Absolutely. I would love to see a public information campaign -- like the ones they do to get people to wear seatbelts, to not drink and drive -- that would be focussed on trying to instill some lane discipline. I even have a slogan for it:
Pass, or pull over!
My own guideline is that if I'm not going to be passing another vehicle within (say) 20 seconds, and there is a suitable gap in the nearside lane, then I will pull over. I believe that if everyone behaved like this, the throughput of the road system would be significantly greater.
This "obedient" behaviour by Germans was once explained to me by observing that whereas in the UK and the USA, if something is not explicitly forbidden, then it's permitted, in Germany, if something is not explicitly permitted, then it's forbidden.
I have no idea whether there's any real (as in legal) basis for this belief, but it does seem to account for the way the Germans tend to behave.
The stuff that comes after the sorting joke (23:30 into the clip) is definitely worth listening to. It's all about listening, and talking instead of posturing. It would be great to see these ideas put into action.
You could look at using tools such as IDS Scheer's Aris, or IBM's WebSphere Business Modeler. These allow you to capture and document processes in a way that goes well beyond anything you can knock up in Visio or a Wiki.
These companies will be only too happy to provide you with consultants who will help you use these tools within the context of a process modelling/documentation exercise.
Quite often recently, I've seen the message "Tiredness can cause accidents - take a break" on one of those new matrix signs they're installing all over the UK motorway network. Very solicitous and caring of the traffic monitoring authorities, you may say. But every single time I've seen that message, it has been on the last one or two matrix signs immediately before a service area. This is surely no coincidence.
Now I'm not saying that's advertising, but it seems to be headed in that direction. There's an easy rationalization for allowing it, since I'm sure the revenue they'd earn would help to defray the cost of installing and operating those signs.
How long before the same signs are displaying "Hungry? How about a nice juicy Big Mac(TM)?"
New model Palm devices have Graffiti 2 in ROM. If you install the original Graffiti modules, from an older model Palm, into RAM, the device uses them instead, so you *can* use original Graffiti on a new Palm.
Where exactly is the evidence supporting Cringley's claim that this prediction came true? I don't recall seeing any news of major IBM customers deserting during 2006.
While there may be some case for arguing that IBM's outsourcing business is failing to deliver on expectations, that part of the IBM organization is far from being the top contributor to IBM's revenues, and even less to profits. That honour goes to the IBM software business, which is in fact going from strength to strength on the back of its Service Oriented Architecture offerings.
$4 for a chicken? Can you imagine what kind of conditions that poor bird was brought up in if that's all it cost to produce, including the store's profit? Please do yourself a favour and spend more on an organic free-range chicken. Might cost you $10-15 but you will taste the difference and you'll be doing a little to prevent the mass cruelty of factory farming.
What we need is a return to the days of patronage. Relatively rich people funding the endeavours of artists, sponsoring them to create music, pictures, movies, whatever. They might do this because they feel it is worthwhile to them, to society, or that it is their duty, or for that matter, whatever damn reason they choose - they are the ones with the money after all.
The middlemen of the obsolescent content business model had a role as the custodians of the manufacturing and distribution processes, but digital technology has rendered them unnecessary. Perhaps they can find a role as some kind of patronage broker.
I like to think that through patronage we could get back to the true purposes of art - to give pleasure - as opposed to what it has become, a means for someone to get rich (not necessarily the artist).
Truth is, IBM probably has tens of thousands of TR PCMCIA cards that had been issued to employees back in the days when TR was the internal LAN standard, and which are now sitting idle in cupboards and drawers around the corporation. Any customers out there who still want/need the things should not be persuaded that they are a rare item. You'd actually be doing IBM a favour by taking them off their hands. Of course selling refurbished kit has always been a key element of IBM's business model.
Au contraire — Lotus Notes was indeed available in a "Unix" version; this existed up to release 4.5 or so. They dropped the port beginning with R5. No great loss — I recall a company running it on Solaris machines and being fairly unhappy with it; it definitely lagged the Windows and OS/2 versions of that time in usability.
It is possible to get the Windows binaries running under WINE or Crossover; I understand that is how Linux diehards in IBM tend to use it.
