The very FIRST issue you have with OpenOffice, whether it's a formatting issue, file conversion, or other imcompatiblity, will cost MORE than Microsoft Office in the loss of productivity and IT staff.
I agree, there's a non-zero cost to moving to so-called "free" software. On the other hand, what about the cost of upgrading when Microsoft decides that your version of Office has reached "end of life"?
It's appropriate to put scare quotes around "free" software... but the same thing applies to "purchased" software. "free" isn't completely free, but neither is "purchased" completely paid for.
The whole "article" seems to depend on the word of "a Lockheed employee who is close to the transition." I have my doubts about their source. For example, the source says this about Lockheed's lawyers:
According to our source, Lockheed's lawyers "are like a deer in the headlights" because of SCO's legal threats over Linux usage.
Are you serious? Lockheed is a defense contractor, a major government supplier. Their lawyers aren't going to be "deer in the headlights" against these or any other litigious bastards. More like "alligators in the swamp," if you want to use nature as a metaphor. If SCO so much as puts a toe in Lockheed's water, they're going to lose a leg.
So after calling BS on this, can the source be trusted? He's competely ignorant of the real legal threat, but knows a lot about what's on and under the engineers' desks.
I say their "reliable source" is the janitor. He's probably the guy who stole your lunch out of the fridge last week.
Re:Finally something to address this....
on
Are You Annoying?
·
· Score: 1
Yes, I know there are a lot of "rightish" answers - it took me a long time to realize that, but that doesn't help when I'm the one stuck coding an answer to the problem. People understand gray areas, but computer's don't.
The strange thing about us computer types. We are so abolutely precise in our coding. Every pointer must be correctly dereferenced, every malloc must be free'd. "==" is not the same thing as "=". Chr() returns a Variant, Chr$() returns a String.
But nine times out of ten, we can't remember the difference between "lose" and "loose", "there" and "their", "its" and "it's"... and the plural "computers" vs. the posessive "computer's".
Does this say something about our ability to interface with computers vs. our ability to communicate with other people? Or is it just that human language doesn't come with a compiler to tell us that our statement contains a syntax error?
Case in point. I think there are at least two spelling errors in my post above. I think I'll leave them in as an example to posterity.
How about we not worry about color schemes and we start worrying about how lame it is that they have put EVERYTHING in "IT". I was much happier when they used more intelligent sections.
I haven't figured out why they thought Slashdot needed an "IT" category in the first place. Let's think this through... this is Slashdot, right? There's nothing on here that isn't IT-related! Even the Science articles usually have an IT slant.
"IT" is clearly a "default" category. In that case, call it "Main-2" or something. Otherwise, it just looks silly. Or should I say, IT just looks silly. Whatever, IT is driving me nuts. And I just paid up my subscription... I do have a right to bi^H^Hcomplain.
Did you notice that they saved the halfway-decent color scheme for the new Linux section?
After I got the problem straightened out, I sent them a very nasty, yet informative, e-mail and they agreed that they will review their e-mail policies and apologized for sending such a message to begin with.
They're not the only company to have this problem. I signed up for email from Palm, but never clicked on the links because they were always in the form of "palm.somemarketingcompany.com/offer/etc".
I finally went to the Palm site's Contact Us link and sent a note. To my surprise, they replied quickly and said the same thing -- they're re-evaluating their email procedures.
Happy ending: about a month later, the URLs all pointed to a clearly Palm-owned domain, and I'm considering replacing my over-the-hill Palm III with a refurbished low-end Zire (underpowered, but cheaper than eBay).
It doesn't take a genius to realise this is buying government. In the rest of the world, that's called corruption, and a horrific conflict of interest.
I agree, it is indeed buying government. On the other hand, I don't think it can be raised to the level of "corruption", as long as there's complete transparency. That doesn't mean transparency when it's convenient, it means warts-and-all. These things can go wrong, and the only way to keep the politicos and the suits honest is to keep a microscope on them.
For an example of a corporate-slash-government partnership gone way wrong, check out the ERCOT scandal unfolding here in Texas. I submitted an article about a privacy-related aspect, but it was rejected (so please cue the world's tiniest violin for me).
I've waited as long as I can... but what's with an "IT" category on Slashdot? Is there *any* story here that doesn't have to do with Information Technology? Or will we soon have a category for the latest on J.Lo and Britney Spears?
(Please don't mod me into oblivion before someone answers my question... thanks...)
But when I ask for "email slashdot.org" it returns a forbidden search page.
