Meh. Big USB thumb drive. Enough for your own documents. Go for the U3 variety and you can have your own apps. Put on a self contained linux distro in a qemu VM and you can have your own OS. The Man comes and wants his lappy back, all your personal stuff is on the usb stick.
If they get nasty, swallow it.
Absurd? Not that much more absurd than the notion that you can't use a company laptop for personal purposes because they "own" the ideas then. They give you a laptop because they want work from you when you travel and after hours.
The story submitter's boss is willing to fork over the $$ for the laptop for the above reason. Make the submitter feel obligated and guilty so he will be more productive. The boss thinks he'll get more than $1250 out of him if he "pays" for his equipment. Whether conscious or subconscious, you know it's true. Unless it's written down that they own the letter you typed out to your mom on gmail from that laptop, they don't. Unless it says that any creative work you do on your company provided laptop is forever owned by The Company, they don't. Read the fine print on everything and all the things you sign.
Now, I know a guy that works for ATT and they have some vicious Intellectual Property policies, so if you work for them... They might own your dreams.
I think the armchair quarterback TFA is missing the point, parent post has it right.
Part of the intrigue of starwars is the strange oddities of the design "flaws". It's what makes things unique and interesting, and also plausible. Yeah, R2-D2 looks like a rolling trashcan and can't talk, but somehow it seems plausible. Normal. And the way skywalker looked over the r2 units at the swap meet place and bought r2d2 made it all seem like they are normal every day objects.
I'm sure a person from 1803 would look at stuff today and point out some design flaws! And we'd say "but that's just how it is!"
As someone who does IT and computer work "in the field" for small local businesses in a small midwestern town, the "Just walk in and look" thing is more true than you might think. If you look like a clean-cut semi-geek with a laptop and an air of confidence, all you need to do is walk in.
Go up to the bored and underpaid secretary/receptionist who doesn't really give a flock, and say you're there to fix the computer in the back, or to fix the printer, whatever. Most likely they'll say "yeah, sure, whatever" and let you go on because they don't care, don't know, and most places DID have problems with the computer/printer/whatever the day before, and she will assume the owner called you.
Memory stick with a few choice apps, clickety click, and you can own the place whenever you want and nab whatever you want.
Oh, and all the passwords are either on a post-it on the monitor, under the keyboard, or are some variant of Password. Or, everyone knows it because it's the dogs name and ALL the passwords are the same.
"Oh, hey, can you give me the password real quick for this workstation right here?" (wants to be helpful and is embarrassed because they don't know jack about computers) "Sure, it's password123!"
One time the manager of a chiropractic/PT place was giving me access to the server because she needed me to do something, and I watched her peck in the password at 1 WPM. The password was "SPRAIN". I about busted out laughing.
Way too many places that should have security - lawer offices, medical offices, have open AP's and crap security. Actually, NO security. No backup, either. I'm turning things around as I go.
The guy who used to work here with me was basically fired for screwing around on that crap all day.
Military folks can have their OWN computers, but putting "that crap" on a govt owned military comp would be simply stupid, IMO. And, apparently theirs as well.
I had a course in assembly and fortran even as a mechanical engineer. I did go to a good school. But they skipped the cobol and tubes. Unless you mean Teh Intartubes....
That's quite a fascinating topic, hopefully we can eventually learn more about how the brain works.
You'd have to figure out a digital equivalent to all of the information stored from all 5 senses - how much data would it take to accurately store exactly what grandma's pumpkin pie smelled like as it baked in the oven when you were 5 years old? What about storing muscle memory and memories of how something made you feel?
Convert all those qualitative and quantitative ideas into something digital, multiply it times a lifetime....
Then think about comparing that for someone who had a mundane life to someone who had a crazy active and over-the-top exciting life - Is a petabyte too small for what the human brain is capable of?
Microsoft had to lay off a significant amount of people earlier in the year. They cited 3 reasons. 1) lower computer sales 2) Vista and 3) netbooks
The netbooks use linux and windows xp. When ASUS first invented the netbook, it didn't even have windows. But it was so popular, Microsoft made the deal with netbook makers to provide the cheap copies of xp, hurting the bottom line. So, you can make a correlation right there to linux hurting Microsoft in a real way.
Microsoft dead? Well, they aren't as healthy as they could be, but I will give them props for what I've seen in windows 7.
I'd be happy to have an install of windows 7 in a virtual machine on my high powered linux box.
(lol) TBH, my netbook does dual boot xp and eeebuntu, my other box is for video editing and has windows, and my workstation at work is straight up linux with virtualization of various Redmond offerings. Until video editing comes of age in linux I will need xp around.
