I had this idea but it was slightly different. It was going to be called, meatup.com where meat lovers could get together and talk shop about bar-b-que.
Your current employer may be simply up the creek with you gone. They might be planning to replace you at their convienience at a later time. Since they need you up until then, they might just offer you an equivalent salary.
My advice: this is a great time to visit a labor lawyer and write up a termination contract. Just put something down about your termination on a "non-performance" basis. This way, if they decide to fire you without documentation of poor performance, then you will have a termination clause (just ask for like 6 months of pay or something like that).
There would be no reason for your current employer not to sign the contract since they are supposedly matching the offer based on your performance. It guarantees them that you will perform as well in the future and it guarantees you that your job won't disappear without a hefty severance.
Maybe IBM finally brought some of this vapor-ware storage technology to production and they are just selling their drive business for what it is worth today rather than let it die when the new technology is introduced. IBM has always been at the bleeding edge of research so maybe they have something up their sleeve?
All they need to do now is integrate open source with Oktoberfest and they can have free software AND beer. What would be some good (funny) names for a German Gov't Linux distro?
Why don't cellular providers make an adapter to plug their cellular access into the junction box on the outside of a house? I use my cell phone as a primary (actually, I have two and it is still much cheaper than the rape provided by Ameritech) and this has worked well for me. I would really love it if I could plug in a cellular access module into my house so I could use my POTS infrastructure with the service.
Hey - it is my property. I didn't give you permission to blanket it with satellite TV. I'll use your service unless you keep you damned dirty broadcasts out of my land!
If they are so worried about people not wanting to watch commercials, then they should create a system that would create a *desire* to watch commercials. The belated adcritic.com was a good example of this. People went to this site specifically to watch commercials.
Although this would not work for all commercials, you could implement a Tivo rating system where people could judge commercials similar with a system similar to that of the slashdot moderation system. A huge database would be amassed and people could essentially go watch the top 10 every week. Not a bad deal...
Personally, I would pay money for a device that muted commercials so I don't have to do it myself.
Also I can boot to Windows95 with LiLo, but my copy of Windows doesn't support USB. I can replace the MB if necessary, but would rather not if I can avoid doing that.
Hang on here...
I know that this might not be the most slashdot-correct thing to say but you would replace your mobo before upgrading to a version of Windows that supports USB? In all seriousness, Windows 2K doesn't suck much at all. Just don't make a habit of it.
If you don't want to *buy* a copy, then I guess you could always use your Tivo to *steal* a copy.
Not as affordable as one might think. Here's a link to the PCs in question. They don't look much better than a bundled Dell or Gateway entry with Windows and all that other stuff. Not that I am for Windows or anything. I just think it would be better for everyone if they didn't scrap the OS for the sake of raising margins.
I wonder about this, seeing as I have been quite unimpressed by digital cable.
Digital cable is a sham.
Digital Cable = Digitally Compressed Analog TV
The only thing that this does is reduce bandwidth requirements and increase the amount of time needed to flip between channels. If you want to see real digital TV, then go check out a *real* HDTV display (most of the displays are just analog TV, not digital). For the ultimate, get a Dish Network HDTV receiver. They offer the best picture quality (IMHO).
Why don't the big companies like McDonalds, Wal Mart, etc, etc realize the potential of developing their own Free music label? This would be GREAT advertising on their part. For example, Wal Mart or whoever could release songs in a digital format for Free. Perhaps they could release a special player that would not allow anyone to "share" the song until a specified date. In this respect, people would have to come into the store for downloading the new releases. I'd do this... and hell, I would definitely buy whatever I could along the way.
I don't have any pics of my current install, but previously, I was using a forced-air natural gas furnace that was both loud and space consuming. I decided to go with a tankless water heater to supply both domestic hot water as well as radiant heating water. Since the new tankless heater is tiny compared to the old furnace AND the old water heater, I have gained a bunch of space. The tankless was not cheap (about $1100 USD) but building costs in my area are not cheap either - about $90/sq ft. So if you look at it in terms of square feet gained, I actually made money. On that note, I even installed a second bathroom where the old furnace was located. So I've upgraded the house from an undesireable single bath. This should pay off when it comes time to sell (or preferebly rent) the house.
Here is the information on the water heater (TK2) that I am getting. As far as other materials, you'll need a bunch of PEX Tubing to provide the actual radiator. The stuff is expected to last 200 years. I buy from Radiant Max as they have the best prices by far.
