The problem that I have with this is that it seems to put the responsibility for determining what is and is not legal in the hands of people who are not qualified to make that decision
Not really. It simply makes them liable if they do it knowingly. They don't have to guess. They only have to act if they find out about it.
If mom comes home and finds little Suzy swapping child porn over AOL, mommy's going to sue AOL. If AOL knew it was happening, AOL is in deep doo-doo
Devices might be on the market in 7 years, give or take."
That's forever! 7 years is 49 years in computer years. Seven years ago, I was running Windows 3.1 on a 486 in my office. I'll either be pushing up the daisies or in a zoo with the placard "Last Remaining COBOL Programmer" over my cage.
I remember when we paid a GRAND ($1000) for a video card to use in a CAD system. It took up two ISA slots and probably had a whopping 8M of RAM. But we had to have it because it took forever to redraw on a 486/100.
I'm not convinced we have hit the wall on video cards yet. The Next Great Thing is just around the corner. It's ridiculous for us to be waiting on the video card these days when processor and RAM are so cheap.
I find I need to reinstall everything every few years because my C drive (just system stuff) fills up. I can actually see a performance hit every year.
It's hard to beat a major speed enhancement(266 to 1700, S3 graphics) for $200. Especially since I rarely do incremental upgrades.
Biggest reason: My kids have a 1400. That really hurts.
Beavis and Butthead with cameo appearances from Bud and Sissy from Urban Cowboy. Ugly geeks and fake cowboys. Of course, that was mill work. You have to really be a lifeless dork to program at a textile mill. I did it for years. Anyone who couldn't code got promoted to management. Good move. Encourage worthlessness.
And for some reason, the cowboys were always pains. It's like Instant Asshole; just add a Stetson and a bigass belt buckle. Why do you need a huge pickup truck, you live in an apartment? Are you going to round up stray dogs or something?
The women were great. "What does your husband do?" "Well, mostly he drinks and collects disability for it". Good answer. You can't ask for a better job. "Can I have the afternoon off? There's a storm coming and we need to tie the house down". Or "I was too stupid to work a loom so I became a mainframe programmer". I worked with all kinds.
And don't get me started on operators. I came in one night and the 3rd shift operator told me all about how easy it was to kill people. "I could kill every wino in town and no one would know. I work here after midnight and they sleep just outside the emergency exit. I could kill one a night and they would never be missed. Does anyone know that you are here?". This was different from the 2nd shift operator who hid the TV set because the FBI could watch him through it.
I just ordered a Athlon 1700 to replace my 266. It's been long overdue but when I researched the motherboard, I found many people upgraded on the 0's (from a 1000 to a 2000, 2000 to 30000). I always wait until the performance doubles. Thus far, that has not happened with the 1700's. And the 1700 was $50.
So my rationale is that I will upgrade when the performance doubles and I will get a chip that I can get cheap, like the 1700. And I always get a new motherboard because they add so much cool stuff (like USB 2.0 and Firewire and video and sound). I got a new motherboard with 5 channel sound and video onboard for $60. So I go from a 266 to a 1700 for $110 with free shipping at Newegg. Righteous!
Before I upgrade our software, there's got to be a reason better than "there's a new version out".
I don't know. Being lavaliered to 8.3 file names would be enough for me to change. I personally could not live without the mail merge function of Word especially when it comes to databases.
I somewhat agree. If people go to work for these companies, they will think it is OK to do it. But if enough good employees say "No way", they'll have to change the policy.
I worked with a guy who needed to be given a company American Express because he traveled. But it turned out he had two repos on his sheet and the company had to cosign for it. He left owing about $10k on the card and never paid it. The odd thing was that he got an advance to pay for his plane tickets and lodging and then turned in the credit card bill for them. He got double on that one. No one noticed at the company until he left.
Do what you love. No one wants to breathe their last with a sigh of wasted days. Live life fully daily. Life's too short to waste an entire day with a hangover. I have never heard anyone lament on their deathbed "I never should have bought that nice stereo".
I love programming, cold weather and storms. I don't have time for dread. Life is meant to be lived and I'm all over it. BANZAI!!!
Screw that. You go to the machine, you put in 50 cents, you get a cup of something dark that you can pretend is coffee and you drop a slug of bourbon in it. Then you go to the meeting and complain that "We have never done it that way before and when we did, it failed".
What's the point of grinding beans and measuring water temperature if you are going to pour cheap bourbon it?
