I guess you're not gadget oriented. Do you travel much? I find it really interesting what people find important enough to carry with them in minimal space, in an attempt to meet as many contingencies, as possible. I think this is one of the more interesting aspects of material culture.
I, for one, am glad I'm fortunate enough to live in a chunck of timespace that allows for these to be important considerations.
I'd really like to see the contents of more slashdotters laptop bags listed. Some people think of things I don't. Cool! I can better. It'd serve me much better than sanctomonious glop for certain.
I'm pretty sure I'd be fine. I've lived outside for weeks at a time before, grown large vegetable gardens, brewed beer, trained animals, helped build houses, fished, and hunted. And I'm fairly ADD so my mind is constantly excercised.
My wife throws pots.
If the time comes, I'll grit my teeth, up-end my laptop bag and start filling it with whatever I might need to deal with that life.
I think I'm off to a decent start there though.
Thanks for your concern, though. Damn man, you need a worry stone too.
I carry a lot of the same sort of crap, but what's in the laptop is absolutely who I am, unfossilized. The rest of the crap, and the laptop itself are truly commercial crap that help me move what matters around town, into and out of the laptop(s).
I actually carry some ends in my man purse along with a crimper. It's been handy more than a few times to be able to make a crossover cable on the spot, or to fix busted connectors.
And this bag of mine rocks. This is a camera bag. On the inside are four velcro rails that run vertically from top to bottom on the front and back walls. These are supposed to allow for the attachment (other side of the velcro) of foam-rubber coated with nylon cloth inserts that further compartmentalize it to store camera lenses, equipment etc. I ditched those and got a small laptop bag (that had it's own carrying strap which I stow for when I want to leave everything but the 12" iBook) that fits perfectly inside the camera bag. The velcro rails are the perfect place to attached velcro cable management ties. Two water resistant compartments house some emergency cash, a complete collection of toiletries, stamps, umbrella condoms, regular condoms, a small poncho in case it rains. Side pouches hold chargers for cell phones, iBook, and a multivoltage power adapter, small wind-up style earbud set, crypto cards. Under the flap on the front is space for an assortment of pens (chalk, anyone?) and keychain holder to which I've attached work keys, flashlight, and a usb jump drive. The flap can accomodate a couple blank DVDs and CDs.
The bag shielded well enough all the way around the bag to safely carry a second laptop in with the sleeved iBook, another compartment in the top under the handle houses firewire, usb, ethernet, rj-11, serial cables, etc.
Amazingly, there's still room for the 40 Gig iPod I've almost talked work into buying me for "data mobility purposes," and it still weighs under 15lbs with all the previously enumerated crap (and what I forgot to mention) and the 12" iBook.
Eh, that's nothin'. A real geek would through some RJ-11/45 ends and a crimper in the bag and roll with a spool of cable. Now that's interchangeability!
Re:Customers and budgets
on
Does IT Matter?
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
What I was acutally getting at was that, sometimes you have control over what sort of "budgetary posture" to take and sometimes clients dictate this to you. The trick is really to have the brains to get together what's needed with a minimum of effort and expense. Maybe it's new tech, maybe it's recycling something you already have.
Clients ask for things and you have to deliver what they want on their timetable, using whatever tech they want. Sometimes you have to save them from their irrational selves, in process.
I do things for clients the way they want them, that I don't think make sense a fair amount of the time. I've certainly built applications and databases in ways I wouldn't do them for myself.
I, in turn, get to make vendors who do work for me (on behlaf of my clients) to do it on my timetable using the tech I want.
It's a nice happy circle. As long as you don't let your clients get you to do too much for nothing, who cares if the tech you used is cutting edge or not.
How many people actually have customers who let them decide how their going to spend their own budgets? Customers want what they want irrespective of your budget.
The article is talking about exploiting the Windows Messenger service, not instant messenger or using equally irritating and far more common web browser based pop-up ads.
This would be more accurately classed as yet another stupid on-by-default, security-decreasing idiocy on the part of Microsoft. Why the OS would install with this on by default is a mystery to me.
I'm just glad MS didn't decide to remove it from future versions of the Windows. I've actually used this feature at work and found it quite useful.
