Actually, they tend to do it pretty much evenly across the board. I've gone to the store with male friends, and the same thing happens to them.
It doesn't happen to me much, but that's because I've mastered the New-Yorker way of shutting people up. They try to sell me cable x, software y, and extra-piece-of-equiptment z, and I say "No thank you." and look at them as though to say "This is why you work at Circuit City, and I don't" Not that I have that attitude, mind you. =] It just shuts them up and gets them to show me where things are.
It's almost as much fun as standing there while someone tries to wow you with their knowledge, and then down the line you reveal that you're the CTO of a company, and under no circumstance are you impressed by the fact that they're able to install AOL on your computer if you buy it from them. I had never quite seen that shade of red before. =]
Hah. The blessed magic of the P4. Not too long ago I was shopping around for a pre-built computer and stopped by Gateway to see what they were offering. The saleswoman was doing her best to sell the top-o-the-line-with-a-P4.
Her salespitch? Oh- you don't want that cheaper-model-with-the-1+Ghz-Celeron. The rationale? Apparently photoshop and a lot of other programs require a Pentium to run.;) Yep. A 1+Ghz Celeron, according to her is "Good for like email and a bit of websurfing, I guess. but you really want the Pentium if you'll be doing anything." "So Photoshop won't run, you say? Yo're not just saying it will run poorly?" I clarify. "Right. It just won't run." says she.
Pheh. I became a geek to get away from people telling me I was a phony *insert random word here* thought that geeks would be more real than that... I mean, they/we *are* supposed to be logical/rooted in deep analytical thoughts about everything...? Right? Now, x number of years later I'm finding myself saying I'm a "psuedo geek" because there are people who will jump down my throat and call me a fake.
The bottom line is that people are twits and love to call other people phonies. My favorite response is somewhat along the lines of "Well go fsck yourself". Lables of any sort are best the sticky-scribbled-with-permanent-marker brand that you use to lable the random cables in the draw across the room.
It probably will happen, and when it does I'm all for it. I'm also well aware of the benefits that the recording industry offers the artists. Not to say that there aren't better alternatives, just that the alternatives are a bit more risky now, and people never like to be early adopters.
I was born in 1980 and as a kid no one wore seatbelts, even though they knew they'd save lives.
It'll be a little while before the artists flock away from the biggies. =]
The thing is that these people are artists, artists for the most part do not have the heads to manage themselves.
I absolutely agree that it would be great if musicians allowed you to buy their music directly through them. Some do. Others don't, prefering to hide behind the record labels. It's the easier path for the musician than other paths because they're approaching a bunch of people with contacts in the media, they take care of the publicity and the "getting the name out there" stuff so the artist won't have to worry.
If the artist was really saavy enough to be able to do what you suggest, don't you think they would have? =]
Unfortunately, if Rush's CDs do not sell in a way that benefits the record industry and pays the bills that the record industry incurs, then there will be no Rush CDs, and Rush will be out of a job.
Just as, if you're a programmer and you write a program that everyone downloads but no one buys, your employer who paid you to write the program will see the program's popularity as nil and will not pay for future updates despite the fact that it might be the most popular program that performs functionality X.
Performing artists, visual artists, programmers, musicians, etc. all have two forms of popularity. The REAL popularity (ie: how many are listening/watching/using what they've produced) and the PRACTICAL popularity (ie: how much money have they put into boss-guy's pocket? Are the bills being paid?) If someone doesn't have enough practical popularity then they're not going to get deep pockets backing them and they'll run into a wall sooner than not.
Hm. Which dictionary are you using? =] The one I've been using for several years has the "sloppy use" as the primary definition.
A google search for "suspicious" brings up MANY pages where the word is used "incorrectly" before you'll hit one in which it is used in the manner you insist is correct, and even then it's not in a sentence such as the one that confused quite a few of us.
The onus is on the writer, when a word can be interpreted in any number of ways to ensure either that the placement of the word gives context clues, or that the "several definitions" are all very similar and that the meaning of the word cannot be mistaken.
