...if they could leverage national security or anti-terrorism, they would do that too. And they sure as hell wouldn't be the only ones twisting a human tragedy for there own greedy purposes. To paraphrase a senator: I'd call you a pack of whores, but that would be unfair to the whores.
These people are always going to find a way to 'influence' them in a direction they inherently want to go anyway. It's like terrorists citing God as the motivation for their actions - that's nothing more than a psychotic rationalization. Same as this case.
I quit five jobs until I found one where IT is given high credibility. Of course, I'm a VP now, so actually part of the problem I suppose. Over to the Dark Side and all that...
Re:No one is trying to make file sharing illegal
on
The Crime of Sharing
·
· Score: 1
No, you can't legally make a tape and send it to him. What you CAN do is BUY him a copy of the CD and send it to him. Or, you can legally send him your copy of the CD and do without until he is done 'borrowing' it.
No, the reason is that winning (and I suspect even being nominated) for an Oscar brings hoardes of ticket buyers to the theatre, but that won't happen if the movie has already been playing for 8 months. We're ready for the DVD by then.
Enjoy this while you can. The purchase of new laws to make it illegal to give bogus identifying info is surely on Microsofts to-do list, right after 'Buy self out of monopoloy ruling'
And the beauty of it is you don't have to stay with the 95% Windows interface. You just start there to ease the transition, then over the next few years you can evolve to a better interface, bringing your users along with you. And, of course, since you get to choose your interface (unlike Windows) you have (or will have) many options for ways to do this. I think your recognition of the cultural aspect of such a transition is right on target. We in IT like to think we own these systems, but IMHO the reality is that the users own these systems, and their needs/desires need to be addressed as well.
Ah, the old "this guy doesn't think the world is owed a living so he must be some pampered brat" fallacy. You don't know dick about me, or my history. You don't know that I've worked since Jr. high, put myself through college using veterans benefits earned in my 11 years in the military, that I did temp work to pay for food and rent since the benefits only paid 75% of tuition, no books, and no living expenses.
Can you do even simple math? Yeah, for a single worker $2.50 an hour doesn't sound like much. Multiply it by 1000. Still sound small? Do it in a commodity market where shaving half a cent per unit off production costs is a make-or-break proposition.
Ok, so it looks like the consensus here is that these poor folks are being used and abused, and Big Business just doesn't care.
What's the alternative? Pay them $20 and hour and let them come and go as they please, or stop the line whenever they want to chat about their weekend? How willing are you to pay $500 for a printer that currently costs $125?
If this story was about HP automating the box line and putting some number of temp workers out on the street, or moving the work to Mexico where the labor costs are even lower, would that be better?
Temp work exists for a reason. I have done temp work myself. My view of it was work I could get at the drop of a hat, and quit the same way. If you need to work for 3 weeks, are you going to take a job somewhere knowing full well you're only going to be there 3 weeks? Yes, there are perma-temps, and there are inarguably strong financial incentives on the part of the company to staff in that manner, but the cold, hard reality is that this is the kind of migrant labor these workers chose. Granted, they probably didn't have a whole lot of options to choose from, but it's not like some recruiter painted a rosy picture of temp-Nirvana to these people. They made a fully-informed decision to accept the work, and given the angst shown over being laid-off, seemed to appreciate that they had work at all.
Red Hat will become whatever AOL wants it to become.
And that is exactly the problem. AOL will want to differentiate their distro so they can charge big bucks for it. This is another Microsoft being conceived. I've experienced AOL first hand - they're every bit the buttheads that microsoft are.
I bugged out of CompuServe as soon as it became apparent that AOL would be buying them. I couldn't stomach the idea of working for them either. Pure marketing, lousy technology. That's no place for a technologist to be.
I contend that we are only a handful of years from living in a society in which ALL laws are 100% enforceable using various technological means. I think just shrugging off an unpopular law with the "yeah, just try to catch me" mentality is extremely dangerous.
We're doing the same thing, and for the same reasons. I suspect that a LOT of us are! We're starting small with replacing Windows FTP servers and proprietary firewall devices with Linux alternatives. IIS is next. The end-game is when I get rid of SQL Server. The deadline is when Dell will no longer sell a machine with Win2k. Dell is unable or unwilling to provide me with that date, so we even have a pretty cool sense of urgency.
Cost? Maybe a one-time or short-term subscription prices out at a tenth of the perpetual license cost. I could see that as a reason, in addition to the original stated reason of aversion to the hassles of installing and configuring a complex software package.
I would ammend your statement to "if you are a monopoly, you can't grow your market share.
You can certainly grow your revenues by increasing the size of your market. Being a monopoly does not mean your market is saturated - there are still five or six people in the world that don't own Microsoft product. Revenues can be increased by selling to them.
That has nothing to do with gov't work. I've done both, and slackers exist in both. The.com crowd got their introduction to professional programming in a very unprofessional environment, and are spoiled as a result. I don't think it is too much to expect a level of high professionalism in a high paying position, but then again I spent 11 years in the military and 12 years coding in well established private sector businesses before the.com gold rush came along. I was taught what was important and how to behave accordingly.
