You have to be careful with this. You always hope you don't have to resort to these kind of guerrilla tactics, but I have to admit that I have also done this (on a much smaller scale -- usually one or two *hardened* non-conformists that just won't follow instructions.) If you have to go this route, I'd add the following step at the beginning to cover your own keester:
Step 0. Clue in the head honcho and his/her authorization to conduct this "training session" on company time.
Some people - possibly your own supervisor - just *do* *not* react well when you point out that they are acting foolishly, especially if they have power.
An hour of DDR is probably more rigorous than a whole season of marching band, at least at my school.
Spoken like someone who's never carried a 40 bound bass drum in a 3 mile parade in 85 degree weather, wearing 20 pounds of full dress (wool) uniform *while* marching and playing in time with everyone else. Oh yeah... *then* you have to stand *perfectly still* at attention for forty-five minutes while everyone makes speeches at the podium.
I'll grant you that it wasn't like that all season - some of the late November could be almost as bad.... WITH SNOW.
Me? I did it for the chicks - unlike the football team, the band buses were co-ed, baby! 8)
You know, there's a great story about Richard Fenynman using 'layman's terms'. I've heard slightly different versions, but for the most part, the story appears to be true.
When RF won his Nobel prize in Physics for Quantum Electrodynamics, the story goes that he was approached by a reporter who asked him to explain "in layman's terms" what his work was about.
Feynman's response? Something like, "Well, if i could explain it to you in layman's terms, it wouldn't have been worth the Nobel prize."
Here's how a physicist measures (for example) the area of a circle:
Take the circle who's area you want to measure (diameter D, for example) and draw a square around it (side length D). Now shoot bullets at the whole bloomin' mess so that they are evenly (randomly) distributed over the figures. The ratio of the number of bullets that landed inside the square to those that landed inside the circle and that should proportional to the ratio of the areas of the square (easy: A=D*D=D^2) and the unknown circle. In other words,
Acircle = D^2 * [# in circle]/[# in square]
From this, we can conclude that the RIAA shot bullets at their customers, proving that anyone who isn't a pirate is now dead.
That approach wouldn't exactly work (though we do actually do something similar) because a large number of the folders they use are shared folders. Having the personal and shared folders in different representations means they would have to remember two locations instead of one.
Now you have put the users in a position where they have to make a decision: "My Documents" -or- W: drive.
What if they're on a computer that hasn't been modified or isn't connected to the network? They do what they're used to - they save to My Documents (which is not on the network) and lose their files. [BAD USER!]
I want them to panic when they don't see a W: drive, because their next step is to call me to find out why and I can then step in and control the situation. (See how much work it is thinking for users?!) My solution was to change the default save folders for all apps to W:, delete the "My Documents" folder from their desktop, and create a "W Drive" icon that mimics "My Documents". No thinking == no problems.
Remember, they're too busy keeping track of sales calls and invoices to be concerned with the little "details" about this folder and that folder. They have a reconfigurable memory space of approximately 1 [one] item, so you have to account for that and make it work for them.
I went through something similar a couple of years ago.
My experience is that the less your users have to do with backups, the better - they click through error messages, they don't read EULAs, they will not take the care you will because it is not a concern they have internalized. In general, it needs to be as automatic, hands-free and brainless as possible. REMEMBER, SIMPLE == GOOD, COMPLEX == BAD! However, you also need to realize that the backups procedures are just one part of the larger picture. Simply backing up isn't good enough, you need to create a situation where they don't have to make decisions about backing up. From their perspective, they have to just remember to keep their files in X location and the backups will just happen.
Here's (roughly) what I did:
Create a folder to hold all user files on the server, say "Files". Make sure this folder gets backed up.:)
Share the folder, and create a logon script that every user runs at logon to map this share to a COMMONLY AVAILABLE drive letter, say W:.
On W: Create several top-level folders: Private (create a folder in here for each user accessible only to them) Shared (create folders here that need to be shared by groups) Apps (create folders in here to hold for application files and data used by programs) Software (for program install files) etc...
Make sure security is set up to PREVENT users from saving files where they do not belong (like the root of W:). You may want to create a user group for each folder and use membership in that group to control access to the files. They should have to come to you to create a new folder for them in most cases, that gives you the opportunity to review the request with your superiors to ensure proper Policy & Procedures are being followed.
