One of the problems with family values is that it's hard to make laws that force family values upon America. But laws can still help!
So what can America do?
- we can pass laws to encourage lower-cost health care - by prohibiting people from suing doctors for mis-diagnosis and surgical errors.
- we can pass laws to give tax incentives to corporations that want to provide alternative television programming to kids in the classroom. Lower taxes, pro-family, and lower teaching costs!
- we can pass laws to fund religious groups, so that they can market their values-based programs to Americans. They can market values better than government agencies (due to consitutional restrictions on what government can directly do)
- we can assist families by helping them with better jobs. By minimizing the tax and labor burdens put on corporations, corporations will hire more people. By eliminating the minimum wage, more corporations will be able to hire more people - helping the American family.
I drive a 2002 Porsche Boxster S, and I get about 28 MPG on the highway. But with 93 octane gas prices around $2.30 around here, a fill up is well over $30. Happily, I only drive about 4000 miles/year, so fill ups aren't that frequent.
My sister's Excursion gets about 14 MPG - and that's not even with the A/C running (we measured it in the early spring, before it gets really hot).
Filling up that puppy always seems like a financial nightmare. She's going to replace it with something a little smarter - despite her 4 kids, she finds that it makes for a lousy family vehicle.
Of course, MPG greatly depends on how you drive, the state of the car, the fuel, the weather, traffic, and terrain.
The EPA numbers are a relative guide. They won't tell you exactly what you'll get for fuel consuption. However, you can easily use the EPA numbers to compare two cars' relative fuel efficiency. In fact, I submit that there is no better guide available for cars sold in the US.
Oh, do you have IBM Mainframe experience? Do you have the mainframe experience to predict the difficulty and dangers of exporting such a database?
I do. Let me tell you - it's trivial to take a dump of an IBM database. DB2, IMS/DB, FOCUS... or any other DBMS that'll run under MVS, VM/CMS, or AS/400. It's all rather trivial, and, in fact, standard operating procedures in IBM mainframe shops mean that there is already a tape that can be grabbed right of a shelf.
Sorry, but Konfabulator simply isn't worth a "overflowing wheelbarrow of cash". I wish I could say it is. But it isn't.
Just like menubar clock. It's a great idea, almost natural. But does that mean it's worth a ton of money? No.
The real money is, and should be, in real user-centric applications, like spreadsheets, word processing, graphics processing, etc. Typically OS vendors move into "utility" space, but NOT into application space. The exception is Microsoft, which dominates both. Apple only dominates when there is a "missing or poorly supported piece", such as Keynote and Safari.
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the research arm for the U.S. military, is leading a project to develop a vehicle that can navigate a desert for at least 10 miles without a driver. Prototypes have gone as far as seven miles, successfully moving around cactuses, boulders and other obstacles.
Wow! These guys are right, my job is on the line. DARPA's "10 mile desert navigator" (isn't it 100?) got a whole 7 miles. So now the ONLY OBVIOUS conclusion that I'm going to be out of a job??? Geez, this author sure does seem stupid.
What a trashy article. If it's not fit for publication, why is it fit for Slashdot? Oh yeah, this is Slashdot, where we talk about articles that really aren't fit for publication....
The amazing part of it is that FOX executive management decided to forgo $25 million in their own personal salary to keep the show going:
"The Simpsons is so important to the health of FOX, that it was obvious that we'd have to find the money to keep the network going. We'd either have to export animation overseas, or take a paycut. We felt it was best for our viewers, shareholders, and America to take a paycut".
Entercom Communications Corp. , the fourth-largest U.S. over-the-air radio company, has been running advertisements poking fun at satellite radio services, roasting the $10-$12 monthly subscription rate as well as lack of local information and spotty signals when traveling between buildings.
Too bad they can't argue on the aspects of quality programming. Broadcast Radio quality has fallen to the point where I simply don't listen to it. Local traffic? Ha, it's usually old information. I get better information via my cell phone. Quality music? Rrrrright.... if you like to hear the same seven songs played hundreds of times within a month. I'll play my own music - at least then I hear something other than those 7 (once-good, now-annoying) songs.
Clearly broadcast radio quality has fallen substantially, and Satellite is quickly filling the void. I don't have it yet, but I'm thinking about it.
Iomega has always priced themselves out of the market. It seems they try to follow Apple's example: have a cool product and overcharge for its functionality.
