Not the ones who were hackers in the 60s and 70s. They're still hackers at heart, even if they're into IT consulting or management now. Linux won't be a hard sell to them, especially with IBM behind it.
Opening the source for OS/2 was discussed in the OS/2 community, and the fact is that parts of OS/2 are copyrighted by... Microsoft. IBM doesn't want to spend the money to redevelop those functions, one might surmise. Open source projects exist to do this, however, and maybe someone involved in them will speak up.
IBM is also in a corner with OS/2. Some basic structural elements like the single queue of the Workplace Shell and the fragile implementation of the INI files were arguably poor design choices, but any redesign would likely break many custom business applications built by some very large IBM customers. Faced with a partly broken system design it can't change without causing major customer grief, and having suffered a decisive humiliating defeat through Microsoft's predatory monopolistic practices, IBM is apparently cutting its losses and sunsetting further development of OS/2. (At least, one can guess this is their thinking, but I don't know.)
Stardock tried to talk IBM into releasing OS/2 to them, but that proved not to be feasible, partly due to the Microsoft owned code mentioned above.
Serenity Systems is bundling IBM's subscription based Convenience Pack upgrades with additional functions as eComStation.
Software also exists to enable running Linux software under OS/2: XFree86-OS/2, Gimp, etc.
What the RIAA members do well are contract negotiations with musicians and distributors, plus creative accounting (almost as slick as the movie industry), and deploying lobbyists and lawyers to (a) buy favorable laws and (b) win civil suits. Signed musicians make pennies on the dollar from sales of their works. So do music distributors for selling CDs, etc. The big music publishers take most of the money to feed their bloated egos, but add very little value. Their talent for writing contracts at both ends of the chain keeps them solidly in the middle, taking the big money. They create artificial scarcity by controlling the CD presses (and what goes into them) and the physical distribution of music on (overpriced) CDs.
They have been (and still are, but are learning) clueless about what technology, specifically ubiquitous PCs with good digital sound cards and CD-R/RW drives, and the Internet, makes possible.
Having been blindsided by advances in both the sophistication and pervasiveness of technology, they're trying to use their familiar means of lobbying and lawyering to hold back the tide. If only they could negotiate iron-clad contracts with every person who owns a PC requiring them to pay through the nose every time they used their sound card, everything would be just fine for Big Music!
Well, they're working on this. CPRM, and now its stealth replacement proposal at the T13 Committee, are one front in this battle. The SDMI effort is another, perhaps related, approach to locking up digital content. A new CD format is yet another.
But all these initiatives are doomed to failure. Let's suppose the best cases (for Big Music) are realized: the DMCA and like laws bought by the digital middleman companies are upheld in courts and extended by treaties to the Common Market and Japan and Taiwan, etc.; equipment manufacturers are bullied/bought-off to include obscure keys in mainboard/CPU/hard-drives/CD/CD-R etc. hardware; criminal penalties are applied for circumvention, reverse-engineering, or whatever work-arounds....
It will all be futile. Why? Because the second and third worlds don't care about or observe the niceties of digital rights, that's why! The day after all those shenanigans are worked up in smoke-filled back rooms around the world, China will be building fabs to build kit that strangely fails to implement all these extra protections for Western media and content. They'll be ecstatic! And so will all the people who prefer to sample music first before they buy a high-quality image (this class includes nearly all music consumers).
So, the mainboard, perhaps CPU and hard-drive, certainly CD-R/RW and soundcard, that you'll want in 2010 will come with a "made in PRC" sticker on it, and they won't respect Big Music copyrights. Or, it might say "made in Nigeria" alternatively.
The rest of the world won't allow domination by corrupt first-world based media middleman fatcats.
No need to shoot 'em, just ignore 'em - that'll kill 'em just as dead.
FYI: the correct English verb for loss of money, market-share, whatever, is "lose" not "loose" despite Slashdot's spelling dysfunctionalities. Cmdr Taco is guilty of this.
If all you children want to hack software, fine. If you want to talk about it amongst the rest of us well educated adults, then learn to hack English appropriately!
The above post is a Micro$oft troll. Typical M$ - turn the facts on their heads and assert the opposite of the truth: enough folks will believe you, if you _sound_ sincere.
In fact, Linux based (i.e. Apache) Internet servers gained market share _faster_ than M$ last year, according to IDC. It has been well reported here and elsewhere.
What's worse, this same approach seems successful in pulling the wool over the eyes of a whole US Appeals Court on the DoJ vs M$ antitrust case!
Anyone got the email addresses of the US Appeals Court judges hearing the DoJ vs M$ Antitrust case?
Is there any process available for impeaching Federal judges for rampant cluelessness in office?
is that people who aren't Mormons have a hard time in Utah. Move there to take a job? Sorry, you'll have to join the Mormon church before your wife can find work too. That's what's wrong with Utah.