For instance, I've had to sit in on training classes as few times that one of our vendors was putting on for some of our users. It was a fly-on-the-wall type thing; I was there to get feedback from our users, primarily.
A few times some configuration shortcomming became apparent and people would start wispering to each other. Rather than let it go and wreck the class, I quickly fixed the problems on each machine in the room and sent one of these messages to each PC in the room, telling them it was fixed.
I didn't have to stop the guest trainer, I didn't have walk over and stop anyone from paying attention to him, and I could I easily communicate that the problem was identified and resolved. It was sort of cool.
Normally I would have just e-mailed them, but we don't have users use their accounts in training, none of the training accounts have mailboxes.
That's how it should be used, I think. Too bad the FTC doesn't take as much interest in browser pop-up advertisers. I've seen IE popup ads for this crap. Which appears to be similar in concept only the delivery is through a different pop-up. The product/service looks just about as useless. You could accomplish everything they're trying sell you on with add/remove programs and dumping IE for a browser that deoesn't subject you to this type of torture.
Most voter don't, true, but I do somewhat. As a reflection of where a candidate stands on issues identified in my original post, I really do care.
I am a voter as well, so I appreciate any attention a candidate might give to issues I care about. Especially if I agree with them.
Now, obviously, it wouldn't be wise for any of these guys to place their entire focus on a niche issue such as this (however important these issues may be to a small part of their potential constituency). However, little things like this might make the difference between who votes for you and who doesn't where all other things are equal.
It's already been pointed out in other posts that the candidates probably have no idea what their web sites are hosted, but someone in their organization does understand this. It wouldn't surprise me if politics entered into the question when the platform was chosen in a few cases. Bravo, if it did! I'd like to see more candidates pay serious attention to issues such as these.
I don't even particularly care if Howard's a total luddite. If he can take political action I like on my issues if and when he's elected, that's all that matters. I want him to be a consumate politician, not a 733t webmaster.
Well, yeah. But I would certainly give this some weight in my consideration if: 1) it came up as a topic of debate between now and the election and 2) the candidates back up their reasons for using the platform they chose with some solid reasoning.
There has already been some buzz around Howard Dean making a potential guest appearance on Lessig's blog. He also seems seems to have some peripheral interest in and empathy for our positions (sorry for the very broad generalization here) on many issues that are important to the Slashdot crowd.
If he had shown up in this article as running Dean For America on IIS on 2K Server, I'd seriously have to reconsider his appeal as a potential geek candidate... And question his suitability as my representative on issues of privacy, open standards, intellectual property rights, etc.
Good work, Howard. I'm glad my contribution to your campaign didn't end up in Redmond as a license fee payment!
I've been following a few of the more response-laden threads in this discussion and couldn't agree more. Wish I was moderating currently. Flamebait this is not. (How long before I get modded OT?) I hope I get a chance to fix this in metamoderation.
In fact, most of the positively moderated posts have been moderated with some heavy anti-Bush bent rather than from the perspective of what moderation is actually meant to be on Slashdot (i.e. moderate things up that contribute positively (informative, interesting, etc.) to the discussion, regardless of weather or not you agree with them). Bravo, moderators. Perhaps you should review the Moderator Guidelines.
Yes. But clearly the RIAA wouldn't condone this. I don't know this for certain, but I would suspect that the Palestinian Authority would be subject to any treaties to which Israel is a signer. Israel has signed on to Berne (warning: pdf)
If Israel has the desire (or has the desire forced upon them) to enforce compliance with their treaty obligations, these guys could have set up themselves the bomb (literally).
I got tired of feeding the beast (Verizon) and I already have one dedicated ad server (tv) so I cut off local phone service and ditched my Verizon wireless phone for T-Mobile.
I love the phone, Sony Ericsson t68i, but I must admit the service doesn't come anywhere near Verizon's. I mostly have to go outside when I'm at home to use my phone. Admittedly, this may have as much to do with the phone as with T-Mobile's tower placement. I get good signal strength everywhere but in my house, and around my small town in some places.
I had the foresight to leave my wife with her Verizon cell phone, so we can get calls in our house. But truthfully, sometimes it's nice not to be reachable.
Most of my friends who have to be reachable at all hours here will tell you that that pretty much makes Verizon the only option around DC.
