Dude, I know you're not supposed to read the story, but at least read the text you quoted.
This list is not final and if people want to ante in to try this with their favorite distro, let us know at bc2004 at osuosl dot org or in #beaverchallenge on the Freenode.net IRC network.
Note what's implied...
The list is not final
Someone needs to carry the banner for each distro(ie, someone who knows the distro needs to set it up properly etc).
You can volunteer your favorite distro AND volunteer to be the guy carrying the banner.
They give you both an email addr and an IRC channel to discuss all of this
announced a major evolution in the way that future Mandrake Linux distributions will be engineered and released. The purpose of this new development process is to provide the highest level of new features, as well as maximizing the quality of new products.' In short: for each release, there will be a 'Community' release, equivalent to a common Mandrake release, with all latest features. Several months later an 'Official' release - based on the 'Community' - will be available.
Translation from Long Marketingspeak: We'll take Cooker and freeze it, and then a couple months later, after we've fixed everything, it will be released. By which time it will be completely outdated, of course...and you won't be able to install (insert KDE or GNOME package here) because it needs version 3.4.2.5.34, not 3.4.2.5.33...you'll have to wait for the NEXT release(which will be unusable of course until -it- is sorted) to get.34....
It may be profitable, because they have very low marketing expenses for Mac products (do they market them at all?)
It has little to do with marketing budgets; they advertise in Macintosh magazines- they're regularly the first two pages in Macworld. You wouldn't be asking questions if you saw how much Office for the Mac costs.
That's doubtful.. The OS and Office divisions are the cash cows for Microsoft. There is no way the Mac group is more profitable than the Office group.
Office is the Mac group's only product, and further, I specifically said the OS division is more profitable. Read, kay? Jesus, it was even in the text you quoted from my comment.
Here's a few numbers to wrap your head around. 1)MS Office for PCs? Included with almost every PC for nearly free. 2)Office for Macintosh? $400. What's bigger, 5% of the market at $400/copy, or 95% of the market at "near free"? Hmm?
Why do you think the Macintosh version of Office always comes out first? Why do they sign agreements committing to developing it well into the future? Why do you think it doesn't have any pisses-off-customers product activation? Hmm...maybe because they make a shitload of money off it and want to keep the gravy train rolling?
More like "from the bread-and-butter-dept". Microsoft's Macintosh division is one of its most profitable, and a profit-making division at Microsoft is getting be something of a rarity what with the company loosing money through the nose in countless divisions. In fact, I believe there's only one division more profitable- the OS division.
That's one of the reasons for the symbolic deal a few years back where MS bought $150M in Apple stock(by the way, that's not even a fraction of Apple's CASH reserves, so sit down all you "MS bailed out Apple" morons) and committed on paper to releasing Office for the next however many years(and to do so on the Mac first, as has always been the case).
My PC is transformed, the loud, obtrusive, high pitched whine has now been reduced to a quiet, low pitched rumbling.
And the best part is, that low frequency vibration will help the motherboard crack even faster since the Zalman coolers all cheerfully ignore the max weight limits set by motherboard companies. They have supposedly caused a few mobo deaths.
Tip- a)make sure all the standoffs are installed properly and the mobo is screwed down. b)if you move the machine, consider taking the CPU heatsink off FIRST, because if you bounce it around, the heft of the heatsink could flex the motherboard a little too much.
Yeah, a nice bit of javascript that opens over a half dozen windows in rapid-fire order, ordered a CD from Amazon using my account, sent a flaming email to GWB, redirected me to the goat-whatever guy, played the Dean Scream, and then crashed Mozilla. Well, ok, only the bit about opening up a bunch of photos.
[RANT]Folks- popup windoid things as part of your website are like talking appliances. Every so often, designers get it in their heads that it's a Hot Idea, and then everyone drags them out into the street and demonstrates how the current generation of designers got their new jobs. If I want to open something on your site in a new window, I'll goddamn hold down the modifier key and THEN click the link, thanks much.[/RANT]
MWD first went warspying (he prefers the neutral term "warviewing")
What the hell is this crap? It's NOT neutral. I can see it now...
