Thanks for taking the time to write a thoughtful though flawed response. The thing is, I never mentioned Linux. Furthermore, I would say that the continued existence and popularity of the Apple Macintosh refutes the rest of your arguments hinging on ease of use and technical support. In fact you have perfectly illustrated the point that I am making here.
There was a time when doctors routinely prescribed smoking cigarettes as a quick and easy fix to all manner of ills. The long term hazards and effects weren't properly understood, and by the time they were, there was such a huge vested interest in perpetuating the smoking habit that the battle to remove it for the common good is still far from over, and may never be.
Likewise it is all too easy to facilitate yet another Windows installation, rather than risking your income by swimming against the tide. Even if you already know that the software that you are installing is inferior, you will go ahead and install it anyway, putting your own self interest ahead of those of your unfortunate clients.
As for the attitude of management towards this corruption that is so pervasive throughout the industry, I think a quote from one of my own past employers sums it up the best. "If we adopt this other more cost effective technology it will reduce my departmental budget and then Bob (the manager of another department) will get a better parking spot than me."
Who knows, you could accomplish the space age equivalent of introducing syphilis to polynesia, or bring tobacco to civilisation.
But I expect that all you're really capable of doing is tearing up the sand dunes in your SUV, shooting stuff with guns, and leaving your empty beer cans behind.
You can get enough money to keep doing what you want to do, lots of different ways, from lots of different sources. However few people ever get the chance to really make a difference by doing something worthwhile like a successful open source project. You can't put a price on that so don't even try. If you can get this other company to sponsor you with no strings attached, great, but otherwise tell them no.
I was in the same position a few years ago with tracktype.org and I'm happy to say the decision was easy to make at the time. Now it's grown from a few thousand hits a week to a few million hits a week and no amount of money could have bought that much satisfaction.
It's not the universities that are out of touch. It's your employers that are out of touch, and the multiple-choice generation of wannabe professionals who can't see past their first half-dozen paychecks. If you get the education that you appear to want, you'll be unemployable in five years.
Take it from someone who's been in the industry for 30 years and still going strong... you can't learn too much theory because theory doesn't go out of fashion the way technology fads and acronyms do.
Absolutely. I use gmail to filter my email for that very reason. However there is always still some spam that gets through and maybe adding some cheap intelligent labour to the system will get those false positives even closer to zero.
Thanks for mentioning that because it is exactly the kind of service that I had in mind when I wrote my original comment. I'm just wondering where it will lead in another year or two as those 'personal assistant' businesses scale up and amalgamate in the same way that these nuisance businesses have been.
Maybe the next logical step is for someone to start an industry based on organizing cheap labor to combat the spam that gets around our automated anti-spam measures. Fight fire with fire.
The Russians have always done space better than the Americans and probably always will. It's typical American arrogance and stupidity to be wasting money trying to reinvent the wheel when you could just buy the technology from the people who already have it.
when high technology was its own idiot filter are long gone.
It is illegal to drive a car on any public road without a drivers licence, for the safety of other road users. Why shouldn't it be illegal to connect a computer to the internet without the proper qualifications, again for the common good? Keep all the stupid off the internet and the situation is bound to improve because there will be less opportunity for the greedy to exploit them.
Operating freedb.org for 7 years and making it successful is indeed a laudable accomplishment and Joerg Hevers should be praised highly for it. However, you on the other hand are nothing but a domain squatter -- a worthless parasite -- and should be treated as such.
Joerg Hevers (and more recently, Ari Sundholm) did all the work while Michael Kaiser merely took all the credit and money. Why did you think they all resigned the way they did?
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It's illegal to drive on public roads without a driver's licence.
It ought to be illegal to use a computer connected to the internet without some form of minimum qualification. i.e. an "internet licence"
A computer consultant advocating Windows is like a doctor prescribing cigarettes. It creates a lot of extra work.
Thanks for taking the time to write a thoughtful though flawed response. The thing is, I never mentioned Linux. Furthermore, I would say that the continued existence and popularity of the Apple Macintosh refutes the rest of your arguments hinging on ease of use and technical support. In fact you have perfectly illustrated the point that I am making here.
There was a time when doctors routinely prescribed smoking cigarettes as a quick and easy fix to all manner of ills. The long term hazards and effects weren't properly understood, and by the time they were, there was such a huge vested interest in perpetuating the smoking habit that the battle to remove it for the common good is still far from over, and may never be.
