This is for salaried, full time employees.
Each tech keeps the pager for an evening (5pm to 8am) on a rotating basis.
For each evening they have the pager, they get $100, whether they get 0 calls or 100, and they never visit the site - that's for business hours.
The tech on the weekend is on call from 5pm Friday to 8am MOnday, and gets $100 and a comp day.I have worked in several places where this was the method. The company gets 24 hour supports for less than 40k a year, and the techs get some cash and some comp days. Everyone wins.
A couple of points: 1. By the time this is out (4Q 2001?) it will be hopelessly outdated from a hardware standpoint. 2. I don't think it will be released then either. Microsoft is scared of the new generation of internet enabled game boxes for the same reason it was scared of Netscape. They present an alternate method of accessing functions that the average user now has to go through the Windows OS to use. If one can hook a DSL line into a game box, then all of the internet is available, fast, including the new generation of online applications that are itching to replace Office. This is a classic example of MS announcing something to scare off the developers from support the rival option. The point is, MS doesn't even have to release the product as long as they scare off enough support for the existing boxes to make them a less than stellar success.
I use a MS split keyboard. I's very hard to type on anything else after you've used one of these for a while. My typing is easily three times as fast. And my fingers don't feel bunched together. The older versions are better if you can find one - each key is slightly further apart, and the arrow and etc keys are in a more logical arrangement. I also have an Intellimouuse Explorer. Some good things are the number of buttons and the fact that you can assign just about any task to them. Two bad things - it seems a little big for an average hand, and the second thumb button is just about useless. It's positioned toward the front of the mouse (toward the wire) in regard to the main thumb button, and is just about unreachable unless you rest your hand entirely on the top of the mouse, which is very uncomfortable. It should be located beneath (towards the desk) the main thumb button. Apart from that, it's great - very smooth, and you can throw away your mouse pads.
MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, M2, Nick-At-Nite and Showtime are all owned by Viacom. They all share the same IS department, infoWorks (although MTVOnline has it's own set-up). They share other things also, like HR. It's really one big company. All but Showtime are in the same building in Times Square - Showtime is just up the street. Check out Viacom's site to see what else they own - it's amazing and a little scary.
I live in Hoboken. Called Bell Atlantic. Got the "DSL modem" and NIC in the mail a week later. A week after that, they came out and did the wiring (converted my main phone line to DSL and disconnected my second line, which I no longer needed). They were supposed to have another tech visit the following day and set up my PC, but I did it myself and cancelled the visit. Works great. Before DSL: Phone Line: $20/month ISP:$20/month Total: $40 month/56k After DSL: DSL: $40/month ISP: $10/month Total: $50/month Ten bucks a month more, for 640k rather than 56k is a great deal in my book.
Watch out for the guy playing Steve Ballmer - John DiMaggio. This guy has been in a bunch of other stuff (Chicago Hope, MTV, HBO etc) and is fantastic. Really an actor to watch.
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This is for salaried, full time employees. Each tech keeps the pager for an evening (5pm to 8am) on a rotating basis. For each evening they have the pager, they get $100, whether they get 0 calls or 100, and they never visit the site - that's for business hours. The tech on the weekend is on call from 5pm Friday to 8am MOnday, and gets $100 and a comp day.I have worked in several places where this was the method. The company gets 24 hour supports for less than 40k a year, and the techs get some cash and some comp days. Everyone wins.
A couple of points:
1. By the time this is out (4Q 2001?) it will be hopelessly outdated from a hardware standpoint.
2. I don't think it will be released then either. Microsoft is scared of the new generation of internet enabled game boxes for the same reason it was scared of Netscape. They present an alternate method of accessing functions that the average user now has to go through the Windows OS to use. If one can hook a DSL line into a game box, then all of the internet is available, fast, including the new generation of online applications that are itching to replace Office. This is a classic example of MS announcing something to scare off the developers from support the rival option. The point is, MS doesn't even have to release the product as long as they scare off enough support for the existing boxes to make them a less than stellar success.
I use a MS split keyboard. I's very hard to type on anything else after you've used one of these for a while. My typing is easily three times as fast. And my fingers don't feel bunched together. The older versions are better if you can find one - each key is slightly further apart, and the arrow and etc keys are in a more logical arrangement.
I also have an Intellimouuse Explorer. Some good things are the number of buttons and the fact that you can assign just about any task to them. Two bad things - it seems a little big for an average hand, and the second thumb button is just about useless. It's positioned toward the front of the mouse (toward the wire) in regard to the main thumb button, and is just about unreachable unless you rest your hand entirely on the top of the mouse, which is very uncomfortable. It should be located beneath (towards the desk) the main thumb button. Apart from that, it's great - very smooth, and you can throw away your mouse pads.
MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, M2, Nick-At-Nite and Showtime are all owned by Viacom. They all share the same IS department, infoWorks (although MTVOnline has it's own set-up). They share other things also, like HR. It's really one big company. All but Showtime are in the same building in Times Square - Showtime is just up the street. Check out Viacom's site to see what else they own - it's amazing and a little scary.
I live in Hoboken. Called Bell Atlantic. Got the "DSL modem" and NIC in the mail a week later. A week after that, they came out and did the wiring (converted my main phone line to DSL and disconnected my second line, which I no longer needed). They were supposed to have another tech visit the following day and set up my PC, but I did it myself and cancelled the visit.
Works great.
Before DSL:
Phone Line: $20/month
ISP:$20/month
Total: $40 month/56k
After DSL: DSL: $40/month
ISP: $10/month
Total: $50/month
Ten bucks a month more, for 640k rather than 56k is a great deal in my book.
Watch out for the guy playing Steve Ballmer - John DiMaggio. This guy has been in a bunch of other stuff (Chicago Hope, MTV, HBO etc) and is fantastic. Really an actor to watch.