Touchy? Nah, I wasn't bothered by it -- actually, I was giving you a hard time here, but in strictly the friendliest of ways. Like, "Aww, you know you subconsciously thought about this, don't play..."
I guess the MrJ thing IS kinda weird and funny. I have reactions like that sometimes. A word, or a phrase, will just strike me as weird and then it'll stick in my craw, like an itch I can't scratch. MrJ was like that. On one level I knew it was "Macintosh Runtime for Java, but on another I kept thinking "Billie Jean, knocking at my door..." Not a flattering picture.
The teacher wanted to play a game with the class, so she stood up and said, "Ok, let's play a game. I'll hold something behind my back, I'll describe it, and you can guess it. If you answer well, you can go next."
Holding an apple behind her back, the teacher said, "I have something that is luscious and gently curved, with a little knobbly thing poking up out of the middle..."
Little Dirty Johnny started waving his hands in the air, yelling, "I know! I know!"
"He's going to say Tit, I think," the teacher said, so she chose someone else. Lucy guessed 'Pear'. The teacher said "Well, no, Lucy, it was an apple. But I like the way you think, so why don't you go next!"
"I'm holding something soft and furry, and warm..." Lucy began.
Little Dirty Johnny went NUTS. "Oh, man, I know, I know!"
But the teacher knew, I mean she KNEW, he was going to say Lucy was holding her unmentionables. So she picked someone else. "Darl, why don't you try?"
"Is it a teddy bear?" Darl asked.
"No, it's my stuffed kitty!" Lucy replied. The teacher said, "I like the way you think, Darl, why don't you go next?"
And so it went, around the class, until every student EXCEPT Little Dirty Johnny had gone, and he stood up and objected.
"Hey, teacher, you've let everyone go but me. You've GOT to let ME go."
Sighing, the teacher relented.
Stuffing his hand deep in his pocket, Little Dirty Johnny said, "I've got somethin' longer than it is wide, kinda round, hard as a rock, with a head on it..."
"JOHNNY!" the teacher screamed!
"Nah, babe, it's a roll of quarters, but I like the way you think..."
I've seen it written both ways, actually. So, OK, it's in my head -- but I'm not the only one who thinks it's not such a hot name.
Lots of projects have acronym-based names that resolve to something that sounds cool. "Perl" comes to mind (Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister), or Gnu. Other projects are just named something that evokes something interesting, like "Java" itself, or Python, or Apache. So, Apple, with their strong "design for design's sake" ethic, chooses MRJ.
MRJ; MrJ; Mr.J... It just leads in the wrong direction. One is reminded of a certain Mr. J who can't keep his hands off the Young'uns.;)
Plus, I was kidding. Say, why'd you pick that one element out of the whole post? Just curious... Maybe it resonates with you subconsciously. Hmm?
I think it's like the old story about how Software Engineers won't admit they like Pascal because they're afraid it means they Aren't Worthy.
Up until recently, the Mac O/S wasn't really that geek-friendly in the sense that it didn't have a command line interface (the older ones had A/UX, but that went away for a while), it wasn't multiuser, it wasn't as powerful as Linux, and so on. So it has a reputation as "that user-friendly end user thing" among the kind of people who are into tweaking their Linux boxes. Plus there were all the cutesy touches that turned some people off, like calling their Java development environment "MrJ" (WTF???).
So the author is afraid the fact that he likes Mac OS/X means he "isn't worthy" like the old-time Pascal guys. He's afraid the spicy-Szezhuan devouring hackers are all going to make fun of him and throw fortune cookies at him while making rude noises. It's kinda funny, actually.
(Shameless advocacy section begins here)
I think it's bizarre that anyone would feel GUILT anyway, because OS/X is a great operating system. It gives you all the geek power of Linux (Perl, GCC, JDK1.4, a great IDE almost as good as Visual Studio) with none of the headaches. Turning on the firewall and turning off nonessential services can be done in one minute flat. Keeping the system up to date is a piece of cake, and because Apple is a profitable hardware vendor, you don't have to worry about them not having enough money to keep the patches flowing.
I was briefly annoyed that their filesystem isn't case-sensitive until I realized that it preserved case so it didn't break Java packages. So it turned out to be kind of a nonissue.
Finally, and this is where OS/X eats Linux's lunch, OS/X has perfect hardware support. Almost every piece of hardware on the market has an OS/X driver available. You don't have to kludge anything to work with a general purpose driver, you can use the manufacturer-supplied driver. So, you can spend your time USING your scanner, digital camera, and sound system instead of trying to make it work. That's priceless, ok? Not having to spend hours hacking away to get a scanner to work is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
Don't get me wrong. I love Linux. In fact, I use it on my other machine. But I love OS/X also, and I use that on this, my main machine. It's really about giving credit where credit is due. Apple's done a fantastic job.
Anyway, that's my.02. I think the original author should just relax and enjoy.:)
Your post is even more encouraging. After reading all those weird horror stories, I was really worried. I'd just dropped 1800 bucks on this iBook, really maxing it out. I loved it, I was excited to have it, and I felt totally screwed.