Everyone has heard of "Bunker Busters". Imagine if terrorists cooked off one of these on Wall St. Of course, making a nuke is probably much easier than building one of these but it could have a devastating impact without the messy media images of fried bodies.
I hope we havn't invented the means of our own destruction.
Calculators? We used to DREAM of calculators. Try figuring Pi using piles of small stones.
The clicking is disturbing. But it is quieter than the snoring. There's nothing worse than trying to hear a lecture while the guy behind you makes a noise that sounds like a washer in spin cycle being flung down a flight of steps.
We used to sneak beer into Real Estate Class (Thurs at 6PM) in McDonald's cups. That made class much mo betta.
When casual dress first started in the business world, every programmer jumped on it. Beards, long hair, unkeptness. I started wearing suits. When asked, I told them "I refuse to conform to the nonconformity".
If I ever got a job as a systems geek, I would go back to suits just to be different. I like different.
The terrible thing is that my sister would fall for this. She WORSHIPS eBay and would gladly give them an ovary if they asked. The only saving grace is that she would never figure out how to work a url link. That's above her pay grade.
She used to forward me every urban legend. I would tell her they were false and she would huff "I'm not going to believe anything I get in email". She fixed the problem by taking me off the forward list.
I think she gets a virus a week. I'd hate to be her computer tech.
In the early 90's we spent $1500 for a 3 gig drive that we used to back up our workstations. We then backed up that drive to tape. It was infinitely faster than screwing with tapes in the night.
Right now I am backing up 53 workstations to a hard drive file using Retrospect. I then copy the file to another server and backup that server. Somewhere, I will have a copy of those backups because it exists on two machines and a tape.
Having been a programmer when a pdp8 was a hot item, I will say that I don't wish to return to those dark days. I've dropped enough punch cards and trimmed enough 9-track for a lifetime. And I don't want to return to calculating memory usage so I don't exceed the 48K allocated to me. I'm sure it is a good practice but I'm too old to do it now.
Give me a 300mhz with 2 gig of RAM and a wide-open prairie.
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The problem that I have with this is that it seems to put the responsibility for determining what is and is not legal in the hands of people who are not qualified to make that decision
Not really. It simply makes them liable if they do it knowingly. They don't have to guess. They only have to act if they find out about it.
If mom comes home and finds little Suzy swapping child porn over AOL, mommy's going to sue AOL. If AOL knew it was happening, AOL is in deep doo-doo
If the ISP knows it is delivering child porn, it is in trouble. If it knowingly hosts a child porn site, it is in trouble.
ISP are suffering the same from warez sites and trades. That is why most colleges are banning Napster and the like.
That's forever!
7 years is 49 years in computer years. Seven years ago, I was running Windows 3.1 on a 486 in my office. I'll either be pushing up the daisies or in a zoo with the placard "Last Remaining COBOL Programmer" over my cage.
Universities like Virginia Tech have been building these things for years.
I remember when we paid a GRAND ($1000) for a video card to use in a CAD system. It took up two ISA slots and probably had a whopping 8M of RAM. But we had to have it because it took forever to redraw on a 486/100.
I'm not convinced we have hit the wall on video cards yet. The Next Great Thing is just around the corner. It's ridiculous for us to be waiting on the video card these days when processor and RAM are so cheap.
I find I need to reinstall everything every few years because my C drive (just system stuff) fills up. I can actually see a performance hit every year.
It's hard to beat a major speed enhancement(266 to 1700, S3 graphics) for $200. Especially since I rarely do incremental upgrades.
Biggest reason: My kids have a 1400. That really hurts.
And for some reason, the cowboys were always pains. It's like Instant Asshole; just add a Stetson and a bigass belt buckle. Why do you need a huge pickup truck, you live in an apartment? Are you going to round up stray dogs or something?
The women were great.
"What does your husband do?"
"Well, mostly he drinks and collects disability for it".
Good answer. You can't ask for a better job. "Can I have the afternoon off? There's a storm coming and we need to tie the house down". Or "I was too stupid to work a loom so I became a mainframe programmer". I worked with all kinds.
And don't get me started on operators. I came in one night and the 3rd shift operator told me all about how easy it was to kill people. "I could kill every wino in town and no one would know. I work here after midnight and they sleep just outside the emergency exit. I could kill one a night and they would never be missed. Does anyone know that you are here?". This was different from the 2nd shift operator who hid the TV set because the FBI could watch him through it.
Boring? Never. Funny? Yes. Marketable. No way.
