Prime Minister: Set fire to them? Balmer: Fires happen, Prime Minister. Gates: Things burn. Prime Minister: Look, what is all this about? Gates: My partner and I have got a little proposition for you, Prime Minister. ...
I can't believe tripe like this gets modded informative...[skip]...It isn't a matter of him being smart or dumb; it's a matter of him being compassionate.
Tripe? The post to which you refer says, Of course it is great that Bill set up the Gates Foundation to help some of the less fortunate in the world. This indicates that he has some heart. It then speculates from a cynic's perspective about addition motivations Bill may have for giving lots of money to charity. It does not assert that Bill IS a certain way, it merely speculates that Bill MAY BE a certain way.
Unless you know Bill Gates very well and on a personal basis, you can not say for sure if the cynical view is wrong.
Of course it is great that Bill set up the Gates Foundation to help some of the less fortunate in the world. This indicates that he has some heart. However, it does not necessarily indicate that he cares as much as some may think.
Consider this:
Bill's a smart guy and therefore knows that the US government is going to take half of his net worth when he dies. So if he is worth $50B at death, the government gets ~$25B. Realizing this, Bill decides that he'd rather give that money to someone else (ie: the less fortunate in the world). So he creates the Gates Foundation to start siphoning off large chunks of his personal fortune. Let's say, for example, that he ends up giving 80% of his net worth to charity. That's $40B given the assumption above, leaving $5B for the government and $5B for his family.
Under this scenario Bill's family gets a much smaller piece of the $50B pie, but he probably doesn't feel too guilty about leaving his family a paltry $5B, especially since he is dictating where his money goes, not the government.
Yes, the scanner being used by the original submitter is junk (at least for getting semi-pro scans of slides).
A great film scanner (in addition to the Fuji mentioned by others) is the Nikon Super CoolScan. A refurbed unit can be had for under $1000. Although, I don't know if there are Linux drivers for it.
As for the workstation, a G5 iMac would work quite well for hobbyists. Mac OS X has the best "integrated" support for working with color - it even allows you to create a reasonably good colorsync profile for the monitor, without the need for extra equipment (colorimeter) or software.
"Most people choose the tools that allow them to do the task they want... be that graphics design, web surfing, or listining to music."
No. Most people (buying a home computer) buy winTel out of ignorance, fear, or lemming mentality, not because they've determined that it is the best tool for the job. (Yes, there are plenty of "smart" people that buy winTel because they like it - don't get your panties in a twist)
People who buy out of ignorance just don't know any better and are not interested/too lazy to look at other options. People who buy out of fear, do so because they are afraid of change and just want to stick with what is familiar to them. And the lemmings, of course, buy winTel because "if that's what everyone is buying, it must be the superior product."
Most typical home computer tasks are handled as well or better on a Mac (web, email, word processing, digital photography, digital video). The only common "task" that a winTel may handle better is games, but only because of availablity of certain games, not useability.
For those who are thinking that 32 percent is a low number, note that the original post says, "...spam received by business". This actually makes some sence since business email throughput will be a lot higher than personal email throughput. For example, I typically send/receive around 3 legit emails per day from home, but I that number jumps to around 10 emails at work. If each address receives the same amount of spam, the business address will show a significantly lower percentage.
Through my TV I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched C beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. Without TV, all those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain.
I'm becomming really dissapointed with what seems to be the majority of posts on/. (and especially in this thread). I was anticipating a lot of/.ers going on and on about how sweet the tech specs are on the PowerMac G5 hardware. It shouldn't matter what religion you are (M$, Sun, *NIX, Mac, IdogAppleToSoundSmart...), the hardware freeking rocks! Just like my attitude towards BeOS - I don't necessarily care whether the thing will gain 82% market share, its just cool shit.
I bought an Apple StyleWriter II in 1991 (this was an Apple branded Canon bubble jet). It was still going strong in 2001 when I left it with the Ex wife. I recently aquired another StyleWriter II that hadn't been used in years. It works great - including the old ink cartrige, once I ran several pages through it. This printer may just be the best ink jet/bubble jet of all time!
