I suspect that in thirty years software industry will be quite different from what we have today.
First of all, the majority of commercial software will target businesses. We are going to see more and more business specifict software crafted for special market purposes. Smaller software companies will work directly with the customers for the customers' needs. That way these IT shops will be able to charge reasonable prices and stay afloat. How many Open Source contributors will be willing to write software based on specifications of one and only one business?
Secondly, we are going to have less commerical software that targets individual buyers. For the exception of several operating systems and high-speciality applications. We are going to reach this point sooner than you think. For example, although I have paid for Mac OS X, I haven't paid a dime for any additional software that I use and I do not have any illegal copies; thanks to Darwinports, I have quite a few Open Source applications.
Finally, I believe that most of the IT companies will rely more on the revenues generated by support rather than by the actual products that they sell. As we face global economy, goods will become cheaper, yet we'll have to pay the same amount of money for quality technical support and installation services.
P.S.: If U.S. businesses want to stay competitive maybe it makes sense to review salaries of CEOs and other corporate elite. I have no mercy for corporations who file for Chapter 11 while writing out multi-million dollar checks to their vps and presidents.
Who the fuck cares? Look, I know that we have plenty of fifteen year-old girls who cannot live a day without being updated with the latest information about J. Lo and Britney Spears. Also, there are plenty of geeks who complain about people giving too much crap about celebrities; however, rants stop when it comes to influential people in the tech. field.
Do you really care what somebody eats for breakfast? No, really? Are you that fucking bored out of your mind that you're willing to waste electrons and your time to read about how somebody famous deals with everyday life? Jesus, get a fucking live and do something productive.
There is a great Russian expression that I can related to frequent eBay buyers. As the saying goes, people who buy on eBay usually want "i konfetku s'est, i na hui sest." In crude translation that means "one wants to eat a candy and get laid at the same time." People want to buy something for dirt cheap and make sure that they do not get ripped off.
Personally, I would not buy anything that cost more than $50 on Ebay. When you are getting something at a flea market, at least you can look at it. With Ebay you do not even know what you're getting until you actually get it. Then it is too late. Many of my friends bought expensive items, like telescopts and SCSI hard drives, through the auction to find out that they paid for what they really got. Why do that if there are safer alternatives?
First of all, there is Half.com that is owned by, surprise, Ebay. Purchases made through that site are protected up to $700; the company holds information about buyers' and sellers' accounts and can refund purchases without too many problems.
Then there is Craigslist.com. It is a free classifieds for many metropolitan areas. I live in Boston, I check out the Boston section of the site then I drive to see the actual goods sold by people in my area. If I like them, I buy them. No gimmicks have happend to me so far.
Finally, you can always use your credit card company in order to deal with bogus purchases. According to many user agreements you can refuse to pay a charge on your card if you receive goods that are damaged or were described differently when you were purchasing them. I haven't tried this method myself, but I've heard it works.
Well, good luck to those of you who like to bargain hunt. I'd rather over pay at a local store or on a flea market.
To be honest with you, now I cannot do any math without a book. Sure, I have learned quite a lot of useful stuff, but because I have never had to use it, I forgot most of it. The trick is to learn something and keep using it.
A couple of weeks ago I got back into OpenGL programming and as a result, I had to remember some stuff about multi-variable Calculus. If I had not taken it in school, I would have had problems with it, but because I knew what to look for, I was able to restore my knowledge within several minutes. The point is: learning is good becuase once you learn something, you can fall back on your knowledge if a right time comes. If you haven't learned math, what are you going to do when you need to use it? Learning it from scratch is harder than flipping through a book and remembering what is what.
I work as a system administrator for a small non-profit. I have enough work and dealing with configuration of yet another Linux box is not something that I would like to do on my free time. Do not get me wrong, I love what I do for living; however, I do not want to do my work at work and at home.
When I switched to Mac OS X I was fairly pleased with the fact that I could work from home on a system with a stable GUI that hasn't crashed on me in more than one and a half years. I can do all my work on a system that does not require a lot of maintenace; that increses my productivity.
I am impressed by the quality of Xcode and how much you can do with it without installing a ton of new things. I can do OpengL programming, write user interfaces and do all sorts of things out of the box -- install Xcode and you're a done! Did I mention well-integrated Java support?
With that in mind, I am looking forward to the new version of the operating system that I love to use. However, I hope that Apple incudes more than new icons and new GUI features in 10.4. Here is my small wish list:
Update CVS to the most recent version.
Add better group and user management. For example, make sure that every user is a member of 'staff' and the admin user is a member of 'staff' and 'wheel.' It would be cool if UNIX inclined people could have a set of advanced options when it comes to user creation.
Fix passwd. I would like to use it in order to change my passwords; it is faster for me that way. I am sure that this command can be updated to change my KeyChain password.
Add more fonts.
Add tabbed sessions for Terminal. I know that there is iTerm, but it choked on me way too many times. I like Terminal better.
Add virtual desktops as a part of the window manager.
Provide a stable front end to firewall that supports both TCP and UDP rules. Currently, only TCP traffic can be managed.
Well, I guess that is it for 10.4.
I remember laughing at Microsoft's posters at school. The company wanted to hire some inters for the summer, then, as the poster promised, the good ones would be offered full-time positions. At that point of time I said, "Bullshit, I am never going to work for them. I am a Linux geek. I hate that company!"
I have been out of college for almost a year. I wish I had applied to Microsoft and interned there instead of different small companies around New England. Why? Well, first of all, they offered a good paycheck, secondly, the company did not have major layoffs compared to some other IT giants. Finally, with $50K in loans, I could use a job that paid well.
