There would no name clash, as well as a clearer name recognition for non-users. When I see firebirdSQL, I know what it is supposed to be... When I see "firebird Browser" I will be able to understand clearly what it is supposed to be, without any prior knowledge.
Also, since Firebird (the browser) is meant to be just a browser, it does not restrict the scope.
Can end users be penalized if they run something that uses statically or dynamically liked VFP code on Linux? Say, I get a screensaver and I decide to run it on Wine, (but for some reason the screensaver uses some VFP code, don't ask me why or how:) ), do I get into trouble?
I'm not advocating oppression of any people. I just want people to know that quality is not the only reason for outsourcing.
Even if the quality is not the reason, you should not care because free markets are supposed to be run like that -- just free. Any artificial restrictions are primarily unfair towards citizens of poorer nations.
If people are willing to buy low quality, cheap stuff, then the manufacturers of that stuff make a lot of profit. It applies for fast food, it applies for cars, and it will damn well apply for software products too.
Especially when the system (Mozilla here) is completely customizable, and side projects are indeed developing quickly.
Why bloat is good, you may ask? The machines are reasonably fast these days, and users (ahem, let me say, just I) tend to spend significant time on the browser window, and mail window (and calendar, may be composer, etc). There is a common interface, one can upgrade everything at one shot (kinda like Redhat 8 and 9... you get everything updated). Makes life a little easier.
I would have complained had M$FT done the same thing. Why? because there would have been no choice then. With Mozilla, someone can customize and contribute a build that does exactly what a group of people need. Not so with the big company from Redmond.
Imagine being able to have a bunch of utilities (from mozdev.org) tightly integrated into one "application suite" (with options for people to run Phoenix, etc.) -- it is almost like having the cake and eating it too.
I have some karma to burn, so let me jump in... The parent (-1 Insightful) is as funny as is tragic.
This is the sign of the times, where dissent is crushed so easily, may be not with the power of force that we accuse Saddam of using, but it is getting close to that.
Yesterday I saw on TV where the TV station was calling for the firing of a Columbia Univ's anthroplogy professor for hoping for more mogadishu type attacks (in private conversation). It may be very tasteless, but for the TV station calling for firing him (they showed his photo on TV too) is very disturbing.
May be we hate the enemy so much that we are becoming him!
When I use LaTeX for my documentation and people everywhere cannot make sense of it, I send them pdf files (or well formatted html files, since LaTeX2HTML does a very good job).
Likewise, when people don't want others to muck around with their documents, they send them in pdf , often with an additional Acrobat license. They sometimes also send bad html from MS Word.
Interchange of the documents will only get better with time. I can safely venture and say openoffice does a better job than, say MSWord 95. Soon it will be MSWord 97, and 2000.
The main skills with respect to professional opportunities:
(a) Write well. You don't need MSFT Word for that. Any reasonable document preparation system is good enough. Most people are limited by their thought than the tool these days.
(b) Programming Basics. KDevelop, GLADE, Java Development, (X)Emacs, Eclipse, blah blah blah. I know many in India that still use Turbo C and so on. Learning on the latest open source IDEs is going to be helpful (not the standard widget magic from MS Visual Studio)
(c) Web. The less familiar with IIS and Frontpage, the better:)
(d) Operating Systems. Unix/Linux. Nothing more to be said. One even gets a better understanding of how the OS is built.
Whatever happenned to the family values: you know the types where mothers, fathers, siblings, relatives, and even friends play a constructive role in a child's development? The most important element "TRUST" seems to be missing in many of the gadgets, be it net filters, stricter schools, or tough "wars" on anything that the parents feel threatening.
All this mind you, when the most popular shows on television are disguistingly vouyeristic (be it just sexual -- a lot of it these days revolving around who someone with have sex with, or even some extreme things like who would eat a baby duck to qualify for the final round). I have no complaints about such shows. I just have a complaint about parents that watch such stuff and expect the kids to never stray.