I've owned both Apple products and IOMega products.
- Both manufacturer's products looked cool. - The Apple products worked well and were easy to use. - The IOMega products worked poorly and pretty much sucked.
In the end, I knew I paid a premium for both manufacturers' products. But in the end, I was happy with my Apple purchases and unhappy with my IOMega purchases. Without exception.
I no longer own any Apple or IOMega products. But I'm frequently considering Apple products (currently: iBook, iPod). IOMega would have to REALLY impress me to get me to come back.
what harm is there from desalinaiton plants? sea level dropping? why are environmental groups protesting it?
Does the parent really deserve +5?
RTFA. It's pretty clear. And no, it has nothing to do with "sea level dropping". In fact, if you RTFA, you'll see that they aren't planning to draw seawater due to the electricty costs of desalination of sea water. Again, RTFA and maybe you'll learn a little bit about desalination.
Maybe because the government ashouldn't be in the business to sell videos. Maybe government employees shouldn't be permitted to distribute videos without authorization based on the law.
I remember reading a report from one of these big research firms (I think) in 1997. It was a report first published in 1994. It talked about how Apple would own the desktop (90% probablility), NeXT would be a power player (90% probability), and how GuptaSoft would drive most IT application (90% probability).
Funny, the report was ALL about WRONG. Nothing was close to reality. How did they get it SO WRONG?
In another situation, I was directed by Management to ask one of these big research firms about embedded database products. At the time they didn't have any expertise in that area. However, they found a kid internal to the company that was willing to learn so they could write a report. It seemed silly and convoluted. Here's a guy without the necessary understanding or expertise, and in a few weeks he's going to learn and gather enough information to write a report? A Report that other people will use to make decisions? Crazy!
In the end, I concluded that these reports are useless "on the ground". They're only useful for those who wish to pretend that they've done adequate research.
So my short answer is: These research firms exist to just cover butts and promote positions. Any IT management personnel that subscribe to their services should be FIRED. It's negligent to cite their reports; it's negligent to use them as a resource. If you need expertise, hire a consultant with REAL expertise, not a generic and biased report. If you want a biased report, the sales guys will come to you for free.
The poster believes that issues can be solved through marketing: Beautiful spokesmodels, Fancy logos, Hiding the real leaders of Linux/OSS, "Buzzword Compliance" (his words, not mine), and "Focus Groups" (again, his words).
All those things help a marketing campaign. But open source software isn't about marketing, and it's not about market dominance. OSS is about a way to create software. Nothing more, nothing less.
OSS is not about putting Microsoft out of business. It's not about "winning". Sure, it makes some of us feel good when the software we developed is winning over hearts and minds. In the same light, Microsoft employees can be proud of some of the software they've developed over the years.
Does open source software need some help in the usability category? Yes. In my opinion, OSS desktop software needs more usability help than the commericial products in the same "product space".
But marketing isn't the real answer. OSS software should be darn good despite any marketing efforts. Open source is by the community, for the community.
The commercial vendors of OSS are free to market as they please. The open source community is free to market its goods as it pleases. But marketing alone does not address the real software issues.
"With a company this large [Walmart], there will inevitably be instances of managers doing the wrong thing. Our policy is if a manager deliberately deletes time, they're dismissed."
Gee, I'd certainly hope so. And I'd hope that everyone in the management chain would be at risk of losing their job.
More importantly, does Walmart have a policy to pay employees wages due?
You gotta remember that the life of an actor (and especially voice talent) is a little different than a corporate job.
In a corporate job, you usually have a position that lasts for many years - even decades. When work dries up, you can move to another corporate job. You receive benefits - health case, pension, etc.
In the world of acting, the job is a lot more, um, chaotic. You can go without work for many years, and the years where you do work, you might make very little - certainly not enough to live on without taking a job as a waiter or something.
If and when you do make it big, that can last from 2 months to a couple years tops. If you're super lucky, you might get a gig that pays well for 10 years - but that's very very rare.
During those good times, you have to make enough to cover all the bad times. Plus, stuff like pensions and insurance is often something you have to cover yourself.
Are they earning a lot of money? Yep. But they SHOULD be able to ask for more money. This is America, not the Middle East.
