It's amazing how our brains interconnect certain things. Soon as I saw the title of this article, I immediately thought of Contra. (BTW: I still contend that Contra is impossible to beat unless you have 30 lives.:) )
I'm 25, and still a video game lover. I think it's a major culture shift. Sure, you had a few adults who were hooked on Pac Man and the like, but never anything like I've seen in the fast few years. More and more people my age are still keeping up with the latest trends in consoles and PC games. (I'm still waiting for my copy of Escape from Monkey Island...) I personally think that they're a great form of entertainment...better than just about anything the movie studios pump out. You're actually involved in the action somewhat, and they're a great way to kill an hour or two.
One of the things that can get out of hand, as my brother who is a senior in high school is seeing now, is that no one's reading anymore. I do, and he does, but he says he knows so many people who haven't picked up a book in quite some time. This has obvious drawbacks. However, kept in perspective, gaming is a great pastime for any age.
I'm feeling old right about now. Think I'll fire up NESticle after work.;)
Wow, this really looks neat. I was born with low vision that has been corrected to "acceptable" levels, for small values of acceptable. The thing that stinks is that I can see well enough to drive and perform every routine human function, but I'm *just this side* of normal when it comes to detailed work (like computer stuff; ever see anyone with a 21" monitor at 800x600?:) You will when you come into my workplace after I've been reeading the monitor at 1024x768 for a few hours.)
That said, I know people with much lower vision. For them, life *really* sucks. They see blurred shapes, degrees of light, things like that. This product is a definite plus for them. Even video-camera quality images are much better than what they can get from their natural equipment. For someone like me, it probably isn't really an option, but the fact that we can now restore decent vision to those worse off than I am is great.
Wow...I didn't even know Adobe had even planned a FrameMaker Linux release. I remember using it a lot in college, especially for documentation and papers. TeX was way too much for what I needed most of the time, Windows products weren't my first choice, and PageMaker and Quark were more for custom layout. FrameMaker is a great package for writing long technical documents that have to have the exact same format throughout. It is very popular at the school I attended on their Sun workstations. Now I work in an all-Windoze shop and use Word to type documentation. (Bleh.)
It's a shame they pulled the product. Even though Corel WordPerfect won't be long for this world after Office 2001 (except in law firms and medical practices...) they made a good decision to release it on the Linux platform. I just wish Lotus would release a version of the Notes client for Linux...then I'd never need Windows again!
The net is not creating a new geography...it's creating no geography. One of the things that I love about the net (that's sadly sinking in popularity) is Usenet. You can ask a strange computer question on a newsgroup, and literally, a few hours later, you'll have responses from all over the world. It doesn't matter whether your responder lives down the road or in Australia, he answered your question. I've corresponded with people from all over the globe during my "connected" life.
People don't need to move around the world seeking out new physical locations. One of the good things about the net is the way that cultures are blended together, and people share new ideas (when they're not buying crap from Amazon.com, of course.:) ). If I had a net connection in Namibia, I would be able to communicate with the same people that I would have access to in the US.
The net is helping to blur some of the national boundaries that exist. It empowers those who know how to use it. If anything, the culture and geography shift is going to be based on whether someone is a luser or whether they're net-savvy.
For those who work in IT (networks and delivery, not coding) think about the mindset of your average boss:
We use Windows because it's the most common desktop platform in existence.
We use Office because it works well with Windows, it's universal and the staff likes it.
Microsoft just came out with a new version of Windows that the marketing guys say is Better! Cheaper! Faster! More Stable!!!
They also say it'll only run with programs they've tested.
Oh, wait, we only use Windows, SQL Server, Exchange, SMS, Office, and IIS.
Plus, we won't have Jane Secretary running the buggy Thanksgiving screensaver on all the PCs in her office.
No problems here. Order 1,000 licenses.
What I'm trying to point out is that MS is catering to business again. IT people loved the dumb-terminal days because user control was real easy. Now they have to worry about staff trashing their PCs with software they got from friends and losing their productivity while the helpdesk reimages their PC.
The circle is closing for MS with regards to enterprise computing. Not only do they have people convinced that Windows is the only OS available, now they are designing the product to give them even more control. Scary.
One of the major things MS has managed to do is to make flexible licensing programs for all kinds of businesses. We have the Select program at our company, which lets us use any MS software under the agreement for two years, while paying only for the licenses we actually use.
IT managers hats surprises, especially when their software company tells them "Oh, well, we did a license audit, and you owe us $xxxM extra for those 50,000 copies of Office." I hear the mangement gripe about this all the time. What MS basically did is automatically meter the software to avoid the surprises. (Not that it's good, see below!) Managers will eat this up, because then all they need to do is register Office in SMS 2000 (probably) and have it count licenses. Then, it keeps track of how many copies you use, and the IT management send one AmEx Corporate Platinum Card transmission over the Internet to upgrade the licenses for another year.
