PS - you do realise you can run more than just Windows on PCs, don't you?
Yes, and I've been running Linux on my home server for the past seven years or so, first Red Hat, then Ubuntu (it's the machine that I use for my email, my web server, etc.). I use Windows for my music production work (though more and more I'm looking at a Mac for that, but the towers seem a bit too pricey for me). I borrow my wife's Mac book occasionally and, as I said, it just seems easier to maintain/use/etc. And as for the folks who say that some people find the Mac hard to use, well, I don't seem to have any trouble, but then my first time in grad school about twenty-five years ago, between my job and my research, I had to know about twelve different OS command languages and nine different editor command sets, so I might be a bit out of the norm.
What I do think is annoying is when Mac gets seen as the sort of... Most Reliable, Fastest, Best Laptop when it really isn't necessarily, the OS isn't necessarily amazing, it's not necessarily inherently better except that you paid more for it, etc. Same thing happens with Linux users (Linux is more reliable, better, faster, etc., which is definitely not always the case).
The point is that everything goes together smoothly and reliably. In hardware, you don't have as much crap like flaky drivers, interrupt conflicts, overheating components, etc. As such, Macintosh systems are much more stable than Dell's latest "Let's Cobble Cheap Crap Together" special. In addition, for whatever the reason, Apple's human factors group seems to be much more talented than Microsoft's, allowing the Mac to come out on top of any head-to-head test of usability. I think Apple's management pays much more attention to usability than Microsoft's management does. In addition, think about even buying a Mac - if you go to an Apple store or Apple's web site, you have a better shopping experience than going through (let's say) Dell's web site or going to Office Depot.
So, yes, the Apple experience is much better. The OS may simply be BSD, but it's the rest of the stuff that makes all the difference.
Not that I really like.Net that much (despite Mono, the vendor lock-in horrifies me), but as a person who has used various non-Microsoft web technologies as well as.Net, your description shows that you really haven't done any real.Net programming.
* Our next project is in (insert computer language of the month you don't know). Learn only you need to start coding. We're starting next week.
It's not the language, it's the frameworks and libraries (but, been there, done that, did it year before last, and could do it again).
* Summarize the results of our last trade show and the people we met and send them in a text message to me. You have twenty seconds.
In twenty seconds you have time to text ~40-60 characters, which means you're limited to (essentially) "It was good", "It sucked", or "$2M contracts with XXX and YYY with leads for N others" (assuming you have the number on your contact list). Your point? Anyone who cares wants more information and is going to want to have a call about it afterward anyway. BTW, engineers usually make lousy reps for your business at trade shows. You hire sale personnel for a reason.
* Write a device driver for this un-documented piece of hardware. Just keep trying until something works.
Again, been there, done that, but if you don't have at least a hardware specification for the bus (or it uses a standard bus) and enough hardware to do monitoring, you're screwed. Plus I know when to stop banging my head against blind alleys.
* We need to get a proposal done for a high value customer and have 72 hours. Need you to stay here at work until it's done. I don't care if you have a wife and kids at home.
My wife, who has been with me for 22 years understands this as an aspect of my work. The punk with six years of experience who has a two-year wife and a two-month old will probably end up with a messy fight that will kill his productivity for weeks. Was your proposal that got turned down worth it?
* Swallow your pride and get me my coffee.
If I get up to get one for myself, or if you're actually busy, I'll do it. Otherwise, f*ck you, I'm not your secretary.
* I'm going to pay you $30,000. How does that sound?
I'm worth a lot more than that. You need to learn that you pay good money for good people.
I hate to say this, but you seem to have a chip on your shoulder concerning older people. Since the majority of folks you'll be dealing with/selling to are going to be older than you, you might want to take care of this - it will come out in negotiations and make us not want to deal with you. The good news is that you'll probably get smarter about this as you get older.
I can tell you we don't give a damn how old someone is if they're good at the job.
I can second that. Right now, I actually don't have anyone on my team that's under 35. This counts seven here in the US and the three that work in India. Granted, our product is a bit more complex than most, but any manager who is cutting out experienced engineers using age a gating factor is a bit off.
I had the same problem. I fixed it by moving my wife to a Mac and forgetting that I ever knew anything about Windows when any other relative asked me to fix their machine. Works so far and has a much higher success ratio than waiting for the butt munches at Microsoft to do anything.
If you're stumbling on this stuff and reporting it to upper management as you go, you're going to piss off everyone as they think you're just nickel and diming them to death. If you have been doing this piecemeal, announce immediately that you are going to do a complete audit to see where you are and then you'll work with them to decide as to how and when to update your licenses as to minimize risk while becoming legal. You'll be surprised how much better a controlled process will go over rather than the random crap you've been shotgunning them with.
