Oh, there's a plenty good enough financial reason that all execs understand that has nothing to do with penalties as a result of being sued.
In software, non-compliance with legal licenses (open source or other) is one of the very few things that can result in you stop shipping your product.
And if you have to stop-ship an embedded software system, then it means that there's no point shipping just the hardware. Bye-bye to all revenue from the product. What can be worse than something which will instantly take your revenue to $0?
It is actually surprising how much is involved in transporting the POTUS. Last time the POTUS was in town there was a considerable presence that travelled around with him and Air Force One is only a small part of that traveling circus. While the current VC-25 are starting to show their age, one does wonder just what sort of requirements creep are involved. It used to be that simpleton transport would be acceptable and in actuality, the 737 makes for a wonderful government transport in the C-40 and in fact the current 747 design (though modified since) has been in place since just 1990. In some ways the 747-8 does simplify some systems, making maintenance easier and cheaper as well as possessing more efficient engines, but just playing an opposing advocate, do we really need a 747-8 or an A380? My bias would be yes for a number of reasons, but I also think it is reasonable to ask some harder questions about what is actually required.
It is surprising how involved is the POTUS. Last time the POTUS was in town [utah.edu] there was a presence that travelled around with him and the One is a part of that traveling circus. While the current POTUS is starting to show his age, one does wonder just what sort of creep is involved. It used to be that simple would be acceptable and in actuality, it makes for a wonderful government. In fact the current design (though modified since) has been in place since 1990. In some ways it does simplify some systems, making maintenance easier and cheaper as well as more efficient, but just playing an opposing advocate, do we really need POTUS? My bias would be yes for a number of reasons, but I also think it is reasonable to ask some harder questions about what is actually required.
Not all markets have backwards compatibility. Eg, in Australia, the 80GB model doesn't. In fact there is NO PS3 model in Australia that has it at all. The old discontinued 60GB models are prized.
Australia's a small enough market that Sony just doesn't give a shit about its customers.
Welcome to the real world. Beginning is the easy part. The world of the typical consultant and author is for now, and implementation, and not for ongoing support - or to look back at what was said, and how you ended up in this mess.
Maybe all those 'beginning' customers are coming back and wondering why they can't get support for, say ubuntu 7.10 (vs say 8.04)? Maybe you need to explain in your books that the beginning is only a start of a journey.
The short answer is that you need to do your homework (or research if you are an author) up front. And totally understand the contract terms and conditions. If you don't, you deserve everything that you get.
ws
PS: Yes I have cleaned up a lot of sh!t from incompetent people.
Look. The US, and the 'coalition of the willing' fucked up going into Iraq. Against any UN prerogative and setting a very dangerous precedent for any nation/state that has a beef with another nation/state.
I was living in the US during 9/11 and was actually pleased that the 'response' took some time coming. A measured response, and no knee-jerk reaction. Right. Afghanistan, though not necessarily winnable, was understandable. Iraq was not, and is not.
WMD my ass. Kudos to some who called that out. I feel sorry for Powell, because I think he was used as the only credible person in the administration. The fact that you don't like the head of state is not a sufficient reason to go to war with a country.
AFAICT, the whole war question is mothafuckd up. There should be no war. Is there actually a war? I vaguely recall that there was never any declaration. Anyways, the outcome is that every time the US goes to war, it just means you are creating a new generation of enemies.
Yes, war has brought you friends as well. My parents believe that you saved all Australians from Japan. I respect that, but your record since 1945 is not good. And my parents generation is pretty much gone.... Good deeds may be hearsay.
Mod me to hell. Where I am has not turned out much better....
There's actually 2 versions of a product. One is the marketing version, this can be anything FooBar 2008, FooBar 8.04 (representing months) FooBar 2008 sp1 patch2 etc.
The other version number is really required for support. This needs to be able to specifically identify the build/patches applied to be able to provide the customer with help when they run into trouble. It can even be a build number. It's not sprayed all over the product as that is what the marketing version number is for. But maybe there's a particular screen or command line utility that provides this information.
