It's a trade off. Yes they get free work, but I get experience in hardware I don't have at home. I am a systems admin, and many of you are programmers so it is a different situation. I have easily $50k of equipment in my lab to test and play with. This is stuff I could never afford for home. I really like being at work and working on this stuff. How is that wrong? That is my hobby. Some of you play WoW or Everquest, I work on hardware.
Many I know leave jobs looking for new challenges. Why do you think we have those "how do I become a consultant" Ask Slashdot questions come up every few months? Being a consultant allows one to constantly get new challenges.
Does the good outweigh the bad? How would you deal with lazy workers, and people getting promotions simply for seniority and not skill? Those are both MAJOR complaints people have with unions. In my experience with them I found those issues to be true.
IT people are too mobile to be in a union. IT people like to change job more
so than other professions I've seen. Unions depend a lot on Brotherhood, and office
people generally just aren't like that. I would have no interest in being in a union. The IT sector
is too fast paced for unions who can really hamper a company's desire for change. Also, the seniority thing
is what I think would drive most workers away, as most IT workers like to be rewarded for their work and not how long they have been there.
I was in a Union when I worked at a grocery store, and sadly most of the things I had heard about unions I found to be true.
Another thing is I love my job, and don't mind working 60 hours a week. Unions really like to supress that behavior. I work that much because computers are my hobby,
and there are much better computers here at work just for testing than I could ever afford at home. Is it bad that I like to be here that much doing my hobby? I know others like me as well.
Seriously, how do you get the restricted user to work right? We have spent months on this, and every time we think we have it nailed, something comes up.
This is actually a good point in a way. If you look at Fark, they have something called TotalFark, which I am sure you are aware of. Well, what's nice with them is you can actually see what's being rejected.
This isn't difficult to figure out, and I am not sure why the music companies are having trouble with this.
DRM can't work on CD's that need to play in a normal CD player. Basically any attempts to install the DRM software can be thrawted, so basically they hope they can fool you into installing something. Well, thats ok I guess, but then the software needs to do all sorts of wacky things to make sure nothing can override it in Windows. All can be defeated by a Linux machine, or a Mac as the software doesn't work on those, and also we all know about the shift-key for auto-run.
I am waiting for the industry to force us all to buy new cd players so they can create some super secure format.
It sucks, but there is very little interest in these projects in the US. Our country is just not layed out in a way that makes various rail projects feasible.
I did the upgrade wirelessly on Friday actually, and it went fine. Its not really something that should be done wireless, but I really didn't see any warnings not to either.
In theory the POTS line should work. Sometimes though the line is cut to make room in the CO, and other things. If something has damaged that POTS line you would never know, and I doubt the phone company is going to monitor a line thats not in use. Basically what I am saying is, the phone company todays seems to turn phone lines around a lot faster, and are quicker to cut the line to make room for something else, and even if the person in the story had connected into the POTS there is no guranttee it is working. Also, some people connect their box directly into the interface box so they can serve their who home. In this case the person would need to go out to the NID to try POTS, and even then there its not a sure thing, like I said before. In the end, these are the growing pains that we all knew were coming for VOIP.
I only listen to radio in my car. Thats why I have Sirius, I can get it anywhere with basically no interruptions. This stuff is more of a niche product for indie productions, but really isn't for the mainstream audience.
You know...I would really like one. I drive 30k or more miles a year, and my commute to work is 21 miles to and from. The thing is I simply can not afford one of these cars. I think if anyone ever gets the price down to what cars this size generally cost they will be huge success.
Most cities are hard to live in. New York is truly the only American city where you can basically live no problems without a car, and be missing out on nothing. Cities can be pretty unsafe as well. I think the biggest reason for sprawl is kids. Most people want to raise their kids in a place where the kid has a nice and relativly safe yard to play in. The final problem with living in the city is cost. You can get so much more living space when you buy something in a suburb.
I think MythTV is a great product once its running, but its clearly not something for even most technical people. MythTV seems like something for the most dedicated of do-it-yourselfers, and thats about it. From what I have seen it is simply an awesome product once its up, but the problem is how much work it is to get it setup. Thats why I like Tivo, you have a low cost of entry due to the monthly fee, but you can pay for a lifetime and have a pretty sweet device. Maybe some commercial interest will come along and get MythTV to where it needs to be.
I like TIVO more. MythTV seems like a ton of work to setup from everyone I have talked to. There needs to be something in between those media center pc's that cost so much, and TIVO. MythTV is a great product, but 2 weeks to get it running correctly is not acceptable to most.
One time I had a customer, who was having some driver troubles, reboot their computer while I waited on the line. Quality Control (this call may be monitored...) advised me that next time I sould have the customer hang up at that point and call back when it was finished! For a minute and a half restart time I was expected to make them call back and wait on the line for another hour!
