Along those same lines, most workplaces are required by law to provide a safe, harrasment-free workplace. Especially those that are overseen or run by a government agency. Should a public school be held any less responsible with regard to the students?
And there's the rub. If the school expels a student (or even suspends them), you can bet the parents of that student will be in the principals office screaming about how the school was way out of line. Fearing a lawsuit, a lot of schools will allow the student to return the next day. And the cycle begins again with the bully now knowing that there will be little to no consequences.
I'd say that girls are less likely than boys to get into physical assault as bullying (as opposed to a personal fight), but it does happen. I know first hand. A real out-and-out asskicking is quite rare. You're more likely to experience more subtle things like stalking, spitting, "accidental" kicking, tripping, or stomping on a foot (that hurts in heels). Once in a while, you'll end up in a hallway without anyone around except a bully (or 5 since they tend to travel in packs), and get pushed down or have your arms twisted and threatened. Oh, the good old days:(
I've known them all, and honor students, giften musicians and (in Canada) Air/Army/Sea Cadets or Boy/Girl scouts get just as drunk and have just as much sex as every other teenager. You can't watch your kids all of the time, it's physically impossible, and you have to accept the fact that they WILL try drinking, they WILL have sex and chances are they will try drugs. These are just things kids do in high school, and your restrictivness and controlling attitude may actually encourage these things to happen.
As a former honor student and musician, it is not fair to assert one way or another that a child will or will not get into bad things. I never did as a teen (yes, no sex, no alcohol, no drugs, no smoking). For me, this was largely due to knowing and understanding in the long term consequences of my actions and my conservative nature.
An involved and observant parent will know how far to trust their child better than anyone else. But even then, sometimes you can still get it wrong, so parental vigilance is prudent. Not just for the safety of your child, but for the safety of others that your child can affect.
It's a very fine line that a parent must walk between restriction and independence and the line keeps changing throughout life. It's starts when they're two and if you did it right, should end somewhere between 18 and 21 (YMMV).
I wholeheartedly agree that it is terrible idea to put computer or TV in a child's room, especially a teenager's. Not only does it encourage isolation, but it discourages them from healthy activity (you know, riding your bike, sports). The computer is too easily turned into passive entertainment which is really not healthy for your mind. Don't get me wrong. I'm not a complete ludite.
Let's just say my daughter (age 3) is only allowed a limited amount of TV/computer time each day and there will not be any boxen in her room for the forseeable future when she can just as easily use the three in our home office. Before she will be allowed to start using the web and email herself, she will have to understand that the Internet is like visiting another country. It has it's own rules, it's own dangers, and it's own terminology.
BTW, I don't think most parents aren't all that concerned with their teenagers viewing porn as long as they're doing it privately. For younger children, there's a lot of confusing and scary stuff out there that you probably wouldn't want them to get into. But for all children (adult and otherwise), it's the gambling, illicit contraband (prescription drugs, weapons), and chat room predators that I'm concerned with.
Ever notice that, that some people are personally interested in the failure of open source? It seems to be an affront to them, for no reason I can discover.
I can think of two reasons:
Open source inherently means sharing information. Information is key to certain admins maintaining their techno-fiefdom.
The model changes the rules of the industry which scares industry folks who are still living in the Yourdan age since they don't know how they're going to fit into the new scheme.
My bets are more on the second reason in this case.
I don't have a problem with the anti-trust law. I just wish it was applied better. If you read it, Section 2 of the Sherman Act says:
Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a felony, and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by fine not exceeding ten million dollars if a corporation, or, if any other person, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding three years, or by both said punishments, in the discretion of the court.
This is what pisses me off about the Microsoft settlement. By not convicting MS of anti-trust violation, there is no basis for bringing charges against the indivuals who made it happen. I think that it could be disruptive to force major structural changes on MS. And I'm sure that if those in charge are left there, they'd make sure that it's even more disruptive than necessary. But if you remove and punish the people who are responsible for the offensive acts, it sends the right message and gives the offending company a chance to be remedied.