I got the "forbidden search" error as well. I'm curious what the apparently encrypted string at the bottom of the page contains? The page says to include it in any correspondence to the Head Googlers. If another person runs the search, will they get a different string? I'd think so -- it probably includes referrer-ID and IP address.
It starts and ends with a string of "/+" characters that give the Slashdot Lameness Filter fits.
Very interesting how (relatively) easy it is to uninstall all service packs from Win XP:
* Execute whatever DOS commands are in spuninst.txt * Set a registry key to "LocalSystem" * Execute spuninst\spuninst.exe * Reboot to restore (most) drivers
Once this is done, the article says, all service packs are gone without a trace. This leaves the Win XP box in the state it would have been in on October 14, 2003, with all these vulnerabilities.
Foo: we have to show web sites that forcing registration for marketing / tracking purposes leads to a reg database full of crap. Bar: And you're a long time logged in user here...
but due to all the buildings around the place, a nighttime forced landing off-airport in that area is certain death.
I've often wondered about that, especially when sitting in my car at the Sonic watching the planes fly low on their way to touchdown. Often, the smaller craft seem to wobble just before they kind of fall onto the runway. Other times, you see old CAF craft coming in, and you wonder just how much longer it can last.
One of these days, I expect someone will find themselves sharing the southbound lanes of Midway Road with an errant aircraft. I've worked in this area about 10 years, though, and it hasn't happened yet.
Fun fact: just yesterday, I saw three huge jackrabbits grazing off the north end of the runway. That's the only patch of green grass anywhere around -- what did they do, fly in on those humongous ears? I took pictures that I may post links to in my journal, if anyone's interested.
I'm surprised if nobody has asked this question yet -- there seem to be a lot of rural geeks -- but are this class of planes appropriate for commuting?
I live 60 miles from my work, an hour and a half or more each way in Dallas traffic. But my office just happens to be right off the north end of Addison Airport, and I've got eight acres of very flat land that could probably be converted into a short landing strip.
We're going to need a new car soon... why not buy a plane instead? Is this even remotely worth considering? Or will the cost of jet fuel make it just an expensive hobby? And am I just the sort of wannabe Top Gun that the "real" pilots would just as soon stay on the ground?
You could always change it to "Chixie Dicks" and get some of that hot tranny revenue.
"Hot Tranny"? Hot Transmissions? Hot Transylvania? Oh, I get it... it's "hot" to put the Cl- ions on opposite sides of your trans isomers. Silly me.
Ok, back to reality... before the Chicks got big, they would perform free shows at festivals like Dallas' Artfest. At an early '90s show, one of the more offbeat booths was run by a bunch that called themselves the "Chicksie Dicks". As I recall, though, they were (wannabe) musicians, not anime character designers...
I don't make much from my Google ads, but it's fun to watch the stats. So when my stats tripled -- views, clicks, and cash -- at the start of May, I sent Google a note. No way did I want to be accused of click fraud, that $10 a month (oops, I shouldn't tell you that) takes the place of my dearly-departed CDNow affiliate kickbacks!
I got a nice form letter suggesting I check my referrer logs, but basically brushing me off. Understandable, if frustrating. What did I want them to do, say "OMFG WERE TOAST!"?
Strangely, though, the bump lasted exactly a week. May 1-7 had triple volume or more, then the stats settled down to exactly the pattern they've followed since the site's subject dropped off the face of the planet. I don't know if Google found the problem and fixed it, or if perhaps they were giving me catch-up credit for some previous bug.
All in all, though, they still look like the Good Guys. Hope it can last longer than CDNow.
Postmaster and Abuse are required mailboxes. They are not optional. RFC 2142 mandates their use. This isn't some new requirement either. That RFC was written in 1997.
In other news,.com is the approved TLD for commercial entities..net is reserved for organizations that provide connectivity services essential to the operation of the Internet, and.org domains must only be assigned to not-for-profit organizations. Enforcement of these rules is essential to the smooth running of the Internet, and violators will certainly be blacklisted within an inch of their lives.
Yep, it's great living in 1997.
(Sorry if it seems I'm piling flames on a fire that's already burning just fine... it's just that your post contained such tempting kindling!)
Why not outsource to me in West Virginia...? I work cheaper than all of them combined. There are plenty of people in the USA who will work for less - it's better than no work at all.
Not too far away from you is Hazard, Kentucky, where some of my folks are from. It had the dubious honor of being the first stop on Clinton's 1999 "Poverty Tour". Soon after, SHPS (a health care outsourcing company) opened up a call center there, on some reclaimed strip-mine land.
