Can we all stop using the term, "going forward" as it relates to time? After all, there is no alternative and the buzzword is a filler typically used by people that like trend-speak. Thanks. If you comply with my directive you'll be good to go.
Or, instead of dropping movie prices, they could make better movies.
Or, they could stop funding the $25 million per film star system/hero worship/gossip machine. That system worked for a while, but now that people seem to be questioning the actual worth of a virtual parrot that photographs nice and provides vicarious reality...
Subway maps were very difficult to get. Technically they were free and available, but you had to be damned lucky to find a token booth clerk who actually had any in the booth.
A downloadable map makes a world of sense, and frankly I cannot understand just WHAT about a subway system map needs copyright protection?
As a regular subway and bus user in Montreal, I can attest to the fact that online maps, schedules and other niceties from the local transit corporation are great. You can download and print whatever you like.
Each bus stop has a unique phone number that you can call to find out when the next bus should arrive, that's a nice feature. If you have an internet connection, you can check when the next scheduled buses will be passing (this is really useful because schedules change depending on season and the day, obviously.)
Of course, not all buses are always on time and not all bus drivers are "best-of-breed", but 80% of the time I board a bus here I get an honest 'Bonjour' from the driver and most of the riders respond in kind while getting on and off the bus. Most people say, 'Merci' to the driver before stepping out.
One of my son's rented games involved exploring/fighting badguys in a subway, and if the player looked closely at one of the wall posters it was a quite accurate graphical map of the Montreal subway system (without station names, but very obvious).
What I'm more bothered by is that the average tech person still desires to be above everyone else in some way or another.
And it's getting easier and easier to be as the focus gradually moves towards software solving problems rather than critical and creative thinking. I say this from an engineering point of view, not from an easily-automated field like, say, accounting or Powerpoint file creation.
You only have to fool some of the important people some of the time. After they've been fooled by the fooling machine they'll be too embarassed to admit their fooled-ness.
I was referring to 2D and 3D CAD software, not word processing or web browsers. In many cases it's just painful to watch an IT guy stumble around trying to fix something that should be a no-brainer.
There's always "CAD IT specialists" upstream but I've found that they basically do whatever the CAD software vendor tells them to do (much fun when the support contract expires) and never bother to learn the intricacies of the software. Despite being paid very nicely, they are quite often no help at all. And since management typically has no clue about CAD, well, draw your own conclusions about what eventually happens.
Hint: users eventually find workarounds and use them to get the job done outside of "official channels" and then get reprimanded.
Stores could use them as signage on pricetags, and not ever have to worry about the extremely laborius task of relabeling everything on a price change.
Have you checked out the exchange rate recently? These days my Google cheques are converting at about 1.15, a far cry from the 1.4 of a couple of years ago.
As long as an investment banker, stock trader or lawyer makes several times what an engineer or engineering teacher gets, there is a big disincentive to study engineering.
Investment bankers, stock traders and lawyers don't actually contribute tangibles to an economy or society, they just shuffle money around and take a cut.
Another reason that engineers are not as highly paid is because of sophisticated software that leads management types to believe that they can hire CAD monkeys to do engineering work and the program will do the heavy lifting.
The American society is driven by greed to the point of obsession.
It's more expectation and fear than it is greed, in my opinion.
Sure some people can never have enough, but the average citizen/married couple would probably like to have a home they can call their own. With house prices being as inflated as they are, it's a relative impossibility in most urban areas.
Many home-owning baby boomers have closed ranks and have articially inflated the value of their real estate. As long as enough people beleive, it's true - just like the stock market.
20 years ago I had a HP-11C (still have one, they're pretty bulletproof, so HP doesn't make them any more) and I wrapped it in the most non-reflective clear plastic film I could find, secured with black electrical tape on the back. I think some companies are now marketing similar protection for the various iPods.
Asking talented 22-30 year olds to slog through 6+ years of 70h weeks for a wage topped by the guy cleaning the toilets, while a lawyer is making $75k at age 25, is pure silliness.
But that's what the market seems to demand, and America (the US) economy is ruled by the market. Other countries don't necessarily have this restriction in their education systems. Add to this the change in the US's business philosophy from "can do" to "can manage", and there's a problem.
The following is a generalization: The MBAs, accountants and marketers have taken over and they really only care about the bottom line; i.e., how crappy can we make the product and still show a profit. A pet theory of mine is that this phenomenon is due to baby boomers wanting to invest safely for a nice cushy retirement at a ridiculous ROI.
Slashdot Mirror
Can we all stop using the term, "going forward" as it relates to time? After all, there is no alternative and the buzzword is a filler typically used by people that like trend-speak. Thanks. If you comply with my directive you'll be good to go.
Or, instead of dropping movie prices, they could make better movies.
Or, they could stop funding the $25 million per film star system/hero worship/gossip machine. That system worked for a while, but now that people seem to be questioning the actual worth of a virtual parrot that photographs nice and provides vicarious reality...
Nah, that would never work.
Subway maps were very difficult to get. Technically they were free and available, but you had to be damned lucky to find a token booth clerk who actually had any in the booth. A downloadable map makes a world of sense, and frankly I cannot understand just WHAT about a subway system map needs copyright protection?
