I'm assuming with the pager that people are paid for being on call. I know in my company that wasn't the case and all 'N' employees eventually got jack of the idea until payment was forthcoming.
We rotated on a purely week-by-week basis. Swaps were normally handled amicably, but if you couldn't find anyone to fill in when you wanted them, and you were not on actual annual leave, bad luck.
You know, that sounds almost so self-evident I might patent it as a business process.
Perhaps someone should should really be talking to this guy:
Law guy 1: due diligence - "The process of investigation, performed by investors, into the details of a potential investment, such as an examination of operations and management and the verification of material facts."
At the rish of/.'ing our national communications authority (ACA) in Australia, there is a very clear fact sheet on this (PDF) from them...
Long and the short is that for personal use - no license is required. For "commercial" (looks like it even includes sharing one ADSL landline over WiFi between neighbours) use, a license is required.
Practically, though, they don't seem to mind as long as you're under a certain power level.
Mod me a troll for using the 'AOL' word if you will, but on my trip around Europe I used a trusty old Palm Vx, ThinkOutside folding keyboard and a Nokia 8210 (GSM) phone with AOL's palm client to do all my email-list based comms...
(I picked AOL at the time due to their number of POPs in Europe - and the fact that I got 3months free subscription:))
GSM is virtually ubiquitous in Europe, and the ability to write notes in the car, train, plane, cafe, piazza san marco etc was a major major benefit.
The fact that it's pocketable gets you out of the net cafes and into your holiday!
AFAIK pretty much everything that is created is aturally covered under copyright. It's only once you start assigning copyrights to other people and registering them etc. that the line gets blurry.
If I write a program and keep it on my own (home) PC then it is (c) me, even if I don't have a license attached. If you steal it I get all legal on your ass.
A lot does have it's own scripting language. In fact, the one I'm working on now is an enterprise accounting and billing system which is based on scripting.
Does it cause less bugs?
Hardly. It's so quick to change things that people now think it's easy to build things. That means they underestimate. That means testing suffers. That means more bugs.
Many times the high cost is to customize a program uniquely for a customer
Amen. Most large enterprise software has the core stuff and a lot of configuration. In the linux model, the customer would buy a license for the kernel, and then perhaps other 'modules' (like gnu tools, X, openoffice etc) would be configured or built or installed on top.
The difference is that nobody wants openoffice as it comes off the disk, they want everything rearranged and renamed, with this moved here and that moved there.
They then change their mind halfway through because they've moved their call centre to india and tell you that they want it running over a LAN vnc-style.
And translated into Indian.
And in rupees instead of Dollars.
Oh, and the government's just changed the tax rate from 10% on sales to 5% on all transactions except where you pay in advance where it's 20%.
Not that I'm bitter, but enterprise software would come out just as bug-free as other software if we were allowed to TRULY tie down requirements in advance. Business ain't like that though.
Not once in my life have I ever thought anything along the lines of "Let's click on that goatsecx link." either, but thousands of other people on slashdot have.
There's a strong argument for actually thinking about the consistent and clear usability of a system rather than just forming it as some gestalt cluster of (cool) useful bits.
The real reason to rush out a game is right there in the text:
the game has to be in stores by June 30th in order for the company to recognize sales [estimated to be 1.5 to 2.5 million units] for its current financial year.
As such, if they sink a lot of cash into the game, and don't have any return, the company may be fine but that appears on their books forever. Like, really forever.
Even in news reports like "Games shop Eidos, who booked a loss of 1 kazillion patootie last financial year, have announced..."
Not to overgeneralise, but <troll> capitalism is the reason why sucky/buggy games are released early.</troll>
So creating a Z specification: -forces you to be very specific about what correct behaviour is
- Does not take into account changing requirements without rework of the initial model - Normally cannot factor change into a design in the way that stuff such as design patterns do
Now yes, these are very different issues, but unless you are working on a system that derives some nontrivial benefit from being 'proven' (ie: nuclear, medical etc) then it only has limited scope.
Perhaps the realities of most short-timeframe projects preclude the use of such formal methods in all but a few cases.
In Australia, it's normally not a copyright violation if you take some 'artwork' and modify it by at least 10%. HOWEVER, that does not ever apply to trademarked images. </IANAL>
Quite frankly, though, most artists will still consider that it's still theft of a kind. If you're making money from your application, then you should invest some of it and employ some talented kid who needs money for rent or food or something. You don't really need that new P4 rig yet anyway, do you?
So, for now:
1) If you're building the application, build it so that the artwork can be EASILY slotted in later. (seems obvious, but really design to support a complete facelift. You know about MVC, right?)
2) Maybe browse the web for portfolios, and resumes of people with cool websites and no jobs. Exploit them for low wages and the ability to but real work on their resumes.:)
3) Or, release the app with crappy graphics and a HOWTO and wait for your users to build you a nice pretty interface.:)
I must assume that you are developing an enterprise application, given your performance and availability needs. Contemporary systems of this nature fall loosely into one of two categories: web technology based, or not.