-Jennifer
Re:Terminator is trying to
on
Saving the Net
·
· Score: 2, Informative
There's already one in Congress, co-authored and introduced by Rep. Barney Frank. It only applies those who have citizenship and have lived in the U.S. for at least twenty years. Of couse, it means nothing until it's ratified, but since Mr. Schwarznegger is a citizen and has lived in this country for more than twenty years, he would be eligible.
The second level is for the tool makers. The guys who bring you APIs and services like TCP/IP, Tuxedo, database managers, OpenGL, compilers, browsers and the like. Those folks use C++ and Java. Its a mistake to think that you can make an application in C++ or Java or Smalltalk. You can cobble something together that will cost too much and be too brittle for real-world use and eventually break (or break the bank.) The world becomes real.
I take issue with this. I have designed and implemented apps in both C++ and Java that were flexible enough that we were able accommodate unexpected customer requests. And they didn't break the bank, considering their feature set.
Funny. I remember a time when folks used to believe that Java and C++ (and other OOLs) weren't fit for such low-level work because of the compilers/linkers tended to make the code pretty inefficient. I guess I'm showing my age.:)
I see a lot of complaining in the article about how some architectures were not ready for NT on a timely basis (Intel i860, PowerPC), but I see no mention how they were so slow to bring NT to the Alpha. I recall that DEC actually ended up porting VMS to the Alpha because they were waiting on MS for their promised NT release. I'm a bit curious to hear from the developers about their perspective on that.
I've used both NT and VMS on the Alpha (as well as a Unix varient). NT is sooooo slow.
Geeks need to be at a sexual disadvantage to temper their intellectual superiority, lest we introduce imbalance to the human race.
Surely you jest. All people have their share of talents and weaknesses. Just because a geek may have an intellectual gift should not mean that it would contaminate the gene pool. Granted, there seems to be a whole lot of baggage and occasionally some mental illness that goes with the territory, but this is not solely the domain of geeks. In my opinion, if that which makes one a geek is more nature than nuture, it is more likely to bring balance than imbalance to the species. Just try to image the world without geeks and then remember that they have to come from somewhere. And let's hope the whole autism thing isn't what it appears to be.
3. MYST!!! What the fuck is this bitch going on about. In general any geek worth having is going to be too busy working to play games and when we are working we would like to be left alone. Just be understanding that sometimes we need some time to work and support that.
Perhaps she meant Myth (is that a grenade in his pocket or is your dwarf just happy to see me?).
Seriously, I know many geeks (myself included) who put aside a little game time at least weekly, if not daily, as a way to decompress. Maybe it's not your thing and that's fine, but if you're really so busy working that you have no time to play, you are going to burn out. If that sounds like you, please make a little downtime a priority.
J. Michael Straczynski and Harlan Ellison would be a great team to take on the franchise.
Would never happen. It's funny that you should mention this (and you may have even done so knowingly), but JMS pitched Babylon 5 to Paramount before Warner Brothers as "love and war aboard a spacestation". Paramount's response was "How do we fit this into the Trek universe?" JMS couldn't make them understand that B5 was it's own universe, so he moved on.
I think that the studios don't have faith that any sci-fi can really have success except Trek, even in the face of the rare, contrary evidence that exists. I feel that's why Paramount has beaten this horse into particles. It's time to move on. Now if only the studios could spot good sci-fi when they see it...
I am a software engineer but I'd be ashamed to show my face at a mechanical or civil engineer convention - the buildings and machines they make don't blow up all the time, repeatedly, for no reason at all.
The responsibility placed on engineers (particularly civil engineers) is greater than that of many software engineers. Civil engineers are held liable for the failures of their designs. The civil engineer field book is a legal document. It must written in black pencil. Nothing may be erased. Corrections must be written with red pencil. A single stroke of red should be used to strike out an error. The point is that not only are civil engineers held accountable for their designs, but they are also required to keep consistant records of their work.
Now, contrast this to responsibility taken by certain firms whose software has failed to perform. I seem to remember for instance that the Navy had a brand-new, trick-out ship a few years ago that ended up being pretty useless for a while because of its software.
I don't know if NASA ever got any satisfaction from the subcontractor that wrote the system that screwed the Mars Polar Lander.