This stuff is great(sarcasm). The tech support company I work at does this kind of stuff as well. The reason is, for anyone who doesn't know, the outsourcing companies who handle these tech calls get paid on a per call basis. This stuff drives good techs to quit, and what you get instead is script readers.
This idea of selling a service is great for business or enterprise software, but it falls apart in the consumer markets.
The consumer, and small business market is the reason there will always be software companies in the traditional sense we have today.
Sadly this is the problem with sales people being on commission. They only get paid when a sale is made, so they promise the world to get the customer to purchase. Car sales suffer from the same set of problems, and the salesman always seem to get away with it...quite sad. The worst part is when the engineers have to spend months trying to get the product to work like it was promised to work. I wish they would just pay sales people with salary, and very small bonus amounts, and hold their feet to the fire when they make these bad promises.
I know this is pretty off topic.
Something I have always wondered about people who prefer cash....how do you justify the risk of being mugged or losing your wallet(or purse)? If you live in a small town, or low crime city, the risk is probably not something you worry about. I hate to keep anything over $50 on me, because I worry mostly about losing my wallet, and some about being mugged.
But I don't think it's su ch a bad idea that such a developer be held liable for her code.
Until it's you being held liable. Sadly, all it takes is one little mistake.
I do think there needs to be some type of software liability laws, but they are going to have to be like nothing else out there, basically a totally new concept.
Sadly what you say is pretty true, especially concerning the role reversial. Some people seem to have such a biased view is MS that the never allow them to do anything right.
I will agree with everyone else that this is great for the market, 2MB was really low.
You make great points. Often rural areas have non profit power companies, and low or non profit phone companies as well. The big boys spin of these companies because they are not worth their time basically. The truth is these rural areas would not have power or phone if it was up to profits alone. Two things can happen here...the government can step in and pay for the broadband to be run to these areas in the form of DSL and cable, or we can let the free market decide, and give BPL a try. They both have pros and cons.
Something funny about dealers and license plate frame stuff. My friend too. her 2002 Beetle in for a oil change and a warranty repair. I mean about 4 or 5 months after they bought the car new. The dealership she took it to was a different one than who she bought it from. The one who did the repairs changed the license plate frame to theirs!!! I think thats pretty bold.
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It's a trade off. Yes they get free work, but I get experience in hardware I don't have at home. I am a systems admin, and many of you are programmers so it is a different situation. I have easily $50k of equipment in my lab to test and play with. This is stuff I could never afford for home. I really like being at work and working on this stuff. How is that wrong? That is my hobby. Some of you play WoW or Everquest, I work on hardware.
Actually I am a sys admin and hardware guy. I'm not sure what I could give to Open Source as I don't program.
Many I know leave jobs looking for new challenges. Why do you think we have those "how do I become a consultant" Ask Slashdot questions come up every few months? Being a consultant allows one to constantly get new challenges.
Does the good outweigh the bad? How would you deal with lazy workers, and people getting promotions simply for seniority and not skill? Those are both MAJOR complaints people have with unions. In my experience with them I found those issues to be true.
IT people are too mobile to be in a union. IT people like to change job more so than other professions I've seen. Unions depend a lot on Brotherhood, and office people generally just aren't like that. I would have no interest in being in a union. The IT sector is too fast paced for unions who can really hamper a company's desire for change. Also, the seniority thing is what I think would drive most workers away, as most IT workers like to be rewarded for their work and not how long they have been there. I was in a Union when I worked at a grocery store, and sadly most of the things I had heard about unions I found to be true.
Another thing is I love my job, and don't mind working 60 hours a week. Unions really like to supress that behavior. I work that much because computers are my hobby, and there are much better computers here at work just for testing than I could ever afford at home. Is it bad that I like to be here that much doing my hobby? I know others like me as well.
Seriously, how do you get the restricted user to work right? We have spent months on this, and every time we think we have it nailed, something comes up.
This is actually a good point in a way. If you look at Fark, they have something called TotalFark, which I am sure you are aware of. Well, what's nice with them is you can actually see what's being rejected.
This isn't difficult to figure out, and I am not sure why the music companies are having trouble with this.
DRM can't work on CD's that need to play in a normal CD player. Basically any attempts to install the DRM software can be thrawted, so basically they hope they can fool you into installing something. Well, thats ok I guess, but then the software needs to do all sorts of wacky things to make sure nothing can override it in Windows. All can be defeated by a Linux machine, or a Mac as the software doesn't work on those, and also we all know about the shift-key for auto-run.
I am waiting for the industry to force us all to buy new cd players so they can create some super secure format.
It sucks, but there is very little interest in these projects in the US. Our country is just not layed out in a way that makes various rail projects feasible.
