Last year I was at a local rock concert for the band Lamb. If you know this band, there are lots of quiet bits in their music. Anyway, in the middle of a really long track the music went into a quiet part, and everyone was in the mood, right into the music... then all of a sudden there was the all-too familiar BA-DUDU-BA-DUDU-BA-DUDU-BA through the speakers, twice as loud as the band itself.
The crowd broke out of their musically-induced trance and burst into laughter, and it totally fucked up the rest of the concert.
It turns out the sound engineer left his phone on the mixing console. Duh!
Perhaps the "prophecy of the one who will bring balance to the Force" was misinterpreted after all: Perhaps the prophecy was really fulfilled not by Anakin destroying the Sith order, but by Luke humanizing the Jedi ethic.
Of course, before Anakin, the good of the Jedi outweighed the bad of the Sith; after Anakin, there was more evil and less good. So, in a way, Anakin *did* bring balance to the force.
It's safe, clean and environmentally friendly, plus the current thinking is for distributed collection at each building, where excess energy that can't be stored can be shared with others via the electricity grid.
Seems like the most promising energy replacement to me...
I am using a product called cd3o, which allows a central server holding all my mp3s to stream to multiple mp3 receivers, which then plug into a stereo system in each room.
This is the best of all worlds.
I use 802.11g to transport the mp3 file from my server to the cd3o device without breaking the place (I rent)
My stereo is locally wired to the speakers, so it sounds good, and doesn't waste 802.11 bandwidth
I get a cool remote control with a good UI and I can play by artist, genre, album, ramdom, etc.
Unlike other mp3 devices, I don't need a TV on to select tracks - I hate TV.
If I want, I can get multiple cd3o devices for different rooms, and they can play different stuff from the same music source.
IANAL, but *extradition* is only relevant if the person they are seeking fled from the US to Canada. They can't extradite a Canadian for breaking US law - only US people who fled to Canada.
This has been discussed before with a denied US extradition request over an Australian pirating US software.
A lot of people's experience with source control and DBs will be coloured by Visual Source Safe and Jet (which it uses). It is ok until it gets corrupted, and then you are hosed. Keeping everything in readable files CVS-style is a BIG plus point once you've been in that situation.
We are just migrating now from Visual Source Safe to CVS for this very reason. Unfortunately for us, one day we started checking in files, and the new files and the entire history all became lots of blank files. Time to get an open solution...
I took a look at Subversion, and I hold high hopes for it. But CVS's use of the filesystem is a big plus over any closed (vss) or difficult-to-hand-recover (BerkeleyDB) storage medium. And it seems more stable and more accepted, too.
If I was comparing revision control systems feature-to-feature, I would have probably chosen subversion. But because of my recent data loss with VSS, I just want something *safe*.
In six months time when I hit the barriers with CVS, I'll take another look at Subversion...
This is more efficient because the attachment doesn't need to be encoded for mailing...
Actually, if you use a web form to upload the file, it still encodes the file using MIME. But if your browser and server both support gzip it can be compressed - so you're half right.
The problem with the internet is that it happened too fast.
Had it have been controlled by the telcos it would have been rolled out slowly and in a considered fashion - of course, we would still be on 9600 baud modems paying $60 per month, but we would also have a micropayment solution built into the infrastructure.
It would be something like the telephone billing system, where I can call a pay-per-minute telephone service and the charges get billed via my phone account.
Now, back to reality, I like the internet the way it is, but a good micropayment system may work if it was charged to the ISP in a similar fashion to my telco nightmare above.
In fact, pay-per-view was considered in HTTP/1.1, which has the response status code 402 Payment Required reserved for future use. Presumably it would work like HTTP authentication, popping up a dialog asking for approval. At that time, (somehow) the cost needs to find its way back to the ISP.
I'm guessing that billing-the-ISP is the hard part, but here's how I'd approach it:
0. The browser requests a pay-per-view page. 1. the server returns 402 Payment Required, plus sends back some response headers for things like Payment-Amount and Payment-Currency. 2. the browser pops up a "payment required" dialog box, similar to the "authentication required" dialog box. 3. the client has a SSL certs signed by the ISP, which provides both the proof that the purchase is OK, and a path to the ISP to charge them. 4. the server connects to the ISP (derives the 'billing server' from a DNS info record, then connects via HTTP using a new HTTP/2.0 method) with the proof of payment. 5.... 6. money money money!
I think PHP's documentation has a mix of good and bad.
The function reference is usually quite good, and the contributed comments make a good reference excellent. It could be further grouped to become easier to navigate, grouping all the "database access" functions together in a deeper heirarchy, for example. (PHP in general is suffering from having too many functions IMHO - that may be fixed in PHP5 though).
