Have you thought about building the marketing department a spreadsheet front end into a database that lets them see what they want to see when they want to see it, not when you can send them a 500,000 row csv file? If you can provide them a standard set of spreadsheets and link them to a standard database that gets updated autoomatically, then you have relieved yourself of a tedious task and made them happier. Isn't that what office automation is supposed to be all about?
Multimedia is a real key. I am an experienced linux user (been using it since 1993) but Multimedia is a real killer. And Legal is the key word there, I can hack in the players into my system if necessary, but a new user quickly gets frustrated with this. And then to top it all off, once you get something working, it only takes a small change to break things again.
I have been working on capturing video from a site that does a 24x7 stream of video. They use a Microsoft server to stream the video and thus it is in ASF format using mms://. I got it working last week and the capture was working perfectly. Unfortunately, a couple of days after I got it working, something changed on the other end and now it doesn't work again. I am going to have to go in and debug it to make it work again.
A typical Windows user doesn't want to deal with that nor do they have the skills to deal with that. It took me about 20 minutes working with totem (gstreamer), kaffeine (xine), etc to get the video even to play again (after a change on the windows side) and originally it took me about 2 hours to figure out what needed to be loaded to get it to play.
Until we can get all this working out-of-the-box on Linux (in general) and legally distributable with all distributions, we are subject to reviews like this one. Admittedly, you usually have to install a DVD player on your windows machine if you purchase the DVD player as an add-on, but you don't have to look for a decoder that is on a site that says "it is illegal in some countries to install this on your computer due to copyright laws". Most users just expect things to work.
The comments in the article concerning MS Office are similar to the Multimedia issues that I have encountered. Most users just expect things to work. They don't expect to have difficulties moving data between systems. They don't expect to have to add software on their own to do something as simple as watch a DVD on their computer. They just want to do the work that they need to do.
They could easily get business to buy into it, too, by saying that it makes the WebApp service more secure.
And then when you read the fine print, you see that there is a clause that says that Microsoft now owns all rights to any data that is produced in this application. And for it to truly be portable, the data would have to be stored on their server as well, so how could you argue with the fine print after you discover it. Your document would simply disappear if you started to argue with them. Because they own the server, the application, and control the data.
And you won't find too many christians in an abortion clinic either.
Thankfully you are correct. But I am not sure how killing babies has anything to do with where man originated.
Now back to the topic while staying within this thread on religion. If you read the second chapter of Genesis you will discover that man originated in Asia. The river Euphrates is mentioned as is Assyria and "Ethiopia" (which was actually in current northern Iraq, not the current Ethiopia in Africa). So is this a case of science proving religion again?
Interestingly the Bible doesn't deal with any scientific inaccuracies. It doesn't mention any of the common beliefs that were incorrect (such as the three elements of earth, water, and fire which would have been prevalent during some of the time of the writing of the Bible. Nor is a flat earth mentioned anywhere in the Bible. In the book of Job, it mentions that there is nothing at the north pole (Job 26:7). Science has proven this to be accurate. Archeology has found many of the cities and civilizations mentioned in the Bible and shown the Biblical accounts to be accurate as well.
So this just might be on the right track to find the origination of man. Since several have asked what are you going to think if science proves God doesn't exist, I will ask "what if it is proven that the Bible is accurate on the origination of man?"
There is support. You can go to their website and click on the "Support" tab and then "Support Options" and then "Paid Technical Support" and see that you can purchase "commercial support" for ubuntu linux for Desktop or Server and two levels each. No this does not include on-site support but you really should have someone available to lay hands on the machine before you use any computer/OS combination.
I can say that as a Linux user since 1993, that I like (K)Ubuntu. I find it a joy to use and I don't have to spend all my time supporting and tweaking the system. This is the first Debian based system that I have used and I am growing quite fond of it. I used RedHat for many years and then moved to SuSe, but it finally got too expensive (before OpenSuSE became available). I went looking and tried GenToo (took too long to get running on some of my older hardware). I then tried Fedora (given my RedHat background), but never seemed to really go for it (primarily a KDE user). I then stumbled across and article on Ubuntu and found Kubuntu (5.04 was just out). I downloaded an ISO and installed it. I have either Hoary or Breezy running on every machine in my house now except one that is scheduled for upgrade over Christmas vaction.
I don't believe that its support is strictly from newcomers, I believe that there are people like me using (K)Ubuntu. Folks that have given their time to managing, supporting, and maintaining computers with various distros for years and are looking for the easy to maintain system. I would not be afraid to put (K)Ubuntu on a client site. I actually use it at one non-profit that I do volunteer work for also. It is used as a server, but runs flawlessly.
I agree whole completely with you on this. Patents are almost never for the good of society, but for the good of the patent holder alone. The benefit to society is from the point of view, if a person benefits from one patent, he or she is more likely to invent something else that will benefit mankind as well. There is a long term benefit to mankind in that innovation continues due to the fact that innovators profit from their inventions.
The rubber stamping of patents is really out of hand. It is occurring in every field not just software. However due to the rapid turn over in software and computing in general, the standard patent is certainly too long. I would also agree with you on the peer review aspect. But again I believe that it should happen in every field not just software.
With courts becoming so involved in the process, it has just about eliminated the little guy from trying to invent anything. He can do the work and come up with something new, but before he can get all the ducks in a line someone will have sued him and buried him in legal debt to the point that he can't hope to survive.
How do we fix this problem? Well, we probably aren't going to get the lawyers (in Congress) to pass laws that will take away work from lawyers (not yet in congress or already voted out of congress). It will take a grassroots movement to get lawyers out of congress and get some level headed engineers, programmers, etc into power. Or at least enough of us voting to get more level headed lawyers in place (after all which of us would want to give up a nice cushy job writing code to sit around in meetings all day long?)
