They get jobs because they're hired by managers, and the managers mostly know even less than the 'IT/MIS' guys. If you can identify the word Script in a lineup of six other words, and have heard the word Enterprise before, that's basically all it takes to convince a non technical guy that you're it for IT. Not to mention the common practice of sweeping rejects off the floor into the hel pdesk phone staff to 'cover more bases'. Right. Well, you get what you pay for, and CS guys are more expensive. So, while even some IT tech training programs offer courses that actually provide you with skills that are really usable (like Advanced Excel Charting isn't?), they don't require that you actually take them to get your 'degree' if that's what you want to call sitting and reading step by step point and click instructions for a couple of years.
Right, after all, a newspaper isn't responsible for people who place misleading classified ads. Google is an advertising carrier, not an advertiser... just like in any advertising case, you don't sue channel 6 because the car dealership put an advert out with a bait and switch photograph on it... it's the person who actually makes the ad that's the culprit. I love how nobody in the world is ACTUALLY responsible for their own actions anymore.
I don't know, but if the root kit company loses, it has major implications... like for example say a developer makes a website for company X, and it has a feature that allows you to say... post documents... And then someone at company X posts all of the usernames and passwords... you won't sue the developer for faulty software because the thing enabled the stupid users to do something dumb with it. I don't think the two cases are exactly analogous; however, it's a step in that direction, which is scary for developers. I'd like to think that a software author cannot be held responsible for the way in which it's customer uses said software, otherwise, who's next?
Boot to your ubuntu installation disc once you have XP ready and rolling. It'll handle the re-partitioning for you and everything (well it will allow you to select the size you want it to carve out for ubuntu). It will default you to booting Ubuntu I think, you can still choose windows, but you can edit that in the grub configuration so that windows is your default if that's how you swing. It's quite good at the dual boot. I haven't seen my friends who've done it have any trouble, essentially it's just like having a hard drive for each, so it's not really something that will affect your windows negatively unless you do something fiddly afterward to the grub configuration that happens to be bad, and even then you can boot into single user on the live cd and fix it right up again.
You are right, there a bunch of working Live CD-like distros out that are just as nice in the respect of installation and hardware compatibility. That aside, I think part of the reason that ubuntu gets some of the credit even though many other distros also offer installation 'a la live CD' is that they have a really decent marketing campaign, and they got the bright idea to ship out CD's free of charge. That's a bold move. While I don't have marketing research or anything to back it up, it's a good idea, and I do have friends who are willing to try it because they're sending out the discs even minus the shipping charge. Some of the others are not as accessible though, because people are shaky about paying even small amounts for what they consider to be unproven software, anticipating, though maybe falsely, configuration nightmares and slow wireless drivers. So things like Mandriva, Linspire, and the like are not as attractive as Ubuntu.
I will also say that we have supported RHEL, and it certainly does not 'just work' in a lot of ways:) I personally don't care, because I kinda like getting things running with a little challenge and tinkering. It makes me appreciate the simple things in computing so much more, but your average Joe MySpace just doesn't agree, I'd venture.
I've had a much easier time getting my boss to look at it because when I install it, it just works... Also it's very nice play with dual boot for the skittish XP users is a good thing. They have it very well packaged, though that may be all it actually is, it's very nearly a deal closer with skeptics who hate command lines, but still should be learning linux for cost reasons. I have it on my host, and personally, I like it very much. (A quick vmware-server install allows for all of the windows one will ever need.)
See now you are what I picture in a manager. I work in an IT shop for a moderately sized company (1600 employees) and I know that the manager doesn't really check the logs, they just call the guy who is paid to check the logs, but the might check the deploy queue.. I don't know any manager I've ever had that actually has to look at logs, unless you consider email from the staff to be logs...
