Constitutionally, your state can pretty much trample all over you and you have little recourse. At least with the federal government, as in this case, the states, on your behalf, can blow raspberries. The federal government really can't do much to you without the active participation of your state. So, people freak out whenever the feds do something they don't like, but they haven't the slightest clue what anyone in their state government is up to, which rather makes the states the more dangerous beasts, since your state is not just your protection from the federal government--it is also the colluding executor of its will.
"Sure, software is easy, anyone can do it."..which is why we get the perennially insightful thread titles about "why software is hard" followed by a zillion-posts saying, essentially, "no shit." Really raises the question of if only one could get management lackeys to simply understand, "hey, software IS hard!" perhaps we could get on without having to perpetually explain why. I mean, you don't go to your surgeon and say "hey, Doc, why can't I just get a bunch of community college kids to swap this heart out--and do we really need all this support staff? I mean, you know what you're doing, right? EIGHT HOURS?! Christ, man, it's just ONE piece! I don't have all day. Follow-ups? What, you can't do it right the first time? You must be incompetent. Hand me that scalpel..."
"I'm not trolling, or kidding for that matter. Find ways to deliver value that only you can bring."
In other words, "I am an unique and beautiful snowflake, you're a replaceable part." Well, hon, short of selling your spunk, there's nothing you can provide that is of truly "unique" value...and what quantifiable uniqueness there is for your, uhm, "genetic material," I highly doubt there is a premium in the market that could replace a salary even if you were able to produce it like water from a fire-hose.
They should be more specific and offer that option, which would pretty effectively communicate the difference through price alone. "Computer w/no OS: $300 vs. Computer w/preloaded OEM license: $350 vs. Computer w/ user-installable boxed copy of OS: $450." If you were awarded compenstation for the latter after paying for the former, I'd argue the court was in error, since, no, you never did pay for a full end-user copy.
...that was precisely my point: five times the computing power for half the power consumption, and that relationship over time is roughly equivalent for both "PCs" and Macs.
Yep. A good number of people don't seem to grasp that by getting Windows pre-loaded, they've not purchased a Windows license, their manufacturer has, ergo why it is tied to the specific hardware and you don't get an install disk, you get a "recovery" disk, if anything at all. You can't "RE-purchase the OS" if you never really purchased it in the first place.
I wish they'd give the option of OEM install or blank system with retail box version, but nooooo, rather than your first act of ownership being spending an hour installing the OS, you end up spending an hour UN-installing all the crappy OEM bullshit, trialware and advertising.
I still use several ca. 1998 PCs for various tasks. My primary concern in continuing their life has nothing to do with their capacity to fill their useful purposes, but simply their power consumption in relation thereof...which should explain quite a bit about the true lifespan metrics of the hardware...for which no platform is immune. A $500 MacMini has a similar performance vs. power consumption curve compared to its decade-old equivalent, which In 1998 was the iMac at 233Mhz--that's not a damn sight greater leap in performance over the lifespan.
Face it, the technology is and has always been roughly equivalent.
It's a bad system that by design turns everyone into snipers. That people deal with it strategically or technologically doesn't change the fact that it is busted.
Or go home.
You know, if we called them "pickup pixies" I wonder if they'd knock-off the standard tough guy stance that usually comes with identifying as a "Sniper." You know, maybe use this guy as the mascot...
People who defend sniping expect others to enter their maximum acceptable bid.
Yet, a sniper goes in at the last possible moment and tries to guess the maximum acceptable bids of the current participants and bids the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM NECESSARY TO WIN, using an arbitrary (and quite unique to eBay, btw) stopwatch to cut competing bids out by milliseconds. Shill bidders are similar in that their intent is to do exactly the same thing, minus the absolute minimum necessary to lose. Neither ever reveals their true maximum bid.