All of these technologies are well and good at an enterprise level in which latency is not an issue, but move into (say) telecomms and suddenly your drivers are: 1) Availability 2) Latency
When I pick up my prepaid cell phone, dial a number and press send there are milliseconds for the entire network to work out where the call is going, work out how much $ I have and then handle trying to actually connect the call. 500ms is a noticable delay. 1000ms is unacceptable. Think about me being in Guatamala and my phone company being in Abu Dhabi and then tell me CORBA/NET/J2EE/XYZ is the right solution.
How about the old licenses which are "Treat it like a book". Unfortunately licenses are *not* like a book because the manufacturer can prevent you loaning to another person...
Clause Four to rule them all Clause Four to find them Clause four to bring them all and in the bitstream bind them In the Land of xtra where the Lawyers lie.
So, since they have all the rights, does that by implication mean they can be prosecuted for any w@rez, ripped CDs or similar?
You expressly waive in favour of Xtra and any other party authorised by Xtra all moral rights and any similar rights in any jurisdiction which you may have or may later acquire in respect of any relevant Materials.
By uploading them I'm expressly waiving any rights, and the associated responsibilities?
Here in Aus, we've been dealing with 'April Fools' jokes for more than 24h (this story posted at 15:30 April 2).
<TROLL karma="-1"> Guess that means everyone in the US has been an April Fool for 15hrs+? </TROLL>
compensation != (dollars*hours)
on
Suing for Overtime?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I think you will soon find that your emloyer considers that they factored in 'compensation' into your original package. At least that's what they "normally" do in Australia.
Perhaps the courts aren't your best recourse in this climate.
A file (module/unit/whatever) is still a fairly high granularity to make decisions upon. I'd be more interested at finding bugs within specific functions rather than just files...
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting idea with the points.
I'm assuming with the pager that people are paid for being on call. I know in my company that wasn't the case and all 'N' employees eventually got jack of the idea until payment was forthcoming.
We rotated on a purely week-by-week basis. Swaps were normally handled amicably, but if you couldn't find anyone to fill in when you wanted them, and you were not on actual annual leave, bad luck.
You know, that sounds almost so self-evident I might patent it as a business process.
Boss: Which version of Windows should we get?
Perhaps someone should should really be talking to this guy:
Law guy 1: due diligence - "The process of investigation, performed by investors, into the details of a potential investment, such as an examination of operations and management and the verification of material facts."
"licensing issues", presumably with cars.
:)
Maybe the developers may have had too much Beer (as in Free) and have some drivers license issues...
And when you take your brilliant new contender to games developers, make sure you wear really thick pants.
You'll need the pants to take the hit of the door in your arse on the way out.
Sorry bud, but there's a lot more to marketing than just Freedom.
From the official rules:
:(
This Contest is for United States residents only.
Might be nice to post on the story itself these obvious limitations and stop wasting our time
At the rish of /.'ing our national communications authority (ACA) in Australia, there is a very clear fact sheet on this (PDF) from them...
Long and the short is that for personal use - no license is required. For "commercial" (looks like it even includes sharing one ADSL landline over WiFi between neighbours) use, a license is required.
Practically, though, they don't seem to mind as long as you're under a certain power level.
Mod me a troll for using the 'AOL' word if you will, but on my trip around Europe I used a trusty old Palm Vx, ThinkOutside folding keyboard and a Nokia 8210 (GSM) phone with AOL's palm client to do all my email-list based comms...
:))
(I picked AOL at the time due to their number of POPs in Europe - and the fact that I got 3months free subscription
GSM is virtually ubiquitous in Europe, and the ability to write notes in the car, train, plane, cafe, piazza san marco etc was a major major benefit.
The fact that it's pocketable gets you out of the net cafes and into your holiday!
AFAIK pretty much everything that is created is aturally covered under copyright. It's only once you start assigning copyrights to other people and registering them etc. that the line gets blurry.
If I write a program and keep it on my own (home) PC then it is (c) me, even if I don't have a license attached. If you steal it I get all legal on your ass.
Did the newspaper bypass security and illegally access copyrighted material?
If so, didn't they violate the DMCA - no matter what their intent?
After all, if the US constitutional right to 'fair use' is not a loophole, why would journalistic investigation be?
Remember that the ones who buy the software are not the ones that use the software...
Does your boss's boss know your name, let alone what you actually do all day click-by-click?
A lot does have it's own scripting language. In fact, the one I'm working on now is an enterprise accounting and billing system which is based on scripting.
Does it cause less bugs?
Hardly. It's so quick to change things that people now think it's easy to build things. That means they underestimate. That means testing suffers. That means more bugs.
scripting is no panacea.