The only problem is, only the most desperate locals will even consider applying there. Word got out quick that the management treats their employees badly, you'll never advance past that minimum-wage job, and you'll be so tired after you're done that you won't have the energy to even look for another job -- if there were any in the area, which there ain't.
Call it spoiled, or call it self-respect... but there is a limit to what people in this country will put up with. Unfortunately for us, there are other countries where that limit is a lot closer to the bottom.
Oh man that commercial for winning the chance where that guy walked up to audition then ran for the stargate & was tackled by security had me rolling. He stole my idea!
It had me thinking of an Ask Slashdot question: what would you do if you won the Stargate walk-on drawing? Obviously, they're not giving some random fanboy/girl off the street a talking part, but is there something you could do to make the director's job easier? Keep your mouth shut, or be knowledgable about the show and its premise? Walk on, walk off, say goodbye... or be noticable in the scene? What could a fan of the show, given the opportunity to be ON the show, do to make the show better?
However, have you ever tried white-noise therapy? It does give some sense of 'relief' to the constant ringing sound.
I'm 37, and just found out this past year (at my grandmother's funeral) why I've always had a clear, pure tone in both ears. When I was 5 months old, a small-town fireworks display went bad, resulting in a huge blast that shook the whole area. I don't ever remember *not* hearing the tone -- I can hear it right now if I focus on it.
I don't think I'd want the sound to go away. It's my sound, by golly, and I'm keeping it!
I can also hear the high-pitched sound of a CRT tube that's on but not displaying anything. It's less noticable on newer TVs -- either that, or I've lost that high-high end of my hearing with age. I wonder if that's a side effect of losing those cilia when I was a baby, or would I have had this Amazing Super Power anyway?
Slashdot Mirror
The very FIRST issue you have with OpenOffice, whether it's a formatting issue, file conversion, or other imcompatiblity, will cost MORE than Microsoft Office in the loss of productivity and IT staff.
I agree, there's a non-zero cost to moving to so-called "free" software. On the other hand, what about the cost of upgrading when Microsoft decides that your version of Office has reached "end of life"?
It's appropriate to put scare quotes around "free" software... but the same thing applies to "purchased" software. "free" isn't completely free, but neither is "purchased" completely paid for.
The whole "article" seems to depend on the word of "a Lockheed employee who is close to the transition." I have my doubts about their source. For example, the source says this about Lockheed's lawyers:
According to our source, Lockheed's lawyers "are like a deer in the headlights" because of SCO's legal threats over Linux usage.
Are you serious? Lockheed is a defense contractor, a major government supplier. Their lawyers aren't going to be "deer in the headlights" against these or any other litigious bastards. More like "alligators in the swamp," if you want to use nature as a metaphor. If SCO so much as puts a toe in Lockheed's water, they're going to lose a leg.
So after calling BS on this, can the source be trusted? He's competely ignorant of the real legal threat, but knows a lot about what's on and under the engineers' desks.
I say their "reliable source" is the janitor. He's probably the guy who stole your lunch out of the fridge last week.
Yes, I know there are a lot of "rightish" answers - it took me a long time to realize that, but that doesn't help when I'm the one stuck coding an answer to the problem. People understand gray areas, but computer's don't.
The strange thing about us computer types. We are so abolutely precise in our coding. Every pointer must be correctly dereferenced, every malloc must be free'd. "==" is not the same thing as "=". Chr() returns a Variant, Chr$() returns a String.
But nine times out of ten, we can't remember the difference between "lose" and "loose", "there" and "their", "its" and "it's"... and the plural "computers" vs. the posessive "computer's".
Does this say something about our ability to interface with computers vs. our ability to communicate with other people? Or is it just that human language doesn't come with a compiler to tell us that our statement contains a syntax error?
Case in point. I think there are at least two spelling errors in my post above. I think I'll leave them in as an example to posterity.
On a related note, Soople.com offers a sort of "GUI" for Google's more advanced features.
Enjoy it while you can... once the IPO goes through, Google's lawyers will be suing any site that meets the pattern string *oo*le.com.
(My head itches... I think my tinfoil hat is on too tight again...)
How about we not worry about color schemes and we start worrying about how lame it is that they have put EVERYTHING in "IT". I was much happier when they used more intelligent sections.
I haven't figured out why they thought Slashdot needed an "IT" category in the first place. Let's think this through... this is Slashdot, right? There's nothing on here that isn't IT-related! Even the Science articles usually have an IT slant.
"IT" is clearly a "default" category. In that case, call it "Main-2" or something. Otherwise, it just looks silly. Or should I say, IT just looks silly. Whatever, IT is driving me nuts. And I just paid up my subscription... I do have a right to bi^H^Hcomplain.
