Kalamazoo by any chance? Been there done that, got out as soon as I could.
I graduated with a BEng Computer Engineering in 2004 and spent a couple of years bumming around various 1st line helpdesk roles before I got lucky with a decent agency who got me a contract 3rd line role in the NHS. Once you get that first step, it becomes much easier to find further roles because you have the experience and job history.
Also, if you can, be a contracter, it pays a shitload more than most permanent roles and as long as you don't mind the lack of holidays & benefits you can make a lot of money (£50k/year+).
I've used a couple of the early builds of Windows 2008 Server - it's awful.
Vista-style login screen, Vista-style control panel, UAC for God's sake. It's like they took all the worst and most annoying bits of Vista and shoehorned them into Windows 2003 Server.
Thomas is fighting the motion, saying that the plaintiffs need to prove two things: that they are the true copyright owners and that there was an act of infringement.
She's not fighting the case soley on the basis of ownership. However, if she wins then it sets a huge precedent, which would further prevent the RIAA from using their shotgun approach to lawsuits. If they have to trace & prove ownership of every song that they're claiming for, it's going to add a lot of overhead to their cases and could well dredge up some unwelcome cases where they discover that they *don't* own the copyrights to songs that they've been making money off for years.
The throttling rate Vista uses was derived from experiments that reliably achieved glitch-resistant playback on systems with one CPU on 100Mb networks with high packet receive rates. The hard-coded limit was short-sighted with respect to today's systems that have faster CPUs, multiple cores and Gigabit networks "Today's systems"? Vista's only been out for a year, just how fucking short-sighted are they?
Until all the major browsers ship with SVG support built in and enabled by default, SVG will not be a "success". It will instead be relegated to VRML territory - useful but rarely used outside of certain communities.
The interesting thing is that the MEPs who vote in the European Parliament actually have to worry about their positions. Unlike most politicians who live in safe seats where they would safely shoot a puppy while abusing a child on live TV and not worry about being voted out, the MEPs generally will get voted out if they screw their constituents too badly.
What does this mean in the grand scheme of things? Well just look at software patents - the EU Parliament voted them down because that's what their constituents wanted. The council of ministers (Unelected body) tried to overrule them and the Parliament turned up with an overall majority to strike them down (More out of spite for the open abuse of the democratic process than any dislike of software patents, but hey).
So, unlike most local governments (US and UK included), it's currently much harder to buy legislation in the EU, which is nice.
Well obviously live TV can't be "on demand", but that doesn't mean it can't be on the web. During the last soccer World Cup, the BBC showed *all* of the matches it had broadcast rights for live on their website, which means you can watch it pretty much anywhere, if not anytime.
Part of the problem is that a lot of the "BBC's" content isn't actually owned by the BBC because they just buy it in from 3rd parties (I'm talking original programming here, not stuff bought from the US etc).
The smart thing to do (depending on your attitude towards these things) would be to take the Apple-esque route and make all of the BBC-owned content available sans-DRM (but maintaining the existing geo-IP blocks for non UK users as is required) and then make everything else available DRM-encumbered with clear information explaining why this is the case and who to contact if you want to bitch about it.
To be honest, I do believe that if they had the choice, the BBC would open up all of their archives for DRM-free download to UK citizens, but it's not always as simple as that.
I had Vista installed on my PC at work for about a month, but in the end I had to go back to XP. It wasn't a performance issue - the PC wouldn't do Aero but it ran pretty well even with the default Vista interface - it wasn't even UAC (which was switched off on day one). The biggest problem I had by far was that nothing would run: Exchange 2003 tools won't install. The Landesk Management console won't install. The ELM management console won't install. NT User/Computer manager won't run (Yes, I know). Even our call logging software (Sunrise) had serious install issues that could only be resolved by installing it as a Domain Admin. Put bluntly, it got to the point where I couldn't do my job properly because none of the tools I use on a daily basis would install or run under Vista.
Now, some of this is down to the software manufacturers for not being on the ball, some of it is due to things like MS moving all the IIS stuff so that older apps can no longer find it. Not to mention the fact that the Exchange 2003 tools are a Microsoft Product and they're not intending to provide an installation method under Vista *at all*. Even the Exchange 2007 tools have been looking a bit flaky where Vista is concerned.