I can't imagine why Albertson is exercised about Utah's silly liquor laws. True story: stuck in Salt Lake overnight by a broken airplane, check into a hotel, go into the bar, bartender says "You have to join our private club." I ask what that means. "It means you pay a dollar and I vouch for your character, then you're a member. What are you having?" It's just how they do things there.
On the other hand, there are lots of fine single women in Utah who got fed up with the Mormon "obey thy husband" crap and are looking for a way out. Maybe Albertson should talk about that instead, if he wants to recruit young guys out of Silicon Valley.
But this is tale telling. The fire's dying down,
and you younger folks might appreciate a story...
In high school, a substitute teacher in foundry
class (!) mentioned a ranch in Eastern Oregon to
apply for field hand work. I wrote, was accepted,
so I went up there, traveling on my Yamaha 250cc
motorcycle. I spent the summer there, lived in
a bunkhouse, up at dawn, fed well, down at dusk.
I went back a second year (almost 18, now), and I
was given a piece of heavy equipment to run about.
Well, it was interesting. I almost ran over some
transient field worker (but didn't, thank God) and
almost got called out by some little truck driver
half my size (didn't happen, thank _his_ stars).
Most important lesson - it you're going to ride a
motorcycle 200 miles, get some good sleep before.
I didn't, and I almost died several times on the
way home because of it. When you're on the gravel
at 70 mph, on a bike, that's on the edge! I have
done that. I would have preferred not to do that.
It's funny, I later ended up as climbing teacher
for the same guy who mentioned the ranch to me....
Too bad the weather was prohibitive. I would have
enjoyed scaring him half to death, several times.
You seem to have mistaken Slashdot for a private
pilots' website. This 22 year old guy is probably
_not_ flying his own plane to and from Boise. He
is likely glad his firm pays commercial airfares.
But yes, it's possible to get from Portland to
Boise in ~2 hours, if you don't waste time in the
airports. Portland isn't a very busy airport and
Boise is... um, even less busy. I think airlines
use Fokker 100s or small MD-80s from Portland to
Boise. These commercial jets do 500+ mph, which
makes the Portland/Boise trip about 40-45 minutes.
I grew up in Portland, OR (but I don't live there
now), and yes, I went to Boise by air last year.
Have you ever played pool (or billiards, a rather different game) for drinks or money? I have done that, with about even success (you win some, then you lose some, it all works out just about even). But getting _really_ good at it takes real focus. I've seen a very good player. It was impressive. A good player can run 150 balls, straight pool, without a miss, and make it look easy. That's good! Sort of like programming skills... There's a ten or more multiplier between patzer and master, in terms of effectiveness.
On a good night, I can hold a pool table against all comers. If drinks are bet, I drink for free, in the US, Middle East, and Austrailasia. But I'm not exceptionally good.
My wife, however, used to take guys for real money at pool. Part of it was the way her skirt hiked, leaning over the table. But she was also skilled, and ruthless about it.
A CIO I once worked for had previously made his living playing pool, for a while when between jobs. I did not seek out an opportunity to play poker with this individual....
I regard my college ethics class as one of the most important courses, in terms of later events.
Within a couple years, I worked for a service bureau that did the accounting for Evergreen Air (CIA contractor for airplanes during the Vietnam War - their monthly income was in eight figures). This was about the same time as my draft lottery number came out above 300 - high enough that I was not pulled into the meatgrinder. I recall asking the owner if servicing that CIA Vietnam contract company was ethical. His reply was that someone would do the work, it might as well be his firm. I didn't quit, but I didn't feel good about this.
Later, I worked for a systems integration company that was building the new control system for the Northwest power grid. It ran on a dual PDP-10 system (anyone remember TECO?) with lots of lower level PDP-8 telemetry and control systems. It is likely still there, BTW. They had lots of grad student programmers, and those guys would go out water-skiing on Saturday and log it as overtime! I mentioned this to them, but they didn't want to hear about it. They were late, and needed programmers.
Another employer was a Savings & Loan. They did not pay interest on impounded funds (for property tax, insurance, etc.) and eventually lost in court over this. After I left, they got screwed worse by the Feds, who - after forcing them to combine with insolvent S&Ls - suddenly changed the rules, forcing them to be acquired by Bank of America. There are relative levels of power and betrayal.
Then I spent a couple of years at an insurance company. After pointing out that the CIO's pet project wasn't working and should be scrapped (for which I won a $50 suggestion award), I was fired. So much for helping a corporation see its errors.
Another company's stock tanked; they were acquired by a corporate raider who proceeded to move them to Florida, extracting all the cash and leaving an empty shell for the creditors. By the time the SEC and courts prohibited him from owning another public company, Victor Posner was too old to care. With money and lawyers, you can get away with the corporate equivalent of murder, ethics be damned.
At another shop suffering through downsizing, I saw posted: "Youth and skill is overcome by old age and treachery." True, don't trust a company. Management looks out for themselves, not people who work for them, and least of all stockholders.
