I just read an article in last months Scientific American decrying the falling rate that unversities are turning out scientists and engineers. The falloff over the next ten years will leave a tremendous shortfall in the US as compared to Europe or Asia. It looks like the IEEE-USA is trying to leverage it's membership for economic and/or political gain.
Not know what Microsoft will exhibit(Office XP for Linux?), I would guess that they view this as an attempt to get a feel for the crowds and a list of the attendees. Co-opting to show? Maybe. Or maybe they view the Linux market as mature enough to support porting their Windows apps.
Wierd. I just got my copy in the mail from Amazon. Opened the box about two hours ago and the Atari logo was the first thing I noticed. Just plain wierd.
The golden age of 8-bit computers. What can you say? Not only was Atari the foremost console manufacturer at one point, but they produced a decent home computer. I still have my 800XL and run M.U.L.E. on it occasionally when I need a fix. Or 7 Cities of Gold. Nothing like nostalgia to remind oneself of one's age.
this reminds me of an article that Nicolas Negroponte wrote back in 1995 in Wired. Once the initial cost of production is re-couped, the cost for another copy of software (or any digital artifact) is near zero. with colloborative software being written and distributed for almost nothing, I wonder how long proprietary software (or closed-source) can truly survive (and make money for the publisher). Open source gaming anyone?
In the current economy with staff cutbacks and furloughs becoming widespread, I would be extremely hesitant about accepting a counter-offer. If a company is offering you, as a new hire, what you want and you believe them to be stable, go for it. The amount of badwill generated in your current situation by asking for and accepting a counter-offer is too high a premium to pay.
If they scaled this up to a practical size, I wonder how difficult it would be to have a ground based laser tracking the liquid supply and pulsing a beam to continue the flight?
Was ahead of his time by packaging and selling the rights to his current/future music back in the early 90s. If I remeber correctly, he picked up along the line of US$ 53 million from his stock sale. He has little to fear from copyright violations from a personal standpoint.
Why is he altering the originals? To screw with our collective mind? It's like removing words from the dictionary in 1984. He is a very bad man, IMHO.
Tech customer service
on
Disconnecting
·
· Score: 4, Informative
The quality of tech customer service has been steadily declining over the past five-six years. For certain sectors, ISPs and telcos, the quality is simply atrocious. There are multiple reasons at work here:
1) New technologies (i.e. DSL for the RBOCs, cable internet for CATV carriers) have hastily cobbled together support structures that do a poor job of responding to customer needs. Education of the support techs seems to be as poor as education of the customers, leaving a huge gap in the working knowledge required to troubleshoot and rectify problems.
2) Corporate cost cutting. When Ameritech outsourced their IP support to Convergys (a spin-off of CBIS) a couple of years ago, the marked rise in on-hold times along with the decline in quality of the staff (working knowledge of telephony infrastructure) caused our corporation to switch to another IP provide.
3) Scripting. Support staff railroad you into a narrow set of options and if your particular problem doesn't fit into the right slot, you are relegated to a black hole of call-backs by higher level of support that adds days if not weeks to the resolution of your problem.
These issues have gotten so bad in the past couple of years that it is amazing that we have high-speed IP access at the consumer level at all in the U.S.
The NYT gave it a positive review a couple of Sundays ago. I just picked up the book yesterday from the local Sci-Fi bookstore. I am looking forward to reading it on vacation next week. Along with Cobweb by Stephen Bury.
How does a person suing a manufacturer receiving a software virus equate to a person suing a manufacturer of poorly written software?
Easy, it doesn't. Liability laws are designed to discourage a manufacturer from producing a product that knowingly can cause damage, in toto. I write software and release it for sale. If it computes 2001 tax tables incorrectly and it can be proved that I did not do due diligence (i.e. not complete QA, etc.), I can be held liable. If some guy writes a virus and it infects my program and my program fails, it would be very difficult to hold me liable.
My point is that Microsoft's approach is to shift liability away from themselves, even in the event that their program is flawed.
How does a person suing a manufacturer receiving a software virus equate to a person suing a manufacturer of poorly written software?
Easy, it doesn't. Liability laws are designed to discourage a manufacturer from producing a product that knowingly can cause damage, in toto. I write software and release it for sale. If it computes 2001 tax tables incorrectly and it can be proved that I did not do due diligence (i.e. not complete QA, etc.), I can be held liable. If some guy writes a virus and it infects my program and my program fails, it would be very difficult to hold me liable.
My point is that Microsoft's approach is to shift liability away from themselves, even in the event that their program is flawed.
Yes, but there is a difference between creating completely bug-free software and attempting to litigate your way out of any responsibility for your product. A world of difference. This is embodied in the paradigms of for-profit software vs. open-source software. No one wants to write insecure, untested, buggy software. Not even Microsoft.