You can install the latest version of their driver, I can install the latest version of their driver, but most users do not even know what a driver is, let alone that downloading and installing the latest version of it will resolve the fact that their copy of [application] is now crashing randomly referencing some.ocx file.
Virgin Media in the UK (Formerly NTL Telewest (Formerly Blueyonder)) are currently supplying me with a 10Mbit/384k (Soon to be upgraded to 20Mbit for free) cable connection with no download restrictions. The allow me to run a webserver, ftp server, email server and haven't said a word when I occasionally break 300Gb/month (There are 6 of us in the house sharing the connection).
Of course, if I maxed out the connection 24/7 and downloaded over 3Tb in a month, they might say something, but I doubt I'd manage that, even if I tried.
Because UK gamers know and trust the ThreeSpeech staff, there's an implicit understanding (in that country) that the message coming from the site is not 'tainted.' Being from the UK I must have missed that bit - I'm not entirely sure how "cultural differences" mean that I somehow trust a Sony puppet blog more than someone from the US would.
They produce resistant strains precisely because they're so effective at killing bacteria. They kill off everything except that tiny proportion that have a mutation that protects them from the antibiotic. Those survivers then rapidly become the dominant strain and suddenly your wonder drug *doesn't* kill the majority of bacteria any more.
Clamwin, at least last time I used it, doesn't offer real-time scanning, only on demand. So if you just installed it and then expected it to protect you then I'm not suprised you ended up with an infected machine.
The paranoia is not with the ID Cards per se, but with the UK government's obsession with linking them to every single piece of personally identifiable information known to every government and non-government agency in the country. There was even talk at one point to linking it to things as ludicrous as Store Cards for places like Tesco, for ease of use, apparently.
Slashdot Mirror
Kalamazoo by any chance? Been there done that, got out as soon as I could.
I graduated with a BEng Computer Engineering in 2004 and spent a couple of years bumming around various 1st line helpdesk roles before I got lucky with a decent agency who got me a contract 3rd line role in the NHS. Once you get that first step, it becomes much easier to find further roles because you have the experience and job history.
Also, if you can, be a contracter, it pays a shitload more than most permanent roles and as long as you don't mind the lack of holidays & benefits you can make a lot of money (£50k/year+).
I've used a couple of the early builds of Windows 2008 Server - it's awful.
Vista-style login screen, Vista-style control panel, UAC for God's sake. It's like they took all the worst and most annoying bits of Vista and shoehorned them into Windows 2003 Server.
Thomas is fighting the motion, saying that the plaintiffs need to prove two things: that they are the true copyright owners and that there was an act of infringement.
She's not fighting the case soley on the basis of ownership. However, if she wins then it sets a huge precedent, which would further prevent the RIAA from using their shotgun approach to lawsuits. If they have to trace & prove ownership of every song that they're claiming for, it's going to add a lot of overhead to their cases and could well dredge up some unwelcome cases where they discover that they *don't* own the copyrights to songs that they've been making money off for years.
That's only 24,000 under 18s who were arrested but never convicted and are now on the database.
And fuck *you*, they're my rights
Until all the major browsers ship with SVG support built in and enabled by default, SVG will not be a "success". It will instead be relegated to VRML territory - useful but rarely used outside of certain communities.
Not at all, we're not a nation of worriers, we're a nation of complainers - they just often manifest in the same way.
Today Mr Howard will hail the ISP filtering measure as a world first by any Government...
I don't think that's something I'd be proud to admit.
Slashdotted already.
BBC News coverage of the story is here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6936444.stm
Hidden in the press release and not obvious on the main UK site is a text link to www.dell.co.uk/ubuntu
Following this link takes you to the "Dell with Ubuntu" homepage, but clicking on "Choose Desktop" or "Choose Notebook" results in a 404.
Excellent work there Dell.