The reason people consider both of these beasts assholes is because they both rely on others playing by rules they do not remotely intend to apply to themselves...and then show up in message threads blaring without the slightest hint of irony that if only others would play by those un-applicable-to-me rules, their behavior wouldn't be a problem when truth be told, that would just make such behavior even more profitable. It is this final step that distinguishes a mere opportunist from a certifiable asshole.
Ebayers get into a religious war about sniping (and every conceivable "feature" in the system) and generally resort to this "you're a moron, I'm a professional" baloney.
No, the problem is they're combining a Vickrey auction with an English auction--then adding an arbitrary stop-watch--and that encourages sniping and rampant shill bidding. People who point this out aren't morons, they just recognize a bad system when they see one.
For bid once, bid max to work, you actually have to be forced into having only ONE bid. Once you can submit subsequent bids, no one will reveal their true max until the last possible moment, because you have no reason to believe anyone else will behave any differently. The stopwatch identified by the previous poster IS the problem. Because of the combination of sealed-yet-easily-opened bids, you reduce it to a few seconds of English auction with the reserve set by a week of unfortunate souls who've tipped their hands. What you end up with is underbidding for fear of being automatically ratched-up by shills and overbidding in a desperate attempt to outrun the shills and everyone else in a sprint to beat the clock hoping to god no one else has overbid/worse/ than you because you're hoping that last millisecond $50 up only costs you $0.50.
This is not good auction design, but it is easily fixed: enforce single-bids or reset the clock. If you do the former, you force the humans to be truthful--and completely eliminate any incentive to shill--and if you do the later, you remove the incentive to engage in the robotic 100 millisecond dash.
But, one can imagine that some very talented statisticians at eBay have figured out that the current system results in significant net overbidding and that means more money, so while it may be broken, they ain't going to fix it any time soon.
...as has applied to centuries of similar material: none.
Hormonal, pubescent adolescents will seek out and obtain porn and actual sex, regardless and often in direct proportion to your attempts to prevent them from doing so. Welcome to humanity.
People have been implying that one asshole implies the whole company may be rotten to the core. The likelihood that may not be remotely true is obviously not in fact blatantly obvious to either the OP or about half this thread.
Perhaps you could enlighten the thread with some earth-shattering insights of your own, Mr. Potato.
...that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Yes, talk to the hiring manager. Often, these things are compartmentalized and the occupants of said compartments may have histories you're not aware of -- and your polite "excuse me, but" to one person may result in an immediate burning of the phone lines to everyone as far up to the top as is required to beat the tar out of the moron(s) causing you grief. It doesn't necessarily reflect a systemic flaw in the company, it just identifies one possible idiot in the ranks--one that you may never have to deal with again.
You imply that you are part of the 0.000001% of the population you've identified as being capable of answering your question, but anyone expecting the average Joe to have the faintest idea how a 65 year-old nearly ubiquitous kitchen appliance functions is an arrogant asshole?
...you don't own your home or your landlord has never run your credit--for that matter you have no credit (good luck owning a home then)--you're not employed, don't pay taxes, don't vote, have never been cited for any infraction of law (much less anything worse or actively sued or been sued for anything), don't drive, have no insurance of any kind, do not have a passport, have never sought medical care. Even after that, the POSTAL SERVICE certainly has your address and THEY certainly give that out as a matter of course.
Yes, SOME databases are best avoided (say, spammers, unnecessary creditors and sweepstakes operations), but to attempt to be in NO databases...well, that becomes an exercise in pointless histrionics.
"And despite the increase of proliferation and individual threats, the global doomsday we legitimately feared in the 80's is long gone."
The imaginary fears we had are long gone. The legitimate fears are worse, not least because in the 80's we were fighting proxy wars on the borders of a nuclear power. Now we're fighting direct land wars on the borders of not one but several nuclear powers.
Yes, you're right. Someone living in a Brazlian favela is rich as Croessus compared to someone being massacred in a ditch in Darfur. Damned hypocritical favela-living welfare queens don't know how good they've got it and those people dying in Darfur have no idea how much better they've got it that people starving in Western Sahara. I mean, even a guerrilla government is better than NO government. They just don't know how to appreciate what they have...
