Got me. I had flashbacks to having a dumb terminal sitting next to my CP/M machine at home. It had a whopping 1200 baud modem, while my pc had only 300 Hayes.
It's amazing to me that companies will sell lesser technology for a higher $$ like that. What's more amazing is some yahoo at a large company will convince their manager that they'll need to purchase 1000 of these and distribute them among the company.
GM has announced a smaller, harder to drive vehicle than the small-mid sized cars. It has less power and room as well. It will sell, however, for slightly higher than other vehicles, as it will be cool to own, given a very high geek rating.
But RPC and DCOM are not fundametally tied to Windows, and actually can be shut off without disturbing the locally running OS. Pretty easy too.. you just go to the services dialog box and turn them off. They're merely.DLL's after all. As a matter of fact, I shut them both off recently before applying the ms03-039 on my server at home, to wait and see what the effect of the patch was going to be. I honestly think the whole "built into the OS" stuff is just FUD.
As I sit here at my desk staring at my Volusia sales propaganda....
Have you owned any other cruisers? I've had a Vulcan 750, a Vulcan 1500, and an H-D softtail. The Volusia looks and feels great, and will be my next bike, unless you (the only person I've come across with one) think otherwise.
I have a 28' stock trailer that I use to haul my two horses to the vet, as well as to haul cattle to the auction. People like to eat beef, I have come to understand. I suppose, though, I should use some radio-shack invention to haul them instead.
Pure electric would be super if you didn't have to make long trips and always had an electrical outlet to charge when parked.
Um...
Approximate U.S. energy consumption by energy source (2000):
Oil and natural gas liquids - 38.50%
Natural gas - 23.70%
Coal - 22.80%
Nuclear - 8.10%
Hydroelectric - 3.10%
Other renewables (biomass, wind, etc.) - 3.80% source
85% of US electricity comes from fossil fuels, with another 8.1% from nuclear reactors. Plugging in an electric car doesn't really help... the electricity still has to come from somewhere.
For the entire world, 18% comes from nuclear reactors, 63% from fossil fuels, 19% from hydroelectric plants, and a whopping 38% from geothermal plants. 1993 was the most current data I could find, so I'm sure the world numbers are a little different now, but I'm also sure not by much. source
I happen to drive a full sized chevy pickup. Strangely, there is no offering on the market for a 50mpg vehicle that will pull a 34' trailer, or a 28' cattle trailer, or as enough space to load all of my bass and p/a gear for a show. Until one shows up, I'll continue to whine about the price of gas, mainly because I live in Houston, have worked for oil companies as a programmer, and fully understand their pricing model.
It cracks me up that people think their wall socket provides magical electricity that keeps them from using fossil fuels like coal, gas or oil. Quit listening to Al Gore! He drives a Suburban!
I am amazed that under his leadership, rich investors get tax breaks on their dividends and capital gains
Actually that's been going on for decades, although I'm no longer a fan of Bush (having been at one time... I did like him as governor of my home state).
HP is as guilty as anyone, regarding your comment about managers getting rewarded for the changes they make... I'll post (www.jeffreyhamby.com) the article I just got today from a buddy of mine that works for HP. It's all about current shareholder value these days -- regardless of the future of the company.
You're right on about the typical US citizen and the jackpot mentality. I probably make $30k/yr more than most of my friends, and they all like to talk about what they'll do when they win the lottery. I doubt a single one of them really knows what their retirement outlook is. Pretty sad really.
Umm, you said we are the first generation with a lower standard of living, not that we WILL be the first generation with a lower standard of living. I'll bet your current lifestyle is better than what your parents had at the equivalent point in their life.
I didn't say standard of living, I said worse off... that meant economically. My parents are from a time where both parents didn't have to work to make ends meet. They also come from a time where the disparity between the have's and have not's wasn't so wide. The middle class is shrinking and another article. Unless you squeak into the wealthiest 5% of U.S. citizens, then you're either considered impoverished or a dying breed.
