... many years ago my Sony ICF 2000 was confiscated when entering Saudi Arabia.
Oh man! That really sucks. The ICF-2000 is a really great radio, even though (maybe because) its design is getting a bit long in the tooth. If anyone want to get into shortwave, this is an absolutely fabulous radio to get you started. Even though it's a bit pricier than some of its other portable cousins, it's worth every penny.
Don't laugh! A couple of my friends are explicitly targeting this demographic for their customer base. But one of them is already married. I guess he gets to hold the camera.
Bah dah boom! Thank you, thank you - I'll be here all week!
Is modern business even legitimate business anymore? When did the underlying ethic behind fair competition become, "Enlist your friends, sue your enemies"?
It's the end of capitalism. The US corporate complex has cut costs by outsourcing, downsized, and generally f*cked people and each other over to the point where its largest customer base (i.e., the US consumer, corporate and non-) can no longer afford to buy its products. Because of this, deflation is becoming a very probable result. Once the housing market collapses under the weight of refinace-happy consumer debt, it's all over, baby. But I digress...
Since the companies cannot keep raising their prices to the customers, they need a new business model to keep the money coming in and growth appearing to happen. Hence, the "sue everyone and hope some of it sticks" strategy. SCO, being a weak sister, is one of the first to try this ploy. Look for IP (and other) lawsuits to get even more flakey and corporations to reach ever further down the strategic toilet because they can't make and sell product anymore. This kind of crap is admission of the same and just another sign of the slide towards economic collapse leading to either anarchy or a fascist state.
Gosh, I'm cheery tonight! Good luck to all - we'll need it during the next few years...
Re:Enough with the flames already
on
State of the Onion 7
·
· Score: 0, Flamebait
I mean surely Perl must have gotten something right or growing numbers of people wouldn't have used it for the last 14? years
So you're telling me that popularity == quality? I guess that means that Windows abd VB are the ultimate in chewy goodness.
The fact is that popularity is almost orthogonal to quailty. Perl and its design is the Brittney Spears of programming - easily accessible but, in the final analysis, empty of any significant thought.
Oh yeah - that quote's an original. It seems pithy and clever. Does that mean I'm qualified to get up and blather at next year's OSCON? I hope not.
Post-FDR, there was a "presumption of constitutionality" which favors congress and the president, and disfavors states and individual citizens.
It was not really due to FDR. In reality, three things came together in the 20'th century to cause this.
First, the Great Depression needed to be ended and others like it prevented. This required a relatively strong central bank and a variety of social safety nets.
Next came WW II and the Cold War, requiring massive infusions of money and power into the federal government to secure our nation (and others).
Finally, people got tired of the Southern states not giving Americans of African heritage equal protection under the law. The Southern states' recalitrance on this issue put the last nail into any legitimacy states rights arguments might have retained.
All-in-all, it was not the government that expanded their own powers, but "we the people" asking for expanded federal powers to make our lives better. Whether this actually happened and what to do (if anything) about it is an issue that will be left for this century.
I am not so sure. SuSE is a german company, thus the money stays within the german economy unlike with the M$ solution where the money would go across the Atlantic.
But I'm confused! Every second post in the previous Slashdot article about the sea change in IT said that outsourcing everything you could to someone else was good economically! What are those crazy Germans doing? My head hurts!
On the other side of the spectrum I see C/C++ programmers and DBA's with job offers all over the place.
Well, let's see. I've been programming in C++ since cfront 1.0 was released from Bell Labs, have experience in databases (SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, MySQL) and writing apps based on them - including designing schemas, am proficient in both Windows and Unix technologies (after 20+ years in the industry you had better be), and also know enough about XML, C#, PHP, and Apache to get around.
Funny thing though, people keep telling me I'm overqualified rather than discussing job offers. And, BTW, I am also aware of current salary trends (and am willing to work at current pay rates), but I can't even get to that point in the discussion.
BTW, I'm not trying to whine here. I'm just pointing out that your statement noted above is anecdotal, at best simplistic, and, at worst, just totally f*cked up.
The trick is to realize this is the fundamental nature of the system and either out compete and out-innovate or get out of the kitchen.
And what happens when all of the innovators get the hell out?
Yes, in a rational economic environment this will never happen long-term, as the predator's ability to copy decays and the rewards of re-entrance increase. But our economy operates in the short-term as well, and the lack of innovation that comes from innovators not wanting to be the free R&D arm for the giants can last for years. And this costs an economy serious money.
Yes. But not for long. Do a google for "telemedicine". Several pilot projects are being done to serve rural areas, already. Telesurgery is in its early stages. Pretty soon it will be walk into the office, put the temperature probe in your mouth, wrap the pressur cuff around your arm, and talk to Dr. Dasguptamajan via the monitor and camera.
to save a few bucks now, US companies are virtually guaranteeing that in a few years time, there will be limited to no opportunity for US citizens in the IT industry.