Paranoid, distrustful, careful, cautious, leery, wary, watchful... All of these words can only be taken one way. They are always the feeling and never the stimuli that arouses the feeling.
If you want to talk about grammar, words, and the sloppy use of... Look back at the sentence. "gets". "Gets" implies that someone or something is drawing something towards them or attracting something. In this sentence the word 'gets' is what causes 'suspicious' to be misconstrued. "Becomes" would have been the proper word to use in this situation, and would have cast a different light on the word "suspicious". "OpenSSH becomes even more suspicious", "OpenSSH becomes more suspicious of the world", and so on. These sentences would not typically be misunderstood.
Let's see. BSD==known as being (one of the) most secure OS(es) on the planet... Nope nope nope... You're right, the BSD folks have no interest in writing patches.
You mean they didn't accept the patch you wrote for them!? Ludicrous. Maybe they're too busy being whipped along by people who don't give anything back to the OS community to evaluate your code.;) I mean... You obviously feel strongly about it so you HAVE to have written a patch, no?
If they KNOW about it, and I'm sure they do, then they'll patch it. They're not Microsoft, afterall. In the meantime, if you're not a developer, lay off the whip. Like you said- the bug is recent, if they let a few months fly by without doing anything then you can start complaining.
I read that too and my mind quickly said to me "Oh great, time to turn off SSH and only allow shell access to people who physically sit down at the computer.
Then I realized that it's "suspicious" as in "the suspicious wife accused her husband of sneaking another computer into the house" and not "the actions of the husband were suspicious, leading his wife to accuse him of sneaking another computer into the house."
Should have said "Open SSH has just become even more paranoid."
Start a site, post a list of sites you see as "down", and your location. Have it so that people can comment "Yep, got in at 0700 hours, GMT, location....ISP...Etc." or "Nope, appears to be dead"
Reverse-engineer the list censorship list and make it public.
Not necessarily so. Documention is documention, and there are plenty of simple how-to's or tutorials and manuals online that are suitable for the beginner.
The primary benefit of a book is the ability to bring it anywhere and read it with minimal eyestrain. For example, I can bring my book into the bathroom and catch up on some concepts that I don't use day-to-day but that I'm interested in because they might make some task easier.. Or I could bring it to the dog run while I'm excercizing the fuzzy-beast. Both of these places are things that you most likely will not want to bring a computer, even a laptop.
Besides... When I'm a beginner in something I don't want a book. I want online tutorials, things I can copy/paste to quickly see how they work.. THEN when I'm sure that something is worth learning I'll buy the book, and it will sit on my shelf until I'm comfortable with the concepts and know what I'm looking for.
Linux, for example. If I knew that I wanted to do a "backup", chances are "backup" wouldn't be in the index and I'd have to putz around looking for something that would suit the bill. Online I can do a search for "Linux backup" and get an idea of what I need to know. From there I'd probably start researching cpio, afio, tar, backup media, incremental backups, etc.
I think books are positively worthless to the beginner. They only begin to become useful when the beginner becomes 'intermediate' or progresses to the point where they know enough about the subject to know what they're looking for in the index.
Forget point-and-click. =] Real geeks use the command line.
up2date -u or up2date packagename works beautifully, manages dependencies, and you don't have to deal with a gui. =]
The one-per-email addr is a bit of a pain, but don't most people have more than one email address? (No, I don't speak from experience. All mine are on one account.)
Doesn't work for other distros, but aren't there similar mechanisms in place for some of the other distros? I know Yellowdog Linux (ppc) has(had?) something called yup. Automated, managed dependencies, etc.
Personally I've never had any problems with rpm, but that's usually because I only use rpm's for "more distributed" packages, prefering to download and compile the source for anything that might cause problems. Dependencies don't take THAT long to figure out... Unless you're installing something like gnome.
