Posted by Zonk on 07:27 AM March 2nd, 2005 from the they're-never-going-to-get-it dept. punxking writes "Some of the big music labels are now clamoring to raise prices for digital music downloads. From the article: 'Music industry executives said introductory wholesale prices for digital tracks had been set low to stimulate demand for online music sales but the success of Apple's music store had prompted concern that they may now be too low.'" Relatedly, the BBC is reporting that iTunes is under investigation in Britain for charging disparities between the UK and the European continent.
It's a heck of a lot more fun watching some TV shows with a group of friends. For instance, at my College, I have a group of students who come around every week to watch The Apprentice and The Amazing Race where we can collectively hurl abuse/ridicule etc at the contestants.
I never understand this big attraction of providing 'free College branded email addresses for life'. Anyone coming into a college these days will no doubt already have their own email address and I would assume more people would be loathe to change everything over. Email addresses are a dime a dozen - this is no 'cool' factor in having a college address, if anything, I would even rate a gmail.com address over any college.edu address. Even more so if you are way past College 'age'.
From a College administration side, I only see downsides in providing email for life: you have to make sure you don't lose people's email, you worry about spam, there is always the possibility that people will mistake a users email as representative of the College's position etc etc
Let's face it, the vast majority of viewers for that site will be kids (based on the published URL, not coz they are after a porn site:-). As a result, I would rather Bigpond redirects users in the short term then getting a whole lot of parents jumping up and down demanding that the Internet be censored.
Frankly, i think the long term benefits far outweight the short term 'loss of rights' issues.
No, being racist is the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
I imply neither of those in my comment. I merely played to the stereotype and common observation that there are a lot of Indian cab drivers and those that own convenience stores.
A stereotype that is recognised the world over and reflected in shows like the Simpsons. Would you say the Simpsons are racist? I think not.
Geez man, lighten up - it's people like you who breed intolerance.
and it is a future of hordes of Indian 'cab-drivers' piloting the equivalent of SpaceShip One back and forth between earth and orbit.... not to mention they will be the first to open a 'Kwik-e-mart' aboard the ISS. Thank you, please come again!
Get everyone to take off their tag and attach it to the roller coaster cars... then sit back and watch as park officials panic when they realise that there are 578 people riding around and around.
Or... as you take a journey through a ride, take off you tag and through it as far as you can into the diaroma... and watch as park officials try and hunt down the lost kid
Or... flush a tag down the toilet and then say your kid is lost... and watch then chase the 'kid' as it 'travels' around the park
Almost any sweet beverage you can buy at the supermarket will dehydrate you more than it will hydrate you thanks to all the added sugar they put in those things.
I've heard people say this a lot of times, but it doesn't make sense to me. So are you saying that if I drink nothing but coke, i will eventually die from dehydration? Because i drink several litres of coke a day and pretty much that is the majority of my fluid intake each day and my pee is clear and I don't get headaches.
I'm not saying you are wrong - but I'd love to know the explanation.
is that they probably help encourage further P2P developments from people trying to avoid the RIAA tactics - eg improved decentralisation, better anonymity, better filtering.
Sort of like how wars help encourage technical developments.
... when a scientist says something is possible, they're probably underestimating how long it will take. But if they say it's impossible, they're probably wrong.
Molecular assemblers are not currently possible so we're not discussing 'now'. As for the future, well anything is possible. Look back through history and I don't think anyone can seriously say that anything is impossible given a long enough timespan - given enough research and progress and time, humans will probably find ways to overcome any physical, chemical, biological etc limit.
So if the future is certain, then all these discussions are about is when. Given the lack of developments in the nanotech area, i doubt anyone can give an accurate timeline as more research/developments is required.
Therefore the whole discussion seems like a pissing contest since neither side can really provide any solid info to predict when their predications will become true.
Yes they both have a lot of proprietary mid/high-end server and mainframe equipment out in the field with specialized engineers ready to maintain them etc etc
However, IBM covers every single facet of IT - from database, to servers (midrange and mainframe), services, components, R&D, software etc. Sun really only has it's servers and Java - yes it may dabble in many areas, but it doesn't really have a strong business in any but it's server division.