Whoever marked you informative must have followed Taco's suggestion and started at 10 this morning.
First, it's pale yellow water with alcohol. But since all you seem to have taken the time to acquaint yourself with are the mass-market American lagers, this clearly isn't an area of expertise for you. Understandable if not forgivable.
Secondly, take a look here for real American beer:
Make your gravy with Guinness too. Then you'll make GREAT gravy. Steak and Guinness pie anyone? Leave the Bud for the unwashed masses. Blech. Most cooks use wine they would want to drink to cook with rather than that horrid cooking wine stuff. Their version of GIGO, I guess.
It's also interesting that they've turned "drug" into a bad word. Anything labelled a drug by our media and culture is automatically colored as something dangerous or bad to some degree. They're simply chemicals. Some have potential for abuse. Some have more of this potential than others.
Some drugs are really misclassified based on this perceived level of "badness" mainly because of misguided politics (you mentioned marijuana). I really wonder which schedule the gov't would put alcohol/beer/wine/etc. on. Or maybe more acurately, what position will the liquor lobby pay for it to be classified under. In terms of potential for abuse and harm it can cause, it would be better suited for Schedule I than a lot of the "evil drugs" that currently reside there.
Sorry you missed out on the Anchor beers from SF before you left. That's one of the few truly American styles of "real" beer. Since you're in Germany now and have been getting good German beer, you'd probably appreciate the origins of Steam Beer even more. It was developed by German immigrants to the area who came from lager brewing traditions. Problem was, is mid-19th century California, getting the ice they need to lager their beer for the appropriate period was prohibitively expensive, if not impossible.
Fortunately, lager yeasts (which ferment between 40 and 50 degrees F) will ferment out at ale tempuratures (aound 70 degrees F) as well. Doesn't work the other way. The important thing here is that they could still use the yeasts they had been using for generation. They merely needed to adapt the process (and to some extent, their yeast cultures) to the conditions in which they found themselves.
So, german immigrants to the bay area made german style beers with lager yeasts fermented at ale temperatures. Voila, new style! It has a nice malty character, characterisitic of many german beers and is rather hoppy, but not overly so. It has a clean taste, characteristic of a larger and a little hint of the fruity taste you get from top-fermenting ale fermentations.
While not comercial in the sense of Miller Brewing Co., Milwaukie, WI, it is a commercial beer with national and international distibution (dispelling the myth that all American non-micros suck).
I don't know how the US gov will define beer, but that's how they should, IMNSHO. With the explosion of good micros, brewpubs, local styles, etc. in the US, maybe need something equivalent to the French DOC in America, only for beer.
It's taken a long time to undo the damage done, by Prohibition. The government could acutally (Shock) do something good here if they define it this way (i.e. something of local repute, high quality, specific process for manufacture using the most exacting standards and best ingredients).
"The definition of food doesn't say anything about "chewing."
Beer is food for the soul and mind."
By extension, no one would question that milk is food, and yet there's no chewing there either. Well shouldn't be, check the date stamp.:-)
I would take that a step further and say it's food for the body as well. If you think about it, in its most basic form (malted barley, water, yeast), it's just liquid bread. But better. I've never heard of a "lawnmower bread." It's nourishing, in limited quantities it's good for you, and it's refreshing.
Maybe. Depends on the beer. Maltose is the main fermentable component of the wort (pronounced wert) from which a beer is made.
Depending on the style of beer in question, the level of residual maltose, sucrose, (in some cases even lactose) etc. varies widely. A nice Octoberfest, for example, will have a much higher level of residual maltose, than say, a Bud Dry. Most of the calories in any beer come from the alcohol anyway.
I was going to ask the same question! All other food and drug products have very involved labels, but not any of the booze we consume. My best guess why not: the Liquor Lobby. The various brewers, distillers, vintners, etc, in the US have assembled one of the most powerful lobbying presences on Capitol Hill of any industry in operation today.
Sadly, modernization of the processes they use really makes labelling desireable, IMHO. If brewers in the US were restricted (or restricted themselves) to Reinheitsgebot standards, we'd know what was in there without a label (malt, water, hops, yeast). And really, do we really want any more than that in our beer?
Its amazing that you picked Berman to showcase constituent response!