Now, of course this is bad. It means that Joe User (me) can't borrow copies of Office anymore.:) Seriously, it's just an easy way for MS to collect back more of its lost license fees. I use Office mainly as a convenience...no one wants to convert WordPerfect or StarOffice files, and I think that MS does have a lock on the Windows productivity apps market. I won't be using Office much longer if I have to pay $xxx per year for it. I'll just be one of the Luddites who's still using Word 2000 two versions later.:)
Looks like I came a little late to the party on this one, but let me interject my opinion:
Times when Exchange is warranted:
If you have an all-Windows (or even nostly-Windows) enterprise, then a system like Exchange or even Notes is a good choice. You don't have to hire Unix and sendmail admins at huge premiums, and Exchange is relatively stable until the mail databases burp. Plus, if almost all your clients run Windows, Outlook is right there. M$ really got a good lock on the corporate market with this marriage of client and server-side stuff.
Exchange, Notes, and a very similar yet evil Novell product that begins with G:-) have group calendaring features, and client software that's easy enough for even CEOs to use, if they had to. If your PHBs like to schedule meetings this way, see their employee's free/busy information, and get easy-to-use management goodies like return receipts on email, go for one of these.
As with most BackOffice products, Exchange is only useful with a good admin staff. When something breaks, it's not all "point-click-restore" like MS promises. You need someone in the IT department who can recover nuked databases and knows the little secrets of Exchange adminning. If you have someone, go for it.
Times when Sendmail is a better choice:
When you have a budget. Exchange is a PIG when it comes to hardware. Huge servers get totally chewed up when Exchange is running, so don't think you can stick Exchange Server on that old P133 in the corner. Not happening.
If you just want Plain Old Email, sendmail is an excellent choice. You just have to get your users to live without the extra features.
If you're using Exchange for the group folders option, skip it. A simple news server does a much better job, even though it's not integrated into Outlook.
Believe it or not, we're just rolling out an email strategy for our branch offices. (Airline IT == dark ages.) We pretty much had to choose exchange because of the airlines' insistence on using NT-based solutions. If it were me, I'd slap sendmail on a Linux box in a heartbeat. It's more scalable on less hardware than Exchange, and (I think) is easy to administer.
You be the judge.
-ErichTheRed
Also check out http://wings.buffalo.edu...the system stemmed out of an old Gopher server, and was (probably still is) the easiest way to find info when I was on campus there. Everything was pretty much collaborative content...departments had their own section of Wings, sent updates and things took care of themselves. And when I left, it was run by a relatively small administrative staff.
I see I'm not the only one who has thousands of pounds of books!:) Here's some stuff to keep in mind when moving:
I wouldn't recommend storing the books upright (spines up.) Especially on glue-bound books, the binding gets bent and breaks after prolonged storage, especially in a humid spot.
Line any boxes you use with heavy, tightly-fastened plastic sheets. This prevents some of the moisture from ruining the books. (Of course, if you follow Step 1 above, this makes it even harder to identify the members of your collection.:)
Rubbermaid containers are good for storage, but they're too expensive for the number of books you can put in them.
Here's how I have my collection stored: Staples sells these heavy-walled corrugated boxes that look very much like fruit boxes. They're pretty big, durable, and they even have sturdy handles on the side! The only thing they don't have is lids. Luckily, standard computer or textbooks fill the height of the box completely, so I can get away with some heavy plastic sheeting stapled to the sides.
Or you can just buy eBooks and use MS Reader.:) *ducks* Just kidding....I HATE reading electronic books. Until they come out with a 1200dpi monitor and a "virtual-page-turner" UI, those dead trees will be firmly ensconced on my shelf.
I've worked for a few companies, each with different Internet policies. Here's a sample. Numbers correspond to workplaces in each category
Web:
No Web access without full officer approval (a bank.) Every move you made on the web was logged and tracked, plus "undesirable" sites were blocked out.
Very little logging, but a proxy server filtered out things like Playboy, Dilbert, etc. (huge insurance company.)
Unrestricted web access, very little logging (firewall logs blocked port attempts, etc.) This is in my current gig with a huge worldwide systems company.)
Email:
Internal email only...no outside access at all (including blocking of Hotmail, etc.) except in certain, tightly restricted departments such as PR, customer service, etc.
Full outside access, but everything was logged and passed through a word/content filter. I've seen many a sneaky sales manager get gently escorted out the door after they found that he was emailing files/kiddie porn/MP3s to his buddies. Very strict policy for if/when you screw up.
No email filtering as far as I know.
Now, here's what I have always used to govern my personal Internet use at work:
Nothing, and I mean nothing, of a personal nature goes through my work e-mail account. My ISP lets me read and send personal mail via the web, so I'm at least not wasting the company's mailqueue space.;) Besides, if some goof from the outside sends me spam or a "restricted" piece of material, I certainly don't want it coming up to haunt me. Besides, I already get way too much email in my work account.:)
As for the web, it's the company's nickel you're using to browse. I try to keep personal browsing to a minimum, but most employers I've seen understand that blocking really isn't the answer. The only thing I'm guilty of overusing (other than reading Slashdot) is downloading stuff like patches and service packs for programs (I have 56K at home...try downloading W2K SP1 over that!!) It's just too dam nconvenient to download, burn to CDRW and take home.
Now, if I ran the network (at least the external services end...) I would do the following:
Email: Most people have an ISP at home, and they can get email through that. If you let users access Hotmail, or send SMTP requests to their ISP, you'll probably cut the mail server traffic by a lot. If you're truly paranoid, append a disclaimer onto the end of the message.