Do not get me wrong, I still like Open Source and none of my home (and work) computers run Windows. However, paycheck is a paycheck. I am sure that sales guy felt the same way too. It is nice to do what is right, but sometimes you have to do what you must in order to survive. Good for him, I hope he does a good job and then gets out when shit hits the fan.
I do not know about you, but I really do not want to pay for yet another safari. We went to the moon, fought in Vietnam and made two trips to Iraq. I still do not see how that affects me, a regular tax payer. Our government pisses through our money, creates enormous deficits, and instead of solving the problems that we have right here right now, we want to solve the problems that we do not even have. What_the_fuck?
Do not get me wrong, I am a big fan of physics and astronomy; I would love if we could afford to spend money on space programs. However, there are millions of Americans without health insurance. Our kids are dying in the desert, and this country is turning into a clusterfuck. Why not spend money on where it counts and then see if we have enough for a space program. Drive across the country and you will see that there is a lot of stuff that we can improve. Inner cities, impoverished rural schools, roads. If you really want to make my life better, please spend money on traffic management and alternative sources of power.
Let's provide health and childcare for those who cannot afford it. How about tuition-free state schools for good students? We lost some jobs due to off-shoring, why not retrain the professionals and move on? I bet this is hard to swallow for the guys in Washington. Lockheed Martin and Boeing can survive without more government contracts.
Finally, let people vote on it. If people want to vote on same-sex marriage, I do not see why people can't vote when it comes on spending billons of tax dollars on pretty pictures from Mars.
If I hadn't chosen computer science as a major, I would have gone into fashion design. I like people who dress with style and I try to do it myself (or at least I have been told so). And here is something that I would like to share with my fellow slashdotters: please do not encorporate anything electronic into your clothing.
Same goes for tappered jeans, shirts that say "Drunk Chicks Dig Me" and socks with sandals.
Seriously, do not clip your cell phones, pages and other electronic devices to your belts. It will not make you look cute or geeky; you'll look like a total nerd and good luck getting a date ( a real date, not some 16/f/CT hot cheerleader that you talk to on IRC) with that. People seem to forget that despite everything new that comes out every year, the coolest things are still the basics. Take nice comfortable jeans, suede loafers and a nice cotton t-shirt for example. Whit shirts and black suits seem never go out of style as well. As long as you dress comfortably and not sloppy, you'll do fine. If you do not know what to get, go to a store that sells stuff that is fairly decent and modern clothing. Get a nice shirt and a pair of linen pants -- feel comfortable. If you're in doubt, ask you female friends for an advice; trust me, they know what they like in men. Also, remember you can pull anything -- well almost anything -- off (I mean it) as long as you're confident enough.
The basics are here to stay for longer than any of the dresses that require a chip update every six months. Personally, I think that clothing and technology do not mix for various reasons. That's my $0.02.
That's what I think. Isn't it fucking ironic when countries bitch about the United States and do not do jack shit about it? Nothing makes me laugh harder than young Palestinians who wear football jersies and watch pirated American movies and then blame the United States for every piece of shit that has ever hit the global fan.
Hello, you sick fucks around the world, open your eyes. Corporate world wants you to take it further up your ass and all you do is bend over. Also, there are many Americans that oppose military actions. There are plenty of us who want to leave the world alone because we do not want to pay for wars and we have better things to do.
This might be a bit off topic, but here is what I have to say to all the asswipes who blame the United States for everything that has gone sour in the world. You can mod me down as "Flamebait", I do not really care, but before you do it, please read the rest of the post.
Lately, it seems that when shit his the fan, Americans are to blame. According to many stories that I have heard so far, this country is responsible for turning the planet into a big clusterfuck full of Gap outlets, Starbucks and low-quality enterntainment. Then we go out on world-wide safaris and kill innocent people. Shame on us!
Well, here is what I have to say: "Shut the fuck up and do something about it!" Do not like Coke and blue jeans? Guess what, nobody's forcing you to have them. If you think that our culture sucks because we tend to do what we like? Well, you are free to keep your own. You do not have to like what Americans like. You do not have to listen to our music, watch our movies and act like we do. If you want to learn something from us, please write down that it is okay to be different in the United States (but then again, think for yourself). And if we get into your face, make sure that you retaliate. I am dead serious about it. I can relate to that on a personal note.
See, when I was in middle school, I was skinny and not-so-athletic. Bigger guys liked to pick on me and one of them scheduled a "gladiator" fight where he was going to kick my ass in front of his friends and some girls which I happened to like. I did not have a choice; three of that guy's friends dragged me to the playground behind the school during a break where an audience was formed. Well, my friend was in for a treat; I knew that I had nothing to lose. I entered the playground and kicked him in his knees before he could say a word, when he lowered his head to check out the damage, I kicked him in the face. Then again, and again; I kept on doing it even whe he was on the ground; he would have done the same for me. I knocked out his tooth and made sure that he had enough blood to spit out until the end of the week. To tell you the truth, it felt fucking good. I was the only weak geek boy in my class who could stand up for himself and since that day nobody ever touched me. Some of his friends tried to threaten me, but the would not do it without him. And, trust me, he chose to leave me alone. Whe my mom asked me what I had learned at school that day, I told her that I had found out that the world was not fair, but I still could take an advantage through my own actions.
As an American citizen I am proud to see that Australia has enough balls to say "No!" to us. The other countries should do the same. Let's face it, we, Americans, will be better off that way because our tax money will not be spent on policing the rest of the world. Foreign countries and their people are fully capable to live on their own without Uncle Sam watching over their shoulders. I can only hope that more countries will follow Australia and do what is right, instead of what the U.S. wants them to do. Hopefully that will make our politicians think more. Afterall, they won't put every goddamn state on this planet on the "Axis of Evil." Also, please note that Australia was not the only country to do that. If my memory serves right, France has taken the same course of actions as well.
