I guess you haven't met many executives. Golf games, flight sims, sports games. And odd one here and there who can go toe to toe with you in Halo or who'll take the plunge into Desert Combat. So who knows? Maybe Dell eagerly anticipates Half-Life 2 and Doom III as much as the rest of us.
Now, for most of the folks in most offices, no they don't require a machine with much umph to word process, email, and whatever.
I have to agree - answering the phone or some inane technical question from a non-technical person barging into your (closed door) office is an extreme PITA when you're coding or breaking down a complex process into an algorithm.
If I don't answer my phone it goes to voicemail or user punches "0" to get back to reception and someone is generally dispatched to go hunting around for me because it's a "computer emergency" - getting across the concept of "I'm a programmer, extension XYZ is for tech support" is moot when you're considered a "computer guy" and when people gripe that "well, either that extension is busy or he's gone (supporting someone else)" - what is the deal with instant gratification?
No, but if they stripped my store clean, leaving my place bare while they sifted through my stuff for God-knows-how-long looking for 'evidence' of where he might have gone...yes, then I'd have a serious problem with the feds.
But the case will be built on the testimony of those involved - witnesses. If nobody wants to cooperate, what's Inspector Gadget to do? You gotta know when to hold them, when to fold them.
If in 10 years Microsoft does a turn around and starts supporting Linux will we all forget the evils of the past?
If Microsoft did a turnaround and started supporting Linux, becoming part of the solution rather than the 800 pound gorilla of a problem then you're damned right I'd do business with them. You're a fool if you refuse to do business with a company because of what it did 20 years ago, provided that company has changed.
The first paint to go on sale will of course be white.
Racist manufacturers.:)
My favourite part of the article (with a different substance):
In 2002, after 7000 square metres of road surface in Milan, Italy, were covered with a catalytic cement, residents reported that it was noticeably easier to breathe - with the concentration of nitrogen oxides at street level cut by up to 60 per cent.
60% percent less nitrogen oxides in less than a year? Hell, coat my lungs with it. Even if if has to be reapplied every couple of years, it would be worth it to apply the cement version to streets, and roads and the paint version to buildings. Dunno about the whole discolouration thing, though.
Wonder how long it'll be now that we have photocatalytic paint before someone comes up with photovoltaic paint that can produce significant power? Even cooler if they could be combined.
An add-on? That's odd. I think this was one of those first or second year elimination courses, y'know - like logic. I agree - it should be at the beginning; computer scientists need to know what's going on at the processor level. How to use registers, push and pop and execution order, jumping from one point to another, etc.
Of course, when we started out at the beginning of the semestre it was all binary, our inputs were done in hex, and toward the end we were using standard MV, ADD assembly notation. Hard to believe it's been 8+ years; amazing what you forget.
Anyway, we were programming for the Sinclair Z81, which is odd because the first computer I ever used (and put together) was a Timex Sinclair.
Most of our graduates went on to work for the Department of Defence, NASA, or other government programming jobs (hence the focus on Ada for coding and rocketry in math courses) - fewer things are better cures for insomnia than taking lectures in aerothermaldynamics.
I didn't go for the M.S. in CS (which is why I was blasting through undergrad prerequisites); ultimately I just went to work doing web development. It pays the bills. Still, one day I'd like to add an M.S. in CS or a Ph.D. to my B.A. and M.Ed. He who dies with the most degrees wins.
There is no way to determine that you are the author of this book by the submission you made. By not explicity saying that *you are the author*, you deceive by omission. That's why people who have an affiliation with a topic under discussion explictly say so - e.g. "Disclaimer: I work for..." or "Disclaimer: I wrote this book..."
Anyway, at best you demonstrated poor judgement. At worst, it was a deliberate deception. I don't know you, so I don't really have an opinion.
Now, regarding teaching assembly language programming:
I don't know what planet everyone else studied on, but my Computer Science curriculum (I studied computer science for a while after earning a B.A. in Philosophy) required assembly language programming. Our software emulated the Z81 and ran on NeXT workstations. The introductory programming course was in Ada - which is a underrated language (switched to Java later). C was also required (and fun).
A demanding IT job where you're fighting brush fires 110% of the time is not conducive to being able to do programming on the side.
