I for one miss hardcopy letters. Getting an envelope out of the mailbox, examining the stamp and cancellation, slicing open the envelope, unfolding the letter, noting the kind of pen and paper used, and then finally reading the content was very enjoyable.
The sending side was always harder (which is why letters are almost dead), but the feeling of having put pen to paper was also enjoyable.
I don't think I have received a personal letter in five years now, since a friend of mine returned from remote central Africa. Too bad.
"What is Notes actually good for? Its a mediocre e-mail client, a mediocre webbrowser, a useless database(basically just a flat file system), and some sort of colabrative thingy that no one has ever really explained to me. It fills up about 100 meg of my hard drive and takes about a minute to load and I can't for the life of me tell you what its purpose is."
Notes certainly has its problems. Some of the descriptions on the User Interface Hall of Shame web site make me fall down laughing.
However, Notes can also do things no other system can do, primarily based on the 'collaberative thingy'. In our case, we have ~1000 people who travel full-time to remote areas of the globe - places where you are lucky to get a 1200 baud phone connection. Yet they need access to product information, customer information, databases, as well as e-mail and discussions.
Notes, with its distributed replication system specifically designed to work on slow and unreliable links, fills this need perfectly. Yes, it is the world's most expensive e-mail product. And yes, its 'everything is a document/database' view takes a while to understand. But it is an excellent tool for its intended purpose.
I am also a little amused when people complain about Notes UI (which I personally don't think is so great). Either everyone is forced to use one UI standard (guess who's that would be?), or everyone is free to do what they think best. Arguing in favor of freedom of design choice, then bashing Lotus because you don't like the choices they made, seems a little silly.
Oh well, have fun. I would encourage you to do some research on distributed, replicated databases though: they are a different animal from either POP-type systems or relational databases.
There is currently a listing on the Ford Motor Company job site for a Nanotechnology Scientist to do research into applications of nanotech.
The Big 2.5 do a lot of basic research (less that 30 years ago, but still a lot) but they usually don't jump way out in front of mainstream science. So I would have to say that nanotech might be ready to be considered mainstream.
"Sorry, but I don't buy that. I've never EVER found the need to use any higher math or physics skills as even a network admin.... EE is useless as an admin. If you have a basic conceptual ability to look at the big picture you'll do fine in anything. It sure doesn't take a rocket scientist to lay out a network"
The farther I go in information technology, and in life for that matter, the more valuable I find the abstract analysis and problem solving skills I learned in the introductory engineering classes. Do I solve differential equations? Not since sophomore year. How about those orbital mechanics problems from freshman physics? Nope.
Do I use the discipline, organization, and thinking skills I developed from hunderds of hours of sitting at my desk attacking those subjects with pencil and paper ('what's a "PENCIL" Dad?')? Every day. And it's getting to the point where I am less and less willing to hire people without that background experience.
System hacking is fun, and experience will take you far. Problem solving is fun, and a lot harder. Theory and critical thinking are very necessary there.
"I think LUCAS can handle the advertisement without this site. The crossover ISN'T THERE at all. Why do people assume (incorrectly) that people that are at all invovled with computers automatically want to see Star Wars? This is a stupid assumption"
Unless you were in any way involved in computer science or system administration from ~1980 to ~1990. Then you might have seen just a little crossover. And a Star Destroyer is just a little bit larger than a NASA Orbiter, too.
The concept of maketing tie-ins and product placement has been around for a long time (probably since the first traveling acting company of Neandrethal man), but they really exploded with Star Wars. IIRC the joint marketing with the fast food companies, and the pre-marketing with the toy companies, was perfected with ROTJ.
That's why you don't remember much from the Star Wars time - it wasn't happening (in any great amount) yet, and in any event SW was a small time movie from an unknown director in an unprofitable genre. After Star Wars, of course, things were a little different.
Is anyone else starting to feel jerked around by the tremendous amount of manipulative marketing tactics beaming from the Fortress of Lucas-itude in the last few months? Using a reasonable amount of modern marketing, media manipulation, and DC spin techniques to create some excitement is one thing, but what is going on with Star Wars I right now is far beyond that.
"Leaks" of inside information, the super-hype around the different previews, careful release of limited quantity of toys to whet that market: it all starts to feel like the Ewoks (that is, created only for the purpose of extracting more $$$ at the toy counter, not for true customer satisfaction), only 100 times worse. And I for one am feeling somewhat abused.