I kinda suspected what you said about the position of the hard drive; I'd shone a light in through the cooling grate on the side, and I couldn't see any room for any graphics chips up there, so I'd already doubted the story a little. But still, I was a little freaked out nontheless.
Your post REALLY makes me feel a lot better, and I appreciate it. The iBook has turned out to be a heck of a nice machine. Looks like I can relax.
Cool pic, by the way. Says a thousand words, right?;)
Wow, that's cool; I bought a 900Mhz or so iBook a couple of months ago (they came out with a G4 iBook THE WEEK AFTER I bought mine! Doh!!!) and then I started hearing all these stories about logic board failures, screen failures, and so on -- naturally I freaked out.
Specifically, one guy claimed the channel for the wires to the LCD was too small and they got torqued and cracked, cutting power to the backlight. Another guy said the solder joints under the video chip started to crack, which made the chip crap out unless you pushed down on it with your finger (next to the trackpad). Anotheer said his motherboard was arcing to the metal core of the laptop, electrifying the screws (!!!). And all this stuff supposedly happened right around the 1-year mark, as the warranty expired.
It totally freaked me out to hear about this stuff. At least, at first.
Your post is reassuring. I've been thinking lately, Apple sells millions of iMacs and iBooks, right? And a few dozen people are complaining online, with supposedly a few hundred more in a class-action suit. So out of millions of units, a few hundred have had serious problems.
I wonder if the affected iBooks all came from the same run; maybe one of their machine tools wasn't calibrated correctly, or they got a bad batch of solder. Because it looks like most people aren't having any trouble.
Thanks for the positive note; I'm even less worried about mine now.;)
Oh, please. Spare me the republican free-market bullshit. We have every right to be pissed off when people like YOU fuck over people like US so your pissy little stock can rise half a cent. You and everyone like you will be the first ones up against the wall when the revolution comes.
Enjoy your position while you have it, creep. It's just as temporary as all those IT jobs you're so proud of eliminating...
Thanks! I agree about Europe; it looks like a great place. My only problem is I'm not that good at spoken languages for some reason.:(
Still, I think if I had my choice, I'd pick someplace relaxed and socially comfortable, like Amsterdam. The people there seem pretty cool. Also, they have a nice, cold winter -- I like that.
I've been thinking about Toronto a lot lately. Australia, too. So many nice places in the world, so hard to choose...
Thanks! I agree completely, starting a microCorporation is a great idea. There are a million things people can do to earn a living without having to bow to some corporate master. I'm thinking about starting up something online, the whole T-shirts and coffee mugs thing; I'm not half bad as an artist... On the internet, word of mouth can get you lots of sales pretty fast. For a single guy, living alone, you could probably live on income from a decent online store...
Yeah, no kidding... And you have to wonder, are they really setting up those sweatshops to "be competitive" if they're making 99.00 on each pair of shoes? One wonders, couldn't they be competitive and make a profit of, say, 50.00 on a shoe?
I think it's all about buying big boats and mansions for the CEOs. All that "competition" crap is just their hair-thin straw-man justification for their incredible greed.
I'm a relatively old fart in this forum; I'm 33 years old, and I've been programming in one language or another since '95. I've been around; I did the comp sci degree, the Y2K effort, the Manhattan, NY, dot-com/dot-bomb experience, some corporate IT, and civil service in a few different organizations. I've been around to watch our field go down the tubes, I have a pretty good understanding of the whys and whens, and I've got some advice for you, so please listen. I might be able to save you some grief.
First, look at the problem at hand: corporate jobs are going away because of corporate greed and disloyalty. First it'll be IT jobs, then virtually everyone as corporations move everything overseas that CAN be moved. This is nothing new, they did it to the manufacturing sector decades ago. But it IS unique in that once it's gone, that's it. There's nothing left for an ex-corporate type to retrain to except dead-end retail jobs at six bucks an hour.
So, this is pretty scary. But you CAN keep yourself out of harm's way. You don't have to just let yourself get sidelined.
First of all, ask yourself: do you really want to work for a corporation? You'll have to sign an IP agreement, a nondisclosure, and a noncompete, so you won't be able to work for anyone else for several years even if you're fired -- this is sort of like indentured servitude. And you'll have to work 60+ hours a week with no overtime pay because they'll write you up as an "exempt" worker. And you'll have some idiot suit breathing down your neck all day, reminding you on a constant basis that "you're lucky to have a job in this economy" (believe it or not, I've heard of this kind of thing from a lot of different people). You'll have to physically restrain yourself from dropping him out the nearest window, which will cause you stress. And you'll have to eventually watch your job go away, maybe even training your replacements.
So all those corporate jobs sucked anyway. Fuck 'em. Don't even consider them. The only reason corporations are still hiring is that they haven't fully ramped up their outsourcing yet. Why help them while they're still in the process of screwing you and all your friends over? Blow 'em off and get a non-corporate job. Stay in school. Get that Master's degree. Go on to the Ph.D and become a professor. If that's too annoying and your suck-up skills aren't strong enough, get into the IT department of a university near you -- you get all the benefits and none of the headaches of a professor's post. Get into civil service if you can. DISDAIN the corporations. They've earned it.