I agree with your old fogie rant. My first salary out of college was $18k, when most of my friends expected to hit the work force running at $30k'ish. THey all thought they should have nice new cars (while I drove an old beat up pickup truck to work), wear expensive suits to work (I shopped at the discount stores), and live uptown. They were all living check to check and barely getting by, because they thought they deserved nice things like their parents had. Fast forward 12 years later, and I have a nice savings account, a nice 401(k), have maxed out on social security (not that I'll ever see any of it), and have extra investments to boot. Mainly because I lived within my means. Which, by the way, were lower means (if you compare using CPI) to how my parents lived when they started out.
I'd hate to give up my chance for a share of a higher standard of living in order to preserve your current standard of living.
Sadly, this comment is the case for many people... at least those who work for mid to large companies. I now write HR software, and am privy to the extra monies the senior execs rape from companies, including this one which hasn't seen a profitable year in the last three. There have been paycuts, cuts in the bonuses, and cuts in benefits. Meanwhile, the senior execs have seen increases in their bonuses. So the effect of this is exactly what you said... my standard of living is suffering because theirs is increasing... drastically. This is not the only company I've seen this happen at. Hell, just watch the news... we saw this with Enron, Dynegy, El Paso Oil, WorldCom......
You, however, shouldn't have to worry about my standard of living affecting yours... and only I should worry about my standard of living. But I would love to see examples of "every other change in history has resulted in a higher average standard of living." How about the new bill that expands the definition of exempt employees? Millions of Americans will not be able to bill overtime (such as police officers). Their standard if living will decrease... all in the name of corporate greed.
That's exactly the point I was trying to make. We have three vehicles (two are paid off), a 4 bedroom house, and our three kids are extremely active. I would prefer to provide my kids with their own bedrooms, and would hate to deny them access to their activities. Each plays at least one sport, and each plays at least one instrument. None of that is terribly important information, but in my neighborhood, and the crowd that I hang out with, that's extremely typical as well. If our household income had always been much lower, you can bet our spending would follow suit.
But to go from this lifestyle to one of lesser means would be a difficult transition, physchologically. That's what I'm getting at. We're all used to owning vehicles (in most cities, anyway... NY and Chicago are obvious exceptions), having air conditioning, carpeted rooms, being able to eat out, or at least cooking what we want for dinner. People from contries where the per capita GDP is $2500 would take half of what I'm getting for the same job.
I have to agree a bit. I've noticed rates for contractors plummeting, although I'm sure part of that is due to the economy being the way that it is. I think, though, that getting $90k a year for coding might have been a bit much. We all say "this company wouldn't run without programmers" but then again, it wouldn't run without accountants, and marketing specialists, and a call center..
Maybe we have too much pride. Look at the number of immigrants willing to do landscaping, and work on the back of garbage trucks. Most American's are "above" that kind of work, and demand too much money to do it. Maybe call centers and software development are similar to that. Maybe I'm just rattling on now...
With current trends, I don't see US citizens fairing well in the future. We're already the first generation in history to be worse off than our parents were. Hell, I still make more than $80k/yr (after several pay cuts recently) but my family wouldn't get by the way we do if my wife didn't work too.
I've already worked on two contracts where the company outsourced development, and it was horrible code. So they brought it back in house to "fix" (translation, rewrite).
Not to say that foreign developers aren't quality coders, there are plenty that are outstanding. It just seemed to me that you get what you pay for. There were probably unreasonable deadlines to be met and bad code was stuffed in to hit them. On the back end, these two companies were unable to collect from the foreign companies. So they simply stopped outsourcing.
Yeah, I agree with you. Hence the VISA system. I have worked with plenty of Indian and Chinese programmers who had fairly typical development skills, while buddies of mine, who happen to be American, were sitting at home hoping for a call from their head-hunter.
