I hate mobile phones. I get a sharp headache after using one for only 2 or 3 minutes. One of my sister's friend's nose started bleeding uncontrollably (also accompanied by a sharp headache) after using one for a few minutes.
Hint: To stop headaches and nosebleeds, stop whacking your face with the cell phone.
I just filled out form for a week-long drama camp for my son. The entry field for "email address" was REQUIRED. That's the first time I've seen a required email address for something that was not an electronic order or membership.
Thirty years ago. You mean around the time that this and this happened?
Things like this may be happening a bit more today because of the availability of high-powered weapons and yes, a lack of hands-on parenting. But, school shootings (and lousy parenting) didn't just start in the 1990s. What DID start in the 1990s (or thereabouts) was 24 hour/7 days a week, instantaneous-as-it-happens round the word news coverage a la CNN/Fox News/MSNBC and of course, the Web.
It isn't true that horrifying things didn't happen 30 years ago. They clearly did. It's is true that today you are hammered with news in ways that we didn't even dream of back then.
When you're 17 and your mom sends you out to 7-11 to get some last minute stuff for a party you're having for your friends, be sure to pay real close attention to that traffic light on the way home. And for God's sake, put your seatbelt on!
>>But girls - damn - they can be evil to each other >>in ways that us guys couldn't even dream of. (I >>didn't even appreciate that until years after >>high school. If you have a female SO, ask her >> about it. Evil, man, frickin' evil.)
Damn straight. Girls attack where it hurts, psychologically. And it starts earlier now, you can't imagine the things I've heard out of the girls in my son's 2nd grade class. Worse than the boys I can tell you.
The good news is, girls,....uh...if you're out there....I know there's a few of us girl geeks out there....that you'll go to your 20th high school reunion and find out that the alpha chick flamed out early. By now, she's on their 3rd marriage, put on 20 pounds, is drinking heavily and desperately trying to drum up marketable skills because she took basket weaving in high school while you were taking that advanced calc course.
Why should a casual user even see the Administrator menu!// adminMenuButton is hidden by default. if (user->hasAuthority(ADMIN)) {
adminMenuButton->show(); }
I didn't fully realize how much they stink until I got my arm put in a sling following shoulder surgery and had to try to use some company intranet apps that lacked keyboard shortcuts.
From now on, any developer reporting to me has to demonstrate the application they're writing both with and without using a mouse.
Pick ten of your friends or relatives and visit their homes. Make it a mix of people who are techno-savvy and not techno-savvy.
1. Use their phone to make a phone call from their house.
2. Turn on their television, tune to a local channel, and get sound and audio.
Now total up the time that you needed to perform those tasks and ask yourself how much longer it took today than it would have taken 30 years ago. Even the most technically astute of us usually have to pause to find the right button to enable "Talk" on a telephone or input the broadcast or cable signal to a television that is not our own.
Amazing that while we have a lot more capability in our telephones and televisions, the most simple things have become more difficult because of the "bloatware" we've added.
First rule of software and all types of engineering should be: Don't make the user feel stupid.
>>Back in the future, Heath is showing us around the teen bedroom of the future.... The teen, Heath says, will have the biggest and best computer monitor in the house.
Well, not in MY house! Not unless "the teen" gets off his or her ass and gets a job to pay for it!
I agree (I'm 41) and I further tell them to get their communication and leadership skills in order. Being able to communicate effectively and diplomatically with your coworkers, customers and vendors will make you a lot more valuable over the long haul.
The guy coming over on H1-B from Elbonia may know Java, but can he write an understandable definition of the problem for your English-speaking customer to review? Can he negotiate without offending that customer? Maybe he can. If so, my hat's off to him. But, where I sit, coders that can do both are the exception, not the rule and that makes them more valuable during economic downturns.
That's true if he or she did hibernation/standby on the laptop in the intervening period. The worm was memory resident only and would stop broadcasting if the user powered off completely before heading to the office.
Still, it's a likely scenario. I *hate* waiting for a full power-on cycle and I use hibernate all the time on my laptop.
Keep in mind that IBM occasionally purchases other companies who may, at the time of their purchase, use products not within the IBM portfolio. Also, IBM is an integration services company that makes money integrating not only its own products but those of competitors as well.
So, yes, we do occasionally need to hold our noses and work with the likes of MS SQL Server.
Slashdot Mirror
Damn it! I hate it when non-IBMers attack IBM without getting the facts right.
It's not a committee. It's a TASK FORCE!
JoAnn
I hate mobile phones. I get a sharp headache after using one for only 2 or 3 minutes. One of my sister's friend's nose started bleeding uncontrollably (also accompanied by a sharp headache) after using one for a few minutes.
Hint: To stop headaches and nosebleeds, stop whacking your face with the cell phone.
I just filled out form for a week-long drama camp for my son. The entry field for "email address" was REQUIRED. That's the first time I've seen a required email address for something that was not an electronic order or membership.
JoAnn
Caldera does its Unix business in Utah.
Delaware is a handy place to incorporate $-wise. A lot of corporations are "Delaware Corporations".
Here's why.
JoAnn
I seem to recall that Microsoft got rid of a lawsuit brought by a the company that did disk compression (Stac?) by buying the company outright.
Perhaps, what's left of SCO (the lawyers and bankers) are hoping to prod IBM into buying them!
Thirty years ago. You mean around the time that
this
and this happened?