Fundamentally, these.com dweebs need to dry their eyes, quit their whining, and finally start to understand that the.com way failed, and failed for good reasons. It's time to grow up and behave like mature, professional adults.
If a sexier job with the same amount of stability pops up, I'll go for it, but until then make mine federal.
Which, IMHO, is one of the reasons gov't isn't looking to hire outta work.com folks. The gov't will invest heavily in the long term growth of its employees, and does not want to see that expensive training walk out the door the first time something glittery comes along. They are looking for stable team players, not mercenaries.
Hey, why not? We really need more laws, especially now that we are on the cusp if living in a society in which every law is 100% enforceable. Consider: we are about 5 years (and remember, you heard it here first) from living in a society in which just about everyone can afford a small, easily hidden device that records every minute of every conversation you had during the day. These conversations will be uploaded to your PC where they will be archived forever. Imagine the consequences of this! No more arguing with the wife over whether she told you about that appointment you missed or not. If you say it, it can AND WILL be used against you FOREVER! A few more years down the road and our every move will be tracked, and there will be a thriving black market in the illicit sales to individuals of this data. Your spouse will be able to easily determine whether you really worked late, or were visiting the local strip bar. This is what we're headed for, and who can truly say they have NOTHING to hide?? Really? You've never cranked the old Escort up to 66 mph? Remember, it doesn't matter if you inhaled or not. IMHO, this world will/would SUCK, and making more and more ever-restrictive laws is going to come back and bite us HARD on the ass.
Yep, this is off-topic and feel free to mod me to the stone ages. I just get riled up over calls for more laws and more government control when we already have too much. On topic: this is dumb anyway. Market forces will ultimately weed out the weak. If Ford still made Pintos, I doubt if anyone would be buying them.
The patent system is perverted from being a way of protecting inventors from being ripped off by corporations
Which makes it just like every other government agency.
Re:No, it means the end of armed conflict.
on
The Drone War
·
· Score: 1
I think you need to make the distinction between who is fighting and where they are fighting. While tecno nations would not favor an extended battle in either of their back yards due to the enormous cost in civilian lives and property, past history shows that they don't have the same distaste for fighting each other for extended periods elsewhere (Korea, Viet Nam, etc.).
3480, 3490, and 3490E are 36-track cartridge tapes. The drives are newer and the tapes less accident prone (think cassette vs. reel-to-reel). We use both in our data processing, and the 9 tracks are a royal PITA. I for one will be glad to see them start to go away.
Slashdot Mirror
...if they could leverage national security or anti-terrorism, they would do that too. And they sure as hell wouldn't be the only ones twisting a human tragedy for there own greedy purposes. To paraphrase a senator: I'd call you a pack of whores, but that would be unfair to the whores.
External modems cost about $70 - $80 more than internal modems - who the hell buys external modems anymore?
These people are always going to find a way to 'influence' them in a direction they inherently want to go anyway. It's like terrorists citing God as the motivation for their actions - that's nothing more than a psychotic rationalization. Same as this case.
How will you get it through customs?
I was going to make the same comment. Please mod me to (5, Redundant)
I quit five jobs until I found one where IT is given high credibility. Of course, I'm a VP now, so actually part of the problem I suppose. Over to the Dark Side and all that...
No, you can't legally make a tape and send it to him. What you CAN do is BUY him a copy of the CD and send it to him. Or, you can legally send him your copy of the CD and do without until he is done 'borrowing' it.
No, the reason is that winning (and I suspect even being nominated) for an Oscar brings hoardes of ticket buyers to the theatre, but that won't happen if the movie has already been playing for 8 months. We're ready for the DVD by then.
Enjoy this while you can. The purchase of new laws to make it illegal to give bogus identifying info is surely on Microsofts to-do list, right after 'Buy self out of monopoloy ruling'
And the beauty of it is you don't have to stay with the 95% Windows interface. You just start there to ease the transition, then over the next few years you can evolve to a better interface, bringing your users along with you. And, of course, since you get to choose your interface (unlike Windows) you have (or will have) many options for ways to do this. I think your recognition of the cultural aspect of such a transition is right on target. We in IT like to think we own these systems, but IMHO the reality is that the users own these systems, and their needs/desires need to be addressed as well.
Ah, the old "this guy doesn't think the world is owed a living so he must be some pampered brat" fallacy. You don't know dick about me, or my history. You don't know that I've worked since Jr. high, put myself through college using veterans benefits earned in my 11 years in the military, that I did temp work to pay for food and rent since the benefits only paid 75% of tuition, no books, and no living expenses.
Can you do even simple math? Yeah, for a single worker $2.50 an hour doesn't sound like much. Multiply it by 1000. Still sound small? Do it in a commodity market where shaving half a cent per unit off production costs is a make-or-break proposition.
Bask away, dip shit.
Ok, so it looks like the consensus here is that these poor folks are being used and abused, and Big Business just doesn't care.
What's the alternative? Pay them $20 and hour and let them come and go as they please, or stop the line whenever they want to chat about their weekend? How willing are you to pay $500 for a printer that currently costs $125?