Many times the high cost is to customize a program uniquely for a customer
Amen. Most large enterprise software has the core stuff and a lot of configuration. In the linux model, the customer would buy a license for the kernel, and then perhaps other 'modules' (like gnu tools, X, openoffice etc) would be configured or built or installed on top.
The difference is that nobody wants openoffice as it comes off the disk, they want everything rearranged and renamed, with this moved here and that moved there.
They then change their mind halfway through because they've moved their call centre to india and tell you that they want it running over a LAN vnc-style.
And translated into Indian.
And in rupees instead of Dollars.
Oh, and the government's just changed the tax rate from 10% on sales to 5% on all transactions except where you pay in advance where it's 20%.
Not that I'm bitter, but enterprise software would come out just as bug-free as other software if we were allowed to TRULY tie down requirements in advance. Business ain't like that though.
Not once in my life have I ever thought anything along the lines of "Let's click on that goatsecx link." either, but thousands of other people on slashdot have.
There's a strong argument for actually thinking about the consistent and clear usability of a system rather than just forming it as some gestalt cluster of (cool) useful bits.
Gamers may care, but gamers are just the market.
The real reason to rush out a game is right there in the text:
the game has to be in stores by June 30th in order for the company to recognize sales [estimated to be 1.5 to 2.5 million units] for its current financial year.
As such, if they sink a lot of cash into the game, and don't have any return, the company may be fine but that appears on their books forever. Like, really forever.
Even in news reports like "Games shop Eidos, who booked a loss of 1 kazillion patootie last financial year, have announced..."
Not to overgeneralise, but <troll> capitalism is the reason why sucky/buggy games are released early.</troll>
So creating a Z specification:
-forces you to be very specific about what correct behaviour is
- Does not take into account changing requirements without rework of the initial model
- Normally cannot factor change into a design in the way that stuff such as design patterns do
Now yes, these are very different issues, but unless you are working on a system that derives some nontrivial benefit from being 'proven' (ie: nuclear, medical etc) then it only has limited scope.
Perhaps the realities of most short-timeframe projects preclude the use of such formal methods in all but a few cases.
1) Slashdot other SuperVillain's servers.
2) ?
3) Profit!
In Australia, it's normally not a copyright violation if you take some 'artwork' and modify it by at least 10%. HOWEVER, that does not ever apply to trademarked images.
</IANAL>
Quite frankly, though, most artists will still consider that it's still theft of a kind. If you're making money from your application, then you should invest some of it and employ some talented kid who needs money for rent or food or something. You don't really need that new P4 rig yet anyway, do you?
So, for now:
1) If you're building the application, build it so that the artwork can be EASILY slotted in later. (seems obvious, but really design to support a complete facelift. You know about MVC, right?)
2) Maybe browse the web for portfolios, and resumes of people with cool websites and no jobs. Exploit them for low wages and the ability to but real work on their resumes.
3) Or, release the app with crappy graphics and a HOWTO and wait for your users to build you a nice pretty interface.
I must assume that you are developing an enterprise application, given your performance and availability needs. Contemporary systems of this nature fall loosely into one of two categories: web technology based, or not.
All of these technologies are well and good at an enterprise level in which latency is not an issue, but move into (say) telecomms and suddenly your drivers are:
1) Availability
2) Latency
When I pick up my prepaid cell phone, dial a number and press send there are milliseconds for the entire network to work out where the call is going, work out how much $ I have and then handle trying to actually connect the call. 500ms is a noticable delay. 1000ms is unacceptable. Think about me being in Guatamala and my phone company being in Abu Dhabi and then tell me CORBA/NET/J2EE/XYZ is the right solution.
How about "Alpha Geek" or "Guru". That seems to work in our organisaion...
As for what goes on the business cards, that's a management w@nk.
-d
How about the old licenses which are "Treat it like a book". Unfortunately licenses are *not* like a book because the manufacturer can prevent you loaning to another person...
Actually, it's more like:
Clause Four to rule them all
Clause Four to find them
Clause four to bring them all
and in the bitstream bind them
In the Land of xtra where the Lawyers lie.
So, since they have all the rights, does that by implication mean they can be prosecuted for any w@rez, ripped CDs or similar?
By uploading them I'm expressly waiving any rights, and the associated responsibilities?
Sounds like an easy way to 'protest'.
You think you got it bad?
Here in Aus, we've been dealing with 'April Fools' jokes for more than 24h (this story posted at 15:30 April 2).
<TROLL karma="-1">
Guess that means everyone in the US has been an April Fool for 15hrs+?
</TROLL>
I think you will soon find that your emloyer considers that they factored in 'compensation' into your original package. At least that's what they "normally" do in Australia.
Perhaps the courts aren't your best recourse in this climate.
A file (module/unit/whatever) is still a fairly high granularity to make decisions upon. I'd be more interested at finding bugs within specific functions rather than just files...