You need a source of livelihood that gives you enough slack time (and little to no family obligations) even to afford the time to invest in programming.
Thank you. Maybe I should cc this to my boss.
Having to be admin, supervisor of 2 IT dudes, lead developer (now only developer) of our web apps suite (and support 7 other companies using it), and general IT go-to guy things get busy... and stressful.
With this super-scanner, I think you'd find that most people lie a lot, that folks are stressed out a lot, and that people are nervous around police officers and in airports. I also think that 'she loves me','she loves me not' will depend on her mood. She may not love you *right now*.
All I did was fill out a single spreadsheet questionairre that asked me how many PCs I had on my network, how many I was projected to have in the next 12 months, if I was going to use VPN, and whether or not I was setting up an ISP. It took me all of 10 minutes to fill out, then I got my class Cs assigned (I just needed a hundred or so initially) lickety-split. Wasn't an ordeal at all.
You can't put a company in jail; it's an entity that exists on paper. Nor can you put the execs in jail - corporate shield, as long as they didn't break the law (significantly). I can hear the defense now: "I firmly believe SCOX intellectual property is being infringed on by Linux; because the court disagreed doesn't make me a criminal."
Of course, I think it's BS and IMHO the whole lot over at SCO are right up there with Enron. But I don't expect them to spend any significant time playing grab-ass in prison.
Man did this cause some serious headaches at work today; my phone rang all damned day with people insisting that their boxen were dragging and that it was somehow all my fault because I wrote a web app that generates spreadsheets. And no, they weren't using that application, but they had used it in the past, so...
Wouldn't have been so bad if it was just my company, but folks from other companies, friends of friends, political buddies of friends of friends...
I grew up during the Cold War and my family was deployed in Europe (pre-NATO Spain con mucho anti-NATO, anti-American, pro-Communist sentiment) during Reagan's first administration. On the way to the base schools, we passed through two checkpoints with identity checks by machinegun toting jackoffs (Spanish at the 1st, American at the 2nd) and mirrors run under the bus (1st, sometimes both), often dogs through it for good measure (only 2nd). They said they were looking for 'drugs' but we knew they were looking out for bombs.
There were several terrorist incidents when we were stationed overseas - I witnessed one, my family avoided one thanks to our chronically late mother (Thanks, Mom!), and some escaped Basque nationalists stole our car (that was not fun). Three in three years if you discount the occassional ass-beating by local teens who hated Americans (well, us anyway), a riot (my bad), and the consequences of unwise activities by myself and fellow American teens (often misguided patriotism or plain mischief).
Nevertheless, the other 99.5% of the time we were as safe and sound as bugs in a rug, living in a great country with kind and friendly people, immersed in a rich culture, surrounded by millennia of history, and had a fantastic time. Those are the times that I remember and cherish - going to the Prado, walking through El Escorial, marveling at the Valley of the Fallen, visiting the tombs of Saints, roaming through ancient castles, seeing the Hanging Gardens, touching Queen Isabella's jewelry box (it was about the size of my Shuttle XPC), meeting Queen Sofia...and tons more great experiences.
Even at the height of tensions between American military folks and Spanish civilians (during the biological warfare accident/linseed oil poisoning of olive oil) we - the Americans - were never subject to the invasive 'security checks' foreign visitors experience coming to the United States.
Fast forward exactly 20 years from January of 1984 (when we settled into our new stateside duty station)...
The Patriot Act I and II, fingerprint scanning, CAP fighter and Apache patrols over American cities, "orange" terrorist alerts, "war on terrorism" with ever-shifting definitions of "terrorist", jailing of American citizens without charge for years, propoganda in American media ---
After one terrorist incident in three years (albeit a terrible one) wrecking the peaceful tranquility of the nation's daily domestic tragedies, America is moving toward a police state. Even as hopping Spain was with machinegun toting Spanish military dudes and several terrorist incidents (bombings, shootings, mass poisonings), 99.5% of the time everything was cool and there wasn't nearly the level of hysterical anti-democratic overreaction we've seen here in the United States. Nobody got on TV to talk about how terribly vulnerable to terrorism we were; everyone knew it. Nobody went out to fingerprint, track, and data-mine everyone in the world - you just needed proper ID; match face to picture and signature to signature.