If you look here, it becomes obivous that he is "serving 'his' constituents." He represent Hollywood and the Entertainment Industry, he is a Member of the Congressional Entertainment Caucus. for the people who vote for him, there is nothing more important than protecting their IP. If didn't support Disney and the MPAA, that would be a shock. THis is a perfect example of the author's point. Politicians are out to protect their people.
If the guy represented a steel town, wouldn't you expect him to try to protect the mill? No different here, its just that the mill is Hollywood.
A crucial point that seems to be missed entirely in all the posts is that this audience needs to support what organizations we can (EFF, FSF, etc.) that can pool resources to get our ourselves heard.
It's lame that nobody gets it.
needed power
take a look at that.
Its amazing that you picked Berman to showcase constituent response!
If you look here, it becomes obivous that he is "serving 'his' constituents." He represents Hollywood and the Entertainment industry, he is a Member of the Congressional Entertainment Caucus. For the people who vote for him, there is nothing more important than protecting their IP. If he didn't support Disney and the MPAA, that would be a shock. This is a perfect example of the author's point. Politicians are out to protect their people.
If the guy represented a steel town, wouldn't you expect him to try to protect the mill? No different here, its just that the mill is Hollywood.
A crucial point that seems to be missed entirely in all the posts is that this audience needs to support what organizations we can (EFF, FSF, etc.) that can pool resources to get our ourselves heard.
Uh, last I knew, Wal-Mart was the largest employer in the US. They employ 1.2 million people. So they're claiming to have more employees than that? Do they count the guy who drops by every other week to fill the Coke machine?!? Even if they totalled all the employees operating at every telemarketing company in the US, there's just no way.
Slashdot Mirror
I guess you're not gadget oriented. Do you travel much? I find it really interesting what people find important enough to carry with them in minimal space, in an attempt to meet as many contingencies, as possible. I think this is one of the more interesting aspects of material culture. I, for one, am glad I'm fortunate enough to live in a chunck of timespace that allows for these to be important considerations. I'd really like to see the contents of more slashdotters laptop bags listed. Some people think of things I don't. Cool! I can better. It'd serve me much better than sanctomonious glop for certain.
Maybe not.
I'm pretty sure I'd be fine. I've lived outside for weeks at a time before, grown large vegetable gardens, brewed beer, trained animals, helped build houses, fished, and hunted. And I'm fairly ADD so my mind is constantly excercised. My wife throws pots. If the time comes, I'll grit my teeth, up-end my laptop bag and start filling it with whatever I might need to deal with that life. I think I'm off to a decent start there though. Thanks for your concern, though. Damn man, you need a worry stone too.
Maybe I'll throw a worry stone in there.
...and I really wish Asscroft would let me have my Swiss Army knife back.
And this bag of mine rocks. This is a camera bag. On the inside are four velcro rails that run vertically from top to bottom on the front and back walls. These are supposed to allow for the attachment (other side of the velcro) of foam-rubber coated with nylon cloth inserts that further compartmentalize it to store camera lenses, equipment etc. I ditched those and got a small laptop bag (that had it's own carrying strap which I stow for when I want to leave everything but the 12" iBook) that fits perfectly inside the camera bag. The velcro rails are the perfect place to attached velcro cable management ties. Two water resistant compartments house some emergency cash, a complete collection of toiletries, stamps, umbrella condoms, regular condoms, a small poncho in case it rains. Side pouches hold chargers for cell phones, iBook, and a multivoltage power adapter, small wind-up style earbud set, crypto cards. Under the flap on the front is space for an assortment of pens (chalk, anyone?) and keychain holder to which I've attached work keys, flashlight, and a usb jump drive. The flap can accomodate a couple blank DVDs and CDs.
The bag shielded well enough all the way around the bag to safely carry a second laptop in with the sleeved iBook, another compartment in the top under the handle houses firewire, usb, ethernet, rj-11, serial cables, etc.
Amazingly, there's still room for the 40 Gig iPod I've almost talked work into buying me for "data mobility purposes," and it still weighs under 15lbs with all the previously enumerated crap (and what I forgot to mention) and the 12" iBook.
Eh, that's nothin'. A real geek would through some RJ-11/45 ends and a crimper in the bag and roll with a spool of cable. Now that's interchangeability!