Teach your users this mantra "PUT ALL FILES ON W:" Put it in your email sig, your memos and on your voicemail! Use it in casual conversation - I'm not kidding, REPETITION!)
Go to each PC and move their files into their W:\Private\username folder.
Delete the moved files from their hard drive.
Reset all apps (word, excel, etc.) to default open/save on the W: drive.
Your goal should be to reprogram them to think of the network drive as the only place there is to save files.
Which reminds me, why the hell hasn't anyone registered backslashdot.org yet?
Backslashdot? How is that supposed to work?
A combination of major news sites and hitherto unknown web pages post a link to an obscure web site with one page that has something RELLY cool on it nobody's even seen because it can only handle 5 requests per minute since it's running on an Apple Newton with a Lego Mindstorm ethernet controller connected to a paper plate for optical storage.
I live in a city... I'd like a view of trees and fields and stars at night please.
Maybe there's an aftermarket for stuff like this - premade custom-built internally lit dioramas you bolt to your house to change the view.
How would you like to wake up on Mars every morning? Or, maybe overlooking your favorite Quake 3 Arena map? The grand canyon? Atlantis? How about one that looks like (The Simpsons) Springfield, USA or a warehouse stacked with old VAX and PDP boxen like at the end of 'Raiders'?
Or, even better, how about a windowbox that looks *exactly* like your own neighborhood, but without all that shit laying around in your neighbor's yard!
WotC seems to have a refreshingly player-centric attitude lately. From a player-designed D&D campaign setting to player-designed cards and player input on the next edition of Magic: the Gathering [magicthegathering.com],
IF WE'RE DOING ALL THE WORK, WHAT THE HELL DO WE NEED THEM FOR?!?!grin
Um, you do realize that the person to whom you responded spelled it NSync, and you've corrected their punctuation while professing ignorance...
Yeah - I added that at the end because I thought it was kinda funny when I posted it. Sorry if it wasn't.
BTW, I actually like N'Sync in principle (even if I can't stand the music) because they have demonstrated publicly that they don't take themselves too seriously. They r0cked in that episode of The Simpsons where Bart, Millhouse, Ralph and Nelson formed a boy band, and they did that NFL superbowl halftime show behind-the-scenes "minidocumentary" with Ben Stiller, who I am convinced is not human - he's too frickin' funny.
My favorite line (Ben Stiller): "N'sync? That N'sucked!"
or all the large corporations will end up ruling the world and we will all be slaves serving under their tyranny listening to Nsync 24/7 with little advertising devices implanted into our eyes and ears.
Personally, I can't wait for my own personal add implant! I love Nsync, and where's my coke?
...or you could just stop listening to the radio altogether.
I discovered the power of Frank, Patsy, Dean, Hank, Sammy, Tony and Bing about twelve years ago, and life's been groovy ever since. Do you know any radio stations where I can hear *that* 24/7? I didn't think so.
Er, uh, have you tried Opera [opera.com] yet?
They practically invented tabbed browsing.
I love Opera, too, but the first browser *I* ever saw with tabs was the bundled browser from (IIRC***) the now-defunct GNN internet service.... in 1996!
I'm just shocked it took that long to catch on, it was a pretty cool feature even in a time when IE didn't fully support TABLE!
*** NOTE: It might have been SPRYnet, not GNN - it *was* six years ago, after all...
Back in the day, before the internet supported graphics and we had to dial in to the university's VAX 11/785 to read USENET with -- get this -- *KERMIT*, I actually renamed "park.com" to "logout.com" just so I could *pretend* I had a real network.:/
If God does exist then there must be a place for Him in science - as science looks for truth. But science is not equipped to prove or disprove God.
#include philosophiX0r.h
I disagree with this statement slightly, even though it sounds like we are on the same philosophical page. So, for purposes of discussion, here's my $2/100...
Quite simply, any creative act requires two things: a mechanism and an intent. Science tells you 'who', 'what', 'where', 'when' and (if you do your homework, pay attention to nature and maybe get a little lucky) 'how'; Religion tells you 'why'. One is about *fact* while the other is about *truth*.