Well, I can't say that I blame the guys for being a little disgruntled, and looking for something to make a little comfort and joy in that which is the warzone of Joe Public's personal computer repairs. Sure they're definitely doing something that's wrong, but they're also doing something that really sucks for a living. You go out into the corporate world to service someone's machine, and, at least to some degree, you know what to expect. But, if you look at a home user's machine, who has had over 6 months of surfing, IM'ing, downloading 'game plugins', opening email attachments and installing 'free cool apps,' that's a whole new story. You could literally save yourself a lot of effort by reformatting it, but if you lose those pictures of the (grand)kids that someone mistakenly saved to System32, well you're probably out of a job next week. How many times do you think you could stand hearing 'I didn't install ANYTHING on my computer, it must have just come like that?' I don't condone the behavior of porn stealing, but... I understand.
I'll bet they're shitting rocks now though after pushing so much into this and to see it struggle so much. There is of course the possibility that they are able to just use vista as a stopgap until the next version comes out. Perhaps that's been the plan all along, or at least on the drawing board.
AS long as you're not under contract then you own it. There's the rub of course. Artists have trouble getting to superstardom like Prince is now without the crutch of the record industry. So, he's now officially biting the hand that once fed him. He's of course also biting the hand that fucked him over, but one could argue that he was just being snobby back then too because he did sign a contract with his own name, and he probably read it before he decided he hated it... Anyway, now I think it's cool that he's doing what he is, but things aren't always so cut and dry as the folks here seem to think.
I think it's highly unlikely that they'd have volunteered to present in the case that they didn't actually have the sploit already, but it's possible. I'm guessing (note I said Guessing, not arrogantly postulating, asserting, or stating) that they were bought out. Why not? it's a great exit strategy for a service well performed.
People don't seem to actually understand what this means. It means that people are no longer able to just undercut the prices arbitrarily, it doesn't mean that instantly prices go up, because that would mean that the products would lose volume of sale, which is often more painful in the long run than selling at lower margins. Why this actually is a good thing in one light is that it will mean that people trying to pass off counterfeit products as the real thing at a lower price will be easier to spot, and the makers of the products will have better ammunition to prosecute pirates or counterfeitters. The government had better keep a close eye on collusion though, because that is one potential bad side effect that if left unenforced could end up hurting consumers in some cases. But the reality remains, unless they're just a premium product, then the company selling you something has little interest in setting it's minimum price out of range of the consumer market's reach. This basically will mainly impact stores with similar modus operandi to walmart, and make them a little less like the mafia in the free market. (Honestly I don't think people are mortgaging their houses to buy televisions, and if they are, that's their stupid fault.)
Isn't that a little short-sighted of you? Who's going to have PC's in 20 years anyway? I seem to recall adverts from the 60's (from archives only I wasn't born until '80) that say something like "eventually Computers will be small enough to fit into a single room."
Not wanting to really go there, I will say that the issue you describe about earth isn't intentional, (and it's not terraforming - which is making a planet earth-like) and it's not controllable, at least, it hasn't been controlled yet, according to either side of the climate debate.
Doing this on mars would be deliberate and require quite a bit of actual expertise opposed to theoretical models that are currently only bolstering the notions that you're describing in global climate change with evidence that it's happening -- not actually illustrating concrete howto's (other than the theoretical) on how to affect it on purpose. I'm not trying to argue that nobody has any solid scientific methodology gleaned from climate research, but that there is no step 1 2 3 guide for how to mold a global climate (or even more importantly, an entire global ecosystem) at will.
Sure there are some things you could learn from what we observe here on earth, but there are so many other factors too that would be involved. One such feature would be the possibility of the cosmic radiation mutating or killing any of the little critters we'd like to use for atmospheric regulation. (I'm no expert in evolution or genetics, I'm just pulling a random, arbitrary, fictional example out of my rear end, so I don't want anyone telling me how bad that example was.)
