We have a worldide celebration of peace, until MS products developed in secret launch a devastating attach, forcing the Open Source People to leave for the mythical land Finland aboard the Battlestar Linuxica, leading ragtag fleet of fugitives...
The end result, the tech support people who know their stuff and have gumption do their best to get into a development position. The lifers who are hanging on until they can retire and have no idea what fsck does (and I'm talking Solaris support here) stay on the hotline.
Fortunately that is not the case here.:-)
Many of our tech support staff have moved to other
areas of the company over the years.
That was one of the points I was making. The best, most competent people in tech support leave. There is no incentive for a very good tech support person to stay in tech support, they don't get credit, accolades or cash.
When I left my tech support position for a position in engineering, my salary really jumped. In my old division, the people making the big bucks were the sales people, not the technically savvy ones.
Having spent 4 1/2 years there, I know of what I speak.
You end up talking to irate people all day long, management does everything they can to keep you from leaving for a better position, and any technical smarts gets unrecognized.
Also, there is little technical career track in the tech support field.
The end result, the tech support people who know their stuff and have gumption do their best to get into a development position. The lifers who are hanging on until they can retire and have no idea what fsck does (and I'm talking Solaris support here) stay on the hotline.
I guess until customers demand better tech support, and treat their own tech support people with more respect, it's not going to get better.
I heard. Little rebels without a cause, hopping from Dead show to the next protest, spending their parent's money and wishing that they were poor working class folks... this is liberalism in America, circa 2000.
There has not been a Dead show in 5 years, 1 month, they're gone forever as of 5 years ago, today.
Gnutella users are distributing copyrighted recipes to make their own pink ham based luncheon meat, perhaps you've heard of the Open Sandwich Movement. If not, do a web search on Richard M. Stallham.
Hormel is suing Gnutella, and has a cease and desist order, saying they're losing sales and not recouping the immense amounts of R & D money they've spent creating such delectable ham based foods.
Critics of Hormel say that since SPAM has been around since WWII, they've long recouped their initial investment.
My newspaper has started carrying her columns. Maybe I'm privileged because I read/., but the stuff she writes about is months old, and hardly brilliant. Cringely is more topical and more incisive.
Can you point me to some of her brilliance on the web, maybe?
Seriously, how did she get to be a wealthy spokesperson/trendsetter for the tech set?
I've read some of her stuff, it's bland, vague prognisticating. And people shell out triple digits to subscribe to this, and pay lots of money to go to her seminars.
I guess she got in the right place at the right time, but she sure doesn't impress me.
If you got a day to celebrate, and then you'd lose your motivation to get out of the rage-inducing soul destroying position.
My name is George, I used to work on a hotline. I've been hotline free for about a year now. Every once in a while I get the desire to take a few tech support calls, but I call my sponsor and he helps me get past that desire.
We Brits (and anyone else who ever discovered aything) have to stop trying to correct the Americans all the time and finally realise that they were, in fact, the first to do everything in the history of the world. Ever.
Not only did they invent the computer, they also invented the rocket, discovered Australia, invented government, the gun, Lara Croft and Television.
While Britain certainly did a lot to popularize New Wave/Punk music (albeit the New York Dolls and the Ramones were there from the beginning) to claim that the Brits invented Television is disengenous. Try the creative ferment that was CBGB's created Television, the Talking Heads, Blondie, and a bunch of other wonderful 70's New Wave bands.
I've written two computer books. When I need to buy a computer book, I don't buy off the web, I go to Borders or Barnes & Noble, pull out 3-6 books on the subject, get a coffee and skim through each one. I look at the level of technical skill required, I check things that I know about the subject, and see that the author's got it correct, and I look at the subjects.
If I was in a hurry for a book, I'd still go to Borders or Barne's & Noble, if I need to the book today or tomorrow morning, I'd rather trust myself than Amazon or some self published author.
My point on editors
You don't appreciate an editor until you see what they do to your work. It's humbling, every page has your words changed, your ideas challenged and your uses of utilities questioned. I think it makes for a better book.
Editor's can make for a more consistent book, too. My next book is in the Dummies line. I like the Dummies book, and have bought several (even despite the tax advantages). If you buy a Dummies book, you have a pretty good idea what kind of book you are getting. (No, I don't approve of their aggressive defense of their title, but I understand it).