This is the only industry that I know of where we actually reward companies for putting out a faulty product (i.e. pay bug fixes). As Wally once said, "I'm going go write me a minivan."
I think Universal is more concerned about customers getting fair warning that the disc won't play on certain players in order to cut back on the number of returns. It's foolish to buy a disc if it says quite clearly on it that it won't work on your Mac/DVD player/PS2/etc. if that's how you intend to use it.
I think a much stronger message is to actively encourage anyone and everyone to avoid "Fast & Furious" like the plague. Tell them that they may not work on their player (Fast & Furious == may not work should be easy enough for most to remember). Universal et al may get the message if their sales take a big nosedive.
nearly a year ago. We bought a PowerMac 8100 on eBay. The shipment was going roughly 100 miles via UPS ground. It took over a week to get to us. This is because it actually made it onto the delivery truck that goes to our house and the driver got confused and thought it was supposed to go to the person who shipped it. Unfortunately, he provided a PO box so it went back to the hub from which it originated and UPS sent a postcard to the PO box.
Once we were able to get the box delivered to us, the 8100 was destroyed. The case was in no less than 50 pieces, two of the struts holding the fan in the power supply had sheered off, the graphics card was unseated (and this card is not easily removed), the bezels that covered the empty drive bay and the floppy were broken, and the hard drive was severely damaged. I think the only things that were still usable after all was said and done was the motherboard, the graphics card, and the memory. Here's the complete saga.
UPS did end up reimbursing the shipper who in turn reimbursed us. They were going to send someone out to pick up the box but no one ever showed. I'm guessing they figured it wasn't worth the trouble. But now we will not do business with someone if the only option is to ship via UPS. The service in our area is too unreliable.
I'm actually a full time programmer, but I administrate a Linux box here too. There's no one else in my office who knows enough about Unix to administrate it. We need it for development since our web server farm is Solaris based and is administrated by an overworked IT staff about a 1000 miles from here.
If you seriously want to build up some experience as a sysadmin, I'd recommend college. It's not the classroom experience but the environment that's the advantage. The deadlines are much more reasonable than the real world and there's a lot more opportunity to get exposure to non-MS systems. I think I learned more from my peers than my instructors, although the CS theory has been coming in handy more and more recently.
I can't say I agree with 2 and 3 seems excessive. There should be some end to it. I like 1 a lot, but I'd add one more thing I'd like to see happen. The employees involved should be procesecuted under the Sherman Act. The Act provides for this. In fact, it's a felony with a punishment of up to 3 years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine. I'd think it would be a fairly open-and-shut case, since MS has already been found guilty. As long as they aren't held accountable, it invites the same behavior, not just from MS again, but from other executives.
1. Require open standards? That's like telling Coke they need to open up their formula for their trademark beverage so that Pepsi and RC can compete more fairly.
And when was the last time the better part of the food industry was so dependent on what Coke might do with their product? I would equate this more to restricting access to the railroads. This information provides access to the rail.
there's a state no-call list. While there has been a few wide-spread violators, my personal experience is that we went from averaging one telemarketer a day to two violators since January. The state has been quite rigorous about following up on complaints. I guess it helps to have a state Attorney General who is very pro-consumer.
I'm not sure about the status of this sort of thing in other states, but as usual, it doesn't hurt to contact your rep.
In my life, and I am American, I am wrapped up in the thought that nothing, absolutely nothing justifies what they did on Sept. 11 and continue to do with the Anthrax scare. It disturbs me to continue to see arguments that connect American policy for the reason of those actions. Should have negotiated with evil?
Please do not confuse my explanation for what has happened for an excuse. The Sept. 11 attacks and any other terrorist activity cannot be excused. But not unlike Columbine, there were reasons that this happened. In order to prevent this sort of thing from happening again, we need to be honest with ourselves about why people were/are so angry at the US that they would hijack 4 airplanes on a suicide mission. You can take all of the security precautions in the world but if you have a large enough group of people angry at you, eventually they will find the crack in your armor. The US needs to work toward diffusing this anger and they can start by taking some hard positions when it comes to human rights. There are always going to be people who hate the US no matter what it does. But the US will find itself with greater global cooperation and fewer hateful fanatics if it tried harder to live up to it's own propaganda.
