...that since June 2001 (the first month when OS stats were available), that Windows 98 usage has only dropped from 12% (from 55% to 43% of Google users)?
Windows 2000 and XP have obvious benefits over Windows 98 -- stability being the biggest one, but also a true multi-user OS with protected memory, a real task manager, etc. They also run almost 100% of the existing Windows 98 programs.
So, if people won't switch off something as flaky as Windows 98 on to 2000 or XP, what makes anyone think that these people will switch to something like Linux (which can't even promise that your old programs will run on it)?
This isn't a troll... it's something we all need to think about.
The fact that the majority of people using Google are still using Windows 98 says volumes: even if Windows 98 is flaky; even if Windows 98 crashes or gives weird errors; even if Microsoft makes something better that promises near-100% compatibility with their old programs -- people aren't switching. The question that must be asked is: why?
"Naturally, until we were profitable to the point that we could hire other people to work with us we would be both the programmers and the marketers/salesmen."
Not to just be a troll, but this sentence alone shows that you haven't really thought this through.
Think about what are you going to be doing in this business. Keywords do not make a business, friend. I don't hire a "C, C++, and Java" programmer; I hire someone who can create an order invoice system (for instance).
"How do we capture the hearts and confidence of potential customers when we don't have PhD's from MIT?"
Another question that shows you haven't researched your market. Potential customers, again, aren't looking for resume keywords. They're looking for someone who can fulfill a specific need. Better yet, they are looking for someone who can explain things to them without resorting to words like "TCP/IP", "HTTP", "DNS", and "C/C++/Java".
To put it bluntly, if you a) try to sell resume keywords like "C++" or "B.S. in Comp.Sci" as a business; b) can't explain things in a simple, non-technical manner; c) pressure your clients to do things your way ("Oh my God! You're using Internet Explorer! UGH! You want me to code what?");
your business will FAIL.
And most of all, don't be flaky! Make your clients feel like they are your #1 priority, even if they aren't. As a consultant, that is the top complaint I have heard regarding other consultants.
I would write more, but I'm onsite at a client's office right now, doing freelance PHP consulting -- that's what I do for a living. It's not easy to be freelance full-time, and you're definitely going to need to put more thought into it than you have already. If what I have said scares you, and you don't want to spend 50% of your time explaining what an "Internet Explorer" is, do the world a favor and don't go into consulting. If, on the other hand, you enjoy dealing with people, dropping off business cards, and generally showing off your work at every opportunity, go for it. You'll most likely find it to be a much more rewarding career in the end.
It's an unfortunate truth that saying something honest will get you much fewer eyeballs. Slashdot even perpetuates this by posting purposely controversial viewpoints. I mean, which is more controversial, "Linux and Windows both have their place" or
"Linux on the desktop is dead! Windows on the server is dead!"
The fact is that the "x and y both have their place" articles, although honest, are much less likely to get published, because media outlets know that less controversial opinions just aren't talked about as much.
This thread will be lucky to receive 200 comments. Had the article submitted been "Java is dying!.Net is taking over!" it probably would have had 800-1000 comments. It's sad, but true.
Having said that, I use PHP. Stop by #php on irc.openprojects.net! </plug>;)
I'll give you the quick answers to your questions. First of all, you should know that properly maintained Windows 2000 and XP systems are absolutely rock-solid, provided that you do basic system maintenance, have good hardware, and use drivers that are signed and that work with your product.
I don't claim Windows 9x products. In fact, I reformat those computers and put 2000 or XP on instead.:P
"For instance, can you look at a Windows process listing and be able to explain what every process is and what it's for?"
In a word, yes. You have to be able to do this to pick out viruses (and sneaky bastards like that RealOne bullshit.)
"Also, are there any diagnostic tools?"
Yes. They range from standard ping/nslookup to third-party programs that will do just about anything you can on *nix. Check out a package called NetScanTools for all the TCP-dumping, port-sniffing goodness. (I'm too lazy to Google.) Also, for more fun/cool things like virtual desktops, changing system preferences, etc., check out the Windows XP Power Toys (put out by Microsoft.)
"Does Windows log noteworthy events somewhere like the Unix syslog? If so, where is it?"
Event Viewer. In 2000/XP, go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer. Works just like/var/log/messages.
"If I do figure out what is going wrong, what do I do about it?"
You hit the Microsoft knowledge base. This is really one of the most underrated tools in Microsoft-land. However, it has pretty much any obscure bug/feature you would want documented, including registry hacks, etc. Can't find it? Go bug Microsoft tech support. They're usually quite helpful if they sense that you're not a luddite.
I am a Windows guru. I like being a Windows guru. Several of my friends are Windows gurus. We're the ones who maintain Windows networks, bash people who think that since Windows 98 sucks that all Windows versions must suck, and find it ironic that so many people bash MCSEs because they know a stupid one. (Yep, it happens, folks. There are several million stupid college graduates out there, too, but that doesn't mean that college degrees are worthless.) Yeah, I think MCSE can and should be more stringent. But that doesn't mean the cert itself is a bad idea.
Knowing Windows is an easier job than knowing UNIX, for sure. But it's not the cakewalk some geeks seem to think it is. Having used both Windows and Linux on the desktop, I can honestly say I vastly prefer Windows. Servers are another story, but then again I don't claim to be an Exchange guru.;)
Proprietary software vendors bend over backwards to give out discounts to educational institutions. Why? Because people who become comfortable using a specific piece of software will want to buy that software later for home and work purposes. In fact, Apple's strategy for the past 20 years has been to give discounted computers to educational institutions in the hopes that this would spur consumer adoption of the Macintosh.
Microsoft gives ridiculously deep discounts to educational institutions. I have friends who go to Indiana University. At the bookstore there, you can pick up Windows XP Professional (no activation required) for $5. The entire 5-CD version of Visual Studio.Net is available for $30. At these prices, there is absolutely no incentive to pirate the software. If you can't afford $5 for Windows XP, how can you afford $8 from Linux for Cheapbytes, or the bandwidth for downloading the ISOs, the CD burner and blank CDs to burn them?
Condoning pirated software in these cases is simply unacceptable. I find it discouraging that a government would encourage educational institutions to pirate software instead of ironing out legitimate deals with software makers.
Well, this will probably go into oblivion since there are already 300+ comments posted, but I thought I'd add our locale's story.
I arrived with my friend Valorie at about 7:45 (we were late because we had to walk her dog!) We went into the venue (Cafe Cocomo) only to find out that it was a salsa dance club that had just opened at 7:30. When we walked back outside, we noticed some geeks in a car and asked them if they were with the Slashdot meetup. They said yes and pointed us to a sign on the gate that started with "Nerds can't dance..." and ended with directions to a local pizza joint.
People straggled into the pizza joint until about 8:15, when the pizza place finally found a table to accommodate 14 people. (Considering 110+ people signed up, this was a rather disappointing turnout. Our host didn't even arrive!) I took over the ordering of the pizzas, and we snarfed down 4 pizzas and two orders of garlic bread, as well as a lot of beer, wine, and soda.
There were definitely some interesting people there. Everyone I talked to had written software of some sort -- one guy had written shareware to search for porn, and two other guys carried around an iBook with some software that searched for open wireless LANs. One guy had legally changed his name to Lunatic! He had the most interesting fingernails -- he grew them way out and some of them were several inches long. It seemed to be a pretty Mac-centric crowd, but then again, this is San Francisco, so I wasn't surprised.
All in all, we had a great time and a lot of fun. If you're a Slashdot reader in or around San Francisco, please join the slashdot-sf Yahoo group so we can keep in touch.