And if Bush had been assassinated shortly after putting forth the challange to return to the moon, the money will be flowing to NASA. NASA would be struggling to find ways to spend all the money and the American people would be looking forward to the first foot prints on Mars.
Right now, it would be my guess that China stands the best chance at a run for the moon. They are actively launching ships (slowly but actively). They are not tied to the ISS like we have left the Russians (because we can't get a ship off the ground). Their people are behind the program (after all if they aren't behind it then they aren't behind the government and they will land in prison or worse). I would love to see us back on the moon and then on to Mars, but I don't believe that it will happen until the majority of American people really want it to happen. And the majority of the American people are not interested in furthering our research, and investing in our future, they are interested in spending NOW! and self indulgence.
BTW, I am an American and somewhat am preaching to myself in the comments above. I have no desire for Bush to be assassinated, but that would have made a trip to Mars much more likely. Now, the fact that he made that statement has warn off most Americans and it really doesn't make a difference outside of a few cities that are heavily involved in space research.
You have to be careful about this "use it or lose it" mindset. It is possible that two viable patents exist between two separate companies that really require each other for a viable product to exist. Now in today's culture the companies might be willing to share IP and both compete with similar products, but let's look at a real case in the past.
Colt owned a patent on the external cam locking cylinder for a revolver. This locking cylinder assured the shooter that the chamber was properly aligned with the barrel of the revolver when it was fired thus making a revolver relatively safe to shoot. However, Smith and Wesson owned a patent (actually had exclusive rights to a patent through licensing) for the bored through cylinder. The bored through cylinder was necessary for a revolver to fire a cartridge instead of being of a muzzle-loading type.
Smith and Wesson could not make a successful cartridge revolver because they couldn't use the locking cylinder. Colt couldn't make a cartridge revolver because they couldn't use the bored through cylinder. Colt could claim that their patent was productive because they used the locking cylinder on their "cap and ball" revolvers. Smith and Wesson could claim that their patent was productive because they did make a line of small caliber pistols that used cartridges. However niether company could use their patent to its maximum gain because of the other patent.
Do you declare both patents null and void so that anyone can use them? Do you arbitrarily declare one or the other null and void so that the other company can dominate? Now we know from history that the patent of Rollin White for the bored through cylinder expired before the patent on the external cam locking cylinder expired and that Colt went on the build the 1873 Colt "Peacemaker" Single Action Army. This gun became one of the most recognized guns in the history of firearms. It could have existed many years previously if patents hadn't stood in the way and it could have existed during the American Civil War and very well could have ended the war much earlier in the hands of Union solders due to the speed of reloading.
Now I agree that a company that holds a patent and does absolutely nothing with it and doesn't even pretend to do anything with it probably deserves to lose their patent. But, it is very difficult to write laws that will be fair in every case. The patent laws were written to help protect the little guy when inventing. The loop holes in the system have been exploited by corporations to make it work like they want. They have flooded the system with so many patents that patents can not be investigated properly and thus the PTO issues patents that are not innovative, can not be produced, or are just plain stupid.
You also have to be careful about not allowing software patents. In our world today, almost everything has software involved. If you completely eliminate software patents, then do you hurt the little guy as well. It is simple and inexpensive to develop a model of some software improvement (maybe even an innovative improvement) using a PC to simulate everything and test it. It may be implemented in a blackbox solution for production, but it still involved software. Most of the things in our homes have software of some sort (microwave oven, range, tv, radio, even your refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher, etc might have software in ROM). Were those new features innovative at the time they were invented? Probably, but they are software still.
Wow, somebody finally got it!!!! That has been my sig on/. for almost 5 yaers and no one has made that comment until now. Guess I will finally have to change it but I lost my list I once made of sigs that I wanted to use.
When I first saw the headline, I thought that maybe they were doing time analysis on the keystrokes to guess the fingers used and which row on the keyboard. If that were the case, I would just type my password using a couple of fingers and do some very accurate timing (given I used to be a drummer, I can get pretty accurate) an that would throw them off.
However, this is a little harder, I have to hit each and every key so that it makes exactly the same sound. This is extremely difficult because even if I use exactly the same pressure and exactly the same stroke on every key, then the spring might be different, or the switch might be slightly different on a few keys and still give hints.
I think that the best defense is to learn to type at about 1200 words per minutes (100 characters per second) so that the sound is just one constant stream and they would be incapable of breaking it down. Like the German "zip gun" from WWII, the MG-42 which fired around 1200-1300 rounds per minute and sounded like a zipper to the Allied soldiers. The constant short zip sounds also made it difficult to locate the gun when in cover.
You are correct about Lot being evil and especially about his decendants being evil. One of his sons/grandsons (the child of him and his daughter) was Amon, who became the father of the Amonites. The Amonites were utterly destroyed by the Babylonians and God pronounced that it was because they had been evil to Israel.
Someone else made a statement that the whole purpose of the story in the Old Testament was to get God's chosen few scattered across the world. I would disagree with that, it actually shows us of God's love for his people and what happens when you don't follow his commands even if you are his people. He always cared for his people, but he did let bad things happen to them when they didn't follow. He let 10 of the 12 tribes be destroyed by the Assyrians. He allowed the other 2 tribes to taken into Babylonian captitity (never to be free nation again). They went from the Babylonians to the Medio-Persians, then the Greeks, then the Romans, and then were destroyed as a nation in 70 A.D.