Web: Trust your employees. Most are there to work. Some are there to download porn. They'll be found out sooner or later. Rather than actively block sites, if you feel you need to restrict access, make users read and sign an IT policy agreement. That's how Company #2 above deals with web abusers. The policy should state what is allowed and what isn't, clearly and specifically. A signed document is your best defense when kiddie-porn-man sues for wrongful termination.
Wow, I thought I was the only geek who listened to NPR!:) The anchors are a little medicated, but I enjoy the program format. It was a lifesaver when I used to drive 1.5 hours each way to work, and I still use my 30-minute commute as an excuse to catch up on world events. Local events are a little harder to be informed about...I try to at least glance at a newspaper every day, but I'm usually too busy.
The reason I like NPR so much is that they actually expand on some of the more important stories, rather than packing the show with 30-second clips (they do these too, but not too much.) NPR actually picks stories that are interesting and relevant, and occasionally has some very interesting guests on.
As far as the national news decline goes, all I can say is that there's a reason Cadillac dealers and incontinence supply makers are the primary advertisers. The news just isn't interesting to younger crowds. I get most of my news via Yahoo, NPR, Slashdot and News.com. I'm just too busy to sit there and watch an anchor read off what the network deems the news for that day. I think TV news will continue on for an older set, but I see more and more younger folks like me turning to online news sources.
This brings up a good point...with the commercialization of news sites, do you think the "bias-free" nature of web news is going away? After all, webmasters can choose to put up whatever they like. TV news, from what I've seen lately, has been soft on big companies (tobacco companies are a great example here.) We'll have to see what happens in the future, but lately it's been getting harder and harder to find information that isn't tainted by an advertiser. (Tech information, except for/. and a few others, is a good example. Which database is a major tech site going to push? Why, the one that pays the most for the endorsement, of course!:))
I think Verizon's name came from one of these fake name factories too. I remember reading an article that said it was a combination of the Latin word Veritas (truth, or a bad name for a backup software company!):) and horizon.
Maybe the CEOs of BA and GTE just had an ego attack and both refused to give up the old name.
Re:IRC will always be better than instant messagin
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You know that, and I know that, but do millions of lusers know how to use IRC?:) It's kind of a good thing that most don't, but I've been noticing some declines in IRC usage lately. Instead, things like Yahoo Chat with its point-and-drool interface, and no AOL subscription required, are becoming the first chat experience for a lot of the newbies. I remember being a freshman in college, way way back in '93, learning how to use IRC. I'd been a BBSer for years before, but college was my first exposure to a "real" 'Net connection. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't mind the / commands, the syntax, or anything else.
I've asked a few people why they don't use IRC, and msot say "it's too hard." Come on...with graphical clients, even the / commands aren't really necessary anymore! This kind of scares me...are we making computers "too" easy for people? Should people be required to know at least something before they dive right in?
Like Jon said, the possibility for quality control in the birth process won't be too far off. And I think that's great. There are many gene factors that you can modify without making everyone look exactly the same. For example, I have a strange vision problem. I see (with corrections) just close enough to normal to make it annoying (e.g. people sometimes have to read me things like wall-mounted menus in restaurants, etc. but I'm fine to drive, read books, work on computers and other stuff.) It's a real pain in the butt, especially for a network and computer geek. If I can prevent this from being passed on to my kids, I'll definitely do it. But I'd rather not go so far as to pick hair color, eye color, propensity for wierdness, etc. That's going a little too far. But what all the gloom-and-doom types predict is that we'll walk up to an ATM-like device, insert a credit card, and start picking traits. There's no reason to prevent filtering out "bad" traits to prevent universal sameness.
That wouldn't happen to be SUNY @ Buffalo, would it?:) If not, the registration system (at least when I left three years ago) sucks there too. But the alternative was standing in line for ~4 hours waiting to sign up for classes:)
The thing that always gets me mad is that the software boxes are huge, but there's no paper documentation inside. I'm not an "old-timer" just yet (close though, I'm pushing 25.;)), but I do remember when software (especially server OSs and complex packages) actually came with printed documentation. My eyes are screwed up already, and staring at a monitor looking for something in a product's online doc isn't helping them. I hate wasting my own toner, paper and (by extension) another tree, and I know the software makers don't pass the cost savings for printing on to us.
Anyone else remember WordPerfect for DOS, and the huge slipcover binders that the manuals came in? Or the first versions of NT, or OS/2? [1] There really should be a way to order paper docs at no charge to the consumer. Acrobat's nice, but I like the ability to actually pick up a book and sit on the couch.
Does anyone else think this way??:)
[1] Or at the far end of the doc spectrum, VMS? Bookshelves and bookshelves of brown binders...
This is a great idea...for non-identity-sensitive actions.
Believe me, I'd *love* to be able to register a car for the first time online. Or get a passport without submitting my birth certificate at the post office. However, imagine the industry that would form around issuance of phony credentials online. As soon as someone has your personal information, it would just take a few mouse clicks to "report something lost or stolen" and get a new one sent out. I can think of auto titles being a very popular thing for car thieves, or passports/licenses/social security cards for immigrant-smuggling operations. Some things you just need to actually "see" the person before handing over a powerful document.
For silly things, like paying taxes, getting licenses and permits, etc., the idea of line reduction is great. But I'd feel safer if I actually had to walk in somewhere to get a new piece of ID made for me.