Here are a couple of other wrapups I found from our group: Anonymous Coward and another Anonymous Coward. (I was surprised at the number of people without Slashdot usernames!)
And to those of you who signed up but didn't go (including our host), well, you missed out on a fun night!
I and a friend (both female) confirmed for San Francisco! (We want to meet Craig!)
Neither of us are single, but I thought we should post a PSA anyway: yes, there will be two geeky females at the San Francisco meetup. Our SO's won't be with us, either! Oh yeah, and my friend actually likes using vi. Does she pass the geek test?
"Flash must die. This website is a good example of why flash is a bad, bad, thing."
Please STOP BLAMING THE TOOL!
This is like saying "I know this really annoying website... and it's made from HTML, so HTML must suck." You even said in your original post that you have found a great Flash site ("PBSkids.org [pbskids.org] where my kids can play games with cookie monster..."), so what is the problem?
Yeah, the linked site is ugly: puke-green coloring and big blinking annoyances. But this isn't Macromedia's fault. Please stop blaming Flash for bad site designers. Bad site designers will be bad site designers, regardless of the tools you give them.
The best thing you can do is to contact the company's marketing department (obviously without using the webmaster@ email address, as this will likely go directly to the site designer) and tell them that you don't like their site. Instead of saying "it's ugly", give concrete reasons why you didn't want to buy the product: "the blinking text obscured what I was trying to read", for instance. In other words, instead of complaining on Slashdot, complain to someone who can actually do something about it.
*sigh* I have to wonder why this is such a hard concept...
I've had the chance to enjoy several of your Xanth books over the years. However, I find it disappointing that, like many sci-fi authors, you choose to include lots of "naked women" imagery in your books. This makes your books unappealing to the female side of your audience (including myself), and it makes it hard for me to recommend your books either to younger children or other women who might be interested.
I don't mind sex in books; what I (and a lot of other females) mind is the clear delineation of women as either sexual objects or as somehow "needing" a male to rescue them from various plights. Your earlier books did not have much of this imagery, and indeed the Xanth series seems relatively free of it, but I've noticed that some of your books do draw this conclusion. Unfortunately, the fantasy category seems to have more of this type of book than most other categories.
In a world of fantasy books dominated by male fantasies, what is your suggestion to the relatively few females who do enjoy fantasy and sci-fi books?
As a point of reference, I enjoyed the Phule series by Robert Asprin, as well as The Hitchhiker's Guide and, of course, several of the Xanth books.
...and since I've had to write and test all of my PHP applications with the Japanese charset for him and his friends, I thought I would share my and his experiences.
I've done both Japanese and Chinese input editing with Windows and MacOS 9, and my client uses Japanese input the majority of the time he uses a PC. He and his friends flatly refuse to use anything but Windows 2000 for hardcore input. The reason? Microsoft's Japanese IME. Mac OS 9's input support doesn't compare to this tiny bar that sits at the corner of your screen and lets you flip back and forth between English and several other character sets. According to my client, both mouse support (i.e. clicking the little bar and bringing up the language) and keyboard support (using key commands to change languages) are VASTLY more efficient in Windows 2000 than in MacOS 9. In fact, he's planning to drop his (older) Macs for Windows 2000 and XP machines solely based on this feature.
Now, I'm not saying that there isn't something similar for Linux. But if Apple couldn't come up with anything more productive for MacOS 9, which was intended from the start to be a consumer-level, desktop, OS, I am highly doubtful that Linux developers can come up with anything better. As is, my client and all of his friends are on either 2000 or XP and are quite happy with their decision.
As it stands, I believe your friend's decision to not use Microsoft products may be a bit short-sighted, especially considering that this is one of my client's only reasons to switch to Windows from MacOS.
Oh, come on....
on
Am I Hot or Not
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
You can't have an article entitled "Am I Hot Or Not" without having a link to the realAm I Hot Or Not page! Who wants to look at thermometers when you can look at real people and rate how "hot" they are based on a completely shallow judgement?!
"The best part about Microsoft's Java implementation is that the word 'java' is nowhere to be seen. It's the "Microsoft(TM) Virtual Machine." I think Microsoft were [sic] hoping that Java would go away if they simply don't ever speak the name."
I know this was modded as "funny", but I thought I should explain why Microsoft can't say "Java".
According to the settlement terms, "Microsoft... is permanently prohibited from using 'Java compatible' trademarks on its products." So it's not Microsoft that is doing this; it's Sun -- and for good reason. Sun doesn't want its name associated with the hunk o' junk that is the Microsoft virtual machine.
By the way, you've made a mistake I see all the time. I don't know where people got the impression that a company is plural, but it's not. A company is a single entity. Your sentence should be phrased, "I think Microsoft was hoping..."
Hope that clears some things up for you. Also, I agree that the "Java should not be used in life-or-death situations" disclaimer is pretty classic.;)
Sun (rightfully) sues, saying it breaks compatibility with the real Java.
Microsoft removes Java from Windows. (Sun, what did you think was going to happen?)
Sun sues again, this time claiming that Microsoft is doing irreparable damage to their customers by forcing them to download a 5MB version of crappy Java. (Oh yes, and even though Sun isn't profitable, Sun insists on taking out full-page ads in major newspapers whining about how badly everyone has it now that they actually have to download Java.)
Microsoft, wanting to avoid more bad press, puts its crappy Java version back into Windows.
Who is the winner here? It's certainly not developers. We're either going to have to code to an ancient, incompatible version of Java because it's the "default", or we're going to have to keep explaining to people the difference between the Sun JVM and the Microsoft JVM (and either including a JVM with our applications or forcing people to download yet another JVM, something our customers won't give a flying @%^$ about), or we're going to have to give up using Java completely.
And consumers aren't the winners either, because the version of Java that ships won't run very many newer Java applications, so they are still going to have to download a JVM when they want to do the latest Java stuff.
Sun certainly isn't the winner; they've spent far too much money on a battle that doesn't win them very much at all in terms of hard cash. (I mean, I don't see Macromedia complaining that Flash isn't built into Windows, and I don't see AOL wringing its arms about AIM and ICQ not being included with the OS -- why should Sun be any different?) Plus, Sun looks silly. They sued, they won, and they got what they wanted -- and then (as if they had never expected to win in the first place) they sued again to force Microsoft to do the opposite of what they had wanted Microsoft to do before.
The only (marginal) winner that I can see is Microsoft. Microsoft has managed to completely destroy any hopes of Java being a great client-side language -- by including an incompatible version of Java, then not including it, and then including that same ancient crappy version again. Java has been relegated to web services, where it's just barely holding its own against ASP and PHP. (PHP is on 24% of web servers now, BTW... many more than Java servlets or ASP.)
So, in the end, Sun spent a lot of money and lost; Microsoft spent a bit less money and lost; and we spent money on Windows and... well... we lost. Scott McNealy, I hope you're happy.
From the article: "MetaFilter's Haughey says 'record companies would love it if people were frightened of file-sharing networks and never touched them again.'"
I'm really surprised the record companies haven't taken advantage of this to advertise their pay services. Why play just a looping 10-second piece of the song when you can play a clip and then say, "To get the whole song legally for just $1.95, visit Pressplay.com" or something to that effect? I know that eMusic and some other services used to advertise their presence in the ID3 comment tag of the MP3, but this would seem to be wholeheartedly more effective.