Err. Are you sure that your dad wasn't talking about "ten years of experience with one employer" vs "1 year of experience" re-distributed by having to start at the low-rung of the totem pole 10 times over? Personally I learn more when my forward-movement is unimpeded. If I have to start over at a new job I'll most likely find a few stumbling blocks that would slow me down before I got back up to steam. I don't think I'm unique in this, either. I can hardly be said to be stagnating, though. I'm just not required to re-do the tasks that I've already done, except for when I go through them on my own to reinforce them and refresh them in my memory.
So, you might want to check back with your dad and find out exactly what he meant with that statement.
Besides, if it's 10x the same one-year-worth-of-experience at one job, then the employer should have fired the person long ago. There's enough stuff to learn in "this industry" that no one should ever be caught repeating something for that long.
Not saying that a new job is a bad thing. I'm just saying that holding the same job for a long time is not necessarily a bad thing, nor should it impede your forward-motion. Unless, of course, you're looking to get into... ugh. management.
Chasing trends quite simply *will not* get you anywhere. Of course, neither will merely "doing something you like".
Today's employer is looking for a well-rounded individual with a diverse skillset that includes a "working knowledge" (which appears to be the 'cname' for "I know of it, and if you give me a book and 3 days to read it, I can convince people who don't know much about it that I'm an expert") of the trends, but also a more traditional background. (ie: systems administrators should know some form of Unix, and be able to fake their way through Windows... Programmers should know C, C++ or another "commonly accepted industrial-strength" programming language... On TOP of that they can know the latest buzzword OS to hit the market, and whatever odd new language has been thrown into the fray.
Having a well-rounded body of knowledge that includes both the 'classics', and the 'top 50' shows that you can be grounded and keep up at the same time.
Optionally, you can follow the path that an increasing number of people seem to be following. Abandon the computer field for a bit. Look into occupations that seem to be suffering from a shortage of qualified workers. (Interpreters, home health care workers, etc.) If you're really at a loss for "what to learn" (there's so MUCH you should never find yourself asking this question.) then you just might find it a relief to get away from this particular industry for a while.
That said--I would suggest that you don't spend much time chasing the trends at all. Bone up on the 'classics', once you get those entrenched in your mind it's a very short leap to figure out where the path leads from there.
But they're not seeing any significant price reduction. The price of Walmarts computers is less than others out there, but there are other computers that are even cheaper than that and come with Windows.
You're also failing to take into consideration the fact that people also are willing to pay more and/or put up with something just because they're familiar with it.
That's different. Microsoft has an established market presence, and they gained a following with DOS before they started pitching foul balls left and right with the thingy we know as Windows.
If the first experience the public has with a new OS is not entirely pleasant, they will not allow it to replace Windows. It doesn't matter if the OS is more powerful, better, or only "just as buggy" as Windows, if it is not 200% better then they will claim it is faulty. Remember--Linux tends to not have some of the click-and-go things that Windows has, and I'm sure Lindows follows suit. Since the first time you sit down at a new computer you try to use it the way you used your last computer--unless you realize that there are some major differences you'll walk away thinking that there are only major flaws, and bring the computer back to Walmart.
In order for people to migrate to something different there has to be incredible incentive. I just don't see that happening with a beta of Lindows. A finished functional Lindows, yes. But shipping a beta is just going to end up coming back around and kicking them in the rear.
Hm. speaking of Oracle and Unbreakable--wasn't that a marketing campaign of Oracle not too long ago, and didn't the geek-world give them a lot of flak after it was proven breakable, and then after that didn't Oracle backtrack and say that "unbreakable" wasn't meant literally? =]
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Actually, they tend to do it pretty much evenly across the board. I've gone to the store with male friends, and the same thing happens to them.
It doesn't happen to me much, but that's because I've mastered the New-Yorker way of shutting people up. They try to sell me cable x, software y, and extra-piece-of-equiptment z, and I say "No thank you." and look at them as though to say "This is why you work at Circuit City, and I don't" Not that I have that attitude, mind you. =] It just shuts them up and gets them to show me where things are.
-Sara
*laughs* I did that once.