The beauty is that if you recognise both, then you don't even need to enter into the marketing debate. It's nice to be able to say, "You can call it whatever you want, we just need to know x months in advance so we can put it in all the right places before testing".
If you want a specific example of this, look at Internet Explorer. It's marketing version is Internet Explorer 5 or 6 or whatever, but if you go to Help/About you will see a version number 5.02.0123773 which is probably a build number or something.
I've done this on a few old laptops. A couple of notes: - Disk drives. Costs go down. A lot. For older HDDs @ 3600 or 4200rpm, if you have anywhere near a reasonable amount of memory, this is the easiest and best bang for the buck. - Memory. If you buy new memory, the prices for older 'architectures' go up. Check out the price of 1GB pc2700 sodimm vs 1gb pc5300 sodimm (DDR2). It's about 2 to 3 times the cost for the older pc2700. - CPU. Never actually done this, but have thought about it on some occasions. Best to find some boards or references where it has been done successfully - and which CPUs are OK. Actually finding a CPU can be hard.
Ultimately, I end up maxing out my RAM either when I buy it or within the first year. Hard disk drives, I just buy the minimum size at the time of purchase as I can pick up a cheaper and bigger one later on.
Also, it's worthwhile considering a NSLU2 or the like as a cheaper permanent storage solution and keeping the 'latest' information on the smaller laptop storage.
What a great way to stop people selling their iPods to someone else and instantly making 2nd hand market for iPods impossible!
1. The device is 'attached' to a particular person's computer(s) 2. The device and user is known to the manufacturer, eg via iTunes 3. As the iPod can be effectively rendered useless if someone else buys or uses it, you can't buy one 2nd hand, so you have to fork out for a new one. 4. Profit!
I've had the experience of working in a place where everyone had their own office, and also in my current employer (who shall remain nameless) where *no-one* has an office.
In the everyone had their own office scenario, it was great to get things done. But it was a bitch when you were new and didn't know many people. There just wasn't the opportunity to mix much. Once you get over that hurdle, it's very good.
In the current place where it's all cubicle/open floor, I find it annoying. Not because of disturbances as when I get focussed you could probably let off a bomb and I wouldn't notice. But what really pisses me off is the 'grandstanders'. Basically, you're trying to have a discussion with them, but they are talking to show their 'superiority' to the people around them - like their boss at the next cubicle. Meantime, you have to wait patiently while thinking "I know. Yeah, that's pretty f'ing obvious. Who would ever think of doing that?". It's also an environment that's difficult to have 'unofficial' conversations in. Which is how you get things done and what makes the world go round...
This dude Andreesen was living two lives. In one, he was a computer guy for a respectable software company. You know, had a social security number, paid his taxes and helped the landlady take out her garbage. In the other, he was a black hat and was guilty of pretty well every computer crime.
Anyways, he took this blue pill and life went on as normal
I made a conscious decision to leave the US and return to Australia because I didn't have a lot of faith in the way things were going in the US.
You can imagine my horror over the last 18 months. - federal 'monopoly' of both houses of parliament. WTF happened to the Democrats whose motto was 'keep the bastards honest'? - Howard bends over and takes it deeply and willingly on copyright/patents for the US trade agreement while gaining nothing for the primary industry - Australian Wheat Board. Fuck it. I can't stand saying anything about that. - The media who incites racism and intolerance and then wonders why there are riots and shit. - Australia seems to be *everyone's* bitch. Just pulling something topical off the top of my head, oh let's talk about uranium sales. Google it. I'm too pissed to do it for you.
OK, well you thought that was a rant, let's try this. IMNSHO, Australian state govt's should be RESTRUCTURED. Yes, let's use that latest *brilliant* Industrial Relations reforms and do away with them altogether. We wouldn't have to pay any redundancy. Australia has only about 25m people - about the same as CA in the US. So you have a federal govt and stop all the bitching between the states 'Oh, but we have MORE *insert bullshit here* than that other state'. And LOCAL government.
