Valuing peoples opinion and treating them like adults result in anarchy? As adults we vote, drive cars and have kids, but when it comes to the work environment we need to be told what to do and monitored every step of the way? Read the books by RichardoSemler and see how a system like this can result in tremendeous growth for a company even against the turmoil of Brazil's economy. How did this get modded as insightful?
Every country has their own variation. In Japan it's sushi off naked women. I sure we have an equiviant here in Australia but I'm too scared to think of what it might be and too tired to think of something funny.
While your point is valid I think there are alternatives to dual boot that deprecate it.
Parallels has released a beta of their virtualisation software, I I must say it is very snappy. If you can stand the performance overhead there is no need to reboot at all - just launch Windows (or any other OS) in a window. VMware have already been cited as having their terrific software running on Macs. I expect them to announce a release shortly.
Add Xen to the equation and things get better. Xen has even less on an overhead and allows guest OS's to run at almost native speeds. Again, why go through all the dangerous mucking about with reboots?
I remember hearing that Xen will be "supported" on the new Intel chips, which would allow unmodified kernels to run on the Xen platform. If this is true then the Mac (or any other OS) could run multiple OS without ever rebooting.
This is the way for the future. Dual boot is dead.
I have an 4G iPod (colour) and upgraded to the last version of the software last week. It killed it. Updates were extremely slow and nothing I did helped; until I reverted to the previous version. I notice this release says "all other versions are the same". I think I will give it a miss......
Your description is accurate, Mr. Anonymous, and fitting if you consider flying a big bus with wings. I sir, do not.
I do not like the battle to get a nice seat and I don't understand their system. It costs no more to allocate seats or let passengers specify a preference. Their system? Women and children first, the next 50 passengers that booked in and then the rest of you scruffy lot. The consequence, everyone jumps up and rushes onto the aircraft hoping to elbow themselves a good seat.
Mind you, you can't book in too early (I arrived at the airport with my wife far too early for them to accept us, the solution? None offered, just wait around and return we are ready).
Arrive too late and they take your money. No refund, no apologies, no flexibility. "I'm sorry sir, the fact you have no check in baggage it of no consequence. Those are the rules."
The food situation is not that bad; well it's never been any good on any airline anyway. However, if I am going to pay give me good food, not that plastic cheese, processed pizza or prepacked, reheated, gut obstructing junk. I don't eat while flying anymore and avoid the overprice garbage in the terminal. I miss the real knife and form you used to get when someone else was paying the fair (business class), but now Qantas have priced their tickets so high almost none uses them domestically anymore (and why would Qantas want that - their money is in the Pacific route to which they have exclusive rights?)/
Virgin Blue, IMHO, offer better service for similar money. No rigid, arbitrary, dehumanising rules. No herding like live sheep exports.
I am not sure what it's like in other parts of the world (I have not been there often enough to form a solid opinion). I suspect they are flying buses as they have become here.
Perhaps I belong in a different era? Perhaps the average person really does not care about service or quality and just wants to get to their destination as quickly and as cheaply as possible? Then again, perhaps I fly more often than the average punter and want to be treated like a real person again?
Australia is an unusual place for an airline business - unlike most other countries our cities are quite far apart, plus we are a long way from almost anyone else. This is especially true when they fly overseas from primarily Sydney (to L.A. or Singapore). This is very different to the USA or Europe where flights are usually short, packed full of people and frequent. Qantas would be classed as long haul carriers my most other airlines in the world.
Statistics show that most airline crashes occur on takeoff or landing (so almost none in cruising). You might argue that the frequency of tack offs and landings experienced by Qantas are much less than other carriers, and why their safety record seems so good.
It will be interesting to see Jetstar's safety performance over time (Qantas's low cost, wholly owned reply to Virgin Blue's entry into the market). Jetstar cur prices to the bone. You don't get meals unless you pay, you fight for your seat and there are strict policies on check in (too late and they keep your money). I understand that Jetstar also kept costs low by shutting out the unions and negotiating individual contracts for all workers. Ask any Australian who as flown with them - the culture stinks. It will be very interesting to see how Jetstar's performance will be in these circumstances, and remember THEY ARE QANTAS.
ordering an Alienware will no longer be like putting in an order for a car in East Germany.
People who buy German cars like to be able to specify all the options and customise their car to their liking. They know they are paying more, but feel they are getting a car built just for them.