When one section of IBM falters due to market conditions or bad 'execution', the other sections can support it. Sun doesn't have that luxury.
In simplistic terms, I see Sun like your local fruit and veg store, while IBM is your supermarket chain. The fruit and veg store may be good at what it does, but the supermarket chain is more like to survive changes in consumer demand.
Outstanding managers certainly should know their staff and in an ideal world would not need to ask for proof that you deserve a payrise.
But:
* How many outstanding managers are there is this world? (don't translate one lucky experience into 'this will work for everyone' advice)
* outstanding managers can be forgetful, distracted by other issues, have other pressures on them (eg cost cutting) - are you going to rely on their memory in the hope of getting pay rise?
* you are working in a small company where it's easier for everyone to know everyone and what they do. I too have worked in that environment (it was great), but I've also worked in big multinationals like Ericsson and IBM - hoping that your manager will give you a payrise without backing it up with at least some evidence is suicide in these corporations.
* again, as I said before: sure, your method will work sometimes in the right environment, but not always. Mine works in all environments.
* with my method, you will get your payrise with or without an outstanding manager
* your method, you will only get a payrise with an outstanding manager
* to summarise, all I'm saying it to go in prepared, give some evidence to backup your claim for payrise (not an essay speech), but a few examples... and all should be good. You should be prepared to do that *every* time. Not preparing to do that IMHO is asking for a rejection (although you may be lucky and get away with it).
> He asked if I was worth it. I told him yes (I certanily was). He gave me the raise.
What kind of manager is that? If he knows what you are worth, why does he need to ask if you are worth it? If he doesn't know if you are worth it, how does asking you for your opinion give him an objective answer? So you've basically been lucky that you had a clueless manager as to how you got your pay rise.
> They really also didn't know what IT was worth.
Again you emphasise my point. Anyone can get a payrise out of a manager who has no clue and has no backbone to at least ask for justification for a payrise.
Full points for asking for a payrise and congratulations on getting one, but your method of requesting a payrise won't work in any workplace where there is an experienced manager present. My method works in *any* workplace, yours only works in inexperienced places.
I totally disagree - this falls into the 'if they don't already know how good I am, then there is no point me saying anything' mentality.
Sure, there is no need to have a State of the Union address prepared, but you should be able to prove that you are worth the extra money. The only way you can do that is to provide concrete examples of who you have helped improve service, the bottom line, customer satisfaction or whatever measurement the manager favours.
Don't assume that your boss knows what you do - half the time they don't. Actaully, half the time may be too generous. How do you expect to sell yourself (and let's not kid ourselves, that is what we are doing when we ask for a pay rise), if we don't do any selling?
I got a 15% payrise after I:
showed that compared to the market rates, my pay was below average
gave three examples of how I had generated additional revenue for the company, increased the efficiency of an area and demonstratably improved customer satisfaction.
In my team which has 5 people, we do one week of on-call, rotated around the team each week.
It means you go on call 1 week in 5.
Simple to understand, simple to implement and no hassles. People swap individual days with other SA if they have some pressing engagement which they need to attend.
Every IBM Employee has access to staff discounts on the IBM website which for laptops is about 20% off the normal web price!
And best of all, they are allowed to offer that price to friends and family.
Is that why spam in my Hotmail account has dropped
on
As the Spam Turns
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Hmmm... i don't know if it cooincidence, but the spam in my Hotmail account has significantly dropped off... from 30 to 100 spam a day down to 10-20 max...
now that you have publicised the radiation risk, there is no way that Nsync singer will go into space... and there dies our last chance of getting him sterilised and stopping him from having offspring...
Yes - I see your point, but I would say that UO is not the game for you then. You should be playing a game like Diablo or Warcraft where there is instant action.
A game like UO which is a whole world in itself isn't meant to attract 'instant action' players (and I don't say that in a derogatory sense) such as yourself. It's aimed at the goal orientated people.
Just like a game which is a combination of SimCity and Quake III would never work, so to do pre-fab characters not work in UO.