The real question is, do the music companies really want these for-pay services to succeed, or do they want them to fail so they can frame Internet users as thieves? I'd say that both viewpoints exist in the RIAA. That's why these services aren't even advertised, especially not in a means such as the above, which IMHO would be quite effective.
I worry sometimes that all this "music revolution" will give us is uncopyable CDs. This would be a huge disappointment to those of us who don't want to gyp the artists -- we just want music in a more flexible format than a CD can offer. I, for one, am hoping that the potential of mass music distribution via the Internet can become a reality. If the record companies only squash the P2P networks without providing an alternative, this will only serve to alienate customers. On the other hand, if the record companies work with us to provide a low-cost way to distribute music legally (with rights to copy it to other devices), both the record companies and artists have a chance to become much more profitable while continuing to make their customers happy. I sincerely hope the latter will occur.
I don't even know where to begin. Should I begin by saying that calling people "morons" because these people don't immediately reformat their computer and install Linux is a bit of a stretch? Or should I point out that Lindows automatically logs users in as root on their Linux boxen? Or should I wonder aloud how Roblimo would like programmers to make money if not by making useful utilities like virus scanners?
This whole article takes the disgusting tone of insulting people who obviously aren't as "smart" as the article's author. I find this elitism disgusting, and frankly, embarrassing to the greater geek community.
How many of us are quick to insult people who don't know the difference between root and another user? How many of us call the repair guy because we don't know how to repair the air conditioner, refrigerator, or our car? Would you like it if your mechanic said, "I can't believe you don't know the difference between 10W30 and 10W40. You're obviously a moron."?
Face it, folks, not everyone wants to be a computer expert. Not everyone wants to get involved in flamewars like vi vs. emacs or Linux vs. Windows. They just want to turn on their computer and have it work. And with any operating system, those same people will have to learn how to maintain it by applying patches (just like you have to maintain your car by taking it in for maintenance every so often.)
The fact that this article is categorized as "humor" doesn't make the elitism any less inherent. We should be educating people about the importance of software maintenance, not bashing them for being "morons" because they don't want to know the technical stuff. To most people, computers are a tool to get a job done, not a religion. Windows makes it easy to do most jobs. Therefore, most people are pretty happy with Windows.
Mod me down if you wish. I have 50 karma and I don't care much about karma ratings anyway. But I think this is important for a lot of geeks to understand -- just becuase we may have more technical knowledge does not give us the right to call people with less technical knowledge "morons" -- humor category or not.
Having grown up in a rural area, and having friends and parents who still live in an area that just got 56K phone lines, this issue is important.
I can remember back in the day when AOL and other ISPs promised 98-99% local number coverage, and we were still in that other 1%. We didn't have local dial-up until 1996, when the local pharmacist (!) and his wife set up a T1 and modem pool out of their garage.
My question is: what is going to happen to these communities? With the FCC pushing toward one DSL provider and one cable provider per town, this is going to merit absolute disaster in a town that Verizon doesn't care about and where there practically isn't a cable company (the cable company went out of business three times in three years; everyone gave up and got satellite.)
I sense a real impending disaster that could perhaps be averted by something like fixed wireless. Are there feasibility studies on the 'Net (cost analyses, etc.) that show the costs of putting in a fixed wireless or other broadband setup? I've seen the case studies, many of which are posted on Slashdot. However, they fail to touch in the bigger problem, which is that this applies to 20% of the country.
If we want people to have broadband, someone is going to have to come up with a plan to offer it over large service areas over something that is not a phone or a cable line. Do we have answers yet? What is on the horizon?
"While I do respect people who are able to be productive in a strict *NIX environment more than people who need to use something else to get their work done, I understand that Linux is not for everyone."
Perhaps I would have gotten people more up in arms had I mentioned that Linux (any PC-based OS that required your own computer instead of a terminal) was frowned upon as much as Windows and Macintosh were. I said several times that I would work fine if they gave me a Macintosh instead (since the Windows 2000 computer I received from another part of Sun was evidently not adequate.) But my boss pointed out that other people (who were doing email support and not development) were fine with a Solaris box. He couldn't understand why I didn't want to give up my laptop for a CDE desktop and smart card, even though (here's the kicker) he too used a laptop on a daily basis.
When you hire an employee, you are expected to give that employee a standard set of tools. In this case, Sun bought me a Windows 2000 laptop and a Solaris workstation (well, the workstation was a hand-me-down.) Then my boss tried to force me to give up the laptop in favor of being Solaris-only because of the "image" that using Windows gave Sun (trust me, they were doing this to the Mac people as well.) I said no, and I quit.
When you don't give your employee the tools that that employee needs, and try to force their hand in using other tools that aren't designed for the job, then you have a bad match as the employer/employee relationship goes. What bothered me most was that they weren't trying to proclaim that Solaris was more productive or had better tools than Windows or a Mac, but that Sun's "image" would look bad if Sun's web developers used anything but SunRays. I can understand this attitude from a high corporate level, but can anyone seriously (with a straight face) tell me that you have the same applications available to you on Solaris as on Windows? (I'm not even sure if the GIMP was available on their servers.) It's a terrible mentality to push the "eat your own dogfood" attitude so far that your employees quit. I know I wasn't the only employee to leave over something like this, either.
I think Sun needs to rethink its position regarding the tools that its employees use. Sure, give everyone a SunRay. But don't shove Solaris down people's throats as the One True Way. Understand that there are a lot of things that simply don't run on it, and understand that your (Sun's) customers aren't going to want to run a 100% Solaris shop, either. Sun will fail in the marketplace if they believe that Solaris will fill every business niche that Windows fills now, and that is exactly the attitude I see from inside Sun.
I'm tempted to post anonymously, but since this is now in my past, I won't.
I actually worked in Sun's San Francisco flex office (the one that is mentioned in the article.) I have a lot of stories, both good and bad, about this way of working. First, let me start with a bit of an explanation.
On one of Sun's internal websites, there is a Java applet where you go to reserve workspaces. People like me who didn't have a "real" office were allowed to reserve 14 days in advance for up to 5 consecutive days. Others were allowed to reserve anything that was left. So it's not as much of a potshot as you might imagine -- I was in the office 4-5 days a week and most of the seats weren't even reserved. You could reserve at home through Sun's remote access, so it wasn't like there was a huge line building up at 7AM or something.
I can tell you the pros and cons, but I'm biased because I absolutely hated it. I hated the formulaic offices, and I hated that personal decorations were frowned upon. But the thing that really drove me crazy was that we were expected to use the UNIX terminals in lieu of any Windows or Macintosh laptop that we might have available. In fact, I was asked to give up my laptop because it looked bad for me to have a laptop on my desk and not be using my Solaris workstation (I had a real workstation because I tested websites on different browsers on Solaris.) The whole thing made me extremely bitter toward the company and was one of the main reasons for me leaving. I feel that it's hypocritical to hire a web developer who is used to using Photoshop, a nice solid text editor, and Dreamweaver, throw that developer in front of vi and the Gimp, and expect that web developer to be as productive as before.
However, if you could get all your work done on Solaris, it worked out well. Most of the non-technical people got used to CDE (!) and were fine with a Netscape window. If all you need is Netscape, Star Office, and a couple of other applications, then sure -- a flex office is beneficial. A friend of mine still works out of that office, but she's not there very often, which is the whole point. She works all over the Bay Area and doesn't seem to mind giving up the development applications of a Windows or Macintosh machine. Then again, she isn't a developer...
