The journalists are on unfamiliar ground with linux. What they know about MS Software doesn't apply at all in the Linux world. What alway blew me away about Windows is how little came with the OS compared to Linux. Linux typically includes:
* Development tools * Database Servers * Productivity softare * Multimedia software * That convenient tool that generates the quote of the day * Oh, yeah, 2000 text editors
Windows includes:
* Media player * WordPad (they killed cardfile) * Paintbrush * Windows script
I wish that people would stop equating OSS with communism, because it is not the same thing at all. OSS is actually a development of capitalism, where the brutal facts of reality have converged:
* Operating systems are not rare. * It costs very little to reproduce software. * It costs relatively little money to develop original software. * Capitalism says competition will drive price down.
I would say that OSS is the ultimate result of capitalism: lowest cost goods.
Reality is that OSS software is simply where the old artificial property economy (read: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MONOPOLY RIGHTS)has failed. Darl is much like the monkey (or single celled organism) where OSS is simply species link or two up the evolutionary chain.
Value is generated in IT by deploying a technology configuration to achieve a goal, such as reduced costs or enabling higher capacity. Software is one component of that value. Hardware is another. And the ability to converge technology, people and process to yeild value is where the real money is at. OSS lowers cost and provides better tools for building value. Period.
Here is how to stop the flow now. Restrict the flow of private customer data across borders. Define private customer data so it covers the kind of informaiton found in accounting systems, in CRM databases and shipping and distribution systems.
Look at regulations like HIPPAA for a template on how to do this. Right now, sending data overseas is a loophole in HIPPAA that is going to encourage more outsourcing!
The rallying cry of everybody who sees something which offends them on the Internet.
Actully, this isn't at all about being offended. It's about actually protecting my kids from an organization that will financially destroy my family and my kid's education over downloading a song worth at most $1.00. This is much more serious that the censorship zealots and so on because RIAA/MPAA/Porn Feasers are all going to be out for the wallets of Mom and Dad. After all, I'm the one with the broadband internet account, the network of six computers and so on.
Cause -> Action -> Outcome Exposing kids to porn/bad ideas -> discussions you need to have -> Child learns and grows.
Exposing kids to RIAA -> lawsuit-> no college fund.
I think its not to late to execute this kind of protest against DCMA. It would be smart to do so.
* Explain what is at stake for the common citizen. * Explain who will use DCMA against them: RIAA, the porn industry and opportunists. * Explain that there is no due process. * Explain that your children are the target.
This is another "we need to standardise and be just like commercial product X" post. The theory that you can grab market share by imitating a leading product for less. This is a proven way to be second rate. Look at the auto biz. When they start to innovate, they rocket to the top. Look at companies like Honda, Toyota and Hyundai. Look at vehicles that really sell well.
Software is no different. Strive to do things better than Microsoft. Find new ways to do more in less time, or to make things easier to use. If it's different and better, you are as likely to pick up more users as you will be with same and better. The problem is that most people don't understand what better means: better is whatever sells more.
Instead of listening to experts who tell us that something built in a way that was passe five years ago because that's what is winning today, listen to your heart and your users. Start by doing things the way you think it should be done. Then look at those feature and change requests. Don't throw ideas out without giving them serious consideration. Fix those nagging bugs. Talk to people. And don't be afraid to break the rules - that's how most great software becomes great software: some convention is broken and users like it.
LOL. Blackmailing a manager to get out of work is stupid. I had a sysadmin try this shit on me. Managers ofter have personal relationships away from work, and you do things like this at your own peril:
A) Some managers will say, "So What." and just don't care. (this is the Bill Clinton strategy) B) Some managers will call their buddy, your boss, and let them know what is going on. Managers really don't like employees that use blackmail to aviod doing work. C) Behavior tolerated from line employees and senior managers is different.
We fired the guy for playing games on the clock the next day. It was my pleasure to volunteer to be the out of department observer in his exit interview.
A) In a small firm, get a little service ticket tracker and make sure everyone can access the prioritized queue report. That way they can see what is on your plate short term. Also make sure you put out a monthly email that lets people know what's up in IT land including *and this is critical* a summary of tickets closed, project status and so on so people know you are working your ass off. You are a stud if you can include downtime and causes on the report.
B) Self-Service Rules. If you work with 40 developers, focus on providing resources so they can solve their own problems. Make sure things are documented and available so people can find things. Make it so users can self-install software and so on. Don't be a control freak. With programmers and sales/marketing departments it wont work.