Likewise it is all too easy to facilitate yet another Windows installation, rather than risking your income by swimming against the tide. Even if you already know that the software that you are installing is inferior, you will go ahead and install it anyway, putting your own self interest ahead of those of your unfortunate clients.
As for the attitude of management towards this corruption that is so pervasive throughout the industry, I think a quote from one of my own past employers sums it up the best. "If we adopt this other more cost effective technology it will reduce my departmental budget and then Bob (the manager of another department) will get a better parking spot than me."
A computer consultant advocating Windows is like a doctor prescribing cigarettes. It creates a lot of extra work.
A computer consultant advocating Windows is like a doctor prescribing cigarettes. It creates a lot of extra work.
Yes, you do that.
Who knows, you could accomplish the space age equivalent of introducing syphilis to polynesia, or bring tobacco to civilisation.
But I expect that all you're really capable of doing is tearing up the sand dunes in your SUV, shooting stuff with guns, and leaving your empty beer cans behind.
So if you do go on a trip, don't come back.
And none of it to the military.
Don't despair, it can be done, as my friend Dave Keenan so ably demonstrated.
http://users.bigpond.net.au/d.keenan/CO/index.htm
NASA should stick to what it's so good at doing: sending robots into space.
We meat bags should stay on Earth where we belong.
You can get enough money to keep doing what you want to do, lots of different ways, from lots of different sources. However few people ever get the chance to really make a difference by doing something worthwhile like a successful open source project. You can't put a price on that so don't even try. If you can get this other company to sponsor you with no strings attached, great, but otherwise tell them no.
I was in the same position a few years ago with tracktype.org and I'm happy to say the decision was easy to make at the time. Now it's grown from a few thousand hits a week to a few million hits a week and no amount of money could have bought that much satisfaction.
from an influx of people who are motivated by greed?
It's not the universities that are out of touch. It's your employers that are out of touch, and the multiple-choice generation of wannabe professionals who can't see past their first half-dozen paychecks. If you get the education that you appear to want, you'll be unemployable in five years.
Take it from someone who's been in the industry for 30 years and still going strong... you can't learn too much theory because theory doesn't go out of fashion the way technology fads and acronyms do.
Absolutely. I use gmail to filter my email for that very reason. However there is always still some spam that gets through and maybe adding some cheap intelligent labour to the system will get those false positives even closer to zero.
Thanks for mentioning that because it is exactly the kind of service that I had in mind when I wrote my original comment. I'm just wondering where it will lead in another year or two as those 'personal assistant' businesses scale up and amalgamate in the same way that these nuisance businesses have been.
Maybe the next logical step is for someone to start an industry based on organizing cheap labor to combat the spam that gets around our automated anti-spam measures. Fight fire with fire.
... contain a link to a possibly more useful article with some more comprehensible numbers:
http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/21125/
e.g. The device could increase fuel efficiency of vehicles by approximately 10 percent.
by the democrats to remind us all that even once great people can become senile in their 70's.
Licences are for suits and suits just get in the way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_heavy_lift_launch_systems
A soul.
Oh wait, isn't that what the charity is for?
The Russians have always done space better than the Americans and probably always will. It's typical American arrogance and stupidity to be wasting money trying to reinvent the wheel when you could just buy the technology from the people who already have it.
http://www.energia.ru/english/
when high technology was its own idiot filter are long gone.
It is illegal to drive a car on any public road without a drivers licence, for the safety of other road users. Why shouldn't it be illegal to connect a computer to the internet without the proper qualifications, again for the common good? Keep all the stupid off the internet and the situation is bound to improve because there will be less opportunity for the greedy to exploit them.
Operating freedb.org for 7 years and making it successful is indeed a laudable accomplishment and Joerg Hevers should be praised highly for it. However, you on the other hand are nothing but a domain squatter -- a worthless parasite -- and should be treated as such.
If you are serious then please contact me.
LOL. Yes it's a point that has been made several times already.
... and you heard it here first.
The new name will be TrackType.org
Please put the credit where it is due.
Joerg Hevers (and more recently, Ari Sundholm) did all the work while Michael Kaiser merely took all the credit and money. Why did you think they all resigned the way they did?