Sure, I may be ignorant of policy, etc. and not particular interested in what the media wants 'me to know' but I like to hope that I can recognize evil when it rears its head.
If you remain ignorant, you can only react to what's happening instead of being proactive. As citizens of the US, we have the opportunity to affect change in policy if we are vocal in large groups. But it's a monumental job because first the citizens have to be aware of the situation. Sometimes they have to be re-educated. The "Israel-is-our-friend" attitude comes to mind. Israel are our ally, not our friend. Once the citizens have an accurate picture of what's going on, they have to care enough to say something, and let's face it, it's hard enough to get folks to do this when you can show a direct impact on them. Now you have to get them to believe that there's an indirect (but severe) impact on them and that it's worth speaking up. Even then, there's no guarentee that your congressman is going to act on it. But we've seen what saying nothing gets us, so writing your congressman is probably better than nothing.
Ironically, that attitude is part of the reason that the US is in this mess. The US government has this tendency to support whatever foreign government appears works to it's best interest, without regard for that government's human rights record. Often, it is easier for the US to work with a totalitarian power since that power can ensure cooperation with the US, rather than be swayed by the opinion of the populace. The US helps them stay in power so that they can supress anti-US sentiment (at least on the surface) and other more useful favors. In the meantime, those being surpressed become quite angry at the US. Over time, they can grow to truly hate the US because the life the US has provided for them is the antithesis of what the US likes to portray itself as promoting (freedom and democracy).
Curtailing civil liberties may be a good solution in the short term to reduce the likelihood of another attack, but it does not address the root of the problem. I wouldn't mind these restrictions if they were temporary and if the US actually began doing something meaningful to help establish some freedom and democracy, even if it meant that those receiving this expressed anti-US sentiment. But I don't expect to ever see that.
Sadly, the US citizens tend to be too wrapped up in their own lives to learn about this situation. Not that it's incredibly obivious. The media is often a little more interested in letting us know about 's problems than reporting about US supported regimes oppressing their populaces. Besides, who wants to hear about all of that terrible stuff when you feel like you can't do anything about it.
I'm reminded of a Churchill quote. During WWII, one of his advisors suggested closing down museums, etc. to reduce spending. He responded, "Good God man! What the hell are we fighting for?" Seems even more appropriate today.
I'm a programmer who works on web sites for a major educational publisher. We put up a good deal of Flash, Shockwave, and Director material (simulations and activities). It would be really, really bad news if our schools were unable to make use of these things.
StarOffice work on "linux". It isn't Redhat-specific, or Debian-specific. It works on Windows (95/98/NT/2000/ME) and various Unices, and the generic linux. It is able to do this by being static rather than dynamic, where the major problems could arise between distros. It isn't absolutely certain, but then, neither is windows software assured of running properly on windows without a good deal of user alteration/updating.
That's why we do intensive configuration testing. We check very carefully to make sure that our software is causing as little chaos as possible and that it's hardy enough to endure a lot of the quirks that are common under Windows. It's not that a Linux distribution that we put out wouldn't run on generic Linux; it's just that we only put the systems that we test on the side of the box.
The most you would likely need to "specify" or limit, depending on how static your code is is, perhaps the minimum glibc level. Again, it is possible to statically build your software to work regardless of glibc level. Perhaps the biggest item of any concern (again, it isn't insurmountable) is XFree86, depending on how fancy you want to get with graphics - and this could be handled to a large extent with static binaries.
We do a lot of multimedia type stuff (games, simulations, animations, etc). This is why we use Macromedia tools. They're cross-platform and have quick turn around. Recently it has become important to try to put a lot of this stuff in a web browser and it handles this need nicely. Not that I'd like to plug Macromedia since they don't always fit our needs.
So does anyone have any suggestions for a cross-platform lib for multimedia?
You were right the first time, but I think you were thinking of a different incident. Compaq was talking to Be Inc about including BeOS. Allegedly, MS pressured Compaq to back down via Windows price. I can't remember what they did with HP.
Slashdot Mirror
Along those same lines, most workplaces are required by law to provide a safe, harrasment-free workplace. Especially those that are overseen or run by a government agency. Should a public school be held any less responsible with regard to the students?