If you read my books without editing, many phrases wouldn't make sense, and there's less chance what I tell you is right. That's kind of important for a computer book.
PS. If you want to write a book, let me know, ghaberbe@frontiernet.net. My agent specializes in computer books, and would be glad to hear you out.
So, why are publishing companies good? I can only speak for the books that I have written, but I do see some advantages to using a publishing company that you have a hard time matching if you do it yourself.
Distribution: This is one of the big ones. A good publisher can get your book into every Borders and Barne's & Noble across the country, as well as Amazon. This is hard to do by yourself.
Editing: Editing is a hard job, and underrated. I've dealt with two kinds of editors, the main editor who keeps the books focused, and makes the grammar and syntax more readable, and the techinal editor who tries everything you write about, tells you where you went wrong, and suggests alternatives (I'm talking computer books here). These two editing functions are very hard to do for your own book, you never see your own flaws. If you want to publish your own book, you need to find and pay an editor or two. That's a big chunk of upfront money.
Market Research: If you're writing for money (and Boswell said only a fool writes for anything but money), you should have an idea of how big your market is. You might be fascinated with Gnobots, and willing to spend a year of your life and thousands of dollars writing the definitive guide to Gnobots, but will anyone buy The Compleat Gnobots?
Slashdot Mirror
started their children on mindstorms?
Not yet, but my daughter is only 4, and is still learning how to use regular sized Lego.
Plus, I don't have a mindstorms yet, perhaps in six months.
George
Only if you consider an two inches big, an ounce heavy, and $30 expensive, as that's what my 640x480 parallel port camera cost a year ago.
By integrating into the case, Sony should be able to bring the cost down.
You can see pictures I took with it at home page.
George
Umm, and how many ROM's did you need for that?
MacOS doesn't count, since you need to ROM's to make it work, too.
George
the Catholic bartender sez, "Wot is this, some kind of joke?"
George
and eventually we bring MS to their knees.
We have a worldide celebration of peace, until MS products developed in secret launch a devastating attach, forcing the Open Source People to leave for the mythical land Finland aboard the Battlestar Linuxica, leading ragtag fleet of fugitives...
Back then, the coal mining companies wouldn't stoop to such dangerous acts as dumpster diving.
No, you'd never hear of a coal mining company hiring private detectives to bust unions, and heads.
You'd never hear of Rockefeller's Standard Oil doing anything illegal or unsavory to reduce the competition.
The software companies are still babes in the woods compared to older industries.
I was thinking they would probably send it to School of the Americas.
No, that's phase II of the Carnivore test, the torture test.
George
The end result, the tech support people who know their stuff and have gumption do their best to get into a development position. The lifers who are hanging on until they can retire and have no idea what fsck does (and I'm talking Solaris support here) stay on the hotline.
:-)
Fortunately that is not the case here.
Many of our tech support staff have moved to other
areas of the company over the years.
That was one of the points I was making. The best, most competent people in tech support leave. There is no incentive for a very good tech support person to stay in tech support, they don't get credit, accolades or cash.
When I left my tech support position for a position in engineering, my salary really jumped. In my old division, the people making the big bucks were the sales people, not the technically savvy ones.
George
Having spent 4 1/2 years there, I know of what I speak.
You end up talking to irate people all day long, management does everything they can to keep you from leaving for a better position, and any technical smarts gets unrecognized.
Also, there is little technical career track in the tech support field.
The end result, the tech support people who know their stuff and have gumption do their best to get into a development position. The lifers who are hanging on until they can retire and have no idea what fsck does (and I'm talking Solaris support here) stay on the hotline.
I guess until customers demand better tech support, and treat their own tech support people with more respect, it's not going to get better.
George
I heard. Little rebels without a cause, hopping from Dead show to the next protest, spending their parent's money and wishing that they were poor working class folks... this is liberalism in America, circa 2000.
There has not been a Dead show in 5 years, 1 month, they're gone forever as of 5 years ago, today.
George
Gnutella users are distributing copyrighted recipes to make their own pink ham based luncheon meat, perhaps you've heard of the Open Sandwich Movement. If not, do a web search on Richard M. Stallham.
