Dipshit, his presence is not a problem, it's a symptom. My son would have been quite fine without my presence. My wife, OTOH, was quite happy that I was there to hold her hand, and all that stuff. If you care about your job more than your family, you have got to get your priorities straight.
My father was dedicated, but miss my birth? I'm dedicated, but miss the birth of my son? Great for the product. Not good for the psychoses that child will develop later in life due to his father's twisted priorities.
The Egyptians were doing amazing things while those of us descended (mostly) from "proud white stock" were still running through the European forests with club in hand, having just marvelled at what happens when you bang the rocks together over a pile of dry brush.
I've never worked in a programming shop. But, from working on a few OSS projects, reading a few books, and working with some commercial providers, it seems that programmers do what they want, when they want. Is it possible to steer such a massive ship that quickly? Is BG a big enough rudder?
Similarly, how disruptive is this? It seems that when you get on a roll, you want to keep going. Switching like this seems that it will break that streak, and get you all disjointed.
Again, to parrot others who know better, the best answer seems to be to do it right the first time.
Thanks for the reply (which was honestly much nicer than my borderline trollish question).
But I still have a question: how does OSDN as a whole fit into VA? I can certainly understand Sourceforge, and, to a lesser extent, freshmeat, but themes, slashdot, thinkgeek, etc.
Assuming that they all make a profit, fine, it helps to get enough sourceforge sales to make that arm profitable. But at that point, what is the fit? It's like some of the massive conglomerates of the 80's, where companies were just big to be big. Many were spun off in the 90's, as there was no synergistic effect.
Assuming there is no profit, or a loss, what does VA gain? Mindshare? Doubtful, if the/. crowd is any indication, us cheap bastards have no intention of actually, *gasp* buying software.
Like I've said, despite the problems I've had with you people (come to my house for Festivus next year, we'll have a real good time during the airing of grievances), I still like the place, and with Larry's waffling over the past 18 months, I'm a bit concerned.
I also know that you and CT have some sort of out (I think I remember this from the andover buyout), but don't know what that means for the site. Certainly you can't afford the bandwidth, and with ad sales being in the crapper... And suppose they just don't want to pay you, or want someone else in charge? Then things really go into the dumper. I look at linuxnewbie.org. I don't know what it is like now, but for several months after Sensei left, it was complete garbage. (And I'm not enough of a troll to say that/. is complete garbage now, so how would it be possible to tell the difference).
Anyway, I'm already bound to be modded offtopic, and that is a bad thing for karma-whores. I'm already in the mid-40's, after a boundless stream of OT comments this week:)
(Also, glad you guys are back. Content always REALLY suffers when you are out of town. Michael, et al. do the best they can, but it really seems like the volume goes down.)
No, haven't been rtbl'ed yet. I feel kinda left out. I get modded down because of being a troll or k-whore, but don't get rtbl'ed, because I'm not a troll enough, or a whore enough.
We should build one huge spaceship and put all our hairdressers, telephone sanitisers, insurance salesman, management consultants, TV producers and public relations executives into it. Send them off to another planet somewhere. I'm sure they'll do just fine building a new civilization.
Again?
-OR-
That's how we got in this mess in the first place.
Offtopic? I don't think so. This requires reading beyond, perhaps, a 3rd grade level. This is a simile. You know, a comparison using 'like' or 'as'. In this instance, I was comparing the 'rules' of NASA with the 'rules' of the various organ donor networks.
What you perhaps didn't like was that I referred to an overly worshipped drunken whore from NY in a derogatory manner.
So the man could swing a stick and throw a ball. BFD. He was still a drunk. He wasn't a hero, he was a drunk. Walk through the streets of any urban environment in the US, and you'll find plenty of drunks who were just as deserving of a liver.
Agree with most of what you said, but the following:
Rights do not always go hand in hand with responsibilities. In the US, we believe (as a nation) that certain rights are inalienable and are endowed by our creator. No ifs, ands, or buts.