C) Become a horse trader for budget. When someone's got something that needs done, and it requires an upgrade or new purchase THAT IS AN OPPORTUNITY to get another department to fund you. Let people buy priority with budget dollars. I've diverted funds from advertising or sales training to buy servers because I NEEDED ECOMMERCE ONLINE NEXT MONTH!
D) Don't be a no guy or a yes guy. Ask questions like "How will this help make your department more efficient?" , "Will this change enable us to increase capacity?", "Explain how this will help the bottom line?", "What alternatives have you considered... why did you settle on this decision?", "This will have impact on ______. Have you discussed the impact with ______ in ______?", "This looks like a really good idea - what drove you to consider doing this?" A lot of times people will talk themselves OUT OF DOING ANYTHING or put the project on the back burner.
E) Don't be heavy handed with end users. Don't ever say to anyone that they or what they do are not important! When you have to say no, just be honest: "Accounting is down right now, can I get to this later?" "Do you need access to something you don't have to fix the problem?" "I think this is a great idea, but before I'm comfortable signing off on it, I'd you to discuss the idea with _______ and ______." And finally, you can always say, "No, I can't do it."
Universities are rarely on the cutting edge when it comes to teaching languages. They were teaching pascal back when C was cool, C when VisualBasic was tearing it up, C++ when Java was the thing, and now, Microsoft languages when open source is clearly the cutting edge.
What I learned that was of great value wasn't the languages anyway. It was the conceptual stuff. Language then becomes a tool of implementation of a concept.
No virus or worm will ever have its way with a Mac the way Windows worms rape Windows PCs, period. This I can assure you is due to the experience Apple had in the early 90s. Macs were virus magnets - even without the internet! MacOS would automagically load code from floppys when you inserted them and the malelovent programmers out there thought creating virus was fun. If you were in school in that era, you had to go through a ritual of having your floppies scanned at the check in desk at your computer lab. As time went on the antivirus software evolved and "on insert" scanning was created. PCs had a few problems back then, but you had to basically reboot with a floppy inserted to accidentally infect your system. Microsoft is going through today what Apple experienced then. It's one of the reasons that Apple was unable to claim the market when they had the chance.
I think when it comes to worms, MS software is a wide target because the size of the code and the number of features. I think it's interesting that opensource OSes are less attacked even though complete source code is available. That speaks well of the bazar model - security is good because of peer review.
1) Provide accurate, relevant search results that do not include paid placements and other marketing crap. 2) Provide a clearly separated list of paid placements and marketing crap to pay your bills and make profit. 3) Make sure the user interface is simple and free of marketing jape.
Or you can try the 1999 method and be irrelevent:
1) mix paid placements with results. 2) provide more paid placements than search results. 3) fill your page with 10000 links to buy stuff and read the news. 4) become a content portal of choice instead of a search engine.
Mark Heise: "Why show the code? Why show the contracts? Why show anything? Because SCO is committed to educating people about their rights to ownership"
Then show us. SCO has done nothing so far in this regard. #$#@ or get off the pot SCO.
Hence why they're rich, and you're languishing as a second-rate programmer
For now. In a year or two, ol' Darl will be saying:
"Damn those linux guys. They are such idiots. We're rich and they are not in jail. We got a better deal... rich, no cost housing, free clothing and food... health insurance and even a free health club membership. Can't wait to get out in 20 years."
And the only way to change that,/.ers is to vote accordingly in November 2004. If you get to vote in November 2004...
I'd strongly recommend you vote for a Time-Warner/Hollywood/Disney backed Democrat. LOL. Get real people. The way to fix this is legislative anyway. We need to go grassroots and make candidates on EITHER SIDE OF THE AISLE understand this issue.
More important, you have to get the voters to understand the P2P issue. Let people know that if RIAA can go after you over records, PEI and the porn industry will be doing the same as the record industry to recoup lost revenues. You really don't want your wife and kids reading about daddy (or grandma or whoever) being the defendant on a porn-infringment lawsuit do you?
I hope they do. That is the worst possible way for SCO to proceed. The jury will not likely take kindly to six months of their time being wasted on SCOs pittiful attempt to hijack something that does not belong to them.
The USA justtice system seems to be just fine with scox's actions. Serveral agencies have been notified, probably hundreds of times, but no action.