Finally, if you happen to be a non-U.S. resident and if you have an urge to blame the States for something, please take a look at your country. It is hard to agree with the Russians who are against the war in Iraq, while their own forces manage to bomb the living fuck out of Chechnya on a daily basis. The French are eager to bash us for our nuclear weapons; however, it is okay for them to test their nukes in the South Pacific.
I feel that there is a slight problem with your proxy setup. If RIAA can't get your public shares, the other users won't be able to do it as well. That is exactly what RIAA wants.
If nobody is sharing, nobody is going to be able to download and share the information further. That kills the whole point of P2P and assists RIAA in its battle.
Have you? Let me tell you something, I know a few plumbers who used to run small businesses and while they did okay, their salaries were not near $45/hr.
First of all you you have to get a license. Then you have to get insurance, then you have to get equipment, then you have to get your name out and do some advertising. If you want to be serious you'll have to get an accountant (at least part-time). Then you have to go through people's shit, literaly.
The plumber that I know retired at the age of 60. Not bad, he had a decent income throughout his life, but he never had excess. You have to realize that although the rates are $45/hr, these guys do not work 40 hours per week all the time and when it comes to paying health insurance, sick days and vactation pay, they are on their own.
That's what my friend told me. According to his MBA program, companies are not interested in long-term profits. He said that in order to survive a company must post good results every quarter first, then think of what is going to happen in a few years. For him, and many other MBAs, the only thing that matters are the numbers that meet or exceed the estimates when the time comes. I think that this is the major part of this problem.
In the age of corporate greed, layoffs and seven figure CEO salaries, nobody cares about engineers. Sell, sell, sell!!! That's what our life is all about. I know quite a few of engineers who tell their children to do business instead of science becuase that is the reality of this world: science does not pay anymore. Not in this country. Why spend $100,000 on good education in science if you end up selling crap at your local Gap?
Unless Uncle Sam takes his head out of his fat American ass and starts supporting industrial and academic research in THIS country, we are all fucking doomed; that comes from a die hard optimist. It makes me sick when we spend so much money on wars when the brighest and the smartest have to beg for grants.
When it comes to separating Egyptian twins or performing a plastic surgery on a burnt girl from Afganistan, this country is here to help. When it comes to giving more money to universities, well, we're too fucking poor.
I have worked for two software development companies that sold big-scale web software. In both of the cases the software was pretty expensive and piss poor. Let's face it, if you want a customer to spend $50,000, you better make software that is easy to use and learn. Stick to some HCI guidelines too.
How does that related to free software and Linux? Simple, so far a great majority of GPLed products that I have seen lacked good GUIs. I do not want to have a lot of cute pictures, I do not want to have a lot of cool buttons. However, things like good tooltips and consistency across the application would be nice. If you are selling a web-based product, make sure that all of your 'OK' buttons are in the same corner and that you're using either the standard buttons or customized image buttons, not both. 'Help' and 'Undo' options must be provided as well. You do not have to spend a ton of time to figure out the exact guidelines, just use Apple's.
Also, for a user there is nothing more frustrating that an "Unknown Error." If you have error messages, make sure that they explain the error and give an approprite error code. People like simple things like that. Fortunately, there is a lot of room for improvement. Rock on!
I have to say that consumption in large quantities must be an American trend. I came to the United States during my early teens and I have turned into an American since then because a lot of my views have formed here, not in my country of birth. However, I am still can't understand why Americans buy so much crap.
A friend of mine always buys Xmas presents for the next year right after Xmas in order to save money. She's not poor, she makes good money and yet if the stuff goes on sale, she gets it automatically. Whenever she goes to Gap she shops by weight, I swear! As long as she can carry it, she gets it. There there are other units that raid Wal-Mart on a weekly basis where they get more stuff than they can cosume in a month. What the fuck is up with that? I do enjoy having a clean shirt everyday myself, but in my case I have X number of shirts that I bought a long time ago and I am not planning on getting any new ones as long as the old shirts are in good shape. That's not the case with the majority of Americans that I know.
Excellent! You said it the right way but unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it. Remeber, the United States of American is a country where people free to do what they want to do. I totally support you, unfortunately for one person like yourself there are 100 "denominators" that will disagree with you until they die.
Moreover, there are a lot of smart people who are interested in keeping people stupid because stupid and uneducated tend not to bitch about stuff as long as you keep on enterntaining them.
I have no problems with spam as long as it is targeted towards people who may benefit from it. If somebody loves to receive spam and spend money on goods advertised through that method, more power to them; at least they keep some people employed and spend money. However, what bothers me is that according to WSJ, only a small fraction of people who receive spam buy their stuff that way. I would love to do more shopping through e-mail advertising if companies did not trash my inbox on a daily basis and send me stuff that I am interested in. For example, I have no problems if a legid company sends me a news letter once in two months telling me what they have for ME. If I receive 5-10 e-mails per month that contribute to my needs, I have no problems with it.
The thing is that I hate malls and shopping. I know what I want and what I need. I know my sizes and the styles that I like. I live in Boston and any trip to the mall will cost me whatever I spend on the goods plus at least two-fifty that I spend on transportation plus a couple of dollars that I normally spend on food. I do not know why women are so crazy about shopping; I think it is a waste of my time.
The solution to my problem comes in the mail; both standard and electronic. I signed up letters from several retailers (Green Mountain Coffe, J.Crew, etc). Now my coffee comes in the mail, same goes for clothing and accessories in case if I need them. If I do not need this crap, I simply delete stuff from my inbox and recycle the catalogs. Insted of wasting hours on shopping, I am relaxing, running, going to the gym. In fact, I am about to sign up for Pea-Pod, a delivery service provided by Stop-and-Shop. They can deliver food of my choice right to my door for $5. Pretty good, huh?