Then I worked for two Big-8/6/5 firms for over ten years. When directed to lie to a large client on the issue of mainframe capacity, I refused to do so. I'm now working elsewhere, for a better firm.
You can see ethical lapses around you, but unless you're in a position of power, you often can't affect things in any meaningful way. But, if you can, do so: it feels better.
No need to annoy the users to update their virus definition files... Norton AntiVirus will do that for you! I imagine McAfee, etc. can do this also.
And you can set up scheduled virus-scans in your Windows clients, make this part of the standard load image. My notebook Win2K client does it now.
Hovever, the general vulnerability of MS Windows software to viruses is a _great_ motivator for a company to look into using Linux on the desktops.
Give me an ever-better Wine to run MS Office apps, plus a Linux version of Lotus Notes, and SecureID SSL encryption ported to Linux, I won't use Win2K!
A US "2x4" is a length of softwood building material nominally 2" by 4" in cross-section before planing, actually about 1-3/8" X 3-1/8" (3.5 cm X 6.25 cm approx.) after finishing.
Rather, performing consulting work ethically is essential to your survival and long-term success.
The rationale of all your consulting work is to help your clients succeed: "Help your customer succeed, and you will share in their success!" is one of my email heading tags.
You don't help your clients well by falling into conflict-of-interest situations, overcharging for your services, or failing to solve their problems in the most efficient ways.
Individual consultants (and even large consulting firms) that forget or overlook this basic business truth eventually see their jobs dwindle, customer base diminish, etc.
When you see ethical lapses, report them (either within your firm, or directly to your client if you're independent). Your views will be valued, even if your firm or client takes no immediate action, simply because you were honest with them.
Then again, there are a lot of grey areas and your assessments should be based upon objective facts, rather than personal preferences. Be careful - don't accuse lightly.
This is an important topic. I'll be interested to see what others have to say about it. However, as a person who "resigned" from a Big-5 firm because I refused to lie to a big client, I've lived this. (And yes, I have a good job with a better firm now, partly because I observed consulting ethics.)
because you fail to understand so much about this.
Your post was a Troll, right? OK, I'm taken in...
"Linux and corporations don't go too well
together." What makes you think this? It's false
simply based on recent announcements by very large
corporations. Do you regard Compaq, Dell, HP, IBM
as corporations? They've all committed big money
to supporting Linux, all in the last few weeks!
"...but it can't last as a commodity for long."
Linux isn't a commodity - it's free intellectual
capital in software form, just like academic work.
PC hardware is a commodity. MS Windows is likely
a commodity soon - once they lose their preloads
lock on new OEM PC sales. Just watch - MS Windows
price will drop from $100 to practically nothing -
$5-$25, and this will happen very fast, and soon.
"...companies will start creating their own
distros strictly for profit...." Here you reveal
your inability to grasp the essence of the GPL.
If anyone did this, they'd be sued and would lose.
Read the GPL and come back when you understand it.
As for the rest of your desperate post - it won't
happen. Microsoft release Win/Linux free? You're
dreaming. MS won't ever mess with Linux, but will
instead attempt to FUD it out of a mass mindshare
(like they did to OS/2). But it won't work simply
because the market for Linux vs NT/2000 is smarter
than the captive preload desktop market ever was.
Go back into your Redmond bunker and try to think
up a better set of arguments. These don't work.
"accenture is the kind of company that makes its money from providing consulting services to companies that are 'in tough times'"
Wrong - Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) always made (and still makes) lots of money by low-balling consulting bids to get their foot in the door, then overcharging through change orders as long as they can get away with it. True stories: Farwest Federal S&L, a mortgage loan origination system, $2M bid vs $12M final bill - they were forced out of business, CEO was fired, etc. The Michigan unemployment bureau (I forget what its doublespeak name was), an unemployment benefits system, ~$10M bid vs ~$70M final bill for a system that didn't perform well - crippled them for a decade or more. The tales are many; most are buried by clients who won't admit to having been overcharged.
Better to make a deal with the devil than hire Andersen Consulting, er... Accenture - at least the devil tells you up front that you're selling your soul to him.
When someone passes away in a community, those who knew them or knew of them will gather to raise a glass and remember their life; it's called a wake.
I've got a glass of Chivas, and MP3s playing on the CD-R in my Thinkpad's DVD drive, so here's a story - just my small contribution to William Hewlett's online Slashdot wake.
Tektronix started out building oscilliscopes. They built excellent and increasingly complicated oscilliscopes (in the 60's, I believe Tek was the largest private employer in Oregon). And they believed in hardware - hardcore EE: circuits, transistors, PC boards, ICs. They had all the big customers - US military, IBM, etc., all locked in. So Tektronix didn't notice much when HP started building oscilliscopes, too. Nor did they pay attention when HP started using _software_ to drive its new oscilliscopes. Tek's company culture was hardware, period. Big mistake.