PalmOS and Windows (including mobile) and OSX originated as operating systems designed to run arbitrary user applications, one of which may or may not be called "telephone." The iPhone runs OSX and is advertised as running OSX applications...except you can't load any of your own, despite the fact that they'll let you do that on all other OSX devices.
Jobs is blaming this on Cingular. Well, I have a Cingular phone that I use as a bluetooth modem. I could potentially do as much or more damage to their network with that as the iPhone (nowhere did I see 'connect me to your Mac' in the glossies). The "b-b-ut it's Cingular" argument is a red herring. This is a control issue. The question is whether it is arbitrary or with considered reason -- but it's certainly NOT "the network," since that is already vulnerable for the same reasons from millions of existing devices and we've been using cellphones as modems for over twenty years. If it is an arbitrary restriction, you're getting a crippled device for no reason. If it is a reasoned restriction, you're getting a crippled device because it's already broken.
But, the market has repeatedly shown there are many, many people who see no reason not to buy expensive blingy gadgets in either case. As long as these people exist in sufficient numbers, we will be subject to this b.s. at every turn because people believe it and obediently nod "please, put me in a straight-jacket so the evildoers won't hurt my fragile little self."
"Sometimes when 8 usd/hr is mentioned the applicant expects near zero experience to do the job."
That's perfectly reasonable to expect. Price is a communication device. For labor in most of the United States, anything single-digit communicates extremely low expectation of competency, quality, and loyalty. If you want any of those in any great amount, you have to pay something reasonably distant from poverty level.
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Constitutionally, your state can pretty much trample all over you and you have little recourse. At least with the federal government, as in this case, the states, on your behalf, can blow raspberries. The federal government really can't do much to you without the active participation of your state. So, people freak out whenever the feds do something they don't like, but they haven't the slightest clue what anyone in their state government is up to, which rather makes the states the more dangerous beasts, since your state is not just your protection from the federal government--it is also the colluding executor of its will.
"Sure, software is easy, anyone can do it." ..which is why we get the perennially insightful thread titles about "why software is hard" followed by a zillion-posts saying, essentially, "no shit." Really raises the question of if only one could get management lackeys to simply understand, "hey, software IS hard!" perhaps we could get on without having to perpetually explain why. I mean, you don't go to your surgeon and say "hey, Doc, why can't I just get a bunch of community college kids to swap this heart out--and do we really need all this support staff? I mean, you know what you're doing, right? EIGHT HOURS?! Christ, man, it's just ONE piece! I don't have all day. Follow-ups? What, you can't do it right the first time? You must be incompetent. Hand me that scalpel..."
"I'm not trolling, or kidding for that matter. Find ways to deliver value that only you can bring."
In other words, "I am an unique and beautiful snowflake, you're a replaceable part." Well, hon, short of selling your spunk, there's nothing you can provide that is of truly "unique" value...and what quantifiable uniqueness there is for your, uhm, "genetic material," I highly doubt there is a premium in the market that could replace a salary even if you were able to produce it like water from a fire-hose.
They should be more specific and offer that option, which would pretty effectively communicate the difference through price alone. "Computer w/no OS: $300 vs. Computer w/preloaded OEM license: $350 vs. Computer w/ user-installable boxed copy of OS: $450." If you were awarded compenstation for the latter after paying for the former, I'd argue the court was in error, since, no, you never did pay for a full end-user copy.
...that was precisely my point: five times the computing power for half the power consumption, and that relationship over time is roughly equivalent for both "PCs" and Macs.
Yep. A good number of people don't seem to grasp that by getting Windows pre-loaded, they've not purchased a Windows license, their manufacturer has, ergo why it is tied to the specific hardware and you don't get an install disk, you get a "recovery" disk, if anything at all. You can't "RE-purchase the OS" if you never really purchased it in the first place.
