I worked at BestBuy for awhile, and was slated for middle management, when I wouldn't steer potential customers of sales item, towards service policies, I was told to do everything possible, to drive them off buying the sales item, everything, even to the point of declaming the item, was an inferior product and not worth buying.
So that's why they ask me 12 times to get `warranty' everytime I buy stuff!
What they're missing is that it's _never_ `done'. There is always room for improvement---otherwise they'd never be able to ship another version ever again.
I don't like the idea of replacing a $2000 laptop every 18 months for cutting-edge gaming performance.
But I'm sure the laptop manufacturers love this idea... hey, replace that $2000 laptop every 12 months... It's cool! Everyone's doing it!
(see, even if them underemployed folks can afford it, so can you...:-)
I think these companies market the _image_ of the laptop more than the laptop itself. Kind of like those Apple laptops---they just look so cool and everyone looks in your direction when you open one up. I seriously doubt a good business class laptop will be very far behind these flashy ones in terms of performance---but performance or practicality is not the point.
The point is periodically extracting $$$ from folks who think these things are cool and `must have'.
I think the only down side to Gentoo is that people get used to it.
Once you've used portage, and compiled _everything_ yourself (changed kernels, etc.) then going back to RedHat is a _big_ pain and feels like a major limitation. (sorta like going back to Windows).
I think cable should just be scrapped altogether. The signal should be used to deliver _very_ high speed Internet to consumers, who will then be able to download/watch individual shows that they like - anytime they feel like it.
The idea of channels is old. Even the good channels have crap on them 90% of the time, and with this type of new programming, they can distributed the good 10% over the whole spectrum of channels, which would mean that no single channel would be enough.
I can see it now: "This show will continue on the new BLAHBLAH channel. Call 1-800-GET-CABLE to subscribe to that channel."
Show based watching/downloading is a far better idea. Bad shows will go under, popular ones will survive. It would also be easy to judge ratings (how many downloads did this show have?).
Advertisers can `sponsor' free downloads with their advertisements embeded into the video stream (a logo on the side, or a commercial every 15 minutes).
It will also make it much easier for smaller producers to get into the business---you can create a show and then automatically stream it to someone's TV/computer, etc.
Anyway. Nobody will ever go for this, but I think it's a better idea than what we have now (I just flipped though the channels, and there is _nothing_ good on any of them! this is just plain sick; sometimes I don't know why I even bother paying the cable bill just to watch the history channel once in a while).
And over the last few years, I've been slowly eased into the concept of Earth being hit by a huge asteroid...
(maybe it's on its way, and everyone's afraid to tell the public? so they make them `feel good' movies to prepare the public for it in a decade or so).
oh, yeah, and tinfoil hats are useless. _they_ want you to think they're still useful, but they're not:-)
I do not, when I get in the field, want to work with people who are this incompetent.
Amm... You're about to be seriously disappointed. 99% of `developers' you'll come across in the `industry' are dead-wood that takes up office space. Many of them got in via `networking' through friends of friends, and are social enough to be on good relations with every manager in the company (impossible to ever get fired).
Universities could see the drop in interest as a sure sign that it's time to gut funding for these programs.
Yes yes, we need to extend the Humanities, Psycology, History, and Music departments, since those are obviously more important in getting a job (you know, those `networking' and marketing skills don't just appear out of nowhere).
Oh, yeah, that was sarcasm, if it didn't seem clear.
Does anyone know what DVD burning support is like for linux?
Better than Windows (well, at least in my opinion). And by that I mean you don't need to purchase any tools to make DVDs.
You can burn DVDs, make menus, etc., all with open source tools. It may not be as `simple' as point-and-click Windows tools, but at least you know exactly what's happening at every step, and how each little bits work.
Best of all, you can do everything via the command line (except possibly for creating menus---you can use GIMP for that).
There are a bunch of tutorials online about how to do pretty much everything.
Amm... I fail to see a problem with contamination. Ok, so what if we send some bateria over there (maybe even we _should_ send it there). I think the human race should spread _life_ anywhere it can.
A single good shot with an asteroid, and _all_ life (as we know it) is gone. Forever (again, as far as we know it). But if we plant life (fine, even baterial life) everywhere we can (send particularly resiliant bateria bayond the solar system?) then maybe our DNA thing ancestor won't be totally wiped out.
Slashdot Mirror
I still don't see what's wrong with Licrosoft... :-)
I worked at BestBuy for awhile, and was slated for middle management, when I wouldn't steer potential customers of sales item, towards service policies, I was told to do everything possible, to drive them off buying the sales item, everything, even to the point of declaming the item, was an inferior product and not worth buying.
So that's why they ask me 12 times to get `warranty' everytime I buy stuff!
I didn't know Microsoft owns the words "Start", "My" or "Desktop".
What they're missing is that it's _never_ `done'. There is always room for improvement---otherwise they'd never be able to ship another version ever again.
If someone with half a brain wants to...
Most people with half a brain won't actually _do_ anything by themselves (they'd get someone else---someone much dumber---to do things for them).
I don't like the idea of replacing a $2000 laptop every 18 months for cutting-edge gaming performance.