There is a popular saying (I don't know who said it) that goes like, "Despite the best efforts of the parents, the kids will end up emulating the parents".
A lot of discipline needs to come from within. If Junior is watching too much TV, try to find something that is more meaningful and try to get Junior into that (gradually). Just like if Junior wants to eat Pizza every day, you just have to put in some effort in cooking something that is both tasty and delicious. You can't just shoot down some shit down his throat while you gulp champagne.
Some companies have so much bereaucracy, it puts even army to shame. There used to a saying that in army, the only way to get promoted is if the senior member is killed or wounded in a war.
In case of some companies that I know, even that doesn't help. Well, the logic is "why not hire some old fart laid off from a big company, instead of promoting internal people."
In that scenario, lot of the internal people come about feeling themselves seen as "resources" rather than an integral part of the company.
An anecdote and a question here: a friend of mine started working in a startup (with a couple of founders, so he is the first employee). However, as the company grew, the company head started bringing in "experts" from outside. So, after a few years, my friend is still in the same position he was hired at. Should he just move on, or has he done something dumb to get into the present situation?
S
Re:Don't take away freedoms to "improve" productiv
on
Improving Company Morale?
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Flexible hours... Some companies have flexible hours. However, there are so many related issues it is not even funny.
The notion of flexible hours in startups has become "come late, leave late". If someone wants to start the work day at 7am in the hopes of getting out by 4 or 5 and get a life, there is almost palpable tension from the glares of coworkers who amble into work sometime at 10am or 10:30am. More so, if the bosses themselves are late comers.
The flexible hours thing is almost abused in some places. It is much less pressure, if people are asked to be in at certain time, get out at a certain time (unless there are deadlines and other situations).
Imagine having no work to do and still having to sit till 7pm because the dudes that come at 11am will stare you into submission...
The solution is not to become another christian militant crusader to tackle islamic militancy.
BTW, Saddam is not an Islamic militant. He is just a regular dictator. Iraq is also a secular nation. He just pissed off papa Bush and Dubya wants revenge (and oil).
I wonder why the media is not covering the news of Iraqi deaths. Is it some sort of a PG-13[*] coverage of the war? Or is it to make the american public believe that this is actually a sports game instead of real people getting killed?
S
[*] for non US ppl, PG-13 is a movie rating covering content appropriate for ages 13 and up.
Here are some things I perceive to be misconceptions about H1B's:
1) H1B's can work for a very low wage A) FALSE: The dept of labor has a prescribed minimum wage for H1B's. Anecdote: A company that I know had a paycut, but did not cut some of the H1'B salaries because they would then fall under the dept of labor's limit.
2) H1B's are equivalent to slavery A) FALSE: They come on their own wish. They can leave to their country whenever they want to (often much richer, 'cuz the spare money saved here equates a large amount in, say, India). For instance, one could live in many parts of India for over a year comfortably with 5 to 10k dollars. So, if someone saved up 100k in a six year job stunt in US, he/she is set for life in a poor country.
3) H1B's are coming from exploitative conditions A) FALSE: Many are highly educated in their countries, often coming from families placed higher in the social/economical hierarchy. The really poor ones in India, for example, are *really* *really* poor.
4) H1B's fear being sent back to inhumane conditions A) FALSE: Many companies in India, for example, are looking for US trained/US experienced employees for handling outsourced projects. The competition may be tough though
So, using freenet, we can now safely speak against the policies of am hawkish axis of evil consisting of one Mr. President, his Secy of Defense, and his Attorney General, aided ably by some now defunct corporations?
The US government funded Taliban and Saddam a couple of decades ago, and now they employ similar tactics used in repressive regimes (imprisonment without due judicial process). It's just a different matter that the guys wear suits and look cool and the new networks pander to them.