However, the language reference, which is intended as an introduction to the language, is not great for beginners. It definately needs tutorials, and a quick reference to common functions used in real-life scripts. An overview to accessing a database would be good in here - connecting, fetching, resource handles, etc - rather than having to go to the function reference and guess the functions you might need. Also, it could contain a language-to-language comparison of commands and concepts to entice ASP/PERL/Python/LanguageX programmers to easily convert.
I can see that beginner programmers, or PERL/Python/LanguageX converts, would find some troubles coming up to speed quickly with the launguage based on the current manual. But as a seasoned PHP programmer I now find it is a great resource.
I agree with the parent poster that the user contributed comments are essential in understanding some functions, and this probably highlights some deficiencies in the manual. But the fact that a good community exists to add these comments, plus the manuals ability to store them, makes for an excellent resource.
All in all, I think the PHP development group is doing a great job, and I look forward to PHP5 (well, perhaps 5.02:-)
I remember using a joystick to navigate the UI, since mice were a bit of a rarity.
You didn't miss much. I had a Commodore mouse. As it plugged into the joystick port, the pointer would only move at angles of 45 degrees, just like a joystick:-(
"Where you're being naieve is in your assumption that it's the employee in this case that is doing the screwing over. Perhaps things are different in Australia, or maybe you've just been lucky, but in corporate America, it's the companies that usually do the screwing. Certainly there are exceptions, but in this case, it sounds like he has a perfectly reasonable case."
I don't like being called naieve, but still, there is a fair point in there. Companies are usually better at screwing than people are. And certainly we need to be watchful and aware of being screwed, to avoid having the problems of the original poster. But I didn't think I really needed to state that in my post, because everyone else had already said it.
Remember that I was commenting not on the original poster's situation, but on all the negative replies at the time I posted.
The original poster was being screwed, and there's probably lots more people in his position. Unfortunately there's lots of techs that are great at programming but lousy at watching their own backs. I feel for them, actually. But there are also lots of people that make back-watching a sport, and forget to play fair.
I only hope that people take heed from this thread and ensure their expectations are the same as their employer's. People need to ask themselves : Do you have an agreement with your employer for overtime? Is it written down?
"Considering that the poster is asking a legal question, on a US based discussion site, I think it's reasonable to assume that he is probably based in the US"
I don't really know where slashdot is hosted - is it a US-based discussion site? I thought it was an internet-based discussion site. With all due respect, only Americans think that the.com/.org/.net domain belongs to them. The rest of us recognise that those domains are international.
After saying that, I did realise the original poster was US-based - it was obvious from his language - but I was not responding to his post, I was responding to everyone else's posts. And I was trying to be general in my response (maybe I failed - you can decide).
Just to clear things up, I wasn't trolling. I have a valid but alternate point of view.
"Once the company owes you five digits of back pay, all bets are off, it's time to get a lawyer." If his employment terms were clear regarding working hours and overtime up-front, it would never have reached this point. This situation would have to have existed for a long, long time to accumulate $30,000 of overtime.
If overtime was an agreed entitlement in his job (whether a legal entitlement or a negotiated one), it should have been reconciled much sooner than this. I'm guessing his employer didn't believe it was an entitlement, he did, and it wasn't brought up often. Again, my point on being clear upfront would have prevented the problem in this case.
"if you're an hourly worker, comp time is actually illegal in at least some states" Maybe, but in my case I work in Australia. I guess the original poster may be US-based, but other slashdot readers are worldwide, and I was being general. Maybe you should be, too.
But you should feel no obligation to take comp time if you don't want to. Absolutely, but again, it should be pre-negotiated to avoid confusion. It's all about ensuring you and your boss think the same on the matter.
I acknowledge that the original poster had a dud-deal - $30k in dispute is not a good thing - but overtime per-se is not a bad thing, and I believe we should look at partnering with our employers, rather than screwing them over.
I think you'll find that $60 p/h is the cost rate of your job, not the sell rate and not the hourly rate you get paid.
Running a company costs money. They have to rent the building, buy the computers, feed the fish, and all this costs money. Companies amortise these indirect costs across their productive employers to calculate a cost-rate.
Our cost rate where I work is around AU$105 p/h (~US$80). I get paid a fraction of this:-(
The argument to outsource works sometimes because the other guy's sell-rate is less than your cost-rate.
Reading some of these posts I'm amazed at how selfish some people are.