I couldn't agree with you more, and I'm glad you didn't see my post as antagonistic. It's just that in any disagreement that will wind up in court, you get the chance to make your case once there. The problem is the media tries you before you ever step foot in the courthouse (OJ Simpson). Luckily, the media doesn't get to testify as well.
It's clear to me that SCO has no foot to stand on, and is has only been trying to pump their stock price (a completely different and LONG arguement there) so the execs can bail, a la Enron. Germany has a much more stringent and quicker justice system than we do. To me that's the actual failing. SCO gets months of hype before a judge hears a single arguement, which obviously is enough to boost their stock price. I agree that enjoining SCO in this case would be of great value, considering there are probably quite a few who have fallen prey to SCO's $649 scam.
It is a weakness in the US legal system that a**holes like SCO can just say "Our code is in there", not show it, and cause all this trouble.
That's not a weakness in the US legal system... this thing hasn't even gone to court yet. That's a media problem. In the US courts, you can sue for anything. I'll sue my neighbor for not being a slashdot reader. The judge will toss me out quickly, but I can try anyway. I happen to like the idea, since it doesn't keep out lawsuits that might turn out to be valid.
Look. I happen to run both MS boxes and Linux. MS code happens to pay the bills. Take a look at Monster and compare the number of MS req's to Linux. Nobody has explained to me how to make a constant, current income off of the OSS model, so for now.... MS it is.
My post was after a quick google search. The comment I made was simply based on the parent's notion that MS products were the only ones that had vulnerabilities. Your reactionary stance tells me you think I'm a linux basher, which isn't true. I just hate one sided comments... to which I replied.
Slashdot Mirror
What do you expect from an IDE written in Java? Isn't that a little like trying to write an OS in VB?
Most of the large distributors make a small form factor pc that's about the size of most monitor bases.
Haha! You couldn't have hit the nail on the head any harder with that one!
Got me. I had flashbacks to having a dumb terminal sitting next to my CP/M machine at home. It had a whopping 1200 baud modem, while my pc had only 300 Hayes.
It's amazing to me that companies will sell lesser technology for a higher $$ like that. What's more amazing is some yahoo at a large company will convince their manager that they'll need to purchase 1000 of these and distribute them among the company.
GM has announced a smaller, harder to drive vehicle than the small-mid sized cars. It has less power and room as well. It will sell, however, for slightly higher than other vehicles, as it will be cool to own, given a very high geek rating.
But RPC and DCOM are not fundametally tied to Windows, and actually can be shut off without disturbing the locally running OS. Pretty easy too.. you just go to the services dialog box and turn them off. They're merely .DLL's after all. As a matter of fact, I shut them both off recently before applying the ms03-039 on my server at home, to wait and see what the effect of the patch was going to be. I honestly think the whole "built into the OS" stuff is just FUD.
As I sit here at my desk staring at my Volusia sales propaganda....
Have you owned any other cruisers? I've had a Vulcan 750, a Vulcan 1500, and an H-D softtail. The Volusia looks and feels great, and will be my next bike, unless you (the only person I've come across with one) think otherwise.
True that.. people shouldn't drive SUV's as if they were cars. However, sShorter wheelbases translate to dangerous driving with a trailer.
I have a 28' stock trailer that I use to haul my two horses to the vet, as well as to haul cattle to the auction. People like to eat beef, I have come to understand. I suppose, though, I should use some radio-shack invention to haul them instead.
Plus it's a WHOLE lot cheaper to travel with your own hotel room attached than to rent someone elses.
Um... you can't pull heavy trailers with a sub-framed vehicle... they tend to bend.
Pure electric would be super if you didn't have to make long trips and always had an electrical outlet to charge when parked.
Um... Approximate U.S. energy consumption by energy source (2000):
Oil and natural gas liquids - 38.50%
Natural gas - 23.70%
Coal - 22.80%
Nuclear - 8.10%
Hydroelectric - 3.10%
Other renewables (biomass, wind, etc.) - 3.80%
source
85% of US electricity comes from fossil fuels, with another 8.1% from nuclear reactors. Plugging in an electric car doesn't really help... the electricity still has to come from somewhere.