There are also plenty of cases in the Old Testament where people were punished for the sexual sins. Take a look at the story of David and Bathsheba. They lost the child that was illegitimately conceived. David paid the price for his sin, which never should have occurred. Look at the story of David's son Absolum, who raped his own half sister sister, he ended up hanging in an oak tree by his hair and being killed in rebellion against his own father. Look at the story of Joseph, he was taken into Egypt by the Ishmaelites and who were they? The Ishmaelites were the offspring of Ishmael who was the son of Abraham and his wifes handmaid (not God's intent again).
Over and over, God punished his people when they sinned. Fortunately for us, he doesn't deal with sin the same way today. He expects us to be smart enough to deal with life on our own given the guidance he has provided. But like any children, we think that we are smarter than our parents and we know best. Just as the laws of Moses were there to protect Israel, God's law today is there to protect us. All we have to do is listen to what he says and obey.
You are correct in that the cows aren't happy about this, but it already happens. It is just transferred by a little time. And the affect of this is very short lived as the cows get used to the new schedule just like the farmer gets used to it. Their milk production is based on the last time they were milked.
Given that the comment was that "according to some senators", do you believe that there is a part-time farmers lobby? No, this came for the big farmers and their lobby. I don't know why they are against this, but it isn't part-time farmers.
More likely part-time farmers would be for this. Why? Well, this means an extra hour of daylight in the afternoon, when he would likely be more able to do things on the farm. It is difficult to do farm work and then head for the day job (even though some things must be done in the morning as well like milking your cow). If the available daylight could be better grouped he could be much more efficient. Think about working on a fence, that is difficult to spend an hour in the morning and then an hour in the afternoon, but if those two hours could be grouped together better, then you can get some real work done.
I would give that more impact that it "could adversely affect livestock". I grew up on a farm and I never saw a horse, cow, pig, chicken, or any thing else that could tell time. I am not sure how they expect this to affect livestock.
I am sure that it will affect farmers somewhat. I remember during the energy crisis of the 70's the beginning of DST was earlier and I remember standing in the dark waiting for the school bus in the morning. But I also remember having more daylight when I got home. I don't remember hearing any of the livestock complain, but then we didn't have any computers in the house at time, much less in the barn or pastures.
I really liked that comment. I can't believe that anyone would truly believe it to be factual however.
If you take a look at history, this IP stuff is a new concept of companies trying to capitalize on every little thing. Historically speaking, one of the biggest times of invention in the U.S. was around the late 19th and early 20th century. And there was no such thing as IP.
If I remember my history correctly Westinghouse worked for Edison for a while and the Dodge brothers were working for Ford when they came up with their ideas for Dodge Motors (and actually sold Ford stock to get the capital to start Dodge). If current practice was in existance back then, we wouldn't have many of the things that exist today that make the world safer and more comfortable. What about Westinghouse inventing the air brake, we might all still be driving black model T Fords.
Also the best way to have your employees take care of you is for you to take care of them. This lesson was taught to me many years ago by a manager I had in retail sales. She really took care of her team and she was rewarded for her efforts. We never missed a sales goal and we won every sales contest in the district for two straight years.
I have little pity for people that treat professionals like kindergarteners and for people who think that they own everything that their employees think about. Treat your people right, give them opportunities to excel and fire the ones that break the rules. Don't punish the honest folks because of a few bad apples.
Look at the Bible for an example. God had Noah build and ark and eight people were saved while the rest of the world was destroyed. The wicked (or rule breakers) were the ones that were punished. Sodom and Gomorrah are another example, Lot and his two daughters escaped the distruction while the cities burned. Lot's wife was punished for looking back but not those with her that obeyed the rules. Why do people think that everything has to be uniform, what is wrong with rewarding those that excel and punishing those that fail to follow the rules?
I think that on April 1 we need a MOD of "gullable". I will have to admit that this was the first story I saw today and I almost said "I don't believe it". But my son came in and hit with an on April Fool's gag just as I was reading it and I realized.
Unfortunately, the world has almost come to this point, but hopefully a little humor of the day will lighten our load and make us realize what is important in life. Life is for living, not for worry.
Not that I am a fan of Microsoft, but BizTalk 2004 is a visual programming languange/environment. Yes it compiles down to IL via c# being generated internally, but you don't have to write code for many basic functions. It even support threading, and will generate code for transforming XML from one format to another. It is limited in what it will deal with and definitely isn't a general purpose language, but you can accomplish real work with it, if you are trying to do intergration work.
In the case of BizTalk, you can in theory (assuming you use basic functionality and don't rename any of the blocks) do most of the process without taking your hand off the mouse. It isn't necessarily efficient, but it can be done. I will say that writing the code to do what is done in one block would definitely take longer than using the mouse.
Well, I am not sure that I totally agree with you on this. While you are correct that on average the warranty company is going to spend less than they make, it isn't true on an individual basis. It is just another form of insurance.
Now I would guess that you have home owners insurance if you own a home. I would also guess that you have automobile insurance on your car. So what is wrong with breakage insurance on your laptaop? The issue is that companies that sell those warranties don't fall under insurance laws in most states and thus the laws and regulations on them are different than those on a "standard"
insurance company.
Now, I don't usually purchase those things as they are usually over-priced and under paid. I have had a few of them in my life and some provided a good experience while others didn't. You usually don't get an option as to who to get the warranty from, it is usually whomever will pay the store the most for selling their product.
If these companies were easily monitored, somewhat regulated, and interested in long-term business things would be much better. However, they usually are most interested in making a quick buck and thus hard to monitor and regulate.