Slashdot Mirror
I for one miss hardcopy letters. Getting an envelope out of the mailbox, examining the stamp and cancellation, slicing open the envelope, unfolding the letter, noting the kind of pen and paper used, and then finally reading the content was very enjoyable.
The sending side was always harder (which is why letters are almost dead), but the feeling of having put pen to paper was also enjoyable.
I don't think I have received a personal letter in five years now, since a friend of mine returned from remote central Africa. Too bad.
sPh
"What is Notes actually good for? Its a mediocre e-mail client, a mediocre webbrowser, a useless database(basically just a flat file system), and some sort of colabrative thingy that no one has ever really explained to me. It fills up about 100 meg of my hard drive and takes about a minute to load and I can't for the life of me tell you what its purpose is."
Notes certainly has its problems. Some of the descriptions on the User Interface Hall of Shame web site make me fall down laughing.
However, Notes can also do things no other system can do, primarily based on the 'collaberative thingy'. In our case, we have ~1000 people who travel full-time to remote areas of the globe - places where you are lucky to get a 1200 baud phone connection. Yet they need access to product information, customer information, databases, as well as e-mail and discussions.
Notes, with its distributed replication system specifically designed to work on slow and unreliable links, fills this need perfectly. Yes, it is the world's most expensive e-mail product. And yes, its 'everything is a document/database' view takes a while to understand. But it is an excellent tool for its intended purpose.
I am also a little amused when people complain about Notes UI (which I personally don't think is so great). Either everyone is forced to use one UI standard (guess who's that would be?), or everyone is free to do what they think best. Arguing in favor of freedom of design choice, then bashing Lotus because you don't like the choices they made, seems a little silly.
Oh well, have fun. I would encourage you to do some research on distributed, replicated databases though: they are a different animal from either POP-type systems or relational databases.
sPh
There is currently a listing on the Ford Motor Company job site for a Nanotechnology Scientist to do research into applications of nanotech.
The Big 2.5 do a lot of basic research (less that 30 years ago, but still a lot) but they usually don't jump way out in front of mainstream science. So I would have to say that nanotech might be ready to be considered mainstream.
sPh
"Sorry, but I don't buy that. I've never EVER found the need to use any higher math or physics skills as even a network admin. ... EE is useless as an admin. If you have a basic conceptual ability to look at the big picture you'll do fine in anything. It sure doesn't take a rocket scientist to lay out a network"
The farther I go in information technology, and in life for that matter, the more valuable I find the abstract analysis and problem solving skills I learned in the introductory engineering classes. Do I solve differential equations? Not since sophomore year. How about those orbital mechanics problems from freshman physics? Nope.
Do I use the discipline, organization, and thinking skills I developed from hunderds of hours of sitting at my desk attacking those subjects with pencil and paper ('what's a "PENCIL" Dad?')? Every day. And it's getting to the point where I am less and less willing to hire people without that background experience.
System hacking is fun, and experience will take you far. Problem solving is fun, and a lot harder. Theory and critical thinking are very necessary there.
sPh
"I think LUCAS can handle the advertisement without this site. The crossover ISN'T THERE at all. Why do people assume (incorrectly) that people that are at all invovled with computers automatically want to see Star Wars? This is a stupid assumption"
Unless you were in any way involved in computer science or system administration from ~1980 to ~1990. Then you might have seen just a little crossover. And a Star Destroyer is just a little bit larger than a NASA Orbiter, too.
sPh
The concept of maketing tie-ins and product placement has been around for a long time (probably since the first traveling acting company of Neandrethal man), but they really exploded with Star Wars. IIRC the joint marketing with the fast food companies, and the pre-marketing with the toy companies, was perfected with ROTJ.
That's why you don't remember much from the Star Wars time - it wasn't happening (in any great amount) yet, and in any event SW was a small time movie from an unknown director in an unprofitable genre. After Star Wars, of course, things were a little different.
sPh
Is anyone else starting to feel jerked around by the tremendous amount of manipulative marketing tactics beaming from the Fortress of Lucas-itude in the last few months? Using a reasonable amount of modern marketing, media manipulation, and DC spin techniques to create some excitement is one thing, but what is going on with Star Wars I right now is far beyond that.
"Leaks" of inside information, the super-hype around the different previews, careful release of limited quantity of toys to whet that market: it all starts to feel like the Ewoks (that is, created only for the purpose of extracting more $$$ at the toy counter, not for true customer satisfaction), only 100 times worse. And I for one am feeling somewhat abused.
sPh