Having worked at Lowe's, I'd venture that about 80% of the questions I got were variations of "Where is (foo)?" Usually they had a pretty good idea of what it was they were looking for, but not the exact name. They quite often knew they needed (for example) a joist hanger, but of the 14 different kinds we had they didn't know which one they needed. Thats 14 different kinds of *just* joist hangers. We had about 120 different kinds of nailer plates/menders/rafter trusses/ties/etc that are all used in wood frame construction and are sometimes called joist hangers. It can get a bit overwhelming for the customer that doesn't know *exactly* which one they need. In general, the only customers that knew *exactly* which one they needed were contractors and they had already bought them 20 times before.
It didn't bother me to help customers find items, but when the customer service manual says you should -walk with- the customer and help them (basically until they told you to go away) but the boss tells you you take too much time with the customer it gets frustrating. I completely understand why people get upset with the "It's on isle X" (and then employee walks away) type answer, but that's what some of the managers wanted us to do.
An item location service however it works would be good; but it would have to be fairly smart about helping the customer get the right name for what they're searching for to pare down which kind of joist hanger they needed, with pictures and a good list of synonyms for each product.
Point taken. I guess my initial reaction was that this was basically re-reporting more of the same, I didn't look at it as continuation/escalation.
I don't see any problems with google (or anyone else for that matter) taken pictures of my property from the road, I don't feel I have any expectation of privacy in that regard. I do feel that pictures taken from beside my house would invade my privacy.
I may not like it, but taking pictures of whatever I have visible from the road is something I'll have to deal with if I'm ever put in that situation. I do think that if the van rolled up my driveway and beside my house I'd be upset.
What struck me was the tone of the article: "look, it happened to these people too and they didn't do anything, so why should the Borings?" I may have read too much into it, but thats me.
And yes, I'd much rather read about technology than the new york mets getting rickrolled.
Herbert does something to Jane that Jane says is illegal. Herbert also did this to Fred, Jane's neighbor. Fred didn't say anything.
What do the two have to do with each other? Absolutely nothing of import.
Yes, google has done it before, and will probably do it again. Again, how is this different enough from than the original article about the Borings to merit being on slashdot?
Ok: Assume I have a Hotmail account. How did I even indirectly pay for anything associated with it? I didn't pay anyone, anything at all to get or use my hotmail account. I help fund MS, or at least defray the cost of operating hotmail, but no money of mine in any way came out of my pocket to go towards hotmail.
So, a full and complete refund to me would be a big fat goose egg.
Ok, to start with, my earlier post is (in retrospect) a bit trollish. I didn't intend it to be. Oh well.
MS Bends over backwards to make their OSes easy to use. By easy, I meant in the way that they hide what is going on "under the hood" so to speak. Of course it's easy to use, you can't change many of the options in a MS box that a typical Linux box requires you to set at install. I don't think this is a good thing, but it is what many computer users want. Fixing your car would be far "easier" in the same regard if you just couldn't do it. Buy a new one! Thats easy in the same way that Windows is easy to use.
To me, and most of the slashdot crowd, using the cli isn't hard, its actually easier for a lot of tasks. But to alot of computer users, it may as well be greek. I have no problems using RPM or apt-get to update things, but alot of computer users just want to push a button, make whatever problem they were having go away, and not come back again. I don't think anyone that puts out a Linux distro intends to try to make a replacement for windows XP/98/whatever. (mabye lindows/linspire.. never used it though) Thats just not what the typical Linux user wants. Just the research needed to see which hardware works with which Linux distro is more than most users want to mess with. Most computer users don't want to have to think while using their computer, at least not think *about* using their computer. Linux (IMHO) isn't a good choice for those that don't want to take a little time to understand what it is their computer is doing and why. Most of us have personally seen obvious instances of malware on windows computers that the computer owner was just as happy to let it do it's thing, as long as they could still use email/play a yahoo game/browse the web.
As far as MS "allowing" competitors, I didn't mean that in order for Linux to exist, or be an excellent OS MS "allowed" it to. Far from it. By "allowing" competitors into the market, I meant that MS would have to do things like open the source for Windows, allow the user to change the way component parts of Windows work, unbundle the browser from the OS, etc. I don't think that MS will do that unless forced to by a court, and the US court system at least has a poor track record when it comes to forcing change in MS.