The saddest part is that this money goes to lawyers and only lawyers
That doesn't bother me so much - it looks like SCO and Microsoft have determined that it's in their collective best interest to hire this legal team to represent SCO. If it didn't go to the lawyers, it'd just be another lump of cash in Gates' pocket.
As for the IBM legal team, I hope their lawyers trounce on what looks to be this SCO/Microsoft partnership.
And given the details that I know, it looks like IBM will succeed in showing that a SCO/Microsoft partnership is in fact a losing partnership.
The saddest part is some lowly investor who was dupped into buying the stock at more than $1 a share.
My car is paid for. I guess we know why you're rushing off to work, eh?
My car is paid for too.
And yeah, I was rushing off to work because I like to be in the office by 10 AM. I thnk it's important to keep some kind of predicable work schedule. That's just how I am, and I like when my colleagues keep a predicable schedule too.
In any case, you're not really in a position to determine my financial sitation or my motivations for going to work at a particular time.
It's a great car... excellent handling, great looks, and very reliable. Plus, it makes a great daily driver even in the crappy weather. I don't recommend you take a '73 Carrera out on salted, wintery roads.
You're right, the Boxster is a concession. Happily, it was something that I could afford. My non-S Boxster was bought new for about $45,000. For a Porsche, that's cheap.
Don't get me wrong - I'd love a '73 Carrera too. Just not as my daily driver. And since I have a boxster, it'd be hard to justify the Carrera.
OK, I have to go to work now! Yay! Too bad 34F is too cold to put the top down... hopefully this weekend.
Slashdot Mirror
Here's a very cool tip:
RTFA and find out! It answers your question!
One of the problems with family values is that it's hard to make laws that force family values upon America. But laws can still help!
So what can America do?
- we can pass laws to encourage lower-cost health care - by prohibiting people from suing doctors for mis-diagnosis and surgical errors.
- we can pass laws to give tax incentives to corporations that want to provide alternative television programming to kids in the classroom. Lower taxes, pro-family, and lower teaching costs!
- we can pass laws to fund religious groups, so that they can market their values-based programs to Americans. They can market values better than government agencies (due to consitutional restrictions on what government can directly do)
- we can assist families by helping them with better jobs. By minimizing the tax and labor burdens put on corporations, corporations will hire more people. By eliminating the minimum wage, more corporations will be able to hire more people - helping the American family.
I drive a 2002 Porsche Boxster S, and I get about 28 MPG on the highway. But with 93 octane gas prices around $2.30 around here, a fill up is well over $30. Happily, I only drive about 4000 miles/year, so fill ups aren't that frequent.
My sister's Excursion gets about 14 MPG - and that's not even with the A/C running (we measured it in the early spring, before it gets really hot).
Filling up that puppy always seems like a financial nightmare. She's going to replace it with something a little smarter - despite her 4 kids, she finds that it makes for a lousy family vehicle.
Of course, MPG greatly depends on how you drive, the state of the car, the fuel, the weather, traffic, and terrain.
The EPA numbers are a relative guide. They won't tell you exactly what you'll get for fuel consuption. However, you can easily use the EPA numbers to compare two cars' relative fuel efficiency. In fact, I submit that there is no better guide available for cars sold in the US.
Oh, do you have IBM Mainframe experience? Do you have the mainframe experience to predict the difficulty and dangers of exporting such a database?
I do. Let me tell you - it's trivial to take a dump of an IBM database. DB2, IMS/DB, FOCUS... or any other DBMS that'll run under MVS, VM/CMS, or AS/400. It's all rather trivial, and, in fact, standard operating procedures in IBM mainframe shops mean that there is already a tape that can be grabbed right of a shelf.
I find it humorous that it's still in Beta after 10 years of development.
I'm not poo-pooing the effort, but you have to admit that that's a long time before declaring 1.0!
Sorry, but Konfabulator simply isn't worth a "overflowing wheelbarrow of cash". I wish I could say it is. But it isn't.
Just like menubar clock. It's a great idea, almost natural. But does that mean it's worth a ton of money? No.
The real money is, and should be, in real user-centric applications, like spreadsheets, word processing, graphics processing, etc. Typically OS vendors move into "utility" space, but NOT into application space. The exception is Microsoft, which dominates both. Apple only dominates when there is a "missing or poorly supported piece", such as Keynote and Safari.