Hey there, my friends and I have come to the same result in our biology class when we grew bacteria that we have swiped from different surfaces. Things like keyboards and mice were nightmares compared to toilet lids. However, this is not the ned and here is what you can do.
First of all get anti-bacterial gel to wipe your hands after you use a bathroom. Secondly, buy some anti-bacterial wipes and wipe your keyboard every morning. These items are small enough to store in your office and cheap enough to buy on a regular basis. Also, I have noticed that a lot of my friends liked to sneeze and then go straight for the keyboard. It did not really bother me until they started doing it while using my box; that's when I put a box of wipes right next to my monitor. Most of my friends still sneeze, but instead of wiping their hands on my keyboard, they do it on a wipe. Putting a box of wipes on your table is a polite way of saying "please use that if you sneeze."
I have to admit that my gf's brother still has zero understanding when it comes to personal hygine (or lack thereof). When it comes to his case, I tell him to "wipe his fucking hands off!" Works like a charm.
How about requring MicroSoft to install third-party players as well as its own media player? That would provide more choices to users and the users will be able to choose whatever they like. In my opinion, this is way better than completely removing useful software from the system.
Let the end users decide what they want. Personally, I think that Windows Media Player is a lot better than Winamp or other alternatives; however, I would not mind if everybody had a chance to compare and decide.
Things like that would never happen if Main Street U.S.A. had good education and ability to think outside the box. The PATRIOT act sounds so mighty powerful to an average Joe; he does not know that "patriot" in the title of the act is just an abbreviation for some mambo-jumbo. Then there is our president who is focused on fighting terrorism and he will do anything to make people believe in danger. He portrays himself as a hero while real heros have to eat shit and die Iraq. He waves a flag, that is probably made in China, while taking away medical benefits from our vets. Where is the rage? Where are the Americans who want to live in the land of the free?
One might say that there are educated people that support the act because somebody had to vote for it. Unfortunately this is correct: there are rich and well-educated people who are interested in this act because they do not want to lose their precious multi-million houses, expensive cars and wine collections. These people come out and lie because they know that average Joes will believe them. They wrap themselves into our flag and they say words like "patriotism," "american dream," and "freedom." The sad thing is that many people go for these lies because THEY DO NOT KNOW BETTER.
With that in mind, here is my wish list. I want American kids to study more history, sociology, and political-science. Make our kids aware of what is going on in the world because if you do not, they will turn into pathetic adults who can express no rage when it is needed. I want our future generations to stand up and go on Washington D.C. if their president leads them into a senseless war or tries to take their freedom away.
Amen to that my brother. You described it better than I have, if I could, I'd mod you up. I feel the same way as you do I think that people are afraid of new things, that is why they resist "Western Invasion."
I remember being told not to wear blue jeans to school, because, according to my teacher, only working class people wore jeans in the United States; that happened when I lived in the USSR. She did not like me listening to rock-n'-roll music as well.
Okay, I made a small mistake. I wanted to say that my views were closer to Western philosophy, not Western culture. Also, I was trying to compare the United States with India and not some other European countries.
I know that there are Western countries that are based on democracy and that can be just as good as the United States; I do not argue about it. Additionally, I would like to discuss what you call as McDonald's mainstream culture. Yes, we do have fast food but this is not the only thing that defines America, and franky I'd rather eat that crap that Indian cousine (that's another reason for staying in the U.S.). My point is that in the United States people have more opportunities and ways of living their lives due to lesser degree of cultural and religious influence. That is something very important.
Now let's talk about traditions. In my post I did not try to suggest that everybody is the same in India; no, they are not. I have enough Indian friend to know better. However, all my Indian friends have something in common: all of them had arranged marriages, their dads were considered to be heads of the household, and most of them praised the United States for making men and women equal in the eyes of the law. Now, that's a mighty good reason for me to stay here. If I have a daughter and a son, I want them to have equal opportunities everywhere. There are many traditions in India and they are pretty stong too. In the United States I choose my traditions, in India it seems vice versa; at least that's what my friends said.
My former co-worker was so happy to end up in the United States because his children could actually go to school and his children were able to choose their own destiny.
Finally, let's talk about opportunities for an average guy.
From your point of view it seems like only the best deserve to live and less fortunate people are doomed. That is not very nice, do not you think? Should we kill the weak ones or the ones who cannot be as good as the others? For example, I have a close friend who is disabled. He has an advanced degree in a disability related discipline and he is trying to help physically challenged people to live normal lives. According to his recent studies, developing countries are the worst place to be for anybody who has a disability due to the lack of appropriate laws; India was on his list. What's your take on it? For me, that is another reason why I'd like to stay in the United States.
The list can go on and on and on. I will not bring up stuff like pr0n, living together without being married, premartial sex, being gay, etc. I do not need these things to make my life complete, but I like having those options. Have a great weekend.
I have a couple of things to tell you. First of all, having a graduate degree does not mean anything if you cannot apply your knowledge at work. Many of U.S. college graduates choose to obtain an advanced degree later in life because they have more experience and they really know what they want to do and where to steer their careers. Many American professionals continue with their education as need arises. Why should you study databases or computer graphics if you do not need them for what you do for living?
Secondly, American industries have responded to the markets. Although it took them a while, car companies began to manufacture cars that can compete with European and Japanese (according to Consumer Reports Guide, the latest models of American cars proved to be more reliable than European, still lagging behind the Japanese though). And when Indians create world-class software that can benefit American businesses, we will welcome them. We will pay pennies on a dollar for these systems and bring our economy to the next level, while India will become our software shop. Then we'll come up with a better technology and then you can take it over when we want to mass produce it.
Slashdot Mirror
I suspect that in thirty years software industry will be quite different from what we have today.
