I bought a Panasonic digital camcorder for my company (with their money). I told my business manager that Panasonic was also offering a $200 rebate. She said "Great! Fill it out!"
So I did...I got all the required items together, filled out the paper work correctly...and then waited....and waited....and waited....for FOUR months!
Then Panasonic sent me a letter saying we were not elegible for the rebate since it was a company purchase not a personal purchase. WTF? Why should Panasonic care who the hell bought the stupid thing?
Anyway, I now ignore rebate promotions (unless they are the instant-at the register type).
They're popular because if I'm Novell certified in the relevant products, I can walk into any Novell business and sit down and administer the network.
Good point...you also missed a big one.
Companies also want to be able to point an finger and blame someone when something goes horribly wrong. I've actually had Microsoft write me a fix for a product bug in under 24 hours. It solved my problem, and was included in the next Windows 2000 service pack. Why did they do this for us? Because we PAY.
The OSS community says: "Gee, you could've written the fix yourself with our products." - That's not the point. I'm a network administrator, and even though I have a CS degree....I do not want to fix someone else's products.
Volkswagen doesn't expect me to fix my own car; why should the OSS community expect me to fix my own operating system?
Lucent long distance switches have the ability to be tapped and have had it for YEARS. Most telecom gear is designed to be LAWFULLY tapped. I don't have a problem with network equipment vendors also providing these features.
My gripe is the lack of due process for government monitoring (post 9-11-01). I'm OK with monitoring any form of communications as long as the organization doing the monitoring has made their case to a judge, and the judge has granted them a warrant. Wiretap laws need to be expanded to include all forms of electronic surveillance. These laws require a court issued warrant before the use of any electronic surveillance by law enforcement. Any evidence obtained without proper authorization is inadmissible in court.
In my day, we had 56k FRAME RELAY and gosh darn it, that was good enough for us.
Seriously....my college back in the early internet days had a 56k frame connection for the entire campus....and it was damn cool (circa 9600 baud modem era).
Even today, I see lots of offices with 50+ employees still connected via 128k ISDN....and they aren't looking for anything faster. The complaint I hear from most of these guys is that it's too expensive....not that it is too slow.
One of our offices recently transitioned from 128k ISDN to 1.5 Mbps DSL...why? Cost! The ISDN circuit ran us $200/mo. DSL costs us $79.99/mo.
Has anyone noticed that the quality of most hardware these days is very poor.
Sure, hard drives are huge and fast...but many don't last three years. I've had many motherboards, power supplies, and fans die over the past three years....way more than the 10 years before that.
Hardware manufacturers realize that people replace their hardware every three years (roughly), so why design it to last ten?
I work for a small non-profit school. I'm responsible for our networks, desktops, servers, security, application roll-out, systems planning, budgeting, and purchasing, IP telephony, standard PBX telephony, internet connectivity and more recently.....database application development. People call me when stuff breaks, and I do staff training, so I guess i'm help desk as well.
I'm all for big brother getting the bad guy, but I really resent big brother having absolute, unchecked, power. The events of 9-11-01 necessitate preventative measures in law enforcement....but not without checks and balances.
We need a public advocacy group that oversees law enforcement. The ACLU is not enough. The group must oversee law enforcement and prevent abuses of their newly expanded powers.
-ted
OSS out of touch with the "majority".
on
Too Much Free Software
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I've said this for years. Having used Linux since RH 4, there is too much software variation in the Linux world.
The majority of the computing world wants standard software that works MOST of the time. Computer users want to be able to easily exchange files, and install software without worrying about compatibility. Most computer users are realists; they realize that software is not perfect. Software fails....just like cars, and other complex things. People understand this.
Corporations want standards. And most of all they want predictable standards. Sure MS screws up a lot, but corporations have gotten used to the predictable nature of MS software...imperfect though it may be.
RedHat seems to be the closest thing to a predictable release of Linux. The community must put petty squabbling and ego aside and decide on a "standard" way of doing things if it is ever going to challenge the commercial software industry.
Hmm, what have I bought recently that I could have downloaded for FREE? How about redhat linux 9.0. I bought the PRO version for $130.00....why?
Support. The product is free, but if you want the manuals and support you must pay.
Consumers have decided that music is no-longer worth paying $20.00/CD for. Consumers dictate markets...not the other way around. OK, if you want album art and true CD quality, then you go and buy the CD, but the majority of the music consuming public has decided that getting their pants pulled down over the price of a CD is not worth it.
The music industry needs to change its business model, not have congress legislate it. What business model is so entitled to survive that laws must be created to protect it? That's CRAP. In a true capitalist society, consumers dictate markets....not congress.
CD's are overpriced. People will pay for music when it's live, or when it comes with other goodies (t-shirts, desirable album art...etc.).
