This is probably one of the most accurate portrails of telecommuting I've seen. You get desperate to get out of the house, particularly when your SO has the only car. Your stuck, you haven't seen anyone but your SO in 5 days. I used to look forward to the days when I had to go to the office.
I would NOT telecommute more than 3 days/week EVER AGAIN
5) Or people hack on the source code, put in a nasty virus or trojan, and then distrubute it as part of a shareware/freeware program, or hack the Microsoft site, and put it in as part of "Windows Update"
A few weeks later, 50% of the worlds PCs are wide open
OK, I want to know how many of you have ever seen the results of an air tank rupture?
Talk about cars blowing up like they do in the movies. Air at those kinds of pressures is DANGERIOUS. And they want fast fill stations? What are they going to have, turbopumps? Oh yeah, I want a pump that runs at high pressure and sounds like a jet engine running at my local gas station.
When the first hand built prototype was talked about last year (or the year before), we had a talk about this over on Rec.Crafts.Metalworking . Its seems that they are seriously overstating how for this car can go
MPEG quality doesn't really cut it (AKA DVD quality isn't broadcast quality).
Most people think DVDs look good. If you ever get to a TV studio, ask to see some original footage - it blows DVD away. Your just used to looking at noisy signal.
The technical problem is exactly that, and is actually more political than technical. What format(s) do you save the data in? It looks like the networks will continue to store the actual tapes for a long time, but they want to be able to do "Non Linear Editing" on line too. So, do you store broadcast quality video, or do you store a low res proxy? How about both, but then scrub the high res version after a time (Remember, the tape is still around)
A lot of the reson for thsi kind of stuff is this. Researchers want to know what they have. Let's say they are doing a story on "Foo". They will look up every tape they have on "Foo", and order all 50 tapes, to see what the footage is. Most of these tapes are A)One of a kind, and B)Have to be shipped. If they had a way to show what was on the tape to the researcher, so the tape didn't have to be handled, things would be a lot easier. The thing is, how good does the proxy have to be?
Base your answer on the fact that these archives can have on the order of 5 million hours tape in them, and grow by the order of 100-200 hours/week
I know that most of the/. readers aren't old enough to remember this, but it sounds exactly like what happened with the PC revolution. (Yes I know the article mentioned it slightly)
Back when (say, Pre IBM PC, or the early PC days), there was a lot of "We can't do that" that came from the people in the Glass house. The way thing changed was that people BOUGHT their own PCs, and snuck them into work!
So, the Lan Admin says "You can't do that, it's a company PC" (Strains of the "Who" playing here - Meet the New boss, same as the old boss. We won't get fooled again) - What to stop you from setting up your own PC in the office (or for that matter, carrying a laptop), and even (gasp) setting up (Totally bootleg) your own LAN? The company doesn't own it That's how PCs snuck into the Fortune 500 to begin with
OK,
I'm a programmer (Boo Hiss). Our HELP desk? You mean the ones that won't WON'T look at a help procedure? There is the slightest problem, they call us (Right down to resetting passwords). Their excuse? "I couldn't figure it out", or "The program wan't installed on my support PC"
The one that drove US nuts though was when the night LAN crew started reprogramming routers (without telling us), and DENIED it. A who segment's worth of users would call "We can't access the Database", but everyone else in the company was up. We check the router, and sure enough, there was a problem. An hour or so later it would go away. Next morning, we'd talk to the head LAN admin, and he'd say "We didn't have any problems, and nothing was done" - This went on for over a month. We finally set up our own logger. It seems that some night tech was doing it on his own, and when his boss asked, was saying "I didn't do anything"
AAARRRGGGHHHHH
Sorry for the vent, but 30 straight days of 2x/night calls sticks with you, even months later
Your right about the "Urge" - I haul large stuff often enough that IF I get a second vehicle, it'll be a truck. A Camry sized car and a full sized pickup fits the bill, FOR ME. Right now I mooch truck time from friends, or rent a truck, but when I finish my train, I will NEED that truck (As I said, it's a weekend truck for me). When I say "Train", I'm not talking some little O scale "thing" - The engine alone is 5 feet long, and weighs in at well over 400 lbs. The tender is 3 feet (and about 100 lbs), and then there is the coal and tools. I'll be moving this 2-3x/month. If I build riding cars, I'll have to add a trailer!