Clients ask for things and you have to deliver what they want on their timetable, using whatever tech they want. Sometimes you have to save them from their irrational selves, in process.
I do things for clients the way they want them, that I don't think make sense a fair amount of the time. I've certainly built applications and databases in ways I wouldn't do them for myself.
I, in turn, get to make vendors who do work for me (on behlaf of my clients) to do it on my timetable using the tech I want.
It's a nice happy circle. As long as you don't let your clients get you to do too much for nothing, who cares if the tech you used is cutting edge or not.
How many people actually have customers who let them decide how their going to spend their own budgets? Customers want what they want irrespective of your budget.
This would be more accurately classed as yet another stupid on-by-default, security-decreasing idiocy on the part of Microsoft. Why the OS would install with this on by default is a mystery to me.
I'm just glad MS didn't decide to remove it from future versions of the Windows. I've actually used this feature at work and found it quite useful.
For instance, I've had to sit in on training classes as few times that one of our vendors was putting on for some of our users. It was a fly-on-the-wall type thing; I was there to get feedback from our users, primarily.
A few times some configuration shortcomming became apparent and people would start wispering to each other. Rather than let it go and wreck the class, I quickly fixed the problems on each machine in the room and sent one of these messages to each PC in the room, telling them it was fixed.
I didn't have to stop the guest trainer, I didn't have walk over and stop anyone from paying attention to him, and I could I easily communicate that the problem was identified and resolved. It was sort of cool.
Normally I would have just e-mailed them, but we don't have users use their accounts in training, none of the training accounts have mailboxes.
That's how it should be used, I think. Too bad the FTC doesn't take as much interest in browser pop-up advertisers. I've seen IE popup ads for this crap. Which appears to be similar in concept only the delivery is through a different pop-up. The product/service looks just about as useless. You could accomplish everything they're trying sell you on with add/remove programs and dumping IE for a browser that deoesn't subject you to this type of torture.
I am a voter as well, so I appreciate any attention a candidate might give to issues I care about. Especially if I agree with them.
Now, obviously, it wouldn't be wise for any of these guys to place their entire focus on a niche issue such as this (however important these issues may be to a small part of their potential constituency). However, little things like this might make the difference between who votes for you and who doesn't where all other things are equal.
It's already been pointed out in other posts that the candidates probably have no idea what their web sites are hosted, but someone in their organization does understand this. It wouldn't surprise me if politics entered into the question when the platform was chosen in a few cases. Bravo, if it did! I'd like to see more candidates pay serious attention to issues such as these.
I don't even particularly care if Howard's a total luddite. If he can take political action I like on my issues if and when he's elected, that's all that matters. I want him to be a consumate politician, not a 733t webmaster.
There has already been some buzz around Howard Dean making a potential guest appearance on Lessig's blog. He also seems seems to have some peripheral interest in and empathy for our positions (sorry for the very broad generalization here) on many issues that are important to the Slashdot crowd.
If he had shown up in this article as running Dean For America on IIS on 2K Server, I'd seriously have to reconsider his appeal as a potential geek candidate... And question his suitability as my representative on issues of privacy, open standards, intellectual property rights, etc.
Good work, Howard. I'm glad my contribution to your campaign didn't end up in Redmond as a license fee payment!
In fact, most of the positively moderated posts have been moderated with some heavy anti-Bush bent rather than from the perspective of what moderation is actually meant to be on Slashdot (i.e. moderate things up that contribute positively (informative, interesting, etc.) to the discussion, regardless of weather or not you agree with them). Bravo, moderators. Perhaps you should review the Moderator Guidelines.
If Israel has the desire (or has the desire forced upon them) to enforce compliance with their treaty obligations, these guys could have set up themselves the bomb (literally).
I love the phone, Sony Ericsson t68i, but I must admit the service doesn't come anywhere near Verizon's. I mostly have to go outside when I'm at home to use my phone. Admittedly, this may have as much to do with the phone as with T-Mobile's tower placement. I get good signal strength everywhere but in my house, and around my small town in some places.
I had the foresight to leave my wife with her Verizon cell phone, so we can get calls in our house. But truthfully, sometimes it's nice not to be reachable.