First of all, the majority of commercial software will target businesses. We are going to see more and more business specifict software crafted for special market purposes. Smaller software companies will work directly with the customers for the customers' needs. That way these IT shops will be able to charge reasonable prices and stay afloat. How many Open Source contributors will be willing to write software based on specifications of one and only one business?
Secondly, we are going to have less commerical software that targets individual buyers. For the exception of several operating systems and high-speciality applications. We are going to reach this point sooner than you think. For example, although I have paid for Mac OS X, I haven't paid a dime for any additional software that I use and I do not have any illegal copies; thanks to Darwinports, I have quite a few Open Source applications.
Finally, I believe that most of the IT companies will rely more on the revenues generated by support rather than by the actual products that they sell. As we face global economy, goods will become cheaper, yet we'll have to pay the same amount of money for quality technical support and installation services.
P.S.: If U.S. businesses want to stay competitive maybe it makes sense to review salaries of CEOs and other corporate elite. I have no mercy for corporations who file for Chapter 11 while writing out multi-million dollar checks to their vps and presidents.
Who the fuck cares? Look, I know that we have plenty of fifteen year-old girls who cannot live a day without being updated with the latest information about J. Lo and Britney Spears. Also, there are plenty of geeks who complain about people giving too much crap about celebrities; however, rants stop when it comes to influential people in the tech. field.
Do you really care what somebody eats for breakfast? No, really? Are you that fucking bored out of your mind that you're willing to waste electrons and your time to read about how somebody famous deals with everyday life? Jesus, get a fucking live and do something productive.
There is a great Russian expression that I can related to frequent eBay buyers. As the saying goes, people who buy on eBay usually want "i konfetku s'est, i na hui sest." In crude translation that means "one wants to eat a candy and get laid at the same time." People want to buy something for dirt cheap and make sure that they do not get ripped off.
Personally, I would not buy anything that cost more than $50 on Ebay. When you are getting something at a flea market, at least you can look at it. With Ebay you do not even know what you're getting until you actually get it. Then it is too late. Many of my friends bought expensive items, like telescopts and SCSI hard drives, through the auction to find out that they paid for what they really got. Why do that if there are safer alternatives?
First of all, there is Half.com that is owned by, surprise, Ebay. Purchases made through that site are protected up to $700; the company holds information about buyers' and sellers' accounts and can refund purchases without too many problems.
Then there is Craigslist.com. It is a free classifieds for many metropolitan areas. I live in Boston, I check out the Boston section of the site then I drive to see the actual goods sold by people in my area. If I like them, I buy them. No gimmicks have happend to me so far.
Finally, you can always use your credit card company in order to deal with bogus purchases. According to many user agreements you can refuse to pay a charge on your card if you receive goods that are damaged or were described differently when you were purchasing them. I haven't tried this method myself, but I've heard it works.
Well, good luck to those of you who like to bargain hunt. I'd rather over pay at a local store or on a flea market.
That would be a great hard to find item.
It is what you know that counts.
I took the following math classes in college:
Descrete Math
Calc 1
Calc 2
Calc 3
Linear Algebra
Statistics 1
Statistics 2
Combinatorics
To be honest with you, now I cannot do any math without a book. Sure, I have learned quite a lot of useful stuff, but because I have never had to use it, I forgot most of it. The trick is to learn something and keep using it.
A couple of weeks ago I got back into OpenGL programming and as a result, I had to remember some stuff about multi-variable Calculus. If I had not taken it in school, I would have had problems with it, but because I knew what to look for, I was able to restore my knowledge within several minutes. The point is: learning is good becuase once you learn something, you can fall back on your knowledge if a right time comes. If you haven't learned math, what are you going to do when you need to use it? Learning it from scratch is harder than flipping through a book and remembering what is what.
I work as a system administrator for a small non-profit. I have enough work and dealing with configuration of yet another Linux box is not something that I would like to do on my free time. Do not get me wrong, I love what I do for living; however, I do not want to do my work at work and at home.
When I switched to Mac OS X I was fairly pleased with the fact that I could work from home on a system with a stable GUI that hasn't crashed on me in more than one and a half years. I can do all my work on a system that does not require a lot of maintenace; that increses my productivity. I am impressed by the quality of Xcode and how much you can do with it without installing a ton of new things. I can do OpengL programming, write user interfaces and do all sorts of things out of the box -- install Xcode and you're a done! Did I mention well-integrated Java support?
With that in mind, I am looking forward to the new version of the operating system that I love to use. However, I hope that Apple incudes more than new icons and new GUI features in 10.4. Here is my small wish list:
Update CVS to the most recent version.
Add better group and user management. For example, make sure that every user is a member of 'staff' and the admin user is a member of 'staff' and 'wheel.' It would be cool if UNIX inclined people could have a set of advanced options when it comes to user creation.
Fix passwd. I would like to use it in order to change my passwords; it is faster for me that way. I am sure that this command can be updated to change my KeyChain password.
Add more fonts.
Add tabbed sessions for Terminal. I know that there is iTerm, but it choked on me way too many times. I like Terminal better.
Add virtual desktops as a part of the window manager.
Provide a stable front end to firewall that supports both TCP and UDP rules. Currently, only TCP traffic can be managed.
Well, I guess that is it for 10.4.
I remember laughing at Microsoft's posters at school. The company wanted to hire some inters for the summer, then, as the poster promised, the good ones would be offered full-time positions. At that point of time I said, "Bullshit, I am never going to work for them. I am a Linux geek. I hate that company!"
I have been out of college for almost a year. I wish I had applied to Microsoft and interned there instead of different small companies around New England. Why? Well, first of all, they offered a good paycheck, secondly, the company did not have major layoffs compared to some other IT giants. Finally, with $50K in loans, I could use a job that paid well.