But as others have posted, the IBM plan is to offer Notes functionality as a plugin to the Eclipse-based IBM Workplace.
And just to set you straight - the Notes client has never been particularly "Java based" — it provides Java APIs but as far as I know it is and always has been largely a C/C++ program.
Thanks for the thought, but a tympanoplasty was already attempted, by a consultant from Royal National Ear Nose & Throat Hospital in London, one of the best ENT facilities in UK - and failed to take. Not sure it's worth another go.
If you are squeamish you may not want to read this. I am now substantially deaf in my left ear (20% hearing over a much-reduced frequency range), owing to a perforated eardrum, which occurred in the course of an agressive fungal infection in the outer ear canal. I suspect that infection was brought on or at least encouraged by the habit of wearing foam-covered earbuds for extended periods, including at night when asleep in bed. All of which was surely foolish, but who would have thought it could result in deafness?
Where have you been hiding? There is a wide range of mobile phones that run the latest versions of WinCE: Windows Mobile for Smartphones or Windows Mobile for PocketPC Phone Edition. Look at what's on offer at somewhere like Expansys.
We already did that in the UK. See the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act - the authorities have the power to require an individual to disclose encryption keys etc.
To have only one price point is not fair to our artists, and I dare say not appropriate to consumers. The market should decide, not a single retailer. [Bronfman in TFA]
No, actually, how dare he presume to speak for consumers? What's his idea of the market? Does he want to charge more for popular tracks, which we might reasonably assume sell in larger numbers thus naturally resulting in greater revenues for him and the artists, or does he want to charge more for less popular tracks so he has a greater chance of recouping his costs on a smaller volume? It's not at all obvious to me how "the market" would prefer differential pricing to flat pricing. On the contrary, the great advantage of flat pricing is its simplicity for the retailer and the consumer.
Slashdot Mirror
Absolutely. I would love to see a public information campaign -- like the ones they do to get people to wear seatbelts, to not drink and drive -- that would be focussed on trying to instill some lane discipline. I even have a slogan for it:
Pass, or pull over!
My own guideline is that if I'm not going to be passing another vehicle within (say) 20 seconds, and there is a suitable gap in the nearside lane, then I will pull over. I believe that if everyone behaved like this, the throughput of the road system would be significantly greater.
This "obedient" behaviour by Germans was once explained to me by observing that whereas in the UK and the USA, if something is not explicitly forbidden, then it's permitted, in Germany, if something is not explicitly permitted, then it's forbidden.
I have no idea whether there's any real (as in legal) basis for this belief, but it does seem to account for the way the Germans tend to behave.
The stuff that comes after the sorting joke (23:30 into the clip) is definitely worth listening to. It's all about listening, and talking instead of posturing. It would be great to see these ideas put into action.
Please America, elect this man.
Actually most IBM offices do have WLAN access to their intranet, but with authentication and strong encryption (EAP-TLS).
You could look at using tools such as IDS Scheer's Aris, or IBM's WebSphere Business Modeler. These allow you to capture and document processes in a way that goes well beyond anything you can knock up in Visio or a Wiki.
These companies will be only too happy to provide you with consultants who will help you use these tools within the context of a process modelling/documentation exercise.
All you need are deep pockets.
Quite often recently, I've seen the message "Tiredness can cause accidents - take a break" on one of those new matrix signs they're installing all over the UK motorway network. Very solicitous and caring of the traffic monitoring authorities, you may say. But every single time I've seen that message, it has been on the last one or two matrix signs immediately before a service area. This is surely no coincidence.
Now I'm not saying that's advertising, but it seems to be headed in that direction. There's an easy rationalization for allowing it, since I'm sure the revenue they'd earn would help to defray the cost of installing and operating those signs.
How long before the same signs are displaying "Hungry? How about a nice juicy Big Mac(TM)?"
New model Palm devices have Graffiti 2 in ROM. If you install the original Graffiti modules, from an older model Palm, into RAM, the device uses them instead, so you *can* use original Graffiti on a new Palm.
Google around for a how-to guide.
Where exactly is the evidence supporting Cringley's claim that this prediction came true? I don't recall seeing any news of major IBM customers deserting during 2006.
