Best one I ever heard of was someone calling up saying "I've followed all the instructions, used the CD, signed up to an ISP, my browser is showing and my homepage is set to Google. My problem is: what do I do now?" The poor chap had heard the internet was amazing and that he had to get it, had got it, and then had no idea what he'd got it for.
Easing congestion? No speed limits? Hehe I can't wait to see all those rich folk smash each other up on the river. Anyone want to club together to buy Ricahrd Branson one?
I think you have under English law too. The more I think about it the more I think that copy protection is technically unlawful. However, I think that the proportion of people making copies for personal use alone is very small indeed, and the law would probably recognise this and give producers a certain leeway to prevent this, considering it a reasonable protection of interests.
Do you mean bit rate? Well possibly. The fact is, whatever the mathematical definition, when people (usually non-techies - we all have broadband already) talk about the failure of the internet being down to broadband's failure to take off they do not have a bit rate in mind, they don't give a monkey's whether it's a 2K modem or a Wi-Fi Pringles network as long as delivers stuff quickly.
As Wittgenstein never actually said, meaning is usage.
I got irritated at this article's pedantic definition of "broadband", and the mathematical justification for its saying that the post office already provides a broadband service. I mean, when people talk about broadband, they mean a relatively fast internet connection, and more specifically and informally the ability to download whatever stuff they want quickly. Web stuff without the wait. That should be obvious to anyone.
However, it does raise a good point: what do people want broadband for? So they can shop for stuff, read the news and download material without having to wait. Most of us that really want to can do the first two at work, and the third is not needed by everyone, and requires a certain level of technical adeptness that most people without a broadband don't have. So if they get it maybe they'll use it. And maybe they won't. Who knows? If broadband does become universal it's likely that the tech used will be different to the tech we know, ie not through the desktop PC.
What certainly is true is that the dot com boom was not a product of the failure to implement broadband quickly. It was a simple case of indiscriminate and desperate investment in a technology that couldn't generate cash quickly enough. www.petsmart.com anyone?
It seems to me that a producer has a right to try to take steps to prevent users from using their products illegally. What they don't have is a right to deny a customer a refund if the product does not work as advertised, as is the case here.
Now one could argue that you have a right to be able to copy a piece of intellectual property as backup for personal use, but this is debatable and is not the point you raise.
And as for the rest, well, you don't have to be a great fighter to know the best strategies...
Our CTO (who is absolutely no fool) is always giving advice like this. His particular bugbears are Visio drawings and simple Word documents. He walks past my desk saying "Just do it by hand! So much faster!" He also loathes Java ("Why so complicated?!!!").
Although my experience is slightly different because we are customer-based and not internal, our approach is to say "it will cost you". Then, if they insist it can be done faster you outline the risks. If there's money at risk they usually capitulate, but if they make unreasonable demands, the only thing you can do is go along with it making it clear you're not comfortable. At the end of the day it's 'their' money and 'their' responsibility. If the problem is that they expect you to do more hours than you think is reasonable and won't hire help then the problem is not how to say no - it's your unreasonable employers.
The finest tea is undoubtedly sold at Fortnum and Mason's in Picadilly, London. They have grown their own tea for over 200 years I believe. Also, Earl Grey is considered a bit second-rate among some tea drinkers, being a bit too fragrant and weak. But then Douglas Adams was a 'Tab.
Agreed. For me it more that the "humour" in the article was just plain annoying. What it was actually saying was rather obvious really, but wrapped in juvenile jokes. If you're going to post redundany stories, at least make them witty.
I/We beg to differ. Using Tomcat has been nightmarish for us to deploy on reasonably small, simple sites. Specifically, enormous problems with mod_jk and inconsistencies between apparently similar version of TC causing utter havoc. We switched to Resin in the end...
"The defect density of the Apache code inspected was 0.53 per thousand lines of source code, while the commercial average defect density came to 0.51 per thousand lines of source code."
A simple reductio ad absurdum from this: if you produce thousands and thousands of lines of harmless, simple code to do something that could be done in a line, then your more verbose code is "better" than the concise one by this metric.
This is assuming that it is possible to reliably statically test for errors in the first place, and that one "error" is equivalent to another... All seems a little suspect to me.
We would like to implement a means for people to talk to each other while watching a TV program.
We have absolutely no idea how to do this, and this brilliant, totally new idea needs your expertise to implement.
What possible technologies are there to achieve this? We've had many conference calls and online interwebcam-webchats, and examined all the interactive TV technology and are at a total loss!
Perhaps you geniuses could suggest a way forward?
Yours sincerely,
Alan Cretin"
Seriously, I work in interactive TV, and how on *Earth* can this be called a problem with a non-obvious solution? It's like patenting a videophone... anyone got that one's patent number??
When I was a at uni, I wrote en epic novel, directed and produced some films and mapped the city. It was just a matter of finding the money to make them real.
Maybe MS will cut their losses and do a red hat? I've often wondered why MS don't take over Linux and offer (expensive) support for a red hat type product. In fact, why not buy Red Hat, stick a Microsoft label on it and offer it to Munich et al at a much cheaper rate?
It would blunt the effect of a lot of the threats of Linux to MS. Support is big money if you do it right, and it's what IT managers get nervous about over Linux.
Of course, it would encourage the use of Linux, rendering Windows less of a player.
I'd be interested to know why this would be a bad idea from MS's point of view.