The whole concept of 'federation' is nowadays bullshit.
Anyone want to start a party?
ws
And put me on your motherfucking Big Brother list. It can't be any more inane than the 'reality' show.
Wiresquire's law:If you are asked more than 3 times about the same thing, you should have already told them about it
It's an indicator that there may be cultural change management issues and/or you haven't sold people on an idea/project.
In your case it may not harm to do a little status to let people know where you are. You do have a project plan, and are tracking towards completion, right?
If you are so understaffed, it should have been apparent at the start of the project. And the time for the project to be completed should be known.
I get the impression you're missing something, but it's hard to nail based on the info above.
Slashdot Mirror
...but goddam it, it wouldn't run under Ubuntu. I'm not sure if it's an nVidia driver problem or a an acpi issue on my laptop.
BTW if anyone can help me to get norton to run on x86-64 that would be great too.
ws
Oh, there's a plenty good enough financial reason that all execs understand that has nothing to do with penalties as a result of being sued.
In software, non-compliance with legal licenses (open source or other) is one of the very few things that can result in you stop shipping your product.
And if you have to stop-ship an embedded software system, then it means that there's no point shipping just the hardware. Bye-bye to all revenue from the product. What can be worse than something which will instantly take your revenue to $0?
ws
It is actually surprising how much is involved in transporting the POTUS. Last time the POTUS was in town there was a considerable presence that travelled around with him and Air Force One is only a small part of that traveling circus. While the current VC-25 are starting to show their age, one does wonder just what sort of requirements creep are involved. It used to be that simpleton transport would be acceptable and in actuality, the 737 makes for a wonderful government transport in the C-40 and in fact the current 747 design (though modified since) has been in place since just 1990. In some ways the 747-8 does simplify some systems, making maintenance easier and cheaper as well as possessing more efficient engines, but just playing an opposing advocate, do we really need a 747-8 or an A380? My bias would be yes for a number of reasons, but I also think it is reasonable to ask some harder questions about what is actually required.
It is surprising how involved is the POTUS. Last time the POTUS was in town [utah.edu] there was a presence that travelled around with him and the One is a part of that traveling circus. While the current POTUS is starting to show his age, one does wonder just what sort of creep is involved. It used to be that simple would be acceptable and in actuality, it makes for a wonderful government. In fact the current design (though modified since) has been in place since 1990. In some ways it does simplify some systems, making maintenance easier and cheaper as well as more efficient, but just playing an opposing advocate, do we really need POTUS? My bias would be yes for a number of reasons, but I also think it is reasonable to ask some harder questions about what is actually required.
ws
Not all markets have backwards compatibility. Eg, in Australia, the 80GB model doesn't. In fact there is NO PS3 model in Australia that has it at all. The old discontinued 60GB models are prized.
Australia's a small enough market that Sony just doesn't give a shit about its customers.
ws
At first I thought you could have been an MS troll, but I see that most of your books are about 'beginning' something.
Welcome to the real world. Beginning is the easy part. The world of the typical consultant and author is for now, and implementation, and not for ongoing support - or to look back at what was said, and how you ended up in this mess.
Maybe all those 'beginning' customers are coming back and wondering why they can't get support for, say ubuntu 7.10 (vs say 8.04)? Maybe you need to explain in your books that the beginning is only a start of a journey.
The short answer is that you need to do your homework (or research if you are an author) up front. And totally understand the contract terms and conditions. If you don't, you deserve everything that you get.
ws
PS: Yes I have cleaned up a lot of sh!t from incompetent people.
NoCleanFeed has a pretty good site on how to take action on this.
If you're only bitching about this, and don't do anything, you are nothing more than a goatse.
ws
Look. The US, and the 'coalition of the willing' fucked up going into Iraq. Against any UN prerogative and setting a very dangerous precedent for any nation/state that has a beef with another nation/state.
I was living in the US during 9/11 and was actually pleased that the 'response' took some time coming. A measured response, and no knee-jerk reaction. Right. Afghanistan, though not necessarily winnable, was understandable. Iraq was not, and is not.