Are you guys kidding me? You talk about terraforming as if it's just another trick we have in our arsenal, which it isn't. But, the technology aside, there are other issues that will trump that. For example, what about the militant lobby of folks who will undoubtedly make this into 'the evil humans rushing out to screw up another planet after they can't even keep a grip on their own?' You think Eco Terrorism is bad now, wait until someone starts moralizing on the idea of just commandeering a whole planet for experimental purposes. I personally think that it's as good of a laboratory as any, but I really think this would make the alarmist triply so. Think about it, what about property rights, mineral rights, and political philosophy, the interaction of religious idiots, and the mass media distortion... It's all just a huge cluster fsck waiting to happen, which is why I think it will never happen. I'd hope it does, but I don't see anything able to surmount those socio-political issues any time in the next couple of centuries, let alone the next 93 years.
I agree with you. What I think folks are missing, aside from the stuff you've mentioned, with all of this talk about immigration, is that this article is about robots replacing men doing menial tasks... it's happened before... n the auto-plants, virtually every assembly line (with some exceptions) is full of mostly robots and very few people. I think that the fact that this stirs up images of folks toiling in the fields that people are trying to think of it differently becauese it evokes imagery that goes along with slavery from the past, and now, illegal immigrant labor, but it's not really about either. It may have an effect on immigration, but the deal is that when people are not burdened with one type of menial task then they are free to work on another, perhaps not as menial, (but maybe still just as dull, you never know) task. Certainly it will make a rough transition for folks in the short term, but in the long term, shifts in labor division like this are beneficial to a society because the drive cost of living down (because the price of consumer goods goes down) and eventually increase competativeness with foreign countries who already have cheaper labor, and less regulation. I hate making the same point again, but if you'll notice, people don't harvest corn, wheat, or soy by hand any more either, at least for the most part.
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They get jobs because they're hired by managers, and the managers mostly know even less than the 'IT/MIS' guys. If you can identify the word Script in a lineup of six other words, and have heard the word Enterprise before, that's basically all it takes to convince a non technical guy that you're it for IT. Not to mention the common practice of sweeping rejects off the floor into the hel pdesk phone staff to 'cover more bases'. Right. Well, you get what you pay for, and CS guys are more expensive. So, while even some IT tech training programs offer courses that actually provide you with skills that are really usable (like Advanced Excel Charting isn't?), they don't require that you actually take them to get your 'degree' if that's what you want to call sitting and reading step by step point and click instructions for a couple of years.
That's called a "kickback" in the good old USA, and to some, it's a way of life. I don't want to be them if they get counter sued and lose...
Right, after all, a newspaper isn't responsible for people who place misleading classified ads. Google is an advertising carrier, not an advertiser... just like in any advertising case, you don't sue channel 6 because the car dealership put an advert out with a bait and switch photograph on it... it's the person who actually makes the ad that's the culprit. I love how nobody in the world is ACTUALLY responsible for their own actions anymore.
I don't know, but if the root kit company loses, it has major implications... like for example say a developer makes a website for company X, and it has a feature that allows you to say... post documents... And then someone at company X posts all of the usernames and passwords... you won't sue the developer for faulty software because the thing enabled the stupid users to do something dumb with it. I don't think the two cases are exactly analogous; however, it's a step in that direction, which is scary for developers. I'd like to think that a software author cannot be held responsible for the way in which it's customer uses said software, otherwise, who's next?
Boot to your ubuntu installation disc once you have XP ready and rolling. It'll handle the re-partitioning for you and everything (well it will allow you to select the size you want it to carve out for ubuntu). It will default you to booting Ubuntu I think, you can still choose windows, but you can edit that in the grub configuration so that windows is your default if that's how you swing. It's quite good at the dual boot. I haven't seen my friends who've done it have any trouble, essentially it's just like having a hard drive for each, so it's not really something that will affect your windows negatively unless you do something fiddly afterward to the grub configuration that happens to be bad, and even then you can boot into single user on the live cd and fix it right up again.