Over the following 10-15 years, HP took a big chunk of the oscilliscope market from Tektronix by using _software_ to build less expensive yet more versatile instruments. By the mid-80s (when I worked there for a couple years), Tek was visibly stagnating and losing its core customers. (At it's peak, they employed something like 20,000 people at several plants in the area).
[Tek had an IBM 3090-200 at its headquarters campus, and two IBM 4381s at each of five satellite plants. I remember being impressed that I could logon to one system, submit a job to be run on a second system 20 miles away, and direct the printout to a third system 30 miles from it (that's called JES2 NJE, and it _still_ works like that... across oceans and continents, now).]
Now Tektronix is a small fraction of that size, having sold off its printer business to Xerox and downsized steadily. The largest private employer in Oregon is now Intel, if I'm not mistaken.
Who pulled the marketshare out from under Tek? Hewlett-Packard! HP used software to drive test & measurement devices... including oscilliscopes. Tektronix didn't get it, not in time.
HP only started on computers much later, as an incidental line of business. Now, HP is a computer company, having spun off the test & measurement (plus medical) business into Agilent.
Hewlett-Packard was smart enough to see the future and get there early. They've evolved the company and I take my virtual hat off to the memory of William Hewlett, a smart gentleman.
I hope God gives him Heaven's garage to tinker in.
CIO - Understands the _business_ information needs of the company, customers, suppliers, management (at all levels), and stockholders. These are the _stakeholders_ of the corporation's operations - and might be extended to also include government (local, state, national) and even the public. Directs the (re-) architecting of company information domains and business processes (sales, operations, supply chain, financial, human resources, etc...). Deals with information needs and business processes, but not information technology architectures, per se. Works with the CEO/President on business models and vision issues, and collaborates with business VPs to learn their needs and develop new concepts. Works with the CTO to design appropriate systems. The CIO is a _business_ person with IT experience.
CTO - Understands current technology alternatives and capabilities, including strengths/weaknesses and tradeoffs of various choices in the hierarchy of applications, databases, transactional systems, operating systems, networking, platforms... other hardware. Takes direction on business needs from the CIO (or CEO/President, if there isn't a CIO), and plans for technology evolution of the company systems. The CTO is a _technology_ person having some familiarity with the company business model.
It's a division of responsibilities proceeding from CIO overloads in the early '90s. (CIOs came first, recently supplemented by CTO positions.)
I believe the hardware is now called xServer (or x-server, x/Server, or something - you get the idea). These are 9672-Gn mainframes, but you can still buy some recent models as S/390s.
Similarly, the native OS software for the x-Server line is now termed x/OS (or X/OS, x/os, whatever) instead of OS/390 (MVS and VM), which had been brands since the 70s. I haven't paid much attention to the details of spelling, etc., but just wanted to point this out. Then there's the de facto x/Linux OS supported in the 2.4 kernel... as everyone here already knows.
[Hmmm, now I'm going to have to change my Slashdot ID, too.]
If it runs Linux (as it does, we're told), then it should work fine as a IP-masquerading gateway. And the gateway should leave lots of room to play with other things - it only has to handle 1 MB/sec, max (seeing as how thats all DSL delivers). You can play games in the idle time and run Seti@home and Distributed.net, lots of things.
The first part is your access link (xDSL or a cable modem). Roaring-Penguin has a solution for DSL that works (I'm using it) and I'm sure there are approaches for cable modems, too (I used cable modem briefly before getting fed-up with Time-Warner's service, but only with OS/2, not using Linux). However, I'm still working out the IP-masquerading part, so... if anyone has some accurate information... is it "echo 1 >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/ipforward" or "echo 1 > proc/net/ip_forward" for Mandrake 7.0?
If the Dreamcast works well as a "poor man's net edge router" then I'll be looking for one at some garage sale in a few months. Better yet, get two for full-on security!
Surely "second-world" countries (Eastern Europe, parts of Middle/South America and Asia/Pacific) did suffer Y2K related inconveniences. But that's only because their ineffectual officials _ignored_ the potential for problems until those problems arose. They had no one to blame but themselves, so I'm not going to feel sorry for them.
I'm flying tomorrow too, but a quick check of the story links shows the solar-storm's worst effects shouldn't reach as far south as my flight-track (SoCal to Atlanta direct).
Inflight communications might be affected on northern routes, especially those over-the-pole flights. But airplanes themselves are self-contained systems and fairly resilient (even lightning strikes seldom damage planes). So, not too worry....
Slashdot Mirror
Not the ones who were hackers in the 60s and 70s. They're still hackers at heart, even if they're into IT consulting or management now. Linux won't be a hard sell to them, especially with IBM behind it.
A few observations and guesses:
Opening the source for OS/2 was discussed in the OS/2 community, and the fact is that parts of OS/2 are copyrighted by... Microsoft. IBM doesn't want to spend the money to redevelop those functions, one might surmise. Open source projects exist to do this, however, and maybe someone involved in them will speak up.