If you can't score one of those jobs, try and find something with a small business. Parlay your knowledge of computer science into a position where you'll learn some other trade at the same time. Wear a lot of hats. Be the indispensible local geek who keeps everything running. Small businesses are better than you might think; if nothing else, they would NEVER have the resources to outsource your job. Think about it.
So, ok, now you have a job. You're eating, you're making your car payments, you're not rich but you're not dead meat either. So, now what, you ask?
REVENGE.
Say it with me. "Revenge". Feel how it rolls off your tongue. "Revenge". It's such a happy word, such a WARM word. It LIKES YOU. It's your FRIEND.
REVENGE.
Here's how to get one for the little guy, without breaking the law or doing anything that'll get you into trouble.
1. Don't buy anything from a major corporate outsourcer unless you absolutely have no choice. Or, be obnoxious: buy a Hewlett Packard printer (usually sold at a loss) and buy NON-HP INK. If you need a new laptop, buy it on Ebay, where the money goes into the wallet of one of your neighbors instead of a corporate bank account. Buying music? Buy it used in your local CD shop. Buying a car? Get a used one. BE CHEAP, and be proud of it. Convince everyone you can to be cheap as well. Think grassroots.
If you're buying an item like a TV, and you don't w
Don't let it get you down, as far as the human race is concerned. Most people are fundamentally good, even if some tend to lean towards the dark side (and seem to do so with relish). For every asshole journalist who can't restrain him/herself from behaving wretchedly, there are tens of thousands of completely ordinary people who are going about their lives in friendly, neighborly ways.
Anyway, don't take Slashdot so seriously. It's not representative of human society, after all. It's a venue in which anyone can say anything they want without any serious consequences, so no one seems to expend any effort on thinking before they "speak".
Picture what a bar would be like if people acted as they did on Slashdot! It would be shut down after the first few hundred stabbings, beatings, and shootings took place. It would be a slaughter!
Of course, that WOULD take all the trolls out of the gene pool...;)
Ah, you're getting ahead of yourself there. I never, ever said it was okay to use cheap labor from overseas to manufacture Nike shoes. In fact, I dislike nike as a company because of their reliance on sweatshop labor.
Globalism in general is a rotten thing. So, by the way, is unrestrained capitalism.
As an IT professional who is still (for now) employed, I was quite annoyed and dismayed at this article. For one thing, it wasn't particularly balanced -- it was decidedly pro-outsourcing, pro-India, anti-American-programmer and totally unsympathetic to all of the people being hurt by this trend.
For another, the author was openly hostile to people who are trying to do something about this problem -- and it IS a problem.
But what really ticked me off, more than anything else, was the overall hostile tone of the article and the magazine cover. "Kiss Your Cubicle Goodbye"? With an Indian chick sarcastically blowing a kiss? Interesting, especially when Wired's main reader demographic consists of IT professionals! Interesting, when we're in the middle of a recession, thousands of people are getting laid off all the time, and lives are being destroyed in the name of the almighty buck.
Quite nasty of them, in fact.
I cancelled my subscription with what I hope was a sufficiently hostile notice. I sincerely hope I never encounter another copy of that filthy rag again.
I encourage ALL of you who are in IT, like me, and American, like me, to cancel YOUR subscriptions as well, and don't forget to tell them why.
Of course, you realize that your "weekly status reports" are being used to build a document justifying your replacement with an L-1 or an H1-B. They will eventually be used to train your successor. You will be commanded to participate in his training in return for a pittance of severance pay and a favorable reference. I wish I could be there when they wipe the smirk off your face with a pinkslip.
That job you're so proud of? Dust in the wind. Good luck to you...
I didn't like SUSE that much. They had weird utilities. I was a lot more comfortable with Slackware and Debian, which felt a lot more Linuxy, if that makes any sense. Red Hat used to be okay, but they got really weird and corporate a couple of years ago. Then their O/S distro got really slick and effective, and just as I started to like it, they killed off the home version with some weirdo "Fedora" move. Feh. Back to Slack and Debian!;)
Hang on, be fair. If everyone brings their straw man to slashdot at the same time, the resulting fire could kill us all. It would only take one stoner to set off the conflagration, ok? You know those bongs throw sparks from time to time.
Part of what you're saying is true. And part of what the other guy said was true. I think the TRUTH lies somewhere in the middle, like this:
Corporations, and people who buy into that whole mindset/lifestyle, are pretty boring and soulless. All they think about is money, so whenever they latch onto something cool or interesting, the best they can do is fake it and try and squeeze a buck out of it. It's like this guy I know, let's call him "M". Back when I was on speaking terms with him, I used to tell him about ideas I'd had, little things I was working on at home. He would ALWAYS evaluate them based on whether they could be "monetized". I would argue, "but wait, you don't understand; this is cool, it's not about money, it's about having it, playing with it..." And he would make fun of me. He would call me a "techie weenie".