Did you notice that they saved the halfway-decent color scheme for the new Linux section?
Better get those DNA samples from the oceans before the Klingons get there. They'll get their sample and fry the place. Bastards.
(What TNG episode was that, anyway? Google is not my friend today!)
After I got the problem straightened out, I sent them a very nasty, yet informative, e-mail and they agreed that they will review their e-mail policies and apologized for sending such a message to begin with.
They're not the only company to have this problem. I signed up for email from Palm, but never clicked on the links because they were always in the form of "palm.somemarketingcompany.com/offer/etc".
I finally went to the Palm site's Contact Us link and sent a note. To my surprise, they replied quickly and said the same thing -- they're re-evaluating their email procedures.
Happy ending: about a month later, the URLs all pointed to a clearly Palm-owned domain, and I'm considering replacing my over-the-hill Palm III with a refurbished low-end Zire (underpowered, but cheaper than eBay).
Here's a quickie link to the test examples. The month's almost over, and I've got plenty of bandwidth to burn. (Famous last words...)
http://www.littlecutie.net/temp/slashdot/
It doesn't take a genius to realise this is buying government. In the rest of the world, that's called corruption, and a horrific conflict of interest.
I agree, it is indeed buying government. On the other hand, I don't think it can be raised to the level of "corruption", as long as there's complete transparency. That doesn't mean transparency when it's convenient, it means warts-and-all. These things can go wrong, and the only way to keep the politicos and the suits honest is to keep a microscope on them.
For an example of a corporate-slash-government partnership gone way wrong, check out the ERCOT scandal unfolding here in Texas. I submitted an article about a privacy-related aspect, but it was rejected (so please cue the world's tiniest violin for me).
I've waited as long as I can... but what's with an "IT" category on Slashdot? Is there *any* story here that doesn't have to do with Information Technology? Or will we soon have a category for the latest on J.Lo and Britney Spears?
(Please don't mod me into oblivion before someone answers my question... thanks...)
I got the "forbidden search" error as well. I'm curious what the apparently encrypted string at the bottom of the page contains? The page says to include it in any correspondence to the Head Googlers. If another person runs the search, will they get a different string? I'd think so -- it probably includes referrer-ID and IP address.
It starts and ends with a string of "/+" characters that give the Slashdot Lameness Filter fits.Notice the text string "taco" about 2/3 of the way through the file. Coincidence?
Very interesting how (relatively) easy it is to uninstall all service packs from Win XP:
* Execute whatever DOS commands are in spuninst.txt
* Set a registry key to "LocalSystem"
* Execute spuninst\spuninst.exe
* Reboot to restore (most) drivers
Once this is done, the article says, all service packs are gone without a trace. This leaves the Win XP box in the state it would have been in on October 14, 2003, with all these vulnerabilities.
So much for security patches!
When women use cashpoints, they will often get out tiny amounts of money. Like, ten or twenty pounds.
obAmerican:
Ten or twenty pounds of cash? What are they doing, getting their cash in quarters?
(Actually, though, I'd like to find an ATM that dispenses quarters, that would be kind of cool...)
In other words, he's posted as AC because he's not a karma whore.
/me (the poster) takes a bow.
Thank you!
Although, for full disclosure, here's this cautionary tale of Karma won and lost.
Foo: we have to show web sites that forcing registration for marketing / tracking purposes leads to a reg database full of crap.
Bar: And you're a long time logged in user here...
That's what you think...
... ...
SCO lawyers: Show me the money. Show me the money!!!
Daimler-Chrysler lawyers:
SCO lawyers: (In LOTR voice) Your code is Mine!
You forgot one:
SCO lawyers: If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit!
Dose anyone have any suggestions or experience in finding a better collage?
Perhaps we can all chip in for it's construction.
but due to all the buildings around the place, a nighttime forced landing off-airport in that area is certain death.
I've often wondered about that, especially when sitting in my car at the Sonic watching the planes fly low on their way to touchdown. Often, the smaller craft seem to wobble just before they kind of fall onto the runway. Other times, you see old CAF craft coming in, and you wonder just how much longer it can last.
One of these days, I expect someone will find themselves sharing the southbound lanes of Midway Road with an errant aircraft. I've worked in this area about 10 years, though, and it hasn't happened yet.
Fun fact: just yesterday, I saw three huge jackrabbits grazing off the north end of the runway. That's the only patch of green grass anywhere around -- what did they do, fly in on those humongous ears? I took pictures that I may post links to in my journal, if anyone's interested.
