood disease, measles can rob you of your sight. It requires bed rest and protection for the eyes. This man's illness didn't slow the headhunter down for a second; his computer was moved to his apartment so he could code right there in his sickroom. No amount of reasoning, argument, pointing to medical articles, or petitions to management could make this idiot listen to reason. I didn't have any authority in the matter, and all those who were concerned were helpless.
I don't know the outcome. But I will always wonder if somewhere there is a talented individual robbed of his sight by callous and ignorant exploitation. So I have to ask: Whether locally or remotely, are we turning the talented people of other countries into a technological version of plain old-fashioned cheap/exploited labor?
I'd certainly get busy and cobble together a "System As Built" document. Describe the server, its configuration, and its functions as completely and concisely as you can. Think of it as a "snapshot" of the system on the day you last had control of it. Try not to leave anything out. Deliver it to your client with a memo saying you can't be responsible for any changes made from this point forward. Remind him of your bill rate without making any further comments.
Tedious? You bet! But you may find such an as-built document goes a long way towards covering your posterior if and when it's left flapping in the breeze.
Then go ahead and hand over the access with a clear mind. Relax and consider that you'll probably be called in to restore order.
Consultants do this quite a bit.
Anne
Your reply seems to be one of the more thoughtful ones in the discussion, and I agree with you. I had to sit on a jury several years ago that decided a disability case, and it was gut-wrenching. In our case the person had done manual labor most of her life and was unsuited by education for any viable alternative.
What I can't figure out is why voice recognition was deemed impractical. It would appear to be the most suitable method here.
Like you, I hope never to have to find this out for myself.
Actually, I've been to Ottawa, and it wouldn't be a bad place to live and work at all. I'm married with two children, and I can't separate my requirements as a technology worker from my requirements as the parent of a family: Good schools, reasonable housing, moderate taxes. I would add to that "access to outdoor recreation" and "liveable climate," which for me means on the cool side. But those are personal preferences that have nothing to do with technology. Make the city attractive to average middle-class people and the technology workers will probably be happy. I'd suspect it would do more good to make the city attractive to technology companies.
I guess I never have thought of him as a hacker and gadfly. I guess I've been thinking of him as an engineer all this time.
The best way I can express my reason is the way I expressed it to a group of friends who are not employed in any computer-related field. Jailing this young man for what he did is almost exactly analogous to a pharmaceutical company being able to prosecute a doctor for discussing a specific disease--simply because the drug company has a patent on some medicine for it.
In addition to the utterly chilling general First Amendment issues, I greatly fear it will have an adverse effect on people concerned with topics related to computer security. If they can't talk about it, they can't improve it.
The Federal government has decided to make an example of someone who really hasn't done anything wrong. I've already written to express my views to my senators and congressional representative, and I hope everyone here who lives in the U.S. will take a moment to do the same thing.
Anne
You could do a lot worse than that page at MIT. It's readable and navigable, and it gets the job done. Things they did particularly right: It's navigable from just about wherever you are. It gives you a clearly delineated path back from where you came. It appears to be all text-based (therefore accessible to all.) It's easily searchable. If they made one mistake it was in not using anchor tags on that first index page to carry the user back to the top area of the page (where the path navigation and left-hand navigation are located).
.doc, text, or something else. You want above all to make it useful to the people who need to read it, so let their opinions prevail.
Although it pains me horribly to say it, I think PDF is a good bet. (And I hope somebody comes up with a viable alternative soon.) I'd pick that, plain HTML, and some other format you decide on that prevails at your institution--whether it be
Have fun.