Do not get me wrong, I still like Open Source and none of my home (and work) computers run Windows. However, paycheck is a paycheck. I am sure that sales guy felt the same way too. It is nice to do what is right, but sometimes you have to do what you must in order to survive. Good for him, I hope he does a good job and then gets out when shit hits the fan.
I do not know about you, but I really do not want to pay for yet another safari. We went to the moon, fought in Vietnam and made two trips to Iraq. I still do not see how that affects me, a regular tax payer. Our government pisses through our money, creates enormous deficits, and instead of solving the problems that we have right here right now, we want to solve the problems that we do not even have. What_the_fuck?
Do not get me wrong, I am a big fan of physics and astronomy; I would love if we could afford to spend money on space programs. However, there are millions of Americans without health insurance. Our kids are dying in the desert, and this country is turning into a clusterfuck. Why not spend money on where it counts and then see if we have enough for a space program. Drive across the country and you will see that there is a lot of stuff that we can improve. Inner cities, impoverished rural schools, roads. If you really want to make my life better, please spend money on traffic management and alternative sources of power.
Let's provide health and childcare for those who cannot afford it. How about tuition-free state schools for good students? We lost some jobs due to off-shoring, why not retrain the professionals and move on? I bet this is hard to swallow for the guys in Washington. Lockheed Martin and Boeing can survive without more government contracts.
Finally, let people vote on it. If people want to vote on same-sex marriage, I do not see why people can't vote when it comes on spending billons of tax dollars on pretty pictures from Mars.
If I hadn't chosen computer science as a major, I would have gone into fashion design. I like people who dress with style and I try to do it myself (or at least I have been told so). And here is something that I would like to share with my fellow slashdotters: please do not encorporate anything electronic into your clothing. Same goes for tappered jeans, shirts that say "Drunk Chicks Dig Me" and socks with sandals.
Seriously, do not clip your cell phones, pages and other electronic devices to your belts. It will not make you look cute or geeky; you'll look like a total nerd and good luck getting a date ( a real date, not some 16/f/CT hot cheerleader that you talk to on IRC) with that. People seem to forget that despite everything new that comes out every year, the coolest things are still the basics. Take nice comfortable jeans, suede loafers and a nice cotton t-shirt for example. Whit shirts and black suits seem never go out of style as well. As long as you dress comfortably and not sloppy, you'll do fine. If you do not know what to get, go to a store that sells stuff that is fairly decent and modern clothing. Get a nice shirt and a pair of linen pants -- feel comfortable. If you're in doubt, ask you female friends for an advice; trust me, they know what they like in men. Also, remember you can pull anything -- well almost anything -- off (I mean it) as long as you're confident enough.
The basics are here to stay for longer than any of the dresses that require a chip update every six months. Personally, I think that clothing and technology do not mix for various reasons. That's my $0.02.
That's what I think. Isn't it fucking ironic when countries bitch about the United States and do not do jack shit about it? Nothing makes me laugh harder than young Palestinians who wear football jersies and watch pirated American movies and then blame the United States for every piece of shit that has ever hit the global fan.
Hello, you sick fucks around the world, open your eyes. Corporate world wants you to take it further up your ass and all you do is bend over. Also, there are many Americans that oppose military actions. There are plenty of us who want to leave the world alone because we do not want to pay for wars and we have better things to do.
This might be a bit off topic, but here is what I have to say to all the asswipes who blame the United States for everything that has gone sour in the world. You can mod me down as "Flamebait", I do not really care, but before you do it, please read the rest of the post.
Lately, it seems that when shit his the fan, Americans are to blame. According to many stories that I have heard so far, this country is responsible for turning the planet into a big clusterfuck full of Gap outlets, Starbucks and low-quality enterntainment. Then we go out on world-wide safaris and kill innocent people. Shame on us!
Well, here is what I have to say: "Shut the fuck up and do something about it!" Do not like Coke and blue jeans? Guess what, nobody's forcing you to have them. If you think that our culture sucks because we tend to do what we like? Well, you are free to keep your own. You do not have to like what Americans like. You do not have to listen to our music, watch our movies and act like we do. If you want to learn something from us, please write down that it is okay to be different in the United States (but then again, think for yourself). And if we get into your face, make sure that you retaliate. I am dead serious about it. I can relate to that on a personal note.
See, when I was in middle school, I was skinny and not-so-athletic. Bigger guys liked to pick on me and one of them scheduled a "gladiator" fight where he was going to kick my ass in front of his friends and some girls which I happened to like. I did not have a choice; three of that guy's friends dragged me to the playground behind the school during a break where an audience was formed. Well, my friend was in for a treat; I knew that I had nothing to lose. I entered the playground and kicked him in his knees before he could say a word, when he lowered his head to check out the damage, I kicked him in the face. Then again, and again; I kept on doing it even whe he was on the ground; he would have done the same for me. I knocked out his tooth and made sure that he had enough blood to spit out until the end of the week. To tell you the truth, it felt fucking good. I was the only weak geek boy in my class who could stand up for himself and since that day nobody ever touched me. Some of his friends tried to threaten me, but the would not do it without him. And, trust me, he chose to leave me alone. Whe my mom asked me what I had learned at school that day, I told her that I had found out that the world was not fair, but I still could take an advantage through my own actions.
As an American citizen I am proud to see that Australia has enough balls to say "No!" to us. The other countries should do the same. Let's face it, we, Americans, will be better off that way because our tax money will not be spent on policing the rest of the world. Foreign countries and their people are fully capable to live on their own without Uncle Sam watching over their shoulders. I can only hope that more countries will follow Australia and do what is right, instead of what the U.S. wants them to do. Hopefully that will make our politicians think more. Afterall, they won't put every goddamn state on this planet on the "Axis of Evil." Also, please note that Australia was not the only country to do that. If my memory serves right, France has taken the same course of actions as well.