WMD my ass. Kudos to some who called that out. I feel sorry for Powell, because I think he was used as the only credible person in the administration. The fact that you don't like the head of state is not a sufficient reason to go to war with a country.
AFAICT, the whole war question is mothafuckd up. There should be no war. Is there actually a war? I vaguely recall that there was never any declaration. Anyways, the outcome is that every time the US goes to war, it just means you are creating a new generation of enemies.
Yes, war has brought you friends as well. My parents believe that you saved all Australians from Japan. I respect that, but your record since 1945 is not good. And my parents generation is pretty much gone.... Good deeds may be hearsay.
Mod me to hell. Where I am has not turned out much better....
ws
There's actually 2 versions of a product. One is the marketing version, this can be anything FooBar 2008, FooBar 8.04 (representing months) FooBar 2008 sp1 patch2 etc.
The other version number is really required for support. This needs to be able to specifically identify the build/patches applied to be able to provide the customer with help when they run into trouble. It can even be a build number. It's not sprayed all over the product as that is what the marketing version number is for. But maybe there's a particular screen or command line utility that provides this information.
The beauty is that if you recognise both, then you don't even need to enter into the marketing debate. It's nice to be able to say, "You can call it whatever you want, we just need to know x months in advance so we can put it in all the right places before testing".
If you want a specific example of this, look at Internet Explorer. It's marketing version is Internet Explorer 5 or 6 or whatever, but if you go to Help/About you will see a version number 5.02.0123773 which is probably a build number or something.
hth
ws
That's fine if you want to end up just having as many patents as possible. But you are not creating quality patents for true innovation.
How about a more balanced approach. As well as your incentives above, include:
1. $500 fine for any patent rejected by the USPTO
2. $1500 fine for anything that has prior art
3. $5000 fine for anyone submitting a frivolous patent
After all, if you expect everyone to know what can be patented, you should also expect them to know what can not be patented.
ws
Agreed. The summary is a classic example of poorly written requirements that makes assumptions about the solution.
Spend more time on what you want to do and why you want to do it. Don't say HOW.
ws
I've done this on a few old laptops. A couple of notes:
- Disk drives. Costs go down. A lot. For older HDDs @ 3600 or 4200rpm, if you have anywhere near a reasonable amount of memory, this is the easiest and best bang for the buck.
- Memory. If you buy new memory, the prices for older 'architectures' go up. Check out the price of 1GB pc2700 sodimm vs 1gb pc5300 sodimm (DDR2). It's about 2 to 3 times the cost for the older pc2700.
- CPU. Never actually done this, but have thought about it on some occasions. Best to find some boards or references where it has been done successfully - and which CPUs are OK. Actually finding a CPU can be hard.
Ultimately, I end up maxing out my RAM either when I buy it or within the first year. Hard disk drives, I just buy the minimum size at the time of purchase as I can pick up a cheaper and bigger one later on.
Also, it's worthwhile considering a NSLU2 or the like as a cheaper permanent storage solution and keeping the 'latest' information on the smaller laptop storage.
Cheers
ws
blincoln: I didn't know Lil Jon worked in the tech industry. I suddenly feel the need to crunk-enable all of my servers.
Lil John: Whaaat?
blincoln: I didn't know Lil Jon worked in the tech industry. I suddenly feel the need to crunk-enable all of my servers.
blincoln: I didn't know Lil Jon worked in the tech industry. I suddenly feel the need to crunk-enable all of my servers.Lil John: Whaaat?
Lil John: Whaaat?
blincoln: I didn't know Lil Jon worked in the tech industry. I suddenly feel the need to crunk-enable all of my servers.
Lil John: YEEEEAAAAAAH!
Whaaat?
...but a friend of mine knows a little bit.
He tells me that lots of people already have copyright filter software on their machines. I think it was called bittorrent or something....
.... nor did it provide keys to unlock the cryptic codes used in the dataset.'"