Now, on the other hand, you have your true geeks, a group I consider myself a dyed-in-the-wool member of, albeit a moderate member. We do things because they're fun, although if there's money in it that DOES increase the fun a little bit. So, we'll build a system because it's interesting, or useful, or something we want but which we can't find anywhere. For example, I'm building myself a custom knowledge-management app because I'm tired of storing my source-code toolbox in a flat-file directory. Will there be money in it? Who knows? But it'll be USEFUL and FUN. Now, in contrast to the last guy, one of my friends, let's call him "D", heard a few of my ideas (the same ideas the other guy made fun of) and thought they were great. HE thought they should be done whether they make money or not, because it would be cool if they just EXISTED.
And, THIS is the difference between corporate and geek. It has nothing to do with revolution, or who's going to "win" or any other thing of that nature. It's a basic difference in mindset which results in two entirely different worlds coexisting in the same space.
The result of all this is that the vast majority of people are stuck with the boring, not particularly innovative stuff the corporations put out, and this isn't going to change, EVER. Because that's just how it is; boring people produce boring stuff for other boring people.
Us geeks will ALWAYS have cooler, more interesting tech than the rest of the people out there because WE BUILD IT OURSELVES from nothing. We pull this stuff right out of our heads, you know? Eventually some of that stuff finds its way into corporate imaginations, such as they are, and regular people get their hands on a watered down version of it. Look at how Comp USA is selling a staid, boring, plastic-panel "modded" PC, but the REAL enthusiasts are making systems regular people couldn't even imagine exist.
It's how it's supposed to be. Everybody relax; this is the nature of things, the form and structure of our world. Enjoy it.
I'd imagine there would be a brief flurry of activity, as a thousand or so geeks and gamers all opened up their cans of whoop-ass (with a neat "POP" sound), then a blast and a huge cloud of blood, like when the CyberDemonLord from the original DOOM exploded. We're talking instantaneous and total destruction.
There'd be like, nothing left. Maybe a couple of pairs of blood-soaked penny loafers with argyle-socked ankles sticking up out of them, that's about it.
Of course, then everyone would shrug and head over to the food court; nothing to see here! Move along...
Did they REALLY show up? Did anything... INTERESTING happen?
The rationale for case-sensitivity that you forgot to mention is "democracy".
A larger number of programmers want Java to be case-sensitive than case-insensitive, and so Java, ruled by the JCP, is case-sensitive. Is it a personal preference? Perhaps it is. But it is the personal preference of the majority, and so it is carried into the language.
There's nothing wrong with this. It is the way of the world.;)
Yeah... Is this depressing or what? It looks like Corporate America wants everyone to work in Wal Mart (or as a landscaper for less than minimum wage, or a security guard, or... Etc.).
But they can't get rid of ALL the jobs. The working and middle classes get their revenge every time a plumber, electrician, or auto mechanic skins a rich suit alive. "Well, Mr. Manager, looks like the old Beemer is gonna need a new Carburetor... It's an import, and it's in an awkward spot, so that'll be a grand, five hundred for the carb, and five hundred for labor. Will that be Visa, or Amex?"
It takes all kinds, right? Just like they say in Perl, "there's more than one way to do it".
I personally prefer whitelisting because I don't have to worry about training the filter, which I find to be a little more of a pain than you do. I figure, one quick scan through the spam folder and I'm done. Note that you STILL have to scan the spam folder in case anything got nabbed as a false positive. So once my filters are in place, the amount of work going ahead in time is about the same.
Anyway, I really only have about five filters. And, they're easy to build; just a bunch of rules applied to individual email addresses; easy! 'Course, I'm a techie, and easy is relative...
I'm not saying your approach is no good; I'm just stating my preference. I'm not crazy about beyesian filtering, but that doesn't mean I don't respect those who are.
Well, I DID say it was old-school. I mentioned it because it's such a good solution, and everyone seems to have blown it off for beyesian filtering, which I think is sad, like a kindly old man forgotten, and abandoned to eat cat food, die and be devoured by his pet dog.
That's interesting. Combining whitelisting and Beyesian filtering in tiers... But I think deleting all the remaining emails, then scanning the deleted items folder for thirty seconds in case anything interesting went into it might be easier for a lazybones like me. Beyesian filters have to be trained, and monitored... Ugh, too much work.
Besides, the human brain and eye are pretty good at picking out an interesting pattern in a sea of uninteresting ones. I find I'm pretty good at the scanning part.
Because A whole slew of articles in business magazines have been talking about how the success of outsourcing IT has given Corporate America all sorts of interesting ideas. Like outsourcing "non-core" departments, like HR, Payroll, Accounting, legal research, business forecasting and strategy, almost all of middle management...
You DID know about that, right? Cause if you weren't joking, boy are YOU in for a shock...:)
Slashdot Mirror
Touchy? Nah, I wasn't bothered by it -- actually, I was giving you a hard time here, but in strictly the friendliest of ways. Like, "Aww, you know you subconsciously thought about this, don't play..."