I suspect that SCO and it's investors are under a very powerful microscope. Also: while SCO's is brandishing the term "criminal infringment" around, this case is largely civil and the remedies are civil. The minute that SCO tries to collect fees from any level of government, the whole game will change.
I will now explain for the unenlightened the big four method of analyzing actual TCO, and it's little brother, ROI. If you've never paid a consultant over $1 million per year, then you are unqualified to even question the following methodology:
TCO(a) = The sum of all costs for the next three years of what you want to buy + projected expenses of operating the new stuff.
TCO(b)= The sum of all costs for the next three years of what you already have + the actual cost of operating old stuff.
TCO(c)= The sum of all costs for the next three years of the stuff you don't want + the projected expenses you don't want for the stuff you don't want.
TCO (a) always looks better because projected expenses are fiction and are wanted. Money you want to spend is different color than money you don't want to spend.
Projecting ROI, or Return on Investment is the next step:
ROI(Future) = BIG MONEY - TCO(a)
Where BIG MONEY equals the sum of all income opportunity for the next three years. To make BIG MONEY more realistic, switch from projected income, to projected profit when the CFO laughs at your first try.
ROI(Past) = LITTLE MONEY - TCO
Where little money is actual income or for even better cost justification, profit (or loss).
With the simple, powerful ROI and TCO formulas you can build:
* An IT empire as CIO * A multi-billion dollar connsulting firm * An influential industry think-tank * A dot-com corporation * A billion dollar per year system integrator * Job security
Slashdot Mirror
I think we can all agree that movies about video games are what is worst about hollywood. Come to think of it, most games based on movies...
But subverting one of the university's ways of making money just means they have to raise tuition...
So that's what higher education is all about. I've always wondered.
Is it just me, or is Schadler smoking crack?
The journalists are on unfamiliar ground with linux. What they know about MS Software doesn't apply at all in the Linux world. What alway blew me away about Windows is how little came with the OS compared to Linux. Linux typically includes:
* Development tools
* Database Servers
* Productivity softare
* Multimedia software
* That convenient tool that generates the quote of the day
* Oh, yeah, 2000 text editors
Windows includes:
* Media player
* WordPad (they killed cardfile)
* Paintbrush
* Windows script
Wow. What functionality
I'm mostly looking for more efficient means of patching than walking around from machine to machine after hours.
So long as Windoze has to reboot after simple software installs... you are officially doomed.
I wish that people would stop equating OSS with communism, because it is not the same thing at all. OSS is actually a development of capitalism, where the brutal facts of reality have converged:
* Operating systems are not rare.
* It costs very little to reproduce software.
* It costs relatively little money to develop original software.
* Capitalism says competition will drive price down.
I would say that OSS is the ultimate result of capitalism: lowest cost goods.
Reality is that OSS software is simply where the old artificial property economy (read: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MONOPOLY RIGHTS)has failed. Darl is much like the monkey (or single celled organism) where OSS is simply species link or two up the evolutionary chain.
Value is generated in IT by deploying a technology configuration to achieve a goal, such as reduced costs or enabling higher capacity. Software is one component of that value. Hardware is another. And the ability to converge technology, people and process to yeild value is where the real money is at. OSS lowers cost and provides better tools for building value. Period.
$G
Here is how to stop the flow now. Restrict the flow of private customer data across borders. Define private customer data so it covers the kind of informaiton found in accounting systems, in CRM databases and shipping and distribution systems.
Look at regulations like HIPPAA for a template on how to do this. Right now, sending data overseas is a loophole in HIPPAA that is going to encourage more outsourcing!
Explain that your children are the target.
Oh, yes, please think of the children.
The rallying cry of everybody who sees something which offends them on the Internet.
Actully, this isn't at all about being offended. It's about actually protecting my kids from an organization that will financially destroy my family and my kid's education over downloading a song worth at most $1.00. This is much more serious that the censorship zealots and so on because RIAA/MPAA/Porn Feasers are all going to be out for the wallets of Mom and Dad. After all, I'm the one with the broadband internet account, the network of six computers and so on.
Cause -> Action -> Outcome
Exposing kids to porn/bad ideas -> discussions you need to have -> Child learns and grows.
Exposing kids to RIAA -> lawsuit-> no college fund.
I think its not to late to execute this kind of protest against DCMA. It would be smart to do so.