Reporter: "So Mr. Car Thief..."
Thief: "Please. I prefer the term Vehicle Posession Transferal Agent".
You ARE spying. You're looking where you shouldn't; that's spying, just like eavesdropping on 802.11b is spying; you know your victims are probably not expecting you to be looking, and you know it's wrong. If your neighbor has a 8-foot high shrub, and you stick your head through it to see what's going on in his yard, that's considered intrusive by most of the world unless you know 'em pretty well. It's not considered "viewing". If you put a mirror over the top of the stall in the bathroom to look at the guy next to you, that's spying. Not "viewing".
Why do I get the image of Comic Book Guy reading about MWD? Even the "please, call me..." crap is the same.
I disagree with this point, since in many cases a human could avoid problems or work around them in ways that a robot currently cannnot.
Mmm, except robots don't get radiation poisoning, don't get bored, ornery/grumpy/homidical when put in a can, don't suffer nasty effects from extended weightlessness, etc. Oh, and they don't require food, air, or water.
By the time our astronauts got to Mars, they'd be dead(or near it) of radiation poisoning alone. We lack the technology to shield them from deep space radiation effectively enough for them to survive.
A friend and I once built a sprinkler-valve based widget that was quite impressive. In our first test, however, we left the barrel off, and the resulting pressure wave nearly deafened us. Those valves flow pretty well...
You know how they tell you to shoot stuff into a hanging blanket, because it 'catches' the object? Our first 'victim', a magic marker, went THROUGH the blanket and was never seen again.
We developed the world's fastest(and messiest) french fry maker(use your imagination- sporting goods involved)...shot a 4-foot broom handle a couple hundred feet into the air and down his yard(looked like a mini-cruise-missile)...discovered it made an excellent fire extinguisher(fill barrel with water, cork, aim, blammo- between the gust of air and the water/steam, you could do a serious number a good sized fire with just two cups of water)...etc. You could even launch cylinders of compressed snow(trick is to compress it enough that it doesn't disintegrate on launch, but doesn't hurt anyone/anything when it impacts..although ice rods looked awesome fired at a brick wall).
The best was when my friend's parents got home. His mother walked out onto the porch first. "Oh my GOD, what are you DOING?" His father followed, saw the compressor, air tanks, etc..."Oh cool, whatcha guys doin'?":-)
great now whats going to keep it floating up there
More seriously, what's going to happen to the earth's climate as we lighten up the moon by removing mass from it? Ah, wait- Bush wants to put trash up there to replace what we take, right?
If you don't know what I'm talking about- the moon is largely responsible for ocean currents, and those ocean currents move warm water to cold areas and cold water to warm areas, heavily influencing, if not determining, climates. Not to mention the thousands(probably hundreds of thousands) of aquatic species that depend upon currents and tides. How about international commerce, which depends on shipping, which in turn depends on currents, weather, and tide levels to navigate channels? Plenty of places are passable at high tide, and unpassable at low tide.
The list of things which depend upon the moon(and its effects on the earth) is mind-bogglingly long...and we really ought not mess around with it.
In fairness to the president, I did a little research and found the microscopic grain of truth in what he was saying. It turns out that there is, indeed, an abundant quantity of something called helium-3 just under the surface of the moon. Forget for a second that we still lack the technology to use helium-3 for anything except making your voice sound really high and squeaky. Thanks to nuclear fusion, helium-3 will someday be that long-envisioned clean-burning, limitless energy supply.
Problem is, the Earth is actually running out of helium. I could tell you why we're running out of helium, but you probably already believe that it's all Bill Clinton's fault, so I won't bother changing your mind. The fact is, we're running out of helium...fast. How fast? Let's put it this way, by the year 2104, the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade is going to suck.
But the moon has so much helium-3 that it practically floats. Scientists estimate that the million tons of helium-3 on the moon could provide enough energy to power the Earth for thousands of years (or 28 Hummer-driving soccer moms for three weeks). Of course, these estimates depend on which scientists are making the estimates--the ones who predicted we'd all be living in a utopia of perfectly fitting unitards or the ones who've crashed two space shuttles in 17 years.