The interesting thing is that the MEPs who vote in the European Parliament actually have to worry about their positions. Unlike most politicians who live in safe seats where they would safely shoot a puppy while abusing a child on live TV and not worry about being voted out, the MEPs generally will get voted out if they screw their constituents too badly.
What does this mean in the grand scheme of things? Well just look at software patents - the EU Parliament voted them down because that's what their constituents wanted. The council of ministers (Unelected body) tried to overrule them and the Parliament turned up with an overall majority to strike them down (More out of spite for the open abuse of the democratic process than any dislike of software patents, but hey).
So, unlike most local governments (US and UK included), it's currently much harder to buy legislation in the EU, which is nice.
Well obviously live TV can't be "on demand", but that doesn't mean it can't be on the web. During the last soccer World Cup, the BBC showed *all* of the matches it had broadcast rights for live on their website, which means you can watch it pretty much anywhere, if not anytime.
Part of the problem is that a lot of the "BBC's" content isn't actually owned by the BBC because they just buy it in from 3rd parties (I'm talking original programming here, not stuff bought from the US etc).
The smart thing to do (depending on your attitude towards these things) would be to take the Apple-esque route and make all of the BBC-owned content available sans-DRM (but maintaining the existing geo-IP blocks for non UK users as is required) and then make everything else available DRM-encumbered with clear information explaining why this is the case and who to contact if you want to bitch about it.
To be honest, I do believe that if they had the choice, the BBC would open up all of their archives for DRM-free download to UK citizens, but it's not always as simple as that.
I had Vista installed on my PC at work for about a month, but in the end I had to go back to XP. It wasn't a performance issue - the PC wouldn't do Aero but it ran pretty well even with the default Vista interface - it wasn't even UAC (which was switched off on day one). The biggest problem I had by far was that nothing would run: Exchange 2003 tools won't install. The Landesk Management console won't install. The ELM management console won't install. NT User/Computer manager won't run (Yes, I know). Even our call logging software (Sunrise) had serious install issues that could only be resolved by installing it as a Domain Admin. Put bluntly, it got to the point where I couldn't do my job properly because none of the tools I use on a daily basis would install or run under Vista.
Now, some of this is down to the software manufacturers for not being on the ball, some of it is due to things like MS moving all the IIS stuff so that older apps can no longer find it. Not to mention the fact that the Exchange 2003 tools are a Microsoft Product and they're not intending to provide an installation method under Vista *at all*. Even the Exchange 2007 tools have been looking a bit flaky where Vista is concerned.
You can install the latest version of their driver, I can install the latest version of their driver, but most users do not even know what a driver is, let alone that downloading and installing the latest version of it will resolve the fact that their copy of [application] is now crashing randomly referencing some .ocx file.
Virgin Media in the UK (Formerly NTL Telewest (Formerly Blueyonder)) are currently supplying me with a 10Mbit/384k (Soon to be upgraded to 20Mbit for free) cable connection with no download restrictions. The allow me to run a webserver, ftp server, email server and haven't said a word when I occasionally break 300Gb/month (There are 6 of us in the house sharing the connection).
Of course, if I maxed out the connection 24/7 and downloaded over 3Tb in a month, they might say something, but I doubt I'd manage that, even if I tried.
As the site has been Slashdotted already, have a Coralised, Printer-friendly version.
Ah yes, how's that working out for you?
That's cute, you think the current British government gives a flying fuck about protests, or indeed, what "the people" think.
They produce resistant strains precisely because they're so effective at killing bacteria. They kill off everything except that tiny proportion that have a mutation that protects them from the antibiotic. Those survivers then rapidly become the dominant strain and suddenly your wonder drug *doesn't* kill the majority of bacteria any more.
Clamwin, at least last time I used it, doesn't offer real-time scanning, only on demand. So if you just installed it and then expected it to protect you then I'm not suprised you ended up with an infected machine.
They received 80 complaints and as we know, one complaint equals a billion people, so that means 80 billion people were offended.
The paranoia is not with the ID Cards per se, but with the UK government's obsession with linking them to every single piece of personally identifiable information known to every government and non-government agency in the country. There was even talk at one point to linking it to things as ludicrous as Store Cards for places like Tesco, for ease of use, apparently.