All the security in the world isn't going to stop terrorism; just ask Israel - it probably has the best-trained and equipped security forces on the face of the planet. By their own figures they stop 90% of suicide bombers, but nobody can stop them all. The Palestinian resistance has demonstrated its capability to carry out a 'successful' bombing on a daily basis - killing a dozen or more civilians and wounding scores - terrorizing millions.
Even if we could wall up everything, put cops on every street corner, monitor and surveille whoever we wished - we cannot stop terrorism, not without addressing the root cause that motivates people to kill themselves and a bunch of people. And I'm not talking religion here.
I'm talking a sane foreign policy that doesn't make enemies out of everyone we walk over or steal from to 'protect our national interests' - or enemies of the 'friends and allies' with whom we used to divvy up the spoils.
Instead, we need a policy that simultaneously roots out genuine terrorists while helping those who have a legitimate beef with us for having trampled all over them. We need to focus on reducing the environment that breeds terrorists and terrorism, not fueling it.
Sorry, but I (and thousands of others) did video capturing and editing before Tivo ever came along - yes, even capturing TV. MPEG2 compression on hard disk is nothing new, it's what most decent video editing software packages used (and still use). You've been able to do it with Macs just about forever - you had to spend a ton of money on drives. Hell, even the All-in-Wonder series from ATI on the PC beats Tivo in prior art.
There was nothing to stop you from filling your hard drive up or watching one video while recording another (if you had SCSI drives - e.g. a Mac) - nothing except hard drive space.
A lot of video professionals (and enthusiasts) have been doing this stuff for the last several years, since the heady days of the.com hype at least. I remember being impressed that a buddy of mine could watch and record TV on his $5,000 computer just like I could with my $500 TV and pair of VCRs.
Just like I can today with my $500 TV and pair of VCRs - and my Tivo, if I can ever get off my big fat ass long enough to buy a replacement access card for the one some jerk ripped off.
But I digress...
The patent system needs to be fixed. I'm all for patents - reasonable licensing fee (or drug cost) for a limited period of time and then the public gets it gratis - part of the trade-off for both people and corporations in modern society. However, software and algorithm 'patents' are another matter. They're stupid, and this is exactly what this is - a gussied up software 'patent.'
Software - like movies - falls under copyright law, whether it's open-source a la GPL or proprietary-ware drenched in a click-wrap EULA.
I'm sure this is redundant, but I went for a multi-format burner; -R has better compatibility in my experience but I want to be able to run the gamut. They're cheap - got my +/- from surpluscomputers.com for US$130, choice of black or white.
You're right. You've got to have proper supervision of felons and code reviews (not only of stuff written by felons, but by everyone). Folks who are in positions of that much power (writing core software for elections) are going to be susceptible to temptation and targeted because of their knowledge - even if they're the most honest and responsible person on the planet. And after reading the comments in the leaked Diebold code, I don't get the feeling that their programmers were either.
Slashdot Mirror
I guess you haven't met many executives. Golf games, flight sims, sports games. And odd one here and there who can go toe to toe with you in Halo or who'll take the plunge into Desert Combat. So who knows? Maybe Dell eagerly anticipates Half-Life 2 and Doom III as much as the rest of us.
Now, for most of the folks in most offices, no they don't require a machine with much umph to word process, email, and whatever.
[in best Dave Chappel voice]
"I'm Michael Dell, Bitch!"
"What did the five fingers say to the face?"
"SLAP!"
Pffft! That's easy!
The Department of Education.
Oh, wait.
Nevermind.
[click to type company name] hereby sues [click to type deep pockets] for patent infringement for [click to enter $amount].
CTRL P
Choose Fax Printer.
[click to choose Clerk of Court]
Roll three dice. If you roll a 4 or less, even the most ridiculous case wins.
If I don't answer my phone it goes to voicemail or user punches "0" to get back to reception and someone is generally dispatched to go hunting around for me because it's a "computer emergency" - getting across the concept of "I'm a programmer, extension XYZ is for tech support" is moot when you're considered a "computer guy" and when people gripe that "well, either that extension is busy or he's gone (supporting someone else)" - what is the deal with instant gratification?
No, but if they stripped my store clean, leaving my place bare while they sifted through my stuff for God-knows-how-long looking for 'evidence' of where he might have gone...yes, then I'd have a serious problem with the feds.