I still roll my eyes every time one of those Discovery Channel shows has some marine biologist denying the existence of God within two sentences of claiming that this species or that evolved such-and-such a feature with the *intent* of resolving some survivability issue.
Props to Einstein: when someone can write out a Hamiltonian that includes humor, I'll recant. God may or may not throw dice, but I *know* he doesn't own a pocket calculator.
The tabbed feature alone makes the whole process less stressful (I'm not sure why when you can just switch between windows but it just does) even if you have to then check complex things in IE and tweak the lot when you're finished.
IMHO, popups are well contained, and desktop clutter is controlled - you only have to minimize one window instead of fifteen.
Opera also has options to prevent popups entirely, but the controls aren't as robust as Moz (yet), which will also let you prevent child windows from doing *utterly* *ridiculous* things like resizing themselves, etc.
Re:What is the message/point of this book?
on
The Venture Cafe
·
· Score: 2
Hey, if anyone has some theories about what seperated the winners from the losers, please post a reply to this message. I'd be interested in hearing them.
I have a theory - no, it's actually a conjecture. You see, I have no evidence, no experience and no real business training, and I may even be painfully restating the entirely obvious.
However,
there's a lot of world to be seen driving from the back seat of the "Monday-Morning-Quarterback Express", so here's my thought:
IMHO, the ones that survived (Yahoo, Amazon, etc. - even/.!) didn't try create markets by throwing money around. They started small with a useful idea (sometimes as a hobby, not even intending to end up 'in bidness') and grew from there, pulling in resources like IPOs and VC when the price of doing so made sense to accomplish a specific bidness goal. The companies that exploded were speculating heavily on being 'first' over being 'good'.
The key is 'sustainable growth'. If you look at a company as a bucket with a faucet dumping money in the the top and a hole letting money out the bottom, few.coms even tried to make the whole in the bottom smaller before adding more money in the top - and many didn't *have* a bottom to begin with. In short, they were too busy making money to fix the problem with their bidnesses.
I remember a famous Wall St. investor (don't remember which one - Warren Buffett, maybe?) said that when investing, you make the money when you BUY the stock, not when you sell it. Same goes for running a company - it's the EXPENSES that decide whether startups live or die, not the income. How much are Aeron chairs on Ebay this week?
I really don't think the.com bubble was any different than any other mad-lemming-kung-fu bidness debacle, except for *scale* -- it was about computers and technology, so more people than usual were ignorant enough to pony up the dough to spin the wheel on 'the future' without understanding what they were buying.
Re:nothing particularly groundbreaking about it
on
lowercase music
·
· Score: 2
brian eno was inpsired to make "music for airports"
Ahhh, there's a name I haven't heard in a while. He produced several records for the Talking Heads and others.
obTrivia: Didn't he composes the now-famous Windows 95 start-up sound?
Maybe they're trying to make up for agressive pricing in other divisions?
Example: We have the "AT&T Ultimate" long distance plan - for $20/month we can call anyone for $0.07/minute except other AT&T customers - those calls are FREE. That cut our average LD phone bill by an order of magnitude. (Not kidding - wife + sister-in-law + mother-in-law talk several times a day for at least an hour. Don't ask me what they talk about, they won't tell me and I'm certain I really don't want to know.)
Slashdot Mirror
Instant power on and no difference between storage and application memory are likely to be killer technologies.
Especially if you manage to put your system in an unstable state, or an application manages to corrupt your memory... err, data.
Or worse, the other way around: think "virus".
...I came across a beacon at S.7 sending slow 8 -10 wpm CW on 145.973.8 MHz....
You came across a beacon transmitting S CLUB 7 ?!?!
NO! SHUT THEM ALL DOWN! HURRY! Listen to them, R2... they're dying in there... We're all doomed....
NOOOOOOOOOOO! DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT, DAMMIT!
/. and meetup.com for totally screwing over my entire life!
Thank you,
I just ran into Jon Katz at one of them there meetup.com social mixers and found him to be funny, thoughtful & intelligent.
NOW WHAT AM I GOING TO BITCH ABOUT?!??!
ARRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!