You my friend, do not understand how the human mind works concerning politics. I would recommend the book "The Political Mind" by George Lakoff to become more aware of what motivates people. Also, I did vote for Obama rather than any of the alternatives (including Green, Socialist, Lib, etc.) because I did think that he was better than the alternatives. That's the only rationale I need. Others may need more. And with your morally chastising and condescending tone, it's really doubtful that you will reach them. This tone is also common in the more radical parties.
If you're voting against what you really want just so you can brag that you voted for the winner, then you're doing it wrong.
These days, people don't vote because they want a candidate, but because they fear being governed by them less than being governed by any of the others. Even though this may not be particularly uplifting, it is reality and a valid reason for voting, and until Libertarians understand this and become less scary-crazy, they're not going to get out of the fear category enough to gain a significant amount of votes. And in case someone thinks I'm Lib-trolling, the same is true of the Greens.
... was stupid and annoying for Microsoft and is the same for Linux. If no one in the open source community can come up with a marketing idea better than copying third-hand from Apple, the community is in trouble.
You don't just pop up out of nowhere and say "hey! suddenly we're cool hipsters!" If Dell wants to become that, they will have to evolve their image, not manufacture it.
All artists pay their dues. Trying to skip this means no respect. And anyone who tries not paying their dues shows that they're not ready to be taken seriously. So, if Dell can keep at the "cool item" game, start engaging customers and listening to their feedback, and take the time at building a real design team, in five to ten years, they might have a "cool" product that's taken seriously.
However, I expect pigs to fly sooner than Dell's corporate overlords to allow its R&D to stay at this for more than an occasional abortion of a model along the way. I know people who've worked at Dell. They don't think that way.
The one I will always remember was waxing the floors in the barracks during basic. Essentially the floors had to be waxed in preparation for the morning inspection (about 6:30 AM).
And this is why the military will always be behind in technical skills.
No self-respecting geek would allow himself to be forced to get up this early, wt alone going through this kind of crap.
Slashdot Mirror
OK, so where do I get the del.icio.us plug-in for Chrome and how do I install it?
PS - you do realise you can run more than just Windows on PCs, don't you?
Yes, and I've been running Linux on my home server for the past seven years or so, first Red Hat, then Ubuntu (it's the machine that I use for my email, my web server, etc.). I use Windows for my music production work (though more and more I'm looking at a Mac for that, but the towers seem a bit too pricey for me). I borrow my wife's Mac book occasionally and, as I said, it just seems easier to maintain/use/etc. And as for the folks who say that some people find the Mac hard to use, well, I don't seem to have any trouble, but then my first time in grad school about twenty-five years ago, between my job and my research, I had to know about twelve different OS command languages and nine different editor command sets, so I might be a bit out of the norm.
the newest version of Internet Explorer... supports Firefox plugins
Now if we could only get Google Chrome to do the same.
What I do think is annoying is when Mac gets seen as the sort of ... Most Reliable, Fastest, Best Laptop when it really isn't necessarily, the OS isn't necessarily amazing, it's not necessarily inherently better except that you paid more for it, etc. Same thing happens with Linux users (Linux is more reliable, better, faster, etc., which is definitely not always the case).
The point is that everything goes together smoothly and reliably. In hardware, you don't have as much crap like flaky drivers, interrupt conflicts, overheating components, etc. As such, Macintosh systems are much more stable than Dell's latest "Let's Cobble Cheap Crap Together" special. In addition, for whatever the reason, Apple's human factors group seems to be much more talented than Microsoft's, allowing the Mac to come out on top of any head-to-head test of usability. I think Apple's management pays much more attention to usability than Microsoft's management does. In addition, think about even buying a Mac - if you go to an Apple store or Apple's web site, you have a better shopping experience than going through (let's say) Dell's web site or going to Office Depot.
So, yes, the Apple experience is much better. The OS may simply be BSD, but it's the rest of the stuff that makes all the difference.
... I'm for it. Those idiots at the Journal never get anything right. Go GOOG!
I thought we hated the ACLU because they're a bunch of fuzzy-headed liberals.
Only retarded conservatives hate the ACLU. Although, I believe "retarded" is redundant in the previous sentence.
You are correct. Most youngsters aren't as "dumb a a bag of hammers". And they, too, will grow. I am happy to hire both young and old.
... how they use oxygen-free conductors in their wires to make the bits sound better.
My opinion of .NET is FrontPage on steroids...
Not that I really like .Net that much (despite Mono, the vendor lock-in horrifies me), but as a person who has used various non-Microsoft web technologies as well as .Net, your description shows that you really haven't done any real .Net programming.
* Our next project is in (insert computer language of the month you don't know). Learn only you need to start coding. We're starting next week.
It's not the language, it's the frameworks and libraries (but, been there, done that, did it year before last, and could do it again).
* Summarize the results of our last trade show and the people we met and send them in a text message to me. You have twenty seconds.
In twenty seconds you have time to text ~40-60 characters, which means you're limited to (essentially) "It was good", "It sucked", or "$2M contracts with XXX and YYY with leads for N others" (assuming you have the number on your contact list). Your point? Anyone who cares wants more information and is going to want to have a call about it afterward anyway. BTW, engineers usually make lousy reps for your business at trade shows. You hire sale personnel for a reason.