Hormel is suing Gnutella, and has a cease and desist order, saying they're losing sales and not recouping the immense amounts of R & D money they've spent creating such delectable ham based foods.
Critics of Hormel say that since SPAM has been around since WWII, they've long recouped their initial investment.
Thank you,
George
what papers carry her column? Are they on the web? I'm too lazy^H^H^H^Hbusy right now to search
Rochester, NY Democrat and Chronicle, in the Monday business section, IIRC.
A quick search of their web page showed no Dyson columns, if I remeber I'll look it up and see what wire service is carrying her.
George
My newspaper has started carrying her columns. Maybe I'm privileged because I read /., but the stuff she writes about is months old, and hardly brilliant. Cringely is more topical and more incisive.
Can you point me to some of her brilliance on the web, maybe?
Thanks,
George
Seriously, how did she get to be a wealthy spokesperson/trendsetter for the tech set?
I've read some of her stuff, it's bland, vague prognisticating. And people shell out triple digits to subscribe to this, and pay lots of money to go to her seminars.
I guess she got in the right place at the right time, but she sure doesn't impress me.
Now Freeman of course, was another story.
George
Katz wuz there.
there are probably more
If you got a day to celebrate, and then you'd lose your motivation to get out of the rage-inducing soul destroying position.
My name is George, I used to work on a hotline. I've been hotline free for about a year now. Every once in a while I get the desire to take a few tech support calls, but I call my sponsor and he helps me get past that desire.
George
The way I read it, he nearly died on the operating table, and the conspirators decided it was best to let everyone think he was dead.
/., in which case Enoch Root either lost his personality and memory, or was bought by some other poster.
Look at the book again, as Shaftoe leaves with the Finnish girl, they help someone hidden under a coat into a car. That would be Enoch.
Unless you're talking
George
You got the men with hats, and their 80's hit Safety Dance (yeah, it's going through your head now, isn't it).
And then you got the man in the yellow hat, who is only dangerous to little curious monkeys.
george
I disagree with you on The Forever War being the best '70's science fiction ever written. Have you read Brunner's Schockwave Rider?
Thanks,
George
We Brits (and anyone else who ever discovered aything) have to stop trying to correct the Americans all the time and finally realise that they were, in fact, the first to do everything in the history of the world. Ever.
Not only did they invent the computer, they also invented the rocket, discovered Australia, invented government, the gun, Lara Croft and Television.
While Britain certainly did a lot to popularize New Wave/Punk music (albeit the New York Dolls and the Ramones were there from the beginning) to claim that the Brits invented Television is disengenous. Try the creative ferment that was CBGB's created Television, the Talking Heads, Blondie, and a bunch of other wonderful 70's New Wave bands.
Thanks,
George
My point on distribution.
I've written two computer books. When I need to buy a computer book, I don't buy off the web, I go to Borders or Barnes & Noble, pull out 3-6 books on the subject, get a coffee and skim through each one. I look at the level of technical skill required, I check things that I know about the subject, and see that the author's got it correct, and I look at the subjects.
If I was in a hurry for a book, I'd still go to Borders or Barne's & Noble, if I need to the book today or tomorrow morning, I'd rather trust myself than Amazon or some self published author.
My point on editors
You don't appreciate an editor until you see what they do to your work. It's humbling, every page has your words changed, your ideas challenged and your uses of utilities questioned. I think it makes for a better book.
Editor's can make for a more consistent book, too. My next book is in the Dummies line. I like the Dummies book, and have bought several (even despite the tax advantages). If you buy a Dummies book, you have a pretty good idea what kind of book you are getting. (No, I don't approve of their aggressive defense of their title, but I understand it).
If you read my books without editing, many phrases wouldn't make sense, and there's less chance what I tell you is right. That's kind of important for a computer book.
PS. If you want to write a book, let me know, ghaberbe@frontiernet.net. My agent specializes in computer books, and would be glad to hear you out.
George
Thanks,
George
every time you click to the next page, you deduct 5 cents from your PayPal account.
George
Yeah, don't you get it, and get it, and get it, and get it.
It only gets mentioned 20 times a NASA article is posted, after a while it get's old.
George