I just ordered a Athlon 1700 to replace my 266. It's been long overdue but when I researched the motherboard, I found many people upgraded on the 0's (from a 1000 to a 2000, 2000 to 30000). I always wait until the performance doubles. Thus far, that has not happened with the 1700's. And the 1700 was $50.
So my rationale is that I will upgrade when the performance doubles and I will get a chip that I can get cheap, like the 1700. And I always get a new motherboard because they add so much cool stuff (like USB 2.0 and Firewire and video and sound). I got a new motherboard with 5 channel sound and video onboard for $60. So I go from a 266 to a 1700 for $110 with free shipping at Newegg. Righteous!
I have to ask. What's a "date"?
I don't know. Being lavaliered to 8.3 file names would be enough for me to change. I personally could not live without the mail merge function of Word especially when it comes to databases.
User: What's in this upgrade?
Vendor: We added functionality you don't need, disabled the stuff you used most and added some cool graphics. By the way, you need more memory now.
User: AAAAARRRGGGHHH [rents garment]
Vendor: Our other customers demanded this.
User: We are your only customer
Vendor: Sorry, I thought you didn't know that.
I somewhat agree. If people go to work for these companies, they will think it is OK to do it. But if enough good employees say "No way", they'll have to change the policy.
I worked with a guy who needed to be given a company American Express because he traveled. But it turned out he had two repos on his sheet and the company had to cosign for it. He left owing about $10k on the card and never paid it. The odd thing was that he got an advance to pay for his plane tickets and lodging and then turned in the credit card bill for them. He got double on that one. No one noticed at the company until he left.
Do what you love. No one wants to breathe their last with a sigh of wasted days. Live life fully daily. Life's too short to waste an entire day with a hangover. I have never heard anyone lament on their deathbed "I never should have bought that nice stereo".
I love programming, cold weather and storms. I don't have time for dread. Life is meant to be lived and I'm all over it. BANZAI!!!
Screw that. You go to the machine, you put in 50 cents, you get a cup of something dark that you can pretend is coffee and you drop a slug of bourbon in it. Then you go to the meeting and complain that "We have never done it that way before and when we did, it failed".
What's the point of grinding beans and measuring water temperature if you are going to pour cheap bourbon it?
Someone showed me their creamy latte whatever from Starbucks and I said "Great, You just paid $5 for hot ice cream".
Not while there are lawyers using oxygen in LA and New York. The music industry can bury Kazaa in legal costs and settle out of court.
Everyone has heard of "Bunker Busters". Imagine if terrorists cooked off one of these on Wall St. Of course, making a nuke is probably much easier than building one of these but it could have a devastating impact without the messy media images of fried bodies.
I hope we havn't invented the means of our own destruction.
Calculators? We used to DREAM of calculators. Try figuring Pi using piles of small stones.
The clicking is disturbing. But it is quieter than the snoring. There's nothing worse than trying to hear a lecture while the guy behind you makes a noise that sounds like a washer in spin cycle being flung down a flight of steps.
We used to sneak beer into Real Estate Class (Thurs at 6PM) in McDonald's cups. That made class much mo betta.
Playing the games is disturbing when a player jumps up and screams "This is MY HOUSE".
Or you could just order a pizza on OUR time.
When casual dress first started in the business world, every programmer jumped on it. Beards, long hair, unkeptness. I started wearing suits. When asked, I told them "I refuse to conform to the nonconformity".
If I ever got a job as a systems geek, I would go back to suits just to be different. I like different.
We don't need manned flights anymore. Just send out probes. Great concept. We should build one and include it in the payload of the next shuttle.
She used to forward me every urban legend. I would tell her they were false and she would huff "I'm not going to believe anything I get in email". She fixed the problem by taking me off the forward list.
I think she gets a virus a week. I'd hate to be her computer tech.
In the early 90's we spent $1500 for a 3 gig drive that we used to back up our workstations. We then backed up that drive to tape. It was infinitely faster than screwing with tapes in the night.
Right now I am backing up 53 workstations to a hard drive file using Retrospect. I then copy the file to another server and backup that server. Somewhere, I will have a copy of those backups because it exists on two machines and a tape.
Having been a programmer when a pdp8 was a hot item, I will say that I don't wish to return to those dark days. I've dropped enough punch cards and trimmed enough 9-track for a lifetime. And I don't want to return to calculating memory usage so I don't exceed the 48K allocated to me. I'm sure it is a good practice but I'm too old to do it now.
Give me a 300mhz with 2 gig of RAM and a wide-open prairie.
An idea whose time has passed. Maybe he can build an Edsel while he is at it.