;)
I guess the MrJ thing IS kinda weird and funny. I have reactions like that sometimes. A word, or a phrase, will just strike me as weird and then it'll stick in my craw, like an itch I can't scratch. MrJ was like that. On one level I knew it was "Macintosh Runtime for Java, but on another I kept thinking "Billie Jean, knocking at my door..." Not a flattering picture.
Tito! give me a tissue! Ha ha ha...
Thanks... That reminds me of a joke!
The teacher wanted to play a game with the class, so she stood up and said, "Ok, let's play a game. I'll hold something behind my back, I'll describe it, and you can guess it. If you answer well, you can go next."
Holding an apple behind her back, the teacher said, "I have something that is luscious and gently curved, with a little knobbly thing poking up out of the middle..."
Little Dirty Johnny started waving his hands in the air, yelling, "I know! I know!"
"He's going to say Tit, I think," the teacher said, so she chose someone else. Lucy guessed 'Pear'. The teacher said "Well, no, Lucy, it was an apple. But I like the way you think, so why don't you go next!"
"I'm holding something soft and furry, and warm..." Lucy began.
Little Dirty Johnny went NUTS. "Oh, man, I know, I know!"
But the teacher knew, I mean she KNEW, he was going to say Lucy was holding her unmentionables. So she picked someone else. "Darl, why don't you try?"
"Is it a teddy bear?" Darl asked.
"No, it's my stuffed kitty!" Lucy replied. The teacher said, "I like the way you think, Darl, why don't you go next?"
And so it went, around the class, until every student EXCEPT Little Dirty Johnny had gone, and he stood up and objected.
"Hey, teacher, you've let everyone go but me. You've GOT to let ME go."
Sighing, the teacher relented.
Stuffing his hand deep in his pocket, Little Dirty Johnny said, "I've got somethin' longer than it is wide, kinda round, hard as a rock, with a head on it..."
"JOHNNY!" the teacher screamed!
"Nah, babe, it's a roll of quarters, but I like the way you think..."
I've seen it written both ways, actually. So, OK, it's in my head -- but I'm not the only one who thinks it's not such a hot name.
;)
Lots of projects have acronym-based names that resolve to something that sounds cool. "Perl" comes to mind (Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister), or Gnu. Other projects are just named something that evokes something interesting, like "Java" itself, or Python, or Apache. So, Apple, with their strong "design for design's sake" ethic, chooses MRJ.
MRJ; MrJ; Mr.J... It just leads in the wrong direction. One is reminded of a certain Mr. J who can't keep his hands off the Young'uns.
Plus, I was kidding. Say, why'd you pick that one element out of the whole post? Just curious... Maybe it resonates with you subconsciously. Hmm?
I think it's like the old story about how Software Engineers won't admit they like Pascal because they're afraid it means they Aren't Worthy.
.02. I think the original author should just relax and enjoy. :)
Up until recently, the Mac O/S wasn't really that geek-friendly in the sense that it didn't have a command line interface (the older ones had A/UX, but that went away for a while), it wasn't multiuser, it wasn't as powerful as Linux, and so on. So it has a reputation as "that user-friendly end user thing" among the kind of people who are into tweaking their Linux boxes. Plus there were all the cutesy touches that turned some people off, like calling their Java development environment "MrJ" (WTF???).
So the author is afraid the fact that he likes Mac OS/X means he "isn't worthy" like the old-time Pascal guys. He's afraid the spicy-Szezhuan devouring hackers are all going to make fun of him and throw fortune cookies at him while making rude noises. It's kinda funny, actually.
(Shameless advocacy section begins here)
I think it's bizarre that anyone would feel GUILT anyway, because OS/X is a great operating system. It gives you all the geek power of Linux (Perl, GCC, JDK1.4, a great IDE almost as good as Visual Studio) with none of the headaches. Turning on the firewall and turning off nonessential services can be done in one minute flat. Keeping the system up to date is a piece of cake, and because Apple is a profitable hardware vendor, you don't have to worry about them not having enough money to keep the patches flowing.
I was briefly annoyed that their filesystem isn't case-sensitive until I realized that it preserved case so it didn't break Java packages. So it turned out to be kind of a nonissue.
Finally, and this is where OS/X eats Linux's lunch, OS/X has perfect hardware support. Almost every piece of hardware on the market has an OS/X driver available. You don't have to kludge anything to work with a general purpose driver, you can use the manufacturer-supplied driver. So, you can spend your time USING your scanner, digital camera, and sound system instead of trying to make it work. That's priceless, ok? Not having to spend hours hacking away to get a scanner to work is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
Don't get me wrong. I love Linux. In fact, I use it on my other machine. But I love OS/X also, and I use that on this, my main machine. It's really about giving credit where credit is due. Apple's done a fantastic job.
Anyway, that's my
Your post is even more encouraging. After reading all those weird horror stories, I was really worried. I'd just dropped 1800 bucks on this iBook, really maxing it out. I loved it, I was excited to have it, and I felt totally screwed.