The RIAA tried to go after Verizon, but being a mega-corp, their pockets are just as deep, if not deeper than, the RIAA's. Verizon had much to lose. They invested tons of money in rolling out broadband, and the number one reason for selling that to kids is file sharing. The broadband providers are having a hard time selling their services, and there is no way they would allow the RIAA to make those sales even harder.
So what is the RIAA to do? Go after the next largest file-trading networks....colleges! After all colleges don't make their money from broadband connectivity, they make it from tuition. The RIAA figures that colleges will put up less of a fight.
Next they'll go after churches and non-profits...these people are the lowest-life scum of the earth.
DOUBLE JEOPARDY - Being tried twice for the same offense; prohibited by the 5th Amendmentto the U.S. Constitution. '[T]he Double Jeopardy Clause protects against three distinct abuses: [1] a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal; [2] a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction; and [3] multiple punishments for the same offense.' U.S. v. Halper, 490 U.S. 435, 440 (1989).
In this case, i'm glad i'm an American. I guess the Norwegians don't have this sort of protection.
Having been through a 4 year EE program and a 4 year CS program, I can say without a doubt that any 4 year CS graduate can be considered an engineer.
It is true that there are alot of programers that don't understand Big-O notation, recursion, and the differences between quicksort, bubble sort, and the finer points of linked lists and pointers. These programers should not be considered "engineers" just like graduates of "technical" institutions should not be considered engineers.
Seat of the pants learning is OK, but when it comes to critical systems, fundamental understanding of the theories is crucial.
I'll tell you why Adobe is making a big deal about this: M-A-R-K-E-T-I-N-G.
Adobe realizes that a commodity PC box costs less. This is important to people that, at the end of the day, have to make the numbers work. Adobe also realizes that a faster platform that costs less leaves more room in the budget for their software. A company saving money on the hardware is much more likely to spend on pricey software.
I never claimed there was NO support available for these products. Just crappy support.
Your "software updates" are all labled "beta" and "alpha". That's crap. I want stable, tested, and supported software. I am a paying consumer not a guinea pig. I do not feel that I should be responsible for testing a vendor's apps.
My claim is that Sonic Blue did not adequately support these products and relied on 3rd party people to do the work they should have been doing all along.
It makes sense for Apple to drop Motorola as their processor vendor of choice. Motorola has made it known to the public that they are "refocusing on their core business" that means they are trying to take back share in the communications business (read: Cellular phones and infrastructure). Nokia has been beating the pants off of them for years and Moto has decided to take back the market it invented.
Processors are not in this strategy. So, what does Apple do? Obviously change CPU vendors. I thought Apple would go with an AMD hammer type chip. It fits nicely into their desktop/server strategy. The problem is the APPS! Apple has got to get the rest of the software guys to re-compile their stuff for the x86 platform. A daunting prospect at best.
But wait, there's more. IBM has a Power 4 drived 64-bit chip that has respectable performance and DOESN'T require that Mac developers recompile their apps! Everyone wins!
Having owned 3 SonicBlue products (RioCAR, RIO digital audio reciever, and a portable RIO player) i'm glad they're gone. I bought these products because they were cutting edge devices that, at the time, no one else had. Sadly, all of these items,at release, had limited software support....and six months later had none.
A company must support its products for longer than six months if it's going to survive. Sure, most of these products have 3rd party support now, but to expect that at the corporate level seems like passing the buck.
I got my CS degree at the College of NJ, and I got exposed to PCs(windows),PCs (Linux), MACs, and SUNs. Most of my software development happened inside a text editor on a unix machine(no IDE necessary for quality code). The beauty of this setup is CHOICE. You get to use the technology that works best for you. The idea of higher education is to master the concepts idependent of platform. Having platform choices greatly expanded my skill set during college. It would be a shame to prevent new students from having that same experience.
If that is so, then why do I lose my wireless network connection when I press the talk button on my Siemens 2.4GHz phone?
Humans speak at frequencies somewhere between 90 Hz (Barry White) and 1100 Hz (Barry White after getting kicked in the balls). Try having a converstion with either of these people near an operating pneumatic jackhammer. If there is no such thing as interference, then you should be able to hear the conversation just fine.
Slashdot Mirror
I bought a Panasonic digital camcorder for my company (with their money). I told my business manager that Panasonic was also offering a $200 rebate. She said "Great! Fill it out!"
So I did...I got all the required items together, filled out the paper work correctly...and then waited....and waited....and waited....for FOUR months!
Then Panasonic sent me a letter saying we were not elegible for the rebate since it was a company purchase not a personal purchase. WTF? Why should Panasonic care who the hell bought the stupid thing?
Anyway, I now ignore rebate promotions (unless they are the instant-at the register type).
-ted
They're popular because if I'm Novell certified in the relevant products, I can walk into any Novell business and sit down and administer the network.