From the article:
the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the research arm for the U.S. military, is leading a project to develop a vehicle that can navigate a desert for at least 10 miles without a driver. Prototypes have gone as far as seven miles, successfully moving around cactuses, boulders and other obstacles.
Wow! These guys are right, my job is on the line. DARPA's "10 mile desert navigator" (isn't it 100?) got a whole 7 miles. So now the ONLY OBVIOUS conclusion that I'm going to be out of a job??? Geez, this author sure does seem stupid.
What a trashy article. If it's not fit for publication, why is it fit for Slashdot? Oh yeah, this is Slashdot, where we talk about articles that really aren't fit for publication....
Oh, sorry, I forgot my tags in that last one.
The amazing part of it is that FOX executive management decided to forgo $25 million in their own personal salary to keep the show going:
"The Simpsons is so important to the health of FOX, that it was obvious that we'd have to find the money to keep the network going. We'd either have to export animation overseas, or take a paycut. We felt it was best for our viewers, shareholders, and America to take a paycut".
Wow!
Excellent point.
But I find it shocking that officials don't arrest terrorists when they register their cars in the first place.
Of course, this plan will break down if the terrorists take a taxi.
Entercom Communications Corp. , the fourth-largest U.S. over-the-air radio company, has been running advertisements poking fun at satellite radio services, roasting the $10-$12 monthly subscription rate as well as lack of local information and spotty signals when traveling between buildings.
Too bad they can't argue on the aspects of quality programming. Broadcast Radio quality has fallen to the point where I simply don't listen to it. Local traffic? Ha, it's usually old information. I get better information via my cell phone. Quality music? Rrrrright.... if you like to hear the same seven songs played hundreds of times within a month. I'll play my own music - at least then I hear something other than those 7 (once-good, now-annoying) songs.
Clearly broadcast radio quality has fallen substantially, and Satellite is quickly filling the void. I don't have it yet, but I'm thinking about it.
I still don't get the floppy drive complaints.
Floppys suck - obsolete capacity, obsolete reliability.
I've thrown all of my floppy disks away. None of my home-built machines have a floppy drive. I haven't bought software on floppy in about 8 years.
If I need to boot from another device, I'll boot via CD-ROM. If I need to move a small file: email. If I need to store a lot of files: CD-RW.
Next thing you'll be telling me is that you want dual floppy drives, one 3.5" and one 5.25".
Iomega has always priced themselves out of the market. It seems they try to follow Apple's example: have a cool product and overcharge for its functionality.
I've owned both Apple products and IOMega products.
- Both manufacturer's products looked cool.
- The Apple products worked well and were easy to use.
- The IOMega products worked poorly and pretty much sucked.
In the end, I knew I paid a premium for both manufacturers' products. But in the end, I was happy with my Apple purchases and unhappy with my IOMega purchases. Without exception.
I no longer own any Apple or IOMega products. But I'm frequently considering Apple products (currently: iBook, iPod). IOMega would have to REALLY impress me to get me to come back.
what harm is there from desalinaiton plants? sea level dropping? why are environmental groups protesting it?
Does the parent really deserve +5?
RTFA. It's pretty clear. And no, it has nothing to do with "sea level dropping". In fact, if you RTFA, you'll see that they aren't planning to draw seawater due to the electricty costs of desalination of sea water. Again, RTFA and maybe you'll learn a little bit about desalination.
Mod down parent to "-1 - Stupid".
Maybe because the government ashouldn't be in the business to sell videos. Maybe government employees shouldn't be permitted to distribute videos without authorization based on the law.
I thought so too. But in the end, I found that my PCs were the biggest users of electricity in my house.
See my journal entry on power consumption.
I remember reading a report from one of these big research firms (I think) in 1997. It was a report first published in 1994. It talked about how Apple would own the desktop (90% probablility), NeXT would be a power player (90% probability), and how GuptaSoft would drive most IT application (90% probability).
Funny, the report was ALL about WRONG. Nothing was close to reality. How did they get it SO WRONG?
In another situation, I was directed by Management to ask one of these big research firms about embedded database products. At the time they didn't have any expertise in that area. However, they found a kid internal to the company that was willing to learn so they could write a report. It seemed silly and convoluted. Here's a guy without the necessary understanding or expertise, and in a few weeks he's going to learn and gather enough information to write a report? A Report that other people will use to make decisions? Crazy!