;)
I kinda suspected what you said about the position of the hard drive; I'd shone a light in through the cooling grate on the side, and I couldn't see any room for any graphics chips up there, so I'd already doubted the story a little. But still, I was a little freaked out nontheless.
Your post REALLY makes me feel a lot better, and I appreciate it. The iBook has turned out to be a heck of a nice machine. Looks like I can relax.
Cool pic, by the way. Says a thousand words, right?
Wow, that's cool; I bought a 900Mhz or so iBook a couple of months ago (they came out with a G4 iBook THE WEEK AFTER I bought mine! Doh!!!) and then I started hearing all these stories about logic board failures, screen failures, and so on -- naturally I freaked out.
;)
Specifically, one guy claimed the channel for the wires to the LCD was too small and they got torqued and cracked, cutting power to the backlight. Another guy said the solder joints under the video chip started to crack, which made the chip crap out unless you pushed down on it with your finger (next to the trackpad). Anotheer said his motherboard was arcing to the metal core of the laptop, electrifying the screws (!!!). And all this stuff supposedly happened right around the 1-year mark, as the warranty expired.
It totally freaked me out to hear about this stuff. At least, at first.
Your post is reassuring. I've been thinking lately, Apple sells millions of iMacs and iBooks, right? And a few dozen people are complaining online, with supposedly a few hundred more in a class-action suit. So out of millions of units, a few hundred have had serious problems.
I wonder if the affected iBooks all came from the same run; maybe one of their machine tools wasn't calibrated correctly, or they got a bad batch of solder. Because it looks like most people aren't having any trouble.
Thanks for the positive note; I'm even less worried about mine now.
Oh, please. Spare me the republican free-market bullshit. We have every right to be pissed off when people like YOU fuck over people like US so your pissy little stock can rise half a cent. You and everyone like you will be the first ones up against the wall when the revolution comes.
Enjoy your position while you have it, creep. It's just as temporary as all those IT jobs you're so proud of eliminating...
Wow -- that was fantastic. Abbey's so cool! I loved the Monkey Wrench Gang. Go, Hayduke!!!
Thanks! I agree about Europe; it looks like a great place. My only problem is I'm not that good at spoken languages for some reason. :(
Still, I think if I had my choice, I'd pick someplace relaxed and socially comfortable, like Amsterdam. The people there seem pretty cool. Also, they have a nice, cold winter -- I like that.
I've been thinking about Toronto a lot lately. Australia, too. So many nice places in the world, so hard to choose...
Thanks! I agree completely, starting a microCorporation is a great idea. There are a million things people can do to earn a living without having to bow to some corporate master. I'm thinking about starting up something online, the whole T-shirts and coffee mugs thing; I'm not half bad as an artist... On the internet, word of mouth can get you lots of sales pretty fast. For a single guy, living alone, you could probably live on income from a decent online store...
Great idea about the corp...
Yeah, no kidding... And you have to wonder, are they really setting up those sweatshops to "be competitive" if they're making 99.00 on each pair of shoes? One wonders, couldn't they be competitive and make a profit of, say, 50.00 on a shoe?
I think it's all about buying big boats and mansions for the CEOs. All that "competition" crap is just their hair-thin straw-man justification for their incredible greed.
I'm a relatively old fart in this forum; I'm 33 years old, and I've been programming in one language or another since '95. I've been around; I did the comp sci degree, the Y2K effort, the Manhattan, NY, dot-com/dot-bomb experience, some corporate IT, and civil service in a few different organizations. I've been around to watch our field go down the tubes, I have a pretty good understanding of the whys and whens, and I've got some advice for you, so please listen. I might be able to save you some grief.
First, look at the problem at hand: corporate jobs are going away because of corporate greed and disloyalty. First it'll be IT jobs, then virtually everyone as corporations move everything overseas that CAN be moved. This is nothing new, they did it to the manufacturing sector decades ago. But it IS unique in that once it's gone, that's it. There's nothing left for an ex-corporate type to retrain to except dead-end retail jobs at six bucks an hour.
So, this is pretty scary. But you CAN keep yourself out of harm's way. You don't have to just let yourself get sidelined.
First of all, ask yourself: do you really want to work for a corporation? You'll have to sign an IP agreement, a nondisclosure, and a noncompete, so you won't be able to work for anyone else for several years even if you're fired -- this is sort of like indentured servitude. And you'll have to work 60+ hours a week with no overtime pay because they'll write you up as an "exempt" worker. And you'll have some idiot suit breathing down your neck all day, reminding you on a constant basis that "you're lucky to have a job in this economy" (believe it or not, I've heard of this kind of thing from a lot of different people). You'll have to physically restrain yourself from dropping him out the nearest window, which will cause you stress. And you'll have to eventually watch your job go away, maybe even training your replacements.
So all those corporate jobs sucked anyway. Fuck 'em. Don't even consider them. The only reason corporations are still hiring is that they haven't fully ramped up their outsourcing yet. Why help them while they're still in the process of screwing you and all your friends over? Blow 'em off and get a non-corporate job. Stay in school. Get that Master's degree. Go on to the Ph.D and become a professor. If that's too annoying and your suck-up skills aren't strong enough, get into the IT department of a university near you -- you get all the benefits and none of the headaches of a professor's post. Get into civil service if you can. DISDAIN the corporations. They've earned it.