Not only IT. Almost all R&D is exportable. Check the bioinformatics and drug chemistry mailing lists. How many American names can you find there? If I'm a chemical company, I'd love to have my R&D in a country where the folks can just chuck stuff down the drain when they're done with the experiment. And as for mechanical design - well, Autocad files compress pretty damn well for overseas transfer, don't they?
I don't see a single R&D job left in the US when this whole globalization thing finishes. Of course, the only problem is that the US and then the global economy collapses (because the US is still ~30-40% of global economy) when all of the jobs disappear, but no use crying over spilled milk, eh? After all, we offshored manufacturing and everything was still OK. God knows another 30% or so off the economy won't hurt, will it?
Oh my dear God in Heaven...
on
X11 in ASCII
·
· Score: 1
... but some people have far too much time on their hands these days.
My only question is whether it's the person who put this together, or myself for looking at it. Probably both.
Think of all software as costing nothing (a reality that is rapidly coming true). If this is true, the only thing that people will pay for is the content that the code manages or the activities that the code coordinates.
It's been coming for a long time. Programs are just the embodiment of algorithmic data. Now that most of the commonly useful data is embodied, it gets harder and harder to find more useful enough algorithmic data to embody (i.e., code to write) for people to feel it's worth paying for. So, the future for those who want to sell code (ala IBM, RedHat, etc.) is to filter all of the dreck and add a bit more proprietary algorithmic data so that people still think their getting something worthwhile.
The companies that will survive will start thinking of their products as content and services enabled by code. Those who think of their product as simply code or programs will wither.
For instance, lets take the early Star Wars universe (neglecting, for a moment, the movie Hidden Fortress) and Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand.
But these two are completely incomparable...
There was never an "Atlas Shrugged Christmas Special".
Re:If you have the inspiration...
on
Working Hard?
·
· Score: 2, Funny
I'm a little vauge in answering exactly what I sell for my own reasons, but it's a consulting service for the individual professional of a specific profession.
Wow! How did you get the numbers of all those call girls!
...just make sure you also doesn't become vulnerable to the old compressed 4GB of/dev/zero trick....
All reasonable scanners also have protection against this kind of attack. It does force you to set an upper limit on the sizes of attachments, though. But then, did you really want your users sending each other pirated ISO's?
A business is not designed to make friends, engender feelings of goodwill towards puppies, or cure cancer.
Yes, perhaps (corporations are granted lability exemptions by the government only because they supposedly provide benefit to the public, as well as the shareholder - something that many Slashdot business apologists often forget). But businesses that eat their customers and partners are called something else... defunct.
One can only hope (or maybe not - this is Slashdot, after all:-) that Microsoft figures this out one day...
The problem is when we boost the power so much that we begin to project our unconsciousness into material space.
You cannot NOT project your unconcious into material space unless you decide to do nothing. Every time you breathe (unthinkingly in most cases), you are activating your lungs to extract O2 from and project CO2 into the world. You have just projected your unconcious mind into material space.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah. And you're probably wrong about Step 5, too (as anyone who has ever written a non-best seller book can tell you...).
Oh man! That really sucks. The ICF-2000 is a really great radio, even though (maybe because) its design is getting a bit long in the tooth. If anyone want to get into shortwave, this is an absolutely fabulous radio to get you started. Even though it's a bit pricier than some of its other portable cousins, it's worth every penny.
... and we can outsource even more customer support jobs to them.
Step 3... 11 inches.
Bah dah boom! Thank you, thank you - I'll be here all week!
Well, personnaly, I'd rather lay hookers in nevada in january, but I've heard you gotta pay for that.
It's the end of capitalism. The US corporate complex has cut costs by outsourcing, downsized, and generally f*cked people and each other over to the point where its largest customer base (i.e., the US consumer, corporate and non-) can no longer afford to buy its products. Because of this, deflation is becoming a very probable result. Once the housing market collapses under the weight of refinace-happy consumer debt, it's all over, baby. But I digress...
Since the companies cannot keep raising their prices to the customers, they need a new business model to keep the money coming in and growth appearing to happen. Hence, the "sue everyone and hope some of it sticks" strategy. SCO, being a weak sister, is one of the first to try this ploy. Look for IP (and other) lawsuits to get even more flakey and corporations to reach ever further down the strategic toilet because they can't make and sell product anymore. This kind of crap is admission of the same and just another sign of the slide towards economic collapse leading to either anarchy or a fascist state.
Gosh, I'm cheery tonight! Good luck to all - we'll need it during the next few years...
So you're telling me that popularity == quality? I guess that means that Windows abd VB are the ultimate in chewy goodness.
The fact is that popularity is almost orthogonal to quailty. Perl and its design is the Brittney Spears of programming - easily accessible but, in the final analysis, empty of any significant thought.