IBM is also in a corner with OS/2. Some basic structural elements like the single queue of the Workplace Shell and the fragile implementation of the INI files were arguably poor design choices, but any redesign would likely break many custom business applications built by some very large IBM customers. Faced with a partly broken system design it can't change without causing major customer grief, and having suffered a decisive humiliating defeat through Microsoft's predatory monopolistic practices, IBM is apparently cutting its losses and sunsetting further development of OS/2. (At least, one can guess this is their thinking, but I don't know.)
Stardock tried to talk IBM into releasing OS/2 to them, but that proved not to be feasible, partly due to the Microsoft owned code mentioned above.
Serenity Systems is bundling IBM's subscription based Convenience Pack upgrades with additional functions as eComStation.
Software also exists to enable running Linux software under OS/2: XFree86-OS/2, Gimp, etc.
I disagree somewhat, but for complex reasons....
What the RIAA members do well are contract negotiations with musicians and distributors, plus creative accounting (almost as slick as the movie industry), and deploying lobbyists and lawyers to (a) buy favorable laws and (b) win civil suits. Signed musicians make pennies on the dollar from sales of their works. So do music distributors for selling CDs, etc. The big music publishers take most of the money to feed their bloated egos, but add very little value. Their talent for writing contracts at both ends of the chain keeps them solidly in the middle, taking the big money. They create artificial scarcity by controlling the CD presses (and what goes into them) and the physical distribution of music on (overpriced) CDs.
They have been (and still are, but are learning) clueless about what technology, specifically ubiquitous PCs with good digital sound cards and CD-R/RW drives, and the Internet, makes possible.
Having been blindsided by advances in both the sophistication and pervasiveness of technology, they're trying to use their familiar means of lobbying and lawyering to hold back the tide. If only they could negotiate iron-clad contracts with every person who owns a PC requiring them to pay through the nose every time they used their sound card, everything would be just fine for Big Music!
Well, they're working on this. CPRM, and now its stealth replacement proposal at the T13 Committee, are one front in this battle. The SDMI effort is another, perhaps related, approach to locking up digital content. A new CD format is yet another.
But all these initiatives are doomed to failure. Let's suppose the best cases (for Big Music) are realized: the DMCA and like laws bought by the digital middleman companies are upheld in courts and extended by treaties to the Common Market and Japan and Taiwan, etc.; equipment manufacturers are bullied/bought-off to include obscure keys in mainboard/CPU/hard-drives/CD/CD-R etc. hardware; criminal penalties are applied for circumvention, reverse-engineering, or whatever work-arounds....
It will all be futile. Why? Because the second and third worlds don't care about or observe the niceties of digital rights, that's why! The day after all those shenanigans are worked up in smoke-filled back rooms around the world, China will be building fabs to build kit that strangely fails to implement all these extra protections for Western media and content. They'll be ecstatic! And so will all the people who prefer to sample music first before they buy a high-quality image (this class includes nearly all music consumers).
So, the mainboard, perhaps CPU and hard-drive, certainly CD-R/RW and soundcard, that you'll want in 2010 will come with a "made in PRC" sticker on it, and they won't respect Big Music copyrights. Or, it might say "made in Nigeria" alternatively.
The rest of the world won't allow domination by corrupt first-world based media middleman fatcats.
No need to shoot 'em, just ignore 'em - that'll kill 'em just as dead.
FYI: the correct English verb for loss of money, market-share, whatever, is "lose" not "loose" despite Slashdot's spelling dysfunctionalities. Cmdr Taco is guilty of this.
If all you children want to hack software, fine. If you want to talk about it amongst the rest of us well educated adults, then learn to hack English appropriately!
The above post is a Micro$oft troll. Typical M$ - turn the facts on their heads and assert the opposite of the truth: enough folks will believe you, if you _sound_ sincere.
In fact, Linux based (i.e. Apache) Internet servers gained market share _faster_ than M$ last year, according to IDC. It has been well reported here and elsewhere.
What's worse, this same approach seems successful in pulling the wool over the eyes of a whole US Appeals Court on the DoJ vs M$ antitrust case!
Anyone got the email addresses of the US Appeals Court judges hearing the DoJ vs M$ Antitrust case?
Is there any process available for impeaching Federal judges for rampant cluelessness in office?
is that people who aren't Mormons have a hard time in Utah. Move there to take a job? Sorry, you'll have to join the Mormon church before your wife can find work too. That's what's wrong with Utah.
I can't imagine why Albertson is exercised about Utah's silly liquor laws. True story: stuck in Salt Lake overnight by a broken airplane, check into a hotel, go into the bar, bartender says "You have to join our private club." I ask what that means. "It means you pay a dollar and I vouch for your character, then you're a member. What are you having?" It's just how they do things there.