Slashdot Mirror
Posted by Zonk on 07:27 AM March 2nd, 2005
from the they're-never-going-to-get-it dept.
punxking writes "Some of the big music labels are now clamoring to raise prices for digital music downloads. From the article: 'Music industry executives said introductory wholesale prices for digital tracks had been set low to stimulate demand for online music sales but the success of Apple's music store had prompted concern that they may now be too low.'" Relatedly, the BBC is reporting that iTunes is under investigation in Britain for charging disparities between the UK and the European continent.
That's not a low id ... mine is a low id :-)
It's a heck of a lot more fun watching some TV shows with a group of friends. For instance, at my College, I have a group of students who come around every week to watch The Apprentice and The Amazing Race where we can collectively hurl abuse/ridicule etc at the contestants.
I never understand this big attraction of providing 'free College branded email addresses for life'. Anyone coming into a college these days will no doubt already have their own email address and I would assume more people would be loathe to change everything over. Email addresses are a dime a dozen - this is no 'cool' factor in having a college address, if anything, I would even rate a gmail.com address over any college.edu address. Even more so if you are way past College 'age'.
From a College administration side, I only see downsides in providing email for life: you have to make sure you don't lose people's email, you worry about spam, there is always the possibility that people will mistake a users email as representative of the College's position etc etc
Let's face it, the vast majority of viewers for that site will be kids (based on the published URL, not coz they are after a porn site :-). As a result, I would rather Bigpond redirects users in the short term then getting a whole lot of parents jumping up and down demanding that the Internet be censored.
Frankly, i think the long term benefits far outweight the short term 'loss of rights' issues.
No, being racist is the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.
I imply neither of those in my comment. I merely played to the stereotype and common observation that there are a lot of Indian cab drivers and those that own convenience stores.
A stereotype that is recognised the world over and reflected in shows like the Simpsons. Would you say the Simpsons are racist? I think not.
Geez man, lighten up - it's people like you who breed intolerance.
wow ... talk about someone who can't see when someone is playing up to stereotype.
and it is a future of hordes of Indian 'cab-drivers' piloting the equivalent of SpaceShip One back and forth between earth and orbit .... not to mention they will be the first to open a 'Kwik-e-mart' aboard the ISS. Thank you, please come again!
Get everyone to take off their tag and attach it to the roller coaster cars ... then sit back and watch as park officials panic when they realise that there are 578 people riding around and around.
... as you take a journey through a ride, take off you tag and through it as far as you can into the diaroma ... and watch as park officials try and hunt down the lost kid
... flush a tag down the toilet and then say your kid is lost ... and watch then chase the 'kid' as it 'travels' around the park
Or
Or
on your stick-to-it-ness on teaching the unwashed masses in how to use the work tenacity! ;-P
Almost any sweet beverage you can buy at the supermarket will dehydrate you more than it will hydrate you thanks to all the added sugar they put in those things.
I've heard people say this a lot of times, but it doesn't make sense to me. So are you saying that if I drink nothing but coke, i will eventually die from dehydration? Because i drink several litres of coke a day and pretty much that is the majority of my fluid intake each day and my pee is clear and I don't get headaches.
I'm not saying you are wrong - but I'd love to know the explanation.
From this Slashdot article, apparently the toughest hardware is an Xbox.
I reckon that the Warthog in Halo must be made from the same stuff as an Xbox
is that they probably help encourage further P2P developments from people trying to avoid the RIAA tactics - eg improved decentralisation, better anonymity, better filtering.
Sort of like how wars help encourage technical developments.
As Dexter quotes Smalley:
Molecular assemblers are not currently possible so we're not discussing 'now'. As for the future, well anything is possible. Look back through history and I don't think anyone can seriously say that anything is impossible given a long enough timespan - given enough research and progress and time, humans will probably find ways to overcome any physical, chemical, biological etc limit.
So if the future is certain, then all these discussions are about is when. Given the lack of developments in the nanotech area, i doubt anyone can give an accurate timeline as more research/developments is required.
Therefore the whole discussion seems like a pissing contest since neither side can really provide any solid info to predict when their predications will become true.
in Halo is made of the same material as the Xbox!
Yes they both have a lot of proprietary mid/high-end server and mainframe equipment out in the field with specialized engineers ready to maintain them etc etc
However, IBM covers every single facet of IT - from database, to servers (midrange and mainframe), services, components, R&D, software etc. Sun really only has it's servers and Java - yes it may dabble in many areas, but it doesn't really have a strong business in any but it's server division.