I'm surprised if nobody has asked this question yet -- there seem to be a lot of rural geeks -- but are this class of planes appropriate for commuting?
I live 60 miles from my work, an hour and a half or more each way in Dallas traffic. But my office just happens to be right off the north end of Addison Airport, and I've got eight acres of very flat land that could probably be converted into a short landing strip.
We're going to need a new car soon... why not buy a plane instead? Is this even remotely worth considering? Or will the cost of jet fuel make it just an expensive hobby? And am I just the sort of wannabe Top Gun that the "real" pilots would just as soon stay on the ground?
You could always change it to "Chixie Dicks" and get some of that hot tranny revenue.
"Hot Tranny"? Hot Transmissions? Hot Transylvania? Oh, I get it... it's "hot" to put the Cl- ions on opposite sides of your trans isomers. Silly me.
Ok, back to reality... before the Chicks got big, they would perform free shows at festivals like Dallas' Artfest. At an early '90s show, one of the more offbeat booths was run by a bunch that called themselves the "Chicksie Dicks". As I recall, though, they were (wannabe) musicians, not anime character designers...
I don't make much from my Google ads, but it's fun to watch the stats. So when my stats tripled -- views, clicks, and cash -- at the start of May, I sent Google a note. No way did I want to be accused of click fraud, that $10 a month (oops, I shouldn't tell you that) takes the place of my dearly-departed CDNow affiliate kickbacks!
I got a nice form letter suggesting I check my referrer logs, but basically brushing me off. Understandable, if frustrating. What did I want them to do, say "OMFG WERE TOAST!"?
Strangely, though, the bump lasted exactly a week. May 1-7 had triple volume or more, then the stats settled down to exactly the pattern they've followed since the site's subject dropped off the face of the planet. I don't know if Google found the problem and fixed it, or if perhaps they were giving me catch-up credit for some previous bug.
All in all, though, they still look like the Good Guys. Hope it can last longer than CDNow.
Postmaster and Abuse are required mailboxes. They are not optional. RFC 2142 mandates their use. This isn't some new requirement either. That RFC was written in 1997.
.com is the approved TLD for commercial entities. .net is reserved for organizations that provide connectivity services essential to the operation of the Internet, and .org domains must only be assigned to not-for-profit organizations. Enforcement of these rules is essential to the smooth running of the Internet, and violators will certainly be blacklisted within an inch of their lives.
In other news,
Yep, it's great living in 1997.
(Sorry if it seems I'm piling flames on a fire that's already burning just fine... it's just that your post contained such tempting kindling!)
Why not outsource to me in West Virginia...? I work cheaper than all of them combined. There are plenty of people in the USA who will work for less - it's better than no work at all.
Not too far away from you is Hazard, Kentucky, where some of my folks are from. It had the dubious honor of being the first stop on Clinton's 1999 "Poverty Tour". Soon after, SHPS (a health care outsourcing company) opened up a call center there, on some reclaimed strip-mine land.
The only problem is, only the most desperate locals will even consider applying there. Word got out quick that the management treats their employees badly, you'll never advance past that minimum-wage job, and you'll be so tired after you're done that you won't have the energy to even look for another job -- if there were any in the area, which there ain't.
Call it spoiled, or call it self-respect... but there is a limit to what people in this country will put up with. Unfortunately for us, there are other countries where that limit is a lot closer to the bottom.
Oh man that commercial for winning the chance where that guy walked up to audition then ran for the stargate & was tackled by security had me rolling. He stole my idea!
It had me thinking of an Ask Slashdot question: what would you do if you won the Stargate walk-on drawing? Obviously, they're not giving some random fanboy/girl off the street a talking part, but is there something you could do to make the director's job easier? Keep your mouth shut, or be knowledgable about the show and its premise? Walk on, walk off, say goodbye... or be noticable in the scene? What could a fan of the show, given the opportunity to be ON the show, do to make the show better?
However, have you ever tried white-noise therapy? It does give some sense of 'relief' to the constant ringing sound.
I'm 37, and just found out this past year (at my grandmother's funeral) why I've always had a clear, pure tone in both ears. When I was 5 months old, a small-town fireworks display went bad, resulting in a huge blast that shook the whole area. I don't ever remember *not* hearing the tone -- I can hear it right now if I focus on it.
I don't think I'd want the sound to go away. It's my sound, by golly, and I'm keeping it!
I can also hear the high-pitched sound of a CRT tube that's on but not displaying anything. It's less noticable on newer TVs -- either that, or I've lost that high-high end of my hearing with age. I wonder if that's a side effect of losing those cilia when I was a baby, or would I have had this Amazing Super Power anyway?