I was upstairs on the can with my netbook doing a number 2 and realized I didn't have any TP. No-one would hear me yell, and I didn't have my cell phone. But I had the netbook with wifi. So I went to the call-wave widget on my google homepage and sent a text to my wife's cell phone, saying I needed some TP. A minute later one of my kids brought me a roll.
What was the question again?
No, seriously. I'm going for a deeper meaning now to my post. My wife and I are approaching our mid 30's. We live in the midwest. We JUST added a texting plan to our cell phones in the past few months. I say that, because WE have NOT had a landline phone since 2003. No joke. The OP is missing the forest for the trees. Put cover plates over the phone jacks if they annoy you and move on. Leave the wirez in case the next owner of the house wants them, and forgettaboutit.
If you build, do cat6 and good coax (what is that, RG6?). I don't know that fiber in the house is necessary nor practical.
Ummm, compared to where you're at, just about any dual core proc. Are you really concerned about price? Just get a C2D, ASUS, 4GB ram. That's bang for the buck. Going with 8GB of ram you must really be planning to go all out with the vm's. Most people will tell you that you only really need enough ram so you don't swap with the vm's, otherwise it's overkill.
But, if you're going 64bit linux and plan to keep this one as long as you've kept your last one, maybe 8GB is the way to go.... I am running 64bit linux with XP, Vista, and win7 in VMware right now, and it's just fiiiiiiiiine......
Article has low credibility with me. I put Win 7 RC1 (the leaked one, not the official one) on my ASUS eeepc 1000HE with the original 1 GB of ram.
Performance was similar to that of XP. I noticed no quantifiable slowness nor any slower "feel" to that of the original XP install.
After first install of 7, fresh, it will sit there and use roughly 512 megs of ram doing nothing. Eye candy and transparency on. Using the computer with 7 on it is just fine, no issues. No annoyances. No slowups. No grinding due to lack of ram.
IIRC the base XP install on the netbook was very similar to that, like 450 megs, idle.
I've also put on eeeBuntu (8.10) on the same netbook, same ram, and general performance feel is no different than that of 7. Benchmarks? No. Just my calibrated brain and over 25 years of using computers and working in the computer industry.
I was just thinking - I want an iphone. And, I want the verizon network.
Then you reminded me of something. I had (when it was good) a v3 from AT+T. Hackable goodness, everything there. Then we switched to a v3 from VZW. What happened to my phone? What's up with this horrible interface? Where are all the features? This isn't a v3, it's an upsell device with a good network and an ugly interface.
ATT's network is improving in this area and they just bought a local GSM provider, so I don't think it will be a problem.
My first UNIX experience was some sort of terminal server thing we had to do in college, also we used NeXT boxes, nuff said there. After college I worked some with a solaris box for some CAD package I needed to use now and then.
First linux install was RH5.2. I fiddled for hours to get X working, got dialup to work, got online, couldn't figure out anything else, decided that it just wasn't worth the time. Later I tried mandrake a time or 2, a few other flavors, then spent a looong time getting ubuntu 6 to work right.
After investing significant hours getting dual display and video capture / editing to work, the culmination of video editing on linux was, at the time, so poor I went back to windows. But, since then, I have had several linux installs here and there, even put eeebuntu on my netbook (xp is faster).
At work I have a 8.10 x64 install with XP, vista and win7 virtual machines running, and see no need to go back, there. Here at home the sole killer app is video editing, so windoze of some sort will likely soldier on in some form or another for a time.
For me, the benchmark in video editing power and ease-of-use is vegas video. As soon as there is something equivalent to that or better on linux... or it runs with wine... FINALLY ditch windows altogether.
I used to work with a guy who, on a monday, said he installed gentoo over the weekend. Not too long after he said he was getting divorced. I wonder if it was related?
Slashdot Mirror
Meh. Big USB thumb drive. Enough for your own documents. Go for the U3 variety and you can have your own apps. Put on a self contained linux distro in a qemu VM and you can have your own OS. The Man comes and wants his lappy back, all your personal stuff is on the usb stick.
If they get nasty, swallow it.
Absurd? Not that much more absurd than the notion that you can't use a company laptop for personal purposes because they "own" the ideas then. They give you a laptop because they want work from you when you travel and after hours.
The story submitter's boss is willing to fork over the $$ for the laptop for the above reason. Make the submitter feel obligated and guilty so he will be more productive. The boss thinks he'll get more than $1250 out of him if he "pays" for his equipment. Whether conscious or subconscious, you know it's true. Unless it's written down that they own the letter you typed out to your mom on gmail from that laptop, they don't. Unless it says that any creative work you do on your company provided laptop is forever owned by The Company, they don't. Read the fine print on everything and all the things you sign.