I mean, Slashdot is full of unemployment/job-exporting rants, yet when it comes to helping out their employer in a time of need, the advice seems to be "fuck the boss - I'm going home".
And the same people probably wonder why their jobs are being exported.
Personally, I feel a sense of commitment to the project I work on and the company I work for. If it needs a bit of overtime, I'm happy to provide it. Not excessively, but occasionally.
In fact, it is written into my employment agreement - "occasional overtime may be required from time to time". I get paid in time-in-leiu.
I also get to come in 1 hour later the next day for each hour I work past 9pm, if I need to work back. So if a server catches fire, I will stay back and fix it, and if I work until midnight I don't have to start work again until midday the next day.
I work for a small company, and the way I see it it is in my interest to help that company succeed - if they go broke or lose a big contact because I refused to work overtime, I may lose my job.
My overtime works out to be around 1-2 work-days every month, of which I get days off in return.
Sure, project blowouts can be blamed on other people, but lets be realistic and say that often it is the programmer's lack of estimation ability that causes problems, too.
Whoever is to blame for overtime requirements, the main thing to realise is that you form part of a *team*, and teamwork involves professionalism and responsibility from all members of the team (you, your boss, your project manager and your customer).
For me this means I work occasional overtime when required, and my boss ensures it does not get excessive. I also get rewarded for it with time-in-leui, which helps me, and my boss.
My advice to the original poster - in future, work out your conditions before you agree to work for a company to avoid these problems. And consider time-in-leiu as an alternative to overtime payments.
Slashdot Mirror
Last year I was at a local rock concert for the band Lamb. If you know this band, there are lots of quiet bits in their music. Anyway, in the middle of a really long track the music went into a quiet part, and everyone was in the mood, right into the music... then all of a sudden there was the all-too familiar BA-DUDU-BA-DUDU-BA-DUDU-BA through the speakers, twice as loud as the band itself.
The crowd broke out of their musically-induced trance and burst into laughter, and it totally fucked up the rest of the concert.
It turns out the sound engineer left his phone on the mixing console. Duh!
Actually, Australian banks do need the TFN, otherwise they withhold 48% of any interest earned. Only important if you are earning interest, I suppose.
In addition to the Tax File Number, Australians also have a Medicare Number and a Driver License Number as primary keys.
I can vouch for the GTD process, and if you want a more pragmatic (and less Amway-sounding) take on it, check out these two sites:
Geeks using GTD on Macs:
http://www.43folders.com/
A great merger between GTD and 7-habits using a PDA:
http://www.dkeener.com/keenstuff/index.html
Perhaps the "prophecy of the one who will bring balance to the Force" was misinterpreted after all: Perhaps the prophecy was really fulfilled not by Anakin destroying the Sith order, but by Luke humanizing the Jedi ethic.
Of course, before Anakin, the good of the Jedi outweighed the bad of the Sith; after Anakin, there was more evil and less good. So, in a way, Anakin *did* bring balance to the force.
You forgot about solar energy.
It's safe, clean and environmentally friendly, plus the current thinking is for distributed collection at each building, where excess energy that can't be stored can be shared with others via the electricity grid.
Seems like the most promising energy replacement to me...
I am using a product called cd3o, which allows a central server holding all my mp3s to stream to multiple mp3 receivers, which then plug into a stereo system in each room.
This is the best of all worlds.
Unless there is something saying they can use the software, they can not.
Actually, the law often takes into account "prima facé" evidence in leui of a written agreement. I've been here before.
This is the "if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is most probably a duck" style of law.
IANAL.
...and our national anthem wouldn't suck
I love being 'girt by sea', you insensitive clod!
I know they're oldies, but I laughed my arse off at this medoly.
;-)
I guess I must still be new here
Canada has an extradition treaty with the US.
IANAL, but *extradition* is only relevant if the person they are seeking fled from the US to Canada. They can't extradite a Canadian for breaking US law - only US people who fled to Canada.
This has been discussed before with a denied US extradition request over an Australian pirating US software.
A lot of people's experience with source control and DBs will be coloured by Visual Source Safe and Jet (which it uses). It is ok until it gets corrupted, and then you are hosed. Keeping everything in readable files CVS-style is a BIG plus point once you've been in that situation.
We are just migrating now from Visual Source Safe to CVS for this very reason. Unfortunately for us, one day we started checking in files, and the new files and the entire history all became lots of blank files. Time to get an open solution...
I took a look at Subversion, and I hold high hopes for it. But CVS's use of the filesystem is a big plus over any closed (vss) or difficult-to-hand-recover (BerkeleyDB) storage medium. And it seems more stable and more accepted, too.
