If I was Nielsen, I'd want to know the viewing habits for everything that was connected to a TV. DVR, Blu-Ray, XBox, even old VHS tapes... if they're watching it, I'd want to record that information to know to provide to my clients. That way, they know where ads are being viewed and where they are not.
That said, if Netscape actually made a browser that was worth a damn during the reign of Internet Explorer 5 and 6, it might still be around today.
Keep in mind that Internet Explorer is STILL bundled on almost every new PC that's been released in the past ten years, yet competitors like Firefox and Chrome have taken significant market share from it. Why? Because Mozilla and Google finally put out a better product that was faster, more secure, and and cooler features.
I'm looking forward to someone here pulling off the same stunt six months from now with something made with a hacked Roomba, a netbook running Gentoo, a few extra laptop batteries, a trash can, and a lot of waterproof caulking:)
If you think this is bad, try adding touch screen drivers to the mix! Hacking together the configuration files to make them work with TwinView is a pain in the ass, and I found that Xinerama doesn't work with them at all.
I'm not a fan of man pages... they seem to be written by programmers FOR programmers. When I'm reading one, I usually don't want to learn the 50 command line switches that the command has. I just want an example of how to use the command for my particular purpose, which is much easier to find with a Google search.
Seriously, guys... If you added a one page "Examples" section at the bottom of the man page, it would be infinitely more helpful for end users.
Yeah... that guy has obviously never worked for a big technology firm like HP or IBM. They love using recessions as an excuse to do massive layoffs and outsourcing of work overseas, since it improves their profit margins and stock price by doing so.
On the other hand, perhaps he's still new and still believes the spiel from HR. You know... the speech telling him what a valuable asset he is to the "team" before getting his 2% bonus for being a top performer and working harder than everyone else. Sorry, dude... but you're just a small cog in a corporate machine. A collection of skills to be auctioned off to the lowest bidder when it comes time to be replaced.
Yeah... they benchmarked 2 regular Linux distributions, versus 2 netbook Linux distributions, verses a beta netbook Linux distribution. Not surprisingly, they all performed within 5% of each other.
This article would have been a lot more interesting to read if they included Mac OS X, Windows 7, and Windows XP in the mix for some of the application testing. A lot of the applications that they tested with (like 7 zip) are available on all of the platforms, making some of these tests a fair comparison.
Yep... and make sure to file a report with the BSA on your old employer once you find a new job.
Come to think of it, I should have done this to a former employer. Some of the things they were doing were downright criminal... like purchasing a single license of VMWare ESX server and Windows 2003 Enterprise edition and then deploying it on 8 VMWare hosts and dozens of virtual machines.
Hey now... the mere existence of Paris Hilton has provided work for hundreds of reality show producers, tabloid journalists, and paparazzi photographers. Not to mention the clothing and fragrance lines, and the people selling her lousy bedroom videos.
Sadly, she's probably done more to stimulate the American economy than many of our congress-critters have.
I'm not a Dvorak fan either, but you gotta admit that article was pretty pointless. It really wasn't about Windows 7 at all, and was just a bunch of cranky ramblings about Microsoft's advertising and PR programs.
Sadly, it was still better than many of Dvorak's articles that got posted on Slashdot.
Apple could fix this "problem" on their own... develop a CDMA version of the iPhone to be used with the Verizon and Sprint networks, and watch millions of frustrated iPhone users flock to those networks when their 2 year AT&T contracts run out. Bingo... you just load balanced all of the iPhone traffic over several cellular networks, "fixing" the problem free market style.
Hell... Apple could offer their existing GSM iPhone on TMobile even faster to "fix" this problem... all they need to do is get rid of that horrid exclusivity contract, and work with TMobile to get visual voicemail working with their network.
The problem problem with SmartSuite is that it DIDN'T change much in the past ten years. They basically gave up making any major improvements to it around 1999.
I used be an IBM employee, and I can remember the corporate mandate that ALL IBM internal documents had to be made in Lotus SmartSuite instead of Microsoft Office. Guess what... most folks still used Office instead. The primary reason was that SmartSuite sucked, and was about five years behind Office in terms of ease of use and functionality. IBM never bothered to regularly update it as well, leaving it in some 1997-era timewarp when the rest of the world was using Office 2003.
