I never noticed the glory on a large scale - it usually comes as hurried "thank you"s after I have recovered someone's Word document they edited straight from an email attachment, then lost, or when I look up Excel help in front of the end user to answer their question.
It never comes from building an enterprise level CMS that works perfectly for the end user for years at a time.
Luckily(?), we still hire people who don't know how to log in when presented with a username/password box. My job isn't nearly the same as it used to be, but I definitely have job security while our education system is as poor as it is.
I can answer that. I spent a year waiting for the right hardware to come along to replace my Dell Inspiron. I wanted a true gaming laptop, not a compromise. I found everything I wanted in the hgih-end 15" macbook pro: cutting edge 512mb vid card, fast RAM, killer screen (you should check out the viewing angle compared to the macbook), sleek design. I priced a can't-quite-compare (last-gen vid card, slower RAM) alienware machine the day I bought my mbp at $300 more. When you are looking high-end, macs kick A$$.
Yotel CEO Gerard Greene described the new creations as "a wake-up call for the hotel industry."
"We have been bold enough to take steps than no other has taken before, allowing us to offer luxury accommodation at an affordable price," he said.
These have been tried in the States already, and failed miserably. Not quite the same concept - hourly rates only - but had the same target market.
Maybe the previous entrepreneurs were a little ahead of their time.
In reaction to the announcement today that BellSouth is working on plans to charge websites for equal bandwidth availability, 1337 HAXXORZ with heretofore unknown viruses have begun plans to charge BellSouth to remain operational.
Best Buy, and then other big-box stores, will start selling used games, giving this retail sector a much larger market penetration than it has previously received.
Smaller game companies will move to Steam-like online registration systems that won't recognize a second user for the same serial number, and eventually the second-hand market will dry up, because games will be tied to online accounts.
Privacy will disappear, but the game developers will keep their hands on all of the royalties.
Some of these statements make me think that this is a deliberate troll, but I'll respond in any case.
Libraries are like every other business out there, but instead of being able to charge what they need to charge to make a profit, they are allowed only a restricted budget, and required to provide the best service for the most number of people possible using that budget.
Also, the economy has not been kind to libraries. Most municipal libraries have had massive budget cuts as city councils find different uses for their funding. Even library systems that receive money from property taxes were hurt badly by falling home prices due to foreclosures and forced sales after layoffs.
That said, I've responded to the comments, below:
Advice for libraries:
-- Stay open until midnight on friday and saturday night.
A surprise to you, perhaps, but libraries have performed extensive studies to determine what their hours should be. If your library is not open past 5 p.m. on a Friday, guess what? They shouldn't be. You minght want to go to the library at midnight, but 5 9's worth of other citizens don't want to.
-- Let me borrow the book as long as I want. Like netflix. Or 1 year.
Again, the budget issue. Libraries would be glad to offer this service if it weren't for the fact that they don't have an unlimited budget, and there is someone else waiting for the book when you're done.
-- Have a 24 hours pickup/dropoff walk-up counter: I go online, I ask for a book by ISBN, the interlibrary exchange does its thing, and the book is delivered at the location in 24 hours (not 4 weeks), then I get an email: your book is ready. Give me 36 hours to drive by over there and pick it up, on my way home from work, at 9:45 PM, on Tuesday.
Broken record? BUDGET. Many libraries are looking into lockers opened by pin numbers and vending machines to allow after-hours service, but these machines cost money.
Also, FEDEX costs money for a reason. If couriers were free, everyone would have overnight service for everything. Lending between libraries has become much more streamlined, and should take less than a week these days. If your library takes longer, you should tell them about library consortia efforts that can streamline their process.
-- Have more books. I don't care if you have to rent one million square feet of warehouse space on the poor side of town, I want you to stock at least one copy of every single book currently in print in the western world, and have out-of-print books going back 50 years.
How often do you read every book ever printed? it's called supply and demand, and the fact is, the demand for out-of-print books has waned to the point that *they are no longer printed*.
Are you going to purchase the books and the massive warehouse space that would require? The reason interlibrary loan exists is so the rarely used books don't clutter everyone's shelves. My Aunt has borrowed books from libraries in Russia, the Phillipines, and China. All of those books could not possibly be maintained by a single library in our current economic situation (i.e. lack of unlimited funding)
-- Stock comics, magazines, newspapers, car manuals, foreign titles, foreign comics.
Many libraries do, especially larger metropolitan library systems. Ask to borrow them from another library if your's doesn't.
-- Stock more than one copy of the latest New York bestsellers top ten list.