It's almost as much fun as standing there while someone tries to wow you with their knowledge, and then down the line you reveal that you're the CTO of a company, and under no circumstance are you impressed by the fact that they're able to install AOL on your computer if you buy it from them. I had never quite seen that shade of red before. =]
-Sara
Hah. The blessed magic of the P4. Not too long ago I was shopping around for a pre-built computer and stopped by Gateway to see what they were offering. The saleswoman was doing her best to sell the top-o-the-line-with-a-P4.
;) Yep. A 1+Ghz Celeron, according to her is "Good for like email and a bit of websurfing, I guess. but you really want the Pentium if you'll be doing anything." "So Photoshop won't run, you say? Yo're not just saying it will run poorly?" I clarify. "Right. It just won't run." says she.
Her salespitch? Oh- you don't want that cheaper-model-with-the-1+Ghz-Celeron. The rationale? Apparently photoshop and a lot of other programs require a Pentium to run.
*growl*
-Sara
Poor Daetrin.
Pheh. I became a geek to get away from people telling me I was a phony *insert random word here* thought that geeks would be more real than that... I mean, they/we *are* supposed to be logical/rooted in deep analytical thoughts about everything...? Right? Now, x number of years later I'm finding myself saying I'm a "psuedo geek" because there are people who will jump down my throat and call me a fake.
The bottom line is that people are twits and love to call other people phonies. My favorite response is somewhat along the lines of "Well go fsck yourself". Lables of any sort are best the sticky-scribbled-with-permanent-marker brand that you use to lable the random cables in the draw across the room.
-Sara
It probably will happen, and when it does I'm all for it. I'm also well aware of the benefits that the recording industry offers the artists. Not to say that there aren't better alternatives, just that the alternatives are a bit more risky now, and people never like to be early adopters.
I was born in 1980 and as a kid no one wore seatbelts, even though they knew they'd save lives.
It'll be a little while before the artists flock away from the biggies. =]
-Sara
The thing is that these people are artists, artists for the most part do not have the heads to manage themselves.
I absolutely agree that it would be great if musicians allowed you to buy their music directly through them. Some do. Others don't, prefering to hide behind the record labels. It's the easier path for the musician than other paths because they're approaching a bunch of people with contacts in the media, they take care of the publicity and the "getting the name out there" stuff so the artist won't have to worry.
If the artist was really saavy enough to be able to do what you suggest, don't you think they would have? =]
-Sara
Unfortunately, if Rush's CDs do not sell in a way that benefits the record industry and pays the bills that the record industry incurs, then there will be no Rush CDs, and Rush will be out of a job.
Just as, if you're a programmer and you write a program that everyone downloads but no one buys, your employer who paid you to write the program will see the program's popularity as nil and will not pay for future updates despite the fact that it might be the most popular program that performs functionality X.
Performing artists, visual artists, programmers, musicians, etc. all have two forms of popularity. The REAL popularity (ie: how many are listening/watching/using what they've produced) and the PRACTICAL popularity (ie: how much money have they put into boss-guy's pocket? Are the bills being paid?) If someone doesn't have enough practical popularity then they're not going to get deep pockets backing them and they'll run into a wall sooner than not.
-Sara
Download the CD, get the address of the artist, and send them $10 if you're really concerned about starving them by their only getting 10 cents/album.
-Sara
Hm. Which dictionary are you using? =] The one I've been using for several years has the "sloppy use" as the primary definition.
A google search for "suspicious" brings up MANY pages where the word is used "incorrectly" before you'll hit one in which it is used in the manner you insist is correct, and even then it's not in a sentence such as the one that confused quite a few of us.
The onus is on the writer, when a word can be interpreted in any number of ways to ensure either that the placement of the word gives context clues, or that the "several definitions" are all very similar and that the meaning of the word cannot be mistaken.
Paranoid, distrustful, careful, cautious, leery, wary, watchful... All of these words can only be taken one way. They are always the feeling and never the stimuli that arouses the feeling.