I'd like to see Congress declare war. But against whom?
Last, I thought the GC specified not 'no protections' for illegal combatants, but 'different' protections. (Haven't read it, could easily be mistaken.)
According to my father in law (large case auditor, I think) they use a fair amount of macros, but they are centrally stored/managed. He claims that doing something as trivial as changing the wallpaper on a take home laptop is a no-no.
Of course, he might not be able to use the computer;) I've thought about playing with the machine when he's not around, but I'm much more worried about pissing off the IRS than the DOD.
Unlike the eds, offtopic doesn't bother me (now watch me loose at least one karma point for being offtopic, even though I posted without the +1)
I had heard something regarding the 9-11/911 comparison before, but it's hard to take things seriously from people constantly spouting about the illuminati, the black helicopters, and the trilateral commission.
I found out about this neat new tech just recently. You take a tree, shread it to ribbons. Then mash it with some chemicals, and pull it out flat.
Then take some berries or blood. Dip a pointy stick into it, and scratch out the same characters that come up onto your screen when you use a keyboard.
The technology is amazing. It is 100% portable, and usable without batteries or electricity of any kind (although using at night does require an accessory light). In addition, they never, ever, ever become obsolete. If I understand correctly, there are no licenses, so when finished, you can hand the treepulp with blood scratchings to the next set of students.
Now, it is somewhat fragile, and is flammable. But it survives being dropped off of a desk MUCH better than a laptop. Even better than those toughbooks.
The user interface is pure simplicity. No keyboard or mouse. You simply take a stack of this treepulp, and place it in sequential order. Then physically move the 'pages' back and forth to get to the desired 'page'.
And, here is the truly insane part: they are cheap. For the same $899 that you may spend on a computer that will be destroyed and obsolete in a few years, you can literally buy thousands of these treepulp stacks.
The support costs are almost zero. You need a box or 'treepulp shelf' to store them on, and you need some climate control (not as rigorous as that needed for computers, BTW), but that is it. No network admin, no support contracts, no licensing agreements.
I know it sounds like this must be vaporware, but I have actually seen them for sale in stores. Maybe it is just an east coast thing, but I have a feeling that these will really take off.
One thing that needs to be factored into your otherwise complete analysis is product failure.
As you said, the costs are factored into a projected sales volume. If this volume is exceeded, there are large profits to be made. However, you seem to have skipped the flip side (and I didn't read your analysis as tightly as I should have to make this statement, so forgive me if you've addressed this) wherein a product that doesn't meet expectations must be paid for somehow. For example, the onerous profits for MS Win95 paid for the development of MS BOB.
There is also the need to front pay for later development and support. If I have a copy of Win98 (oh, hey, look at that. That's what I'm using) that was bought several years ago, M$ is still releasing the occasional security patch, bug fix, etc. That is either from money that was spent years ago by me, and is still getting spent, or it is money spent by people buying XP today that is being diverted into other products. What's the point? Well, initial development and overhead are not the only costs. One could look at your analysis and say that it is factored into your term 'development costs', but I believe your arguments are stronger if you explicitly mention these costs, both because they are significant, and because they require a different sort of approach from a programming/managerial/marketing POV.
Slashdot Mirror
Dipshit, his presence is not a problem, it's a symptom. My son would have been quite fine without my presence. My wife, OTOH, was quite happy that I was there to hold her hand, and all that stuff. If you care about your job more than your family, you have got to get your priorities straight.
I imagine that sodomy and pedophilia were around much longer than the Greeks. But, yes, slavery was around much longer than white Europeans.
My father was dedicated, but miss my birth? I'm dedicated, but miss the birth of my son? Great for the product. Not good for the psychoses that child will develop later in life due to his father's twisted priorities.
The Egyptians were doing amazing things while those of us descended (mostly) from "proud white stock" were still running through the European forests with club in hand, having just marvelled at what happens when you bang the rocks together over a pile of dry brush.