Of course, but try and FIND a full sized station wagon! They aren't made anymore (and no, a Sable/Taurus isn't full sized). A full sized wagon USED to fit a sheet of 4x8 plywood across the back with the seats down.
This is one of those "Unintended consequences" deals. Back when the US government implemented the CAFE laws (Corporate average fuel economy) they exempted trucks. What we call SUVs today were classed as "Light trucks".
So, in order to meet in increasingly strict CAFE laws, the car companies had to downsize their cars. The first thing that (Mostly) went away was the big huge car. (Note, they HAVE come back - cars like the big MB and the big Lexus etc are as big as anything) The next thing that went away was the full sized wagon. There were a few hold outs till about 1 year ago (The Ford Crown Victoria. Note: The Crown Victoria/Lincoln Town car are now ONLY listed in Ford's "Fleet" program - AKA You are only supposed to be able to buy them if you are a fleet operator).
So the full sized wagon/car went away. So, what does it get replaced with? Well, at first, they really got replaced with Mini vans! (You do remember the Mini van craze, right?) The thing is, the early min vans really had some reliability problems. The people realized, hey, I can get this light truck that works, if I give up some creature comforts (BTW Mini vans of the mid 80s weren't all that luxurious). The move was inevitable. If people want something, they WILL figure out how to get what they want.
Now me? I drive a compact car (a Saturn), because it didn't pay for me to drive in a larger car. However, my next car will be larger (a Saturn doesn't work when you have to transport 4 people, a playpen etc). If I get a SECOND car, it'll be a truck. Why a truck? I work with a lot of heavy tools and equipment. It won't be a SUV, but a truck. If they make me register it as a commercial vehicle, so be it. If the stop pickups, I'll get a box van. They stop that, I'll buy a full sized truck! No, it won't be used every day, as I live where mass transport works.
What they are point out is that they DO leave the field (shocking, I know).
I have at least 5 friends who were successful programmmers who "Burned out" and left the field. Remember the AVERAGE length of a programming career is 7 years - that's it! After that, your out of the field!
You were Navy? I know I got my clearance at the behest of the Navy (I was a civilian), and it was NOT the FBI that did it, but a "Private" contractor by the name of "The Defense Investigation Services Company", or DISCO. Yes, they followed the FBIs/Navy's rules. Of course, this was for a fairly low level clearance - I'm sure if you go TS or above, it's FBI
Your not kidding that every person with a clearance is a lackey.
I'll tell you right now that I _USED_ to have a "Secret" clearance. It's no big deal, in fact, I worked for a very low level contractor, and more than 50% of the programmers and techs had clearance, JUST IN CASE. Most of use never needed it, but there was always a chance we would have to be sent to a military base, and it's a lot easier to walk around with a guard.
I'll tell you that we would tell the bosses what we thought. I'd be a lot more worried about some of the other qualifications that are a LOT harder to get (tenure etc)
Slashdot Mirror
Normally, I'm the FIRST voter at my polling place. Today, I got up late, and went with my daughter to show her the voting.
Then I went to work - I work at one of the network "Decision Desks" - You know, they guys who project the winner?
It's going to be a LONG night - I don't get out till mid day tomorrow. Don't you love 24 hour work days?
One question - has anyone figured out how to do this on a windows (Figure "The Bat" as the client) system?
This is probably one of the most accurate portrails of telecommuting I've seen. You get desperate to get out of the house, particularly when your SO has the only car. Your stuck, you haven't seen anyone but your SO in 5 days. I used to look forward to the days when I had to go to the office.
I would NOT telecommute more than 3 days/week EVER AGAIN
5) Or people hack on the source code, put in a nasty virus or trojan, and then distrubute it as part of a shareware/freeware program, or hack the Microsoft site, and put it in as part of "Windows Update"
A few weeks later, 50% of the worlds PCs are wide open
OK, I want to know how many of you have ever seen the results of an air tank rupture?