:-)
But I'm sure the laptop manufacturers love this idea... hey, replace that $2000 laptop every 12 months... It's cool! Everyone's doing it!
(see, even if them underemployed folks can afford it, so can you...
I think these companies market the _image_ of the laptop more than the laptop itself. Kind of like those Apple laptops---they just look so cool and everyone looks in your direction when you open one up. I seriously doubt a good business class laptop will be very far behind these flashy ones in terms of performance---but performance or practicality is not the point.
The point is periodically extracting $$$ from folks who think these things are cool and `must have'.
Yeah...
"I'm so so so sorry for embeding him into the original trilogy... where [good news] he'll be the one shot by Solo!"
As a non-astronaut scientist, my head is saying "hell yes!".
:-)
I hope there is something space-worthy computer scientists can do...
I think the only down side to Gentoo is that people get used to it.
Once you've used portage, and compiled _everything_ yourself (changed kernels, etc.) then going back to RedHat is a _big_ pain and feels like a major limitation. (sorta like going back to Windows).
There are many iPod look-alike headphones.
Kind of ironic if someone gets mugged because they couldn't afford an ipod, but got look-alike headphones for their cd player.
Well, if there was a way to kill someone for 30 hours, as punnishment, then I'm sure they would've done it already.
Well... it's more dramatic if they actually appear somewhat clever.
`Amm... do you have a nice expensive self-contained gadget that I can ran off with?'
Isn't it sad for those who wear iPod look-alike headphones and get mugged for it...
I think cable should just be scrapped altogether. The signal should be used to deliver _very_ high speed Internet to consumers, who will then be able to download/watch individual shows that they like - anytime they feel like it.
The idea of channels is old. Even the good channels have crap on them 90% of the time, and with this type of new programming, they can distributed the good 10% over the whole spectrum of channels, which would mean that no single channel would be enough.
I can see it now: "This show will continue on the new BLAHBLAH channel. Call 1-800-GET-CABLE to subscribe to that channel."
Show based watching/downloading is a far better idea. Bad shows will go under, popular ones will survive. It would also be easy to judge ratings (how many downloads did this show have?).
Advertisers can `sponsor' free downloads with their advertisements embeded into the video stream (a logo on the side, or a commercial every 15 minutes).
It will also make it much easier for smaller producers to get into the business---you can create a show and then automatically stream it to someone's TV/computer, etc.
Anyway. Nobody will ever go for this, but I think it's a better idea than what we have now (I just flipped though the channels, and there is _nothing_ good on any of them! this is just plain sick; sometimes I don't know why I even bother paying the cable bill just to watch the history channel once in a while).
Here's my idea: life is relatively easy to get going given initial conditions after the planet is formed.
Both Mars and Earth naturally had it.
Our `life' was wiped out when that huge thing hit us and created the moon over 4 billion years ago.
Then, life traveled to Earth (intentionally - via a rocket) or unintentionally (via an asteroid, etc.,)
Then life was destroyed on Mars via a similar event as on the Earth.
Gah...
And over the last few years, I've been slowly eased into the concept of Earth being hit by a huge asteroid...
:-)
(maybe it's on its way, and everyone's afraid to tell the public? so they make them `feel good' movies to prepare the public for it in a decade or so).
oh, yeah, and tinfoil hats are useless. _they_ want you to think they're still useful, but they're not
I do not, when I get in the field, want to work with people who are this incompetent.
Amm... You're about to be seriously disappointed. 99% of `developers' you'll come across in the `industry' are dead-wood that takes up office space. Many of them got in via `networking' through friends of friends, and are social enough to be on good relations with every manager in the company (impossible to ever get fired).
Universities could see the drop in interest as a sure sign that it's time to gut funding for these programs.
Yes yes, we need to extend the Humanities, Psycology, History, and Music departments, since those are obviously more important in getting a job (you know, those `networking' and marketing skills don't just appear out of nowhere).
Oh, yeah, that was sarcasm, if it didn't seem clear.
Trick is that it's `non-transferable' (I got one of them e-mails).
schweeeeeeeet
How much will media cost?
An arm and a leg.
Does anyone know what DVD burning support is like for linux?
Better than Windows (well, at least in my opinion). And by that I mean you don't need to purchase any tools to make DVDs.
You can burn DVDs, make menus, etc., all with open source tools. It may not be as `simple' as point-and-click Windows tools, but at least you know exactly what's happening at every step, and how each little bits work.
Best of all, you can do everything via the command line (except possibly for creating menus---you can use GIMP for that).
There are a bunch of tutorials online about how to do pretty much everything.
Yah! Damn, I wish I had mod points.
Amm... I fail to see a problem with contamination. Ok, so what if we send some bateria over there (maybe even we _should_ send it there). I think the human race should spread _life_ anywhere it can.
A single good shot with an asteroid, and _all_ life (as we know it) is gone. Forever (again, as far as we know it). But if we plant life (fine, even baterial life) everywhere we can (send particularly resiliant bateria bayond the solar system?) then maybe our DNA thing ancestor won't be totally wiped out.
You forgot the `capability to print (bang out) on sheet metal'... yeah. That's what I want.
`print out' car parts here we come...
Until they figure out that shipping the whole PC back and forth is cheaper than having someone come in and work on it.