And where are those rich kids going to come from (assuming you are a typical/. reader)? The ladies that would consider you, will just work a few more years and save up their money. Since they aren't aging so badly, they will then pick up a young stud that has more going for him than a fancy keyboard and a case with lights and fans.
Thus you are left with no one to comfort you and no one to care for you. Except whomever you can hire with the few dollars you have left over from buying the latest gaming machine.
This is the worst thing that could ever happen to geeks. Our only hope at survival is that we won't be stupid enough to kill ourselves doing stupid things like jumping from perfectly good airplanes or going down ropes that been thrown over large cliffs. I say geeks of the world unite and squash this technology! We don't need it.
You know this is starting to sound more and more like an episode in US history. How many of you remember the story of the British East India Company and the early 1770's? It seems that the British government was trying to keep the British East India Company from failing financially and passed some laws to assist them "unfairly". The near-term result in the case of the British East India Company was a party in Boston Harbor (a.k.a. The Boston Tea Party). Maybe we should be reminding out governments about such things. It has been said that if you forget your history, you are doomed to repeat it. It seems to me that we are repeating it in that we are "unfairly" protecting large corporations with governmental laws.
I am not suggesting that we have "The Seattle Software Party". I don't think that polluting the Port of Seattle would accomplish anything in this case. I am simply suggesting that you should each give your law makers a history lesson to remind them of the consequences of government caving to big business and not protecting the people.
Well, since it is on the ESRI site, I would have to make the assumption that they probably used ArcInfo. After all that is their product and it can export a JPEG. However, it could be done with ArcIMS (also their product).
But moral values are "religion-related". Moral values relate to a sense of right and wrong and that sense eventually relates back to God. As to using those to choose a leader, my opinion is that they do directly apply.
I would rather look at the abortion issue as it is easier to discribe in simple terms. I can't see how a person that advocates the murder of babies can lead this (or any) country. To me the murder of babies is morally wrong and simply calling them a fetus to make it politically correct doesn't make it any less wrong. Calling it pro-choice doesn't make it right either, after all the baby didn't have a choice in this at all, it neither chose to be conceived nor did it choose to die! Therefore, I could not support any candidate that supports abortion.
Similar logic could be applied in other areas as well. They could be applied to gay marriage, death penalty, Iraq, etc. In some cases, one or the other candidate did better. I could then base my decision on how the cadidates stacked up compared to my moral compass overall. I couldn't get everything I wanted from any candidate, so I had to choose which one fit on the items that mattered the most to me.
And as to a President whose moral values should have prohibited him from sending troops into war, let's not forget that Nixon was a Quaker yet still sent troops into combat. Which also shows that a president can break away from his moral compass as well.
Bush/Mars thing is the same as NCLB. Make a loud bluster of something to do, then don't fund it
Wow, I need to be sure and tell all my friends across town at MFSC. They don't seem to understand that there is no budget for Mars. From what I understand some of them are working on some interesting science and technology for that and other uses.
But obviously you know better, so I am sure that they will all start looking for jobs this afternoon:-) Admittedly a few of them are working in support of getting the shuttles up again, but quite a few are working on the future in many different ways.
I will admit that I don't like NCLB, but that is a whole different story in that the concept is just wrong. Sometimes a C needs to be LB and often it is better for everyone. If a few Cs got LB, then maybe the teachers would feel responsible for the classrooms again and not feel like childcare that must move every C along through the system. Maybe if a few Cs got LB and parents started to enquire, they would become interested in their Cs education. A teacher can't possible teach every C everything that they need. God gave a C two parents for a reason.
My forefathers, yes literally my ancestors, fought in serveral wars to make sure that we didn't have any thing like what you are advocating. First we fought to free ourselves from England, and then again in 1812 we fought to keep them out. We have fought wars against others to protect freedom since that time. Many of those "uneducated or uninformed" that you mentioned served and died to protect the freedom that we have to "all be a hiring manager".
I don't intend to rollover and give up that freedom, just because you think that my moral values make me less of a responsible citizen than your materialistic values make you. You are correct in one sense that we perceive what they want us to perceive, however, we can look at long term records on any of the major candidates (and even Ralph Nader) and have a very good idea of where they have taken stands and make informed decisions as to where they will stand. Isn't that how you pick a candidate? Surely you don't just say, "I don't like this one, so let's give someone else a try"?
Just because I based part of my decision on "preceived" moral values, doesn't mean that I didn't take time investigating those values in each of the candidates. And yes, you can investigate where the candidates have taken stands on issues that are moral in nature with some investigation!
Now, as to your first point. Why should I take away "religion-related"? That is a part of ME! They are as much a part of me as my computer skills, or anything else. And my moral values are tightly integrated into my thought processes.
I don't see why you should have the right to ask me to take them out of the election process any more than I would have the right to tell you to forget about all that "economic mumbo jumbo". I could just as easily say that there is no proof that anything that the president has done in the last 220'ish years has affected the economic outlook of the nation and thus you need to take that away from your thought process.
So, if I understand you correctly, anyone that doesn't agree with your educated, "I'm an engineer and understand everything" opinion is ignorant. So how can you say that Bush isn't interested in Science or Technology, wasn't it Bush that challenged NASA to go to Mars? If that isn't science and technology, I don't know what is. Bush is investing in new weapons systems for the military, if that isn't science and technology I don't know what is.
I can't speak to the fact that you can't find a job in Texas, but with your attitude, I wouldn't count on keeping one in the midwest for a long time either. Nobody wants to be around someone that believe they are ignorant and be talked down to, especially people from the midwest.