Now you sound like the people who complain that Black History Month is the shortest in the year.
Well, lookie here.
I've never worked in a programming shop. But, from working on a few OSS projects, reading a few books, and working with some commercial providers, it seems that programmers do what they want, when they want. Is it possible to steer such a massive ship that quickly? Is BG a big enough rudder?
Similarly, how disruptive is this? It seems that when you get on a roll, you want to keep going. Switching like this seems that it will break that streak, and get you all disjointed.
Again, to parrot others who know better, the best answer seems to be to do it right the first time.
Thanks for the reply (which was honestly much nicer than my borderline trollish question).
/. crowd is any indication, us cheap bastards have no intention of actually, *gasp* buying software.
/. is complete garbage now, so how would it be possible to tell the difference).
But I still have a question: how does OSDN as a whole fit into VA? I can certainly understand Sourceforge, and, to a lesser extent, freshmeat, but themes, slashdot, thinkgeek, etc.
Assuming that they all make a profit, fine, it helps to get enough sourceforge sales to make that arm profitable. But at that point, what is the fit? It's like some of the massive conglomerates of the 80's, where companies were just big to be big. Many were spun off in the 90's, as there was no synergistic effect.
Assuming there is no profit, or a loss, what does VA gain? Mindshare? Doubtful, if the
Like I've said, despite the problems I've had with you people (come to my house for Festivus next year, we'll have a real good time during the airing of grievances), I still like the place, and with Larry's waffling over the past 18 months, I'm a bit concerned.
I also know that you and CT have some sort of out (I think I remember this from the andover buyout), but don't know what that means for the site. Certainly you can't afford the bandwidth, and with ad sales being in the crapper... And suppose they just don't want to pay you, or want someone else in charge? Then things really go into the dumper. I look at linuxnewbie.org. I don't know what it is like now, but for several months after Sensei left, it was complete garbage. (And I'm not enough of a troll to say that
Anyway, I'm already bound to be modded offtopic, and that is a bad thing for karma-whores. I'm already in the mid-40's, after a boundless stream of OT comments this week:)
(Also, glad you guys are back. Content always REALLY suffers when you are out of town. Michael, et al. do the best they can, but it really seems like the volume goes down.)
Will VA still have a presence at LWCE next year? To what end? Will they still pay for your flight? Beyond the PR, what does VA's shift really mean?
I agree, but then you still have the problem of whether GCC works better/optimizes-better-for-speed for x86 or PPC.
No, haven't been rtbl'ed yet. I feel kinda left out. I get modded down because of being a troll or k-whore, but don't get rtbl'ed, because I'm not a troll enough, or a whore enough.
Again?
-OR-
That's how we got in this mess in the first place.
Offtopic? I don't think so. This requires reading beyond, perhaps, a 3rd grade level. This is a simile. You know, a comparison using 'like' or 'as'. In this instance, I was comparing the 'rules' of NASA with the 'rules' of the various organ donor networks.
What you perhaps didn't like was that I referred to an overly worshipped drunken whore from NY in a derogatory manner.
So the man could swing a stick and throw a ball. BFD. He was still a drunk. He wasn't a hero, he was a drunk. Walk through the streets of any urban environment in the US, and you'll find plenty of drunks who were just as deserving of a liver.
He actually mentioned the sexual harassment issue when talking about locked down screensavers/wallpapers. And yes, he complained quite a bit.
Just like if you are a fucking unrepentant drunk you don't get a new liver.
Unless you are a baseball player.
Agree with most of what you said, but the following:
Rights do not always go hand in hand with responsibilities. In the US, we believe (as a nation) that certain rights are inalienable and are endowed by our creator. No ifs, ands, or buts.
I'd like to see Congress declare war. But against whom?
Last, I thought the GC specified not 'no protections' for illegal combatants, but 'different' protections. (Haven't read it, could easily be mistaken.)