Things like this may be happening a bit more today because of the availability of high-powered weapons and yes, a lack of hands-on parenting. But, school shootings (and lousy parenting) didn't just start in the 1990s. What DID start in the 1990s (or thereabouts) was 24 hour/7 days a week, instantaneous-as-it-happens round the word news coverage a la CNN/Fox News/MSNBC and of course, the Web.
It isn't true that horrifying things didn't happen 30 years ago. They clearly did. It's is true that today you are hammered with news in ways that we didn't even dream of back then.
JoAnn
When you're 17 and your mom sends you out to 7-11 to get some last minute stuff for a party you're having for your friends, be sure to pay real close attention to that traffic light on the way home. And for God's sake, put your seatbelt on!
JoAnn
Yeah, but I can't figure out how to plug the ten acres of raised floor housed 3380 DASD into it.
>>But girls - damn - they can be evil to each other >>in ways that us guys couldn't even dream of. (I >>didn't even appreciate that until years after >>high school. If you have a female SO, ask her
>> about it. Evil, man, frickin' evil.)
Damn straight. Girls attack where it hurts, psychologically. And it starts earlier now, you can't imagine the things I've heard out of the girls in my son's 2nd grade class. Worse than the boys I can tell you.
The good news is, girls,....uh...if you're out there....I know there's a few of us girl geeks out there....that you'll go to your 20th high school reunion and find out that the alpha chick flamed out early. By now, she's on their 3rd marriage, put on 20 pounds, is drinking heavily and desperately trying to drum up marketable skills because she took basket weaving in high school while you were taking that advanced calc course.
Oh wow. Did that sound mean?
...or techie office drones in general is still pretty well done by Scott Adams' Dilbert cartoon.
I know Dilbert has lost its buzz a bit but I still can relate to a lot of the scenarios.
Today's flex-time definition was on the money...
Tsk, tsk. Bad design.
// adminMenuButton is hidden by default.
Why should a casual user even see the Administrator menu!
if (user->hasAuthority(ADMIN))
{
adminMenuButton->show();
}
Mouses stink.
Touch typists know they stink.
Disabled people know they stink.
I didn't fully realize how much they stink until I got my arm put in a sling following shoulder surgery and had to try to use some company intranet apps that lacked keyboard shortcuts.
From now on, any developer reporting to me has to demonstrate the application they're writing both with and without using a mouse.
JoAnn
I wonder how many hits they got from 104 year old men living in Alaska?
Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste =
CTRL-Z, CTRL-Y, CTRL-X, CTRL-C, and CTRL-V
Geez, with "intuitive" mnemonics like that taking up precious grey matter it's no wonder I tend to lose my car keys!
JoAnn
Try this exercise....
Pick ten of your friends or relatives and visit their homes. Make it a mix of people who are techno-savvy and not techno-savvy.
1. Use their phone to make a phone call from their house.
2. Turn on their television, tune to a local channel, and get sound and audio.
Now total up the time that you needed to perform those tasks and ask yourself how much longer it took today than it would have taken 30 years ago. Even the most technically astute of us usually have to pause to find the right button to enable "Talk" on a telephone or input the broadcast or cable signal to a television that is not our own.
Amazing that while we have a lot more capability in our telephones and televisions, the most simple things have become more difficult because of the "bloatware" we've added.
First rule of software and all types of engineering should be: Don't make the user feel stupid.
JoAnn
What content is there on msn.com that is so compelling that even users who swear off MS browsers would have to go there?
Seems like a pretty boring portal site to me. Wouldn't yahoo or myway or any one of a gazillion other portals do?
>>Back in the future, Heath is showing us around the teen bedroom of the future.... The teen, Heath says, will have the biggest and best computer monitor in the house.
Well, not in MY house! Not unless "the teen" gets off his or her ass and gets a job to pay for it!
What IS it about North Dakota that's so darned funny anyway?
Well, this "bit broad" liked your comment anyway and is considering changing her handle to "abitbroad" :-)
JoAnn
I'm sorry, but even I (a female programmer) had to snicker at your Subject line given the abundance of the female pronoun in this article.
Did you pun intentionally?
JoAnn
I agree (I'm 41) and I further tell them to get their communication and leadership skills in order. Being able to communicate effectively and diplomatically with your coworkers, customers and vendors will make you a lot more valuable over the long haul.
The guy coming over on H1-B from Elbonia may know Java, but can he write an understandable definition of the problem for your English-speaking customer to review? Can he negotiate without offending that customer? Maybe he can. If so, my hat's off to him. But, where I sit, coders that can do both are the exception, not the rule and that makes them more valuable during economic downturns.
That's true if he or she did hibernation/standby on the laptop in the intervening period. The worm was memory resident only and would stop broadcasting if the user powered off completely before heading to the office.
Still, it's a likely scenario. I *hate* waiting for a full power-on cycle and I use hibernate all the time on my laptop.
Keep in mind that IBM occasionally purchases other companies who may, at the time of their purchase, use products not within the IBM portfolio. Also, IBM is an integration services company that makes money integrating not only its own products but those of competitors as well.
So, yes, we do occasionally need to hold our noses and work with the likes of MS SQL Server.
I seem to recall a Dave Barry column which pointed out that if you rearrange the letters in "Spiro Agnew", you get "Grow a Penis".
I have no idea why I just posted that.
and ginger is like crack to them (Harry Turtledove).