I did the upgrade wirelessly on Friday actually, and it went fine. Its not really something that should be done wireless, but I really didn't see any warnings not to either.
In theory the POTS line should work. Sometimes though the line is cut to make room in the CO, and other things. If something has damaged that POTS line you would never know, and I doubt the phone company is going to monitor a line thats not in use. Basically what I am saying is, the phone company todays seems to turn phone lines around a lot faster, and are quicker to cut the line to make room for something else, and even if the person in the story had connected into the POTS there is no guranttee it is working. Also, some people connect their box directly into the interface box so they can serve their who home. In this case the person would need to go out to the NID to try POTS, and even then there its not a sure thing, like I said before. In the end, these are the growing pains that we all knew were coming for VOIP.
I only listen to radio in my car. Thats why I have Sirius, I can get it anywhere with basically no interruptions. This stuff is more of a niche product for indie productions, but really isn't for the mainstream audience.
You know...I would really like one. I drive 30k or more miles a year, and my commute to work is 21 miles to and from. The thing is I simply can not afford one of these cars. I think if anyone ever gets the price down to what cars this size generally cost they will be huge success.
Most cities are hard to live in. New York is truly the only American city where you can basically live no problems without a car, and be missing out on nothing. Cities can be pretty unsafe as well. I think the biggest reason for sprawl is kids. Most people want to raise their kids in a place where the kid has a nice and relativly safe yard to play in. The final problem with living in the city is cost. You can get so much more living space when you buy something in a suburb.
I think MythTV is a great product once its running, but its clearly not something for even most technical people. MythTV seems like something for the most dedicated of do-it-yourselfers, and thats about it. From what I have seen it is simply an awesome product once its up, but the problem is how much work it is to get it setup. Thats why I like Tivo, you have a low cost of entry due to the monthly fee, but you can pay for a lifetime and have a pretty sweet device. Maybe some commercial interest will come along and get MythTV to where it needs to be.
I like TIVO more. MythTV seems like a ton of work to setup from everyone I have talked to. There needs to be something in between those media center pc's that cost so much, and TIVO. MythTV is a great product, but 2 weeks to get it running correctly is not acceptable to most.
One time I had a customer, who was having some driver troubles, reboot their computer while I waited on the line. Quality Control (this call may be monitored...) advised me that next time I sould have the customer hang up at that point and call back when it was finished! For a minute and a half restart time I was expected to make them call back and wait on the line for another hour!
This stuff is great(sarcasm). The tech support company I work at does this kind of stuff as well. The reason is, for anyone who doesn't know, the outsourcing companies who handle these tech calls get paid on a per call basis. This stuff drives good techs to quit, and what you get instead is script readers.
This idea of selling a service is great for business or enterprise software, but it falls apart in the consumer markets. The consumer, and small business market is the reason there will always be software companies in the traditional sense we have today.
Sadly this is the problem with sales people being on commission. They only get paid when a sale is made, so they promise the world to get the customer to purchase. Car sales suffer from the same set of problems, and the salesman always seem to get away with it...quite sad. The worst part is when the engineers have to spend months trying to get the product to work like it was promised to work. I wish they would just pay sales people with salary, and very small bonus amounts, and hold their feet to the fire when they make these bad promises.
if the BIOS is that old, and not able to look for USB, more than likely the machine has a floppy drive
I know this is pretty off topic.
Something I have always wondered about people who prefer cash....how do you justify the risk of being mugged or losing your wallet(or purse)? If you live in a small town, or low crime city, the risk is probably not something you worry about. I hate to keep anything over $50 on me, because I worry mostly about losing my wallet, and some about being mugged.
But I don't think it's su ch a bad idea that such a developer be held liable for her code.
Until it's you being held liable. Sadly, all it takes is one little mistake.
I do think there needs to be some type of software liability laws, but they are going to have to be like nothing else out there, basically a totally new concept.
Sadly what you say is pretty true, especially concerning the role reversial. Some people seem to have such a biased view is MS that the never allow them to do anything right. I will agree with everyone else that this is great for the market, 2MB was really low.
You make great points. Often rural areas have non profit power companies, and low or non profit phone companies as well. The big boys spin of these companies because they are not worth their time basically. The truth is these rural areas would not have power or phone if it was up to profits alone. Two things can happen here...the government can step in and pay for the broadband to be run to these areas in the form of DSL and cable, or we can let the free market decide, and give BPL a try. They both have pros and cons.
Something funny about dealers and license plate frame stuff. My friend too. her 2002 Beetle in for a oil change and a warranty repair. I mean about 4 or 5 months after they bought the car new. The dealership she took it to was a different one than who she bought it from. The one who did the repairs changed the license plate frame to theirs!!! I think thats pretty bold.