Oh yeah - that quote's an original. It seems pithy and clever. Does that mean I'm qualified to get up and blather at next year's OSCON? I hope not.
It was not really due to FDR. In reality, three things came together in the 20'th century to cause this.
First, the Great Depression needed to be ended and others like it prevented. This required a relatively strong central bank and a variety of social safety nets.
Next came WW II and the Cold War, requiring massive infusions of money and power into the federal government to secure our nation (and others).
Finally, people got tired of the Southern states not giving Americans of African heritage equal protection under the law. The Southern states' recalitrance on this issue put the last nail into any legitimacy states rights arguments might have retained.
All-in-all, it was not the government that expanded their own powers, but "we the people" asking for expanded federal powers to make our lives better. Whether this actually happened and what to do (if anything) about it is an issue that will be left for this century.
But I'm confused! Every second post in the previous Slashdot article about the sea change in IT said that outsourcing everything you could to someone else was good economically! What are those crazy Germans doing? My head hurts!
Like steel?
Well, let's see. I've been programming in C++ since cfront 1.0 was released from Bell Labs, have experience in databases (SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, MySQL) and writing apps based on them - including designing schemas, am proficient in both Windows and Unix technologies (after 20+ years in the industry you had better be), and also know enough about XML, C#, PHP, and Apache to get around.
Funny thing though, people keep telling me I'm overqualified rather than discussing job offers. And, BTW, I am also aware of current salary trends (and am willing to work at current pay rates), but I can't even get to that point in the discussion.
BTW, I'm not trying to whine here. I'm just pointing out that your statement noted above is anecdotal, at best simplistic, and, at worst, just totally f*cked up.
And what happens when all of the innovators get the hell out?
Yes, in a rational economic environment this will never happen long-term, as the predator's ability to copy decays and the rewards of re-entrance increase. But our economy operates in the short-term as well, and the lack of innovation that comes from innovators not wanting to be the free R&D arm for the giants can last for years. And this costs an economy serious money.
Yes. But not for long. Do a google for "telemedicine". Several pilot projects are being done to serve rural areas, already. Telesurgery is in its early stages. Pretty soon it will be walk into the office, put the temperature probe in your mouth, wrap the pressur cuff around your arm, and talk to Dr. Dasguptamajan via the monitor and camera.
Not only IT. Almost all R&D is exportable. Check the bioinformatics and drug chemistry mailing lists. How many American names can you find there? If I'm a chemical company, I'd love to have my R&D in a country where the folks can just chuck stuff down the drain when they're done with the experiment. And as for mechanical design - well, Autocad files compress pretty damn well for overseas transfer, don't they?
I don't see a single R&D job left in the US when this whole globalization thing finishes. Of course, the only problem is that the US and then the global economy collapses (because the US is still ~30-40% of global economy) when all of the jobs disappear, but no use crying over spilled milk, eh? After all, we offshored manufacturing and everything was still OK. God knows another 30% or so off the economy won't hurt, will it?
My only question is whether it's the person who put this together, or myself for looking at it. Probably both.
Think of all software as costing nothing (a reality that is rapidly coming true). If this is true, the only thing that people will pay for is the content that the code manages or the activities that the code coordinates.
It's been coming for a long time. Programs are just the embodiment of algorithmic data. Now that most of the commonly useful data is embodied, it gets harder and harder to find more useful enough algorithmic data to embody (i.e., code to write) for people to feel it's worth paying for. So, the future for those who want to sell code (ala IBM, RedHat, etc.) is to filter all of the dreck and add a bit more proprietary algorithmic data so that people still think their getting something worthwhile.
The companies that will survive will start thinking of their products as content and services enabled by code. Those who think of their product as simply code or programs will wither.
But it wasn't seen first on Fox News Network, so no one here in the US saw it. Ergo, it didn't happen...
But these two are completely incomparable...
There was never an "Atlas Shrugged Christmas Special".
Wow! How did you get the numbers of all those call girls!
All reasonable scanners also have protection against this kind of attack. It does force you to set an upper limit on the sizes of attachments, though. But then, did you really want your users sending each other pirated ISO's?
Yes, perhaps (corporations are granted lability exemptions by the government only because they supposedly provide benefit to the public, as well as the shareholder - something that many Slashdot business apologists often forget). But businesses that eat their customers and partners are called something else... defunct.
One can only hope (or maybe not - this is Slashdot, after all :-) that Microsoft figures this out one day...
No, that will be from ESR with a forward by Cowboy Neal.
You cannot NOT project your unconcious into material space unless you decide to do nothing. Every time you breathe (unthinkingly in most cases), you are activating your lungs to extract O2 from and project CO2 into the world. You have just projected your unconcious mind into material space.
GAHHHHH! I'm frightened! Please don't breathe again!!!!!!
So does this mean Senator Hatch is insane? Or is he just lying when he says it's a good thing? Either way, sucks to be him...