Another brilliant stroke in Brazil is how it shows the importance/value of information - who has it, who controls it, etc. 20 years ago, no one (in the general public) was talking about the value of information. 13 years ago, a professor at U of M told my class that "information" would be the next revolution (in the context of the computer revolution of the 70's-80's). A few years later the information revolution was in full swing.
Corporate cynicism aside, I'm just glad that I can get paid to do what I enjoy doing. Sure, I don't get paid as much as a pro athlete, but I do make more than most of the non-engineers that I know with Bachelor degrees (and they don't even like their job).
Call me sheltered, but all of the companies that I've worked for have been too afraid of the cost of finding a qualified replacement and afraid of wrongful dismissal lawsuits to fire me for not working enough overtime (and I don't work much overtime). When I am given an unreasonable timeline, I tell my employer that I can't make it. They, of course, try to force me to agree to it, and I respond, as many times as necessary, by giving them an option - I will have it done by *my* date, or I can have it done by their date if *these* other new features are dropped (when it comes to the features/time/quality equation, I never compromise on quality). Then I actually make my deadline. After a few iterations of this scenario, they appreciate that I actually meet a deadline, even if it isn't theirs (heck, their deadline isn't met by the more "agreeable" engineers anyway).
On another vein, it really dissapoints me that so many/. readers have developed the UAW mentality of "I'm emplyed by you so I'm *entitled* to blah, blah, blah..." Even in this down economy, it is not that difficult - it just takes more time - for truely good workers to find a new employer that treats their employees "better".
Of course ILM is doing this for selfish reasons, but that's why they are called a "business". So maybe they're not open-sourcing all of the in-house tools that they spent many, many $$ developing, but at least they are opening up their file format. Isn't that better than keeping all of their file formats proprietary?...
If your so upset about George's greed, why don't you build a sweet tool that uses his file format, then charge him to license the tool from you, thus causing you to profit from the deal.
For those who plan to watch Max - when they get to the episodes dealling with "blanks" (ie. Reg & Dominique), I suspect that you'll notice a frightening foreshadowing to M$'s Passport.
OK. I'll start with a disclaimer that my techniques to adapt to management are bases on the fact that I'm not afraid of my boss and that I'm never afraid that he'd fire me because my time estimate was too long. That said, how I deal with any given manager varies by the individual and typically includes many different tactics.
For one, I almost always base my time estimates on how long it will take to do the job the "right way" (the time usually works out to double my gut reaction to the question, "how long will it take you to do this?"). If I'm dealing with a manager who doesn't want it done the right way, I add another 50% to the estimate then I take it off when he "forces" me to get the job done sooner. Oh, and I should mention that the preceding flies in the face of what comes naturally to software engineers - the urge to give an optimistic estimate. Because, for some reason, it makes the engineer feel good to say that "I can do it in *this* short of time". Well, you're boss will be more impressed if you can meet your deadline, even if it was padded to meet with reality.
Another thing that I do is pad my estimates to make time for refactoring. I pretty much stick to rewriting modules that communicate with the new code. The rewrite typically involves design improvements and removing dependences that crept into places hey shouldn't have. In my 11 years of software engineering, this over-engineering has always resulted in SHORTER development cycles. Sure it doesn't feel that way early on, but by time your done with bug fixing and last minute feature changes, you'll be glad that you over-engineered the crap out of it. BTW, don't ever tell your manager that you're over-engineering, tell your manager what he/she wants to hear, work a few extra hours each week and watch him kiss your feet when you're able to incorporate those last minute changes w/out destabilizing the software and without pushing the release date back even further.
I could go on-and-on... oh, too late...
As a famous engineer once said, "you can't gain the reputation as a miracle worker if you tell him how long it actually takes."
Slashdot Mirror
Prime Minister: Set fire to them?
...
Balmer: Fires happen, Prime Minister.
Gates: Things burn.
Prime Minister: Look, what is all this about?
Gates: My partner and I have got a little proposition for you, Prime Minister.