It is kinda scary how much information a company can pull up on you. When I used to work for a bank, I had the occasion to fix Auditing's background-check software. Typing in someone's name and/or SSN to this database polls all the credit bureaus, driving records, police records, and other vital statistics. The security dude is given a neat little package containing your entire dossier, including things like photos if you have them on file.
I'm all for banks and other "high loss potential" organizations checking on a prospecitive employee or account-holder's past, but what does scare me is the possibility for identity theft, especially with all those credit card promos being mailed out with your SSN printed on them! I get at least a few a week, and they go right into the shredder.
Another side note from the Big Brother department: I was on a business trip with a co-worker of mine, and we went to rent a car. The counter clerk took his driver's license and credit card (I don't like to drive if I don't have to...) and two minutes later, said "Sorry, sir. We're not renting to you." Turns out he had recently "earned" two speeding tickets within six months. Luckily, my driving record is pretty good, so we weren't that stuck...it was just wierd that all the public information bureaus are so well-connected.
And oh yes, $DEITY help you if you have a piece of credit information on your credit report that isn't yours. I'm still fighting the AT&T Universal card. I cancelled my card over three years ago, and a mysterious $1000 charge showed up a month after. Now they claim I never paid it, and the amount went to a collection agency. I've never heard from anyone. They refuse to remove it, and so I'm stuck for seven years with this stupid error.
Agreed. When I went to the State U. of New York at Buffalo, corporate sponsorship ran across campus like wildfire. Public universities are especially susceptible to this because they don't have as many rich alumni to donate buildings and such. Of course, Coke signed a deal with the university which banned all other soft drinks from being sold on campus. Computer companies sold the university tons of equipment at very cheap prices, as long as their equipment was the only kind used in the public computing facilities. I now live in Stony Brook, NY, home to another big state university center. A local company (Computer Associates, if you're wondering) is essentially buying the campus. The CEO is "donating" a building, and the computer science department is essentially a CA employee factory. I'm out of college now, but I see this happen every day. It can't be good in the long run. I can see things like this leading to a loss of impartiality in education, and ultimately a lack of choice for university officials. For example, if you know Dell computers are pieces of crap, but Dell just donated 1,500 workstations to you, and you're the president of a cash-strapped public university, do you take the donation or look elsewhere?
Any company with an office in a state is affected by that state's laws. Ever wonder why so many credit card companies are based in South Dakota or Delaware? These states have looser lending laws than most other states, allowing these companies to do things they wouldn't otherwise be able to.
Everyone who calls TS is not necessarily dumb. Some people have a legitimate problem with the hardware/software/whatever, have read the manual, have taken a stab at the problem on their own, and explain the problem thoroughly when they call up.
Unfortunately, they're a shrinking minority.
As a background, I did tech support for four years at a university, and one at a bank. Now, thankfully, I'm a network admin, so most of the clueless questions pass through the Level 1 and 2 filters first, and are intercepted. I truly don't mind answering the legitimate questions of people who actually might learn something. My motto is this: Clueless is fine, ignorant is fine, lazy is not fine. I've answered the whole spectrum of computer questions over my stint in tech support. When my university first got dial-up PPP access in '94, the lazy people came out of the woodwork. Some sample quotes:
"It says to press OK to continue. Now what?"
"Listen, you're the tech, fix it! I'm not a computer person, I don't have to know about this!"
"Well, I'm [BigImportantPerson] and I don't have to set this up (after telling him about a three-step process).
(From network support hell) "You can't tell me what to do, I'm an MCSE!" The user in question was asking how to set up a default gateway on Windows NT Server...
Bottom line: If you own a computer, you should know something about how it works. If not that, you should be able to follow spoken directions, retain information for an extended period, and not be argumentative.
I also understand user frustration at clueless techs, especially those of us who call up with problems that aren't on their list of questions. Trying to explain advanced networking concepts to a level one tech is not easy. Unfortunately for all the users, it's just going to get worse. Level one techs have it really rough...sweatshop call-center environments, low pay, and very little training or opportunity to advance to the next level. The turnover (and burnout!) is so high that companies can't really invest in an employee. Level one graduates to level two and beyond entirely on their own!
Having said all that, I think that strips like User Friendly and its ilk are a necessary release for techs. They make fun of some of the silly things that users do. For example, at the company I work for now, there's a senior executive who I seriously thought was illiterate. Whenever I called him, and asked him to do something with his e-mail client (he kept corrupting the mailbox on our server...) his secretary would take over reading screens for him. When I finally met her, she told me, "Oh, don't mind him...he just doesn't use the e-mail client." "OK, so how does he get mail?" "I print it out and read it to him." I think that's definite User Friendly material!
If you want another excellent perspective on how techs live and work, hop on over to the newsgroups alt.tech-support.recovery and alt.sysadmin.recovery. Just don't post there!:-)
Absolutely! Credit card companies make buttloads of money, but it's no reason to prevent them from collecting from geniuses like this.
Take me, for example. I'm in a very deep hole with consumer debt right now, as I've spent tons of money over the last two years starting a "real-world" job and living in one of the most expensive areas of the world. I, unlike millions of others each year, intend to pay back every cent. It's going to cost a fortune, but it sure feels better than going bankrupt, which is what stupid people end up doing because they don't feel like paying for their purchases. The companies are actually somewhat justified when people skip out on $10K, $20K and more in debt. (Things like 22% interest, excessive penalties, etc. aren't great, but they do want to make a high profit, like any business.)