Fair enough - I didn't use that site when I had problems with php; I am sure it is very good. I think from what you say we're pretty much agreed. I mean, if someone said online docs were pointless I'd have sprung to their defence too.
Slashdot Mirror
Best one I ever heard of was someone calling up saying "I've followed all the instructions, used the CD, signed up to an ISP, my browser is showing and my homepage is set to Google. My problem is: what do I do now?" The poor chap had heard the internet was amazing and that he had to get it, had got it, and then had no idea what he'd got it for.
Easing congestion? No speed limits? Hehe I can't wait to see all those rich folk smash each other up on the river. Anyone want to club together to buy Ricahrd Branson one?
I think you have under English law too. The more I think about it the more I think that copy protection is technically unlawful. However, I think that the proportion of people making copies for personal use alone is very small indeed, and the law would probably recognise this and give producers a certain leeway to prevent this, considering it a reasonable protection of interests.
As Wittgenstein never actually said, meaning is usage.
However, it does raise a good point: what do people want broadband for? So they can shop for stuff, read the news and download material without having to wait. Most of us that really want to can do the first two at work, and the third is not needed by everyone, and requires a certain level of technical adeptness that most people without a broadband don't have. So if they get it maybe they'll use it. And maybe they won't. Who knows? If broadband does become universal it's likely that the tech used will be different to the tech we know, ie not through the desktop PC.
What certainly is true is that the dot com boom was not a product of the failure to implement broadband quickly. It was a simple case of indiscriminate and desperate investment in a technology that couldn't generate cash quickly enough. www.petsmart.com anyone?
Now one could argue that you have a right to be able to copy a piece of intellectual property as backup for personal use, but this is debatable and is not the point you raise.
And as for the rest, well, you don't have to be a great fighter to know the best strategies...
No, but we have databases that can hold *subsets* of these ids and ensure that none conflict.
Yes I can just imagine all those lawmakers up on Capitol Hill trembling in their boots as they discover Knoppix downloads are unavailable.
Our CTO (who is absolutely no fool) is always giving advice like this. His particular bugbears are Visio drawings and simple Word documents. He walks past my desk saying "Just do it by hand! So much faster!" He also loathes Java ("Why so complicated?!!!").
Although my experience is slightly different because we are customer-based and not internal, our approach is to say "it will cost you". Then, if they insist it can be done faster you outline the risks. If there's money at risk they usually capitulate, but if they make unreasonable demands, the only thing you can do is go along with it making it clear you're not comfortable. At the end of the day it's 'their' money and 'their' responsibility. If the problem is that they expect you to do more hours than you think is reasonable and won't hire help then the problem is not how to say no - it's your unreasonable employers.
The finest tea is undoubtedly sold at Fortnum and Mason's in Picadilly, London. They have grown their own tea for over 200 years I believe. Also, Earl Grey is considered a bit second-rate among some tea drinkers, being a bit too fragrant and weak. But then Douglas Adams was a 'Tab.
Have you?
It is patently obvious that it is the appending operator in *nix shells. The output of dollars is appended to influence, thereby increasing its size.
Your sig is far funnier than anything in that article.
Agreed. For me it more that the "humour" in the article was just plain annoying. What it was actually saying was rather obvious really, but wrapped in juvenile jokes. If you're going to post redundany stories, at least make them witty.
I/We beg to differ. Using Tomcat has been nightmarish for us to deploy on reasonably small, simple sites. Specifically, enormous problems with mod_jk and inconsistencies between apparently similar version of TC causing utter havoc. We switched to Resin in the end...
Schoolchildren
Any job that involves complex calculations and it is inconvenient to carry round a laptop.
Hmmm. Not many people in my opinion. Unless anyone would care to contradict me?
This sig is intenionally pointless.
Mind if I point by telescope at your bathroom then?
A simple reductio ad absurdum from this: if you produce thousands and thousands of lines of harmless, simple code to do something that could be done in a line, then your more verbose code is "better" than the concise one by this metric.
This is assuming that it is possible to reliably statically test for errors in the first place, and that one "error" is equivalent to another... All seems a little suspect to me.
This signature is intentionally pointless.
Do you have a websight that corroborates this?
"Dear Inventor,
We would like to implement a means for people to talk to each other while watching a TV program.
We have absolutely no idea how to do this, and this brilliant, totally new idea needs your expertise to implement.
What possible technologies are there to achieve this? We've had many conference calls and online interwebcam-webchats, and examined all the interactive TV technology and are at a total loss!
Perhaps you geniuses could suggest a way forward?
Yours sincerely,
Alan Cretin"
Seriously, I work in interactive TV, and how on *Earth* can this be called a problem with a non-obvious solution? It's like patenting a videophone... anyone got that one's patent number??
When I was a at uni, I wrote en epic novel, directed and produced some films and mapped the city. It was just a matter of finding the money to make them real.
It would blunt the effect of a lot of the threats of Linux to MS. Support is big money if you do it right, and it's what IT managers get nervous about over Linux.
Of course, it would encourage the use of Linux, rendering Windows less of a player.
I'd be interested to know why this would be a bad idea from MS's point of view.
Yeah it would. Evidently I have small Latin and less Greek. My tcl's quite good though.
Fair enough - I didn't use that site when I had problems with php; I am sure it is very good. I think from what you say we're pretty much agreed. I mean, if someone said online docs were pointless I'd have sprung to their defence too.