* Explain what is at stake for the common citizen.
* Explain who will use DCMA against them: RIAA, the porn industry and opportunists.
* Explain that there is no due process.
* Explain that your children are the target.
This is another "we need to standardise and be just like commercial product X" post. The theory that you can grab market share by imitating a leading product for less. This is a proven way to be second rate. Look at the auto biz. When they start to innovate, they rocket to the top. Look at companies like Honda, Toyota and Hyundai. Look at vehicles that really sell well.
Software is no different. Strive to do things better than Microsoft. Find new ways to do more in less time, or to make things easier to use. If it's different and better, you are as likely to pick up more users as you will be with same and better. The problem is that most people don't understand what better means: better is whatever sells more.
Instead of listening to experts who tell us that something built in a way that was passe five years ago because that's what is winning today, listen to your heart and your users. Start by doing things the way you think it should be done. Then look at those feature and change requests. Don't throw ideas out without giving them serious consideration. Fix those nagging bugs. Talk to people. And don't be afraid to break the rules - that's how most great software becomes great software: some convention is broken and users like it.
LOL. Blackmailing a manager to get out of work is stupid. I had a sysadmin try this shit on me. Managers ofter have personal relationships away from work, and you do things like this at your own peril:
A) Some managers will say, "So What." and just don't care. (this is the Bill Clinton strategy)
B) Some managers will call their buddy, your boss, and let them know what is going on. Managers really don't like employees that use blackmail to aviod doing work.
C) Behavior tolerated from line employees and senior managers is different.
We fired the guy for playing games on the clock the next day. It was my pleasure to volunteer to be the out of department observer in his exit interview.
A) In a small firm, get a little service ticket tracker and make sure everyone can access the prioritized queue report. That way they can see what is on your plate short term. Also make sure you put out a monthly email that lets people know what's up in IT land including *and this is critical* a summary of tickets closed, project status and so on so people know you are working your ass off. You are a stud if you can include downtime and causes on the report.
B) Self-Service Rules. If you work with 40 developers, focus on providing resources so they can solve their own problems. Make sure things are documented and available so people can find things. Make it so users can self-install software and so on. Don't be a control freak. With programmers and sales/marketing departments it wont work.
C) Become a horse trader for budget. When someone's got something that needs done, and it requires an upgrade or new purchase THAT IS AN OPPORTUNITY to get another department to fund you. Let people buy priority with budget dollars. I've diverted funds from advertising or sales training to buy servers because I NEEDED ECOMMERCE ONLINE NEXT MONTH!
D) Don't be a no guy or a yes guy. Ask questions like "How will this help make your department more efficient?" , "Will this change enable us to increase capacity?", "Explain how this will help the bottom line?", "What alternatives have you considered... why did you settle on this decision?", "This will have impact on ______. Have you discussed the impact with ______ in ______?", "This looks like a really good idea - what drove you to consider doing this?" A lot of times people will talk themselves OUT OF DOING ANYTHING or put the project on the back burner.
E) Don't be heavy handed with end users. Don't ever say to anyone that they or what they do are not important! When you have to say no, just be honest: "Accounting is down right now, can I get to this later?" "Do you need access to something you don't have to fix the problem?" "I think this is a great idea, but before I'm comfortable signing off on it, I'd you to discuss the idea with _______ and ______." And finally, you can always say, "No, I can't do it."
Universities are rarely on the cutting edge when it comes to teaching languages. They were teaching pascal back when C was cool, C when VisualBasic was tearing it up, C++ when Java was the thing, and now, Microsoft languages when open source is clearly the cutting edge.
What I learned that was of great value wasn't the languages anyway. It was the conceptual stuff. Language then becomes a tool of implementation of a concept.
No virus or worm will ever have its way with a Mac the way Windows worms rape Windows PCs, period.
This I can assure you is due to the experience Apple had in the early 90s. Macs were virus magnets - even without the internet! MacOS would automagically load code from floppys when you inserted them and the malelovent programmers out there thought creating virus was fun. If you were in school in that era, you had to go through a ritual of having your floppies scanned at the check in desk at your computer lab. As time went on the antivirus software evolved and "on insert" scanning was created. PCs had a few problems back then, but you had to basically reboot with a floppy inserted to accidentally infect your system. Microsoft is going through today what Apple experienced then. It's one of the reasons that Apple was unable to claim the market when they had the chance.