I think whether you like these offices or not depends on your personality. I must admit that Sun pulled it off well -- it's a solid implementation. The applet on the website shows you where person X is at any given moment, and you can forward your phone extension anywhere, even to a cell phone or to your home phone, so you're never out of touch. I had a real problem with it because I am a highly creative person who requires certain applications that simply aren't available on Solaris. This, and the lack of office decorations, really threw me out of my comfort zone, and I know I wasn't the only one. Apparently, however, I was in the minority. (I suppose the others who hated it, many of whom were my startup-personality friends, also left.)
I hesitate to just bash on Sun since I know that it was more of a personality clash than a bad implementation, but to anyone who is considering this: the creative minds in your company will hate it. I'm talking about the people with their offices/cubicles decorated with every imaginable sticker and toy -- the ones who treat their office as a second home. These are often some of your most productive and worthy employees, so be sure to listen to their needs.
This article really struck a nerve with me. It brought back all the frustration I had with working in that office. I can only hope that the others like me have had their complaints heard or, like me, have left for greener pastures. To the rest of you -- stick with the small-group (2-3 person offices). That was the environment in which most of us thrived.
I'd like to quote this message I received from AT&T Customer Care regarding higher upload speeds on AT&T Broadband. I was concerned about the 128K upload cap.
Take a look at this:
Hello! Welcome to the Online Customer Support Center for AT&T Broadband service. A message from a customer care specialist should appear in the chat window shortly. Your session ID # is 2142439.
In-Kevin Roberts has joined this session!
In-Kevin Roberts says, Hello and thank you for contacting AT&T Broadband. My
name is Kevin & I'll be glad to assist you today. I see you have a question regarding higher upload speed . Can you please give me a little more detail ?
You say, Is there a service plan which provides me with greater upload speeds
than 128k?
In-Kevin Roberts says, Yes, AT&T broadband is coming up with higher upload speed.
You say, when will this be available?
In-Kevin Roberts says, This will happen anytime between May 2002 to December 2002.
You say, what is the pricing?
In-Kevin Roberts says, The pricing will be the same.
You say, what will be the new speed?
In-Kevin Roberts says, The new speed will be 256kbps.
So, to appease cable modem customers, AT&T is rolling out more bandwidth on the upstream side. If you'd like to confirm this, log in to AT&T member services and join a chat room of theirs -- that is what this transcript is from.
I hope this helps those of you who are concerned about higher prices. I, for one, am a very satisfied AT&T cable modem customer.
"as everyone knows that Professional is not supposed to be subject to the key bullshit whereas the home version is..."
No. The OEM version of Windows XP is not subject to the activation crap that the retail version is. That means that if you buy your software from Pricewatch (search "Microsoft Windows XP Professional"), you'll not only pay half-price ($89 for XP Home; $140 for XP Pro), but you will escape the activation crap completely.
As to the warez part, I'd bet $100 it is at least partially based on this registry key:
In there you'll see a key called ProductId. (This is in Windows 2000, at least... I'm assuming it's in XP as well.) Change that to a legal (as in, non-warez) value, and I bet that your system will magically update again.
Back in the Windows 95 days, Microsoft used to make it simple and hand out those Product IDs as the keys on your CD case, but recently they have gotten smarter about it. The new stuff translates from that 25-character gobbletygook to these oldschool product IDs. Figure out the translation algorithm (I believe several warez groups already have) and you're set.
Or stop being such a cheapass and go spend $89 for an OEM copy of XP Home. That's what I did for Windows 2000.:P
Minimum Requirements One Pentium Class, 200MHz or Faster, PC equipped with Windows 98, Millennium, NT version 4.0, 2000, or XP, 64 MB RAM...
And on the card homepage it says (in the last paragraph):
"Ready to run in Type II or III PCMCIA CardBus-equipped notebook PCs running Windows 98, Millennium, 2000, and XP..."
It's not likely that many people who want fast wireless would still be running Windows 95 or NT4 on a laptop anyway, so that makes sense.
I'm going to resist the urge to question why you would want to run Windows 98 or ME over Windows 2000 anyway (I'd give up the 10% speed increase for stability any day), but either way, you're wrong about their driver support.
By the way, if you want to be taken seriously with your letter of complaint, avoid the use of "kinda" and "sorta".
It sounds like you're afraid that what you have won't be viable in a few years. If you have Windows 2000 and Office 2000 or XP, though, you should be fine.
Read this article on CNet. In your case, forget the Software Assurance program and buy OEM licenses from your vendors. The cost increases that Gartner is factoring are for the retail copies of Windows and Office -- OEM copies are usually about 60% of that price.
Microsoft's licensing changes have pissed off a lot of customers, and a lot of those customers are migrating off Windows and onto Linux on their servers (because heck, it's $999 for Windows 2000 Server and migrating to Samba/Linux doesn't involve much retraining for your users.)
I would be hesitant to push users off of Windows and Office at this point, especially if I had an all-Windows 2000 shop. With only 50 users, you can get a VAR to hook you up with OEM copies of the latest and greatest Windows/Office at any time without buying in to the Software Assurance program. Thus, I wouldn't worry too much about licensing changes. If you want to see the greatest benefit with the least migration cost, put your web and workgroup servers on Linux.
The desktops, however, are often more trouble than they are worth. I'd leave them alone if I were you. The migration and training costs just aren't worth it at this point. The best thing you can do is just to get them all on the same version of Windows (2000) and Office (2000 or XP) and leave them alone from there. You can look at it again in a couple of years.
You know, I had the same opinion when I was a high school senior. So I chose to go to college here in Silicon Valley instead of in my home state of Indiana.
I took a part-time sysadmin job when I was in college, and after a year or so, this blossomed into a full-time opportunity for web development. It was at this point that, after 1 1/2 years of college, I decided to drop out.
You may be asking, "Well, why should I bother with college in the first place?" I can tell you that college is right for most people. It helps those people decide what they really want to do. It gives you the flexibility to learn almost anything (for instance, I've decided that I would like to study more anthropology if I go back...) while still giving you the opportunity to study a field that you are interested in (especially a field that, like anthropology, may not have anything to do with the job you expect to receive.)
For the vast majority of 18-year-olds, especially if you have never lived away from home, college is a great experience. If you have never lived away from home, then there's no question that you will want to go to college for at least a year just to have a safe haven without living on the street as you struggle to find a job. For me, it turned out to be better to drop out, but I could never have made that decision without having that year and a half of college behind me.
Choose the college that you wish to go to wisely. I could have gone to any Indiana school, but I chose not to because of the lack of tech job opportunities. West Lafayette, IN (home of Purdue University) is absolutely saturated with talented technical college students without jobs, because West Lafayette has a dearth of tech companies. OTOH, I went to San Jose State, which doesn't have a great reputation, but is right in the middle of all the tech firms who were hiring when I was on the market while in college. Location is key if you want to get real job experience while in college.
By the way, you might want to consider a different nickname. "Chicks_Hate_Me" might have been cool in high school, but it will get you nowhere in the real world (speaking as a "Chick" myself...:)
... why no one has latched on to the fact that you can't install products after the computer is delivered in Windows XP Embedded. The author of the linked article (which can be found in the sidebar of the article linked in this story) makes a really good case as to why a system based on Windows XP Embedded won't fly in the consumer marketplace.
Some of you/. readers must have worked on embedded systems before. The fact is that embedded systems aren't meant to be modified after installation. Sure, you can add an installer, but then it no longer becomes an embedded system. Is this hacked, pseudo-embedded system really going to do its job any better than Windows XP does right now? (And will anyone buy a stripped-down version of Windows?)