The current article (P2P pirates funding networks) is an example of how effectively the people in power can mask their own agendas. Everyone knows that file sharing is more an "el cheapo" way of getting software/multi media/pr0n etc. It is also an effective way for mirroring legitimate content (say, GNU/Linux iso images). However, do you think the news networks would address that issue?
The real terrorists are the ones that benefit a lot when there is a conflict in the world. And, that my friend are the military hawks, and not some cheap bastards trading files 'cuz they can't afford buying that stuff.
This shit happens whenever there is a "middleman".
How is the recording artists' story any different from that of techies? The contracting companies pim^H^H^Hcontracting techies to big companies while taking a big share of the billing rate exactly do the same.
Even more eerie similarities... just as the music industry churns out whatever is available to them and package it as "the best of the breed", these guys also package whatever people they can get and project them as the best of the breed.
The notable difference is that the music bands get screwed by the recording companies AND the groupies, whereas the techies get screwed only by the contracting company alone.
So, How did the universe get created. Does this mean that there was actually a "beginning of time" as far as we can tell? What was that point? What existed before then? Since matter can't be created nor destroyed, where did it come from? (though that is a question beyond most planes of though, IMO)
Slightly offtopic but I thought I'd bring up something that is very similar to this line of questioning.
The Rig Veda, the most ancient text of Hinduism contains these questions in its first verse.
It seems those guys didn't know the answers and neither do I
Your IT arrogance will be tamed if next time you file your expenses, the HR people reject it outright because you didn't do it in the proper format or you didn't do it timely.
Slashdot Mirror
Considering how much time people spend on /. blah blah'ing over random stuff, it may be a good idea in itself.
It would be analogous to newsgroups but with more interactivity (and quick responses).
S
Seriously though... this is where Scott McNealy's vision of "The Network is the Computer" comes even closer to reality.
S
Excess water will not a big problem... same with excess nitrogen. On the other hand excess CO2 *is* a problem.
Water is a very easily manageable even if you consider it as waste.
S
There would no name clash, as well as a clearer name recognition for non-users. When I see firebirdSQL, I know what it is supposed to be... When I see "firebird Browser" I will be able to understand clearly what it is supposed to be, without any prior knowledge.
Also, since Firebird (the browser) is meant to be just a browser, it does not restrict the scope.
S
Can end users be penalized if they run something that uses statically or dynamically liked VFP code on Linux? Say, I get a screensaver and I decide to run it on Wine, (but for some reason the screensaver uses some VFP code, don't ask me why or how :) ), do I get into trouble?
Or, am I being too paranoid?
S
Even if the quality is not the reason, you should not care because free markets are supposed to be run like that -- just free. Any artificial restrictions are primarily unfair towards citizens of poorer nations.
If people are willing to buy low quality, cheap stuff, then the manufacturers of that stuff make a lot of profit. It applies for fast food, it applies for cars, and it will damn well apply for software products too.
S
Especially when the system (Mozilla here) is completely customizable, and side projects are indeed developing quickly.
Why bloat is good, you may ask? The machines are reasonably fast these days, and users (ahem, let me say, just I) tend to spend significant time on the browser window, and mail window (and calendar, may be composer, etc). There is a common interface, one can upgrade everything at one shot (kinda like Redhat 8 and 9... you get everything updated). Makes life a little easier.
I would have complained had M$FT done the same thing. Why? because there would have been no choice then. With Mozilla, someone can customize and contribute a build that does exactly what a group of people need. Not so with the big company from Redmond.
Imagine being able to have a bunch of utilities (from mozdev.org) tightly integrated into one "application suite" (with options for people to run Phoenix, etc.) -- it is almost like having the cake and eating it too.
S
I have some karma to burn, so let me jump in... The parent (-1 Insightful) is as funny as is tragic.
This is the sign of the times, where dissent is crushed so easily, may be not with the power of force that we accuse Saddam of using, but it is getting close to that.