No, I am not from the midwest, but my mother was raised in Southern Illinois and my wife is from Pennsylvannia, so I understand the midwestern mind somewhat. And while we are at it, I wouldn't come to the south to look for work next, you wouldn't like it here either because by your definition we are ignorant as well and I live in a town where the most people work for either NASA, the Army, or a contractor for one of those in the science and technology arena.
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Have you thought about building the marketing department a spreadsheet front end into a database that lets them see what they want to see when they want to see it, not when you can send them a 500,000 row csv file? If you can provide them a standard set of spreadsheets and link them to a standard database that gets updated autoomatically, then you have relieved yourself of a tedious task and made them happier. Isn't that what office automation is supposed to be all about?
Multimedia is a real key. I am an experienced linux user (been using it since 1993) but Multimedia is a real killer. And Legal is the key word there, I can hack in the players into my system if necessary, but a new user quickly gets frustrated with this. And then to top it all off, once you get something working, it only takes a small change to break things again.
I have been working on capturing video from a site that does a 24x7 stream of video. They use a Microsoft server to stream the video and thus it is in ASF format using mms://. I got it working last week and the capture was working perfectly. Unfortunately, a couple of days after I got it working, something changed on the other end and now it doesn't work again. I am going to have to go in and debug it to make it work again.
A typical Windows user doesn't want to deal with that nor do they have the skills to deal with that. It took me about 20 minutes working with totem (gstreamer), kaffeine (xine), etc to get the video even to play again (after a change on the windows side) and originally it took me about 2 hours to figure out what needed to be loaded to get it to play.
Until we can get all this working out-of-the-box on Linux (in general) and legally distributable with all distributions, we are subject to reviews like this one. Admittedly, you usually have to install a DVD player on your windows machine if you purchase the DVD player as an add-on, but you don't have to look for a decoder that is on a site that says "it is illegal in some countries to install this on your computer due to copyright laws". Most users just expect things to work. The comments in the article concerning MS Office are similar to the Multimedia issues that I have encountered. Most users just expect things to work. They don't expect to have difficulties moving data between systems. They don't expect to have to add software on their own to do something as simple as watch a DVD on their computer. They just want to do the work that they need to do.
And then when you read the fine print, you see that there is a clause that says that Microsoft now owns all rights to any data that is produced in this application. And for it to truly be portable, the data would have to be stored on their server as well, so how could you argue with the fine print after you discover it. Your document would simply disappear if you started to argue with them. Because they own the server, the application, and control the data.
Thankfully you are correct. But I am not sure how killing babies has anything to do with where man originated.
Now back to the topic while staying within this thread on religion. If you read the second chapter of Genesis you will discover that man originated in Asia. The river Euphrates is mentioned as is Assyria and "Ethiopia" (which was actually in current northern Iraq, not the current Ethiopia in Africa). So is this a case of science proving religion again?
Interestingly the Bible doesn't deal with any scientific inaccuracies. It doesn't mention any of the common beliefs that were incorrect (such as the three elements of earth, water, and fire which would have been prevalent during some of the time of the writing of the Bible. Nor is a flat earth mentioned anywhere in the Bible. In the book of Job, it mentions that there is nothing at the north pole (Job 26:7). Science has proven this to be accurate. Archeology has found many of the cities and civilizations mentioned in the Bible and shown the Biblical accounts to be accurate as well.
So this just might be on the right track to find the origination of man. Since several have asked what are you going to think if science proves God doesn't exist, I will ask "what if it is proven that the Bible is accurate on the origination of man?"
There is support. You can go to their website and click on the "Support" tab and then "Support Options" and then "Paid Technical Support" and see that you can purchase "commercial support" for ubuntu linux for Desktop or Server and two levels each. No this does not include on-site support but you really should have someone available to lay hands on the machine before you use any computer/OS combination.
I can say that as a Linux user since 1993, that I like (K)Ubuntu. I find it a joy to use and I don't have to spend all my time supporting and tweaking the system. This is the first Debian based system that I have used and I am growing quite fond of it. I used RedHat for many years and then moved to SuSe, but it finally got too expensive (before OpenSuSE became available). I went looking and tried GenToo (took too long to get running on some of my older hardware). I then tried Fedora (given my RedHat background), but never seemed to really go for it (primarily a KDE user). I then stumbled across and article on Ubuntu and found Kubuntu (5.04 was just out). I downloaded an ISO and installed it. I have either Hoary or Breezy running on every machine in my house now except one that is scheduled for upgrade over Christmas vaction.
I don't believe that its support is strictly from newcomers, I believe that there are people like me using (K)Ubuntu. Folks that have given their time to managing, supporting, and maintaining computers with various distros for years and are looking for the easy to maintain system. I would not be afraid to put (K)Ubuntu on a client site. I actually use it at one non-profit that I do volunteer work for also. It is used as a server, but runs flawlessly.
I agree whole completely with you on this. Patents are almost never for the good of society, but for the good of the patent holder alone. The benefit to society is from the point of view, if a person benefits from one patent, he or she is more likely to invent something else that will benefit mankind as well. There is a long term benefit to mankind in that innovation continues due to the fact that innovators profit from their inventions.
The rubber stamping of patents is really out of hand. It is occurring in every field not just software. However due to the rapid turn over in software and computing in general, the standard patent is certainly too long. I would also agree with you on the peer review aspect. But again I believe that it should happen in every field not just software.
With courts becoming so involved in the process, it has just about eliminated the little guy from trying to invent anything. He can do the work and come up with something new, but before he can get all the ducks in a line someone will have sued him and buried him in legal debt to the point that he can't hope to survive.