Most larger systems do. you have to realize that most new books don't hit the shelves for months, because the savvy people have put themselves on the hold list a year in advance of the release date.
-- Have lots and lots of chairs and small tables. Hundreds of them.
You're an idiot. Does furniture not cost money where you live?
-- Drop the computers. Who cares. You see computers at Borders?
The "bad stuff" on the internet would be all of those search results that aren't actually related to what I'm searching for.
TBL is unrealistic in this regard, as the "bad stuff" can only go away only when I have a trained AI doing my searches for me, and automatically filtering out the results that aren't pr0n.
The legal code is so enormous that we you rarely see a "general practice" lawyer these days. Propoerty law, criminal defense, tax law, etc. are all widely accepted specialties for lawyers, so why not judges?
Perhaps they could be certified in specialty areas of law, so that driven and exceptional judges could have multiple specialties.
I understand that the legal system is bogged down with too many cases, but maybe some of these cases wouldn't be brought to court if companies knew that judges had a clue.
I'll grant that the individual in this case obviously had the intent of directing people to illegally copied music, but a judge without knowledge of how the web works is at a severe disadvantage in making an appropriate ruling in a case like this.
Next thing you know, libraries will be shut down because all of the reference librarians will be in jail.
of my life that I'll never get back. How is it that this not-quite-random noise is considered worthy of note on/.? If it were of decent artisitc quality, I could see why it might make news, but I could churn out garbage like this on my Apple IIe in elementary school.
...but for those of us thinking about buying one, this is news. I was planning on one as a holiday gift, and had no idea there were issues with getting files off of the ipod.
It's not intuitive to think that once you put files on an ipod or pda that you won't be able to copy them to another device.
Will the new version have a brand new system, use an existing system (D20, GURPS, ad infinitum), or use a mod of it's original system?
Will we see Living Paranoia anytime soon?
Slashdot Mirror
I never noticed the glory on a large scale - it usually comes as hurried "thank you"s after I have recovered someone's Word document they edited straight from an email attachment, then lost, or when I look up Excel help in front of the end user to answer their question. It never comes from building an enterprise level CMS that works perfectly for the end user for years at a time. Luckily(?), we still hire people who don't know how to log in when presented with a username/password box. My job isn't nearly the same as it used to be, but I definitely have job security while our education system is as poor as it is.
why buy the Apple hardware?
I can answer that. I spent a year waiting for the right hardware to come along to replace my Dell Inspiron. I wanted a true gaming laptop, not a compromise. I found everything I wanted in the hgih-end 15" macbook pro: cutting edge 512mb vid card, fast RAM, killer screen (you should check out the viewing angle compared to the macbook), sleek design. I priced a can't-quite-compare (last-gen vid card, slower RAM) alienware machine the day I bought my mbp at $300 more. When you are looking high-end, macs kick A$$.
Yotel CEO Gerard Greene described the new creations as "a wake-up call for the hotel industry." "We have been bold enough to take steps than no other has taken before, allowing us to offer luxury accommodation at an affordable price," he said.
These have been tried in the States already, and failed miserably. Not quite the same concept - hourly rates only - but had the same target market. Maybe the previous entrepreneurs were a little ahead of their time.
In reaction to the announcement today that BellSouth is working on plans to charge websites for equal bandwidth availability, 1337 HAXXORZ with heretofore unknown viruses have begun plans to charge BellSouth to remain operational.
With a long enough cable, I could recharge my iPod Shuffle from orbit.
Actually, that was sarcasm. You must have strong feelings about DRM, though, to bother wasting karma on a response to a post that's basically dead.
Don't worry so much.
Best Buy, and then other big-box stores, will start selling used games, giving this retail sector a much larger market penetration than it has previously received.
Smaller game companies will move to Steam-like online registration systems that won't recognize a second user for the same serial number, and eventually the second-hand market will dry up, because games will be tied to online accounts.
Privacy will disappear, but the game developers will keep their hands on all of the royalties.
Some of these statements make me think that this is a deliberate troll, but I'll respond in any case.
Libraries are like every other business out there, but instead of being able to charge what they need to charge to make a profit, they are allowed only a restricted budget, and required to provide the best service for the most number of people possible using that budget.
Also, the economy has not been kind to libraries. Most municipal libraries have had massive budget cuts as city councils find different uses for their funding. Even library systems that receive money from property taxes were hurt badly by falling home prices due to foreclosures and forced sales after layoffs.
That said, I've responded to the comments, below:
Advice for libraries:
-- Stay open until midnight on friday and saturday night.