I wish they'd give the option of OEM install or blank system with retail box version, but nooooo, rather than your first act of ownership being spending an hour installing the OS, you end up spending an hour UN-installing all the crappy OEM bullshit, trialware and advertising.
I still use several ca. 1998 PCs for various tasks. My primary concern in continuing their life has nothing to do with their capacity to fill their useful purposes, but simply their power consumption in relation thereof...which should explain quite a bit about the true lifespan metrics of the hardware...for which no platform is immune. A $500 MacMini has a similar performance vs. power consumption curve compared to its decade-old equivalent, which In 1998 was the iMac at 233Mhz--that's not a damn sight greater leap in performance over the lifespan.
Face it, the technology is and has always been roughly equivalent.
It's a bad system that by design turns everyone into snipers. That people deal with it strategically or technologically doesn't change the fact that it is busted.
Or go home.
You know, if we called them "pickup pixies" I wonder if they'd knock-off the standard tough guy stance that usually comes with identifying as a "Sniper." You know, maybe use this guy as the mascot...
People who defend sniping expect others to enter their maximum acceptable bid.
Yet, a sniper goes in at the last possible moment and tries to guess the maximum acceptable bids of the current participants and bids the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM NECESSARY TO WIN, using an arbitrary (and quite unique to eBay, btw) stopwatch to cut competing bids out by milliseconds. Shill bidders are similar in that their intent is to do exactly the same thing, minus the absolute minimum necessary to lose. Neither ever reveals their true maximum bid.
The reason people consider both of these beasts assholes is because they both rely on others playing by rules they do not remotely intend to apply to themselves...and then show up in message threads blaring without the slightest hint of irony that if only others would play by those un-applicable-to-me rules, their behavior wouldn't be a problem when truth be told, that would just make such behavior even more profitable. It is this final step that distinguishes a mere opportunist from a certifiable asshole.
Ebayers get into a religious war about sniping (and every conceivable "feature" in the system) and generally resort to this "you're a moron, I'm a professional" baloney.
/worse/ than you because you're hoping that last millisecond $50 up only costs you $0.50.
No, the problem is they're combining a Vickrey auction with an English auction--then adding an arbitrary stop-watch--and that encourages sniping and rampant shill bidding. People who point this out aren't morons, they just recognize a bad system when they see one.
For bid once, bid max to work, you actually have to be forced into having only ONE bid. Once you can submit subsequent bids, no one will reveal their true max until the last possible moment, because you have no reason to believe anyone else will behave any differently. The stopwatch identified by the previous poster IS the problem. Because of the combination of sealed-yet-easily-opened bids, you reduce it to a few seconds of English auction with the reserve set by a week of unfortunate souls who've tipped their hands. What you end up with is underbidding for fear of being automatically ratched-up by shills and overbidding in a desperate attempt to outrun the shills and everyone else in a sprint to beat the clock hoping to god no one else has overbid
This is not good auction design, but it is easily fixed: enforce single-bids or reset the clock. If you do the former, you force the humans to be truthful--and completely eliminate any incentive to shill--and if you do the later, you remove the incentive to engage in the robotic 100 millisecond dash.
But, one can imagine that some very talented statisticians at eBay have figured out that the current system results in significant net overbidding and that means more money, so while it may be broken, they ain't going to fix it any time soon.
...as has applied to centuries of similar material: none. Hormonal, pubescent adolescents will seek out and obtain porn and actual sex, regardless and often in direct proportion to your attempts to prevent them from doing so. Welcome to humanity.
If they don't care about SONGS, Three Mile Island or Palo Verde (the largest nuclear plant in the country), it's a far cry from blanket censorship...
People have been implying that one asshole implies the whole company may be rotten to the core. The likelihood that may not be remotely true is obviously not in fact blatantly obvious to either the OP or about half this thread.
Perhaps you could enlighten the thread with some earth-shattering insights of your own, Mr. Potato.