You have to be careful with this. You always hope you don't have to resort to these kind of guerrilla tactics, but I have to admit that I have also done this (on a much smaller scale -- usually one or two *hardened* non-conformists that just won't follow instructions.) If you have to go this route, I'd add the following step at the beginning to cover your own keester:
Step 0. Clue in the head honcho and his/her authorization to conduct this "training session" on company time.
Some people - possibly your own supervisor - just *do* *not* react well when you point out that they are acting foolishly, especially if they have power.
An hour of DDR is probably more rigorous than a whole season of marching band, at least at my school.
Spoken like someone who's never carried a 40 bound bass drum in a 3 mile parade in 85 degree weather, wearing 20 pounds of full dress (wool) uniform *while* marching and playing in time with everyone else. Oh yeah... *then* you have to stand *perfectly still* at attention for forty-five minutes while everyone makes speeches at the podium.
I'll grant you that it wasn't like that all season - some of the late November could be almost as bad.... WITH SNOW.
Me? I did it for the chicks - unlike the football team, the band buses were co-ed, baby! 8)
You know, there's a great story about Richard Fenynman using 'layman's terms'. I've heard slightly different versions, but for the most part, the story appears to be true.
When RF won his Nobel prize in Physics for Quantum Electrodynamics, the story goes that he was approached by a reporter who asked him to explain "in layman's terms" what his work was about.
Feynman's response? Something like, "Well, if i could explain it to you in layman's terms, it wouldn't have been worth the Nobel prize."
Classic.
Neat, but flawed.
Here's how a physicist measures (for example) the area of a circle:
Take the circle who's area you want to measure (diameter D, for example) and draw a square around it (side length D). Now shoot bullets at the whole bloomin' mess so that they are evenly (randomly) distributed over the figures. The ratio of the number of bullets that landed inside the square to those that landed inside the circle and that should proportional to the ratio of the areas of the square (easy: A=D*D=D^2) and the unknown circle. In other words,
Acircle = D^2 * [# in circle]/[# in square]
From this, we can conclude that the RIAA shot bullets at their customers, proving that anyone who isn't a pirate is now dead.
Q.E.D.
That approach wouldn't exactly work (though we do actually do something similar) because a large number of the folders they use are shared folders. Having the personal and shared folders in different representations means they would have to remember two locations instead of one.
:)
Now you have put the users in a position where they have to make a decision: "My Documents" -or- W: drive.
What if they're on a computer that hasn't been modified or isn't connected to the network? They do what they're used to - they save to My Documents (which is not on the network) and lose their files. [BAD USER!]
I want them to panic when they don't see a W: drive, because their next step is to call me to find out why and I can then step in and control the situation. (See how much work it is thinking for users?!) My solution was to change the default save folders for all apps to W:, delete the "My Documents" folder from their desktop, and create a "W Drive" icon that mimics "My Documents". No thinking == no problems.
Remember, they're too busy keeping track of sales calls and invoices to be concerned with the little "details" about this folder and that folder. They have a reconfigurable memory space of approximately 1 [one] item, so you have to account for that and make it work for them.
That's why all good sysadmins are fascists.
My experience is that the less your users have to do with backups, the better - they click through error messages, they don't read EULAs, they will not take the care you will because it is not a concern they have internalized. In general, it needs to be as automatic, hands-free and brainless as possible. REMEMBER, SIMPLE == GOOD, COMPLEX == BAD! However, you also need to realize that the backups procedures are just one part of the larger picture. Simply backing up isn't good enough, you need to create a situation where they don't have to make decisions about backing up. From their perspective, they have to just remember to keep their files in X location and the backups will just happen.
Here's (roughly) what I did:
Create a folder to hold all user files on the server, say "Files". Make sure this folder gets backed up. :)
Share the folder, and create a logon script that every user runs at logon to map this share to a COMMONLY AVAILABLE drive letter, say W:.
On W: Create several top-level folders: Private (create a folder in here for each user accessible only to them) Shared (create folders here that need to be shared by groups) Apps (create folders in here to hold for application files and data used by programs) Software (for program install files) etc...
Make sure security is set up to PREVENT users from saving files where they do not belong (like the root of W:). You may want to create a user group for each folder and use membership in that group to control access to the files. They should have to come to you to create a new folder for them in most cases, that gives you the opportunity to review the request with your superiors to ensure proper Policy & Procedures are being followed.