If you want to talk about grammar, words, and the sloppy use of... Look back at the sentence. "gets". "Gets" implies that someone or something is drawing something towards them or attracting something. In this sentence the word 'gets' is what causes 'suspicious' to be misconstrued. "Becomes" would have been the proper word to use in this situation, and would have cast a different light on the word "suspicious". "OpenSSH becomes even more suspicious", "OpenSSH becomes more suspicious of the world", and so on. These sentences would not typically be misunderstood.
-Sara
Let's see. BSD==known as being (one of the) most secure OS(es) on the planet... Nope nope nope... You're right, the BSD folks have no interest in writing patches.
;)
-Sara
You're right, it is smart. But so is locking your door in NYC. It's not so much "smart" as it is that the alternatives (telnet) are dumb. =]
-Sara
You mean they didn't accept the patch you wrote for them!? Ludicrous. Maybe they're too busy being whipped along by people who don't give anything back to the OS community to evaluate your code. ;) I mean... You obviously feel strongly about it so you HAVE to have written a patch, no?
If they KNOW about it, and I'm sure they do, then they'll patch it. They're not Microsoft, afterall. In the meantime, if you're not a developer, lay off the whip. Like you said- the bug is recent, if they let a few months fly by without doing anything then you can start complaining.
-Sara
I read that too and my mind quickly said to me "Oh great, time to turn off SSH and only allow shell access to people who physically sit down at the computer.
Then I realized that it's "suspicious" as in "the suspicious wife accused her husband of sneaking another computer into the house" and not "the actions of the husband were suspicious, leading his wife to accuse him of sneaking another computer into the house."
Should have said "Open SSH has just become even more paranoid."
THIS is why computers don't speak English. =]
-Sara
Keep it on your local computer, and if you go away for vacation, make sure you can dial-in.
chicks dig guys who do dvorak. ;)
-Sara
Start a site, post a list of sites you see as "down", and your location. Have it so that people can comment "Yep, got in at 0700 hours, GMT, location....ISP...Etc." or "Nope, appears to be dead"
Reverse-engineer the list censorship list and make it public.
-Sara
Not necessarily so. Documention is documention, and there are plenty of simple how-to's or tutorials and manuals online that are suitable for the beginner.
The primary benefit of a book is the ability to bring it anywhere and read it with minimal eyestrain. For example, I can bring my book into the bathroom and catch up on some concepts that I don't use day-to-day but that I'm interested in because they might make some task easier.. Or I could bring it to the dog run while I'm excercizing the fuzzy-beast. Both of these places are things that you most likely will not want to bring a computer, even a laptop.
Besides... When I'm a beginner in something I don't want a book. I want online tutorials, things I can copy/paste to quickly see how they work.. THEN when I'm sure that something is worth learning I'll buy the book, and it will sit on my shelf until I'm comfortable with the concepts and know what I'm looking for.
Linux, for example. If I knew that I wanted to do a "backup", chances are "backup" wouldn't be in the index and I'd have to putz around looking for something that would suit the bill. Online I can do a search for "Linux backup" and get an idea of what I need to know. From there I'd probably start researching cpio, afio, tar, backup media, incremental backups, etc.
I think books are positively worthless to the beginner. They only begin to become useful when the beginner becomes 'intermediate' or progresses to the point where they know enough about the subject to know what they're looking for in the index.
-Sara
Forget point-and-click. =] Real geeks use the command line.
up2date -u or up2date packagename works beautifully, manages dependencies, and you don't have to deal with a gui. =]
The one-per-email addr is a bit of a pain, but don't most people have more than one email address? (No, I don't speak from experience. All mine are on one account.)
Doesn't work for other distros, but aren't there similar mechanisms in place for some of the other distros? I know Yellowdog Linux (ppc) has(had?) something called yup. Automated, managed dependencies, etc.
Personally I've never had any problems with rpm, but that's usually because I only use rpm's for "more distributed" packages, prefering to download and compile the source for anything that might cause problems. Dependencies don't take THAT long to figure out... Unless you're installing something like gnome.
