"Disclaimer: I work in accounting for a large cable company,"
If you work for Comcast, could you PLEASE put the CEO and the president of the Big Ten into a room and let them beat each other until they can come to SOME agreement about this Big Ten Network fiasco? I really don't care which way it goes (basic, sports level, ala carte, whatever), I just want to watch my Penn State, damnit! I'll pay extra for it, I just want the option.
Yes, I've already called and emailed both sides berating both of them.
I remember hearing something about this a while back, but I may be mis-remembering.
Apparently, the gov group that determines trade surplus/deficit puts the value of software at the material value of the cardboard box and CD/DVD. Say $10 instead of $200. Something about how they have not upgraded how to figure out the value of things like software (not pure hardware).
So your numbers are probably right, but the money is being under-reported so it looks like we have a huge deficit.
This is one area MS has NOT been able to copy Apple, probably due to a deathly fear of breaking some old legacy software. I can't really blame MS for this, they have loads of legacy wandering around in who knows how many companies going back how many generations of Windows (or even MS-DOS?).
People like to bitch about Apple's 68xxx to PowerPC, then PowerPC to Intel switches, it seemed to smooth out rather quickly. Yes, some stuff breaks, but in the end it tended to better.
I read a comment a few weeks ago about including VMs with the next Windows release. I guess this would serve the purpose of multiple binaries, though a bit more difficult to deal with. I'm not an OS guy, so there are probably better options out there, but I guess that MS could not then force OS upgrades. For the record, I do not use MS at home, but I do at school and work.
Glad I don't work with you. Well, I don't know where you work, but I don't work with a bunch of people who waste my time. A few clients do this, yes, but hey, they're paying us a bunch of money.
People have learned not to call me unless it's important.
She doesn't need to know how to use it- just bring up notepad and let her type, even if it is slow one letter at a time. I'm sorry if I missed something about her situation that would prevent this.
how people feel so much pressure to be in touch all the time. No, I am not a CEO nor do I run a NOC, where I can see how near instant communication can be critical. I suspect that most people have some psychological need to be always available.
I will check my email if I am expecting something important. Everyone I deal with knows how to get in touch with me if something unexpected comes up. I once had an office mate that would email me a simple yes/no question if I was in the restroom at the time rather than wait 30 seconds to ask me in person- and then ask me to check my email when I returned from said restroom. And it wasn't important so as to need a paper trail, it had to do with something like did I get some memo.
It seems like everyone has forgot how to speak and would prefer an Outer Limits episode where everyone is WiFied into a central Skynet contraption. Look at the huge uproar that occurred by banning college football coaches from texting prospective recruits.
I so just jumped to "Necronomicon-style" when I read that. Chin-sucking whirlpool books would probably be rather effective ("Army of Darkness" for you heathens that don't understand that).
"The patent linked to from the article and the slashdot summary has nothing to do with music."
Ah, that was pretty much what I was saying from the start. The title was mis-titled or mis-leading- "Music from DNA patented". Though I do respect the fact that you could actually understand the patent.
Sadly, in our media-rich environment, a person has to speak in "sound bites". Remember Al Gore's "lockbox" phrase that got so much play? Any long sentence is just asking for disaster due to how many ways it can be misinterpreted or misreported.
Keep it short, keep it simple. Reporters don't have the time to air an essay. Which, IMHO, is a bad thing.
I haven't seen this pointed out yet. If you go drop $500 on something without looking into it, then tough luck. If the info was hidden or incorrect, then ok you have claim. Even if you had to go 3 pages deep to find the info, well, it was there.
Just kinda slid over that whole imposed cost to the families when the school could just save in a previous format, eh? Also pretty neat how the district just popped this on the families only 5 weeks before the start of school.
"It couldn't possibly be that microsoft office is the current industry standard, that all the school systems run microsoft office, that all the staff are trained on microsoft office, all their teaching resources are in microsoft office, all the staff laptops run microsoft office, all the students are taught microsoft office in classes using microsoft office specific lesson plans and ECDL training software.
I run virtually my entire school network on linux servers, yet we still have office 2003 on the supported desktops and the recommended software for the student laptops."
-This is taken from "arkhan_jg"'s post #20030705. I wanted to post it at a higher level.
Still have Office -2003-. Which has been around for 4 years. Now parents have to pony up money for something that has been out for just a bit? I'm not advocating going OO, just wondering why this school district just HAD to go to 2007 right now and tell the parents to pony up money. From the comments from TFA apparently the school district got some $70Mil in funding. Well, nice and good, give out 2007 to the parents instead of pushing a new burden on top of the taxes they already pay.
Maybe if they told the parents that they should have '07 by next year, I could go with that. School starts in 5 weeks! And what about the suggestion of having the default for '07 set for '03 compatibility? Is the new '07 features so awesome to 9th graders we just have to have '07 as a default?
Also, why should students and parents have to have ANY computer or software for high school? This is required education in most states. If the family can not afford these requirements, then the school district or the state (whoever places these requirements in place) needs to provide the necessary equipment to satisfy the requirements. (If you want to get into who can pay, take it somewhere else, I'm not getting into a whole financial/economics discussion here).