If I was comparing revision control systems feature-to-feature, I would have probably chosen subversion. But because of my recent data loss with VSS, I just want something *safe*.
In six months time when I hit the barriers with CVS, I'll take another look at Subversion...
This is more efficient because the attachment doesn't need to be encoded for mailing...
Actually, if you use a web form to upload the file, it still encodes the file using MIME. But if your browser and server both support gzip it can be compressed - so you're half right.
I hate it when I get pedantic!
Now, if someone *would* build a custom touch screen LCD screen that fit perfectly where my radio and environmental controls are...
:-)
Better still, make it a Head-Up Display! How cool would that be
The problem with the internet is that it happened too fast.
...
Had it have been controlled by the telcos it would have been rolled out slowly and in a considered fashion - of course, we would still be on 9600 baud modems paying $60 per month, but we would also have a micropayment solution built into the infrastructure.
It would be something like the telephone billing system, where I can call a pay-per-minute telephone service and the charges get billed via my phone account.
Now, back to reality, I like the internet the way it is, but a good micropayment system may work if it was charged to the ISP in a similar fashion to my telco nightmare above.
In fact, pay-per-view was considered in HTTP/1.1, which has the response status code 402 Payment Required reserved for future use. Presumably it would work like HTTP authentication, popping up a dialog asking for approval. At that time, (somehow) the cost needs to find its way back to the ISP.
I'm guessing that billing-the-ISP is the hard part, but here's how I'd approach it:
0. The browser requests a pay-per-view page.
1. the server returns 402 Payment Required, plus sends back some response headers for things like Payment-Amount and Payment-Currency.
2. the browser pops up a "payment required" dialog box, similar to the "authentication required" dialog box.
3. the client has a SSL certs signed by the ISP, which provides both the proof that the purchase is OK, and a path to the ISP to charge them.
4. the server connects to the ISP (derives the 'billing server' from a DNS info record, then connects via HTTP using a new HTTP/2.0 method) with the proof of payment.
5.
6. money money money!
I call it CWAP - it's useless. But that's the telco's fault, not the language. It had so much promise, too...
I don't know what all the fuss is about with this spam thing. Sure it's a pain responding to all that email, but now I've got a 10 foot penis!
I think PHP's documentation has a mix of good and bad.
:-)
The function reference is usually quite good, and the contributed comments make a good reference excellent. It could be further grouped to become easier to navigate, grouping all the "database access" functions together in a deeper heirarchy, for example. (PHP in general is suffering from having too many functions IMHO - that may be fixed in PHP5 though).
However, the language reference, which is intended as an introduction to the language, is not great for beginners. It definately needs tutorials, and a quick reference to common functions used in real-life scripts. An overview to accessing a database would be good in here - connecting, fetching, resource handles, etc - rather than having to go to the function reference and guess the functions you might need. Also, it could contain a language-to-language comparison of commands and concepts to entice ASP/PERL/Python/LanguageX programmers to easily convert.
I can see that beginner programmers, or PERL/Python/LanguageX converts, would find some troubles coming up to speed quickly with the launguage based on the current manual. But as a seasoned PHP programmer I now find it is a great resource.
I agree with the parent poster that the user contributed comments are essential in understanding some functions, and this probably highlights some deficiencies in the manual. But the fact that a good community exists to add these comments, plus the manuals ability to store them, makes for an excellent resource.
All in all, I think the PHP development group is doing a great job, and I look forward to PHP5 (well, perhaps 5.02
I just scooted over to microsoft's press room and saw these two articles next to each other:
:-)
February 12, 2004 7:30 p.m. PST
Statement from Microsoft Regarding Illegal Posting of Windows Source Code
February 11, 2004 5:00 p.m. PST
Microsoft on the Issues: Strengthening the Knowledge Economy
What a good way to strength the knowledge economy
There are exceptions, I believe, for parody -- various Star Wars knockoffs (e.g., the Death Star Clerks animation) are apparently legal as parody
;-)
So if Wine or Samba get into hot water, they should say "Hey Judge, we were just making a parody of Windows. Funny, huh. Get it?"
I remember using a joystick to navigate the UI, since mice were a bit of a rarity.
:-(
You didn't miss much. I had a Commodore mouse. As it plugged into the joystick port, the pointer would only move at angles of 45 degrees, just like a joystick
"Where you're being naieve is in your assumption that it's the employee in this case that is doing the screwing over. Perhaps things are different in Australia, or maybe you've just been lucky, but in corporate America, it's the companies that usually do the screwing. Certainly there are exceptions, but in this case, it sounds like he has a perfectly reasonable case."