-Sara
Err. Are you sure that your dad wasn't talking about "ten years of experience with one employer" vs "1 year of experience" re-distributed by having to start at the low-rung of the totem pole 10 times over? Personally I learn more when my forward-movement is unimpeded. If I have to start over at a new job I'll most likely find a few stumbling blocks that would slow me down before I got back up to steam. I don't think I'm unique in this, either. I can hardly be said to be stagnating, though. I'm just not required to re-do the tasks that I've already done, except for when I go through them on my own to reinforce them and refresh them in my memory.
So, you might want to check back with your dad and find out exactly what he meant with that statement.
Besides, if it's 10x the same one-year-worth-of-experience at one job, then the employer should have fired the person long ago. There's enough stuff to learn in "this industry" that no one should ever be caught repeating something for that long.
Not saying that a new job is a bad thing. I'm just saying that holding the same job for a long time is not necessarily a bad thing, nor should it impede your forward-motion. Unless, of course, you're looking to get into... ugh. management.
-Sara
Chasing trends quite simply *will not* get you anywhere. Of course, neither will merely "doing something you like".
Today's employer is looking for a well-rounded individual with a diverse skillset that includes a "working knowledge" (which appears to be the 'cname' for "I know of it, and if you give me a book and 3 days to read it, I can convince people who don't know much about it that I'm an expert") of the trends, but also a more traditional background. (ie: systems administrators should know some form of Unix, and be able to fake their way through Windows... Programmers should know C, C++ or another "commonly accepted industrial-strength" programming language... On TOP of that they can know the latest buzzword OS to hit the market, and whatever odd new language has been thrown into the fray.
Having a well-rounded body of knowledge that includes both the 'classics', and the 'top 50' shows that you can be grounded and keep up at the same time.
Optionally, you can follow the path that an increasing number of people seem to be following. Abandon the computer field for a bit. Look into occupations that seem to be suffering from a shortage of qualified workers. (Interpreters, home health care workers, etc.) If you're really at a loss for "what to learn" (there's so MUCH you should never find yourself asking this question.) then you just might find it a relief to get away from this particular industry for a while.
That said--I would suggest that you don't spend much time chasing the trends at all. Bone up on the 'classics', once you get those entrenched in your mind it's a very short leap to figure out where the path leads from there.
-Sara
But they're not seeing any significant price reduction. The price of Walmarts computers is less than others out there, but there are other computers that are even cheaper than that and come with Windows.
You're also failing to take into consideration the fact that people also are willing to pay more and/or put up with something just because they're familiar with it.
-Sara
That's different. Microsoft has an established market presence, and they gained a following with DOS before they started pitching foul balls left and right with the thingy we know as Windows.
If the first experience the public has with a new OS is not entirely pleasant, they will not allow it to replace Windows. It doesn't matter if the OS is more powerful, better, or only "just as buggy" as Windows, if it is not 200% better then they will claim it is faulty. Remember--Linux tends to not have some of the click-and-go things that Windows has, and I'm sure Lindows follows suit. Since the first time you sit down at a new computer you try to use it the way you used your last computer--unless you realize that there are some major differences you'll walk away thinking that there are only major flaws, and bring the computer back to Walmart.
In order for people to migrate to something different there has to be incredible incentive. I just don't see that happening with a beta of Lindows. A finished functional Lindows, yes. But shipping a beta is just going to end up coming back around and kicking them in the rear.
-Sara
Hey, I moved in with my boyfriend the week after he got DSL. coincidence? I think not.
;)
Now I just have to find a guy with a fatter pipe.
Size does count.
-Sara
BSD. =]
Hm. speaking of Oracle and Unbreakable--wasn't that a marketing campaign of Oracle not too long ago, and didn't the geek-world give them a lot of flak after it was proven breakable, and then after that didn't Oracle backtrack and say that "unbreakable" wasn't meant literally? =]
-Sara