When one section of IBM falters due to market conditions or bad 'execution', the other sections can support it. Sun doesn't have that luxury.
In simplistic terms, I see Sun like your local fruit and veg store, while IBM is your supermarket chain. The fruit and veg store may be good at what it does, but the supermarket chain is more like to survive changes in consumer demand.
Telstra has outsourced their IT to IBM GSA which is jointly owned in Australia by Telstra, IBM and Lend Lease.
IBM Australia recently bought out Telstra and Lend Lease and so no IBM GSA is totally owned by IBM.
The outsourcing contract remains until 2007.
Outstanding managers certainly should know their staff and in an ideal world would not need to ask for proof that you deserve a payrise.
... and all should be good. You should be prepared to do that *every* time. Not preparing to do that IMHO is asking for a rejection (although you may be lucky and get away with it).
But:
* How many outstanding managers are there is this world? (don't translate one lucky experience into 'this will work for everyone' advice)
* outstanding managers can be forgetful, distracted by other issues, have other pressures on them (eg cost cutting) - are you going to rely on their memory in the hope of getting pay rise?
* you are working in a small company where it's easier for everyone to know everyone and what they do. I too have worked in that environment (it was great), but I've also worked in big multinationals like Ericsson and IBM - hoping that your manager will give you a payrise without backing it up with at least some evidence is suicide in these corporations.
* again, as I said before: sure, your method will work sometimes in the right environment, but not always. Mine works in all environments.
* with my method, you will get your payrise with or without an outstanding manager
* your method, you will only get a payrise with an outstanding manager
* to summarise, all I'm saying it to go in prepared, give some evidence to backup your claim for payrise (not an essay speech), but a few examples
Sounds like you had a clueless boss :-)
> He asked if I was worth it. I told him yes (I certanily was). He gave me the raise.
What kind of manager is that? If he knows what you are worth, why does he need to ask if you are worth it? If he doesn't know if you are worth it, how does asking you for your opinion give him an objective answer? So you've basically been lucky that you had a clueless manager as to how you got your pay rise.
> They really also didn't know what IT was worth.
Again you emphasise my point. Anyone can get a payrise out of a manager who has no clue and has no backbone to at least ask for justification for a payrise.
Full points for asking for a payrise and congratulations on getting one, but your method of requesting a payrise won't work in any workplace where there is an experienced manager present. My method works in *any* workplace, yours only works in inexperienced places.
Sure, there is no need to have a State of the Union address prepared, but you should be able to prove that you are worth the extra money. The only way you can do that is to provide concrete examples of who you have helped improve service, the bottom line, customer satisfaction or whatever measurement the manager favours.
Don't assume that your boss knows what you do - half the time they don't. Actaully, half the time may be too generous. How do you expect to sell yourself (and let's not kid ourselves, that is what we are doing when we ask for a pay rise), if we don't do any selling?
I got a 15% payrise after I:
showed that compared to the market rates, my pay was below average
gave three examples of how I had generated additional revenue for the company, increased the efficiency of an area and demonstratably improved customer satisfaction.
All up, that took about a 1 minute to say.
In my team which has 5 people, we do one week of on-call, rotated around the team each week.
It means you go on call 1 week in 5.
Simple to understand, simple to implement and no hassles. People swap individual days with other SA if they have some pressing engagement which they need to attend.
And best of all, they are allowed to offer that price to friends and family.
Hmmm ... i don't know if it cooincidence, but the spam in my Hotmail account has significantly dropped off ... from 30 to 100 spam a day down to 10-20 max ...
now that you have publicised the radiation risk, there is no way that Nsync singer will go into space ... and there dies our last chance of getting him sterilised and stopping him from having offspring ...
Yes - I see your point, but I would say that UO is not the game for you then. You should be playing a game like Diablo or Warcraft where there is instant action.
A game like UO which is a whole world in itself isn't meant to attract 'instant action' players (and I don't say that in a derogatory sense) such as yourself. It's aimed at the goal orientated people.
Just like a game which is a combination of SimCity and Quake III would never work, so to do pre-fab characters not work in UO.