If this story was about HP automating the box line and putting some number of temp workers out on the street, or moving the work to Mexico where the labor costs are even lower, would that be better?
Temp work exists for a reason. I have done temp work myself. My view of it was work I could get at the drop of a hat, and quit the same way. If you need to work for 3 weeks, are you going to take a job somewhere knowing full well you're only going to be there 3 weeks? Yes, there are perma-temps, and there are inarguably strong financial incentives on the part of the company to staff in that manner, but the cold, hard reality is that this is the kind of migrant labor these workers chose. Granted, they probably didn't have a whole lot of options to choose from, but it's not like some recruiter painted a rosy picture of temp-Nirvana to these people. They made a fully-informed decision to accept the work, and given the angst shown over being laid-off, seemed to appreciate that they had work at all.
Red Hat will become whatever AOL wants it to become.
And that is exactly the problem. AOL will want to differentiate their distro so they can charge big bucks for it. This is another Microsoft being conceived. I've experienced AOL first hand - they're every bit the buttheads that microsoft are.
I bugged out of CompuServe as soon as it became apparent that AOL would be buying them. I couldn't stomach the idea of working for them either. Pure marketing, lousy technology. That's no place for a technologist to be.
I contend that we are only a handful of years from living in a society in which ALL laws are 100% enforceable using various technological means. I think just shrugging off an unpopular law with the "yeah, just try to catch me" mentality is extremely dangerous.
We're doing the same thing, and for the same reasons. I suspect that a LOT of us are! We're starting small with replacing Windows FTP servers and proprietary firewall devices with Linux alternatives. IIS is next. The end-game is when I get rid of SQL Server. The deadline is when Dell will no longer sell a machine with Win2k. Dell is unable or unwilling to provide me with that date, so we even have a pretty cool sense of urgency.
Cost? Maybe a one-time or short-term subscription prices out at a tenth of the perpetual license cost. I could see that as a reason, in addition to the original stated reason of aversion to the hassles of installing and configuring a complex software package.
I would ammend your statement to "if you are a monopoly, you can't grow your market share.
You can certainly grow your revenues by increasing the size of your market. Being a monopoly does not mean your market is saturated - there are still five or six people in the world that don't own Microsoft product. Revenues can be increased by selling to them.
That has nothing to do with gov't work. I've done both, and slackers exist in both. The .com crowd got their introduction to professional programming in a very unprofessional environment, and are spoiled as a result. I don't think it is too much to expect a level of high professionalism in a high paying position, but then again I spent 11 years in the military and 12 years coding in well established private sector businesses before the .com gold rush came along. I was taught what was important and how to behave accordingly.
.com dweebs need to dry their eyes, quit their whining, and finally start to understand that the .com way failed, and failed for good reasons. It's time to grow up and behave like mature, professional adults.
Fundamentally, these
If a sexier job with the same amount of stability pops up, I'll go for it, but until then make mine federal.
.com folks. The gov't will invest heavily in the long term growth of its employees, and does not want to see that expensive training walk out the door the first time something glittery comes along. They are looking for stable team players, not mercenaries.
Which, IMHO, is one of the reasons gov't isn't looking to hire outta work
Hey, why not? We really need more laws, especially now that we are on the cusp if living in a society in which every law is 100% enforceable. Consider: we are about 5 years (and remember, you heard it here first) from living in a society in which just about everyone can afford a small, easily hidden device that records every minute of every conversation you had during the day. These conversations will be uploaded to your PC where they will be archived forever. Imagine the consequences of this! No more arguing with the wife over whether she told you about that appointment you missed or not. If you say it, it can AND WILL be used against you FOREVER! A few more years down the road and our every move will be tracked, and there will be a thriving black market in the illicit sales to individuals of this data. Your spouse will be able to easily determine whether you really worked late, or were visiting the local strip bar. This is what we're headed for, and who can truly say they have NOTHING to hide?? Really? You've never cranked the old Escort up to 66 mph? Remember, it doesn't matter if you inhaled or not. IMHO, this world will/would SUCK, and making more and more ever-restrictive laws is going to come back and bite us HARD on the ass.
Yep, this is off-topic and feel free to mod me to the stone ages. I just get riled up over calls for more laws and more government control when we already have too much. On topic: this is dumb anyway. Market forces will ultimately weed out the weak. If Ford still made Pintos, I doubt if anyone would be buying them.
The patent system is perverted from being a way of protecting inventors from being ripped off by corporations
Which makes it just like every other government agency.
I think you need to make the distinction between who is fighting and where they are fighting. While tecno nations would not favor an extended battle in either of their back yards due to the enormous cost in civilian lives and property, past history shows that they don't have the same distaste for fighting each other for extended periods elsewhere (Korea, Viet Nam, etc.).
... the Alan Parsons project.
3480, 3490, and 3490E are 36-track cartridge tapes. The drives are newer and the tapes less accident prone (think cassette vs. reel-to-reel). We use both in our data processing, and the 9 tracks are a royal PITA. I for one will be glad to see them start to go away.