Imagine if the school district went all Mac (I think Drexel(?) did this back in the '90's, maybe?), and required...blah, blah, blah.... Doesn't work so well with Linux and OO since they're free, but with Mac's I can only imagine the uproar here on/. due the costs of Mac, plus Office for Mac, even with a discount, and MS is THE standard in the real world.
This is one reason why the probability going to a public school --> 0 as asshatry --> 1.
"Microsoft uses proprietary protocols and formats to prevent interoperability."
This happened to my team over this weekend. 4 of us from different companies have a presentation and related paper this coming Tuesday. One guy got his in mid-afternoon Friday since he was vacationing over the weekend. Well, he forgot to down convert from Word '07 to '03. The rest of us did not have '07 so we couldn't incorporate his work until 5 PM today we he re-sent it.
Not too big a deal, but it was damn annoying doing work Sunday night, all because MS has to have a new format.
"Simply treat the employees with the respect and dignity they deserve as human beings."
Totally agree. When I start a new job and I need to stay late I always say "hi", how ya doin'", you get the point. After talking with the janitor people a few times I noticed that my office started to be cleaner. Hmmm.... wonder why?
As for the guy who said "it's the fucking janitor's job" about HIS spilled drink- if he was one of my co-workers one morning his chair might be a little sticky since I tripped and accidentally spilled some soda on his chair. Hey, it the janitor's job, right?;)
Your iPhone gets stolen, you report it. The next time the iPhone connects to the network it get a notification that it's stolen. Next time you sync to iTunes, it reports its IP, location (in a future GPS enabled version), something.
Deploy RDF forces and, wham!, Voldermort is spanked by Darth Vader!
Or did I just mix to many metaphors at the end? (I still think my first idea is ok, though)
Slashdot Mirror
"Example. In the state of Utah you are not allowed kegs."
Did you have them flown in? (Of course you probably live near a border, but it sounded funny in my head).
Weird, my store only sells them in prime numbers.
"Disclaimer: I work in accounting for a large cable company,"
If you work for Comcast, could you PLEASE put the CEO and the president of the Big Ten into a room and let them beat each other until they can come to SOME agreement about this Big Ten Network fiasco? I really don't care which way it goes (basic, sports level, ala carte, whatever), I just want to watch my Penn State, damnit! I'll pay extra for it, I just want the option.
Yes, I've already called and emailed both sides berating both of them.
And thanks for the insider info.
"Anyone who feels that way is not my kind of people."
I just added you as a friend.
Always wanting to take away my neon "bud light" sign.....
I remember hearing something about this a while back, but I may be mis-remembering.
Apparently, the gov group that determines trade surplus/deficit puts the value of software at the material value of the cardboard box and CD/DVD. Say $10 instead of $200. Something about how they have not upgraded how to figure out the value of things like software (not pure hardware).
So your numbers are probably right, but the money is being under-reported so it looks like we have a huge deficit.
This is one area MS has NOT been able to copy Apple, probably due to a deathly fear of breaking some old legacy software. I can't really blame MS for this, they have loads of legacy wandering around in who knows how many companies going back how many generations of Windows (or even MS-DOS?).
People like to bitch about Apple's 68xxx to PowerPC, then PowerPC to Intel switches, it seemed to smooth out rather quickly. Yes, some stuff breaks, but in the end it tended to better.
I read a comment a few weeks ago about including VMs with the next Windows release. I guess this would serve the purpose of multiple binaries, though a bit more difficult to deal with. I'm not an OS guy, so there are probably better options out there, but I guess that MS could not then force OS upgrades. For the record, I do not use MS at home, but I do at school and work.
"my time isn't 100% devoted to a single person."
Glad I don't work with you. Well, I don't know where you work, but I don't work with a bunch of people who waste my time. A few clients do this, yes, but hey, they're paying us a bunch of money.
People have learned not to call me unless it's important.
She doesn't need to know how to use it- just bring up notepad and let her type, even if it is slow one letter at a time. I'm sorry if I missed something about her situation that would prevent this.
Good luck to her, and you.
Yup. Check my sig.
If a candidate is religious, should we then dismiss he/she because they believe in something un-scientific?
I believe in evolution, science and the scientific method, yet I still believe in God. So do I get tossed out as a fruit cake?
how people feel so much pressure to be in touch all the time. No, I am not a CEO nor do I run a NOC, where I can see how near instant communication can be critical. I suspect that most people have some psychological need to be always available.
I will check my email if I am expecting something important. Everyone I deal with knows how to get in touch with me if something unexpected comes up. I once had an office mate that would email me a simple yes/no question if I was in the restroom at the time rather than wait 30 seconds to ask me in person- and then ask me to check my email when I returned from said restroom. And it wasn't important so as to need a paper trail, it had to do with something like did I get some memo.