The real solution is to get Microsoft to open all of their API's so developers can write compatible software (or perhaps replacement software) for Windows and Office components. Enough with the "18,000 different (but modular, ooh!) versions of Windows" arguments... and bring on the more compatible, better software that opening the API's will help to deliver.
Slashdot Mirror
...that since June 2001 (the first month when OS stats were available), that Windows 98 usage has only dropped from 12% (from 55% to 43% of Google users)?
Windows 2000 and XP have obvious benefits over Windows 98 -- stability being the biggest one, but also a true multi-user OS with protected memory, a real task manager, etc. They also run almost 100% of the existing Windows 98 programs.
So, if people won't switch off something as flaky as Windows 98 on to 2000 or XP, what makes anyone think that these people will switch to something like Linux (which can't even promise that your old programs will run on it)?
This isn't a troll... it's something we all need to think about.
The fact that the majority of people using Google are still using Windows 98 says volumes: even if Windows 98 is flaky; even if Windows 98 crashes or gives weird errors; even if Microsoft makes something better that promises near-100% compatibility with their old programs -- people aren't switching. The question that must be asked is: why?
"Naturally, until we were profitable to the point that we could hire other people to work with us we would be both the programmers and the marketers/salesmen."
Not to just be a troll, but this sentence alone shows that you haven't really thought this through.
Think about what are you going to be doing in this business. Keywords do not make a business, friend. I don't hire a "C, C++, and Java" programmer; I hire someone who can create an order invoice system (for instance).
"How do we capture the hearts and confidence of potential customers when we don't have PhD's from MIT?"
Another question that shows you haven't researched your market. Potential customers, again, aren't looking for resume keywords. They're looking for someone who can fulfill a specific need. Better yet, they are looking for someone who can explain things to them without resorting to words like "TCP/IP", "HTTP", "DNS", and "C/C++/Java".
To put it bluntly, if you
a) try to sell resume keywords like "C++" or "B.S. in Comp.Sci" as a business;
b) can't explain things in a simple, non-technical manner;
c) pressure your clients to do things your way ("Oh my God! You're using Internet Explorer! UGH! You want me to code what?");
your business will FAIL.
And most of all, don't be flaky! Make your clients feel like they are your #1 priority, even if they aren't. As a consultant, that is the top complaint I have heard regarding other consultants.
I would write more, but I'm onsite at a client's office right now, doing freelance PHP consulting -- that's what I do for a living. It's not easy to be freelance full-time, and you're definitely going to need to put more thought into it than you have already. If what I have said scares you, and you don't want to spend 50% of your time explaining what an "Internet Explorer" is, do the world a favor and don't go into consulting. If, on the other hand, you enjoy dealing with people, dropping off business cards, and generally showing off your work at every opportunity, go for it. You'll most likely find it to be a much more rewarding career in the end.
It's an unfortunate truth that saying something honest will get you much fewer eyeballs. Slashdot even perpetuates this by posting purposely controversial viewpoints. I mean, which is more controversial, "Linux and Windows both have their place" or
.Net is taking over!" it probably would have had 800-1000 comments. It's sad, but true.
;)
"Linux on the desktop is dead! Windows on the server is dead!"
The fact is that the "x and y both have their place" articles, although honest, are much less likely to get published, because media outlets know that less controversial opinions just aren't talked about as much.
This thread will be lucky to receive 200 comments. Had the article submitted been "Java is dying!
Having said that, I use PHP. Stop by #php on irc.openprojects.net! </plug>
I'll give you the quick answers to your questions. First of all, you should know that properly maintained Windows 2000 and XP systems are absolutely rock-solid, provided that you do basic system maintenance, have good hardware, and use drivers that are signed and that work with your product.
:P
/var/log/messages.
;)
I don't claim Windows 9x products. In fact, I reformat those computers and put 2000 or XP on instead.
"For instance, can you look at a Windows process listing and be able to explain what every process is and what it's for?"
In a word, yes. You have to be able to do this to pick out viruses (and sneaky bastards like that RealOne bullshit.)
"Also, are there any diagnostic tools?"
Yes. They range from standard ping/nslookup to third-party programs that will do just about anything you can on *nix. Check out a package called NetScanTools for all the TCP-dumping, port-sniffing goodness. (I'm too lazy to Google.) Also, for more fun/cool things like virtual desktops, changing system preferences, etc., check out the Windows XP Power Toys (put out by Microsoft.)
"Does Windows log noteworthy events somewhere like the Unix syslog? If so, where is it?"
Event Viewer. In 2000/XP, go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer. Works just like
"If I do figure out what is going wrong, what do I do about it?"
You hit the Microsoft knowledge base. This is really one of the most underrated tools in Microsoft-land. However, it has pretty much any obscure bug/feature you would want documented, including registry hacks, etc. Can't find it? Go bug Microsoft tech support. They're usually quite helpful if they sense that you're not a luddite.
I am a Windows guru. I like being a Windows guru. Several of my friends are Windows gurus. We're the ones who maintain Windows networks, bash people who think that since Windows 98 sucks that all Windows versions must suck, and find it ironic that so many people bash MCSEs because they know a stupid one. (Yep, it happens, folks. There are several million stupid college graduates out there, too, but that doesn't mean that college degrees are worthless.) Yeah, I think MCSE can and should be more stringent. But that doesn't mean the cert itself is a bad idea.
Knowing Windows is an easier job than knowing UNIX, for sure. But it's not the cakewalk some geeks seem to think it is. Having used both Windows and Linux on the desktop, I can honestly say I vastly prefer Windows. Servers are another story, but then again I don't claim to be an Exchange guru.
Apparently, Visual Studio .Net is 6 CDs, because it's $5 per CD.
More information.
Proprietary software vendors bend over backwards to give out discounts to educational institutions. Why? Because people who become comfortable using a specific piece of software will want to buy that software later for home and work purposes. In fact, Apple's strategy for the past 20 years has been to give discounted computers to educational institutions in the hopes that this would spur consumer adoption of the Macintosh.
.Net is available for $30. At these prices, there is absolutely no incentive to pirate the software. If you can't afford $5 for Windows XP, how can you afford $8 from Linux for Cheapbytes, or the bandwidth for downloading the ISOs, the CD burner and blank CDs to burn them?
Microsoft gives ridiculously deep discounts to educational institutions. I have friends who go to Indiana University. At the bookstore there, you can pick up Windows XP Professional (no activation required) for $5. The entire 5-CD version of Visual Studio
Condoning pirated software in these cases is simply unacceptable. I find it discouraging that a government would encourage educational institutions to pirate software instead of ironing out legitimate deals with software makers.
Well, this will probably go into oblivion since there are already 300+ comments posted, but I thought I'd add our locale's story.
I arrived with my friend Valorie at about 7:45 (we were late because we had to walk her dog!) We went into the venue (Cafe Cocomo) only to find out that it was a salsa dance club that had just opened at 7:30. When we walked back outside, we noticed some geeks in a car and asked them if they were with the Slashdot meetup. They said yes and pointed us to a sign on the gate that started with "Nerds can't dance..." and ended with directions to a local pizza joint.
People straggled into the pizza joint until about 8:15, when the pizza place finally found a table to accommodate 14 people. (Considering 110+ people signed up, this was a rather disappointing turnout. Our host didn't even arrive!) I took over the ordering of the pizzas, and we snarfed down 4 pizzas and two orders of garlic bread, as well as a lot of beer, wine, and soda.
