One thing to keep in mind is that 10 minutes is not that much time.
Limit what the scope of what you are talking about.
Practice your presentation beforehand and time it. Make sure your practice sessions run under ten minutes. The worst thing you can do is end up rushing through the presentation, covering too much in a rush
As to the subject matter of your presentation, I would encourage you to try something fun and relevant. Take apart an old (or new, if you don't mind voiding the warranty) computer or video game system and explain what the various components do. This mingles education with destruction, which is very cool for 10 year olds.
But most important practice beforehand and keep it short.
I think that people are missing the point of the original article. Wikipedia fanboys need to calm down and consider what was written
The author was not trying to slander wikipedia.
He was doing some informal Q&A and the wikipedia came up wanting.
He then made some suggestions on how such errors may be avoided, or at least lessened in severity in the future. Wikipedia is good at cleaning up outright fraus and gross errors, but minor mistakes creep in easier. Procedures need to be modified to ward against such occurrences.
Saying wikipedia could be better is not the same as saying it is bad.
I'm wondering if ATI's lousy linux support runs across their entire product line, including their workstation cards.
Their consumer products, even on the high-end, are marketed for gamers, which is overwhelmingly Windows based.
But their workstation cards are running on platforms that often require Linux. One would think that they would require good linux drivers for workstation cards, and that this expertise could be carried over to the consumer card line.
So are they losing workstation market share because of buggy drivers? And if they have good workstation Linux drivers, why not transfer that code over to the consumer division?
I doubt that you would find state taxes in the 20% range. New York State is considered a high tax rate, and it's highest marginal tax rate is about 7%. Add municipal taxes of a very high rate, like for New York City, and you are still only paying 4% maximum additional.
Furthermore, State and municipal income taxes, as well as most property taxes, are deductible at the Federal level, so adding the numbers doesn't make sense.
Finally, none of this takes into account deductions. If a person is at the highest marginal tax rate, it should be presumed that he is able to offset his tax burden with various deductions.
But if you'll look at this document http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=532 4&sequence =0#table1A you'll see that the effective rate that even the highest 1% pay is about 33%.
As the average income of the top 1% in 2001 was over $700,000, I can hardly imagine that such a person would be unable to afford college tuition.
This is all probably mute since the original AC poster is demonstratably pulling high numbers out of his kiester with little resemblance to any actual tax burden.
The bottom line is that if you don't have lot of money there are many government programs available to help you pay for college, and if you don't qualify for these grants, your income is almost certainly sizeable enough to pay for it yourself.
Whining that the taxman is keeping you from going to college is baloney.
I agree with you. Comparing our daily lives from a decade past shows little real difference.
The internet has been a significant bringer of change, but it has really just switched modes of getting information. We go online, where before we would read a newspaper or read a book.
There have been more subtle changes. Finances are more wasily moveable, which has been both good and bad. Making credit cards easier to use might help increase consumer spending, but it has also increased consumer debt.
I have a handheld computer that substitutes for a notepad and a paperback book, but that is not such a big deal.
Changes have been real, but subtle. The essentials of life remain. Also, while the speed of computers has greatly increased, the theoretical boundaries of computer science have not. Increased horsepower is not always the only requirement for solving unsolveable problems.
That the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing at SCO should not come as a surprise.
While the parent post was made in jest (or at least taken in jest), the reality may very well be that, on the technical side, SCO is so demoralized and moribund that they don't have anyone to monitor what is on their servers.
My guess is also that the actual technical people at SCO are probably pretty disgusted with upper management's new strategy, and may be exhibiting some passive-aggressive behaviour by letting the GPL'd work stay online.
You're paying for the photographer's services. If you don't like the terms he is offering, then find someone else. For the most part, photographers try to hook you in this way so that they can milk you for reprints down the road.
Don't go for it. Eventually you'll find a good photographer who will agree to your terms. Don't get frustrated with the assholes who try to belittle your requirements, just hang up on them.
So is the only "non-free" aspect of this that it restricts the freedom of contributors to sue over patent ownership of code that they themselves contributed?
There seems to be a paradox, because if patent holders can sue over contributed code, then the software is non-free for the user. So with the clause, the contributor loses the freedom for preying on users legally, while without the clause, users retain the freedom to subject themselves to endless legal hassles. This is a perversion of freedom absurd. The clause is fine and free.
One possibility is that somebody might be upset about the clause considering *countersuits* as another violation. This somebody might be big and blue.