As a regular subway and bus user in Montreal, I can attest to the fact that online maps, schedules and other niceties from the local transit corporation are great. You can download and print whatever you like.
Each bus stop has a unique phone number that you can call to find out when the next bus should arrive, that's a nice feature. If you have an internet connection, you can check when the next scheduled buses will be passing (this is really useful because schedules change depending on season and the day, obviously.)
Of course, not all buses are always on time and not all bus drivers are "best-of-breed", but 80% of the time I board a bus here I get an honest 'Bonjour' from the driver and most of the riders respond in kind while getting on and off the bus. Most people say, 'Merci' to the driver before stepping out.
One of my son's rented games involved exploring/fighting badguys in a subway, and if the player looked closely at one of the wall posters it was a quite accurate graphical map of the Montreal subway system (without station names, but very obvious).
Won't death eventually solve this problem?
Tell me again why residential toilets can't go "WHOOOSH!!!!!" like commercial toilets?
Trade war with Canada.
What I'm more bothered by is that the average tech person still desires to be above everyone else in some way or another.
And it's getting easier and easier to be as the focus gradually moves towards software solving problems rather than critical and creative thinking. I say this from an engineering point of view, not from an easily-automated field like, say, accounting or Powerpoint file creation.
point to me at some point in the last 100 years where your average person knew to any degree of certainty how their tech worked.
Radio, television, telephones. People didn't know how they worked, but then again these technologies weren't forced upon them in order to be employed.
Does "whinge" sound like "hinge"?
I'd like to see the term, "astroturfing" explained and explored by popular media outlets. Wouldn't that be interesting to watch?
You only have to fool some of the important people some of the time. After they've been fooled by the fooling machine they'll be too embarassed to admit their fooled-ness.
Things get simpler when you use precise language, and avoid confusing yourself.
Yo, homey, mad props on wordin' up, you be da bomb. Shiznit!
I was referring to 2D and 3D CAD software, not word processing or web browsers. In many cases it's just painful to watch an IT guy stumble around trying to fix something that should be a no-brainer.
There's always "CAD IT specialists" upstream but I've found that they basically do whatever the CAD software vendor tells them to do (much fun when the support contract expires) and never bother to learn the intricacies of the software. Despite being paid very nicely, they are quite often no help at all. And since management typically has no clue about CAD, well, draw your own conclusions about what eventually happens.
Hint: users eventually find workarounds and use them to get the job done outside of "official channels" and then get reprimanded.
Prior art.
The movie happens six months after the last episode, and does a fairly good job of explaining what happened to whom.
So it's like a soap opera for nerds but with annoyingly "witty" Whedon dialog?
Stores could use them as signage on pricetags, and not ever have to worry about the extremely laborius task of relabeling everything on a price change.
Would be great for gas station prices these days!
$3000? Is that Canadian money?
Have you checked out the exchange rate recently? These days my Google cheques are converting at about 1.15, a far cry from the 1.4 of a couple of years ago.
While I've never been...
Does this imply that you now are not? Sorry, I was thinking of "to be or not to be".
Older Americans retiring to other countries is probably a great idea, as they could easily live like kings on relatively modest retirement incomes.
As long as an investment banker, stock trader or lawyer makes several times what an engineer or engineering teacher gets, there is a big disincentive to study engineering.
Investment bankers, stock traders and lawyers don't actually contribute tangibles to an economy or society, they just shuffle money around and take a cut.
Another reason that engineers are not as highly paid is because of sophisticated software that leads management types to believe that they can hire CAD monkeys to do engineering work and the program will do the heavy lifting.
Is this "Engineering" related to computers or does it emcompass all the other traditional disciplines that are clearly-defined and recognized.
The American society is driven by greed to the point of obsession.
It's more expectation and fear than it is greed, in my opinion.
Sure some people can never have enough, but the average citizen/married couple would probably like to have a home they can call their own. With house prices being as inflated as they are, it's a relative impossibility in most urban areas.
Many home-owning baby boomers have closed ranks and have articially inflated the value of their real estate. As long as enough people beleive, it's true - just like the stock market.
We didn't have that type of stuff back then, it was a sucky time to be alive.
20 years ago I had a HP-11C (still have one, they're pretty bulletproof, so HP doesn't make them any more) and I wrapped it in the most non-reflective clear plastic film I could find, secured with black electrical tape on the back. I think some companies are now marketing similar protection for the various iPods.
In any group you have some screw-ups; people with serious mental disorders that got past screening.
Wait, are you saying that Slashdot's new CAPTCHA isn't working properly?
Asking talented 22-30 year olds to slog through 6+ years of 70h weeks for a wage topped by the guy cleaning the toilets, while a lawyer is making $75k at age 25, is pure silliness.
But that's what the market seems to demand, and America (the US) economy is ruled by the market. Other countries don't necessarily have this restriction in their education systems. Add to this the change in the US's business philosophy from "can do" to "can manage", and there's a problem.
The following is a generalization: The MBAs, accountants and marketers have taken over and they really only care about the bottom line; i.e., how crappy can we make the product and still show a profit. A pet theory of mine is that this phenomenon is due to baby boomers wanting to invest safely for a nice cushy retirement at a ridiculous ROI.