I haven't tried Lotus Symphony myself, but if it's anything like OpenOffice 3, I doubt that most IBM'ers will be raring to convert all of their documents over in a timely manner. Combine that with thousands of customer facing workers that NEED to use Microsoft Office to ensure total compatibility, and you're going to have a hell of a time getting everyone to switch.
I wonder if the thieves will be smart enough to turn off all of those iPhones that they just stole... If not, they're basically carrying GPS tracking devices that will lead the police to their stash.
The main problem with this idea is that you're going to end up becoming the sole tech support person for Grandma or Grandpop once you've switched them over to Linux, because odds are that nobody else in the family knows the operating system. They sure as hell won't be able to ask their Windows or Mac using friends for help, let alone call the local computer store for assistance if you're not around and they get into a bind.
You'll also run into trouble if they decide to get a new printer (or iPod, or web cam, or digital camera, or practically anything else!), and have no idea how to install it themselves because the instruction manual is written for Windows or the Mac. More headaches for you, buddy.
Honestly, I'd get them a Mac and be done with it. It's easy to use and fairly secure, and I'm not the only person in the family who has one. Also make sure to install desktop sharing on the machine so you can support it remotely as well.
Last I heard, IBM was also selling a shit load of xSeries, pSeries, and iSeries systems as well. Aren't they still the third largest server manufacturer behind HP and Dell?
It's people like your daughter that convinced me to buy some Apple stock when it took a dive with the rest of the market this week. Kids young and old aren't going to care that your 401k lost 25% this year and that your new house is now worth less than what you owe on it... they just want their damn iPod's and MacBooks for Christmas!
If they whine loudly enough, I think that most of them will get what they want.
My boss wants the fastest video processor and graphics card available, 12 hour battery life on 4 AA batteries, a total weight under 2 pounds, a full size keyboard, built in WiFi/3G/4G/WiMax networking with a free unlimited data service plan, and a total price under $300.
Oh, and he wanted it to be available yesterday. Come on, laptop manufacturers... don't let me down!;)
That might be the case if you still have a crummy 27" SD Tube set, but can definitely tell the difference if you have a 42+ inch 1080p HDTV or a 7.1 surround sound system. The picture and sound quality will blow away a DVD on a higher end setup like that.
When I as the IT administrator already know what all of them are! That's one of the benefits of being the IT admin... you already know what all of the root/administrator/dba passwords are because you did a lot of the original product installation and configuration.
Sure, they may change many of those passwords eventually, but they'll probably never change ALL of them. There is always that one stupid legacy app with a hard coded password in it somewhere... which blows up every time someone tries to change the password for a reason that nobody bothered to investigate it throughly. It only takes one of those accounts with admin rights to reek some havoc... or more likely bail out a buddy six months down the road when they ask you for a favor at your new job.
Heh... I guess that it's kinda hard to explain if you don't already have one.
The iPhone 3G is an amazing little phone that does practically everything that you would want an MP3 player or a smart phone to do, but it still has a few version x.0 bugs that need to be fixed. That doesn't mean that it's a BAD phone, just a phone that needs a few patches.
Personally, I had to disable the 3G network on my phone as well, mostly because the AT&T 3G coverage in my area is lousy and it was causing the poor phone to lose calls and suck down the battery quickly. That's not totally the phone's fault... it's more AT&T's than anything else. Turning off the 3G at home fixes the problem, and I can turn it back on at work where I have good 3G coverage without any issues.
My hunch is that a future firmware update will make the iPhone smarter about when it should be trying to use a 3G network, but we'll need to wait and see. Until then, I'm not regretting my purchase... It's still an amazingly useful tool!
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If I was Nielsen, I'd want to know the viewing habits for everything that was connected to a TV. DVR, Blu-Ray, XBox, even old VHS tapes... if they're watching it, I'd want to record that information to know to provide to my clients. That way, they know where ads are being viewed and where they are not.