And there's the rub. If the school expels a student (or even suspends them), you can bet the parents of that student will be in the principals office screaming about how the school was way out of line. Fearing a lawsuit, a lot of schools will allow the student to return the next day. And the cycle begins again with the bully now knowing that there will be little to no consequences.
-Jennifer
I'd say that girls are less likely than boys to get into physical assault as bullying (as opposed to a personal fight), but it does happen. I know first hand. A real out-and-out asskicking is quite rare. You're more likely to experience more subtle things like stalking, spitting, "accidental" kicking, tripping, or stomping on a foot (that hurts in heels). Once in a while, you'll end up in a hallway without anyone around except a bully (or 5 since they tend to travel in packs), and get pushed down or have your arms twisted and threatened. Oh, the good old days :(
-Jennifer
I've known them all, and honor students, giften musicians and (in Canada) Air/Army/Sea Cadets or Boy/Girl scouts get just as drunk and have just as much sex as every other teenager. You can't watch your kids all of the time, it's physically impossible, and you have to accept the fact that they WILL try drinking, they WILL have sex and chances are they will try drugs. These are just things kids do in high school, and your restrictivness and controlling attitude may actually encourage these things to happen.
As a former honor student and musician, it is not fair to assert one way or another that a child will or will not get into bad things. I never did as a teen (yes, no sex, no alcohol, no drugs, no smoking). For me, this was largely due to knowing and understanding in the long term consequences of my actions and my conservative nature.
An involved and observant parent will know how far to trust their child better than anyone else. But even then, sometimes you can still get it wrong, so parental vigilance is prudent. Not just for the safety of your child, but for the safety of others that your child can affect.
It's a very fine line that a parent must walk between restriction and independence and the line keeps changing throughout life. It's starts when they're two and if you did it right, should end somewhere between 18 and 21 (YMMV).
-Jennifer
I wholeheartedly agree that it is terrible idea to put computer or TV in a child's room, especially a teenager's. Not only does it encourage isolation, but it discourages them from healthy activity (you know, riding your bike, sports). The computer is too easily turned into passive entertainment which is really not healthy for your mind. Don't get me wrong. I'm not a complete ludite.
Let's just say my daughter (age 3) is only allowed a limited amount of TV/computer time each day and there will not be any boxen in her room for the forseeable future when she can just as easily use the three in our home office. Before she will be allowed to start using the web and email herself, she will have to understand that the Internet is like visiting another country. It has it's own rules, it's own dangers, and it's own terminology.
BTW, I don't think most parents aren't all that concerned with their teenagers viewing porn as long as they're doing it privately. For younger children, there's a lot of confusing and scary stuff out there that you probably wouldn't want them to get into. But for all children (adult and otherwise), it's the gambling, illicit contraband (prescription drugs, weapons), and chat room predators that I'm concerned with.
-Jennifer
Ever notice that, that some people are personally interested in the failure of open source? It seems to be an affront to them, for no reason I can discover.
I can think of two reasons:
- Open source inherently means sharing information. Information is key to certain admins maintaining their techno-fiefdom.
- The model changes the rules of the industry which scares industry folks who are still living in the Yourdan age since they don't know how they're going to fit into the new scheme.
My bets are more on the second reason in this case.-Jennifer
I don't have a problem with the anti-trust law. I just wish it was applied better. If you read it, Section 2 of the Sherman Act says:
This is what pisses me off about the Microsoft settlement. By not convicting MS of anti-trust violation, there is no basis for bringing charges against the indivuals who made it happen. I think that it could be disruptive to force major structural changes on MS. And I'm sure that if those in charge are left there, they'd make sure that it's even more disruptive than necessary. But if you remove and punish the people who are responsible for the offensive acts, it sends the right message and gives the offending company a chance to be remedied.
-Jennifer
There's already one in Congress, co-authored and introduced by Rep. Barney Frank. It only applies those who have citizenship and have lived in the U.S. for at least twenty years. Of couse, it means nothing until it's ratified, but since Mr. Schwarznegger is a citizen and has lived in this country for more than twenty years, he would be eligible.