Finally, if you happen to be a non-U.S. resident and if you have an urge to blame the States for something, please take a look at your country. It is hard to agree with the Russians who are against the war in Iraq, while their own forces manage to bomb the living fuck out of Chechnya on a daily basis. The French are eager to bash us for our nuclear weapons; however, it is okay for them to test their nukes in the South Pacific.
I feel that there is a slight problem with your proxy setup. If RIAA can't get your public shares, the other users won't be able to do it as well. That is exactly what RIAA wants.
If nobody is sharing, nobody is going to be able to download and share the information further. That kills the whole point of P2P and assists RIAA in its battle.
Have you? Let me tell you something, I know a few plumbers who used to run small businesses and while they did okay, their salaries were not near $45/hr.
First of all you you have to get a license. Then you have to get insurance, then you have to get equipment, then you have to get your name out and do some advertising. If you want to be serious you'll have to get an accountant (at least part-time). Then you have to go through people's shit, literaly.
The plumber that I know retired at the age of 60. Not bad, he had a decent income throughout his life, but he never had excess. You have to realize that although the rates are $45/hr, these guys do not work 40 hours per week all the time and when it comes to paying health insurance, sick days and vactation pay, they are on their own.
Wow, really? Well I have seen tons of inner-city kids who can benefit from at least some medical attention. Why not treat our own?
That's what my friend told me. According to his MBA program, companies are not interested in long-term profits. He said that in order to survive a company must post good results every quarter first, then think of what is going to happen in a few years. For him, and many other MBAs, the only thing that matters are the numbers that meet or exceed the estimates when the time comes. I think that this is the major part of this problem.
In the age of corporate greed, layoffs and seven figure CEO salaries, nobody cares about engineers. Sell, sell, sell!!! That's what our life is all about. I know quite a few of engineers who tell their children to do business instead of science becuase that is the reality of this world: science does not pay anymore. Not in this country. Why spend $100,000 on good education in science if you end up selling crap at your local Gap?
Unless Uncle Sam takes his head out of his fat American ass and starts supporting industrial and academic research in THIS country, we are all fucking doomed; that comes from a die hard optimist. It makes me sick when we spend so much money on wars when the brighest and the smartest have to beg for grants. When it comes to separating Egyptian twins or performing a plastic surgery on a burnt girl from Afganistan, this country is here to help. When it comes to giving more money to universities, well, we're too fucking poor.
Have a great day.
I have worked for two software development companies that sold big-scale web software. In both of the cases the software was pretty expensive and piss poor. Let's face it, if you want a customer to spend $50,000, you better make software that is easy to use and learn. Stick to some HCI guidelines too.
How does that related to free software and Linux? Simple, so far a great majority of GPLed products that I have seen lacked good GUIs. I do not want to have a lot of cute pictures, I do not want to have a lot of cool buttons. However, things like good tooltips and consistency across the application would be nice. If you are selling a web-based product, make sure that all of your 'OK' buttons are in the same corner and that you're using either the standard buttons or customized image buttons, not both. 'Help' and 'Undo' options must be provided as well. You do not have to spend a ton of time to figure out the exact guidelines, just use Apple's.
Also, for a user there is nothing more frustrating that an "Unknown Error." If you have error messages, make sure that they explain the error and give an approprite error code. People like simple things like that. Fortunately, there is a lot of room for improvement. Rock on!
I have to say that consumption in large quantities must be an American trend. I came to the United States during my early teens and I have turned into an American since then because a lot of my views have formed here, not in my country of birth. However, I am still can't understand why Americans buy so much crap.
A friend of mine always buys Xmas presents for the next year right after Xmas in order to save money. She's not poor, she makes good money and yet if the stuff goes on sale, she gets it automatically. Whenever she goes to Gap she shops by weight, I swear! As long as she can carry it, she gets it. There there are other units that raid Wal-Mart on a weekly basis where they get more stuff than they can cosume in a month. What the fuck is up with that? I do enjoy having a clean shirt everyday myself, but in my case I have X number of shirts that I bought a long time ago and I am not planning on getting any new ones as long as the old shirts are in good shape. That's not the case with the majority of Americans that I know.
Excellent! You said it the right way but unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it. Remeber, the United States of American is a country where people free to do what they want to do. I totally support you, unfortunately for one person like yourself there are 100 "denominators" that will disagree with you until they die.
Moreover, there are a lot of smart people who are interested in keeping people stupid because stupid and uneducated tend not to bitch about stuff as long as you keep on enterntaining them.
I have no problems with spam as long as it is targeted towards people who may benefit from it. If somebody loves to receive spam and spend money on goods advertised through that method, more power to them; at least they keep some people employed and spend money. However, what bothers me is that according to WSJ, only a small fraction of people who receive spam buy their stuff that way. I would love to do more shopping through e-mail advertising if companies did not trash my inbox on a daily basis and send me stuff that I am interested in. For example, I have no problems if a legid company sends me a news letter once in two months telling me what they have for ME. If I receive 5-10 e-mails per month that contribute to my needs, I have no problems with it.
The thing is that I hate malls and shopping. I know what I want and what I need. I know my sizes and the styles that I like. I live in Boston and any trip to the mall will cost me whatever I spend on the goods plus at least two-fifty that I spend on transportation plus a couple of dollars that I normally spend on food. I do not know why women are so crazy about shopping; I think it is a waste of my time.
The solution to my problem comes in the mail; both standard and electronic. I signed up letters from several retailers (Green Mountain Coffe, J.Crew, etc). Now my coffee comes in the mail, same goes for clothing and accessories in case if I need them. If I do not need this crap, I simply delete stuff from my inbox and recycle the catalogs. Insted of wasting hours on shopping, I am relaxing, running, going to the gym. In fact, I am about to sign up for Pea-Pod, a delivery service provided by Stop-and-Shop. They can deliver food of my choice right to my door for $5. Pretty good, huh?