It seems like everyone has forgot how to speak and would prefer an Outer Limits episode where everyone is WiFied into a central Skynet contraption. Look at the huge uproar that occurred by banning college football coaches from texting prospective recruits.
"1. Cryptonomicon-style"
I so just jumped to "Necronomicon-style" when I read that. Chin-sucking whirlpool books would probably be rather effective ("Army of Darkness" for you heathens that don't understand that).
You missed FEMA, Hurricane Katrina, and the Red Sox winning the World Series. And maybe crab people, but they could just be communists.
Where's Jenny Craig when you need her?
"The patent linked to from the article and the slashdot summary has nothing to do with music."
Ah, that was pretty much what I was saying from the start. The title was mis-titled or mis-leading- "Music from DNA patented". Though I do respect the fact that you could actually understand the patent.
Sadly, in our media-rich environment, a person has to speak in "sound bites". Remember Al Gore's "lockbox" phrase that got so much play? Any long sentence is just asking for disaster due to how many ways it can be misinterpreted or misreported.
Keep it short, keep it simple. Reporters don't have the time to air an essay. Which, IMHO, is a bad thing.
Wrong- I clicked on both the link in the summary and the link in the article.
Maybe you should have read my entire comment.
I haven't seen this pointed out yet. If you go drop $500 on something without looking into it, then tough luck. If the info was hidden or incorrect, then ok you have claim. Even if you had to go 3 pages deep to find the info, well, it was there.
While lawyers may have applied for the patent, some PhD in biology wrote the damn thing. My head nearly exploded from trying to read it.
And when I searched for the term "music", nowhere in the patent did the term "music" pop up.
Either someone screwed up the article or they linked to the wrong patent. Dang, I read the article AND tried to read the patent. A first!
Just kinda slid over that whole imposed cost to the families when the school could just save in a previous format, eh? Also pretty neat how the district just popped this on the families only 5 weeks before the start of school.
"It couldn't possibly be that microsoft office is the current industry standard, that all the school systems run microsoft office, that all the staff are trained on microsoft office, all their teaching resources are in microsoft office, all the staff laptops run microsoft office, all the students are taught microsoft office in classes using microsoft office specific lesson plans and ECDL training software.
...blah, blah, blah.... Doesn't work so well with Linux and OO since they're free, but with Mac's I can only imagine the uproar here on /. due the costs of Mac, plus Office for Mac, even with a discount, and MS is THE standard in the real world.
I run virtually my entire school network on linux servers, yet we still have office 2003 on the supported desktops and the recommended software for the student laptops."
-This is taken from "arkhan_jg"'s post #20030705. I wanted to post it at a higher level.
Still have Office -2003-. Which has been around for 4 years. Now parents have to pony up money for something that has been out for just a bit? I'm not advocating going OO, just wondering why this school district just HAD to go to 2007 right now and tell the parents to pony up money. From the comments from TFA apparently the school district got some $70Mil in funding. Well, nice and good, give out 2007 to the parents instead of pushing a new burden on top of the taxes they already pay.
Maybe if they told the parents that they should have '07 by next year, I could go with that. School starts in 5 weeks! And what about the suggestion of having the default for '07 set for '03 compatibility? Is the new '07 features so awesome to 9th graders we just have to have '07 as a default?
Also, why should students and parents have to have ANY computer or software for high school? This is required education in most states. If the family can not afford these requirements, then the school district or the state (whoever places these requirements in place) needs to provide the necessary equipment to satisfy the requirements. (If you want to get into who can pay, take it somewhere else, I'm not getting into a whole financial/economics discussion here).
Imagine if the school district went all Mac (I think Drexel(?) did this back in the '90's, maybe?), and required
This is one reason why the probability going to a public school --> 0 as asshatry --> 1.
"Microsoft uses proprietary protocols and formats to prevent interoperability."
This happened to my team over this weekend. 4 of us from different companies have a presentation and related paper this coming Tuesday. One guy got his in mid-afternoon Friday since he was vacationing over the weekend. Well, he forgot to down convert from Word '07 to '03. The rest of us did not have '07 so we couldn't incorporate his work until 5 PM today we he re-sent it.
Not too big a deal, but it was damn annoying doing work Sunday night, all because MS has to have a new format.
"Simply treat the employees with the respect and dignity they deserve as human beings."
;)
Totally agree. When I start a new job and I need to stay late I always say "hi", how ya doin'", you get the point. After talking with the janitor people a few times I noticed that my office started to be cleaner. Hmmm.... wonder why?
As for the guy who said "it's the fucking janitor's job" about HIS spilled drink- if he was one of my co-workers one morning his chair might be a little sticky since I tripped and accidentally spilled some soda on his chair. Hey, it the janitor's job, right?
Your iPhone gets stolen, you report it. The next time the iPhone connects to the network it get a notification that it's stolen. Next time you sync to iTunes, it reports its IP, location (in a future GPS enabled version), something.
Deploy RDF forces and, wham!, Voldermort is spanked by Darth Vader!
Or did I just mix to many metaphors at the end? (I still think my first idea is ok, though)