Talk about cars blowing up like they do in the movies. Air at those kinds of pressures is DANGERIOUS. And they want fast fill stations? What are they going to have, turbopumps? Oh yeah, I want a pump that runs at high pressure and sounds like a jet engine running at my local gas station.
When the first hand built prototype was talked about last year (or the year before), we had a talk about this over on Rec.Crafts.Metalworking . Its seems that they are seriously overstating how for this car can go
Charlie
"incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result "
When you make a big deal about setting a standard, the expected result is that you will follow the standard. Sounds Ironic to me!
Isn't it a tad ironic, that the hyperlinks at the end of the article say
EMail
It depends! It can run up to $300/second if you intend to rebroadcast it (Not kidding)
MPEG quality doesn't really cut it (AKA DVD quality isn't broadcast quality).
Most people think DVDs look good. If you ever get to a TV studio, ask to see some original footage - it blows DVD away. Your just used to looking at noisy signal.
The technical problem is exactly that, and is actually more political than technical. What format(s) do you save the data in? It looks like the networks will continue to store the actual tapes for a long time, but they want to be able to do "Non Linear Editing" on line too. So, do you store broadcast quality video, or do you store a low res proxy? How about both, but then scrub the high res version after a time (Remember, the tape is still around)
A lot of the reson for thsi kind of stuff is this. Researchers want to know what they have. Let's say they are doing a story on "Foo". They will look up every tape they have on "Foo", and order all 50 tapes, to see what the footage is. Most of these tapes are A)One of a kind, and B)Have to be shipped. If they had a way to show what was on the tape to the researcher, so the tape didn't have to be handled, things would be a lot easier. The thing is, how good does the proxy have to be?
Base your answer on the fact that these archives can have on the order of 5 million hours tape in them, and grow by the order of 100-200 hours/week
Oh, they are, trust me!
I'm one of the programming leads on a system to do this for one of the major networks. It's close to happening
Disclaimer: I'm not speaking for my bosses, or offically
It's probably NHK putting their own material into the archive. There is a heck of a lot of it.
Disclaimer:
I'm working on a similar project for a major US Network, and have actually demo'd my project for the guys from NHK.
I know that most of the /. readers aren't old enough to remember this, but it sounds exactly like what happened with the PC revolution. (Yes I know the article mentioned it slightly)
Back when (say, Pre IBM PC, or the early PC days), there was a lot of "We can't do that" that came from the people in the Glass house. The way thing changed was that people BOUGHT their own PCs, and snuck them into work!
So, the Lan Admin says "You can't do that, it's a company PC" (Strains of the "Who" playing here - Meet the New boss, same as the old boss. We won't get fooled again) - What to stop you from setting up your own PC in the office (or for that matter, carrying a laptop), and even (gasp) setting up (Totally bootleg) your own LAN? The company doesn't own it That's how PCs snuck into the Fortune 500 to begin with
Charlie
(feeling old)
OK,
I'm a programmer (Boo Hiss). Our HELP desk? You mean the ones that won't WON'T look at a help procedure? There is the slightest problem, they call us (Right down to resetting passwords). Their excuse? "I couldn't figure it out", or "The program wan't installed on my support PC"
The one that drove US nuts though was when the night LAN crew started reprogramming routers (without telling us), and DENIED it. A who segment's worth of users would call "We can't access the Database", but everyone else in the company was up. We check the router, and sure enough, there was a problem. An hour or so later it would go away. Next morning, we'd talk to the head LAN admin, and he'd say "We didn't have any problems, and nothing was done" - This went on for over a month. We finally set up our own logger. It seems that some night tech was doing it on his own, and when his boss asked, was saying "I didn't do anything"
AAARRRGGGHHHHH
Sorry for the vent, but 30 straight days of 2x/night calls sticks with you, even months later
There is a VERY good search engine out there (BUT NOT cheap)
Look up Excalibur Technologies - You can get Keyword, Theme, and concept searches out of it
Disclaimer: It's one of the search engines we use at work - Other then the fact the bought me lunch once, no other connections
Your right about the "Urge" - I haul large stuff often enough that IF I get a second vehicle, it'll be a truck. A Camry sized car and a full sized pickup fits the bill, FOR ME. Right now I mooch truck time from friends, or rent a truck, but when I finish my train, I will NEED that truck (As I said, it's a weekend truck for me). When I say "Train", I'm not talking some little O scale "thing" - The engine alone is 5 feet long, and weighs in at well over 400 lbs. The tender is 3 feet (and about 100 lbs), and then there is the coal and tools. I'll be moving this 2-3x/month. If I build riding cars, I'll have to add a trailer!