You know, it seems to me that Apple has replaced Sun in the high-end server department.
Please explain how on earth a 1U 2 processor Xserve could possibly "replace" a Sun Enterprise system. Because that's "high end", believe it or not. 32 processors. Hundreds of gigabytes of ram. Disk arrays that fill closets, not 3-5U. Please point me to the SAN(no, the Xraid is NOT a SAN!) and tape backup solutions offered by Apple.
Sun *used* to be the end-all-be-all when it came to high-end servers, but apart from the Sun Fires it seems that Apple has much more to offer these days.
You're smoking crack, considering Apple makes ONE model in three configs, and Sun offers everything from a Sun Fire that costs 1/2 as much as the Xserve, to systems in the millions of dollars range...and the tools that can manage that kind of hardware effectively(apple's tools are neat, but not ready for managing hundreds of servers etc.)
The Bernina Artista 200E sewing system enables you to do a variety of things not normally seen on a standard sewing machine. These include the ability to download video and design files directly into the machine without the use of a computer.
Phhbt. Get real, mine's been playing(not just downloading) video for years.
Oh, and nominee for "worst named product" of the bunch: "Beetle iPOS." Visions of a mid 60's beetle in a junkyard...
Suck up to them and blame the problems on others. That way you'll get a pay raise and your co-workers will not be held in as high regard.
No. Talk to any parent- the thing that impresses them the least is blaming problems on other people. Do you really think they're that stupid that they can't see through how scummy you are, that you're willing to rat out your coworkers/boss/whomever? That's a sure fire way to get...well...fired.
Not only does it look like you're ratting out someone, there's the lingering doubt that you might actually be the one responsible, and engaging in a little fingerpointing to save your own skin. Both are raaaather dangerous.
However, many of us are wary to speak about what is going on because it will inevitably reveal problems with the company. We are worried about what we discuss coming back to our directors ultimately to bite us.
Ding ding ding. How about telling the execs the above?
Sample, off the top of my head: "Well, to be honest, we do have some problems, but we don't really feel comfortable going over our bosses heads, and we think that it would strain relations, interfere with teamwork, and hurt productivity. If you assure us you'll work with our bosses in a positive way, instead of coming down on them for the problems we name, we'll be happy to give you some of our views."
Anyway, I've done this, sorta. At my last job, I asked our president and CEO(Cathi Raffaeli) at an employee meeting(after nearly a minute of silence after she asked for feedback) the following: "It's been over a year since we merged and brought in these other companies. We've still got two completely seperate networks, and people can't print to printers sitting next to them, or share files with employees from the other company, because the networks are still seperate. It's causing a lot of aggrivation for us on the support side, and a lot of frustration and lost productivity for end-users. When will this be solved?" Yes, it was a loaded question- but it was intended to be a loaded question for someone else.
She deferred to my bosses's boss(Jerry Lepore- the someone else)- who was supposed to be on the speakerphone, as he worked out of the other office down in Georgia. Well, good ol' Jerry wasn't there anymore- he had hung up on the MANDATORY meeting quite a while ago. She was left standing going "Uhhhh...". It was like those commercials where they play tape recordings of conversations with CEOs and ask them a general question about their IT and they just stammer. She had no clue. Probably because she was a banking exec in charge of a software company.
Even though she's a wicked nasty little bitch- I've never met such a stuck up, I-want-my-latte-and-I-want-it-an-hour-ago executive(she once called US and had US running around to figure out why she was stuck on Route 95 in lower CT- which gridlocks every morning without fail...and she went through THREE executive assistants in under a year) I felt bad, and stopped by her office after the meeting an apologized for putting her into the situation. That probably smoothed things over a little, but I did hear later that Jerry was absolutely ripshit- but couldn't do anything, because it would have been recognized immediately as revenge. The guy may have only been a high school science teacher(I shit you not- VP of technology, whose only work experience was high school science), but at least he wasn't THAT stupid.