.com/.org/.net domain belongs to them. The rest of us recognise that those domains are international.
I don't like being called naieve, but still, there is a fair point in there. Companies are usually better at screwing than people are. And certainly we need to be watchful and aware of being screwed, to avoid having the problems of the original poster. But I didn't think I really needed to state that in my post, because everyone else had already said it.
Remember that I was commenting not on the original poster's situation, but on all the negative replies at the time I posted.
The original poster was being screwed, and there's probably lots more people in his position. Unfortunately there's lots of techs that are great at programming but lousy at watching their own backs. I feel for them, actually. But there are also lots of people that make back-watching a sport, and forget to play fair.
I only hope that people take heed from this thread and ensure their expectations are the same as their employer's. People need to ask themselves : Do you have an agreement with your employer for overtime? Is it written down?
"Considering that the poster is asking a legal question, on a US based discussion site, I think it's reasonable to assume that he is probably based in the US"
I don't really know where slashdot is hosted - is it a US-based discussion site? I thought it was an internet-based discussion site. With all due respect, only Americans think that the
After saying that, I did realise the original poster was US-based - it was obvious from his language - but I was not responding to his post, I was responding to everyone else's posts. And I was trying to be general in my response (maybe I failed - you can decide).
Just to clear things up, I wasn't trolling. I have a valid but alternate point of view.
"Once the company owes you five digits of back pay, all bets are off, it's time to get a lawyer."
If his employment terms were clear regarding working hours and overtime up-front, it would never have reached this point. This situation would have to have existed for a long, long time to accumulate $30,000 of overtime.
If overtime was an agreed entitlement in his job (whether a legal entitlement or a negotiated one), it should have been reconciled much sooner than this. I'm guessing his employer didn't believe it was an entitlement, he did, and it wasn't brought up often. Again, my point on being clear upfront would have prevented the problem in this case.
"if you're an hourly worker, comp time is actually illegal in at least some states"
Maybe, but in my case I work in Australia. I guess the original poster may be US-based, but other slashdot readers are worldwide, and I was being general. Maybe you should be, too.
But you should feel no obligation to take comp time if you don't want to.
Absolutely, but again, it should be pre-negotiated to avoid confusion. It's all about ensuring you and your boss think the same on the matter.
I acknowledge that the original poster had a dud-deal - $30k in dispute is not a good thing - but overtime per-se is not a bad thing, and I believe we should look at partnering with our employers, rather than screwing them over.
I think you'll find that $60 p/h is the cost rate of your job, not the sell rate and not the hourly rate you get paid.
:-(
Running a company costs money. They have to rent the building, buy the computers, feed the fish, and all this costs money. Companies amortise these indirect costs across their productive employers to calculate a cost-rate.
Our cost rate where I work is around AU$105 p/h (~US$80). I get paid a fraction of this
The argument to outsource works sometimes because the other guy's sell-rate is less than your cost-rate.
Reading some of these posts I'm amazed at how selfish some people are.
I mean, Slashdot is full of unemployment/job-exporting rants, yet when it comes to helping out their employer in a time of need, the advice seems to be "fuck the boss - I'm going home".
And the same people probably wonder why their jobs are being exported.
Personally, I feel a sense of commitment to the project I work on and the company I work for. If it needs a bit of overtime, I'm happy to provide it. Not excessively, but occasionally.
In fact, it is written into my employment agreement - "occasional overtime may be required from time to time". I get paid in time-in-leiu.
I also get to come in 1 hour later the next day for each hour I work past 9pm, if I need to work back. So if a server catches fire, I will stay back and fix it, and if I work until midnight I don't have to start work again until midday the next day.
I work for a small company, and the way I see it it is in my interest to help that company succeed - if they go broke or lose a big contact because I refused to work overtime, I may lose my job.
My overtime works out to be around 1-2 work-days every month, of which I get days off in return.
Sure, project blowouts can be blamed on other people, but lets be realistic and say that often it is the programmer's lack of estimation ability that causes problems, too.
Whoever is to blame for overtime requirements, the main thing to realise is that you form part of a *team*, and teamwork involves professionalism and responsibility from all members of the team (you, your boss, your project manager and your customer).
For me this means I work occasional overtime when required, and my boss ensures it does not get excessive. I also get rewarded for it with time-in-leui, which helps me, and my boss.
My advice to the original poster - in future, work out your conditions before you agree to work for a company to avoid these problems. And consider time-in-leiu as an alternative to overtime payments.
I should have taken the time to cross-reference a link to a real example.
I forgot that some people on slashdot take things literally.