However, Microsoft has found it cheaper to use legal means to defend rushed, incomplete software to meet deadlines for quarterly revenue. Microsoft has accepted the trade-off. Many other companies and individuals have not. And now, it appears that their strategy is beginning to backfire.
I firmly believe that software should be held accountable to liability laws and consumer rights laws. Microsoft has repeatedly fought laws designed to provide these protections and re-written their EULAs to provide no liability whatsoever. Compare the EULA for MS Office from 1995 to todays. About ten times as long, with each additional page reducing their liability and increasing yours. More FUD from Microsoft. Their legal department must have more employees than their coding department by now.
Everytime I read the letter, I think they are talking about Bill G not the Bill. Of course, the Bill is the oppostie of what Bill wants. So in reviewing the Bill, I support the Bill because Bill doesn't like the Bill.
What do you see as being the most important developmental direction that Linux will take over the next 5 years? Big iron, embedded systems, desktops, PDAs, gaming system OS? Application suites, fixed use applications, games?
IT paycuts are becoming the norm. HR people I have spoken with have been flooded with resumes of laid-off dot-commers and web-designers. Network engineer, java or C++ programmers and IT support positions are becoming scarcer then hen's teeth, so to speak.
Your objective is simple: Destroy the Earth Your motive is a little bit more complex: Revenge
Stage One:
To begin your plan, you must first Incapacitate a Military General. This will cause the world to sit up and take notice, stunned by your arrival. Who is this Evil Genius? Where did they come from? And why do they look so good in a Corporate Suit?
Stage Two:
Next, you will Seize control of the White House. This will cause countless hordes of Computer Programmers to flock to you, begging to do your every bidding. Your name will become synonymous with Sheer dementedness, as lesser men whisper your name in terror.
Stage Three:
Finally, you will Unleash your Thermonuclear Missiles, bringing about Horrors beyond Man's Comprehension. This will all be done from a Corporate Tower, an excellent choice if we might say. These three deeds will herald the end, and the citizens of this planet will have no choice but to elect you their new god.
Slashdot Mirror
I just read an article in last months Scientific American decrying the falling rate that unversities are turning out scientists and engineers. The falloff over the next ten years will leave a tremendous shortfall in the US as compared to Europe or Asia. It looks like the IEEE-USA is trying to leverage it's membership for economic and/or political gain.
It wasn't cat-7. It was level-7 as proposed in Anixter's Levels Program. I believe it was 500MHz cable but the standard isn't finalized yet.
Not know what Microsoft will exhibit(Office XP for Linux?), I would guess that they view this as an attempt to get a feel for the crowds and a list of the attendees. Co-opting to show? Maybe. Or maybe they view the Linux market as mature enough to support porting their Windows apps.
this morning with the powers of ten. Dumb, I am dumb.
Wierd. I just got my copy in the mail from Amazon. Opened the box about two hours ago and the Atari logo was the first thing I noticed. Just plain wierd.
The golden age of 8-bit computers. What can you say? Not only was Atari the foremost console manufacturer at one point, but they produced a decent home computer. I still have my 800XL and run M.U.L.E. on it occasionally when I need a fix. Or 7 Cities of Gold.
Nothing like nostalgia to remind oneself of one's age.
this reminds me of an article that Nicolas Negroponte wrote back in 1995 in Wired. Once the initial cost of production is re-couped, the cost for another copy of software (or any digital artifact) is near zero. with colloborative software being written and distributed for almost nothing, I wonder how long proprietary software (or closed-source) can truly survive (and make money for the publisher). Open source gaming anyone?
In the current economy with staff cutbacks and furloughs becoming widespread, I would be extremely hesitant about accepting a counter-offer. If a company is offering you, as a new hire, what you want and you believe them to be stable, go for it. The amount of badwill generated in your current situation by asking for and accepting a counter-offer is too high a premium to pay.
If they scaled this up to a practical size, I wonder how difficult it would be to have a ground based laser tracking the liquid supply and pulsing a beam to continue the flight?
Was ahead of his time by packaging and selling the rights to his current/future music back in the early 90s. If I remeber correctly, he picked up along the line of US$ 53 million from his stock sale. He has little to fear from copyright violations from a personal standpoint.
Why did you choose a Harley Davidson? Just curious.
Why is he altering the originals? To screw with our collective mind? It's like removing words from the dictionary in 1984. He is a very bad man, IMHO.
The quality of tech customer service has been steadily declining over the past five-six years. For certain sectors, ISPs and telcos, the quality is simply atrocious. There are multiple reasons at work here:
1) New technologies (i.e. DSL for the RBOCs, cable internet for CATV carriers) have hastily cobbled together support structures that do a poor job of responding to customer needs. Education of the support techs seems to be as poor as education of the customers, leaving a huge gap in the working knowledge required to troubleshoot and rectify problems.