On the other hand, there are lots of fine single women in Utah who got fed up with the Mormon "obey thy husband" crap and are looking for a way out. Maybe Albertson should talk about that instead, if he wants to recruit young guys out of Silicon Valley.
Yeah, it's tacky to reply one's own post, I know.
But this is tale telling. The fire's dying down,
and you younger folks might appreciate a story...
In high school, a substitute teacher in foundry
class (!) mentioned a ranch in Eastern Oregon to
apply for field hand work. I wrote, was accepted,
so I went up there, traveling on my Yamaha 250cc
motorcycle. I spent the summer there, lived in
a bunkhouse, up at dawn, fed well, down at dusk.
I went back a second year (almost 18, now), and I
was given a piece of heavy equipment to run about.
Well, it was interesting. I almost ran over some
transient field worker (but didn't, thank God) and
almost got called out by some little truck driver
half my size (didn't happen, thank _his_ stars).
Most important lesson - it you're going to ride a
motorcycle 200 miles, get some good sleep before.
I didn't, and I almost died several times on the
way home because of it. When you're on the gravel
at 70 mph, on a bike, that's on the edge! I have
done that. I would have preferred not to do that.
It's funny, I later ended up as climbing teacher
for the same guy who mentioned the ranch to me....
Too bad the weather was prohibitive. I would have
enjoyed scaring him half to death, several times.
Thus endeth the story.
You seem to have mistaken Slashdot for a private
pilots' website. This 22 year old guy is probably
_not_ flying his own plane to and from Boise. He
is likely glad his firm pays commercial airfares.
But yes, it's possible to get from Portland to
Boise in ~2 hours, if you don't waste time in the
airports. Portland isn't a very busy airport and
Boise is... um, even less busy. I think airlines
use Fokker 100s or small MD-80s from Portland to
Boise. These commercial jets do 500+ mph, which
makes the Portland/Boise trip about 40-45 minutes.
I grew up in Portland, OR (but I don't live there
now), and yes, I went to Boise by air last year.
Good for you and your pals!
Have you ever played pool (or billiards, a rather different game) for drinks or money? I have done that, with about even success (you win some, then you lose some, it all works out just about even). But getting _really_ good at it takes real focus. I've seen a very good player. It was impressive. A good player can run 150 balls, straight pool, without a miss, and make it look easy. That's good! Sort of like programming skills... There's a ten or more multiplier between patzer and master, in terms of effectiveness.
On a good night, I can hold a pool table against all comers. If drinks are bet, I drink for free, in the US, Middle East, and Austrailasia. But I'm not exceptionally good.
My wife, however, used to take guys for real money at pool. Part of it was the way her skirt hiked, leaning over the table. But she was also skilled, and ruthless about it.
A CIO I once worked for had previously made his living playing pool, for a while when between jobs. I did not seek out an opportunity to play poker with this individual....
I regard my college ethics class as one of the most important courses, in terms of later events.
Within a couple years, I worked for a service bureau that did the accounting for Evergreen Air (CIA contractor for airplanes during the Vietnam War - their monthly income was in eight figures). This was about the same time as my draft lottery number came out above 300 - high enough that I was not pulled into the meatgrinder. I recall asking the owner if servicing that CIA Vietnam contract company was ethical. His reply was that someone would do the work, it might as well be his firm. I didn't quit, but I didn't feel good about this.
Later, I worked for a systems integration company that was building the new control system for the Northwest power grid. It ran on a dual PDP-10 system (anyone remember TECO?) with lots of lower level PDP-8 telemetry and control systems. It is likely still there, BTW. They had lots of grad student programmers, and those guys would go out water-skiing on Saturday and log it as overtime! I mentioned this to them, but they didn't want to hear about it. They were late, and needed programmers.
Another employer was a Savings & Loan. They did not pay interest on impounded funds (for property tax, insurance, etc.) and eventually lost in court over this. After I left, they got screwed worse by the Feds, who - after forcing them to combine with insolvent S&Ls - suddenly changed the rules, forcing them to be acquired by Bank of America. There are relative levels of power and betrayal.
Then I spent a couple of years at an insurance company. After pointing out that the CIO's pet project wasn't working and should be scrapped (for which I won a $50 suggestion award), I was fired. So much for helping a corporation see its errors.
Another company's stock tanked; they were acquired by a corporate raider who proceeded to move them to Florida, extracting all the cash and leaving an empty shell for the creditors. By the time the SEC and courts prohibited him from owning another public company, Victor Posner was too old to care. With money and lawyers, you can get away with the corporate equivalent of murder, ethics be damned.
At another shop suffering through downsizing, I saw posted: "Youth and skill is overcome by old age and treachery." True, don't trust a company. Management looks out for themselves, not people who work for them, and least of all stockholders.
Then I worked for two Big-8/6/5 firms for over ten years. When directed to lie to a large client on the issue of mainframe capacity, I refused to do so. I'm now working elsewhere, for a better firm.