How do we fix this problem? Well, we probably aren't going to get the lawyers (in Congress) to pass laws that will take away work from lawyers (not yet in congress or already voted out of congress). It will take a grassroots movement to get lawyers out of congress and get some level headed engineers, programmers, etc into power. Or at least enough of us voting to get more level headed lawyers in place (after all which of us would want to give up a nice cushy job writing code to sit around in meetings all day long?)
And if Bush had been assassinated shortly after putting forth the challange to return to the moon, the money will be flowing to NASA. NASA would be struggling to find ways to spend all the money and the American people would be looking forward to the first foot prints on Mars.
Right now, it would be my guess that China stands the best chance at a run for the moon. They are actively launching ships (slowly but actively). They are not tied to the ISS like we have left the Russians (because we can't get a ship off the ground). Their people are behind the program (after all if they aren't behind it then they aren't behind the government and they will land in prison or worse). I would love to see us back on the moon and then on to Mars, but I don't believe that it will happen until the majority of American people really want it to happen. And the majority of the American people are not interested in furthering our research, and investing in our future, they are interested in spending NOW! and self indulgence. BTW, I am an American and somewhat am preaching to myself in the comments above. I have no desire for Bush to be assassinated, but that would have made a trip to Mars much more likely. Now, the fact that he made that statement has warn off most Americans and it really doesn't make a difference outside of a few cities that are heavily involved in space research.
You have to be careful about this "use it or lose it" mindset. It is possible that two viable patents exist between two separate companies that really require each other for a viable product to exist. Now in today's culture the companies might be willing to share IP and both compete with similar products, but let's look at a real case in the past.
Colt owned a patent on the external cam locking cylinder for a revolver. This locking cylinder assured the shooter that the chamber was properly aligned with the barrel of the revolver when it was fired thus making a revolver relatively safe to shoot. However, Smith and Wesson owned a patent (actually had exclusive rights to a patent through licensing) for the bored through cylinder. The bored through cylinder was necessary for a revolver to fire a cartridge instead of being of a muzzle-loading type.
Smith and Wesson could not make a successful cartridge revolver because they couldn't use the locking cylinder. Colt couldn't make a cartridge revolver because they couldn't use the bored through cylinder. Colt could claim that their patent was productive because they used the locking cylinder on their "cap and ball" revolvers. Smith and Wesson could claim that their patent was productive because they did make a line of small caliber pistols that used cartridges. However niether company could use their patent to its maximum gain because of the other patent.
Do you declare both patents null and void so that anyone can use them? Do you arbitrarily declare one or the other null and void so that the other company can dominate? Now we know from history that the patent of Rollin White for the bored through cylinder expired before the patent on the external cam locking cylinder expired and that Colt went on the build the 1873 Colt "Peacemaker" Single Action Army. This gun became one of the most recognized guns in the history of firearms. It could have existed many years previously if patents hadn't stood in the way and it could have existed during the American Civil War and very well could have ended the war much earlier in the hands of Union solders due to the speed of reloading.
Now I agree that a company that holds a patent and does absolutely nothing with it and doesn't even pretend to do anything with it probably deserves to lose their patent. But, it is very difficult to write laws that will be fair in every case. The patent laws were written to help protect the little guy when inventing. The loop holes in the system have been exploited by corporations to make it work like they want. They have flooded the system with so many patents that patents can not be investigated properly and thus the PTO issues patents that are not innovative, can not be produced, or are just plain stupid.
You also have to be careful about not allowing software patents. In our world today, almost everything has software involved. If you completely eliminate software patents, then do you hurt the little guy as well. It is simple and inexpensive to develop a model of some software improvement (maybe even an innovative improvement) using a PC to simulate everything and test it. It may be implemented in a blackbox solution for production, but it still involved software. Most of the things in our homes have software of some sort (microwave oven, range, tv, radio, even your refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher, etc might have software in ROM). Were those new features innovative at the time they were invented? Probably, but they are software still.
Wow, somebody finally got it!!!! That has been my sig on /. for almost 5 yaers and no one has made that comment until now. Guess I will finally have to change it but I lost my list I once made of sigs that I wanted to use.
When I first saw the headline, I thought that maybe they were doing time analysis on the keystrokes to guess the fingers used and which row on the keyboard. If that were the case, I would just type my password using a couple of fingers and do some very accurate timing (given I used to be a drummer, I can get pretty accurate) an that would throw them off.
However, this is a little harder, I have to hit each and every key so that it makes exactly the same sound. This is extremely difficult because even if I use exactly the same pressure and exactly the same stroke on every key, then the spring might be different, or the switch might be slightly different on a few keys and still give hints.
I think that the best defense is to learn to type at about 1200 words per minutes (100 characters per second) so that the sound is just one constant stream and they would be incapable of breaking it down. Like the German "zip gun" from WWII, the MG-42 which fired around 1200-1300 rounds per minute and sounded like a zipper to the Allied soldiers. The constant short zip sounds also made it difficult to locate the gun when in cover.
Actually Abraham was his Uncle not his Brother.
You are correct about Lot being evil and especially about his decendants being evil. One of his sons/grandsons (the child of him and his daughter) was Amon, who became the father of the Amonites. The Amonites were utterly destroyed by the Babylonians and God pronounced that it was because they had been evil to Israel.
Someone else made a statement that the whole purpose of the story in the Old Testament was to get God's chosen few scattered across the world. I would disagree with that, it actually shows us of God's love for his people and what happens when you don't follow his commands even if you are his people. He always cared for his people, but he did let bad things happen to them when they didn't follow. He let 10 of the 12 tribes be destroyed by the Assyrians. He allowed the other 2 tribes to taken into Babylonian captitity (never to be free nation again). They went from the Babylonians to the Medio-Persians, then the Greeks, then the Romans, and then were destroyed as a nation in 70 A.D.