The bottom line is that I'll have a radiant floor heating system for about half of the price that the contractor wanted to fix my forced air furnace ($2k vs. $4k). Since the hydronic radiant doesn't require any special tools or skills, I can do it myself (unlike the furnace repair, notably the duct work). Not only am I adding space to the house by eliminating the furnace and the water heater, but I am also lowering my energy requirements during the cold season by an estimated 50 percent (I have an unusually high loss through the current forced air duct work but average gains are 30 percent).
As a side note, I'm currently looking into purchasing the empty lot next door for the purpose of building my own house (and renting the one that I live in now). A friend of mine just did this and total cost worked out to about $5 per square foot since he did ALL of the labor himself (with help from myself and other friends/family on the bulky stuff). Of course, the lot cost him an arm/leg but he has about $180k wrapped up in a house that just appraised for $400k. Not bad... There really isn't much to building a house once you tackle the plumbing, electrical and heating/cooling systems. Labor represents the single biggest cost of building a house.
As another side note, if I find that I do posess the skills required to build a house from start to finish, then I think that it would be nice to drop everything and build ONE modest house per year. Profits would be in the $100k range and if you live in the house for two years, then you don't haveto pay taxes on the profits.
Nice!
More VERY useful radiant information here! A good book required for the necessary engineering background is here. Good luck!
I began college with Mechanical Engineering in mind but then I took a required comp-sci course and it really appealed to me. At the time, I was an ex-geek who had given up the Doritos and Mountain Dew all-nighter lifestyle for something that was more suitable for a teenaged kid in suburbia high school (notably, girls and friends that I will have forever).
In any event, college rolled around and my geekness was awakened by this comp-sci class. I did not have a choice so I changed my major and became a reborn geek.
Fast forward to present day. I'm very good at what I do but I don't just see much *tangible* accomplishment. Sure - there is all this stuff that I have poured my heart and soul into but I didn't do it for me. Some will be quick to point out open source as a means of self expression or whatever but a PC is the last thing that I'd like to look at after a stressful day.
So what then? I've already identified that "geek" is the Hotel California of personality types - at least for me it is. All those 1s and 0s make a lot of sense to me. These types of jobs are the most profitable for me. The invisible hand put me here. I could have started my own business but I tried that. I am not cut out for that so I am happy to work for someone who pays me well for what I do best. As long as I can separate life from work and find something to make me happy.
In the end, I learned how to work for myself outside of work. I bought a house that needs fixing up. I'm currently installing an energy efficient hydronic radiant floor heating system (yes - there is tech available outside IT). This is required to satisfy my low noise floor requirement of the home theater that I installed a while ago. When I'm not watching/listening, I'm on my way out the door to go camping/canoeing (I actually just returned from getting my fishing license:) ). These all make me very happy. EVERYONE hates thier job. Go out there and find something that makes you happy.
This seems to be a reocurring theme on slasdot, eh?
For one thing, automobiles can participate in a massive data acquisition if their control systems are allowed to communicate. For example, if there are many cars with ABS are having activations at a certain section of road (obtained with a GPS), then the data could be analyzed by a central computer that could send out a "slippery road warning warning" and possibly even dispatch a salt truck. This goes for *all sorts* of stuff from traffic congestion to potholes. They can all be detected with the sensors on most cars these days.
I'm really looking for a standard but I'm afraid that Microsoft is already pushing their goons into it. If Linux doesn't just quickly, then MS will tie their software into another piece of hardware with a "DirectCAR API" or something. This is big.
Imagine that you pull into your garage and the bluetooth link (used to monitor tire pressure) on your car's computer tells your home PC that it is time for an oil change. With an internet connection, your home PC could look up the closest oil change joints and find you an opening (and maybe a coupon). If Linux doesn't step in, then MS will have a piece of these kind of transactions. Not good (but very smart of them).
Slashdot Mirror
Clerk: The toppings contain potassium benzoate.
Clerk: That's bad.
Homer: Can I go now?
I'd say that Toshiba definitely has the advantage here because:
1) They can buy the drives from themselves at cost
2) They support Windows users (officially)
I think that we can declare them the winner.
I had this idea but it was slightly different. It was going to be called, meatup.com where meat lovers could get together and talk shop about bar-b-que.
Oh well - back to the grind stone!
Your current employer may be simply up the creek with you gone. They might be planning to replace you at their convienience at a later time. Since they need you up until then, they might just offer you an equivalent salary.
My advice: this is a great time to visit a labor lawyer and write up a termination contract. Just put something down about your termination on a "non-performance" basis. This way, if they decide to fire you without documentation of poor performance, then you will have a termination clause (just ask for like 6 months of pay or something like that).