It is the same with Alienware. People who buy these computers want to customise them. They are high end, expensive, personalised machines - that's their niche. Buyers to not want just another beige box, or that might have well purchased a.... well, a Dell.
You are not alone in your experience. I managed Netware, Windows and Linux networks for medium sized companies for 15 years. When you use all the brands and models with an open mind you see the strengths and weakness of them.
NDS is awesome, AD is aweful. Netware is stable, but a bugger to develop to (abend anyone?). Linux is stable and easy to develop, but lacks decent enterprise management. Novell dropped the ball on management (Console1, NWadmin & iManager?) - we were promised full migration to iManager over two years ago and we still aren't even close. Windows requires constant maintenance by the three finger salute army.
Almost noone I spoke to understood why eDirectory was so good, and that's the problem. Novell were so caught up in the "we are technically better" mentality they fogot to tell anyone about it.
Maybe SuSE will save them, but it a long haul struggle and I no longer care. I have escaped the IT department and work in another field. I purchased an iMac because it is easy to use and just works.
I watch the repeat with interest last night and his amazing run down the mountain. It was great to see the "Australian" underdog last in the line up (because he was first in qualifying) zip down the mountain at such graceful speed. Knowing he was not truely Australian never seems to bother us - if you are a winner we will adopt you. My wife informed me he was an Internet millionaire and now Olympic Gold Medalist at the age of 21. How could this be? Well, now we know - spam, popups and porn. I second the motion - Canada, you can have him back. You're not the first adopted Australian we have later rejected and you won't be the last.
...does that answer the "How can you prove who you are" issue?
No. As you rightly pointed out I now have to trust the people that put the card together. All the card proves it that the issuer *thought* the name, photo, fingerprint, etc matched - assuming no corruption or (deliberate) errors.
At some point we need to break down and trust someone somewhere, but why add another (useless) layer of pseudo protection? Why should I trust the ID card department and not the passport department? Why should the passport deparment trust the ID card department? What's the bloody purpose anyway, it won't make us safer?
Here in Australia there have been a few attempts to introduce "The Australia Card". Essentially the same thing as mentioned here. Luckily the Australian public hated it and the bill was easily defeated both times.
I don't know what it's like in the UK, but in in Australia a passport is considered a very good means of identification. Of course this raises the question of how to I provide enough evidence to prove who I am in order to obtain a passport? Making a identification card compulsory add another layer - now how do I prove who I am in order to obtain an identification card so I can get a passport (no, you can't use your passport)?
The ultimate question is: How can you *prove* who you are?
In the end it comes down to webs of trust.
Of course, all of this misses the point. Are these measures meant to make us safer? From what? Terrorism? The guys who blew themselves up on the London undeground and on the buses were not hiding their identities. They were British citizens and in walked freely.
How does a compulsory id card to obtain a passport (which is already compulsory for travel) going to prevent this?
Knowing which way is up is not a problem if you are adjusting the volume (clockwise for up, anti for down). A touch screen does not change this except the wheel appear whereever you place your finger. The rest of the time I look at the ipod to use it....
I think you're right - it is not ready for the mainstream yet, but things are looking promising.
Novell showcased some nice server management technology during Brainshare a while ago. Using a web browser they were able to migrate virtual machines between hardware platforms with very little intteruption (sub second). This aludes tot he future of data centre computing IMHO.
There are a lot of clever people working on technologies to cluster small machines together to form one virtual machine. This is then broken back down into multiple virtual machines. Administrators can select how much memory, cpu, storage, etc a virtual machine may occupy - or place policies into the system so it can decide how to split the resources dynamically.
Such a system is a dream for manhy admins. A virtual machine running out of resources - allocate more. Running out of storage space - allocate more. The cluster being hit hard - add more servers to the cluster. A sudden influx of spam - spawn multiple mail servers to cope with the increase. Need a backup of a server that the business requires 100% uptime on - take a snapshot of the entire machine. All using a standard web browser, so administration can be performed from anywhere at anytime.
The brainshare demo opened my eyes to the possibilities I'm excited!
I would be very suprised if Apple are not continuing the development of OSX on the PPC. They had a backup plan when they were with IBM, they sure will have one now. I also suspect there are versions that run on AMD inside the infinite loop.