You make an excellent point in your first paragraph: "... when Joe buys his next PC, he's still able to do all of those things, then it won't matter to him whether or not he's running XP or Vista." Beacause the vast majority of computers come with windows pre-installed, too many computer users associate Windows with the computer itself rather than a separate part that can be replaced by different OS (Linux, for example) that can do whatever they wanted to do better and faster. That mindset is what would have to change in order for MS to have any real decline in their market share.
I disagree. I don't think windows will decline in the near future. What competition does windows have? Linux? My mom can't even spell it. My nephew has heard of it, but can't play HL2 on it so he won't get it. My brother (who is resonably tech savy) can't use MS office under linux easy enough to be worth the bother. My dad buys what Mom wants because if she can't use the computer, he's going to have to buy two... These are personal examples, yes.. but how many of them apply to your family and friends?
Even in the easiest Linux install I've had to do, I end up on the command line for something. Not that *I* mind this... but aside from us tech saavy, everyone will just say Linux is broken. with a select few vendors you can get linux pre-installed for a commodity system, but ask your mom, your nephew, whoever it is that is looking for a computer.. Where are they going to buy it from? Not one of those vendors.
Until there is a clear competitor to windows, windows will stay. Until either MS makes an active decision to allow a competitor in(why would they do that!?), or the various court systems force them to, windows will stay. Hell, symantec and others are having to throw a tantrum and threaten lawsuits just to get MS to let their software work with Vista.
They aren't pricing themselves out of the market, they ARE the market. I hate microsoft as much as the next guy, but I think the only way to get microsoft out now is to break the company up into competing pieces. (and what a nightmare that would be!)
So you're telling me that you think you could teach the same poeple that would actually buy a P3N|S P(_)MP how to properly set up a good email filter?
Tell you what.. you try that, I'll start up a spamming business, we'll see who is succesfull. I'm not trying to be an ass, just trying to be realistic.
Slashdot Mirror
Having worked at Lowe's, I'd venture that about 80% of the questions I got were variations of "Where is (foo)?" Usually they had a pretty good idea of what it was they were looking for, but not the exact name. They quite often knew they needed (for example) a joist hanger, but of the 14 different kinds we had they didn't know which one they needed. Thats 14 different kinds of *just* joist hangers. We had about 120 different kinds of nailer plates/menders/rafter trusses/ties/etc that are all used in wood frame construction and are sometimes called joist hangers. It can get a bit overwhelming for the customer that doesn't know *exactly* which one they need. In general, the only customers that knew *exactly* which one they needed were contractors and they had already bought them 20 times before.
It didn't bother me to help customers find items, but when the customer service manual says you should -walk with- the customer and help them (basically until they told you to go away) but the boss tells you you take too much time with the customer it gets frustrating. I completely understand why people get upset with the "It's on isle X" (and then employee walks away) type answer, but that's what some of the managers wanted us to do.
An item location service however it works would be good; but it would have to be fairly smart about helping the customer get the right name for what they're searching for to pare down which kind of joist hanger they needed, with pictures and a good list of synonyms for each product.
Point taken. I guess my initial reaction was that this was basically re-reporting more of the same, I didn't look at it as continuation/escalation.
I don't see any problems with google (or anyone else for that matter) taken pictures of my property from the road, I don't feel I have any expectation of privacy in that regard. I do feel that pictures taken from beside my house would invade my privacy.
I may not like it, but taking pictures of whatever I have visible from the road is something I'll have to deal with if I'm ever put in that situation. I do think that if the van rolled up my driveway and beside my house I'd be upset.
What struck me was the tone of the article: "look, it happened to these people too and they didn't do anything, so why should the Borings?" I may have read too much into it, but thats me.
And yes, I'd much rather read about technology than the new york mets getting rickrolled.
Honestly, why is this here?
Let me make an analogy
Herbert does something to Jane that Jane says is illegal. Herbert also did this to Fred, Jane's neighbor. Fred didn't say anything.
What do the two have to do with each other? Absolutely nothing of import.
Yes, google has done it before, and will probably do it again. Again, how is this different enough from than the original article about the Borings to merit being on slashdot?