Good point...you also missed a big one.
Companies also want to be able to point an finger and blame someone when something goes horribly wrong. I've actually had Microsoft write me a fix for a product bug in under 24 hours. It solved my problem, and was included in the next Windows 2000 service pack. Why did they do this for us? Because we PAY.
The OSS community says: "Gee, you could've written the fix yourself with our products." - That's not the point. I'm a network administrator, and even though I have a CS degree....I do not want to fix someone else's products.
Volkswagen doesn't expect me to fix my own car; why should the OSS community expect me to fix my own operating system?
-ted
Lucent long distance switches have the ability to be tapped and have had it for YEARS. Most telecom gear is designed to be LAWFULLY tapped. I don't have a problem with network equipment vendors also providing these features.
My gripe is the lack of due process for government monitoring (post 9-11-01). I'm OK with monitoring any form of communications as long as the organization doing the monitoring has made their case to a judge, and the judge has granted them a warrant. Wiretap laws need to be expanded to include all forms of electronic surveillance. These laws require a court issued warrant before the use of any electronic surveillance by law enforcement. Any evidence obtained without proper authorization is inadmissible in court.
-ted
minidiscs are technically CD quality
Actually, they aren't. Minidiscs contain compressed audio. Usually compressed via Sony ATRAC codecs.
-ted
Gee, they can predict the tech economy out to 2010, but their weather guy can only predict to next Friday. What's up with that?
-ted
In my day, we had 56k FRAME RELAY and gosh darn it, that was good enough for us.
Seriously....my college back in the early internet days had a 56k frame connection for the entire campus....and it was damn cool (circa 9600 baud modem era).
Even today, I see lots of offices with 50+ employees still connected via 128k ISDN....and they aren't looking for anything faster. The complaint I hear from most of these guys is that it's too expensive....not that it is too slow.
One of our offices recently transitioned from 128k ISDN to 1.5 Mbps DSL...why? Cost! The ISDN circuit ran us $200/mo. DSL costs us $79.99/mo.
-ted
Has anyone noticed that the quality of most hardware these days is very poor.
Sure, hard drives are huge and fast...but many don't last three years. I've had many motherboards, power supplies, and fans die over the past three years....way more than the 10 years before that.
Hardware manufacturers realize that people replace their hardware every three years (roughly), so why design it to last ten?
-ted
I work for a small non-profit school. I'm responsible for our networks, desktops, servers, security, application roll-out, systems planning, budgeting, and purchasing, IP telephony, standard PBX telephony, internet connectivity and more recently.....database application development. People call me when stuff breaks, and I do staff training, so I guess i'm help desk as well.
My job title is "IT coordinator".
-ted
Yay! Now I can throw out my Mr. Fusion home reactor!
-ted
I'm all for big brother getting the bad guy, but I really resent big brother having absolute, unchecked, power. The events of 9-11-01 necessitate preventative measures in law enforcement....but not without checks and balances.
We need a public advocacy group that oversees law enforcement. The ACLU is not enough. The group must oversee law enforcement and prevent abuses of their newly expanded powers.
-ted
I've said this for years. Having used Linux since RH 4, there is too much software variation in the Linux world.
The majority of the computing world wants standard software that works MOST of the time. Computer users want to be able to easily exchange files, and install software without worrying about compatibility. Most computer users are realists; they realize that software is not perfect. Software fails....just like cars, and other complex things. People understand this.
Corporations want standards. And most of all they want predictable standards. Sure MS screws up a lot, but corporations have gotten used to the predictable nature of MS software...imperfect though it may be.
RedHat seems to be the closest thing to a predictable release of Linux. The community must put petty squabbling and ego aside and decide on a "standard" way of doing things if it is ever going to challenge the commercial software industry.
-ted
Hmm, what have I bought recently that I could have downloaded for FREE? How about redhat linux 9.0. I bought the PRO version for $130.00....why?
Support. The product is free, but if you want the manuals and support you must pay.
Consumers have decided that music is no-longer worth paying $20.00/CD for. Consumers dictate markets...not the other way around. OK, if you want album art and true CD quality, then you go and buy the CD, but the majority of the music consuming public has decided that getting their pants pulled down over the price of a CD is not worth it.
The music industry needs to change its business model, not have congress legislate it. What business model is so entitled to survive that laws must be created to protect it? That's CRAP. In a true capitalist society, consumers dictate markets....not congress.
CD's are overpriced. People will pay for music when it's live, or when it comes with other goodies (t-shirts, desirable album art...etc.).
-ted
The RIAA tried to go after Verizon, but being a mega-corp, their pockets are just as deep, if not deeper than, the RIAA's. Verizon had much to lose. They invested tons of money in rolling out broadband, and the number one reason for selling that to kids is file sharing. The broadband providers are having a hard time selling their services, and there is no way they would allow the RIAA to make those sales even harder.