But they are not considered "Full Sized"
Of course, but try and FIND a full sized station wagon! They aren't made anymore (and no, a Sable/Taurus isn't full sized). A full sized wagon USED to fit a sheet of 4x8 plywood across the back with the seats down.
This is one of those "Unintended consequences" deals. Back when the US government implemented the CAFE laws (Corporate average fuel economy) they exempted trucks. What we call SUVs today were classed as "Light trucks".
So, in order to meet in increasingly strict CAFE laws, the car companies had to downsize their cars. The first thing that (Mostly) went away was the big huge car. (Note, they HAVE come back - cars like the big MB and the big Lexus etc are as big as anything) The next thing that went away was the full sized wagon. There were a few hold outs till about 1 year ago (The Ford Crown Victoria. Note: The Crown Victoria/Lincoln Town car are now ONLY listed in Ford's "Fleet" program - AKA You are only supposed to be able to buy them if you are a fleet operator).
So the full sized wagon/car went away. So, what does it get replaced with? Well, at first, they really got replaced with Mini vans! (You do remember the Mini van craze, right?) The thing is, the early min vans really had some reliability problems. The people realized, hey, I can get this light truck that works, if I give up some creature comforts (BTW Mini vans of the mid 80s weren't all that luxurious). The move was inevitable. If people want something, they WILL figure out how to get what they want.
Now me? I drive a compact car (a Saturn), because it didn't pay for me to drive in a larger car. However, my next car will be larger (a Saturn doesn't work when you have to transport 4 people, a playpen etc). If I get a SECOND car, it'll be a truck. Why a truck? I work with a lot of heavy tools and equipment. It won't be a SUV, but a truck. If they make me register it as a commercial vehicle, so be it. If the stop pickups, I'll get a box van. They stop that, I'll buy a full sized truck! No, it won't be used every day, as I live where mass transport works.
"Invented Open Source"
Gee, does that sound a LOT like something Microsoft would say? (Or Al Gore (I invented the internet))
As companies have to make stock holders happy, it happens to all of them
Sigh
(Suse or Mandrake anyone?)
The Fungus is among us!
Me?
I want some good 19th (and early 20th) High tech. When I go home, I work on steam engines - REAL ones.
Low range?
Next installment of castings for my train, OR tooling for my lathe/mill.
Mid range?
The boiler for the engine I'm working on (Just makes it under the upper limit), OR a CNC setup for my mill
High end?
A bigger house to fit all the geek toys
I still keep hoping to get a free one in the mail. I commute every day with a Postal Inspector, and I'd LOVE to sic him on DC
What they are point out is that they DO leave the field (shocking, I know).
I have at least 5 friends who were successful programmmers who "Burned out" and left the field. Remember the AVERAGE length of a programming career is 7 years - that's it! After that, your out of the field!
You were Navy? I know I got my clearance at the behest of the Navy (I was a civilian), and it was NOT the FBI that did it, but a "Private" contractor by the name of "The Defense Investigation Services Company", or DISCO. Yes, they followed the FBIs/Navy's rules. Of course, this was for a fairly low level clearance - I'm sure if you go TS or above, it's FBI
Your not kidding that every person with a clearance is a lackey.
I'll tell you right now that I _USED_ to have a "Secret" clearance. It's no big deal, in fact, I worked for a very low level contractor, and more than 50% of the programmers and techs had clearance, JUST IN CASE. Most of use never needed it, but there was always a chance we would have to be sent to a military base, and it's a lot easier to walk around with a guard.
I'll tell you that we would tell the bosses what we thought. I'd be a lot more worried about some of the other qualifications that are a LOT harder to get (tenure etc)
2nd opinion?
It's a fast, fun GOOD read. I re-read it about once a year or so.
Me? I _WANT_ to move to Precipice