If you can't score one of those jobs, try and find something with a small business. Parlay your knowledge of computer science into a position where you'll learn some other trade at the same time. Wear a lot of hats. Be the indispensible local geek who keeps everything running. Small businesses are better than you might think; if nothing else, they would NEVER have the resources to outsource your job. Think about it.
So, ok, now you have a job. You're eating, you're making your car payments, you're not rich but you're not dead meat either. So, now what, you ask?
REVENGE.
Say it with me. "Revenge". Feel how it rolls off your tongue. "Revenge". It's such a happy word, such a WARM word. It LIKES YOU. It's your FRIEND.
REVENGE.
Here's how to get one for the little guy, without breaking the law or doing anything that'll get you into trouble.
1. Don't buy anything from a major corporate outsourcer unless you absolutely have no choice. Or, be obnoxious: buy a Hewlett Packard printer (usually sold at a loss) and buy NON-HP INK. If you need a new laptop, buy it on Ebay, where the money goes into the wallet of one of your neighbors instead of a corporate bank account. Buying music? Buy it used in your local CD shop. Buying a car? Get a used one. BE CHEAP, and be proud of it. Convince everyone you can to be cheap as well. Think grassroots.
If you're buying an item like a TV, and you don't w
Don't let it get you down, as far as the human race is concerned. Most people are fundamentally good, even if some tend to lean towards the dark side (and seem to do so with relish). For every asshole journalist who can't restrain him/herself from behaving wretchedly, there are tens of thousands of completely ordinary people who are going about their lives in friendly, neighborly ways.
;)
Anyway, don't take Slashdot so seriously. It's not representative of human society, after all. It's a venue in which anyone can say anything they want without any serious consequences, so no one seems to expend any effort on thinking before they "speak".
Picture what a bar would be like if people acted as they did on Slashdot! It would be shut down after the first few hundred stabbings, beatings, and shootings took place. It would be a slaughter!
Of course, that WOULD take all the trolls out of the gene pool...
Ah, you're getting ahead of yourself there. I never, ever said it was okay to use cheap labor from overseas to manufacture Nike shoes. In fact, I dislike nike as a company because of their reliance on sweatshop labor.
Globalism in general is a rotten thing. So, by the way, is unrestrained capitalism.
As an IT professional who is still (for now) employed, I was quite annoyed and dismayed at this article. For one thing, it wasn't particularly balanced -- it was decidedly pro-outsourcing, pro-India, anti-American-programmer and totally unsympathetic to all of the people being hurt by this trend.
For another, the author was openly hostile to people who are trying to do something about this problem -- and it IS a problem.
But what really ticked me off, more than anything else, was the overall hostile tone of the article and the magazine cover. "Kiss Your Cubicle Goodbye"? With an Indian chick sarcastically blowing a kiss? Interesting, especially when Wired's main reader demographic consists of IT professionals! Interesting, when we're in the middle of a recession, thousands of people are getting laid off all the time, and lives are being destroyed in the name of the almighty buck.
Quite nasty of them, in fact.
I cancelled my subscription with what I hope was a sufficiently hostile notice. I sincerely hope I never encounter another copy of that filthy rag again.
I encourage ALL of you who are in IT, like me, and American, like me, to cancel YOUR subscriptions as well, and don't forget to tell them why.
Of course, you realize that your "weekly status reports" are being used to build a document justifying your replacement with an L-1 or an H1-B. They will eventually be used to train your successor. You will be commanded to participate in his training in return for a pittance of severance pay and a favorable reference. I wish I could be there when they wipe the smirk off your face with a pinkslip.
That job you're so proud of? Dust in the wind. Good luck to you...
I didn't like SUSE that much. They had weird utilities. I was a lot more comfortable with Slackware and Debian, which felt a lot more Linuxy, if that makes any sense. Red Hat used to be okay, but they got really weird and corporate a couple of years ago. Then their O/S distro got really slick and effective, and just as I started to like it, they killed off the home version with some weirdo "Fedora" move. Feh. Back to Slack and Debian! ;)
Hang on, be fair. If everyone brings their straw man to slashdot at the same time, the resulting fire could kill us all. It would only take one stoner to set off the conflagration, ok? You know those bongs throw sparks from time to time.
Part of what you're saying is true. And part of what the other guy said was true. I think the TRUTH lies somewhere in the middle, like this:
Corporations, and people who buy into that whole mindset/lifestyle, are pretty boring and soulless. All they think about is money, so whenever they latch onto something cool or interesting, the best they can do is fake it and try and squeeze a buck out of it. It's like this guy I know, let's call him "M". Back when I was on speaking terms with him, I used to tell him about ideas I'd had, little things I was working on at home. He would ALWAYS evaluate them based on whether they could be "monetized". I would argue, "but wait, you don't understand; this is cool, it's not about money, it's about having it, playing with it..." And he would make fun of me. He would call me a "techie weenie".