There would be no reason for your current employer not to sign the contract since they are supposedly matching the offer based on your performance. It guarantees them that you will perform as well in the future and it guarantees you that your job won't disappear without a hefty severance.
Maybe IBM finally brought some of this vapor-ware storage technology to production and they are just selling their drive business for what it is worth today rather than let it die when the new technology is introduced. IBM has always been at the bleeding edge of research so maybe they have something up their sleeve?
Those are good. For their firewall, they could use:
"The Berlin Firewall"
All they need to do now is integrate open source with Oktoberfest and they can have free software AND beer. What would be some good (funny) names for a German Gov't Linux distro?
Linuxkraut?
Why don't cellular providers make an adapter to plug their cellular access into the junction box on the outside of a house? I use my cell phone as a primary (actually, I have two and it is still much cheaper than the rape provided by Ameritech) and this has worked well for me. I would really love it if I could plug in a cellular access module into my house so I could use my POTS infrastructure with the service.
Hey - it is my property. I didn't give you permission to blanket it with satellite TV. I'll use your service unless you keep you damned dirty broadcasts out of my land!
Yes - I can't wait for the various different recordable formats that come out for this new technology. Lesee:
- AVD+RW
- AVD-R
- AVD-RAM
- EVD+RW
- EVD-RAM
- EVD-R
- EVD+AVD+RAM
- Etc...
Wonderful!
The bootleg versions of AotC and Spidey are much poorer quality than you will see in the theatre.
I beg to differ...
A friend recently showed off a Spider-Man DVD complete with menus. Full quality. I was shocked...
You can buy them in the Detroit area for $10.
Senator's Listed by State
If they are so worried about people not wanting to watch commercials, then they should create a system that would create a *desire* to watch commercials. The belated adcritic.com was a good example of this. People went to this site specifically to watch commercials.
Although this would not work for all commercials, you could implement a Tivo rating system where people could judge commercials similar with a system similar to that of the slashdot moderation system. A huge database would be amassed and people could essentially go watch the top 10 every week. Not a bad deal...
Personally, I would pay money for a device that muted commercials so I don't have to do it myself.
They waited until the very last second and then squeezed their bid in.
Bastards!
From now on, you will refer to them collectively as "Hewlett Paqard".
Change is good!
Also I can boot to Windows95 with LiLo, but my copy of Windows doesn't support USB. I can replace the MB if necessary, but would rather not if I can avoid doing that.
Hang on here...
I know that this might not be the most slashdot-correct thing to say but you would replace your mobo before upgrading to a version of Windows that supports USB? In all seriousness, Windows 2K doesn't suck much at all. Just don't make a habit of it.
If you don't want to *buy* a copy, then I guess you could always use your Tivo to *steal* a copy.
These machines are obviously an affordable
Not as affordable as one might think. Here's a link to the PCs in question. They don't look much better than a bundled Dell or Gateway entry with Windows and all that other stuff. Not that I am for Windows or anything. I just think it would be better for everyone if they didn't scrap the OS for the sake of raising margins.
I wonder about this, seeing as I have been quite unimpressed by digital cable.
Digital cable is a sham.
Digital Cable = Digitally Compressed Analog TV
The only thing that this does is reduce bandwidth requirements and increase the amount of time needed to flip between channels. If you want to see real digital TV, then go check out a *real* HDTV display (most of the displays are just analog TV, not digital). For the ultimate, get a Dish Network HDTV receiver. They offer the best picture quality (IMHO).
Cheetos!
Consensual Sex is not Rape!
Who paid to find this out?
Why don't the big companies like McDonalds, Wal Mart, etc, etc realize the potential of developing their own Free music label? This would be GREAT advertising on their part. For example, Wal Mart or whoever could release songs in a digital format for Free. Perhaps they could release a special player that would not allow anyone to "share" the song until a specified date. In this respect, people would have to come into the store for downloading the new releases. I'd do this... and hell, I would definitely buy whatever I could along the way.
Links, please! This sounds like fun.
Radiant Panel Association FAQ
I don't have any pics of my current install, but previously, I was using a forced-air natural gas furnace that was both loud and space consuming. I decided to go with a tankless water heater to supply both domestic hot water as well as radiant heating water. Since the new tankless heater is tiny compared to the old furnace AND the old water heater, I have gained a bunch of space. The tankless was not cheap (about $1100 USD) but building costs in my area are not cheap either - about $90/sq ft. So if you look at it in terms of square feet gained, I actually made money. On that note, I even installed a second bathroom where the old furnace was located. So I've upgraded the house from an undesireable single bath. This should pay off when it comes time to sell (or preferebly rent) the house.