Most of my friends who have to be reachable at all hours here will tell you that that pretty much makes Verizon the only option around DC.
First, it's pale yellow water with alcohol. But since all you seem to have taken the time to acquaint yourself with are the mass-market American lagers, this clearly isn't an area of expertise for you. Understandable if not forgivable.
Secondly, take a look here for real American beer:
http://www.brooklynbrewery.com/
http://www.bellsbeer.com/
http://www.anchorbrewing.com/
http://www.peteswicked.com/
Go out, try some. Then come back and actually add something to the discussion other than the same old lame, tired-ass meme.
Make your gravy with Guinness too. Then you'll make GREAT gravy. Steak and Guinness pie anyone? Leave the Bud for the unwashed masses. Blech. Most cooks use wine they would want to drink to cook with rather than that horrid cooking wine stuff. Their version of GIGO, I guess.
Some drugs are really misclassified based on this perceived level of "badness" mainly because of misguided politics (you mentioned marijuana). I really wonder which schedule the gov't would put alcohol/beer/wine/etc. on. Or maybe more acurately, what position will the liquor lobby pay for it to be classified under. In terms of potential for abuse and harm it can cause, it would be better suited for Schedule I than a lot of the "evil drugs" that currently reside there.
Fortunately, lager yeasts (which ferment between 40 and 50 degrees F) will ferment out at ale tempuratures (aound 70 degrees F) as well. Doesn't work the other way. The important thing here is that they could still use the yeasts they had been using for generation. They merely needed to adapt the process (and to some extent, their yeast cultures) to the conditions in which they found themselves. So, german immigrants to the bay area made german style beers with lager yeasts fermented at ale temperatures. Voila, new style! It has a nice malty character, characterisitic of many german beers and is rather hoppy, but not overly so. It has a clean taste, characteristic of a larger and a little hint of the fruity taste you get from top-fermenting ale fermentations.
While not comercial in the sense of Miller Brewing Co., Milwaukie, WI, it is a commercial beer with national and international distibution (dispelling the myth that all American non-micros suck).
I don't know how the US gov will define beer, but that's how they should, IMNSHO. With the explosion of good micros, brewpubs, local styles, etc. in the US, maybe need something equivalent to the French DOC in America, only for beer.
It's taken a long time to undo the damage done, by Prohibition. The government could acutally (Shock) do something good here if they define it this way (i.e. something of local repute, high quality, specific process for manufacture using the most exacting standards and best ingredients).
That would be cool.
By extension, no one would question that milk is food, and yet there's no chewing there either. Well shouldn't be, check the date stamp.:-)
I would take that a step further and say it's food for the body as well. If you think about it, in its most basic form (malted barley, water, yeast), it's just liquid bread. But better. I've never heard of a "lawnmower bread." It's nourishing, in limited quantities it's good for you, and it's refreshing.
Depending on the style of beer in question, the level of residual maltose, sucrose, (in some cases even lactose) etc. varies widely. A nice Octoberfest, for example, will have a much higher level of residual maltose, than say, a Bud Dry. Most of the calories in any beer come from the alcohol anyway.
Sadly, modernization of the processes they use really makes labelling desireable, IMHO. If brewers in the US were restricted (or restricted themselves) to Reinheitsgebot standards, we'd know what was in there without a label (malt, water, hops, yeast). And really, do we really want any more than that in our beer?
It's lame that nobody gets it. needed power take a look at that. Its amazing that you picked Berman to showcase constituent response! If you look here, it becomes obivous that he is "serving 'his' constituents." He represents Hollywood and the Entertainment industry, he is a Member of the Congressional Entertainment Caucus. For the people who vote for him, there is nothing more important than protecting their IP. If he didn't support Disney and the MPAA, that would be a shock. This is a perfect example of the author's point. Politicians are out to protect their people. If the guy represented a steel town, wouldn't you expect him to try to protect the mill? No different here, its just that the mill is Hollywood. A crucial point that seems to be missed entirely in all the posts is that this audience needs to support what organizations we can (EFF, FSF, etc.) that can pool resources to get our ourselves heard.
It's lame that nobody gets it.
Oh, BTW, pound sand, telemarketroids.
Contrast Newton with Bertrand Russell. He'd be the exception to the rule, methinks?