Teach your users this mantra "PUT ALL FILES ON W:" Put it in your email sig, your memos and on your voicemail! Use it in casual conversation - I'm not kidding, REPETITION!)
Go to each PC and move their files into their W:\Private\username folder.
Delete the moved files from their hard drive.
Reset all apps (word, excel, etc.) to default open/save on the W: drive.
Your goal should be to reprogram them to think of the network drive as the only place there is to save files.
Seriously... doesn't this announcement come at a strange time, when IBM plans to phase out it's IDE hard drives in the short term...
Think about it -- it may be that this is *why* the whole operation was sold off!
Which reminds me, why the hell hasn't anyone registered backslashdot.org yet?
Backslashdot? How is that supposed to work?
A combination of major news sites and hitherto unknown web pages post a link to an obscure web site with one page that has something RELLY cool on it nobody's even seen because it can only handle 5 requests per minute since it's running on an Apple Newton with a Lego Mindstorm ethernet controller connected to a paper plate for optical storage.
Oh, and it has Jon Katz, too.
I live in a city ... I'd like a view of trees and fields and stars at night please.
Maybe there's an aftermarket for stuff like this - premade custom-built internally lit dioramas you bolt to your house to change the view.
How would you like to wake up on Mars every morning? Or, maybe overlooking your favorite Quake 3 Arena map? The grand canyon? Atlantis? How about one that looks like (The Simpsons) Springfield, USA or a warehouse stacked with old VAX and PDP boxen like at the end of 'Raiders'?
Or, even better, how about a windowbox that looks *exactly* like your own neighborhood, but without all that shit laying around in your neighbor's yard!
Now, how much would you pay for THAT?
WotC seems to have a refreshingly player-centric attitude lately. From a player-designed D&D campaign setting to player-designed cards and player input on the next edition of Magic: the Gathering [magicthegathering.com],
IF WE'RE DOING ALL THE WORK, WHAT THE HELL DO WE NEED THEM FOR?!?!grin
P.S. Who the hell is N'Sync?
Um, you do realize that the person to whom you responded spelled it NSync, and you've corrected their punctuation while professing ignorance...
Yeah - I added that at the end because I thought it was kinda funny when I posted it. Sorry if it wasn't.
BTW, I actually like N'Sync in principle (even if I can't stand the music) because they have demonstrated publicly that they don't take themselves too seriously. They r0cked in that episode of The Simpsons where Bart, Millhouse, Ralph and Nelson formed a boy band, and they did that NFL superbowl halftime show behind-the-scenes "minidocumentary" with Ben Stiller, who I am convinced is not human - he's too frickin' funny.
My favorite line (Ben Stiller): "N'sync? That N'sucked!"
Yvan eht nioj!
Jiggy, robot, do-si-do, and close with a Matrix.
Werd...
How about:
;)
alias ls=logout
alias rm=logout
alias mv=logout
alias cd=logout
alias cp=logout
etc...
*That*'ll piss 'em off!
or all the large corporations will end up ruling the world and we will all be slaves serving under their tyranny listening to Nsync 24/7 with little advertising devices implanted into our eyes and ears.
...or you could just stop listening to the radio altogether.
Personally, I can't wait for my own personal add implant! I love Nsync, and where's my coke?
I discovered the power of Frank, Patsy, Dean, Hank, Sammy, Tony and Bing about twelve years ago, and life's been groovy ever since. Do you know any radio stations where I can hear *that* 24/7? I didn't think so.
Hell, I just found out about Aqua and Vengaboys!
P.S. Who the hell is N'Sync?
Er, uh, have you tried Opera [opera.com] yet? They practically invented tabbed browsing.
I love Opera, too, but the first browser *I* ever saw with tabs was the bundled browser from (IIRC***) the now-defunct GNN internet service.... in 1996!
I'm just shocked it took that long to catch on, it was a pretty cool feature even in a time when IE didn't fully support TABLE!
*** NOTE: It might have been SPRYnet, not GNN - it *was* six years ago, after all...
Abour ten years ago, there actually was a "Dummies Guide to the Apple Macintosh". Ironically**, it was bigger than the actual Mac manual.