For the entire world, 18% comes from nuclear reactors, 63% from fossil fuels, 19% from hydroelectric plants, and a whopping 38% from geothermal plants. 1993 was the most current data I could find, so I'm sure the world numbers are a little different now, but I'm also sure not by much.
source
I happen to drive a full sized chevy pickup. Strangely, there is no offering on the market for a 50mpg vehicle that will pull a 34' trailer, or a 28' cattle trailer, or as enough space to load all of my bass and p/a gear for a show. Until one shows up, I'll continue to whine about the price of gas, mainly because I live in Houston, have worked for oil companies as a programmer, and fully understand their pricing model.
It cracks me up that people think their wall socket provides magical electricity that keeps them from using fossil fuels like coal, gas or oil. Quit listening to Al Gore! He drives a Suburban!
I am amazed that under his leadership, rich investors get tax breaks on their dividends and capital gains
Actually that's been going on for decades, although I'm no longer a fan of Bush (having been at one time... I did like him as governor of my home state).
HP is as guilty as anyone, regarding your comment about managers getting rewarded for the changes they make... I'll post (www.jeffreyhamby.com) the article I just got today from a buddy of mine that works for HP. It's all about current shareholder value these days -- regardless of the future of the company.
You're right on about the typical US citizen and the jackpot mentality. I probably make $30k/yr more than most of my friends, and they all like to talk about what they'll do when they win the lottery. I doubt a single one of them really knows what their retirement outlook is. Pretty sad really.
Umm, you said we are the first generation with a lower standard of living, not that we WILL be the first generation with a lower standard of living. I'll bet your current lifestyle is better than what your parents had at the equivalent point in their life.
I didn't say standard of living, I said worse off... that meant economically. My parents are from a time where both parents didn't have to work to make ends meet. They also come from a time where the disparity between the have's and have not's wasn't so wide. The middle class is shrinking and another article. Unless you squeak into the wealthiest 5% of U.S. citizens, then you're either considered impoverished or a dying breed.
I agree with your old fogie rant. My first salary out of college was $18k, when most of my friends expected to hit the work force running at $30k'ish. THey all thought they should have nice new cars (while I drove an old beat up pickup truck to work), wear expensive suits to work (I shopped at the discount stores), and live uptown. They were all living check to check and barely getting by, because they thought they deserved nice things like their parents had. Fast forward 12 years later, and I have a nice savings account, a nice 401(k), have maxed out on social security (not that I'll ever see any of it), and have extra investments to boot. Mainly because I lived within my means. Which, by the way, were lower means (if you compare using CPI) to how my parents lived when they started out.
I'd hate to give up my chance for a share of a higher standard of living in order to preserve your current standard of living. Sadly, this comment is the case for many people... at least those who work for mid to large companies. I now write HR software, and am privy to the extra monies the senior execs rape from companies, including this one which hasn't seen a profitable year in the last three. There have been paycuts, cuts in the bonuses, and cuts in benefits. Meanwhile, the senior execs have seen increases in their bonuses. So the effect of this is exactly what you said... my standard of living is suffering because theirs is increasing... drastically. This is not the only company I've seen this happen at. Hell, just watch the news... we saw this with Enron, Dynegy, El Paso Oil, WorldCom......
You, however, shouldn't have to worry about my standard of living affecting yours... and only I should worry about my standard of living. But I would love to see examples of "every other change in history has resulted in a higher average standard of living." How about the new bill that expands the definition of exempt employees? Millions of Americans will not be able to bill overtime (such as police officers). Their standard if living will decrease... all in the name of corporate greed.
Someone ought to mod that comment as insightful.