Lately, however, I've seen a lot of "stupidity controls" go into place. These will allow the card companies to profit even more off the stupid. With most cards, if you miss 2 payments in a year, your interest rate jumps to the maximum allowed for the card. Idiots who charge over their credit limit (most purchases less than $50 don't require pre-authorization) are getting hit with fees and extra interest. And better yet, I keep seeing mailings sending me "checks" that encourage me to "deposit them into your account for extra cash!" How stupid do they think these people are?
All I know is this; I signed the charge slips and clicked the "Buy Now!" buttons, and it's my responsibility to pay them back. This doofus goes and blows $25K on something as silly as gambling (not even food, clothes, etc.) and then expects the card companies to forgive the debt? If I were the CEO of these companies, I'd refuse to settle and force a lawsuit, just so I could publically state to the world what a waste of space this guy is. Come on, *I* made a stupid mistake getting into debt. I'm not going to make mistake #2 and not pay for it. That's stupid.
Of course Win98 drove the USB market. The iMac helped, but how many thousands of Comcrap Presarios and Sony boxen have you seen lately with all USB peripherals? The main reason is that you can just plug it in and it actually works, saving hours of tech support calls. My wife is a reatil manager for an electronics chain, and she tells me the caliber of people coming in to buy their first PC keeps getting worse. "Uh, I want a computer for that Internet thingy." I'd be going nuts if I was a mainstream PC manufacturer too.
These agencies are a bit out of hand...
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Well, I'm in the process of looking for a new job (my employer refuses to raise my salary even though I got promoted from help desk to LAN administration, and got my MCSE (yeah, yeah, they made me do it, OK?:) ).) These agencies are real sharks. If you don't believe me, post your resume on Monster.com or one of the other big sites. My answering machine filled up with messages after two days (got 38 replies in all.) Of those, only two turned out to be worth even considering. Recruiters tried to match me up with hardware tech. and programming jobs, and actually got nasty with me when I said I don't do tech support anymore. There must be major finders' fees for IT talent, because some of these people _will not_ leave me alone. My major gripes with recruiters are:
The "Used-car salesman" mentality that seems to dominate their phone calls. "Well, I need an NT-Unix tech support person. What will it take to get you to take this job today?" "Nothing. I'm burnt out on support."
For the most part, there is a severe lack of clue smongst these people. More so than HR people at companies. They should at least have a "C-Net Central" level of knowledge about the job market. Sheesh!
Of the good ones that you get, they're not very good about following up with you. I'm always the one who has to call and get status after my resume's been submitted.
I'd love to start a website like www.techjobsdirect.com, where smart people could bypass all this broker/agency nonsense. -Eric
Slashdot Mirror
I'm 25, and still a video game lover. I think it's a major culture shift. Sure, you had a few adults who were hooked on Pac Man and the like, but never anything like I've seen in the fast few years. More and more people my age are still keeping up with the latest trends in consoles and PC games. (I'm still waiting for my copy of Escape from Monkey Island...) I personally think that they're a great form of entertainment...better than just about anything the movie studios pump out. You're actually involved in the action somewhat, and they're a great way to kill an hour or two.
One of the things that can get out of hand, as my brother who is a senior in high school is seeing now, is that no one's reading anymore. I do, and he does, but he says he knows so many people who haven't picked up a book in quite some time. This has obvious drawbacks. However, kept in perspective, gaming is a great pastime for any age.
I'm feeling old right about now. Think I'll fire up NESticle after work. ;)
Wow, this really looks neat. I was born with low vision that has been corrected to "acceptable" levels, for small values of acceptable. The thing that stinks is that I can see well enough to drive and perform every routine human function, but I'm *just this side* of normal when it comes to detailed work (like computer stuff; ever see anyone with a 21" monitor at 800x600? :) You will when you come into my workplace after I've been reeading the monitor at 1024x768 for a few hours.)
That said, I know people with much lower vision. For them, life *really* sucks. They see blurred shapes, degrees of light, things like that. This product is a definite plus for them. Even video-camera quality images are much better than what they can get from their natural equipment. For someone like me, it probably isn't really an option, but the fact that we can now restore decent vision to those worse off than I am is great.
It's a shame they pulled the product. Even though Corel WordPerfect won't be long for this world after Office 2001 (except in law firms and medical practices...) they made a good decision to release it on the Linux platform. I just wish Lotus would release a version of the Notes client for Linux...then I'd never need Windows again!
People don't need to move around the world seeking out new physical locations. One of the good things about the net is the way that cultures are blended together, and people share new ideas (when they're not buying crap from Amazon.com, of course. :) ). If I had a net connection in Namibia, I would be able to communicate with the same people that I would have access to in the US.
The net is helping to blur some of the national boundaries that exist. It empowers those who know how to use it. If anything, the culture and geography shift is going to be based on whether someone is a luser or whether they're net-savvy.
For those who work in IT (networks and delivery, not coding) think about the mindset of your average boss:
What I'm trying to point out is that MS is catering to business again. IT people loved the dumb-terminal days because user control was real easy. Now they have to worry about staff trashing their PCs with software they got from friends and losing their productivity while the helpdesk reimages their PC.