You are right, there a bunch of working Live CD-like distros out that are just as nice in the respect of installation and hardware compatibility. That aside, I think part of the reason that ubuntu gets some of the credit even though many other distros also offer installation 'a la live CD' is that they have a really decent marketing campaign, and they got the bright idea to ship out CD's free of charge. That's a bold move. While I don't have marketing research or anything to back it up, it's a good idea, and I do have friends who are willing to try it because they're sending out the discs even minus the shipping charge. Some of the others are not as accessible though, because people are shaky about paying even small amounts for what they consider to be unproven software, anticipating, though maybe falsely, configuration nightmares and slow wireless drivers. So things like Mandriva, Linspire, and the like are not as attractive as Ubuntu.
I will also say that we have supported RHEL, and it certainly does not 'just work' in a lot of ways:) I personally don't care, because I kinda like getting things running with a little challenge and tinkering. It makes me appreciate the simple things in computing so much more, but your average Joe MySpace just doesn't agree, I'd venture.
I've had a much easier time getting my boss to look at it because when I install it, it just works... Also it's very nice play with dual boot for the skittish XP users is a good thing. They have it very well packaged, though that may be all it actually is, it's very nearly a deal closer with skeptics who hate command lines, but still should be learning linux for cost reasons. I have it on my host, and personally, I like it very much. (A quick vmware-server install allows for all of the windows one will ever need.)
That's kind of like putting radioactive waste into the toes of socks before throwing them into the dryer.
See now you are what I picture in a manager. I work in an IT shop for a moderately sized company (1600 employees) and I know that the manager doesn't really check the logs, they just call the guy who is paid to check the logs, but the might check the deploy queue.. I don't know any manager I've ever had that actually has to look at logs, unless you consider email from the staff to be logs...
You mean like, we should still be driving our horses with the first brand of buggey whips? Why change something that so obviously worked for so long?
Well, I can't say that I blame the guys for being a little disgruntled, and looking for something to make a little comfort and joy in that which is the warzone of Joe Public's personal computer repairs. Sure they're definitely doing something that's wrong, but they're also doing something that really sucks for a living. You go out into the corporate world to service someone's machine, and, at least to some degree, you know what to expect. But, if you look at a home user's machine, who has had over 6 months of surfing, IM'ing, downloading 'game plugins', opening email attachments and installing 'free cool apps,' that's a whole new story. You could literally save yourself a lot of effort by reformatting it, but if you lose those pictures of the (grand)kids that someone mistakenly saved to System32, well you're probably out of a job next week. How many times do you think you could stand hearing 'I didn't install ANYTHING on my computer, it must have just come like that?' I don't condone the behavior of porn stealing, but... I understand.
Cool, but how do you sneak this by the folks lobbying to outlaw genetically modified anything from ever being introduced into anywhere for any reason?
Since I'm at or near FP, I guess not.
I'll bet they're shitting rocks now though after pushing so much into this and to see it struggle so much. There is of course the possibility that they are able to just use vista as a stopgap until the next version comes out. Perhaps that's been the plan all along, or at least on the drawing board.
AS long as you're not under contract then you own it. There's the rub of course. Artists have trouble getting to superstardom like Prince is now without the crutch of the record industry. So, he's now officially biting the hand that once fed him. He's of course also biting the hand that fucked him over, but one could argue that he was just being snobby back then too because he did sign a contract with his own name, and he probably read it before he decided he hated it... Anyway, now I think it's cool that he's doing what he is, but things aren't always so cut and dry as the folks here seem to think.
I think it's highly unlikely that they'd have volunteered to present in the case that they didn't actually have the sploit already, but it's possible. I'm guessing (note I said Guessing, not arrogantly postulating, asserting, or stating) that they were bought out. Why not? it's a great exit strategy for a service well performed.