There are also plenty of cases in the Old Testament where people were punished for the sexual sins. Take a look at the story of David and Bathsheba. They lost the child that was illegitimately conceived. David paid the price for his sin, which never should have occurred. Look at the story of David's son Absolum, who raped his own half sister sister, he ended up hanging in an oak tree by his hair and being killed in rebellion against his own father. Look at the story of Joseph, he was taken into Egypt by the Ishmaelites and who were they? The Ishmaelites were the offspring of Ishmael who was the son of Abraham and his wifes handmaid (not God's intent again).
Over and over, God punished his people when they sinned. Fortunately for us, he doesn't deal with sin the same way today. He expects us to be smart enough to deal with life on our own given the guidance he has provided. But like any children, we think that we are smarter than our parents and we know best. Just as the laws of Moses were there to protect Israel, God's law today is there to protect us. All we have to do is listen to what he says and obey.
You are correct in that the cows aren't happy about this, but it already happens. It is just transferred by a little time. And the affect of this is very short lived as the cows get used to the new schedule just like the farmer gets used to it. Their milk production is based on the last time they were milked.
Given that the comment was that "according to some senators", do you believe that there is a part-time farmers lobby? No, this came for the big farmers and their lobby. I don't know why they are against this, but it isn't part-time farmers.
More likely part-time farmers would be for this. Why? Well, this means an extra hour of daylight in the afternoon, when he would likely be more able to do things on the farm. It is difficult to do farm work and then head for the day job (even though some things must be done in the morning as well like milking your cow). If the available daylight could be better grouped he could be much more efficient. Think about working on a fence, that is difficult to spend an hour in the morning and then an hour in the afternoon, but if those two hours could be grouped together better, then you can get some real work done.
I would give that more impact that it "could adversely affect livestock". I grew up on a farm and I never saw a horse, cow, pig, chicken, or any thing else that could tell time. I am not sure how they expect this to affect livestock.
I am sure that it will affect farmers somewhat. I remember during the energy crisis of the 70's the beginning of DST was earlier and I remember standing in the dark waiting for the school bus in the morning. But I also remember having more daylight when I got home. I don't remember hearing any of the livestock complain, but then we didn't have any computers in the house at time, much less in the barn or pastures.
I really liked that comment. I can't believe that anyone would truly believe it to be factual however.
If you take a look at history, this IP stuff is a new concept of companies trying to capitalize on every little thing. Historically speaking, one of the biggest times of invention in the U.S. was around the late 19th and early 20th century. And there was no such thing as IP.
If I remember my history correctly Westinghouse worked for Edison for a while and the Dodge brothers were working for Ford when they came up with their ideas for Dodge Motors (and actually sold Ford stock to get the capital to start Dodge). If current practice was in existance back then, we wouldn't have many of the things that exist today that make the world safer and more comfortable. What about Westinghouse inventing the air brake, we might all still be driving black model T Fords.
Also the best way to have your employees take care of you is for you to take care of them. This lesson was taught to me many years ago by a manager I had in retail sales. She really took care of her team and she was rewarded for her efforts. We never missed a sales goal and we won every sales contest in the district for two straight years.
I have little pity for people that treat professionals like kindergarteners and for people who think that they own everything that their employees think about. Treat your people right, give them opportunities to excel and fire the ones that break the rules. Don't punish the honest folks because of a few bad apples.
Look at the Bible for an example. God had Noah build and ark and eight people were saved while the rest of the world was destroyed. The wicked (or rule breakers) were the ones that were punished. Sodom and Gomorrah are another example, Lot and his two daughters escaped the distruction while the cities burned. Lot's wife was punished for looking back but not those with her that obeyed the rules. Why do people think that everything has to be uniform, what is wrong with rewarding those that excel and punishing those that fail to follow the rules?
I think that on April 1 we need a MOD of "gullable". I will have to admit that this was the first story I saw today and I almost said "I don't believe it". But my son came in and hit with an on April Fool's gag just as I was reading it and I realized.
/. DAY.
Unfortunately, the world has almost come to this point, but hopefully a little humor of the day will lighten our load and make us realize what is important in life. Life is for living, not for worry.
HAVE A GREAT
Not that I am a fan of Microsoft, but BizTalk 2004 is a visual programming languange/environment. Yes it compiles down to IL via c# being generated internally, but you don't have to write code for many basic functions. It even support threading, and will generate code for transforming XML from one format to another. It is limited in what it will deal with and definitely isn't a general purpose language, but you can accomplish real work with it, if you are trying to do intergration work.
In the case of BizTalk, you can in theory (assuming you use basic functionality and don't rename any of the blocks) do most of the process without taking your hand off the mouse. It isn't necessarily efficient, but it can be done. I will say that writing the code to do what is done in one block would definitely take longer than using the mouse.
Well, I am not sure that I totally agree with you on this. While you are correct that on average the warranty company is going to spend less than they make, it isn't true on an individual basis. It is just another form of insurance.
Now I would guess that you have home owners insurance if you own a home. I would also guess that you have automobile insurance on your car. So what is wrong with breakage insurance on your laptaop? The issue is that companies that sell those warranties don't fall under insurance laws in most states and thus the laws and regulations on them are different than those on a "standard" insurance company.
Now, I don't usually purchase those things as they are usually over-priced and under paid. I have had a few of them in my life and some provided a good experience while others didn't. You usually don't get an option as to who to get the warranty from, it is usually whomever will pay the store the most for selling their product.
If these companies were easily monitored, somewhat regulated, and interested in long-term business things would be much better. However, they usually are most interested in making a quick buck and thus hard to monitor and regulate.