That said, if Netscape actually made a browser that was worth a damn during the reign of Internet Explorer 5 and 6, it might still be around today.
Keep in mind that Internet Explorer is STILL bundled on almost every new PC that's been released in the past ten years, yet competitors like Firefox and Chrome have taken significant market share from it. Why? Because Mozilla and Google finally put out a better product that was faster, more secure, and and cooler features.
I'm looking forward to someone here pulling off the same stunt six months from now with something made with a hacked Roomba, a netbook running Gentoo, a few extra laptop batteries, a trash can, and a lot of waterproof caulking :)
Personally, I'd think that OpenSQL.org would sound better. Worked for OpenOffice, anyway!
If you think this is bad, try adding touch screen drivers to the mix! Hacking together the configuration files to make them work with TwinView is a pain in the ass, and I found that Xinerama doesn't work with them at all.
I'm not a fan of man pages... they seem to be written by programmers FOR programmers. When I'm reading one, I usually don't want to learn the 50 command line switches that the command has. I just want an example of how to use the command for my particular purpose, which is much easier to find with a Google search.
Seriously, guys... If you added a one page "Examples" section at the bottom of the man page, it would be infinitely more helpful for end users.
Yeah... that guy has obviously never worked for a big technology firm like HP or IBM. They love using recessions as an excuse to do massive layoffs and outsourcing of work overseas, since it improves their profit margins and stock price by doing so.
On the other hand, perhaps he's still new and still believes the spiel from HR. You know... the speech telling him what a valuable asset he is to the "team" before getting his 2% bonus for being a top performer and working harder than everyone else. Sorry, dude... but you're just a small cog in a corporate machine. A collection of skills to be auctioned off to the lowest bidder when it comes time to be replaced.
Not that I'm bitter or anything...
Yeah... they benchmarked 2 regular Linux distributions, versus 2 netbook Linux distributions, verses a beta netbook Linux distribution. Not surprisingly, they all performed within 5% of each other.
This article would have been a lot more interesting to read if they included Mac OS X, Windows 7, and Windows XP in the mix for some of the application testing. A lot of the applications that they tested with (like 7 zip) are available on all of the platforms, making some of these tests a fair comparison.
Yep... and make sure to file a report with the BSA on your old employer once you find a new job.
Come to think of it, I should have done this to a former employer. Some of the things they were doing were downright criminal... like purchasing a single license of VMWare ESX server and Windows 2003 Enterprise edition and then deploying it on 8 VMWare hosts and dozens of virtual machines.
Hey now... the mere existence of Paris Hilton has provided work for hundreds of reality show producers, tabloid journalists, and paparazzi photographers. Not to mention the clothing and fragrance lines, and the people selling her lousy bedroom videos.
Sadly, she's probably done more to stimulate the American economy than many of our congress-critters have.
I'm not a Dvorak fan either, but you gotta admit that article was pretty pointless. It really wasn't about Windows 7 at all, and was just a bunch of cranky ramblings about Microsoft's advertising and PR programs.
Sadly, it was still better than many of Dvorak's articles that got posted on Slashdot.
Apple could fix this "problem" on their own... develop a CDMA version of the iPhone to be used with the Verizon and Sprint networks, and watch millions of frustrated iPhone users flock to those networks when their 2 year AT&T contracts run out. Bingo... you just load balanced all of the iPhone traffic over several cellular networks, "fixing" the problem free market style.
Hell... Apple could offer their existing GSM iPhone on TMobile even faster to "fix" this problem... all they need to do is get rid of that horrid exclusivity contract, and work with TMobile to get visual voicemail working with their network.
The problem problem with SmartSuite is that it DIDN'T change much in the past ten years. They basically gave up making any major improvements to it around 1999.
Your department actually bought licenses for all of the software that it used? ;)
I used be an IBM employee, and I can remember the corporate mandate that ALL IBM internal documents had to be made in Lotus SmartSuite instead of Microsoft Office. Guess what... most folks still used Office instead. The primary reason was that SmartSuite sucked, and was about five years behind Office in terms of ease of use and functionality. IBM never bothered to regularly update it as well, leaving it in some 1997-era timewarp when the rest of the world was using Office 2003.