There were definitely some interesting people there. Everyone I talked to had written software of some sort -- one guy had written shareware to search for porn, and two other guys carried around an iBook with some software that searched for open wireless LANs. One guy had legally changed his name to Lunatic! He had the most interesting fingernails -- he grew them way out and some of them were several inches long. It seemed to be a pretty Mac-centric crowd, but then again, this is San Francisco, so I wasn't surprised.
All in all, we had a great time and a lot of fun. If you're a Slashdot reader in or around San Francisco, please join the slashdot-sf Yahoo group so we can keep in touch.
Here are a couple of other wrapups I found from our group: Anonymous Coward and another Anonymous Coward. (I was surprised at the number of people without Slashdot usernames!)
And to those of you who signed up but didn't go (including our host), well, you missed out on a fun night!
Neither of us are single, but I thought we should post a PSA anyway: yes, there will be two geeky females at the San Francisco meetup. Our SO's won't be with us, either! Oh yeah, and my friend actually likes using vi. Does she pass the geek test?
"Flash must die. This website is a good example of why flash is a bad, bad, thing."
Please STOP BLAMING THE TOOL!
This is like saying "I know this really annoying website... and it's made from HTML, so HTML must suck." You even said in your original post that you have found a great Flash site ("PBSkids.org [pbskids.org] where my kids can play games with cookie monster..."), so what is the problem?
Yeah, the linked site is ugly: puke-green coloring and big blinking annoyances. But this isn't Macromedia's fault. Please stop blaming Flash for bad site designers. Bad site designers will be bad site designers, regardless of the tools you give them.
The best thing you can do is to contact the company's marketing department (obviously without using the webmaster@ email address, as this will likely go directly to the site designer) and tell them that you don't like their site. Instead of saying "it's ugly", give concrete reasons why you didn't want to buy the product: "the blinking text obscured what I was trying to read", for instance. In other words, instead of complaining on Slashdot, complain to someone who can actually do something about it.
*sigh* I have to wonder why this is such a hard concept...
Hi Piers,
I've had the chance to enjoy several of your Xanth books over the years. However, I find it disappointing that, like many sci-fi authors, you choose to include lots of "naked women" imagery in your books. This makes your books unappealing to the female side of your audience (including myself), and it makes it hard for me to recommend your books either to younger children or other women who might be interested.
I don't mind sex in books; what I (and a lot of other females) mind is the clear delineation of women as either sexual objects or as somehow "needing" a male to rescue them from various plights. Your earlier books did not have much of this imagery, and indeed the Xanth series seems relatively free of it, but I've noticed that some of your books do draw this conclusion. Unfortunately, the fantasy category seems to have more of this type of book than most other categories.
In a world of fantasy books dominated by male fantasies, what is your suggestion to the relatively few females who do enjoy fantasy and sci-fi books?
As a point of reference, I enjoyed the Phule series by Robert Asprin, as well as The Hitchhiker's Guide and, of course, several of the Xanth books.
...and since I've had to write and test all of my PHP applications with the Japanese charset for him and his friends, I thought I would share my and his experiences.
I've done both Japanese and Chinese input editing with Windows and MacOS 9, and my client uses Japanese input the majority of the time he uses a PC. He and his friends flatly refuse to use anything but Windows 2000 for hardcore input. The reason? Microsoft's Japanese IME. Mac OS 9's input support doesn't compare to this tiny bar that sits at the corner of your screen and lets you flip back and forth between English and several other character sets. According to my client, both mouse support (i.e. clicking the little bar and bringing up the language) and keyboard support (using key commands to change languages) are VASTLY more efficient in Windows 2000 than in MacOS 9. In fact, he's planning to drop his (older) Macs for Windows 2000 and XP machines solely based on this feature.
Now, I'm not saying that there isn't something similar for Linux. But if Apple couldn't come up with anything more productive for MacOS 9, which was intended from the start to be a consumer-level, desktop, OS, I am highly doubtful that Linux developers can come up with anything better. As is, my client and all of his friends are on either 2000 or XP and are quite happy with their decision.
As it stands, I believe your friend's decision to not use Microsoft products may be a bit short-sighted, especially considering that this is one of my client's only reasons to switch to Windows from MacOS.
You can't have an article entitled "Am I Hot Or Not" without having a link to the real Am I Hot Or Not page! Who wants to look at thermometers when you can look at real people and rate how "hot" they are based on a completely shallow judgement?!
"The best part about Microsoft's Java implementation is that the word 'java' is nowhere to be seen. It's the "Microsoft(TM) Virtual Machine." I think Microsoft were [sic] hoping that Java would go away if they simply don't ever speak the name."
... is permanently prohibited from using 'Java compatible' trademarks on its products." So it's not Microsoft that is doing this; it's Sun -- and for good reason. Sun doesn't want its name associated with the hunk o' junk that is the Microsoft virtual machine.
;)
I know this was modded as "funny", but I thought I should explain why Microsoft can't say "Java".
According to the settlement terms, "Microsoft
By the way, you've made a mistake I see all the time. I don't know where people got the impression that a company is plural, but it's not. A company is a single entity. Your sentence should be phrased, "I think Microsoft was hoping..."
Hope that clears some things up for you. Also, I agree that the "Java should not be used in life-or-death situations" disclaimer is pretty classic.
Who is the winner here? It's certainly not developers. We're either going to have to code to an ancient, incompatible version of Java because it's the "default", or we're going to have to keep explaining to people the difference between the Sun JVM and the Microsoft JVM (and either including a JVM with our applications or forcing people to download yet another JVM, something our customers won't give a flying @%^$ about), or we're going to have to give up using Java completely.
And consumers aren't the winners either, because the version of Java that ships won't run very many newer Java applications, so they are still going to have to download a JVM when they want to do the latest Java stuff.
Sun certainly isn't the winner; they've spent far too much money on a battle that doesn't win them very much at all in terms of hard cash. (I mean, I don't see Macromedia complaining that Flash isn't built into Windows, and I don't see AOL wringing its arms about AIM and ICQ not being included with the OS -- why should Sun be any different?) Plus, Sun looks silly. They sued, they won, and they got what they wanted -- and then (as if they had never expected to win in the first place) they sued again to force Microsoft to do the opposite of what they had wanted Microsoft to do before.
The only (marginal) winner that I can see is Microsoft. Microsoft has managed to completely destroy any hopes of Java being a great client-side language -- by including an incompatible version of Java, then not including it, and then including that same ancient crappy version again. Java has been relegated to web services, where it's just barely holding its own against ASP and PHP. (PHP is on 24% of web servers now, BTW... many more than Java servlets or ASP.)
So, in the end, Sun spent a lot of money and lost; Microsoft spent a bit less money and lost; and we spent money on Windows and... well... we lost. Scott McNealy, I hope you're happy.
From the article: "MetaFilter's Haughey says 'record companies would love it if people were frightened of file-sharing networks and never touched them again.'"
I'm really surprised the record companies haven't taken advantage of this to advertise their pay services. Why play just a looping 10-second piece of the song when you can play a clip and then say, "To get the whole song legally for just $1.95, visit Pressplay.com" or something to that effect? I know that eMusic and some other services used to advertise their presence in the ID3 comment tag of the MP3, but this would seem to be wholeheartedly more effective.
The real question is, do the music companies really want these for-pay services to succeed, or do they want them to fail so they can frame Internet users as thieves? I'd say that both viewpoints exist in the RIAA. That's why these services aren't even advertised, especially not in a means such as the above, which IMHO would be quite effective.