2) Corporate cost cutting. When Ameritech outsourced their IP support to Convergys (a spin-off of CBIS) a couple of years ago, the marked rise in on-hold times along with the decline in quality of the staff (working knowledge of telephony infrastructure) caused our corporation to switch to another IP provide.
3) Scripting. Support staff railroad you into a narrow set of options and if your particular problem doesn't fit into the right slot, you are relegated to a black hole of call-backs by higher level of support that adds days if not weeks to the resolution of your problem.
These issues have gotten so bad in the past couple of years that it is amazing that we have high-speed IP access at the consumer level at all in the U.S.
The NYT gave it a positive review a couple of Sundays ago. I just picked up the book yesterday from the local Sci-Fi bookstore. I am looking forward to reading it on vacation next week. Along with Cobweb by Stephen Bury.
Good one Ian! I think Douglas Adams had a tremendous sense of both human nature and the absurdity of life.
To block unsolicited spam, try a front-end filter service like MailWatch.com
How does a person suing a manufacturer receiving a software virus equate to a person suing a manufacturer of poorly written software?
Easy, it doesn't. Liability laws are designed to discourage a manufacturer from producing a product that knowingly can cause damage, in toto. I write software and release it for sale. If it computes 2001 tax tables incorrectly and it can be proved that I did not do due diligence (i.e. not complete QA, etc.), I can be held liable. If some guy writes a virus and it infects my program and my program fails, it would be very difficult to hold me liable.
My point is that Microsoft's approach is to shift liability away from themselves, even in the event that their program is flawed.
Please read the post before you comment.
How does a person suing a manufacturer receiving a software virus equate to a person suing a manufacturer of poorly written software?
Easy, it doesn't. Liability laws are designed to discourage a manufacturer from producing a product that knowingly can cause damage, in toto. I write software and release it for sale. If it computes 2001 tax tables incorrectly and it can be proved that I did not do due diligence (i.e. not complete QA, etc.), I can be held liable. If some guy writes a virus and it infects my program and my program fails, it would be very difficult to hold me liable.
My point is that Microsoft's approach is to shift liability away from themselves, even in the event that their program is flawed.
Please read the post before you comment.
Yes, but there is a difference between creating completely bug-free software and attempting to litigate your way out of any responsibility for your product. A world of difference. This is embodied in the paradigms of for-profit software vs. open-source software. No one wants to write insecure, untested, buggy software. Not even Microsoft.
However, Microsoft has found it cheaper to use legal means to defend rushed, incomplete software to meet deadlines for quarterly revenue. Microsoft has accepted the trade-off. Many other companies and individuals have not. And now, it appears that their strategy is beginning to backfire.
I firmly believe that software should be held accountable to liability laws and consumer rights laws. Microsoft has repeatedly fought laws designed to provide these protections and re-written their EULAs to provide no liability whatsoever. Compare the EULA for MS Office from 1995 to todays. About ten times as long, with each additional page reducing their liability and increasing yours.
More FUD from Microsoft. Their legal department must have more employees than their coding department by now.
Everytime I read the letter, I think they are talking about Bill G not the Bill. Of course, the Bill is the oppostie of what Bill wants. So in reviewing the Bill, I support the Bill because Bill doesn't like the Bill.
I think.
Alan:
What do you see as being the most important developmental direction that Linux will take over the next 5 years?
Big iron, embedded systems, desktops, PDAs, gaming system OS? Application suites, fixed use applications, games?
The U.S. is the birthplace of the modern labor movement. And we are accepting this why?
Whatever happened to dotspot.com? Wasn't that a divine venture?
See www.fuckedcompany.com
IT paycuts are becoming the norm. HR people I have spoken with have been flooded with resumes of laid-off dot-commers and web-designers. Network engineer, java or C++ programmers and IT support positions are becoming scarcer then hen's teeth, so to speak.
Your objective is simple: Destroy the Earth
Your motive is a little bit more complex: Revenge
Stage One:
To begin your plan, you must first Incapacitate a Military General. This will cause the world to sit up and take notice, stunned by your arrival. Who is this Evil Genius? Where did they come from? And why do they look so good in a Corporate Suit?
Stage Two:
Next, you will Seize control of the White House. This will cause countless hordes of Computer Programmers to flock to you, begging to do your every bidding. Your name will become synonymous with Sheer dementedness, as lesser men whisper your name in terror.
Stage Three:
Finally, you will Unleash your Thermonuclear Missiles, bringing about Horrors beyond Man's Comprehension. This will all be done from a Corporate Tower, an excellent choice if we might say. These three deeds will herald the end, and the citizens of this planet will have no choice but to elect you their new god.
Trust us, it'll all come together in the end.