I think when it comes to worms, MS software is a wide target because the size of the code and the number of features. I think it's interesting that opensource OSes are less attacked even though complete source code is available. That speaks well of the bazar model - security is good because of peer review.
they use the following strategy:
1) Provide accurate, relevant search results that do not include paid placements and other marketing crap.
2) Provide a clearly separated list of paid placements and marketing crap to pay your bills and make profit.
3) Make sure the user interface is simple and free of marketing jape.
Or you can try the 1999 method and be irrelevent:
1) mix paid placements with results.
2) provide more paid placements than search results.
3) fill your page with 10000 links to buy stuff and read the news.
4) become a content portal of choice instead of a search engine.
I do not like the future where ideas are titled and deeded.
That future sucks.
Mark Heise: "Why show the code? Why show the contracts? Why show anything? Because SCO is committed to educating people about their rights to ownership"
Then show us. SCO has done nothing so far in this regard. #$#@ or get off the pot SCO.
Hence why they're rich, and you're languishing as a second-rate programmer
For now. In a year or two, ol' Darl will be saying:
"Damn those linux guys. They are such idiots. We're rich and they are not in jail. We got a better deal... rich, no cost housing, free clothing and food... health insurance and even a free health club membership. Can't wait to get out in 20 years."
You forgot my favorite:
Will I get my $699 back if you lose your case against IBM and the court finds that you don't own Linux after all?
followed by:
With how much additional as a settlement for the class action fraud suit that is sure to follow losing the IBM case?
Somehow the PhD program elevates the undergrad program?
Of course it does. (returns to cold-calling for ad space to our top six engineering school prospects)
And the only way to change that, /.ers is to vote accordingly in November 2004. If you get to vote in November 2004...
I'd strongly recommend you vote for a Time-Warner/Hollywood/Disney backed Democrat. LOL. Get real people. The way to fix this is legislative anyway. We need to go grassroots and make candidates on EITHER SIDE OF THE AISLE understand this issue.
More important, you have to get the voters to understand the P2P issue. Let people know that if RIAA can go after you over records, PEI and the porn industry will be doing the same as the record industry to recoup lost revenues. You really don't want your wife and kids reading about daddy (or grandma or whoever) being the defendant on a porn-infringment lawsuit do you?
SCO wants a jury trial.
I hope they do. That is the worst possible way for SCO to proceed. The jury will not likely take kindly to six months of their time being wasted on SCOs pittiful attempt to hijack something that does not belong to them.
The judge will like their behavior even less.
Let me simplify: The record and movie industry is dealing with the effects of competition.
The USA justtice system seems to be just fine with scox's actions. Serveral agencies have been notified, probably hundreds of times, but no action.
I suspect that SCO and it's investors are under a very powerful microscope. Also: while SCO's is brandishing the term "criminal infringment" around, this case is largely civil and the remedies are civil. The minute that SCO tries to collect fees from any level of government, the whole game will change.
entertain you for 7 hours a day, so you can get your 1 hour of work done
As VP I expect my employees to entertain me for 7 hours per day so I can avoid one hour of work.
Remember this next time someone does a TCO study
Humor follows:
I will now explain for the unenlightened the big four method of analyzing actual TCO, and it's little brother, ROI. If you've never paid a consultant over $1 million per year, then you are unqualified to even question the following methodology:
TCO(a) = The sum of all costs for the next three years of what you want to buy + projected expenses of operating the new stuff.
TCO(b)= The sum of all costs for the next three years of what you already have + the actual cost of operating old stuff.
TCO(c)= The sum of all costs for the next three years of the stuff you don't want + the projected expenses you don't want for the stuff you don't want.
TCO (a) always looks better because projected expenses are fiction and are wanted. Money you want to spend is different color than money you don't want to spend.
Projecting ROI, or Return on Investment is the next step:
ROI(Future) = BIG MONEY - TCO(a)
Where BIG MONEY equals the sum of all income opportunity for the next three years. To make BIG MONEY more realistic, switch from projected income, to projected profit when the CFO laughs at your first try.
ROI(Past) = LITTLE MONEY - TCO
Where little money is actual income or for even better cost justification, profit (or loss).
With the simple, powerful ROI and TCO formulas you can build:
* An IT empire as CIO
* A multi-billion dollar connsulting firm
* An influential industry think-tank
* A dot-com corporation
* A billion dollar per year system integrator
* Job security