People don't seem to actually understand what this means. It means that people are no longer able to just undercut the prices arbitrarily, it doesn't mean that instantly prices go up, because that would mean that the products would lose volume of sale, which is often more painful in the long run than selling at lower margins. Why this actually is a good thing in one light is that it will mean that people trying to pass off counterfeit products as the real thing at a lower price will be easier to spot, and the makers of the products will have better ammunition to prosecute pirates or counterfeitters. The government had better keep a close eye on collusion though, because that is one potential bad side effect that if left unenforced could end up hurting consumers in some cases. But the reality remains, unless they're just a premium product, then the company selling you something has little interest in setting it's minimum price out of range of the consumer market's reach. This basically will mainly impact stores with similar modus operandi to walmart, and make them a little less like the mafia in the free market. (Honestly I don't think people are mortgaging their houses to buy televisions, and if they are, that's their stupid fault.)
Actually they won't keel over and die, they'll just be forced to lower their minimum price if they want walmart to carry it. Duh.
I didn't say that eco-terrorists were rational folks. Some hippies are going to hug the imaginary martian trees too, just try it and see.
Isn't that a little short-sighted of you? Who's going to have PC's in 20 years anyway? I seem to recall adverts from the 60's (from archives only I wasn't born until '80) that say something like "eventually Computers will be small enough to fit into a single room."
Not wanting to really go there, I will say that the issue you describe about earth isn't intentional, (and it's not terraforming - which is making a planet earth-like) and it's not controllable, at least, it hasn't been controlled yet, according to either side of the climate debate.
Doing this on mars would be deliberate and require quite a bit of actual expertise opposed to theoretical models that are currently only bolstering the notions that you're describing in global climate change with evidence that it's happening -- not actually illustrating concrete howto's (other than the theoretical) on how to affect it on purpose. I'm not trying to argue that nobody has any solid scientific methodology gleaned from climate research, but that there is no step 1 2 3 guide for how to mold a global climate (or even more importantly, an entire global ecosystem) at will.
Sure there are some things you could learn from what we observe here on earth, but there are so many other factors too that would be involved. One such feature would be the possibility of the cosmic radiation mutating or killing any of the little critters we'd like to use for atmospheric regulation. (I'm no expert in evolution or genetics, I'm just pulling a random, arbitrary, fictional example out of my rear end, so I don't want anyone telling me how bad that example was.)
lol, you must have been posting this as I was posting mine on basically the same subject. Those crazy slashdotters.
Are you guys kidding me? You talk about terraforming as if it's just another trick we have in our arsenal, which it isn't. But, the technology aside, there are other issues that will trump that. For example, what about the militant lobby of folks who will undoubtedly make this into 'the evil humans rushing out to screw up another planet after they can't even keep a grip on their own?' You think Eco Terrorism is bad now, wait until someone starts moralizing on the idea of just commandeering a whole planet for experimental purposes. I personally think that it's as good of a laboratory as any, but I really think this would make the alarmist triply so. Think about it, what about property rights, mineral rights, and political philosophy, the interaction of religious idiots, and the mass media distortion... It's all just a huge cluster fsck waiting to happen, which is why I think it will never happen. I'd hope it does, but I don't see anything able to surmount those socio-political issues any time in the next couple of centuries, let alone the next 93 years.
I agree with you. What I think folks are missing, aside from the stuff you've mentioned, with all of this talk about immigration, is that this article is about robots replacing men doing menial tasks... it's happened before... n the auto-plants, virtually every assembly line (with some exceptions) is full of mostly robots and very few people. I think that the fact that this stirs up images of folks toiling in the fields that people are trying to think of it differently becauese it evokes imagery that goes along with slavery from the past, and now, illegal immigrant labor, but it's not really about either. It may have an effect on immigration, but the deal is that when people are not burdened with one type of menial task then they are free to work on another, perhaps not as menial, (but maybe still just as dull, you never know) task. Certainly it will make a rough transition for folks in the short term, but in the long term, shifts in labor division like this are beneficial to a society because the drive cost of living down (because the price of consumer goods goes down) and eventually increase competativeness with foreign countries who already have cheaper labor, and less regulation. I hate making the same point again, but if you'll notice, people don't harvest corn, wheat, or soy by hand any more either, at least for the most part.
well, then, every nation is a nation of immigrants if you go back far enough.