-Jennifer
The second level is for the tool makers. The guys who bring you APIs and services like TCP/IP, Tuxedo, database managers, OpenGL, compilers, browsers and the like. Those folks use C++ and Java. Its a mistake to think that you can make an application in C++ or Java or Smalltalk. You can cobble something together that will cost too much and be too brittle for real-world use and eventually break (or break the bank.) The world becomes real.
I take issue with this. I have designed and implemented apps in both C++ and Java that were flexible enough that we were able accommodate unexpected customer requests. And they didn't break the bank, considering their feature set.
Funny. I remember a time when folks used to believe that Java and C++ (and other OOLs) weren't fit for such low-level work because of the compilers/linkers tended to make the code pretty inefficient. I guess I'm showing my age. :)
I see a lot of complaining in the article about how some architectures were not ready for NT on a timely basis (Intel i860, PowerPC), but I see no mention how they were so slow to bring NT to the Alpha. I recall that DEC actually ended up porting VMS to the Alpha because they were waiting on MS for their promised NT release. I'm a bit curious to hear from the developers about their perspective on that.
I've used both NT and VMS on the Alpha (as well as a Unix varient). NT is sooooo slow.
-Jennifer
Geeks need to be at a sexual disadvantage to temper their intellectual superiority, lest we introduce imbalance to the human race.
Surely you jest. All people have their share of talents and weaknesses. Just because a geek may have an intellectual gift should not mean that it would contaminate the gene pool. Granted, there seems to be a whole lot of baggage and occasionally some mental illness that goes with the territory, but this is not solely the domain of geeks. In my opinion, if that which makes one a geek is more nature than nuture, it is more likely to bring balance than imbalance to the species. Just try to image the world without geeks and then remember that they have to come from somewhere. And let's hope the whole autism thing isn't what it appears to be.
-Jennifer
3. MYST!!! What the fuck is this bitch going on about. In general any geek worth having is going to be too busy working to play games and when we are working we would like to be left alone. Just be understanding that sometimes we need some time to work and support that.
Perhaps she meant Myth (is that a grenade in his pocket or is your dwarf just happy to see me?).
Seriously, I know many geeks (myself included) who put aside a little game time at least weekly, if not daily, as a way to decompress. Maybe it's not your thing and that's fine, but if you're really so busy working that you have no time to play, you are going to burn out. If that sounds like you, please make a little downtime a priority.
I agree with your other points, though.
-Jennifer
J. Michael Straczynski and Harlan Ellison would be a great team to take on the franchise.
Would never happen. It's funny that you should mention this (and you may have even done so knowingly), but JMS pitched Babylon 5 to Paramount before Warner Brothers as "love and war aboard a spacestation". Paramount's response was "How do we fit this into the Trek universe?" JMS couldn't make them understand that B5 was it's own universe, so he moved on.
I think that the studios don't have faith that any sci-fi can really have success except Trek, even in the face of the rare, contrary evidence that exists. I feel that's why Paramount has beaten this horse into particles. It's time to move on. Now if only the studios could spot good sci-fi when they see it...
-Jennifer
I am a software engineer but I'd be ashamed to show my face at a mechanical or civil engineer convention - the buildings and machines they make don't blow up all the time, repeatedly, for no reason at all.
The responsibility placed on engineers (particularly civil engineers) is greater than that of many software engineers. Civil engineers are held liable for the failures of their designs. The civil engineer field book is a legal document. It must written in black pencil. Nothing may be erased. Corrections must be written with red pencil. A single stroke of red should be used to strike out an error. The point is that not only are civil engineers held accountable for their designs, but they are also required to keep consistant records of their work.
Now, contrast this to responsibility taken by certain firms whose software has failed to perform. I seem to remember for instance that the Navy had a brand-new, trick-out ship a few years ago that ended up being pretty useless for a while because of its software.
I don't know if NASA ever got any satisfaction from the subcontractor that wrote the system that screwed the Mars Polar Lander.
This is the only industry that I know of where we actually reward companies for putting out a faulty product (i.e. pay bug fixes). As Wally once said, "I'm going go write me a minivan."