I haven't tried Lotus Symphony myself, but if it's anything like OpenOffice 3, I doubt that most IBM'ers will be raring to convert all of their documents over in a timely manner. Combine that with thousands of customer facing workers that NEED to use Microsoft Office to ensure total compatibility, and you're going to have a hell of a time getting everyone to switch.
I wonder if the thieves will be smart enough to turn off all of those iPhones that they just stole... If not, they're basically carrying GPS tracking devices that will lead the police to their stash.
They still used the 9. network when I worked there in 2008, so I doubt that anything has changed.
The main problem with this idea is that you're going to end up becoming the sole tech support person for Grandma or Grandpop once you've switched them over to Linux, because odds are that nobody else in the family knows the operating system. They sure as hell won't be able to ask their Windows or Mac using friends for help, let alone call the local computer store for assistance if you're not around and they get into a bind.
You'll also run into trouble if they decide to get a new printer (or iPod, or web cam, or digital camera, or practically anything else!), and have no idea how to install it themselves because the instruction manual is written for Windows or the Mac. More headaches for you, buddy.
Honestly, I'd get them a Mac and be done with it. It's easy to use and fairly secure, and I'm not the only person in the family who has one. Also make sure to install desktop sharing on the machine so you can support it remotely as well.
Last I heard, IBM was also selling a shit load of xSeries, pSeries, and iSeries systems as well. Aren't they still the third largest server manufacturer behind HP and Dell?
It's people like your daughter that convinced me to buy some Apple stock when it took a dive with the rest of the market this week. Kids young and old aren't going to care that your 401k lost 25% this year and that your new house is now worth less than what you owe on it... they just want their damn iPod's and MacBooks for Christmas!
If they whine loudly enough, I think that most of them will get what they want.
My boss wants the fastest video processor and graphics card available, 12 hour battery life on 4 AA batteries, a total weight under 2 pounds, a full size keyboard, built in WiFi/3G/4G/WiMax networking with a free unlimited data service plan, and a total price under $300.
Oh, and he wanted it to be available yesterday. Come on, laptop manufacturers... don't let me down! ;)
That might be the case if you still have a crummy 27" SD Tube set, but can definitely tell the difference if you have a 42+ inch 1080p HDTV or a 7.1 surround sound system. The picture and sound quality will blow away a DVD on a higher end setup like that.
Good list, but how many of those tasks can be performed in a job interview setting without any documentation in front of you?
Hell... if you could do all of those tasks with just the information in your head, you should be doing trivia game shows instead of IT work!
When I as the IT administrator already know what all of them are! That's one of the benefits of being the IT admin... you already know what all of the root/administrator/dba passwords are because you did a lot of the original product installation and configuration.
Sure, they may change many of those passwords eventually, but they'll probably never change ALL of them. There is always that one stupid legacy app with a hard coded password in it somewhere... which blows up every time someone tries to change the password for a reason that nobody bothered to investigate it throughly. It only takes one of those accounts with admin rights to reek some havoc... or more likely bail out a buddy six months down the road when they ask you for a favor at your new job.
Heh... I guess that it's kinda hard to explain if you don't already have one.
The iPhone 3G is an amazing little phone that does practically everything that you would want an MP3 player or a smart phone to do, but it still has a few version x.0 bugs that need to be fixed. That doesn't mean that it's a BAD phone, just a phone that needs a few patches.
Personally, I had to disable the 3G network on my phone as well, mostly because the AT&T 3G coverage in my area is lousy and it was causing the poor phone to lose calls and suck down the battery quickly. That's not totally the phone's fault... it's more AT&T's than anything else. Turning off the 3G at home fixes the problem, and I can turn it back on at work where I have good 3G coverage without any issues.
My hunch is that a future firmware update will make the iPhone smarter about when it should be trying to use a 3G network, but we'll need to wait and see. Until then, I'm not regretting my purchase... It's still an amazingly useful tool!