A surprise to you, perhaps, but libraries have performed extensive studies to determine what their hours should be. If your library is not open past 5 p.m. on a Friday, guess what? They shouldn't be. You minght want to go to the library at midnight, but 5 9's worth of other citizens don't want to.
-- Let me borrow the book as long as I want. Like netflix. Or 1 year.
Again, the budget issue. Libraries would be glad to offer this service if it weren't for the fact that they don't have an unlimited budget, and there is someone else waiting for the book when you're done.
-- Have a 24 hours pickup/dropoff walk-up counter: I go online, I ask for a book by ISBN, the interlibrary exchange does its thing, and the book is delivered at the location in 24 hours (not 4 weeks), then I get an email: your book is ready. Give me 36 hours to drive by over there and pick it up, on my way home from work, at 9:45 PM, on Tuesday.
Broken record? BUDGET. Many libraries are looking into lockers opened by pin numbers and vending machines to allow after-hours service, but these machines cost money.
Also, FEDEX costs money for a reason. If couriers were free, everyone would have overnight service for everything. Lending between libraries has become much more streamlined, and should take less than a week these days. If your library takes longer, you should tell them about library consortia efforts that can streamline their process.
-- Have more books. I don't care if you have to rent one million square feet of warehouse space on the poor side of town, I want you to stock at least one copy of every single book currently in print in the western world, and have out-of-print books going back 50 years.
How often do you read every book ever printed? it's called supply and demand, and the fact is, the demand for out-of-print books has waned to the point that *they are no longer printed*.
Are you going to purchase the books and the massive warehouse space that would require? The reason interlibrary loan exists is so the rarely used books don't clutter everyone's shelves. My Aunt has borrowed books from libraries in Russia, the Phillipines, and China. All of those books could not possibly be maintained by a single library in our current economic situation (i.e. lack of unlimited funding)
-- Stock comics, magazines, newspapers, car manuals, foreign titles, foreign comics.
Many libraries do, especially larger metropolitan library systems. Ask to borrow them from another library if your's doesn't.
-- Stock more than one copy of the latest New York bestsellers top ten list.
Most larger systems do. you have to realize that most new books don't hit the shelves for months, because the savvy people have put themselves on the hold list a year in advance of the release date.
-- Have lots and lots of chairs and small tables. Hundreds of them.
You're an idiot. Does furniture not cost money where you live?
-- Drop the computers. Who cares. You see computers at Borders?
Except that th
It's all of those people dumping Fiefox for IE so that they can get in on the prepub at the copyright officehttp://slashdot.org/articles/05/08/15/115022 9.shtml?tid=103&tid=1.
The "bad stuff" on the internet would be all of those search results that aren't actually related to what I'm searching for.
TBL is unrealistic in this regard, as the "bad stuff" can only go away only when I have a trained AI doing my searches for me, and automatically filtering out the results that aren't pr0n.
So, is it time for specialist judges?
The legal code is so enormous that we you rarely see a "general practice" lawyer these days. Propoerty law, criminal defense, tax law, etc. are all widely accepted specialties for lawyers, so why not judges?
Perhaps they could be certified in specialty areas of law, so that driven and exceptional judges could have multiple specialties.
I understand that the legal system is bogged down with too many cases, but maybe some of these cases wouldn't be brought to court if companies knew that judges had a clue.
I'll grant that the individual in this case obviously had the intent of directing people to illegally copied music, but a judge without knowledge of how the web works is at a severe disadvantage in making an appropriate ruling in a case like this.
Next thing you know, libraries will be shut down because all of the reference librarians will be in jail.
Actually, he wants to buy heavy cream, and churn it into butter to spread on cd-thin wafers of toast, washed down with the leftover buttermilk.
Or, he could be asking for a new account so that he can pay them his $13/month to play their stupid game.
of my life that I'll never get back. How is it that this not-quite-random noise is considered worthy of note on /.? If it were of decent artisitc quality, I could see why it might make news, but I could churn out garbage like this on my Apple IIe in elementary school.
...but for those of us thinking about buying one, this is news. I was planning on one as a holiday gift, and had no idea there were issues with getting files off of the ipod.
It's not intuitive to think that once you put files on an ipod or pda that you won't be able to copy them to another device.
Seriously, can we mod people up who just repeat what they hear on NPR?
...of a "socially acceptable" medical device now. I've always been offended by medical devices that saved lives.
Will the new version have a brand new system, use an existing system (D20, GURPS, ad infinitum), or use a mod of it's original system? Will we see Living Paranoia anytime soon?