I wish someone would add this sort of functionality to my computers filing system. Most people don't know s**t about computers. They don't want to and they shouldn't have to.
Why can't my mum hit save *and not know where the file went?* All she needs to do is retrieve the file when she needs it - and what better than an intelligent tagging system? It sure beats a heirarchy where, as you say, things live should live in multiple places at the same time.
Apple's spotlight automatically adds all the words in a document to it's engine - a kind of tagging on steriods. While it may miss the *meaning* of a document, it does capture the content. Do we go this way, or let the users assign their own keywords? Or do we do both?
Del.icio.us adds another layer by linking the tags/keywords together. This could be used in any social grouping - family, work, town, city, country, whatever. Natural, socially meaningful taxonomies arise from these systems and are incredibly valuable because of it.
I agree with you, but most people who use computers are not interested in the slightest about system architecture or security. They treat them like TV's or toasters - an appliance to use. As I get older I am starting to subscribe to this philosophy. I just want it to work; I don't want to baby sit my computer, constantly tinkering with settings, installing "protector" apps, configuring firewalls, logging out and back in again to install an application, being careful opening email attachments, carefully clicking the close button on popups that say "click here to remove all the spam from your machine!". I don't give a crap about all this - I want to do my stuff and go. Get out of my way and let me be productive!
Tying the *name* of the file and the *type* of the file together was an extrodinarily bad move. They are two seperate attributes and shoul dbe treated as such. Unfortunately, most operating systems do this.....
I agree - the powerbooks were starting to show their age and needed an upgrade. I am not suprised Apple focused on them first. The release of the new iMac just before Christmas timed nicely for the big spend. I suspect the Intel iMac shares much of its architecture with this model (perhaps they wanted to release the Intel version late last year?). I fully expect a new Intel based mini as rumours have suggested. Apple knows that a Intel mini with front row and the remote would fly off the shelves - hell, I am about to buy a new TV in preperation!
Slashdot Mirror
Valuing peoples opinion and treating them like adults result in anarchy? As adults we vote, drive cars and have kids, but when it comes to the work environment we need to be told what to do and monitored every step of the way? Read the books by Richardo Semler and see how a system like this can result in tremendeous growth for a company even against the turmoil of Brazil's economy. How did this get modded as insightful?
Every country has their own variation. In Japan it's sushi off naked women. I sure we have an equiviant here in Australia but I'm too scared to think of what it might be and too tired to think of something funny.
While your point is valid I think there are alternatives to dual boot that deprecate it.
Parallels has released a beta of their virtualisation software, I I must say it is very snappy. If you can stand the performance overhead there is no need to reboot at all - just launch Windows (or any other OS) in a window. VMware have already been cited as having their terrific software running on Macs. I expect them to announce a release shortly.
Add Xen to the equation and things get better. Xen has even less on an overhead and allows guest OS's to run at almost native speeds. Again, why go through all the dangerous mucking about with reboots?
I remember hearing that Xen will be "supported" on the new Intel chips, which would allow unmodified kernels to run on the Xen platform. If this is true then the Mac (or any other OS) could run multiple OS without ever rebooting.
This is the way for the future. Dual boot is dead.
I have an 4G iPod (colour) and upgraded to the last version of the software last week. It killed it. Updates were extremely slow and nothing I did helped; until I reverted to the previous version. I notice this release says "all other versions are the same". I think I will give it a miss......
Your description is accurate, Mr. Anonymous, and fitting if you consider flying a big bus with wings. I sir, do not.
I do not like the battle to get a nice seat and I don't understand their system. It costs no more to allocate seats or let passengers specify a preference. Their system? Women and children first, the next 50 passengers that booked in and then the rest of you scruffy lot. The consequence, everyone jumps up and rushes onto the aircraft hoping to elbow themselves a good seat.Mind you, you can't book in too early (I arrived at the airport with my wife far too early for them to accept us, the solution? None offered, just wait around and return we are ready).
Arrive too late and they take your money. No refund, no apologies, no flexibility. "I'm sorry sir, the fact you have no check in baggage it of no consequence. Those are the rules."