Now, I know a guy that works for ATT and they have some vicious Intellectual Property policies, so if you work for them... They might own your dreams.
"Now, you MUST upgrade to Firefox 3, or be branded a pervert."
Because only perverts use microsoft products! Wait...
I foresee linux with a toaster-ized windows VM being the mainstream ala this guy's blog post
I think the armchair quarterback TFA is missing the point, parent post has it right.
Part of the intrigue of starwars is the strange oddities of the design "flaws". It's what makes things unique and interesting, and also plausible. Yeah, R2-D2 looks like a rolling trashcan and can't talk, but somehow it seems plausible. Normal. And the way skywalker looked over the r2 units at the swap meet place and bought r2d2 made it all seem like they are normal every day objects.
I'm sure a person from 1803 would look at stuff today and point out some design flaws! And we'd say "but that's just how it is!"
And, with metric, the units convert much cleaner btwn ass-load, crap-load, schload, butt-ton and ton.
Be quiet, copper-top.
As someone who does IT and computer work "in the field" for small local businesses in a small midwestern town, the "Just walk in and look" thing is more true than you might think. If you look like a clean-cut semi-geek with a laptop and an air of confidence, all you need to do is walk in.
Go up to the bored and underpaid secretary/receptionist who doesn't really give a flock, and say you're there to fix the computer in the back, or to fix the printer, whatever. Most likely they'll say "yeah, sure, whatever" and let you go on because they don't care, don't know, and most places DID have problems with the computer/printer/whatever the day before, and she will assume the owner called you.
Memory stick with a few choice apps, clickety click, and you can own the place whenever you want and nab whatever you want.
Oh, and all the passwords are either on a post-it on the monitor, under the keyboard, or are some variant of Password. Or, everyone knows it because it's the dogs name and ALL the passwords are the same.
"Oh, hey, can you give me the password real quick for this workstation right here?" (wants to be helpful and is embarrassed because they don't know jack about computers) "Sure, it's password123!"
One time the manager of a chiropractic/PT place was giving me access to the server because she needed me to do something, and I watched her peck in the password at 1 WPM. The password was "SPRAIN". I about busted out laughing.
Way too many places that should have security - lawer offices, medical offices, have open AP's and crap security. Actually, NO security. No backup, either. I'm turning things around as I go.
"Now, if he's got plenty of real work to do, and was just goofing off to goof off, then yeah, he deserved to get canned." That was the case.
The guy who used to work here with me was basically fired for screwing around on that crap all day.
Military folks can have their OWN computers, but putting "that crap" on a govt owned military comp would be simply stupid, IMO. And, apparently theirs as well.
I had a course in assembly and fortran even as a mechanical engineer. I did go to a good school. But they skipped the cobol and tubes. Unless you mean Teh Intartubes....
That's quite a fascinating topic, hopefully we can eventually learn more about how the brain works.
You'd have to figure out a digital equivalent to all of the information stored from all 5 senses - how much data would it take to accurately store exactly what grandma's pumpkin pie smelled like as it baked in the oven when you were 5 years old? What about storing muscle memory and memories of how something made you feel?
Convert all those qualitative and quantitative ideas into something digital, multiply it times a lifetime....
Then think about comparing that for someone who had a mundane life to someone who had a crazy active and over-the-top exciting life - Is a petabyte too small for what the human brain is capable of?
I think there was a movie about this type of thing.... But I don't remember what it was called...
Johnny something-or-other....
whoa, bogus...
On slashdot I'd bet on Dr. Who rather than Bill and Ted.
But thats just me...
Microsoft had to lay off a significant amount of people earlier in the year. They cited 3 reasons. 1) lower computer sales 2) Vista and 3) netbooks
The netbooks use linux and windows xp. When ASUS first invented the netbook, it didn't even have windows. But it was so popular, Microsoft made the deal with netbook makers to provide the cheap copies of xp, hurting the bottom line. So, you can make a correlation right there to linux hurting Microsoft in a real way.
Microsoft dead? Well, they aren't as healthy as they could be, but I will give them props for what I've seen in windows 7.
I'd be happy to have an install of windows 7 in a virtual machine on my high powered linux box.
(lol) TBH, my netbook does dual boot xp and eeebuntu, my other box is for video editing and has windows, and my workstation at work is straight up linux with virtualization of various Redmond offerings. Until video editing comes of age in linux I will need xp around.