Yesterday I saw on TV where the TV station was calling for the firing of a Columbia Univ's anthroplogy professor for hoping for more mogadishu type attacks (in private conversation). It may be very tasteless, but for the TV station calling for firing him (they showed his photo on TV too) is very disturbing.
May be we hate the enemy so much that we are becoming him!
S
Let me offer another perspective:
When I use LaTeX for my documentation and people everywhere cannot make sense of it, I send them pdf files (or well formatted html files, since LaTeX2HTML does a very good job).
Likewise, when people don't want others to muck around with their documents, they send them in pdf , often with an additional Acrobat license. They sometimes also send bad html from MS Word.
Interchange of the documents will only get better with time. I can safely venture and say openoffice does a better job than, say MSWord 95. Soon it will be MSWord 97, and 2000.
S
The main skills with respect to professional opportunities:
:)
(a) Write well. You don't need MSFT Word for that. Any reasonable document preparation system is good enough. Most people are limited by their thought than the tool these days.
(b) Programming Basics. KDevelop, GLADE, Java Development, (X)Emacs, Eclipse, blah blah blah. I know many in India that still use Turbo C and so on. Learning on the latest open source IDEs is going to be helpful (not the standard widget magic from MS Visual Studio)
(c) Web. The less familiar with IIS and Frontpage, the better
(d) Operating Systems. Unix/Linux. Nothing more to be said. One even gets a better understanding of how the OS is built.
(e) Email/calendaring. Check squirrell mail, evolution, mozilla.
(f) Databases. MySQL/Postgres. You have oracle for Linux too.
(g) Books, documentation, a social structure for learning... What better than open source? Bruce Eckel, O'Reilly, etc.
S
I wonder how these things will play out by the time dubya gets done with Iraq and drilling Alaska...
I am sure the media can always convince 70% of americans that not using oil would be unamerican.
S
Whatever happenned to the family values: you know the types where mothers, fathers, siblings, relatives, and even friends play a constructive role in a child's development? The most important element "TRUST" seems to be missing in many of the gadgets, be it net filters, stricter schools, or tough "wars" on anything that the parents feel threatening.
All this mind you, when the most popular shows on television are disguistingly vouyeristic (be it just sexual -- a lot of it these days revolving around who someone with have sex with, or even some extreme things like who would eat a baby duck to qualify for the final round). I have no complaints about such shows. I just have a complaint about parents that watch such stuff and expect the kids to never stray.
There is a popular saying (I don't know who said it) that goes like, "Despite the best efforts of the parents, the kids will end up emulating the parents".
A lot of discipline needs to come from within. If Junior is watching too much TV, try to find something that is more meaningful and try to get Junior into that (gradually). Just like if Junior wants to eat Pizza every day, you just have to put in some effort in cooking something that is both tasty and delicious. You can't just shoot down some shit down his throat while you gulp champagne.
S
Some companies have so much bereaucracy, it puts even army to shame. There used to a saying that in army, the only way to get promoted is if the senior member is killed or wounded in a war.
In case of some companies that I know, even that doesn't help. Well, the logic is "why not hire some old fart laid off from a big company, instead of promoting internal people."
In that scenario, lot of the internal people come about feeling themselves seen as "resources" rather than an integral part of the company.
An anecdote and a question here: a friend of mine started working in a startup (with a couple of founders, so he is the first employee). However, as the company grew, the company head started bringing in "experts" from outside. So, after a few years, my friend is still in the same position he was hired at. Should he just move on, or has he done something dumb to get into the present situation?
S
Flexible hours... Some companies have flexible hours. However, there are so many related issues it is not even funny.
The notion of flexible hours in startups has become "come late, leave late". If someone wants to start the work day at 7am in the hopes of getting out by 4 or 5 and get a life, there is almost palpable tension from the glares of coworkers who amble into work sometime at 10am or 10:30am. More so, if the bosses themselves are late comers.