Here is the information on the water heater (TK2) that I am getting. As far as other materials, you'll need a bunch of PEX Tubing to provide the actual radiator. The stuff is expected to last 200 years. I buy from Radiant Max as they have the best prices by far.
The bottom line is that I'll have a radiant floor heating system for about half of the price that the contractor wanted to fix my forced air furnace ($2k vs. $4k). Since the hydronic radiant doesn't require any special tools or skills, I can do it myself (unlike the furnace repair, notably the duct work). Not only am I adding space to the house by eliminating the furnace and the water heater, but I am also lowering my energy requirements during the cold season by an estimated 50 percent (I have an unusually high loss through the current forced air duct work but average gains are 30 percent).
As a side note, I'm currently looking into purchasing the empty lot next door for the purpose of building my own house (and renting the one that I live in now). A friend of mine just did this and total cost worked out to about $5 per square foot since he did ALL of the labor himself (with help from myself and other friends/family on the bulky stuff). Of course, the lot cost him an arm/leg but he has about $180k wrapped up in a house that just appraised for $400k. Not bad... There really isn't much to building a house once you tackle the plumbing, electrical and heating/cooling systems. Labor represents the single biggest cost of building a house.
As another side note, if I find that I do posess the skills required to build a house from start to finish, then I think that it would be nice to drop everything and build ONE modest house per year. Profits would be in the $100k range and if you live in the house for two years, then you don't haveto pay taxes on the profits.
Nice!
More VERY useful radiant information here! A good book required for the necessary engineering background is here. Good luck!
Well,
:) ). These all make me very happy. EVERYONE hates thier job. Go out there and find something that makes you happy.
I began college with Mechanical Engineering in mind but then I took a required comp-sci course and it really appealed to me. At the time, I was an ex-geek who had given up the Doritos and Mountain Dew all-nighter lifestyle for something that was more suitable for a teenaged kid in suburbia high school (notably, girls and friends that I will have forever).
In any event, college rolled around and my geekness was awakened by this comp-sci class. I did not have a choice so I changed my major and became a reborn geek.
Fast forward to present day. I'm very good at what I do but I don't just see much *tangible* accomplishment. Sure - there is all this stuff that I have poured my heart and soul into but I didn't do it for me. Some will be quick to point out open source as a means of self expression or whatever but a PC is the last thing that I'd like to look at after a stressful day.
So what then? I've already identified that "geek" is the Hotel California of personality types - at least for me it is. All those 1s and 0s make a lot of sense to me. These types of jobs are the most profitable for me. The invisible hand put me here. I could have started my own business but I tried that. I am not cut out for that so I am happy to work for someone who pays me well for what I do best. As long as I can separate life from work and find something to make me happy.
In the end, I learned how to work for myself outside of work. I bought a house that needs fixing up. I'm currently installing an energy efficient hydronic radiant floor heating system (yes - there is tech available outside IT). This is required to satisfy my low noise floor requirement of the home theater that I installed a while ago. When I'm not watching/listening, I'm on my way out the door to go camping/canoeing (I actually just returned from getting my fishing license
This seems to be a reocurring theme on slasdot, eh?
Here's what I want:
A google plug-in for my mail client.
Thanks in advance!
When management shuts them down, will they do it in person or will they just pull up a remote terminal and shut them off that way?
Why on the internet?
Well,
For one thing, automobiles can participate in a massive data acquisition if their control systems are allowed to communicate. For example, if there are many cars with ABS are having activations at a certain section of road (obtained with a GPS), then the data could be analyzed by a central computer that could send out a "slippery road warning warning" and possibly even dispatch a salt truck. This goes for *all sorts* of stuff from traffic congestion to potholes. They can all be detected with the sensors on most cars these days.
I'm really looking for a standard but I'm afraid that Microsoft is already pushing their goons into it. If Linux doesn't just quickly, then MS will tie their software into another piece of hardware with a "DirectCAR API" or something. This is big.
Imagine that you pull into your garage and the bluetooth link (used to monitor tire pressure) on your car's computer tells your home PC that it is time for an oil change. With an internet connection, your home PC could look up the closest oil change joints and find you an opening (and maybe a coupon). If Linux doesn't step in, then MS will have a piece of these kind of transactions. Not good (but very smart of them).