A prius? Value isn't there. High up-front costs, low performance. I think not.
Well, maybe the value isn't there for you. But in California, when I bought mine we got carpool (HOV) lane access. That is the main reason I bought the car. It was shaving about a 1/2 hour per weekday off my commute which allowed me to get to night classes on time, and when school was out, I got to spend that 1/2 hour with my family.
I don't know what the performance thing is about... it's not a drag racer, but it isn't like it's scary to merge into traffic which in Southern California is the important thing. Unless you drive like a jerk, speed is a function of the surrounding traffic, not the car itself. For many people higher gas mileage is a more important measure of performance once the basics like "acceleration to merge" are covered.
And the car is roomier than one would expect
But today the calculus would be different and I probably wouldn't buy one, because of no carpool lane stickers.
Yeah in my MBA program they just taught that you need to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, and you make strategic and tactical decisions to achieve that. You pick niches with high barriers to entry, or you find ways to establish high barriers to entry. Intellectual property, brand equity, channel development, etc. are all ways to get sustainable competitive advantage.
Every industry is somewhat different as regards what options exist for doing that.
it adds time/bloat/etc for each platform you want to support. By choosing to drop some of the less used platforms, assuming by then xp won't be used much, you can really save on development time/etc.
"Really save?" No, not necessarily. The original thread seems to make the case that it is "non-zero" cost to maintain support additional platforms. I'd agree with that. But if non-zero is pretty close to zero, then it may not be worth the loss of Win2K users.
This is all hand-wavey BS with no numbers. Typical of management decisions made by those with no training to do so... all heuristic gut-check kind of stuff with no serious analysis.
It's amazing to me that engineers who are otherwise very rational, when it comes to business decisions throw all that out the window skipping a rational simple cost-benefit analysis and choose instead to rationalize their inherent laziness drive with obviously weak arguments.
I'd wager the only real savings will be in the testing arena. But I think if you just kept a Win2K automated tinderbox around, that would be enough to keep the Win2K users happy since it would ensure not adding stupid OS dependencies that add no real value. If there's a good OS ver dependency that you really need, you can add it in a planful way and get most engineers on board.
a) Firewall, don't allow inbound access to this machine from the untrusted network b) Install patched applications if not OS c) Turn off images in HTML mail
Is English a clean language? Is it possible to write concise, expressive poetry in it?
The term "clean" only really applies to expression, not to languages. The capacity of expression in a language is much more a function of the speaker (programmer) than it is of the language itself.
Having a device like this, you might be able to learn how to hold an image in your head. If it could give you instant feedback, perhaps you can learn it like any other skill.
So the existence of the device, over time, could change the answer to your question.
I don't know where all this talk of CS is not about programming comes from.
Everything I learned in computer science was theory related to the design of computer software. Algorithm analysis, compiler theory, data structures, programming techniques like backtracking and recursion, operating systems, networking, etc.
Just about all of it is of no use unless you actually intend to design/architect/write computer programs, or teach/manage folks who do.
This kind of stuff wouldn't hurt you if you want to be a sysadmin, and it might make you a better one. But in my opinion, it's way overkill since you can probably pick up scripting as you go.
For sysadmin or management you're probably better off getting an BA in business or an MBA with a focus on Information Systems.
They lost me at the words "crapped up." Would any adult male use that word in an email? If he was going to use swear words in an email, I think he'd use real ones instead of making them up.
My guess is, it's a fake.
Plus, it's pure rant. No backdrop of "you need to f***ing fix this, now, here's what we're going to do."
Does your boss ever send you emails that just whine? I don't think Uncle Bill got to be where he is by whining people into action.
There are many constraints on engineers who work in the real world. You won't usually get a budget to make a product that no one wants to buy, for example. You won't get a budget for a product that will be so expensive to make that the target market cannot afford it.
The patent issues are there and by and large, unless you work in an IP company, it isn't the focus of your job, though you may spend a month out of a year working on a patent or figuring out how to work around a patent.
Academicians have different constraints. They need to get their research funded. They have to continually get their research published. In the end they have to accomplish something or the job/funding will dry up. And good luck getting funding for stuff no one cares about.
In the end though I think the bargain is heavily weighted in favor of the private sector for doing interesting work. You just need to find or found the right company. There's nothing more satisfying than knowing the work YOU did is built into a shipping product that thousands or millions of people will derive value from.
Just publishing a paper is, well, just publishing a paper. It may never be apparent to you that your work has any particular impact on anyone.
You can replace the screen on the NC100 with the screen on a Tandy WP-2. It's a drop-in replacement. This can be helpful because the WP-2's are usually =$14 on EBay.
For myself though, I can't stand the NC100's keyboard. It's really stiff.
The Z88 LCD is half the height but higher resolution.
Nice machine. One drawback versus the M100 is that it has a capactitor instead of a NiCd for maintaining the RAM disk. It seems like it wouldn't matter but in practice it is a huge issue.
No I didn't mean "learn how to lie." But, implying you have other good offers is simply a negotiating tactic.