-Jennifer
I think Universal is more concerned about customers getting fair warning that the disc won't play on certain players in order to cut back on the number of returns. It's foolish to buy a disc if it says quite clearly on it that it won't work on your Mac/DVD player/PS2/etc. if that's how you intend to use it.
I think a much stronger message is to actively encourage anyone and everyone to avoid "Fast & Furious" like the plague. Tell them that they may not work on their player (Fast & Furious == may not work should be easy enough for most to remember). Universal et al may get the message if their sales take a big nosedive.
-Jennifer
The Hartford Courant said that AT&T was expecting service to be restored to this area on Thursday.
-Jennifer
nearly a year ago. We bought a PowerMac 8100 on eBay. The shipment was going roughly 100 miles via UPS ground. It took over a week to get to us. This is because it actually made it onto the delivery truck that goes to our house and the driver got confused and thought it was supposed to go to the person who shipped it. Unfortunately, he provided a PO box so it went back to the hub from which it originated and UPS sent a postcard to the PO box.
Once we were able to get the box delivered to us, the 8100 was destroyed. The case was in no less than 50 pieces, two of the struts holding the fan in the power supply had sheered off, the graphics card was unseated (and this card is not easily removed), the bezels that covered the empty drive bay and the floppy were broken, and the hard drive was severely damaged. I think the only things that were still usable after all was said and done was the motherboard, the graphics card, and the memory. Here's the complete saga.
UPS did end up reimbursing the shipper who in turn reimbursed us. They were going to send someone out to pick up the box but no one ever showed. I'm guessing they figured it wasn't worth the trouble. But now we will not do business with someone if the only option is to ship via UPS. The service in our area is too unreliable.
-Jennifer
I'm actually a full time programmer, but I administrate a Linux box here too. There's no one else in my office who knows enough about Unix to administrate it. We need it for development since our web server farm is Solaris based and is administrated by an overworked IT staff about a 1000 miles from here.
If you seriously want to build up some experience as a sysadmin, I'd recommend college. It's not the classroom experience but the environment that's the advantage. The deadlines are much more reasonable than the real world and there's a lot more opportunity to get exposure to non-MS systems. I think I learned more from my peers than my instructors, although the CS theory has been coming in handy more and more recently.
-Jennifer
I can't say I agree with 2 and 3 seems excessive. There should be some end to it. I like 1 a lot, but I'd add one more thing I'd like to see happen. The employees involved should be procesecuted under the Sherman Act. The Act provides for this. In fact, it's a felony with a punishment of up to 3 years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine. I'd think it would be a fairly open-and-shut case, since MS has already been found guilty. As long as they aren't held accountable, it invites the same behavior, not just from MS again, but from other executives.
-Jennifer
1. Require open standards? That's like telling Coke they need to open up their formula for their trademark beverage so that Pepsi and RC can compete more fairly.
And when was the last time the better part of the food industry was so dependent on what Coke might do with their product? I would equate this more to restricting access to the railroads. This information provides access to the rail.
-Jennifer
there's a state no-call list. While there has been a few wide-spread violators, my personal experience is that we went from averaging one telemarketer a day to two violators since January. The state has been quite rigorous about following up on complaints. I guess it helps to have a state Attorney General who is very pro-consumer.
I'm not sure about the status of this sort of thing in other states, but as usual, it doesn't hurt to contact your rep.
-Jennifer
In my life, and I am American, I am wrapped up in the thought that nothing, absolutely nothing justifies what they did on Sept. 11 and continue to do with the Anthrax scare. It disturbs me to continue to see arguments that connect American policy for the reason of those actions. Should have negotiated with evil?
Please do not confuse my explanation for what has happened for an excuse. The Sept. 11 attacks and any other terrorist activity cannot be excused. But not unlike Columbine, there were reasons that this happened. In order to prevent this sort of thing from happening again, we need to be honest with ourselves about why people were/are so angry at the US that they would hijack 4 airplanes on a suicide mission. You can take all of the security precautions in the world but if you have a large enough group of people angry at you, eventually they will find the crack in your armor. The US needs to work toward diffusing this anger and they can start by taking some hard positions when it comes to human rights. There are always going to be people who hate the US no matter what it does. But the US will find itself with greater global cooperation and fewer hateful fanatics if it tried harder to live up to it's own propaganda.