Ok: Assume I have a Hotmail account. How did I even indirectly pay for anything associated with it? I didn't pay anyone, anything at all to get or use my hotmail account. I help fund MS, or at least defray the cost of operating hotmail, but no money of mine in any way came out of my pocket to go towards hotmail. So, a full and complete refund to me would be a big fat goose egg.
MS Bends over backwards to make their OSes easy to use. By easy, I meant in the way that they hide what is going on "under the hood" so to speak. Of course it's easy to use, you can't change many of the options in a MS box that a typical Linux box requires you to set at install. I don't think this is a good thing, but it is what many computer users want. Fixing your car would be far "easier" in the same regard if you just couldn't do it. Buy a new one! Thats easy in the same way that Windows is easy to use.
To me, and most of the slashdot crowd, using the cli isn't hard, its actually easier for a lot of tasks. But to alot of computer users, it may as well be greek. I have no problems using RPM or apt-get to update things, but alot of computer users just want to push a button, make whatever problem they were having go away, and not come back again. I don't think anyone that puts out a Linux distro intends to try to make a replacement for windows XP/98/whatever. (mabye lindows/linspire.. never used it though) Thats just not what the typical Linux user wants. Just the research needed to see which hardware works with which Linux distro is more than most users want to mess with. Most computer users don't want to have to think while using their computer, at least not think *about* using their computer. Linux (IMHO) isn't a good choice for those that don't want to take a little time to understand what it is their computer is doing and why. Most of us have personally seen obvious instances of malware on windows computers that the computer owner was just as happy to let it do it's thing, as long as they could still use email/play a yahoo game/browse the web.
As far as MS "allowing" competitors, I didn't mean that in order for Linux to exist, or be an excellent OS MS "allowed" it to. Far from it. By "allowing" competitors into the market, I meant that MS would have to do things like open the source for Windows, allow the user to change the way component parts of Windows work, unbundle the browser from the OS, etc. I don't think that MS will do that unless forced to by a court, and the US court system at least has a poor track record when it comes to forcing change in MS.
You make an excellent point in your first paragraph: "... when Joe buys his next PC, he's still able to do all of those things, then it won't matter to him whether or not he's running XP or Vista." Beacause the vast majority of computers come with windows pre-installed, too many computer users associate Windows with the computer itself rather than a separate part that can be replaced by different OS (Linux, for example) that can do whatever they wanted to do better and faster. That mindset is what would have to change in order for MS to have any real decline in their market share.
I disagree. I don't think windows will decline in the near future. What competition does windows have? Linux? My mom can't even spell it. My nephew has heard of it, but can't play HL2 on it so he won't get it. My brother (who is resonably tech savy) can't use MS office under linux easy enough to be worth the bother. My dad buys what Mom wants because if she can't use the computer, he's going to have to buy two... These are personal examples, yes.. but how many of them apply to your family and friends?
Even in the easiest Linux install I've had to do, I end up on the command line for something. Not that *I* mind this... but aside from us tech saavy, everyone will just say Linux is broken. with a select few vendors you can get linux pre-installed for a commodity system, but ask your mom, your nephew, whoever it is that is looking for a computer.. Where are they going to buy it from? Not one of those vendors.
Until there is a clear competitor to windows, windows will stay. Until either MS makes an active decision to allow a competitor in(why would they do that!?), or the various court systems force them to, windows will stay. Hell, symantec and others are having to throw a tantrum and threaten lawsuits just to get MS to let their software work with Vista.
They aren't pricing themselves out of the market, they ARE the market. I hate microsoft as much as the next guy, but I think the only way to get microsoft out now is to break the company up into competing pieces. (and what a nightmare that would be!)
Scientific American had an article in june talking about stem cells and their role in some cancers.. specificly that some cancers are caused by stem cells in "normal" people going awry. From june SciAm: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000B1BE D-0C0A-1498-8C0A83414B7F0000&sc=I100322
Pretty interesting read, IMHO.
So you're telling me that you think you could teach the same poeple that would actually buy a P3N|S P(_)MP how to properly set up a good email filter? Tell you what.. you try that, I'll start up a spamming business, we'll see who is succesfull. I'm not trying to be an ass, just trying to be realistic.