Dual-core P5: five-bi-five
"I'm five by five. How' you do'in B?" - Faith
I can't believe tripe like this gets modded informative...[skip]...It isn't a matter of him being smart or dumb; it's a matter of him being compassionate.
Tripe? The post to which you refer says, Of course it is great that Bill set up the Gates Foundation to help some of the less fortunate in the world. This indicates that he has some heart. It then speculates from a cynic's perspective about addition motivations Bill may have for giving lots of money to charity. It does not assert that Bill IS a certain way, it merely speculates that Bill MAY BE a certain way.
Unless you know Bill Gates very well and on a personal basis, you can not say for sure if the cynical view is wrong.
Of course it is great that Bill set up the Gates Foundation to help some of the less fortunate in the world. This indicates that he has some heart. However, it does not necessarily indicate that he cares as much as some may think.
Consider this:
Bill's a smart guy and therefore knows that the US government is going to take half of his net worth when he dies. So if he is worth $50B at death, the government gets ~$25B. Realizing this, Bill decides that he'd rather give that money to someone else (ie: the less fortunate in the world). So he creates the Gates Foundation to start siphoning off large chunks of his personal fortune. Let's say, for example, that he ends up giving 80% of his net worth to charity. That's $40B given the assumption above, leaving $5B for the government and $5B for his family.
Under this scenario Bill's family gets a much smaller piece of the $50B pie, but he probably doesn't feel too guilty about leaving his family a paltry $5B, especially since he is dictating where his money goes, not the government.
Could the a asteroid mention be just a way of diverting attension from the flash iPod?
Yes, the scanner being used by the original submitter is junk (at least for getting semi-pro scans of slides).
A great film scanner (in addition to the Fuji mentioned by others) is the Nikon Super CoolScan. A refurbed unit can be had for under $1000. Although, I don't know if there are Linux drivers for it.
As for the workstation, a G5 iMac would work quite well for hobbyists. Mac OS X has the best "integrated" support for working with color - it even allows you to create a reasonably good colorsync profile for the monitor, without the need for extra equipment (colorimeter) or software.
"Most people choose the tools that allow them to do the task they want... be that graphics design, web surfing, or listining to music."
No. Most people (buying a home computer) buy winTel out of ignorance, fear, or lemming mentality, not because they've determined that it is the best tool for the job. (Yes, there are plenty of "smart" people that buy winTel because they like it - don't get your panties in a twist)
People who buy out of ignorance just don't know any better and are not interested/too lazy to look at other options. People who buy out of fear, do so because they are afraid of change and just want to stick with what is familiar to them. And the lemmings, of course, buy winTel because "if that's what everyone is buying, it must be the superior product."
Most typical home computer tasks are handled as well or better on a Mac (web, email, word processing, digital photography, digital video). The only common "task" that a winTel may handle better is games, but only because of availablity of certain games, not useability.
I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates when he said, "I drank what?"
For those who are thinking that 32 percent is a low number, note that the original post says, "...spam received by business". This actually makes some sence since business email throughput will be a lot higher than personal email throughput. For example, I typically send/receive around 3 legit emails per day from home, but I that number jumps to around 10 emails at work. If each address receives the same amount of spam, the business address will show a significantly lower percentage.
Through my TV I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched C beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. Without TV, all those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain.
...but a magnet will still erase all your data.
Foaming rock from the pumas in the crevasses. (read)
I'm becomming really dissapointed with what seems to be the majority of posts on /. (and especially in this thread). I was anticipating a lot of /.ers going on and on about how sweet the tech specs are on the PowerMac G5 hardware. It shouldn't matter what religion you are (M$, Sun, *NIX, Mac, IdogAppleToSoundSmart...), the hardware freeking rocks! Just like my attitude towards BeOS - I don't necessarily care whether the thing will gain 82% market share, its just cool shit.
Look at me. I just bashed the Mac platform with some semi-imaginative troll bait. Mongo feel so much more smarter now...