Reading the comments at undeadly.org, it seems the big beef is with a clause that covers patent issues of any code as well as copyright issues.
Basically, the clause says that if you have any patent claims to the code that you contribute (or is it just use? I'm not sure.) then you irrevocably grant license to others for those patents and if you sue , then you can't use Apache.
I'm unsure as to how this is a bad thing. Most "free" software licences were written before software patents were a big issue, and therefore only deal with software as a copyrightable, and not a patentable entity. Just as software code must be updated to deal with new operating enviroments, so legal licensing code must be updated to deal with a changing legal enviroment.
The new clause forces patent holders to play nice as well as copyright holders.
Would it be better to encourage lawsuits over patent issues?
The thankfully short license agreement for Plan 9 includes the following provision:
"I will not be using Plan 9 in the creation of weapons of mass destruction to be used by nations other than the US."
There are so many ways that this is funny. There are enough jokes in that one line to keep a sitcom running for two years, maybe more.
Re:Gotta love the 21th Century
on
Nano Body Building
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Kim Robinson deals with issue in his "Mars" trilogy. The solution he envisages is sort of like a mental housecleaning, and the description of it working sounds like a psychedlic drug episode.
I'm more than willing to risk the eventual craziness to live longer.
Sites like nukesecurity are one reason I like phpnuke. It is so ubiquitous, and so many people have tinkered with the code, that there is a big community of developpers plugging holes in the original product.
Thanks for the link, I didn't know about that particular site.
http://www.opensourcecms.com/ is a good site to search for alternative weblogs. The nice thing is that they have working demos up that you can access to try out stuff.
The reviews are pretty generic and not much help.
Does anyone know of a good source for reviews on CMS systems?
I also have to question the stats on the link stating moveable type is the most popular weblog. Some prominent blogging software is not counted, such as geeklog, scoop, and (ahem) slashdot.
It's not entirely fair to lambaste moveabletype, they are still offering a non-commercial version of limited capability.
A few weeks ago, when I was evaluating CMS systems, I came across moveable-type, and their lack of a free license is what turned me off. The system that most impressed me was PHPNuke.
My biggest complaint about most of these CMS's are the big holes in documentation.
The details of your business operations matter in this regard.
You might consider operating a satellite office in Europe. Labor movement is unrestricted in the EU, so you could have one central office, hiring from all over.
You could also outsource tech support to a European firm, just like you would in America. Maybe you want to consider doing this.
Trying to hire locally might be an option. This depends on how diverse the labor pool is in your area. In New York City, finding foreign language speakers is easier than in Des Moines. If local talent can't do the trick, then you may need to recruit nationally, or even internationally. The farther afield you go, the more you will increase expense and hassle
What are you supporting? What skill set, in addition to language, do you require?
The question of outsourcing the work is a premature one. Language is just one skill among many required. If support is a core business function, then you don't want to outsource it. You may need to hire an outside consultant(feel free to email me) to help you get your ducks in a row, but your problem is a fairly simple one. You are approaching it wrong.
Details matter for everything in this matter. Examine them. Or get the help of someone who can help you figure out your problem. You should also talk to other departments. Sales seems to be successful selling to foreigners, maybe they can give you suggestions on how they get the manpower necessary.
You might even talk to your customers! There's a shocking idea. Ask them what they would prefer: Outsourced support at a lower cost, or in-house support in their language at a higher cost. Or do they even care?
You are probably best off hiring more people rather outsourcing. In the long run, the added cost should be only minimally higher. In the short term, recruitment will be more expensive. Be prepared to bite the bullet and justify it to your bosses.
Slashdot Mirror
One thing to keep in mind is that 10 minutes is not that much time.
Limit what the scope of what you are talking about.
Practice your presentation beforehand and time it. Make sure your practice sessions run under ten minutes. The worst thing you can do is end up rushing through the presentation, covering too much in a rush
As to the subject matter of your presentation, I would encourage you to try something fun and relevant. Take apart an old (or new, if you don't mind voiding the warranty) computer or video game system and explain what the various components do. This mingles education with destruction, which is very cool for 10 year olds.
But most important practice beforehand and keep it short.
Have fun and good luck!
I think that people are missing the point of the original article. Wikipedia fanboys need to calm down and consider what was written
The author was not trying to slander wikipedia.
He was doing some informal Q&A and the wikipedia came up wanting.