While there may be some case for arguing that IBM's outsourcing business is failing to deliver on expectations, that part of the IBM organization is far from being the top contributor to IBM's revenues, and even less to profits. That honour goes to the IBM software business, which is in fact going from strength to strength on the back of its Service Oriented Architecture offerings.
$4 for a chicken? Can you imagine what kind of conditions that poor bird was brought up in if that's all it cost to produce, including the store's profit? Please do yourself a favour and spend more on an organic free-range chicken. Might cost you $10-15 but you will taste the difference and you'll be doing a little to prevent the mass cruelty of factory farming.
What we need is a return to the days of patronage. Relatively rich people funding the endeavours of artists, sponsoring them to create music, pictures, movies, whatever. They might do this because they feel it is worthwhile to them, to society, or that it is their duty, or for that matter, whatever damn reason they choose - they are the ones with the money after all.
The middlemen of the obsolescent content business model had a role as the custodians of the manufacturing and distribution processes, but digital technology has rendered them unnecessary. Perhaps they can find a role as some kind of patronage broker.
I like to think that through patronage we could get back to the true purposes of art - to give pleasure - as opposed to what it has become, a means for someone to get rich (not necessarily the artist).
No idea.
IBM Workplace Documents runs on Windows and supports ODF - uses it as its native format in fact.
Truth is, IBM probably has tens of thousands of TR PCMCIA cards that had been issued to employees back in the days when TR was the internal LAN standard, and which are now sitting idle in cupboards and drawers around the corporation. Any customers out there who still want/need the things should not be persuaded that they are a rare item. You'd actually be doing IBM a favour by taking them off their hands. Of course selling refurbished kit has always been a key element of IBM's business model.
or this
I just checked again, and couldn't find the char string "linux" in any of their product pages.
You cannot have looked very hard. Try starting from here.
Or are you looking at the Lenovo ThinkPad pages? IBM doesn't make desktop PCs or laptops anymore.
...then we shall see some natural selection, as people without some kind of resistance to it die in their millions.
The blog that TFA refers to is here.
Au contraire — Lotus Notes was indeed available in a "Unix" version; this existed up to release 4.5 or so. They dropped the port beginning with R5. No great loss — I recall a company running it on Solaris machines and being fairly unhappy with it; it definitely lagged the Windows and OS/2 versions of that time in usability.
It is possible to get the Windows binaries running under WINE or Crossover; I understand that is how Linux diehards in IBM tend to use it. But as others have posted, the IBM plan is to offer Notes functionality as a plugin to the Eclipse-based IBM Workplace.
And just to set you straight - the Notes client has never been particularly "Java based" — it provides Java APIs but as far as I know it is and always has been largely a C/C++ program.
Thanks for the thought, but a tympanoplasty was already attempted, by a consultant from Royal National Ear Nose & Throat Hospital in London, one of the best ENT facilities in UK - and failed to take. Not sure it's worth another go.
If you are squeamish you may not want to read this. I am now substantially deaf in my left ear (20% hearing over a much-reduced frequency range), owing to a perforated eardrum, which occurred in the course of an agressive fungal infection in the outer ear canal. I suspect that infection was brought on or at least encouraged by the habit of wearing foam-covered earbuds for extended periods, including at night when asleep in bed. All of which was surely foolish, but who would have thought it could result in deafness?
Where have you been hiding? There is a wide range of mobile phones that run the latest versions of WinCE: Windows Mobile for Smartphones or Windows Mobile for PocketPC Phone Edition. Look at what's on offer at somewhere like Expansys.
of yesterday's story
We already did that in the UK. See the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act - the authorities have the power to require an individual to disclose encryption keys etc.
Yes, we did protest it at the time
This is precisely what the GP was alluding to
No, actually, how dare he presume to speak for consumers? What's his idea of the market? Does he want to charge more for popular tracks, which we might reasonably assume sell in larger numbers thus naturally resulting in greater revenues for him and the artists, or does he want to charge more for less popular tracks so he has a greater chance of recouping his costs on a smaller volume? It's not at all obvious to me how "the market" would prefer differential pricing to flat pricing. On the contrary, the great advantage of flat pricing is its simplicity for the retailer and the consumer.