You can see ethical lapses around you, but unless you're in a position of power, you often can't affect things in any meaningful way. But, if you can, do so: it feels better.
"And where's the Flash program itself for Linux? Nowhere. Ugh."
Correction: Netscape 4.75 for Linux _is_ Flash enabled, with a plugin. I'm running it now.
of invalidating lots of stupid business-method patents.
Congress really should get around to fixing the broken US Patent Office processes, too.
No need to annoy the users to update their virus definition files... Norton AntiVirus will do that for you! I imagine McAfee, etc. can do this also.
And you can set up scheduled virus-scans in your Windows clients, make this part of the standard load image. My notebook Win2K client does it now.
Hovever, the general vulnerability of MS Windows software to viruses is a _great_ motivator for a company to look into using Linux on the desktops.
Give me an ever-better Wine to run MS Office apps, plus a Linux version of Lotus Notes, and SecureID SSL encryption ported to Linux, I won't use Win2K!
A US "2x4" is a length of softwood building material nominally 2" by 4" in cross-section before planing, actually about 1-3/8" X 3-1/8" (3.5 cm X 6.25 cm approx.) after finishing.
A 2x4 is also at times known as a "clue stick."
at the bottom of the linked article:
"copyright 2000 The Walt Disney Company"
?
They own Discover, of course, but I wonder if the top brass at Disney knows what they're publishing.
Rather, performing consulting work ethically is essential to your survival and long-term success.
The rationale of all your consulting work is to help your clients succeed: "Help your customer succeed, and you will share in their success!" is one of my email heading tags.
You don't help your clients well by falling into conflict-of-interest situations, overcharging for your services, or failing to solve their problems in the most efficient ways.
Individual consultants (and even large consulting firms) that forget or overlook this basic business truth eventually see their jobs dwindle, customer base diminish, etc.
When you see ethical lapses, report them (either within your firm, or directly to your client if you're independent). Your views will be valued, even if your firm or client takes no immediate action, simply because you were honest with them.
Then again, there are a lot of grey areas and your assessments should be based upon objective facts, rather than personal preferences. Be careful - don't accuse lightly.
This is an important topic. I'll be interested to see what others have to say about it. However, as a person who "resigned" from a Big-5 firm because I refused to lie to a big client, I've lived this. (And yes, I have a good job with a better firm now, partly because I observed consulting ethics.)
because you fail to understand so much about this. Your post was a Troll, right? OK, I'm taken in... "Linux and corporations don't go too well together." What makes you think this? It's false simply based on recent announcements by very large corporations. Do you regard Compaq, Dell, HP, IBM as corporations? They've all committed big money to supporting Linux, all in the last few weeks! "...but it can't last as a commodity for long." Linux isn't a commodity - it's free intellectual capital in software form, just like academic work. PC hardware is a commodity. MS Windows is likely a commodity soon - once they lose their preloads lock on new OEM PC sales. Just watch - MS Windows price will drop from $100 to practically nothing - $5-$25, and this will happen very fast, and soon. "...companies will start creating their own distros strictly for profit...." Here you reveal your inability to grasp the essence of the GPL. If anyone did this, they'd be sued and would lose. Read the GPL and come back when you understand it. As for the rest of your desperate post - it won't happen. Microsoft release Win/Linux free? You're dreaming. MS won't ever mess with Linux, but will instead attempt to FUD it out of a mass mindshare (like they did to OS/2). But it won't work simply because the market for Linux vs NT/2000 is smarter than the captive preload desktop market ever was. Go back into your Redmond bunker and try to think up a better set of arguments. These don't work.
"accenture is the kind of company that makes its money from providing consulting services to companies that are 'in tough times'"
Wrong - Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) always made (and still makes) lots of money by low-balling consulting bids to get their foot in the door, then overcharging through change orders as long as they can get away with it. True stories: Farwest Federal S&L, a mortgage loan origination system, $2M bid vs $12M final bill - they were forced out of business, CEO was fired, etc. The Michigan unemployment bureau (I forget what its doublespeak name was), an unemployment benefits system, ~$10M bid vs ~$70M final bill for a system that didn't perform well - crippled them for a decade or more. The tales are many; most are buried by clients who won't admit to having been overcharged.
Better to make a deal with the devil than hire Andersen Consulting, er... Accenture - at least the devil tells you up front that you're selling your soul to him.
When someone passes away in a community, those who knew them or knew of them will gather to raise a glass and remember their life; it's called a wake.
I've got a glass of Chivas, and MP3s playing on the CD-R in my Thinkpad's DVD drive, so here's a story - just my small contribution to William Hewlett's online Slashdot wake.
Tektronix started out building oscilliscopes. They built excellent and increasingly complicated oscilliscopes (in the 60's, I believe Tek was the largest private employer in Oregon). And they believed in hardware - hardcore EE: circuits, transistors, PC boards, ICs. They had all the big customers - US military, IBM, etc., all locked in. So Tektronix didn't notice much when HP started building oscilliscopes, too. Nor did they pay attention when HP started using _software_ to drive its new oscilliscopes. Tek's company culture was hardware, period. Big mistake.