Yes, talk to the hiring manager. Often, these things are compartmentalized and the occupants of said compartments may have histories you're not aware of -- and your polite "excuse me, but" to one person may result in an immediate burning of the phone lines to everyone as far up to the top as is required to beat the tar out of the moron(s) causing you grief. It doesn't necessarily reflect a systemic flaw in the company, it just identifies one possible idiot in the ranks--one that you may never have to deal with again.
You imply that you are part of the 0.000001% of the population you've identified as being capable of answering your question, but anyone expecting the average Joe to have the faintest idea how a 65 year-old nearly ubiquitous kitchen appliance functions is an arrogant asshole?
You've got some serious chutzpah...
...you don't own your home or your landlord has never run your credit--for that matter you have no credit (good luck owning a home then)--you're not employed, don't pay taxes, don't vote, have never been cited for any infraction of law (much less anything worse or actively sued or been sued for anything), don't drive, have no insurance of any kind, do not have a passport, have never sought medical care. Even after that, the POSTAL SERVICE certainly has your address and THEY certainly give that out as a matter of course.
Yes, SOME databases are best avoided (say, spammers, unnecessary creditors and sweepstakes operations), but to attempt to be in NO databases...well, that becomes an exercise in pointless histrionics.
Precisely which artists does the RIAA represent?
"This is the United STATES of America, but people have come to believe it is the Federal Republic of America. "
Erm, it *IS* a Federal Republic, you twit.
"And despite the increase of proliferation and individual threats, the global doomsday we legitimately feared in the 80's is long gone."
The imaginary fears we had are long gone. The legitimate fears are worse, not least because in the 80's we were fighting proxy wars on the borders of a nuclear power. Now we're fighting direct land wars on the borders of not one but several nuclear powers.
Yes, you're right. Someone living in a Brazlian favela is rich as Croessus compared to someone being massacred in a ditch in Darfur. Damned hypocritical favela-living welfare queens don't know how good they've got it and those people dying in Darfur have no idea how much better they've got it that people starving in Western Sahara. I mean, even a guerrilla government is better than NO government. They just don't know how to appreciate what they have...
PalmOS and Windows (including mobile) and OSX originated as operating systems designed to run arbitrary user applications, one of which may or may not be called "telephone." The iPhone runs OSX and is advertised as running OSX applications...except you can't load any of your own, despite the fact that they'll let you do that on all other OSX devices.
Jobs is blaming this on Cingular. Well, I have a Cingular phone that I use as a bluetooth modem. I could potentially do as much or more damage to their network with that as the iPhone (nowhere did I see 'connect me to your Mac' in the glossies). The "b-b-ut it's Cingular" argument is a red herring. This is a control issue. The question is whether it is arbitrary or with considered reason -- but it's certainly NOT "the network," since that is already vulnerable for the same reasons from millions of existing devices and we've been using cellphones as modems for over twenty years. If it is an arbitrary restriction, you're getting a crippled device for no reason. If it is a reasoned restriction, you're getting a crippled device because it's already broken.
But, the market has repeatedly shown there are many, many people who see no reason not to buy expensive blingy gadgets in either case. As long as these people exist in sufficient numbers, we will be subject to this b.s. at every turn because people believe it and obediently nod "please, put me in a straight-jacket so the evildoers won't hurt my fragile little self."
"Sometimes when 8 usd/hr is mentioned the applicant expects near zero experience to do the job." That's perfectly reasonable to expect. Price is a communication device. For labor in most of the United States, anything single-digit communicates extremely low expectation of competency, quality, and loyalty. If you want any of those in any great amount, you have to pay something reasonably distant from poverty level.
"You are merely an almost infinitesimal part of the big, grand, large, larger than life universe." Oddly enough, that was his point.
CONTRACTING for Google. /Shudder
Unless you're Buckaroo Banzai or perhaps St. Anselm, that's a highly doubtful proposition.