Now, on the other hand, you have your true geeks, a group I consider myself a dyed-in-the-wool member of, albeit a moderate member. We do things because they're fun, although if there's money in it that DOES increase the fun a little bit. So, we'll build a system because it's interesting, or useful, or something we want but which we can't find anywhere. For example, I'm building myself a custom knowledge-management app because I'm tired of storing my source-code toolbox in a flat-file directory. Will there be money in it? Who knows? But it'll be USEFUL and FUN. Now, in contrast to the last guy, one of my friends, let's call him "D", heard a few of my ideas (the same ideas the other guy made fun of) and thought they were great. HE thought they should be done whether they make money or not, because it would be cool if they just EXISTED.
And, THIS is the difference between corporate and geek. It has nothing to do with revolution, or who's going to "win" or any other thing of that nature. It's a basic difference in mindset which results in two entirely different worlds coexisting in the same space.
The result of all this is that the vast majority of people are stuck with the boring, not particularly innovative stuff the corporations put out, and this isn't going to change, EVER. Because that's just how it is; boring people produce boring stuff for other boring people.
Us geeks will ALWAYS have cooler, more interesting tech than the rest of the people out there because WE BUILD IT OURSELVES from nothing. We pull this stuff right out of our heads, you know? Eventually some of that stuff finds its way into corporate imaginations, such as they are, and regular people get their hands on a watered down version of it. Look at how Comp USA is selling a staid, boring, plastic-panel "modded" PC, but the REAL enthusiasts are making systems regular people couldn't even imagine exist.
It's how it's supposed to be. Everybody relax; this is the nature of things, the form and structure of our world. Enjoy it.
SCO attending Linuxworld???
I'd imagine there would be a brief flurry of activity, as a thousand or so geeks and gamers all opened up their cans of whoop-ass (with a neat "POP" sound), then a blast and a huge cloud of blood, like when the CyberDemonLord from the original DOOM exploded. We're talking instantaneous and total destruction.
There'd be like, nothing left. Maybe a couple of pairs of blood-soaked penny loafers with argyle-socked ankles sticking up out of them, that's about it.
Of course, then everyone would shrug and head over to the food court; nothing to see here! Move along...
Did they REALLY show up? Did anything... INTERESTING happen?
Here is my rebuttal:
;)
The rationale for case-sensitivity that you forgot to mention is "democracy".
A larger number of programmers want Java to be case-sensitive than case-insensitive, and so Java, ruled by the JCP, is case-sensitive. Is it a personal preference? Perhaps it is. But it is the personal preference of the majority, and so it is carried into the language.
There's nothing wrong with this. It is the way of the world.
Yeah... Is this depressing or what? It looks like Corporate America wants everyone to work in Wal Mart (or as a landscaper for less than minimum wage, or a security guard, or... Etc.).
But they can't get rid of ALL the jobs. The working and middle classes get their revenge every time a plumber, electrician, or auto mechanic skins a rich suit alive. "Well, Mr. Manager, looks like the old Beemer is gonna need a new Carburetor... It's an import, and it's in an awkward spot, so that'll be a grand, five hundred for the carb, and five hundred for labor. Will that be Visa, or Amex?"
Sic 'em, boys! Thar's gold in them thar suits!
It takes all kinds, right? Just like they say in Perl, "there's more than one way to do it".
I personally prefer whitelisting because I don't have to worry about training the filter, which I find to be a little more of a pain than you do. I figure, one quick scan through the spam folder and I'm done. Note that you STILL have to scan the spam folder in case anything got nabbed as a false positive. So once my filters are in place, the amount of work going ahead in time is about the same.
Anyway, I really only have about five filters. And, they're easy to build; just a bunch of rules applied to individual email addresses; easy! 'Course, I'm a techie, and easy is relative...
I'm not saying your approach is no good; I'm just stating my preference. I'm not crazy about beyesian filtering, but that doesn't mean I don't respect those who are.
Nice post, BTW!
Well, I DID say it was old-school. I mentioned it because it's such a good solution, and everyone seems to have blown it off for beyesian filtering, which I think is sad, like a kindly old man forgotten, and abandoned to eat cat food, die and be devoured by his pet dog.
That's interesting. Combining whitelisting and Beyesian filtering in tiers... But I think deleting all the remaining emails, then scanning the deleted items folder for thirty seconds in case anything interesting went into it might be easier for a lazybones like me. Beyesian filters have to be trained, and monitored... Ugh, too much work.
Besides, the human brain and eye are pretty good at picking out an interesting pattern in a sea of uninteresting ones. I find I'm pretty good at the scanning part.
Funny post! Good one...
:)
I mean, you ARE kidding, right?
Because A whole slew of articles in business magazines have been talking about how the success of outsourcing IT has given Corporate America all sorts of interesting ideas. Like outsourcing "non-core" departments, like HR, Payroll, Accounting, legal research, business forecasting and strategy, almost all of middle management...
You DID know about that, right? Cause if you weren't joking, boy are YOU in for a shock...