The circle is closing for MS with regards to enterprise computing. Not only do they have people convinced that Windows is the only OS available, now they are designing the product to give them even more control. Scary.
One of the major things MS has managed to do is to make flexible licensing programs for all kinds of businesses. We have the Select program at our company, which lets us use any MS software under the agreement for two years, while paying only for the licenses we actually use.
IT managers hats surprises, especially when their software company tells them "Oh, well, we did a license audit, and you owe us $xxxM extra for those 50,000 copies of Office." I hear the mangement gripe about this all the time. What MS basically did is automatically meter the software to avoid the surprises. (Not that it's good, see below!) Managers will eat this up, because then all they need to do is register Office in SMS 2000 (probably) and have it count licenses. Then, it keeps track of how many copies you use, and the IT management send one AmEx Corporate Platinum Card transmission over the Internet to upgrade the licenses for another year.
Now, of course this is bad. It means that Joe User (me) can't borrow copies of Office anymore. :) Seriously, it's just an easy way for MS to collect back more of its lost license fees. I use Office mainly as a convenience...no one wants to convert WordPerfect or StarOffice files, and I think that MS does have a lock on the Windows productivity apps market. I won't be using Office much longer if I have to pay $xxx per year for it. I'll just be one of the Luddites who's still using Word 2000 two versions later. :)
Times when Exchange is warranted:
Times when Sendmail is a better choice:
Believe it or not, we're just rolling out an email strategy for our branch offices. (Airline IT == dark ages.) We pretty much had to choose exchange because of the airlines' insistence on using NT-based solutions. If it were me, I'd slap sendmail on a Linux box in a heartbeat. It's more scalable on less hardware than Exchange, and (I think) is easy to administer. You be the judge. -ErichTheRed
Also check out http://wings.buffalo.edu...the system stemmed out of an old Gopher server, and was (probably still is) the easiest way to find info when I was on campus there. Everything was pretty much collaborative content...departments had their own section of Wings, sent updates and things took care of themselves. And when I left, it was run by a relatively small administrative staff.
Here's how I have my collection stored: Staples sells these heavy-walled corrugated boxes that look very much like fruit boxes. They're pretty big, durable, and they even have sturdy handles on the side! The only thing they don't have is lids. Luckily, standard computer or textbooks fill the height of the box completely, so I can get away with some heavy plastic sheeting stapled to the sides.
Or you can just buy eBooks and use MS Reader. :) *ducks* Just kidding....I HATE reading electronic books. Until they come out with a 1200dpi monitor and a "virtual-page-turner" UI, those dead trees will be firmly ensconced on my shelf.
Web:
- No Web access without full officer approval (a bank.) Every move you made on the web was logged and tracked, plus "undesirable" sites were blocked out.
- Very little logging, but a proxy server filtered out things like Playboy, Dilbert, etc. (huge insurance company.)
- Unrestricted web access, very little logging (firewall logs blocked port attempts, etc.) This is in my current gig with a huge worldwide systems company.)
Email:- Internal email only...no outside access at all (including blocking of Hotmail, etc.) except in certain, tightly restricted departments such as PR, customer service, etc.
- Full outside access, but everything was logged and passed through a word/content filter. I've seen many a sneaky sales manager get gently escorted out the door after they found that he was emailing files/kiddie porn/MP3s to his buddies. Very strict policy for if/when you screw up.
- No email filtering as far as I know.
Now, here's what I have always used to govern my personal Internet use at work:- Nothing, and I mean nothing, of a personal nature goes through my work e-mail account. My ISP lets me read and send personal mail via the web, so I'm at least not wasting the company's mailqueue space.
;) Besides, if some goof from the outside sends me spam or a "restricted" piece of material, I certainly don't want it coming up to haunt me. Besides, I already get way too much email in my work account. :)
- As for the web, it's the company's nickel you're using to browse. I try to keep personal browsing to a minimum, but most employers I've seen understand that blocking really isn't the answer. The only thing I'm guilty of overusing (other than reading Slashdot) is downloading stuff like patches and service packs for programs (I have 56K at home...try downloading W2K SP1 over that!!) It's just too dam nconvenient to download, burn to CDRW and take home.
Now, if I ran the network (at least the external services end...) I would do the following:The reason I like NPR so much is that they actually expand on some of the more important stories, rather than packing the show with 30-second clips (they do these too, but not too much.) NPR actually picks stories that are interesting and relevant, and occasionally has some very interesting guests on.
As far as the national news decline goes, all I can say is that there's a reason Cadillac dealers and incontinence supply makers are the primary advertisers. The news just isn't interesting to younger crowds. I get most of my news via Yahoo, NPR, Slashdot and News.com. I'm just too busy to sit there and watch an anchor read off what the network deems the news for that day. I think TV news will continue on for an older set, but I see more and more younger folks like me turning to online news sources.
This brings up a good point...with the commercialization of news sites, do you think the "bias-free" nature of web news is going away? After all, webmasters can choose to put up whatever they like. TV news, from what I've seen lately, has been soft on big companies (tobacco companies are a great example here.) We'll have to see what happens in the future, but lately it's been getting harder and harder to find information that isn't tainted by an advertiser. (Tech information, except for /. and a few others, is a good example. Which database is a major tech site going to push? Why, the one that pays the most for the endorsement, of course! :))
Maybe the CEOs of BA and GTE just had an ego attack and both refused to give up the old name.