I bought an Apple StyleWriter II in 1991 (this was an Apple branded Canon bubble jet). It was still going strong in 2001 when I left it with the Ex wife. I recently aquired another StyleWriter II that hadn't been used in years. It works great - including the old ink cartrige, once I ran several pages through it. This printer may just be the best ink jet/bubble jet of all time!
Another brilliant stroke in Brazil is how it shows the importance/value of information - who has it, who controls it, etc. 20 years ago, no one (in the general public) was talking about the value of information. 13 years ago, a professor at U of M told my class that "information" would be the next revolution (in the context of the computer revolution of the 70's-80's). A few years later the information revolution was in full swing.
Corporate cynicism aside, I'm just glad that I can get paid to do what I enjoy doing. Sure, I don't get paid as much as a pro athlete, but I do make more than most of the non-engineers that I know with Bachelor degrees (and they don't even like their job).
Call me sheltered, but all of the companies that I've worked for have been too afraid of the cost of finding a qualified replacement and afraid of wrongful dismissal lawsuits to fire me for not working enough overtime (and I don't work much overtime). When I am given an unreasonable timeline, I tell my employer that I can't make it. They, of course, try to force me to agree to it, and I respond, as many times as necessary, by giving them an option - I will have it done by *my* date, or I can have it done by their date if *these* other new features are dropped (when it comes to the features/time/quality equation, I never compromise on quality). Then I actually make my deadline. After a few iterations of this scenario, they appreciate that I actually meet a deadline, even if it isn't theirs (heck, their deadline isn't met by the more "agreeable" engineers anyway).
On another vein, it really dissapoints me that so many /. readers have developed the UAW mentality of "I'm emplyed by you so I'm *entitled* to blah, blah, blah..." Even in this down economy, it is not that difficult - it just takes more time - for truely good workers to find a new employer that treats their employees "better".
Of course ILM is doing this for selfish reasons, but that's why they are called a "business". So maybe they're not open-sourcing all of the in-house tools that they spent many, many $$ developing, but at least they are opening up their file format. Isn't that better than keeping all of their file formats proprietary?...
If your so upset about George's greed, why don't you build a sweet tool that uses his file format, then charge him to license the tool from you, thus causing you to profit from the deal.
I love free - ok, relatively free - enterprise.
For those who plan to watch Max - when they get to the episodes dealling with "blanks" (ie. Reg & Dominique), I suspect that you'll notice a frightening foreshadowing to M$'s Passport.
OK. I'll start with a disclaimer that my techniques to adapt to management are bases on the fact that I'm not afraid of my boss and that I'm never afraid that he'd fire me because my time estimate was too long. That said, how I deal with any given manager varies by the individual and typically includes many different tactics.
For one, I almost always base my time estimates on how long it will take to do the job the "right way" (the time usually works out to double my gut reaction to the question, "how long will it take you to do this?"). If I'm dealing with a manager who doesn't want it done the right way, I add another 50% to the estimate then I take it off when he "forces" me to get the job done sooner. Oh, and I should mention that the preceding flies in the face of what comes naturally to software engineers - the urge to give an optimistic estimate. Because, for some reason, it makes the engineer feel good to say that "I can do it in *this* short of time". Well, you're boss will be more impressed if you can meet your deadline, even if it was padded to meet with reality.
Another thing that I do is pad my estimates to make time for refactoring. I pretty much stick to rewriting modules that communicate with the new code. The rewrite typically involves design improvements and removing dependences that crept into places hey shouldn't have. In my 11 years of software engineering, this over-engineering has always resulted in SHORTER development cycles. Sure it doesn't feel that way early on, but by time your done with bug fixing and last minute feature changes, you'll be glad that you over-engineered the crap out of it. BTW, don't ever tell your manager that you're over-engineering, tell your manager what he/she wants to hear, work a few extra hours each week and watch him kiss your feet when you're able to incorporate those last minute changes w/out destabilizing the software and without pushing the release date back even further.
I could go on-and-on... oh, too late...
As a famous engineer once said, "you can't gain the reputation as a miracle worker if you tell him how long it actually takes."