That's exactly the point I was trying to make. We have three vehicles (two are paid off), a 4 bedroom house, and our three kids are extremely active. I would prefer to provide my kids with their own bedrooms, and would hate to deny them access to their activities. Each plays at least one sport, and each plays at least one instrument. None of that is terribly important information, but in my neighborhood, and the crowd that I hang out with, that's extremely typical as well. If our household income had always been much lower, you can bet our spending would follow suit.
But to go from this lifestyle to one of lesser means would be a difficult transition, physchologically. That's what I'm getting at. We're all used to owning vehicles (in most cities, anyway... NY and Chicago are obvious exceptions), having air conditioning, carpeted rooms, being able to eat out, or at least cooking what we want for dinner. People from contries where the per capita GDP is $2500 would take half of what I'm getting for the same job.
I have to agree a bit. I've noticed rates for contractors plummeting, although I'm sure part of that is due to the economy being the way that it is. I think, though, that getting $90k a year for coding might have been a bit much. We all say "this company wouldn't run without programmers" but then again, it wouldn't run without accountants, and marketing specialists, and a call center..
Maybe we have too much pride. Look at the number of immigrants willing to do landscaping, and work on the back of garbage trucks. Most American's are "above" that kind of work, and demand too much money to do it. Maybe call centers and software development are similar to that. Maybe I'm just rattling on now...
With current trends, I don't see US citizens fairing well in the future. We're already the first generation in history to be worse off than our parents were. Hell, I still make more than $80k/yr (after several pay cuts recently) but my family wouldn't get by the way we do if my wife didn't work too.
I think I need some more caffeine....
Thanks, I'll check it out!
Ummmm..
It's happened in both proprietary and open-sourced software."
Though I see your point in that the code in OSS is viewable.
Cheap, inteligent labor...
That's intelligent.
I've already worked on two contracts where the company outsourced development, and it was horrible code. So they brought it back in house to "fix" (translation, rewrite).
Not to say that foreign developers aren't quality coders, there are plenty that are outstanding. It just seemed to me that you get what you pay for. There were probably unreasonable deadlines to be met and bad code was stuffed in to hit them. On the back end, these two companies were unable to collect from the foreign companies. So they simply stopped outsourcing.
Yeah, I agree with you. Hence the VISA system. I have worked with plenty of Indian and Chinese programmers who had fairly typical development skills, while buddies of mine, who happen to be American, were sitting at home hoping for a call from their head-hunter.
I couldn't agree with you more, and I'm glad you didn't see my post as antagonistic. It's just that in any disagreement that will wind up in court, you get the chance to make your case once there. The problem is the media tries you before you ever step foot in the courthouse (OJ Simpson). Luckily, the media doesn't get to testify as well.
It's clear to me that SCO has no foot to stand on, and is has only been trying to pump their stock price (a completely different and LONG arguement there) so the execs can bail, a la Enron. Germany has a much more stringent and quicker justice system than we do. To me that's the actual failing. SCO gets months of hype before a judge hears a single arguement, which obviously is enough to boost their stock price. I agree that enjoining SCO in this case would be of great value, considering there are probably quite a few who have fallen prey to SCO's $649 scam.
It is a weakness in the US legal system that a**holes like SCO can just say "Our code is in there", not show it, and cause all this trouble.
That's not a weakness in the US legal system... this thing hasn't even gone to court yet. That's a media problem. In the US courts, you can sue for anything. I'll sue my neighbor for not being a slashdot reader. The judge will toss me out quickly, but I can try anyway. I happen to like the idea, since it doesn't keep out lawsuits that might turn out to be valid.
Look. I happen to run both MS boxes and Linux. MS code happens to pay the bills. Take a look at Monster and compare the number of MS req's to Linux. Nobody has explained to me how to make a constant, current income off of the OSS model, so for now.... MS it is.
My post was after a quick google search. The comment I made was simply based on the parent's notion that MS products were the only ones that had vulnerabilities. Your reactionary stance tells me you think I'm a linux basher, which isn't true. I just hate one sided comments... to which I replied.