The flexible hours thing is almost abused in some places. It is much less pressure, if people are asked to be in at certain time, get out at a certain time (unless there are deadlines and other situations).
Imagine having no work to do and still having to sit till 7pm because the dudes that come at 11am will stare you into submission...
S
The solution is not to become another christian militant crusader to tackle islamic militancy.
BTW, Saddam is not an Islamic militant. He is just a regular dictator. Iraq is also a secular nation. He just pissed off papa Bush and Dubya wants revenge (and oil).
S
I wonder why the media is not covering the news of Iraqi deaths. Is it some sort of a PG-13[*] coverage of the war? Or is it to make the american public believe that this is actually a sports game instead of real people getting killed?
S
[*] for non US ppl, PG-13 is a movie rating covering content appropriate for ages 13 and up.
Here are some things I perceive to be misconceptions about H1B's:
1) H1B's can work for a very low wage
A) FALSE: The dept of labor has a prescribed minimum wage for H1B's.
Anecdote: A company that I know had a paycut, but did not cut some of the H1'B salaries because they would then fall under the dept of labor's limit.
2) H1B's are equivalent to slavery
A) FALSE: They come on their own wish. They can leave to their country whenever they want to (often much richer, 'cuz the spare money saved here equates a large amount in, say, India).
For instance, one could live in many parts of India for over a year comfortably with 5 to 10k dollars. So, if someone saved up 100k in a six year job stunt in US, he/she is set for life in a poor country.
3) H1B's are coming from exploitative conditions
A) FALSE: Many are highly educated in their countries, often coming from families placed higher in the social/economical hierarchy. The really poor ones in India, for example, are *really* *really* poor.
4) H1B's fear being sent back to inhumane conditions
A) FALSE: Many companies in India, for example, are looking for US trained/US experienced employees for handling outsourced projects. The competition may be tough though
So, using freenet, we can now safely speak against the policies of am hawkish axis of evil consisting of one Mr. President, his Secy of Defense, and his Attorney General, aided ably by some now defunct corporations?
S
The US government funded Taliban and Saddam a couple of decades ago, and now they employ similar tactics used in repressive regimes (imprisonment without due judicial process). It's just a different matter that the guys wear suits and look cool and the new networks pander to them.
The current article (P2P pirates funding networks) is an example of how effectively the people in power can mask their own agendas. Everyone knows that file sharing is more an "el cheapo" way of getting software/multi media/pr0n etc. It is also an effective way for mirroring legitimate content (say, GNU/Linux iso images). However, do you think the news networks would address that issue?
The real terrorists are the ones that benefit a lot when there is a conflict in the world. And, that my friend are the military hawks, and not some cheap bastards trading files 'cuz they can't afford buying that stuff.
S
MSFT would say something like this...
I think China as a whole follows more rules than the loose nuts in the universities and companies in the US.
They will swear under oath too.
S
This shit happens whenever there is a "middleman".
How is the recording artists' story any different from that of techies? The contracting companies pim^H^H^Hcontracting techies to big companies while taking a big share of the billing rate exactly do the same.
Even more eerie similarities... just as the music industry churns out whatever is available to them and package it as "the best of the breed", these guys also package whatever people they can get and project them as the best of the breed.
The notable difference is that the music bands get screwed by the recording companies AND the groupies, whereas the techies get screwed only by the contracting company alone.
S
Slightly offtopic but I thought I'd bring up something that is very similar to this line of questioning.
The Rig Veda, the most ancient text of Hinduism contains these questions in its first verse.
It seems those guys didn't know the answers and neither do I
S
I am replying to a flamebait, but...
"Stealing" copyrighted materials is not the
issue.... Stealing GPL'ed stuff AND selling it AND NOT allowing free redistribution is...
S
Your IT arrogance will be tamed if next time you file your expenses, the HR people reject it outright because you didn't do it in the proper format or you didn't do it timely.
S
Seems like it, since there is a string "goofy" in there..