The food situation is not that bad; well it's never been any good on any airline anyway. However, if I am going to pay give me good food, not that plastic cheese, processed pizza or prepacked, reheated, gut obstructing junk. I don't eat while flying anymore and avoid the overprice garbage in the terminal. I miss the real knife and form you used to get when someone else was paying the fair (business class), but now Qantas have priced their tickets so high almost none uses them domestically anymore (and why would Qantas want that - their money is in the Pacific route to which they have exclusive rights?)/
Virgin Blue, IMHO, offer better service for similar money. No rigid, arbitrary, dehumanising rules. No herding like live sheep exports.
I am not sure what it's like in other parts of the world (I have not been there often enough to form a solid opinion). I suspect they are flying buses as they have become here.
Perhaps I belong in a different era? Perhaps the average person really does not care about service or quality and just wants to get to their destination as quickly and as cheaply as possible? Then again, perhaps I fly more often than the average punter and want to be treated like a real person again?
I know this is off topic, but here we go:
Australia is an unusual place for an airline business - unlike most other countries our cities are quite far apart, plus we are a long way from almost anyone else. This is especially true when they fly overseas from primarily Sydney (to L.A. or Singapore). This is very different to the USA or Europe where flights are usually short, packed full of people and frequent. Qantas would be classed as long haul carriers my most other airlines in the world.
Statistics show that most airline crashes occur on takeoff or landing (so almost none in cruising). You might argue that the frequency of tack offs and landings experienced by Qantas are much less than other carriers, and why their safety record seems so good.
It will be interesting to see Jetstar's safety performance over time (Qantas's low cost, wholly owned reply to Virgin Blue's entry into the market). Jetstar cur prices to the bone. You don't get meals unless you pay, you fight for your seat and there are strict policies on check in (too late and they keep your money). I understand that Jetstar also kept costs low by shutting out the unions and negotiating individual contracts for all workers. Ask any Australian who as flown with them - the culture stinks. It will be very interesting to see how Jetstar's performance will be in these circumstances, and remember THEY ARE QANTAS.
Opps - misssed the "east" part. I retract my statement.
While I agree with you, wasn't Vista orginally due to ship in 2003? 4 years of delays, what the...?
Microsoft are making some really bad mistakes.
People who buy German cars like to be able to specify all the options and customise their car to their liking. They know they are paying more, but feel they are getting a car built just for them.
It is the same with Alienware. People who buy these computers want to customise them. They are high end, expensive, personalised machines - that's their niche. Buyers to not want just another beige box, or that might have well purchased a.... well, a Dell.
You are not alone in your experience. I managed Netware, Windows and Linux networks for medium sized companies for 15 years. When you use all the brands and models with an open mind you see the strengths and weakness of them.
NDS is awesome, AD is aweful. Netware is stable, but a bugger to develop to (abend anyone?). Linux is stable and easy to develop, but lacks decent enterprise management. Novell dropped the ball on management (Console1, NWadmin & iManager?) - we were promised full migration to iManager over two years ago and we still aren't even close. Windows requires constant maintenance by the three finger salute army.
Almost noone I spoke to understood why eDirectory was so good, and that's the problem. Novell were so caught up in the "we are technically better" mentality they fogot to tell anyone about it.
Maybe SuSE will save them, but it a long haul struggle and I no longer care. I have escaped the IT department and work in another field. I purchased an iMac because it is easy to use and just works.
"...orient the direction a field of electrons as they move.." doesn't make much sense either. I think there is an "of" missing?
Come to think of it - most of the article does not make sense to me, but would welcome 3 of these things in RAID.
I watch the repeat with interest last night and his amazing run down the mountain. It was great to see the "Australian" underdog last in the line up (because he was first in qualifying) zip down the mountain at such graceful speed. Knowing he was not truely Australian never seems to bother us - if you are a winner we will adopt you. My wife informed me he was an Internet millionaire and now Olympic Gold Medalist at the age of 21. How could this be? Well, now we know - spam, popups and porn. I second the motion - Canada, you can have him back. You're not the first adopted Australian we have later rejected and you won't be the last.
...does that answer the "How can you prove who you are" issue?
No. As you rightly pointed out I now have to trust the people that put the card together. All the card proves it that the issuer *thought* the name, photo, fingerprint, etc matched - assuming no corruption or (deliberate) errors.
At some point we need to break down and trust someone somewhere, but why add another (useless) layer of pseudo protection? Why should I trust the ID card department and not the passport department? Why should the passport deparment trust the ID card department? What's the bloody purpose anyway, it won't make us safer?