Over the following 10-15 years, HP took a big chunk of the oscilliscope market from Tektronix by using _software_ to build less expensive yet more versatile instruments. By the mid-80s (when I worked there for a couple years), Tek was visibly stagnating and losing its core customers. (At it's peak, they employed something like 20,000 people at several plants in the area).
[Tek had an IBM 3090-200 at its headquarters campus, and two IBM 4381s at each of five satellite plants. I remember being impressed that I could logon to one system, submit a job to be run on a second system 20 miles away, and direct the printout to a third system 30 miles from it (that's called JES2 NJE, and it _still_ works like that... across oceans and continents, now).]
Now Tektronix is a small fraction of that size, having sold off its printer business to Xerox and downsized steadily. The largest private employer in Oregon is now Intel, if I'm not mistaken.
Who pulled the marketshare out from under Tek? Hewlett-Packard! HP used software to drive test & measurement devices... including oscilliscopes. Tektronix didn't get it, not in time.
HP only started on computers much later, as an incidental line of business. Now, HP is a computer company, having spun off the test & measurement (plus medical) business into Agilent.
Hewlett-Packard was smart enough to see the future and get there early. They've evolved the company and I take my virtual hat off to the memory of William Hewlett, a smart gentleman.
I hope God gives him Heaven's garage to tinker in.
CIO - Understands the _business_ information needs of the company, customers, suppliers, management (at all levels), and stockholders. These are the _stakeholders_ of the corporation's operations - and might be extended to also include government (local, state, national) and even the public. Directs the (re-) architecting of company information domains and business processes (sales, operations, supply chain, financial, human resources, etc...). Deals with information needs and business processes, but not information technology architectures, per se. Works with the CEO/President on business models and vision issues, and collaborates with business VPs to learn their needs and develop new concepts. Works with the CTO to design appropriate systems. The CIO is a _business_ person with IT experience.
CTO - Understands current technology alternatives and capabilities, including strengths/weaknesses and tradeoffs of various choices in the hierarchy of applications, databases, transactional systems, operating systems, networking, platforms... other hardware. Takes direction on business needs from the CIO (or CEO/President, if there isn't a CIO), and plans for technology evolution of the company systems. The CTO is a _technology_ person having some familiarity with the company business model.
It's a division of responsibilities proceeding from CIO overloads in the early '90s. (CIOs came first, recently supplemented by CTO positions.)
I believe the hardware is now called xServer (or x-server, x/Server, or something - you get the idea). These are 9672-Gn mainframes, but you can still buy some recent models as S/390s.
Similarly, the native OS software for the x-Server line is now termed x/OS (or X/OS, x/os, whatever) instead of OS/390 (MVS and VM), which had been brands since the 70s. I haven't paid much attention to the details of spelling, etc., but just wanted to point this out. Then there's the de facto x/Linux OS supported in the 2.4 kernel... as everyone here already knows.
[Hmmm, now I'm going to have to change my Slashdot ID, too.]
If it runs Linux (as it does, we're told), then it should work fine as a IP-masquerading gateway. And the gateway should leave lots of room to play with other things - it only has to handle 1 MB/sec, max (seeing as how thats all DSL delivers). You can play games in the idle time and run Seti@home and Distributed.net, lots of things.
/proc/sys/net/ipv4/ipforward" or "echo 1 > proc/net/ip_forward" for Mandrake 7.0?
The first part is your access link (xDSL or a cable modem). Roaring-Penguin has a solution for DSL that works (I'm using it) and I'm sure there are approaches for cable modems, too (I used cable modem briefly before getting fed-up with Time-Warner's service, but only with OS/2, not using Linux). However, I'm still working out the IP-masquerading part, so... if anyone has some accurate information... is it "echo 1 >
If the Dreamcast works well as a "poor man's net edge router" then I'll be looking for one at some garage sale in a few months. Better yet, get two for full-on security!
Surely "second-world" countries (Eastern Europe, parts of Middle/South America and Asia/Pacific) did suffer Y2K related inconveniences. But that's only because their ineffectual officials _ignored_ the potential for problems until those problems arose. They had no one to blame but themselves, so I'm not going to feel sorry for them.
About 3pm this afternoon (PST, 5pm CST) Earthlink went down. My DSL line stayed up, but I couldn't click through Earthlink's DNS servers to anything.
Cycling the DSL modem and a (rare) reboot later, it came back up. It was down about 20 minutes.
I'm flying tomorrow too, but a quick check of the story links shows the solar-storm's worst effects shouldn't reach as far south as my flight-track (SoCal to Atlanta direct).
Inflight communications might be affected on northern routes, especially those over-the-pole flights. But airplanes themselves are self-contained systems and fairly resilient (even lightning strikes seldom damage planes). So, not too worry....