I was upstairs on the can with my netbook doing a number 2 and realized I didn't have any TP. No-one would hear me yell, and I didn't have my cell phone. But I had the netbook with wifi. So I went to the call-wave widget on my google homepage and sent a text to my wife's cell phone, saying I needed some TP. A minute later one of my kids brought me a roll.
What was the question again?
No, seriously. I'm going for a deeper meaning now to my post. My wife and I are approaching our mid 30's. We live in the midwest. We JUST added a texting plan to our cell phones in the past few months. I say that, because WE have NOT had a landline phone since 2003. No joke. The OP is missing the forest for the trees. Put cover plates over the phone jacks if they annoy you and move on. Leave the wirez in case the next owner of the house wants them, and forgettaboutit.
If you build, do cat6 and good coax (what is that, RG6?). I don't know that fiber in the house is necessary nor practical.
"MS is swimming in money. On the other hand, they keep losing mindshare to Apple left and right."
That's because they're into MONEY, not MINDSHARE.
Sometimes being a cult isn't about the mon....
Ooh, look, a mac store! That is so COOOL! Sorry, I need to buy this. What was I ranting on about?
(yes, I know it's not that simple but you know it's more true than not)
"It does if you increase your hourly rate."
Ummm, yes, my hourly rate to code this massive programming project is $50 per hour.
If you want me to SLEEP, though, you need to pay me $75 per hour.
Mmmm Kay?
Ummm, compared to where you're at, just about any dual core proc. Are you really concerned about price? Just get a C2D, ASUS, 4GB ram. That's bang for the buck. Going with 8GB of ram you must really be planning to go all out with the vm's. Most people will tell you that you only really need enough ram so you don't swap with the vm's, otherwise it's overkill.
But, if you're going 64bit linux and plan to keep this one as long as you've kept your last one, maybe 8GB is the way to go.... I am running 64bit linux with XP, Vista, and win7 in VMware right now, and it's just fiiiiiiiiine......
Article has low credibility with me. I put Win 7 RC1 (the leaked one, not the official one) on my ASUS eeepc 1000HE with the original 1 GB of ram.
Performance was similar to that of XP. I noticed no quantifiable slowness nor any slower "feel" to that of the original XP install.
After first install of 7, fresh, it will sit there and use roughly 512 megs of ram doing nothing. Eye candy and transparency on. Using the computer with 7 on it is just fine, no issues. No annoyances. No slowups. No grinding due to lack of ram.
IIRC the base XP install on the netbook was very similar to that, like 450 megs, idle.
I've also put on eeeBuntu (8.10) on the same netbook, same ram, and general performance feel is no different than that of 7. Benchmarks? No. Just my calibrated brain and over 25 years of using computers and working in the computer industry.
I was just thinking - I want an iphone. And, I want the verizon network.
Then you reminded me of something. I had (when it was good) a v3 from AT+T. Hackable goodness, everything there. Then we switched to a v3 from VZW. What happened to my phone? What's up with this horrible interface? Where are all the features? This isn't a v3, it's an upsell device with a good network and an ugly interface.
ATT's network is improving in this area and they just bought a local GSM provider, so I don't think it will be a problem.
It's not, though... I tried the beta and the RC and it's fine, actually.
My first UNIX experience was some sort of terminal server thing we had to do in college, also we used NeXT boxes, nuff said there. After college I worked some with a solaris box for some CAD package I needed to use now and then.
First linux install was RH5.2. I fiddled for hours to get X working, got dialup to work, got online, couldn't figure out anything else, decided that it just wasn't worth the time. Later I tried mandrake a time or 2, a few other flavors, then spent a looong time getting ubuntu 6 to work right.
After investing significant hours getting dual display and video capture / editing to work, the culmination of video editing on linux was, at the time, so poor I went back to windows. But, since then, I have had several linux installs here and there, even put eeebuntu on my netbook (xp is faster).
At work I have a 8.10 x64 install with XP, vista and win7 virtual machines running, and see no need to go back, there. Here at home the sole killer app is video editing, so windoze of some sort will likely soldier on in some form or another for a time.
For me, the benchmark in video editing power and ease-of-use is vegas video. As soon as there is something equivalent to that or better on linux... or it runs with wine... FINALLY ditch windows altogether.
I used to work with a guy who, on a monday, said he installed gentoo over the weekend. Not too long after he said he was getting divorced. I wonder if it was related?
So I guess the first thing I did with linux was watch Gentoo compile. (Guess that's the last thing I'll also do with linux, eh?)
Is that because it's still compiling??