Hey there, my friends and I have come to the same result in our biology class when we grew bacteria that we have swiped from different surfaces. Things like keyboards and mice were nightmares compared to toilet lids. However, this is not the ned and here is what you can do.
First of all get anti-bacterial gel to wipe your hands after you use a bathroom. Secondly, buy some anti-bacterial wipes and wipe your keyboard every morning. These items are small enough to store in your office and cheap enough to buy on a regular basis. Also, I have noticed that a lot of my friends liked to sneeze and then go straight for the keyboard. It did not really bother me until they started doing it while using my box; that's when I put a box of wipes right next to my monitor. Most of my friends still sneeze, but instead of wiping their hands on my keyboard, they do it on a wipe. Putting a box of wipes on your table is a polite way of saying "please use that if you sneeze."
I have to admit that my gf's brother still has zero understanding when it comes to personal hygine (or lack thereof). When it comes to his case, I tell him to "wipe his fucking hands off!" Works like a charm.
How about requring MicroSoft to install third-party players as well as its own media player? That would provide more choices to users and the users will be able to choose whatever they like. In my opinion, this is way better than completely removing useful software from the system.
Let the end users decide what they want. Personally, I think that Windows Media Player is a lot better than Winamp or other alternatives; however, I would not mind if everybody had a chance to compare and decide.
Things like that would never happen if Main Street U.S.A. had good education and ability to think outside the box. The PATRIOT act sounds so mighty powerful to an average Joe; he does not know that "patriot" in the title of the act is just an abbreviation for some mambo-jumbo. Then there is our president who is focused on fighting terrorism and he will do anything to make people believe in danger. He portrays himself as a hero while real heros have to eat shit and die Iraq. He waves a flag, that is probably made in China, while taking away medical benefits from our vets. Where is the rage? Where are the Americans who want to live in the land of the free?
One might say that there are educated people that support the act because somebody had to vote for it. Unfortunately this is correct: there are rich and well-educated people who are interested in this act because they do not want to lose their precious multi-million houses, expensive cars and wine collections. These people come out and lie because they know that average Joes will believe them. They wrap themselves into our flag and they say words like "patriotism," "american dream," and "freedom." The sad thing is that many people go for these lies because THEY DO NOT KNOW BETTER.
With that in mind, here is my wish list. I want American kids to study more history, sociology, and political-science. Make our kids aware of what is going on in the world because if you do not, they will turn into pathetic adults who can express no rage when it is needed. I want our future generations to stand up and go on Washington D.C. if their president leads them into a senseless war or tries to take their freedom away.
Amen to that my brother. You described it better than I have, if I could, I'd mod you up. I feel the same way as you do I think that people are afraid of new things, that is why they resist "Western Invasion."
I remember being told not to wear blue jeans to school, because, according to my teacher, only working class people wore jeans in the United States; that happened when I lived in the USSR. She did not like me listening to rock-n'-roll music as well.
Okay, I made a small mistake. I wanted to say that my views were closer to Western philosophy, not Western culture. Also, I was trying to compare the United States with India and not some other European countries.
I know that there are Western countries that are based on democracy and that can be just as good as the United States; I do not argue about it. Additionally, I would like to discuss what you call as McDonald's mainstream culture. Yes, we do have fast food but this is not the only thing that defines America, and franky I'd rather eat that crap that Indian cousine (that's another reason for staying in the U.S.). My point is that in the United States people have more opportunities and ways of living their lives due to lesser degree of cultural and religious influence. That is something very important.
Now let's talk about traditions. In my post I did not try to suggest that everybody is the same in India; no, they are not. I have enough Indian friend to know better. However, all my Indian friends have something in common: all of them had arranged marriages, their dads were considered to be heads of the household, and most of them praised the United States for making men and women equal in the eyes of the law. Now, that's a mighty good reason for me to stay here. If I have a daughter and a son, I want them to have equal opportunities everywhere. There are many traditions in India and they are pretty stong too. In the United States I choose my traditions, in India it seems vice versa; at least that's what my friends said. My former co-worker was so happy to end up in the United States because his children could actually go to school and his children were able to choose their own destiny.
Finally, let's talk about opportunities for an average guy. From your point of view it seems like only the best deserve to live and less fortunate people are doomed. That is not very nice, do not you think? Should we kill the weak ones or the ones who cannot be as good as the others? For example, I have a close friend who is disabled. He has an advanced degree in a disability related discipline and he is trying to help physically challenged people to live normal lives. According to his recent studies, developing countries are the worst place to be for anybody who has a disability due to the lack of appropriate laws; India was on his list. What's your take on it? For me, that is another reason why I'd like to stay in the United States.
The list can go on and on and on. I will not bring up stuff like pr0n, living together without being married, premartial sex, being gay, etc. I do not need these things to make my life complete, but I like having those options. Have a great weekend.
I have a couple of things to tell you. First of all, having a graduate degree does not mean anything if you cannot apply your knowledge at work. Many of U.S. college graduates choose to obtain an advanced degree later in life because they have more experience and they really know what they want to do and where to steer their careers. Many American professionals continue with their education as need arises. Why should you study databases or computer graphics if you do not need them for what you do for living?
Secondly, American industries have responded to the markets. Although it took them a while, car companies began to manufacture cars that can compete with European and Japanese (according to Consumer Reports Guide, the latest models of American cars proved to be more reliable than European, still lagging behind the Japanese though). And when Indians create world-class software that can benefit American businesses, we will welcome them. We will pay pennies on a dollar for these systems and bring our economy to the next level, while India will become our software shop. Then we'll come up with a better technology and then you can take it over when we want to mass produce it.