He then made some suggestions on how such errors may be avoided, or at least lessened in severity in the future. Wikipedia is good at cleaning up outright fraus and gross errors, but minor mistakes creep in easier. Procedures need to be modified to ward against such occurrences.
Saying wikipedia could be better is not the same as saying it is bad.
August 2004: Win XP,53.2% ;W2000, 28.1% ;Win 98 7.0%.
I just cannot believe that Windows 2000 has half the number of users as Win XP.
I'm wondering if ATI's lousy linux support runs across their entire product line, including their workstation cards.
Their consumer products, even on the high-end, are marketed for gamers, which is overwhelmingly Windows based.
But their workstation cards are running on platforms that often require Linux. One would think that they would require good linux drivers for workstation cards, and that this expertise could be carried over to the consumer card line.
So are they losing workstation market share because of buggy drivers? And if they have good workstation Linux drivers, why not transfer that code over to the consumer division?
My guess is that the markets could not care less about SCO at this point
I doubt that you would find state taxes in the 20% range. New York State is considered a high tax rate, and it's highest marginal tax rate is about 7%. Add municipal taxes of a very high rate, like for New York City, and you are still only paying 4% maximum additional.
2 4&sequence =0#table1A
Furthermore, State and municipal income taxes, as well as most property taxes, are deductible at the Federal level, so adding the numbers doesn't make sense.
Finally, none of this takes into account deductions. If a person is at the highest marginal tax rate, it should be presumed that he is able to offset his tax burden with various deductions.
But if you'll look at this document
http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=53
you'll see that the effective rate that even the highest 1% pay is about 33%.
As the average income of the top 1% in 2001 was over $700,000, I can hardly imagine that such a person would be unable to afford college tuition.
This is all probably mute since the original AC poster is demonstratably pulling high numbers out of his kiester with little resemblance to any actual tax burden.
The bottom line is that if you don't have lot of money there are many government programs available to help you pay for college, and if you don't qualify for these grants, your income is almost certainly sizeable enough to pay for it yourself.
Whining that the taxman is keeping you from going to college is baloney.
I'm going to assume that the above poster lives in the USA, since he is complaining about a US government program.
Considering that the top income tax rate in the United States is somewhere around 40%, I'd say you need a new accountant.
I agree with you. Comparing our daily lives from a decade past shows little real difference.
The internet has been a significant bringer of change, but it has really just switched modes of getting information. We go online, where before we would read a newspaper or read a book.
There have been more subtle changes. Finances are more wasily moveable, which has been both good and bad. Making credit cards easier to use might help increase consumer spending, but it has also increased consumer debt.
I have a handheld computer that substitutes for a notepad and a paperback book, but that is not such a big deal.
Changes have been real, but subtle. The essentials of life remain. Also, while the speed of computers has greatly increased, the theoretical boundaries of computer science have not. Increased horsepower is not always the only requirement for solving unsolveable problems.
That the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing at SCO should not come as a surprise.
While the parent post was made in jest (or at least taken in jest), the reality may very well be that, on the technical side, SCO is so demoralized and moribund that they don't have anyone to monitor what is on their servers.
My guess is also that the actual technical people at SCO are probably pretty disgusted with upper management's new strategy, and may be exhibiting some passive-aggressive behaviour by letting the GPL'd work stay online.
could you elaborate on this please?
Doesn't the NT internal arch have to be 32-bit to run on a 32-bit chip (X86)?
You're paying for the photographer's services. If you don't like the terms he is offering, then find someone else. For the most part, photographers try to hook you in this way so that they can milk you for reprints down the road.
Don't go for it. Eventually you'll find a good photographer who will agree to your terms. Don't get frustrated with the assholes who try to belittle your requirements, just hang up on them.
Finally, a slashdot thread where the Gay Niggers From Outer Space are "on topic". You can google it yourself, I'm too lazy to post links.
Life is good.
I'll admit I was just thinking about regular text documents.
On the other, thanks to your calculations, I am sure some poor grad student has already been assigned the task : )
The old-fashioned method should not be discounted.
Paper has longer longevity than any optical or magnetic medium.
Sadly, I have also come across people whose drug indulgences (psychelic and/or otherwise) have plainly damaged their minds.
As far as I know, there is no chemical compound that can reliably and safely improve one's mind.
So is the only "non-free" aspect of this that it restricts the freedom of contributors to sue over patent ownership of code that they themselves contributed?
There seems to be a paradox, because if patent holders can sue over contributed code, then the software is non-free for the user.