Sure, I may be ignorant of policy, etc. and not particular interested in what the media wants 'me to know' but I like to hope that I can recognize evil when it rears its head.
If you remain ignorant, you can only react to what's happening instead of being proactive. As citizens of the US, we have the opportunity to affect change in policy if we are vocal in large groups. But it's a monumental job because first the citizens have to be aware of the situation. Sometimes they have to be re-educated. The "Israel-is-our-friend" attitude comes to mind. Israel are our ally, not our friend. Once the citizens have an accurate picture of what's going on, they have to care enough to say something, and let's face it, it's hard enough to get folks to do this when you can show a direct impact on them. Now you have to get them to believe that there's an indirect (but severe) impact on them and that it's worth speaking up. Even then, there's no guarentee that your congressman is going to act on it. But we've seen what saying nothing gets us, so writing your congressman is probably better than nothing.
-Jennifer
Ironically, that attitude is part of the reason that the US is in this mess. The US government has this tendency to support whatever foreign government appears works to it's best interest, without regard for that government's human rights record. Often, it is easier for the US to work with a totalitarian power since that power can ensure cooperation with the US, rather than be swayed by the opinion of the populace. The US helps them stay in power so that they can supress anti-US sentiment (at least on the surface) and other more useful favors. In the meantime, those being surpressed become quite angry at the US. Over time, they can grow to truly hate the US because the life the US has provided for them is the antithesis of what the US likes to portray itself as promoting (freedom and democracy).
Curtailing civil liberties may be a good solution in the short term to reduce the likelihood of another attack, but it does not address the root of the problem. I wouldn't mind these restrictions if they were temporary and if the US actually began doing something meaningful to help establish some freedom and democracy, even if it meant that those receiving this expressed anti-US sentiment. But I don't expect to ever see that.
Sadly, the US citizens tend to be too wrapped up in their own lives to learn about this situation. Not that it's incredibly obivious. The media is often a little more interested in letting us know about 's problems than reporting about US supported regimes oppressing their populaces. Besides, who wants to hear about all of that terrible stuff when you feel like you can't do anything about it.
I'm reminded of a Churchill quote. During WWII, one of his advisors suggested closing down museums, etc. to reduce spending. He responded, "Good God man! What the hell are we fighting for?" Seems even more appropriate today.
-Jennifer
I'm a programmer who works on web sites for a major educational publisher. We put up a good deal of Flash, Shockwave, and Director material (simulations and activities). It would be really, really bad news if our schools were unable to make use of these things.
-Jennifer
StarOffice work on "linux". It isn't Redhat-specific, or Debian-specific. It works on Windows (95/98/NT/2000/ME) and various Unices, and the generic linux. It is able to do this by being static rather than dynamic, where the major problems could arise between distros. It isn't absolutely certain, but then, neither is windows software assured of running properly on windows without a good deal of user alteration/updating.
That's why we do intensive configuration testing. We check very carefully to make sure that our software is causing as little chaos as possible and that it's hardy enough to endure a lot of the quirks that are common under Windows. It's not that a Linux distribution that we put out wouldn't run on generic Linux; it's just that we only put the systems that we test on the side of the box.
The most you would likely need to "specify" or limit, depending on how static your code is is, perhaps the minimum glibc level. Again, it is possible to statically build your software to work regardless of glibc level. Perhaps the biggest item of any concern (again, it isn't insurmountable) is XFree86, depending on how fancy you want to get with graphics - and this could be handled to a large extent with static binaries.
We do a lot of multimedia type stuff (games, simulations, animations, etc). This is why we use Macromedia tools. They're cross-platform and have quick turn around. Recently it has become important to try to put a lot of this stuff in a web browser and it handles this need nicely. Not that I'd like to plug Macromedia since they don't always fit our needs.
So does anyone have any suggestions for a cross-platform lib for multimedia?
-Jennifer
You were right the first time, but I think you were thinking of a different incident. Compaq was talking to Be Inc about including BeOS. Allegedly, MS pressured Compaq to back down via Windows price. I can't remember what they did with HP.
-Jennifer