I worry sometimes that all this "music revolution" will give us is uncopyable CDs. This would be a huge disappointment to those of us who don't want to gyp the artists -- we just want music in a more flexible format than a CD can offer. I, for one, am hoping that the potential of mass music distribution via the Internet can become a reality. If the record companies only squash the P2P networks without providing an alternative, this will only serve to alienate customers. On the other hand, if the record companies work with us to provide a low-cost way to distribute music legally (with rights to copy it to other devices), both the record companies and artists have a chance to become much more profitable while continuing to make their customers happy. I sincerely hope the latter will occur.
I don't even know where to begin. Should I begin by saying that calling people "morons" because these people don't immediately reformat their computer and install Linux is a bit of a stretch? Or should I point out that Lindows automatically logs users in as root on their Linux boxen? Or should I wonder aloud how Roblimo would like programmers to make money if not by making useful utilities like virus scanners?
This whole article takes the disgusting tone of insulting people who obviously aren't as "smart" as the article's author. I find this elitism disgusting, and frankly, embarrassing to the greater geek community.
How many of us are quick to insult people who don't know the difference between root and another user? How many of us call the repair guy because we don't know how to repair the air conditioner, refrigerator, or our car? Would you like it if your mechanic said, "I can't believe you don't know the difference between 10W30 and 10W40. You're obviously a moron."?
Face it, folks, not everyone wants to be a computer expert. Not everyone wants to get involved in flamewars like vi vs. emacs or Linux vs. Windows. They just want to turn on their computer and have it work. And with any operating system, those same people will have to learn how to maintain it by applying patches (just like you have to maintain your car by taking it in for maintenance every so often.)
The fact that this article is categorized as "humor" doesn't make the elitism any less inherent. We should be educating people about the importance of software maintenance, not bashing them for being "morons" because they don't want to know the technical stuff. To most people, computers are a tool to get a job done, not a religion. Windows makes it easy to do most jobs. Therefore, most people are pretty happy with Windows.
Mod me down if you wish. I have 50 karma and I don't care much about karma ratings anyway. But I think this is important for a lot of geeks to understand -- just becuase we may have more technical knowledge does not give us the right to call people with less technical knowledge "morons" -- humor category or not.
Having grown up in a rural area, and having friends and parents who still live in an area that just got 56K phone lines, this issue is important.
I can remember back in the day when AOL and other ISPs promised 98-99% local number coverage, and we were still in that other 1%. We didn't have local dial-up until 1996, when the local pharmacist (!) and his wife set up a T1 and modem pool out of their garage.
My question is: what is going to happen to these communities? With the FCC pushing toward one DSL provider and one cable provider per town, this is going to merit absolute disaster in a town that Verizon doesn't care about and where there practically isn't a cable company (the cable company went out of business three times in three years; everyone gave up and got satellite.)
I sense a real impending disaster that could perhaps be averted by something like fixed wireless. Are there feasibility studies on the 'Net (cost analyses, etc.) that show the costs of putting in a fixed wireless or other broadband setup? I've seen the case studies, many of which are posted on Slashdot. However, they fail to touch in the bigger problem, which is that this applies to 20% of the country.
If we want people to have broadband, someone is going to have to come up with a plan to offer it over large service areas over something that is not a phone or a cable line. Do we have answers yet? What is on the horizon?
"While I do respect people who are able to be productive in a strict *NIX environment more than people who need to use something else to get their work done, I understand that Linux is not for everyone."
Perhaps I would have gotten people more up in arms had I mentioned that Linux (any PC-based OS that required your own computer instead of a terminal) was frowned upon as much as Windows and Macintosh were. I said several times that I would work fine if they gave me a Macintosh instead (since the Windows 2000 computer I received from another part of Sun was evidently not adequate.) But my boss pointed out that other people (who were doing email support and not development) were fine with a Solaris box. He couldn't understand why I didn't want to give up my laptop for a CDE desktop and smart card, even though (here's the kicker) he too used a laptop on a daily basis.
When you hire an employee, you are expected to give that employee a standard set of tools. In this case, Sun bought me a Windows 2000 laptop and a Solaris workstation (well, the workstation was a hand-me-down.) Then my boss tried to force me to give up the laptop in favor of being Solaris-only because of the "image" that using Windows gave Sun (trust me, they were doing this to the Mac people as well.) I said no, and I quit.
When you don't give your employee the tools that that employee needs, and try to force their hand in using other tools that aren't designed for the job, then you have a bad match as the employer/employee relationship goes. What bothered me most was that they weren't trying to proclaim that Solaris was more productive or had better tools than Windows or a Mac, but that Sun's "image" would look bad if Sun's web developers used anything but SunRays. I can understand this attitude from a high corporate level, but can anyone seriously (with a straight face) tell me that you have the same applications available to you on Solaris as on Windows? (I'm not even sure if the GIMP was available on their servers.) It's a terrible mentality to push the "eat your own dogfood" attitude so far that your employees quit. I know I wasn't the only employee to leave over something like this, either.
I think Sun needs to rethink its position regarding the tools that its employees use. Sure, give everyone a SunRay. But don't shove Solaris down people's throats as the One True Way. Understand that there are a lot of things that simply don't run on it, and understand that your (Sun's) customers aren't going to want to run a 100% Solaris shop, either. Sun will fail in the marketplace if they believe that Solaris will fill every business niche that Windows fills now, and that is exactly the attitude I see from inside Sun.
I'm tempted to post anonymously, but since this is now in my past, I won't.
I actually worked in Sun's San Francisco flex office (the one that is mentioned in the article.) I have a lot of stories, both good and bad, about this way of working. First, let me start with a bit of an explanation.
On one of Sun's internal websites, there is a Java applet where you go to reserve workspaces. People like me who didn't have a "real" office were allowed to reserve 14 days in advance for up to 5 consecutive days. Others were allowed to reserve anything that was left. So it's not as much of a potshot as you might imagine -- I was in the office 4-5 days a week and most of the seats weren't even reserved. You could reserve at home through Sun's remote access, so it wasn't like there was a huge line building up at 7AM or something.
I can tell you the pros and cons, but I'm biased because I absolutely hated it. I hated the formulaic offices, and I hated that personal decorations were frowned upon. But the thing that really drove me crazy was that we were expected to use the UNIX terminals in lieu of any Windows or Macintosh laptop that we might have available. In fact, I was asked to give up my laptop because it looked bad for me to have a laptop on my desk and not be using my Solaris workstation (I had a real workstation because I tested websites on different browsers on Solaris.) The whole thing made me extremely bitter toward the company and was one of the main reasons for me leaving. I feel that it's hypocritical to hire a web developer who is used to using Photoshop, a nice solid text editor, and Dreamweaver, throw that developer in front of vi and the Gimp, and expect that web developer to be as productive as before.
However, if you could get all your work done on Solaris, it worked out well. Most of the non-technical people got used to CDE (!) and were fine with a Netscape window. If all you need is Netscape, Star Office, and a couple of other applications, then sure -- a flex office is beneficial. A friend of mine still works out of that office, but she's not there very often, which is the whole point. She works all over the Bay Area and doesn't seem to mind giving up the development applications of a Windows or Macintosh machine. Then again, she isn't a developer...
I think whether you like these offices or not depends on your personality. I must admit that Sun pulled it off well -- it's a solid implementation. The applet on the website shows you where person X is at any given moment, and you can forward your phone extension anywhere, even to a cell phone or to your home phone, so you're never out of touch. I had a real problem with it because I am a highly creative person who requires certain applications that simply aren't available on Solaris. This, and the lack of office decorations, really threw me out of my comfort zone, and I know I wasn't the only one. Apparently, however, I was in the minority. (I suppose the others who hated it, many of whom were my startup-personality friends, also left.)