As far as acting like a soldier, go read banky's journal.
According to my father in law (large case auditor, I think) they use a fair amount of macros, but they are centrally stored/managed. He claims that doing something as trivial as changing the wallpaper on a take home laptop is a no-no.
Of course, he might not be able to use the computer;) I've thought about playing with the machine when he's not around, but I'm much more worried about pissing off the IRS than the DOD.
Does this digital format remove the problems inherent in tape stretch? If not, count me out.
>You sir are a fucking karma whore!
And your point is?
>I have proof that you wrote the AC post!
You have precisely shit. In order to have proof, the event must have occured.
IHBT. HAND.
Unlike the eds, offtopic doesn't bother me (now watch me loose at least one karma point for being offtopic, even though I posted without the +1)
I had heard something regarding the 9-11/911 comparison before, but it's hard to take things seriously from people constantly spouting about the illuminati, the black helicopters, and the trilateral commission.
Court security has been tight for a while. Doubly so since 9-11. Try getting a recording device past the guards at the courthouse.
First, it is an obvious circumvention device.
Second, it is an obvious terrorist device.
Good luck getting out of that courthouse without paying bail money.
Open a website whose motto is "News for Nerds..."
Oh. Wait.
All I need to do is recompile the whole distribution without Pentium opcodes :-(.
Ditto. I've got some 486 laptops I'd like to put Linux on. I guess I can always use Debian now that I've got cable at home.
I found out about this neat new tech just recently. You take a tree, shread it to ribbons. Then mash it with some chemicals, and pull it out flat.
Then take some berries or blood. Dip a pointy stick into it, and scratch out the same characters that come up onto your screen when you use a keyboard.
The technology is amazing. It is 100% portable, and usable without batteries or electricity of any kind (although using at night does require an accessory light). In addition, they never, ever, ever become obsolete. If I understand correctly, there are no licenses, so when finished, you can hand the treepulp with blood scratchings to the next set of students.
Now, it is somewhat fragile, and is flammable. But it survives being dropped off of a desk MUCH better than a laptop. Even better than those toughbooks.
The user interface is pure simplicity. No keyboard or mouse. You simply take a stack of this treepulp, and place it in sequential order. Then physically move the 'pages' back and forth to get to the desired 'page'.
And, here is the truly insane part: they are cheap. For the same $899 that you may spend on a computer that will be destroyed and obsolete in a few years, you can literally buy thousands of these treepulp stacks.
The support costs are almost zero. You need a box or 'treepulp shelf' to store them on, and you need some climate control (not as rigorous as that needed for computers, BTW), but that is it. No network admin, no support contracts, no licensing agreements.
I know it sounds like this must be vaporware, but I have actually seen them for sale in stores. Maybe it is just an east coast thing, but I have a feeling that these will really take off.
One thing that needs to be factored into your otherwise complete analysis is product failure.
As you said, the costs are factored into a projected sales volume. If this volume is exceeded, there are large profits to be made. However, you seem to have skipped the flip side (and I didn't read your analysis as tightly as I should have to make this statement, so forgive me if you've addressed this) wherein a product that doesn't meet expectations must be paid for somehow. For example, the onerous profits for MS Win95 paid for the development of MS BOB.
There is also the need to front pay for later development and support. If I have a copy of Win98 (oh, hey, look at that. That's what I'm using) that was bought several years ago, M$ is still releasing the occasional security patch, bug fix, etc. That is either from money that was spent years ago by me, and is still getting spent, or it is money spent by people buying XP today that is being diverted into other products. What's the point? Well, initial development and overhead are not the only costs. One could look at your analysis and say that it is factored into your term 'development costs', but I believe your arguments are stronger if you explicitly mention these costs, both because they are significant, and because they require a different sort of approach from a programming/managerial/marketing POV.
If you have ten machines at home, you are spending (probably) at least $240/mo. in electricity. Who knows what for connectivity.
Your home IT budget is bigger than you think.