Here in Australia there have been a few attempts to introduce "The Australia Card". Essentially the same thing as mentioned here. Luckily the Australian public hated it and the bill was easily defeated both times.
I don't know what it's like in the UK, but in in Australia a passport is considered a very good means of identification. Of course this raises the question of how to I provide enough evidence to prove who I am in order to obtain a passport? Making a identification card compulsory add another layer - now how do I prove who I am in order to obtain an identification card so I can get a passport (no, you can't use your passport)?
The ultimate question is: How can you *prove* who you are?
In the end it comes down to webs of trust.
Of course, all of this misses the point. Are these measures meant to make us safer? From what? Terrorism? The guys who blew themselves up on the London undeground and on the buses were not hiding their identities. They were British citizens and in walked freely.
How does a compulsory id card to obtain a passport (which is already compulsory for travel) going to prevent this?
Knowing which way is up is not a problem if you are adjusting the volume (clockwise for up, anti for down). A touch screen does not change this except the wheel appear whereever you place your finger. The rest of the time I look at the ipod to use it....
I think you're right - it is not ready for the mainstream yet, but things are looking promising.
Novell showcased some nice server management technology during Brainshare a while ago. Using a web browser they were able to migrate virtual machines between hardware platforms with very little intteruption (sub second). This aludes tot he future of data centre computing IMHO.
There are a lot of clever people working on technologies to cluster small machines together to form one virtual machine. This is then broken back down into multiple virtual machines. Administrators can select how much memory, cpu, storage, etc a virtual machine may occupy - or place policies into the system so it can decide how to split the resources dynamically.
Such a system is a dream for manhy admins. A virtual machine running out of resources - allocate more. Running out of storage space - allocate more. The cluster being hit hard - add more servers to the cluster. A sudden influx of spam - spawn multiple mail servers to cope with the increase. Need a backup of a server that the business requires 100% uptime on - take a snapshot of the entire machine. All using a standard web browser, so administration can be performed from anywhere at anytime.
The brainshare demo opened my eyes to the possibilities I'm excited!
I would be very suprised if Apple are not continuing the development of OSX on the PPC. They had a backup plan when they were with IBM, they sure will have one now. I also suspect there are versions that run on AMD inside the infinite loop.
Agreed, but at least one of the presenters redeems himself somewhat by appearing on Top Gear.
I wish someone would add this sort of functionality to my computers filing system. Most people don't know s**t about computers. They don't want to and they shouldn't have to.
Why can't my mum hit save *and not know where the file went?* All she needs to do is retrieve the file when she needs it - and what better than an intelligent tagging system? It sure beats a heirarchy where, as you say, things live should live in multiple places at the same time.
Apple's spotlight automatically adds all the words in a document to it's engine - a kind of tagging on steriods. While it may miss the *meaning* of a document, it does capture the content. Do we go this way, or let the users assign their own keywords? Or do we do both?
Del.icio.us adds another layer by linking the tags/keywords together. This could be used in any social grouping - family, work, town, city, country, whatever. Natural, socially meaningful taxonomies arise from these systems and are incredibly valuable because of it.
Agreed - MOD UP!
Mulder? Is that you?
I agree with you, but most people who use computers are not interested in the slightest about system architecture or security. They treat them like TV's or toasters - an appliance to use. As I get older I am starting to subscribe to this philosophy. I just want it to work; I don't want to baby sit my computer, constantly tinkering with settings, installing "protector" apps, configuring firewalls, logging out and back in again to install an application, being careful opening email attachments, carefully clicking the close button on popups that say "click here to remove all the spam from your machine!". I don't give a crap about all this - I want to do my stuff and go. Get out of my way and let me be productive!
Tying the *name* of the file and the *type* of the file together was an extrodinarily bad move. They are two seperate attributes and shoul dbe treated as such. Unfortunately, most operating systems do this.....
You know Apple is a business, right?
I agree - the powerbooks were starting to show their age and needed an upgrade. I am not suprised Apple focused on them first. The release of the new iMac just before Christmas timed nicely for the big spend. I suspect the Intel iMac shares much of its architecture with this model (perhaps they wanted to release the Intel version late last year?). I fully expect a new Intel based mini as rumours have suggested. Apple knows that a Intel mini with front row and the remote would fly off the shelves - hell, I am about to buy a new TV in preperation!