So with the clause, the contributor loses the freedom for preying on users legally, while without the clause, users retain the freedom to subject themselves to endless legal hassles.
This is a perversion of freedom absurd. The clause is fine and free.
One possibility is that somebody might be upset about the clause considering *countersuits* as another violation. This somebody might be big and blue.
Reading the comments at undeadly.org, it seems the big beef is with a clause that covers patent issues of any code as well as copyright issues.
Basically, the clause says that if you have any patent claims to the code that you contribute (or is it just use? I'm not sure.) then you irrevocably grant license to others for those patents and if you sue , then you can't use Apache.
I'm unsure as to how this is a bad thing. Most "free" software licences were written before software patents were a big issue, and therefore only deal with software as a copyrightable, and not a patentable entity. Just as software code must be updated to deal with new operating enviroments, so legal licensing code must be updated to deal with a changing legal enviroment.
The new clause forces patent holders to play nice as well as copyright holders.
Would it be better to encourage lawsuits over patent issues?
Thank you for putting all of this data in a useful, quantifiable context.
It is embarassing that the two articles linked to in the original story did not do this.
With a newborn baby in the house, this story was troubling to me at first. Now I fell better.
"Honey, you can let the baby lick the computer monitor clean, but not just every day for the next six years."
Kudos on the most relevant post in this entire discussion.
Mahatma Gandi was an asshole. Read Orwell's essay on him.
From the New York Times:
4 /s ports/20040404_PITCH_GRAPHIC.html
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/khtml/2004/04/0
The thankfully short license agreement for Plan 9 includes the following provision:
"I will not be using Plan 9 in the creation of weapons of mass destruction to be used by nations other than the US."
There are so many ways that this is funny. There are enough jokes in that one line to keep a sitcom running for two years, maybe more.
Kim Robinson deals with issue in his "Mars" trilogy. The solution he envisages is sort of like a mental housecleaning, and the description of it working sounds like a psychedlic drug episode.
I'm more than willing to risk the eventual craziness to live longer.
Sites like nukesecurity are one reason I like phpnuke. It is so ubiquitous, and so many people have tinkered with the code, that there is a big community of developpers plugging holes in the original product.
Thanks for the link, I didn't know about that particular site.
Security is, sadly, a weak point of mine.
<rant>
http://www.opensourcecms.com/ is a good site to search for alternative weblogs. The nice thing is that they have working demos up that you can access to try out stuff.
The reviews are pretty generic and not much help.
Does anyone know of a good source for reviews on CMS systems?
I also have to question the stats on the link stating moveable type is the most popular weblog. Some prominent blogging software is not counted, such as geeklog, scoop, and (ahem) slashdot.
It's not entirely fair to lambaste moveabletype, they are still offering a non-commercial version of limited capability.
A few weeks ago, when I was evaluating CMS systems, I came across moveable-type, and their lack of a free license is what turned me off. The system that most impressed me was PHPNuke.
My biggest complaint about most of these CMS's are the big holes in documentation.
</rant>
This does not seem like too tough a nut to crack.
The details of your business operations matter in this regard.
You might consider operating a satellite office in Europe. Labor movement is unrestricted in the EU, so you could have one central office, hiring from all over.
You could also outsource tech support to a European firm, just like you would in America. Maybe you want to consider doing this.
Trying to hire locally might be an option. This depends on how diverse the labor pool is in your area. In New York City, finding foreign language speakers is easier than in Des Moines. If local talent can't do the trick, then you may need to recruit nationally, or even internationally. The farther afield you go, the more you will increase expense and hassle
What are you supporting? What skill set, in addition to language, do you require?
The question of outsourcing the work is a premature one. Language is just one skill among many required. If support is a core business function, then you don't want to outsource it. You may need to hire an outside consultant(feel free to email me) to help you get your ducks in a row, but your problem is a fairly simple one. You are approaching it wrong.
Details matter for everything in this matter. Examine them. Or get the help of someone who can help you figure out your problem. You should also talk to other departments. Sales seems to be successful selling to foreigners, maybe they can give you suggestions on how they get the manpower necessary.
You might even talk to your customers! There's a shocking idea. Ask them what they would prefer: Outsourced support at a lower cost, or in-house support in their language at a higher cost. Or do they even care?
You are probably best off hiring more people rather outsourcing. In the long run, the added cost should be only minimally higher. In the short term, recruitment will be more expensive. Be prepared to bite the bullet and justify it to your bosses.