The problem isn't that he lied. It is that he wasn't worth as much as he thought. What I meant by "reading people" is that he should have gone into negotations with a good feeling for what he was worth to the organization in the eyes of his boss. He would get that from "reading" his boss.
It seems clear he wasn't in a position to negotiate a higher salary.
Besides that, he could have made up lie #2 about how the "other job fell through" and he would stay at his current salary. But I think this was just a matter of time. He was probably on his way out anyway.
Are younger first world kids learning to program, create video and music, collaborate in real time, read e-books? Sugar is not a dumbed-down version of first-world GUIs. In fact, if I were to make a OS for pre-school through 4th graders it would definitely use a lot of the ideas in Sugar.
Also you make the mistake of thinking modern desktop software crammed into laptops is a good idea. In fact, the traditional desktop overlapped window GUI absolutely sucks on laptops. Just about anything carefully thought out would be better.
That said, OLPC definitely has not done enough "compromise" to reality of need to ship something relatively complete and usable on time. I think they are trying to make up all at once by capitulating to the Windows Way. A mistake. Experimental GUI features are great if they are quickly vetted on test subjects and problems dealt with right away.
Funny you should say that. I had a electronics teacher in high school that said "programmers are a dime a dozen." It wasn't true then, and it isn't try today.
But, entry level and bad programmers often cost less per hour, but even that is not a given.
I draw a different conclusion: this guy either had very little self knowledge or little understanding of his role or importance in the organization. He acted on what he thought he knew and learned something.
I don't think the lesson is "don't rock the boat." The lesson was that he has a lot to learn about reading people and needs to continue to learn about himself.
Now he has an opportunity to learn and prove himself at a help desk job. Who's to say that isn't a better place for him at the moment?
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A prius? Value isn't there. High up-front costs, low performance. I think not.
Well, maybe the value isn't there for you. But in California, when I bought mine we got carpool (HOV) lane access. That is the main reason I bought the car. It was shaving about a 1/2 hour per weekday off my commute which allowed me to get to night classes on time, and when school was out, I got to spend that 1/2 hour with my family.
I don't know what the performance thing is about... it's not a drag racer, but it isn't like it's scary to merge into traffic which in Southern California is the important thing. Unless you drive like a jerk, speed is a function of the surrounding traffic, not the car itself. For many people higher gas mileage is a more important measure of performance once the basics like "acceleration to merge" are covered.
And the car is roomier than one would expect
But today the calculus would be different and I probably wouldn't buy one, because of no carpool lane stickers.
Yeah in my MBA program they just taught that you need to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, and you make strategic and tactical decisions to achieve that. You pick niches with high barriers to entry, or you find ways to establish high barriers to entry. Intellectual property, brand equity, channel development, etc. are all ways to get sustainable competitive advantage.
Every industry is somewhat different as regards what options exist for doing that.
But theory is not really relevant to practice in this case.
You're forgetting about natural and government granted monopolies, and markets served where there are high barriers to entry.
Probably about as often as tax cheat Republicans paid their tax on internet purchases.
it adds time/bloat/etc for each platform you want to support. By choosing to drop some of the less used platforms, assuming by then xp won't be used much, you can really save on development time/etc.
"Really save?" No, not necessarily. The original thread seems to make the case that it is "non-zero" cost to maintain support additional platforms. I'd agree with that. But if non-zero is pretty close to zero, then it may not be worth the loss of Win2K users.
This is all hand-wavey BS with no numbers. Typical of management decisions made by those with no training to do so... all heuristic gut-check kind of stuff with no serious analysis.
It's amazing to me that engineers who are otherwise very rational, when it comes to business decisions throw all that out the window skipping a rational simple cost-benefit analysis and choose instead to rationalize their inherent laziness drive with obviously weak arguments.
I'd wager the only real savings will be in the testing arena. But I think if you just kept a Win2K automated tinderbox around, that would be enough to keep the Win2K users happy since it would ensure not adding stupid OS dependencies that add no real value. If there's a good OS ver dependency that you really need, you can add it in a planful way and get most engineers on board.
-- John.
Hmm... you can do a lot.
a) Firewall, don't allow inbound access to this machine from the untrusted network
b) Install patched applications if not OS
c) Turn off images in HTML mail
-- John.
Which is why we should all endeavor to display a complete lack of 'unprofessionalism.'
Is English a clean language? Is it possible to write concise, expressive poetry in it?
The term "clean" only really applies to expression, not to languages. The capacity of expression in a language is much more a function of the speaker (programmer) than it is of the language itself.
Having a device like this, you might be able to learn how to hold an image in your head. If it could give you instant feedback, perhaps you can learn it like any other skill.
So the existence of the device, over time, could change the answer to your question.
I don't know where all this talk of CS is not about programming comes from.
Everything I learned in computer science was theory related to the design of computer software. Algorithm analysis, compiler theory, data structures, programming techniques like backtracking and recursion, operating systems, networking, etc.
Just about all of it is of no use unless you actually intend to design/architect/write computer programs, or teach/manage folks who do.