But the case will be built on the testimony of those involved - witnesses. If nobody wants to cooperate, what's Inspector Gadget to do? You gotta know when to hold them, when to fold them.
If Microsoft did a turnaround and started supporting Linux, becoming part of the solution rather than the 800 pound gorilla of a problem then you're damned right I'd do business with them. You're a fool if you refuse to do business with a company because of what it did 20 years ago, provided that company has changed.
You should do that; it's a really good idea. Sort of like the market in SnowCrash - books coming and going and horses with books coming and going.
Racist manufacturers. :)
My favourite part of the article (with a different substance):
In 2002, after 7000 square metres of road surface in Milan, Italy, were covered with a catalytic cement, residents reported that it was noticeably easier to breathe - with the concentration of nitrogen oxides at street level cut by up to 60 per cent.
60% percent less nitrogen oxides in less than a year? Hell, coat my lungs with it. Even if if has to be reapplied every couple of years, it would be worth it to apply the cement version to streets, and roads and the paint version to buildings. Dunno about the whole discolouration thing, though.
Wonder how long it'll be now that we have photocatalytic paint before someone comes up with photovoltaic paint that can produce significant power? Even cooler if they could be combined.
Of course, when we started out at the beginning of the semestre it was all binary, our inputs were done in hex, and toward the end we were using standard MV, ADD assembly notation. Hard to believe it's been 8+ years; amazing what you forget.
Anyway, we were programming for the Sinclair Z81, which is odd because the first computer I ever used (and put together) was a Timex Sinclair.
Most of our graduates went on to work for the Department of Defence, NASA, or other government programming jobs (hence the focus on Ada for coding and rocketry in math courses) - fewer things are better cures for insomnia than taking lectures in aerothermaldynamics.
I didn't go for the M.S. in CS (which is why I was blasting through undergrad prerequisites); ultimately I just went to work doing web development. It pays the bills. Still, one day I'd like to add an M.S. in CS or a Ph.D. to my B.A. and M.Ed. He who dies with the most degrees wins.
Anyway, at best you demonstrated poor judgement. At worst, it was a deliberate deception. I don't know you, so I don't really have an opinion.
Now, regarding teaching assembly language programming:
I don't know what planet everyone else studied on, but my Computer Science curriculum (I studied computer science for a while after earning a B.A. in Philosophy) required assembly language programming. Our software emulated the Z81 and ran on NeXT workstations. The introductory programming course was in Ada - which is a underrated language (switched to Java later). C was also required (and fun).
You need a source of livelihood that gives you enough slack time (and little to no family obligations) even to afford the time to invest in programming.
Thank you. Maybe I should cc this to my boss.
Having to be admin, supervisor of 2 IT dudes, lead developer (now only developer) of our web apps suite (and support 7 other companies using it), and general IT go-to guy things get busy ... and stressful.
Still, I'm glad to have a job.
My own desktop. It's so cluttered with icons and documents that I can't see what background looks like anymore.
:)
Where was that report again?
I'd have to say that EverCrack is pretty high up there on the list.
Regarding Venezuela:
The United States has been trying to overthrow the Chavez government for years. Do you not recall that in 2002 the Bush Administration supported (or orchestrated, depending on who you talk to) the coup against Hugo Chavez, the leader of OPEC this go-round and the President of Venezuela?
Anyone gonna sign up for the Microsoft Brain 1.0 Beta? :)
We actually need IPs for each workstation (long story as to why).
All I did was fill out a single spreadsheet questionairre that asked me how many PCs I had on my network, how many I was projected to have in the next 12 months, if I was going to use VPN, and whether or not I was setting up an ISP. It took me all of 10 minutes to fill out, then I got my class Cs assigned (I just needed a hundred or so initially) lickety-split. Wasn't an ordeal at all.
Of course, I think it's BS and IMHO the whole lot over at SCO are right up there with Enron. But I don't expect them to spend any significant time playing grab-ass in prison.
Wouldn't have been so bad if it was just my company, but folks from other companies, friends of friends, political buddies of friends of friends...
There were several terrorist incidents when we were stationed overseas - I witnessed one, my family avoided one thanks to our chronically late mother (Thanks, Mom!), and some escaped Basque nationalists stole our car (that was not fun). Three in three years if you discount the occassional ass-beating by local teens who hated Americans (well, us anyway), a riot (my bad), and the consequences of unwise activities by myself and fellow American teens (often misguided patriotism or plain mischief).