* Write a device driver for this un-documented piece of hardware. Just keep trying until something works.
Again, been there, done that, but if you don't have at least a hardware specification for the bus (or it uses a standard bus) and enough hardware to do monitoring, you're screwed. Plus I know when to stop banging my head against blind alleys.
* We need to get a proposal done for a high value customer and have 72 hours. Need you to stay here at work until it's done. I don't care if you have a wife and kids at home.
My wife, who has been with me for 22 years understands this as an aspect of my work. The punk with six years of experience who has a two-year wife and a two-month old will probably end up with a messy fight that will kill his productivity for weeks. Was your proposal that got turned down worth it?
* Swallow your pride and get me my coffee.
If I get up to get one for myself, or if you're actually busy, I'll do it. Otherwise, f*ck you, I'm not your secretary.
* I'm going to pay you $30,000. How does that sound?
I'm worth a lot more than that. You need to learn that you pay good money for good people.
I hate to say this, but you seem to have a chip on your shoulder concerning older people. Since the majority of folks you'll be dealing with/selling to are going to be older than you, you might want to take care of this - it will come out in negotiations and make us not want to deal with you. The good news is that you'll probably get smarter about this as you get older.
I can tell you we don't give a damn how old someone is if they're good at the job.
I can second that. Right now, I actually don't have anyone on my team that's under 35. This counts seven here in the US and the three that work in India. Granted, our product is a bit more complex than most, but any manager who is cutting out experienced engineers using age a gating factor is a bit off.
I had the same problem. I fixed it by moving my wife to a Mac and forgetting that I ever knew anything about Windows when any other relative asked me to fix their machine. Works so far and has a much higher success ratio than waiting for the butt munches at Microsoft to do anything.
If you're stumbling on this stuff and reporting it to upper management as you go, you're going to piss off everyone as they think you're just nickel and diming them to death. If you have been doing this piecemeal, announce immediately that you are going to do a complete audit to see where you are and then you'll work with them to decide as to how and when to update your licenses as to minimize risk while becoming legal. You'll be surprised how much better a controlled process will go over rather than the random crap you've been shotgunning them with.
You my friend, do not understand how the human mind works concerning politics. I would recommend the book "The Political Mind" by George Lakoff to become more aware of what motivates people. Also, I did vote for Obama rather than any of the alternatives (including Green, Socialist, Lib, etc.) because I did think that he was better than the alternatives. That's the only rationale I need. Others may need more. And with your morally chastising and condescending tone, it's really doubtful that you will reach them. This tone is also common in the more radical parties.
If you're voting against what you really want just so you can brag that you voted for the winner, then you're doing it wrong.
These days, people don't vote because they want a candidate, but because they fear being governed by them less than being governed by any of the others. Even though this may not be particularly uplifting, it is reality and a valid reason for voting, and until Libertarians understand this and become less scary-crazy, they're not going to get out of the fear category enough to gain a significant amount of votes. And in case someone thinks I'm Lib-trolling, the same is true of the Greens.
and a BA in Music Perf. Percussion
They give out music degrees to drummers!?!?!
Let them blow up stuff. Really. They still may not like science afterward, but they'll have fun and it will weed out the stupid.
To my mind, the really interesting question is why the universe is so damn mathematical.
Because if it hadn't been, the universe would never had held together long enough to develop you, me, or mathematics.
You might as well call yourself a toaster.
Dude! Toasters are hot!
... was stupid and annoying for Microsoft and is the same for Linux. If no one in the open source community can come up with a marketing idea better than copying third-hand from Apple, the community is in trouble.
You don't just pop up out of nowhere and say "hey! suddenly we're cool hipsters!" If Dell wants to become that, they will have to evolve their image, not manufacture it.
All artists pay their dues. Trying to skip this means no respect. And anyone who tries not paying their dues shows that they're not ready to be taken seriously. So, if Dell can keep at the "cool item" game, start engaging customers and listening to their feedback, and take the time at building a real design team, in five to ten years, they might have a "cool" product that's taken seriously.
However, I expect pigs to fly sooner than Dell's corporate overlords to allow its R&D to stay at this for more than an occasional abortion of a model along the way. I know people who've worked at Dell. They don't think that way.
How do you know you're not a jackass?
If you care that you might be one, you're probably not.
Can you tell us about other times that you put things into other things?
This is Slashdot. No one here gets to put his thing in anything other than his hand.
If not, then why is it that he can successfully navigate the people-full corridors when arriving, but not leaving?
Because his manager is stupid?
The one I will always remember was waxing the floors in the barracks during basic. Essentially the floors had to be waxed in preparation for the morning inspection (about 6:30 AM).
And this is why the military will always be behind in technical skills.
No self-respecting geek would allow himself to be forced to get up this early, wt alone going through this kind of crap.