And where are those rich kids going to come from (assuming you are a typical /. reader)? The ladies that would consider you, will just work a few more years and save up their money. Since they aren't aging so badly, they will then pick up a young stud that has more going for him than a fancy keyboard and a case with lights and fans.
Thus you are left with no one to comfort you and no one to care for you. Except whomever you can hire with the few dollars you have left over from buying the latest gaming machine.
This is the worst thing that could ever happen to geeks. Our only hope at survival is that we won't be stupid enough to kill ourselves doing stupid things like jumping from perfectly good airplanes or going down ropes that been thrown over large cliffs. I say geeks of the world unite and squash this technology! We don't need it.
You know this is starting to sound more and more like an episode in US history. How many of you remember the story of the British East India Company and the early 1770's? It seems that the British government was trying to keep the British East India Company from failing financially and passed some laws to assist them "unfairly". The near-term result in the case of the British East India Company was a party in Boston Harbor (a.k.a. The Boston Tea Party). Maybe we should be reminding out governments about such things. It has been said that if you forget your history, you are doomed to repeat it. It seems to me that we are repeating it in that we are "unfairly" protecting large corporations with governmental laws.
I am not suggesting that we have "The Seattle Software Party". I don't think that polluting the Port of Seattle would accomplish anything in this case. I am simply suggesting that you should each give your law makers a history lesson to remind them of the consequences of government caving to big business and not protecting the people.
Well, since it is on the ESRI site, I would have to make the assumption that they probably used ArcInfo. After all that is their product and it can export a JPEG. However, it could be done with ArcIMS (also their product).
But moral values are "religion-related". Moral values relate to a sense of right and wrong and that sense eventually relates back to God. As to using those to choose a leader, my opinion is that they do directly apply.
I would rather look at the abortion issue as it is easier to discribe in simple terms. I can't see how a person that advocates the murder of babies can lead this (or any) country. To me the murder of babies is morally wrong and simply calling them a fetus to make it politically correct doesn't make it any less wrong. Calling it pro-choice doesn't make it right either, after all the baby didn't have a choice in this at all, it neither chose to be conceived nor did it choose to die! Therefore, I could not support any candidate that supports abortion.
Similar logic could be applied in other areas as well. They could be applied to gay marriage, death penalty, Iraq, etc. In some cases, one or the other candidate did better. I could then base my decision on how the cadidates stacked up compared to my moral compass overall. I couldn't get everything I wanted from any candidate, so I had to choose which one fit on the items that mattered the most to me.
And as to a President whose moral values should have prohibited him from sending troops into war, let's not forget that Nixon was a Quaker yet still sent troops into combat. Which also shows that a president can break away from his moral compass as well.
But obviously you know better, so I am sure that they will all start looking for jobs this afternoon
I will admit that I don't like NCLB, but that is a whole different story in that the concept is just wrong. Sometimes a C needs to be LB and often it is better for everyone. If a few Cs got LB, then maybe the teachers would feel responsible for the classrooms again and not feel like childcare that must move every C along through the system. Maybe if a few Cs got LB and parents started to enquire, they would become interested in their Cs education. A teacher can't possible teach every C everything that they need. God gave a C two parents for a reason.
My forefathers, yes literally my ancestors, fought in serveral wars to make sure that we didn't have any thing like what you are advocating. First we fought to free ourselves from England, and then again in 1812 we fought to keep them out. We have fought wars against others to protect freedom since that time. Many of those "uneducated or uninformed" that you mentioned served and died to protect the freedom that we have to "all be a hiring manager".
I don't intend to rollover and give up that freedom, just because you think that my moral values make me less of a responsible citizen than your materialistic values make you. You are correct in one sense that we perceive what they want us to perceive, however, we can look at long term records on any of the major candidates (and even Ralph Nader) and have a very good idea of where they have taken stands and make informed decisions as to where they will stand. Isn't that how you pick a candidate? Surely you don't just say, "I don't like this one, so let's give someone else a try"?
Just because I based part of my decision on "preceived" moral values, doesn't mean that I didn't take time investigating those values in each of the candidates. And yes, you can investigate where the candidates have taken stands on issues that are moral in nature with some investigation!
Now, as to your first point. Why should I take away "religion-related"? That is a part of ME! They are as much a part of me as my computer skills, or anything else. And my moral values are tightly integrated into my thought processes.
I don't see why you should have the right to ask me to take them out of the election process any more than I would have the right to tell you to forget about all that "economic mumbo jumbo". I could just as easily say that there is no proof that anything that the president has done in the last 220'ish years has affected the economic outlook of the nation and thus you need to take that away from your thought process.
So, if I understand you correctly, anyone that doesn't agree with your educated, "I'm an engineer and understand everything" opinion is ignorant. So how can you say that Bush isn't interested in Science or Technology, wasn't it Bush that challenged NASA to go to Mars? If that isn't science and technology, I don't know what is. Bush is investing in new weapons systems for the military, if that isn't science and technology I don't know what is.
I can't speak to the fact that you can't find a job in Texas, but with your attitude, I wouldn't count on keeping one in the midwest for a long time either. Nobody wants to be around someone that believe they are ignorant and be talked down to, especially people from the midwest.
No, I am not from the midwest, but my mother was raised in Southern Illinois and my wife is from Pennsylvannia, so I understand the midwestern mind somewhat. And while we are at it, I wouldn't come to the south to look for work next, you wouldn't like it here either because by your definition we are ignorant as well and I live in a town where the most people work for either NASA, the Army, or a contractor for one of those in the science and technology arena.