This kind of stuff wouldn't hurt you if you want to be a sysadmin, and it might make you a better one. But in my opinion, it's way overkill since you can probably pick up scripting as you go.
For sysadmin or management you're probably better off getting an BA in business or an MBA with a focus on Information Systems.
I code for a living and as hobby.
But, when I do it as hobby it's either for vintage micros or its open source development.
That keeps it separate enough for me.
They lost me at the words "crapped up." Would any adult male use that word in an email? If he was going to use swear words in an email, I think he'd use real ones instead of making them up.
My guess is, it's a fake.
Plus, it's pure rant. No backdrop of "you need to f***ing fix this, now, here's what we're going to do."
Does your boss ever send you emails that just whine? I don't think Uncle Bill got to be where he is by whining people into action.
There are many constraints on engineers who work in the real world. You won't usually get a budget to make a product that no one wants to buy, for example. You won't get a budget for a product that will be so expensive to make that the target market cannot afford it.
The patent issues are there and by and large, unless you work in an IP company, it isn't the focus of your job, though you may spend a month out of a year working on a patent or figuring out how to work around a patent.
Academicians have different constraints. They need to get their research funded. They have to continually get their research published. In the end they have to accomplish something or the job/funding will dry up. And good luck getting funding for stuff no one cares about.
In the end though I think the bargain is heavily weighted in favor of the private sector for doing interesting work. You just need to find or found the right company. There's nothing more satisfying than knowing the work YOU did is built into a shipping product that thousands or millions of people will derive value from.
Just publishing a paper is, well, just publishing a paper. It may never be apparent to you that your work has any particular impact on anyone.
The point of AJAX is that it works with your browser as opposed to in a plugin cage on antibiotics like Silverlight or Flash apps.
Somehow I recall closures, blocks, metaprogramming commonly used and usable in Perl before I ever heard of Ruby.
I'm sticking with Perl and CPAN, thanks.
The NEC 8500 is a great machine... runs on 4 C cell batteries. Haven't measured the battery life but I'm pretty sure it's more than 7 hours.
Menu interface like the Model 100, but full screen 80x24 display, runs CP/M, all-RAM 64K mode that can run Pascal, C compilers, etc.
Great machine.
Well the LX series is nice but the small calculator key style make them unsuitable for word processing.
Great for for running Derive though (DOS symbolic algebra program).
You can replace the screen on the NC100 with the screen on a Tandy WP-2. It's a drop-in replacement. This can be helpful because the WP-2's are usually =$14 on EBay.
For myself though, I can't stand the NC100's keyboard. It's really stiff.
The Z88 LCD is half the height but higher resolution.
Nice machine. One drawback versus the M100 is that it has a capactitor instead of a NiCd for maintaining the RAM disk. It seems like it wouldn't matter but in practice it is a huge issue.
Oh please. How can you seriously count non-free when it's not added by default?
Also, are you saying that non-free binary kernel firmware is removed from gNewSense?
Debian is the universal free software distro. This gNewSense distro is pointless.
No I didn't mean "learn how to lie." But, implying you have other good offers is simply a negotiating tactic.
The problem isn't that he lied. It is that he wasn't worth as much as he thought. What I meant by "reading people" is that he should have gone into negotations with a good feeling for what he was worth to the organization in the eyes of his boss. He would get that from "reading" his boss.
It seems clear he wasn't in a position to negotiate a higher salary.
Besides that, he could have made up lie #2 about how the "other job fell through" and he would stay at his current salary. But I think this was just a matter of time. He was probably on his way out anyway.
Yep. Ion is my primary WM. You can get GIMP to work though with some fiddling.
Generally though, I want the WM to manage my windows.
The better thing would be for GIMP to adopt a UI more like Inkscape.
Are younger first world kids learning to program, create video and music, collaborate in real time, read e-books? Sugar is not a dumbed-down version of first-world GUIs. In fact, if I were to make a OS for pre-school through 4th graders it would definitely use a lot of the ideas in Sugar.
Also you make the mistake of thinking modern desktop software crammed into laptops is a good idea. In fact, the traditional desktop overlapped window GUI absolutely sucks on laptops. Just about anything carefully thought out would be better.
That said, OLPC definitely has not done enough "compromise" to reality of need to ship something relatively complete and usable on time. I think they are trying to make up all at once by capitulating to the Windows Way. A mistake. Experimental GUI features are great if they are quickly vetted on test subjects and problems dealt with right away.
Funny you should say that. I had a electronics teacher in high school that said "programmers are a dime a dozen." It wasn't true then, and it isn't try today.
But, entry level and bad programmers often cost less per hour, but even that is not a given.
I draw a different conclusion: this guy either had very little self knowledge or little understanding of his role or importance in the organization. He acted on what he thought he knew and learned something.
I don't think the lesson is "don't rock the boat." The lesson was that he has a lot to learn about reading people and needs to continue to learn about himself.
Now he has an opportunity to learn and prove himself at a help desk job. Who's to say that isn't a better place for him at the moment?