You know that, and I know that, but do millions of lusers know how to use IRC? :) It's kind of a good thing that most don't, but I've been noticing some declines in IRC usage lately. Instead, things like Yahoo Chat with its point-and-drool interface, and no AOL subscription required, are becoming the first chat experience for a lot of the newbies. I remember being a freshman in college, way way back in '93, learning how to use IRC. I'd been a BBSer for years before, but college was my first exposure to a "real" 'Net connection. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't mind the / commands, the syntax, or anything else.
I've asked a few people why they don't use IRC, and msot say "it's too hard." Come on...with graphical clients, even the / commands aren't really necessary anymore! This kind of scares me...are we making computers "too" easy for people? Should people be required to know at least something before they dive right in?
Like Jon said, the possibility for quality control in the birth process won't be too far off. And I think that's great. There are many gene factors that you can modify without making everyone look exactly the same. For example, I have a strange vision problem. I see (with corrections) just close enough to normal to make it annoying (e.g. people sometimes have to read me things like wall-mounted menus in restaurants, etc. but I'm fine to drive, read books, work on computers and other stuff.) It's a real pain in the butt, especially for a network and computer geek. If I can prevent this from being passed on to my kids, I'll definitely do it. But I'd rather not go so far as to pick hair color, eye color, propensity for wierdness, etc. That's going a little too far. But what all the gloom-and-doom types predict is that we'll walk up to an ATM-like device, insert a credit card, and start picking traits. There's no reason to prevent filtering out "bad" traits to prevent universal sameness.
That wouldn't happen to be SUNY @ Buffalo, would it? :) If not, the registration system (at least when I left three years ago) sucks there too. But the alternative was standing in line for ~4 hours waiting to sign up for classes :)
Ah yes, the "bright shiny objects" principle in action.
The thing that always gets me mad is that the software boxes are huge, but there's no paper documentation inside. I'm not an "old-timer" just yet (close though, I'm pushing 25. ;)), but I do remember when software (especially server OSs and complex packages) actually came with printed documentation. My eyes are screwed up already, and staring at a monitor looking for something in a product's online doc isn't helping them. I hate wasting my own toner, paper and (by extension) another tree, and I know the software makers don't pass the cost savings for printing on to us.
:)
Anyone else remember WordPerfect for DOS, and the huge slipcover binders that the manuals came in? Or the first versions of NT, or OS/2? [1] There really should be a way to order paper docs at no charge to the consumer. Acrobat's nice, but I like the ability to actually pick up a book and sit on the couch.
Does anyone else think this way??
[1] Or at the far end of the doc spectrum, VMS? Bookshelves and bookshelves of brown binders...
This is a great idea...for non-identity-sensitive actions.
Believe me, I'd *love* to be able to register a car for the first time online. Or get a passport without submitting my birth certificate at the post office. However, imagine the industry that would form around issuance of phony credentials online. As soon as someone has your personal information, it would just take a few mouse clicks to "report something lost or stolen" and get a new one sent out. I can think of auto titles being a very popular thing for car thieves, or passports/licenses/social security cards for immigrant-smuggling operations. Some things you just need to actually "see" the person before handing over a powerful document.
For silly things, like paying taxes, getting licenses and permits, etc., the idea of line reduction is great. But I'd feel safer if I actually had to walk in somewhere to get a new piece of ID made for me.
It is kinda scary how much information a company can pull up on you. When I used to work for a bank, I had the occasion to fix Auditing's background-check software. Typing in someone's name and/or SSN to this database polls all the credit bureaus, driving records, police records, and other vital statistics. The security dude is given a neat little package containing your entire dossier, including things like photos if you have them on file.
I'm all for banks and other "high loss potential" organizations checking on a prospecitive employee or account-holder's past, but what does scare me is the possibility for identity theft, especially with all those credit card promos being mailed out with your SSN printed on them! I get at least a few a week, and they go right into the shredder.
Another side note from the Big Brother department: I was on a business trip with a co-worker of mine, and we went to rent a car. The counter clerk took his driver's license and credit card (I don't like to drive if I don't have to...) and two minutes later, said "Sorry, sir. We're not renting to you." Turns out he had recently "earned" two speeding tickets within six months. Luckily, my driving record is pretty good, so we weren't that stuck...it was just wierd that all the public information bureaus are so well-connected.
And oh yes, $DEITY help you if you have a piece of credit information on your credit report that isn't yours. I'm still fighting the AT&T Universal card. I cancelled my card over three years ago, and a mysterious $1000 charge showed up a month after. Now they claim I never paid it, and the amount went to a collection agency. I've never heard from anyone. They refuse to remove it, and so I'm stuck for seven years with this stupid error.