It's because all the keys in the datasets identify different kinds of UFOs !!
What a great way to stop people selling their iPods to someone else and instantly making 2nd hand market for iPods impossible!
1. The device is 'attached' to a particular person's computer(s)
2. The device and user is known to the manufacturer, eg via iTunes
3. As the iPod can be effectively rendered useless if someone else buys or uses it, you can't buy one 2nd hand, so you have to fork out for a new one.
4. Profit!
I suggest buying AAPL immediately!
...the real fun is watching the interpretation, extrapolation and speculation begin on what is really being done from a technical standpoint.
Don't you mean from a technical, political, socio-economic and religious standpoint?
Sorry, I can't work out if that is sarcasm, or if you own stock in Crystal Reports?
I've had the experience of working in a place where everyone had their own office, and also in my current employer (who shall remain nameless) where *no-one* has an office.
In the everyone had their own office scenario, it was great to get things done. But it was a bitch when you were new and didn't know many people. There just wasn't the opportunity to mix much. Once you get over that hurdle, it's very good.
In the current place where it's all cubicle/open floor, I find it annoying. Not because of disturbances as when I get focussed you could probably let off a bomb and I wouldn't notice. But what really pisses me off is the 'grandstanders'. Basically, you're trying to have a discussion with them, but they are talking to show their 'superiority' to the people around them - like their boss at the next cubicle. Meantime, you have to wait patiently while thinking "I know. Yeah, that's pretty f'ing obvious. Who would ever think of doing that?". It's also an environment that's difficult to have 'unofficial' conversations in. Which is how you get things done and what makes the world go round...
ws
This dude Andreesen was living two lives. In one, he was a computer guy for a respectable software company. You know, had a social security number, paid his taxes and helped the landlady take out her garbage. In the other, he was a black hat and was guilty of pretty well every computer crime.
Anyways, he took this blue pill and life went on as normal
ws
And beta 3 will cost $450 rrp. It's just they will forget to add the Beta 3 to the name and accidentally send it out to the stores
Tell me about it.
I made a conscious decision to leave the US and return to Australia because I didn't have a lot of faith in the way things were going in the US.
You can imagine my horror over the last 18 months.
- federal 'monopoly' of both houses of parliament. WTF happened to the Democrats whose motto was 'keep the bastards honest'?
- Howard bends over and takes it deeply and willingly on copyright/patents for the US trade agreement while gaining nothing for the primary industry
- Australian Wheat Board. Fuck it. I can't stand saying anything about that.
- The media who incites racism and intolerance and then wonders why there are riots and shit.
- Australia seems to be *everyone's* bitch. Just pulling something topical off the top of my head, oh let's talk about uranium sales. Google it. I'm too pissed to do it for you.
OK, well you thought that was a rant, let's try this.
IMNSHO, Australian state govt's should be RESTRUCTURED. Yes, let's use that latest *brilliant* Industrial Relations reforms and do away with them altogether. We wouldn't have to pay any redundancy. Australia has only about 25m people - about the same as CA in the US. So you have a federal govt and stop all the bitching between the states 'Oh, but we have MORE *insert bullshit here* than that other state'. And LOCAL government.
The whole concept of 'federation' is nowadays bullshit.
Anyone want to start a party?
ws
And put me on your motherfucking Big Brother list. It can't be any more inane than the 'reality' show.
Wiresquire's law:If you are asked more than 3 times about the same thing, you should have already told them about it
It's an indicator that there may be cultural change management issues and/or you haven't sold people on an idea/project.
In your case it may not harm to do a little status to let people know where you are. You do have a project plan, and are tracking towards completion, right?
If you are so understaffed, it should have been apparent at the start of the project. And the time for the project to be completed should be known.
I get the impression you're missing something, but it's hard to nail based on the info above.
ws
Bwahahahahahaha
/. Oh the shame
Parent and grandparent must be AOL'ers !!!
I'd never admit that on
As an Australian, let me be the first to disown him.
Fuck you canada! You can have him back - and take this trashy medal with you on your way out.