** You may have to be old enough to remember the Mac vs. IBM ad campaigns from the 80's to fully appreciate this!
Don't you mean
:/
C:\>shipdisk
Back in the day, before the internet supported graphics and we had to dial in to the university's VAX 11/785 to read USENET with -- get this -- *KERMIT*, I actually renamed "park.com" to "logout.com" just so I could *pretend* I had a real network.
Well, since they sold all their hard drive patents, this probably *does* mean they're finished with hard drives and related development.
If God does exist then there must be a place for Him in science - as science looks for truth. But science is not equipped to prove or disprove God.
#include philosophiX0r.h
I disagree with this statement slightly, even though it sounds like we are on the same philosophical page. So, for purposes of discussion, here's my $2/100...
Quite simply, any creative act requires two things: a mechanism and an intent. Science tells you 'who', 'what', 'where', 'when' and (if you do your homework, pay attention to nature and maybe get a little lucky) 'how'; Religion tells you 'why'. One is about *fact* while the other is about *truth*.
I still roll my eyes every time one of those Discovery Channel shows has some marine biologist denying the existence of God within two sentences of claiming that this species or that evolved such-and-such a feature with the *intent* of resolving some survivability issue.
Props to Einstein: when someone can write out a Hamiltonian that includes humor, I'll recant. God may or may not throw dice, but I *know* he doesn't own a pocket calculator.
The tabbed feature alone makes the whole process less stressful (I'm not sure why when you can just switch between windows but it just does) even if you have to then check complex things in IE and tweak the lot when you're finished.
IMHO, popups are well contained, and desktop clutter is controlled - you only have to minimize one window instead of fifteen.
Opera also has options to prevent popups entirely, but the controls aren't as robust as Moz (yet), which will also let you prevent child windows from doing *utterly* *ridiculous* things like resizing themselves, etc.
Hey, if anyone has some theories about what seperated the winners from the losers, please post a reply to this message. I'd be interested in hearing them.
/.!) didn't try create markets by throwing money around. They started small with a useful idea (sometimes as a hobby, not even intending to end up 'in bidness') and grew from there, pulling in resources like IPOs and VC when the price of doing so made sense to accomplish a specific bidness goal. The companies that exploded were speculating heavily on being 'first' over being 'good'.
.coms even tried to make the whole in the bottom smaller before adding more money in the top - and many didn't *have* a bottom to begin with. In short, they were too busy making money to fix the problem with their bidnesses.
.com bubble was any different than any other mad-lemming-kung-fu bidness debacle, except for *scale* -- it was about computers and technology, so more people than usual were ignorant enough to pony up the dough to spin the wheel on 'the future' without understanding what they were buying.
I have a theory - no, it's actually a conjecture. You see, I have no evidence, no experience and no real business training, and I may even be painfully restating the entirely obvious.
However,
there's a lot of world to be seen driving from the back seat of the "Monday-Morning-Quarterback Express", so here's my thought:
IMHO, the ones that survived (Yahoo, Amazon, etc. - even
The key is 'sustainable growth'. If you look at a company as a bucket with a faucet dumping money in the the top and a hole letting money out the bottom, few
I remember a famous Wall St. investor (don't remember which one - Warren Buffett, maybe?) said that when investing, you make the money when you BUY the stock, not when you sell it. Same goes for running a company - it's the EXPENSES that decide whether startups live or die, not the income. How much are Aeron chairs on Ebay this week?
I really don't think the
brian eno was inpsired to make "music for airports"
Ahhh, there's a name I haven't heard in a while. He produced several records for the Talking Heads and others.
obTrivia: Didn't he composes the now-famous Windows 95 start-up sound?
Maybe they're trying to make up for agressive pricing in other divisions?
Example: We have the "AT&T Ultimate" long distance plan - for $20/month we can call anyone for $0.07/minute except other AT&T customers - those calls are FREE. That cut our average LD phone bill by an order of magnitude. (Not kidding - wife + sister-in-law + mother-in-law talk several times a day for at least an hour. Don't ask me what they talk about, they won't tell me and I'm certain I really don't want to know.)