Agreed. When I went to the State U. of New York at Buffalo, corporate sponsorship ran across campus like wildfire. Public universities are especially susceptible to this because they don't have as many rich alumni to donate buildings and such. Of course, Coke signed a deal with the university which banned all other soft drinks from being sold on campus. Computer companies sold the university tons of equipment at very cheap prices, as long as their equipment was the only kind used in the public computing facilities. I now live in Stony Brook, NY, home to another big state university center. A local company (Computer Associates, if you're wondering) is essentially buying the campus. The CEO is "donating" a building, and the computer science department is essentially a CA employee factory. I'm out of college now, but I see this happen every day. It can't be good in the long run. I can see things like this leading to a loss of impartiality in education, and ultimately a lack of choice for university officials. For example, if you know Dell computers are pieces of crap, but Dell just donated 1,500 workstations to you, and you're the president of a cash-strapped public university, do you take the donation or look elsewhere?
Any company with an office in a state is affected by that state's laws. Ever wonder why so many credit card companies are based in South Dakota or Delaware? These states have looser lending laws than most other states, allowing these companies to do things they wouldn't otherwise be able to.
Everyone who calls TS is not necessarily dumb. Some people have a legitimate problem with the hardware/software/whatever, have read the manual, have taken a stab at the problem on their own, and explain the problem thoroughly when they call up.
Unfortunately, they're a shrinking minority.
As a background, I did tech support for four years at a university, and one at a bank. Now, thankfully, I'm a network admin, so most of the clueless questions pass through the Level 1 and 2 filters first, and are intercepted. I truly don't mind answering the legitimate questions of people who actually might learn something. My motto is this: Clueless is fine, ignorant is fine, lazy is not fine. I've answered the whole spectrum of computer questions over my stint in tech support. When my university first got dial-up PPP access in '94, the lazy people came out of the woodwork. Some sample quotes:
Bottom line: If you own a computer, you should know something about how it works. If not that, you should be able to follow spoken directions, retain information for an extended period, and not be argumentative.
I also understand user frustration at clueless techs, especially those of us who call up with problems that aren't on their list of questions. Trying to explain advanced networking concepts to a level one tech is not easy. Unfortunately for all the users, it's just going to get worse. Level one techs have it really rough...sweatshop call-center environments, low pay, and very little training or opportunity to advance to the next level. The turnover (and burnout!) is so high that companies can't really invest in an employee. Level one graduates to level two and beyond entirely on their own!
Having said all that, I think that strips like User Friendly and its ilk are a necessary release for techs. They make fun of some of the silly things that users do. For example, at the company I work for now, there's a senior executive who I seriously thought was illiterate. Whenever I called him, and asked him to do something with his e-mail client (he kept corrupting the mailbox on our server...) his secretary would take over reading screens for him. When I finally met her, she told me, "Oh, don't mind him...he just doesn't use the e-mail client." "OK, so how does he get mail?" "I print it out and read it to him." I think that's definite User Friendly material!
If you want another excellent perspective on how techs live and work, hop on over to the newsgroups alt.tech-support.recovery and alt.sysadmin.recovery. Just don't post there! :-)
Take me, for example. I'm in a very deep hole with consumer debt right now, as I've spent tons of money over the last two years starting a "real-world" job and living in one of the most expensive areas of the world. I, unlike millions of others each year, intend to pay back every cent. It's going to cost a fortune, but it sure feels better than going bankrupt, which is what stupid people end up doing because they don't feel like paying for their purchases. The companies are actually somewhat justified when people skip out on $10K, $20K and more in debt. (Things like 22% interest, excessive penalties, etc. aren't great, but they do want to make a high profit, like any business.)
Lately, however, I've seen a lot of "stupidity controls" go into place. These will allow the card companies to profit even more off the stupid. With most cards, if you miss 2 payments in a year, your interest rate jumps to the maximum allowed for the card. Idiots who charge over their credit limit (most purchases less than $50 don't require pre-authorization) are getting hit with fees and extra interest. And better yet, I keep seeing mailings sending me "checks" that encourage me to "deposit them into your account for extra cash!" How stupid do they think these people are?
All I know is this; I signed the charge slips and clicked the "Buy Now!" buttons, and it's my responsibility to pay them back. This doofus goes and blows $25K on something as silly as gambling (not even food, clothes, etc.) and then expects the card companies to forgive the debt? If I were the CEO of these companies, I'd refuse to settle and force a lawsuit, just so I could publically state to the world what a waste of space this guy is. Come on, *I* made a stupid mistake getting into debt. I'm not going to make mistake #2 and not pay for it. That's stupid.
Of course Win98 drove the USB market. The iMac helped, but how many thousands of Comcrap Presarios and Sony boxen have you seen lately with all USB peripherals? The main reason is that you can just plug it in and it actually works, saving hours of tech support calls. My wife is a reatil manager for an electronics chain, and she tells me the caliber of people coming in to buy their first PC keeps getting worse. "Uh, I want a computer for that Internet thingy." I'd be going nuts if I was a mainstream PC manufacturer too.
- The "Used-car salesman" mentality that seems to dominate their phone calls. "Well, I need an NT-Unix tech support person. What will it take to get you to take this job today?" "Nothing. I'm burnt out on support."
- For the most part, there is a severe lack of clue smongst these people. More so than HR people at companies. They should at least have a "C-Net Central" level of knowledge about the job market. Sheesh!
- Of the good ones that you get, they're not very good about following up with you. I'm always the one who has to call and get status after my resume's been submitted.
I'd love to start a website like www.techjobsdirect.com, where smart people could bypass all this broker/agency nonsense. -Eric