Nevertheless, the other 99.5% of the time we were as safe and sound as bugs in a rug, living in a great country with kind and friendly people, immersed in a rich culture, surrounded by millennia of history, and had a fantastic time. Those are the times that I remember and cherish - going to the Prado, walking through El Escorial, marveling at the Valley of the Fallen, visiting the tombs of Saints, roaming through ancient castles, seeing the Hanging Gardens, touching Queen Isabella's jewelry box (it was about the size of my Shuttle XPC), meeting Queen Sofia...and tons more great experiences.
Even at the height of tensions between American military folks and Spanish civilians (during the biological warfare accident/linseed oil poisoning of olive oil) we - the Americans - were never subject to the invasive 'security checks' foreign visitors experience coming to the United States.
Fast forward exactly 20 years from January of 1984 (when we settled into our new stateside duty station)...
The Patriot Act I and II, fingerprint scanning, CAP fighter and Apache patrols over American cities, "orange" terrorist alerts, "war on terrorism" with ever-shifting definitions of "terrorist", jailing of American citizens without charge for years, propoganda in American media ---
After one terrorist incident in three years (albeit a terrible one) wrecking the peaceful tranquility of the nation's daily domestic tragedies, America is moving toward a police state. Even as hopping Spain was with machinegun toting Spanish military dudes and several terrorist incidents (bombings, shootings, mass poisonings), 99.5% of the time everything was cool and there wasn't nearly the level of hysterical anti-democratic overreaction we've seen here in the United States. Nobody got on TV to talk about how terribly vulnerable to terrorism we were; everyone knew it. Nobody went out to fingerprint, track, and data-mine everyone in the world - you just needed proper ID; match face to picture and signature to signature.
All the security in the world isn't going to stop terrorism; just ask Israel - it probably has the best-trained and equipped security forces on the face of the planet. By their own figures they stop 90% of suicide bombers, but nobody can stop them all. The Palestinian resistance has demonstrated its capability to carry out a 'successful' bombing on a daily basis - killing a dozen or more civilians and wounding scores - terrorizing millions.
Even if we could wall up everything, put cops on every street corner, monitor and surveille whoever we wished - we cannot stop terrorism, not without addressing the root cause that motivates people to kill themselves and a bunch of people. And I'm not talking religion here.
I'm talking a sane foreign policy that doesn't make enemies out of everyone we walk over or steal from to 'protect our national interests' - or enemies of the 'friends and allies' with whom we used to divvy up the spoils.
Instead, we need a policy that simultaneously roots out genuine terrorists while helping those who have a legitimate beef with us for having trampled all over them. We need to focus on reducing the environment that breeds terrorists and terrorism, not fueling it.
There was nothing to stop you from filling your hard drive up or watching one video while recording another (if you had SCSI drives - e.g. a Mac) - nothing except hard drive space.
A lot of video professionals (and enthusiasts) have been doing this stuff for the last several years, since the heady days of the .com hype at least. I remember being impressed that a buddy of mine could watch and record TV on his $5,000 computer just like I could with my $500 TV and pair of VCRs.
Just like I can today with my $500 TV and pair of VCRs - and my Tivo, if I can ever get off my big fat ass long enough to buy a replacement access card for the one some jerk ripped off.
But I digress...
The patent system needs to be fixed. I'm all for patents - reasonable licensing fee (or drug cost) for a limited period of time and then the public gets it gratis - part of the trade-off for both people and corporations in modern society. However, software and algorithm 'patents' are another matter. They're stupid, and this is exactly what this is - a gussied up software 'patent.'
Software - like movies - falls under copyright law, whether it's open-source a la GPL or proprietary-ware drenched in a click-wrap EULA.
Will we ever have one standard to rule them all?
You're right. You've got to have proper supervision of felons and code reviews (not only of stuff written by felons, but by everyone). Folks who are in positions of that much power (writing core software for elections) are going to be susceptible to temptation and targeted because of their knowledge - even if they're the most honest and responsible person on the planet. And after reading the comments in the leaked Diebold code, I don't get the feeling that their programmers were either.