I hesitate to just bash on Sun since I know that it was more of a personality clash than a bad implementation, but to anyone who is considering this: the creative minds in your company will hate it. I'm talking about the people with their offices/cubicles decorated with every imaginable sticker and toy -- the ones who treat their office as a second home. These are often some of your most productive and worthy employees, so be sure to listen to their needs.
This article really struck a nerve with me. It brought back all the frustration I had with working in that office. I can only hope that the others like me have had their complaints heard or, like me, have left for greener pastures. To the rest of you -- stick with the small-group (2-3 person offices). That was the environment in which most of us thrived.
-- I left Sun in May.
I'd like to quote this message I received from AT&T Customer Care regarding higher upload speeds on AT&T Broadband. I was concerned about the 128K upload cap.
Take a look at this:
Hello! Welcome to the Online Customer Support Center for AT&T Broadband service. A message from a customer care specialist should appear in the chat window shortly. Your session ID # is 2142439.
In-Kevin Roberts has joined this session!
In-Kevin Roberts says, Hello and thank you for contacting AT&T Broadband. My
name is Kevin & I'll be glad to assist you today. I see you have a question regarding higher upload speed . Can you please give me a little more detail ?
You say, Is there a service plan which provides me with greater upload speeds
than 128k?
In-Kevin Roberts says, Yes, AT&T broadband is coming up with higher upload speed.
You say, when will this be available?
In-Kevin Roberts says, This will happen anytime between May 2002 to December 2002.
You say, what is the pricing?
In-Kevin Roberts says, The pricing will be the same.
You say, what will be the new speed?
In-Kevin Roberts says, The new speed will be 256kbps.
So, to appease cable modem customers, AT&T is rolling out more bandwidth on the upstream side. If you'd like to confirm this, log in to AT&T member services and join a chat room of theirs -- that is what this transcript is from.
I hope this helps those of you who are concerned about higher prices. I, for one, am a very satisfied AT&T cable modem customer.
"as everyone knows that Professional is not supposed to be subject to the key bullshit whereas the home version is..."
u rr entVersion (ignore stupid /.-added space)
:P
No. The OEM version of Windows XP is not subject to the activation crap that the retail version is. That means that if you buy your software from Pricewatch (search "Microsoft Windows XP Professional"), you'll not only pay half-price ($89 for XP Home; $140 for XP Pro), but you will escape the activation crap completely.
As to the warez part, I'd bet $100 it is at least partially based on this registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\C
In there you'll see a key called ProductId. (This is in Windows 2000, at least... I'm assuming it's in XP as well.) Change that to a legal (as in, non-warez) value, and I bet that your system will magically update again.
Back in the Windows 95 days, Microsoft used to make it simple and hand out those Product IDs as the keys on your CD case, but recently they have gotten smarter about it. The new stuff translates from that 25-character gobbletygook to these oldschool product IDs. Figure out the translation algorithm (I believe several warez groups already have) and you're set.
Or stop being such a cheapass and go spend $89 for an OEM copy of XP Home. That's what I did for Windows 2000.
It says right here (warning, PDF) on page 4:
Minimum Requirements
One Pentium Class, 200MHz or Faster, PC equipped with Windows 98, Millennium, NT version 4.0, 2000, or XP, 64 MB RAM...
And on the card homepage it says (in the last paragraph):
"Ready to run in Type II or III PCMCIA CardBus-equipped notebook PCs running Windows 98, Millennium, 2000, and XP..."
It's not likely that many people who want fast wireless would still be running Windows 95 or NT4 on a laptop anyway, so that makes sense.
I'm going to resist the urge to question why you would want to run Windows 98 or ME over Windows 2000 anyway (I'd give up the 10% speed increase for stability any day), but either way, you're wrong about their driver support.
By the way, if you want to be taken seriously with your letter of complaint, avoid the use of "kinda" and "sorta".
It sounds like you're afraid that what you have won't be viable in a few years. If you have Windows 2000 and Office 2000 or XP, though, you should be fine.
Read this article on CNet. In your case, forget the Software Assurance program and buy OEM licenses from your vendors. The cost increases that Gartner is factoring are for the retail copies of Windows and Office -- OEM copies are usually about 60% of that price.
Microsoft's licensing changes have pissed off a lot of customers, and a lot of those customers are migrating off Windows and onto Linux on their servers (because heck, it's $999 for Windows 2000 Server and migrating to Samba/Linux doesn't involve much retraining for your users.)
I would be hesitant to push users off of Windows and Office at this point, especially if I had an all-Windows 2000 shop. With only 50 users, you can get a VAR to hook you up with OEM copies of the latest and greatest Windows/Office at any time without buying in to the Software Assurance program. Thus, I wouldn't worry too much about licensing changes. If you want to see the greatest benefit with the least migration cost, put your web and workgroup servers on Linux.
The desktops, however, are often more trouble than they are worth. I'd leave them alone if I were you. The migration and training costs just aren't worth it at this point. The best thing you can do is just to get them all on the same version of Windows (2000) and Office (2000 or XP) and leave them alone from there. You can look at it again in a couple of years.
You know, I had the same opinion when I was a high school senior. So I chose to go to college here in Silicon Valley instead of in my home state of Indiana.
I took a part-time sysadmin job when I was in college, and after a year or so, this blossomed into a full-time opportunity for web development. It was at this point that, after 1 1/2 years of college, I decided to drop out.
You may be asking, "Well, why should I bother with college in the first place?" I can tell you that college is right for most people. It helps those people decide what they really want to do. It gives you the flexibility to learn almost anything (for instance, I've decided that I would like to study more anthropology if I go back...) while still giving you the opportunity to study a field that you are interested in (especially a field that, like anthropology, may not have anything to do with the job you expect to receive.)
For the vast majority of 18-year-olds, especially if you have never lived away from home, college is a great experience. If you have never lived away from home, then there's no question that you will want to go to college for at least a year just to have a safe haven without living on the street as you struggle to find a job. For me, it turned out to be better to drop out, but I could never have made that decision without having that year and a half of college behind me.
Choose the college that you wish to go to wisely. I could have gone to any Indiana school, but I chose not to because of the lack of tech job opportunities. West Lafayette, IN (home of Purdue University) is absolutely saturated with talented technical college students without jobs, because West Lafayette has a dearth of tech companies. OTOH, I went to San Jose State, which doesn't have a great reputation, but is right in the middle of all the tech firms who were hiring when I was on the market while in college. Location is key if you want to get real job experience while in college.
By the way, you might want to consider a different nickname. "Chicks_Hate_Me" might have been cool in high school, but it will get you nowhere in the real world (speaking as a "Chick" myself...:)
... why no one has latched on to the fact that you can't install products after the computer is delivered in Windows XP Embedded. The author of the linked article (which can be found in the sidebar of the article linked in this story) makes a really good case as to why a system based on Windows XP Embedded won't fly in the consumer marketplace.
/. readers must have worked on embedded systems before. The fact is that embedded systems aren't meant to be modified after installation. Sure, you can add an installer, but then it no longer becomes an embedded system. Is this hacked, pseudo-embedded system really going to do its job any better than Windows XP does right now? (And will anyone buy a stripped-down version of Windows?)
Some of you
The real solution is to get Microsoft to open all of their API's so developers can write compatible software (or perhaps replacement software) for Windows and Office components. Enough with the "18,000 different (but modular, ooh!) versions of Windows" arguments... and bring on the more compatible, better software that opening the API's will help to deliver.