So what is the RIAA to do? Go after the next largest file-trading networks....colleges! After all colleges don't make their money from broadband connectivity, they make it from tuition. The RIAA figures that colleges will put up less of a fight.
Next they'll go after churches and non-profits...these people are the lowest-life scum of the earth.
-ted
MySQL might dethrone Oracle while you are busy worrying about MS.
-ted
DOUBLE JEOPARDY - Being tried twice for the same offense; prohibited by the 5th Amendmentto the U.S. Constitution. '[T]he Double Jeopardy Clause protects against three distinct abuses: [1] a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal; [2] a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction; and [3] multiple punishments for the same offense.' U.S. v. Halper, 490 U.S. 435, 440 (1989).
In this case, i'm glad i'm an American. I guess the Norwegians don't have this sort of protection.
-ted
Having been through a 4 year EE program and a 4 year CS program, I can say without a doubt that any 4 year CS graduate can be considered an engineer.
It is true that there are alot of programers that don't understand Big-O notation, recursion, and the differences between quicksort, bubble sort, and the finer points of linked lists and pointers. These programers should not be considered "engineers" just like graduates of "technical" institutions should not be considered engineers.
Seat of the pants learning is OK, but when it comes to critical systems, fundamental understanding of the theories is crucial.
-ted
I'll tell you why Adobe is making a big deal about this: M-A-R-K-E-T-I-N-G.
Adobe realizes that a commodity PC box costs less. This is important to people that, at the end of the day, have to make the numbers work. Adobe also realizes that a faster platform that costs less leaves more room in the budget for their software. A company saving money on the hardware is much more likely to spend on pricey software.
-ted
You missed the point.
I never claimed there was NO support available for these products. Just crappy support.
Your "software updates" are all labled "beta" and "alpha". That's crap. I want stable, tested, and supported software. I am a paying consumer not a guinea pig. I do not feel that I should be responsible for testing a vendor's apps.
My claim is that Sonic Blue did not adequately support these products and relied on 3rd party people to do the work they should have been doing all along.
-ted
It makes sense for Apple to drop Motorola as their processor vendor of choice. Motorola has made it known to the public that they are "refocusing on their core business" that means they are trying to take back share in the communications business (read: Cellular phones and infrastructure). Nokia has been beating the pants off of them for years and Moto has decided to take back the market it invented.
Processors are not in this strategy. So, what does Apple do? Obviously change CPU vendors. I thought Apple would go with an AMD hammer type chip. It fits nicely into their desktop/server strategy. The problem is the APPS! Apple has got to get the rest of the software guys to re-compile their stuff for the x86 platform. A daunting prospect at best.
But wait, there's more. IBM has a Power 4 drived 64-bit chip that has respectable performance and DOESN'T require that Mac developers recompile their apps! Everyone wins!
What do you think Apple is going to choose?
Info on PPC970 here.
-ted
Having owned 3 SonicBlue products (RioCAR, RIO digital audio reciever, and a portable RIO player) i'm glad they're gone. I bought these products because they were cutting edge devices that, at the time, no one else had. Sadly, all of these items ,at release, had limited software support....and six months later had none.
A company must support its products for longer than six months if it's going to survive. Sure, most of these products have 3rd party support now, but to expect that at the corporate level seems like passing the buck.
-ted
<sarcasm>
Deterrence is VERY effective. Everyone knows since America instituted capital punishment there have been NO murders in this country.
</sarcasm>
-ted
I got my CS degree at the College of NJ, and I got exposed to PCs(windows),PCs (Linux), MACs, and SUNs. Most of my software development happened inside a text editor on a unix machine(no IDE necessary for quality code). The beauty of this setup is CHOICE. You get to use the technology that works best for you. The idea of higher education is to master the concepts idependent of platform. Having platform choices greatly expanded my skill set during college. It would be a shame to prevent new students from having that same experience.
-ted
If that is so, then why do I lose my wireless network connection when I press the talk button on my Siemens 2.4GHz phone?
Humans speak at frequencies somewhere between 90 Hz (Barry White) and 1100 Hz (Barry White after getting kicked in the balls). Try having a converstion with either of these people near an operating pneumatic jackhammer. If there is no such thing as interference, then you should be able to hear the conversation just fine.
This guy is nuts.
-ted
I wish I had a buck for every time I asked a secretary what operating system their computer runs and they answered "Office 2000".
/mnt/winserver/docs.
Can you imagine training these people?
Secretary to IT person: Where are my documents?
IT person to Secretary: They are on
Secretary to IT person: What drive letter is that?
IT person to Secretary: AAARGH!{jumps out a window}
Yeah, i'm sure linux will be MUCH cheaper.
-ted
This kind of crap makes me feel good about giving my CPA $250.00 and a pile of papers every march..
-ted