In the end, I concluded that these reports are useless "on the ground". They're only useful for those who wish to pretend that they've done adequate research.
So my short answer is: These research firms exist to just cover butts and promote positions. Any IT management personnel that subscribe to their services should be FIRED. It's negligent to cite their reports; it's negligent to use them as a resource. If you need expertise, hire a consultant with REAL expertise, not a generic and biased report. If you want a biased report, the sales guys will come to you for free.
Sorry, the parent post is simply misguided.
The poster believes that issues can be solved through marketing: Beautiful spokesmodels, Fancy logos, Hiding the real leaders of Linux/OSS, "Buzzword Compliance" (his words, not mine), and "Focus Groups" (again, his words).
All those things help a marketing campaign. But open source software isn't about marketing, and it's not about market dominance. OSS is about a way to create software. Nothing more, nothing less.
OSS is not about putting Microsoft out of business. It's not about "winning". Sure, it makes some of us feel good when the software we developed is winning over hearts and minds. In the same light, Microsoft employees can be proud of some of the software they've developed over the years.
Does open source software need some help in the usability category? Yes. In my opinion, OSS desktop software needs more usability help than the commericial products in the same "product space".
But marketing isn't the real answer. OSS software should be darn good despite any marketing efforts. Open source is by the community, for the community.
The commercial vendors of OSS are free to market as they please. The open source community is free to market its goods as it pleases. But marketing alone does not address the real software issues.
"With a company this large [Walmart], there will inevitably be instances of managers doing the wrong thing. Our policy is if a manager deliberately deletes time, they're dismissed."
Gee, I'd certainly hope so. And I'd hope that everyone in the management chain would be at risk of losing their job.
More importantly, does Walmart have a policy to pay employees wages due?
I'm surprised that there isn't much more VC and grant money available to go and do research on stuff like this.
VC money is all about ego and self. I don't think you'll see any VC money go to this.
However, you'll certainly see VCs making money off of projects like this.
You gotta remember that the life of an actor (and especially voice talent) is a little different than a corporate job.
In a corporate job, you usually have a position that lasts for many years - even decades. When work dries up, you can move to another corporate job. You receive benefits - health case, pension, etc.
In the world of acting, the job is a lot more, um, chaotic. You can go without work for many years, and the years where you do work, you might make very little - certainly not enough to live on without taking a job as a waiter or something.
If and when you do make it big, that can last from 2 months to a couple years tops. If you're super lucky, you might get a gig that pays well for 10 years - but that's very very rare.
During those good times, you have to make enough to cover all the bad times. Plus, stuff like pensions and insurance is often something you have to cover yourself.
Are they earning a lot of money? Yep. But they SHOULD be able to ask for more money. This is America, not the Middle East.
The saddest part is that this money goes to lawyers and only lawyers
That doesn't bother me so much - it looks like SCO and Microsoft have determined that it's in their collective best interest to hire this legal team to represent SCO. If it didn't go to the lawyers, it'd just be another lump of cash in Gates' pocket.
As for the IBM legal team, I hope their lawyers trounce on what looks to be this SCO/Microsoft partnership.
And given the details that I know, it looks like IBM will succeed in showing that a SCO/Microsoft partnership is in fact a losing partnership.
The saddest part is some lowly investor who was dupped into buying the stock at more than $1 a share.
My car is paid for. I guess we know why you're rushing off to work, eh?
My car is paid for too.
And yeah, I was rushing off to work because I like to be in the office by 10 AM. I thnk it's important to keep some kind of predicable work schedule. That's just how I am, and I like when my colleagues keep a predicable schedule too.
In any case, you're not really in a position to determine my financial sitation or my motivations for going to work at a particular time.
I own a Boxster, not an "S".
It's a great car... excellent handling, great looks, and very reliable. Plus, it makes a great daily driver even in the crappy weather. I don't recommend you take a '73 Carrera out on salted, wintery roads.
You're right, the Boxster is a concession. Happily, it was something that I could afford. My non-S Boxster was bought new for about $45,000. For a Porsche, that's cheap.
Don't get me wrong - I'd love a '73 Carrera too. Just not as my daily driver. And since I have a boxster, it'd be hard to justify the Carrera.
OK, I have to go to work now! Yay! Too bad 34F is too cold to put the top down... hopefully this weekend.