I tell you- it was, however, entirely worth it when a fellow employee bumped into me in the lunchroom while my boss was having lunch, and said "Gee, you really stuck it to Cathi with that question!" He nearly choked...:-)
How should issues of free speech, community standards, and censorship be addressed in the virtual world
Well, since the "virtual world" is privately owned, requires money to participate in, isn't tied to government in any way, etc...I'd say it's pretty clear cut; freedom of speech doesn't apply on private property.
Let's get real here folks- what's next, arrest for murder if I cut your Massively-Multiplayer-whatever-the-hell-it-is character's throat? Jeeeeeeezus...
Unbelievable plot
on
Paranoia
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Alas, Nicholas Wyatt, the CEO, wasn't happy with the steep bill and gave Cassidy a choice of 20 years in prison or life as a corporate spy.
Except that's called extortion/blackmail, and it's illegal. Being willing to report it would probably get you a plea deal, if not a get-out-of-jail-free card from the DA, because going after the exec = good PR, going after the little guy = bad PR...and besides, what'd this retirement gig cost? $10k maybe? That's not the kind of thing that lands you in jail for 20 years. Hell, Enron execs hid BILLIONS and their accountant's going away for 10-20; his wife got 5-6 months(mostly because they both did plea-deals, but anyway...)
I know it's fiction, but lets try and have a semi-believable premise, yes?
Now, before you hit that "troll" button, I suggest you read the moderator guidelines, specifically the part which says you should not moderate to promote or discount specific viewpoints.
I'm not trolling(trolling= looking to get responses; I could care less if anyone responds)- I'm expressing what I believe to be a perfectly valid viewpoint/opinion, shared by many, many other people(that we have no business exploring space until we've solved more basic problems here) that is reasonably on-topic(the article is about mars exploration, its costs, and so on).
But, of course, feel free to mod "troll" or "offtopic", because then you'll get meta-moderated "unfair" by people like me, and then you won't get to moderate anymore- I aggressively meta-moderate, and I look out overuse of moderation, on both sides of the fence- stupid stuff modded "insightful" and unpopular viewpoints modded "troll".
Companies seem to think that because they have money, and most Free Software developers do not, that they can just slap us around left and right.
No, companies rightfully think that because the GPL has yet to be tested in court, there's no case history, and they'll be able to drag it out in the courts forever...that they can walk all over you.
The only answer is to dot your i's, cross your t's- give the offender all reasonable chances to comply. If they don't do it in a timely manner, SUE.
Let me repeat that.
SUE.
Why? First off, chances are most of these companies really can't afford a legal battle either. If you file papers- I'd bet a lot of companies would simply recognize you're serious, and cave in. You negotiate for your legal fees and force compliance on them, and you're done. If not, and you have what most people feel is a solid case, you'll have the whole Open Source community behind you, because we'll realize just how important your case is. The FSF assists your lawyer(they specifically state they'll assist- they just can't pursue on their own), we help you pay for your lawyer with a legal fund through donations(I'd donate!), and so on.
Not to mention, it's a lot easier to ask a judge for access to the company's source code than it is to go through all sorts of hoops to prove it. Show the trail of breadcrumbs leading up to the door, and the judge won't have much of a problem letting you open the door to see if there's a mouse nibbling on a cracker behind it.
So we loose some market share because people think we're evil bad guys who go around suing(this is why it's important to give people a chance). Who gives a fuck about market share? We're in this for the CONCEPT. Loosing some market share is better than the open-source concept becoming a joke("why should I open-source my stuff, if someone's just going to rip it off tomorrow, and I'll have no recourse against them?")
All it will take is a few lawsuits, and everyone else chasing down violators will have ammunition and WON'T have to sue...but our "nice guy" methodology isn't going to play, because we have no teeth to back up our "please comply" requests.
t is also interesting to see how it produces color photos. Instead of using a 3 color sensor, it uses a B&W camera with 3 colour filters that recombine into a colour image.
That's not all- the images are clearly composited, which is why they look so stunning(yes, the huge, low-noise ccd helps, as does a great lens). The very first image released(the 8mpixel one) had a very very obvious stitching error right smack down the middle, which is pretty bad, considering that with a robotic rig and known lens characteristics, you should be able to stitch the image exactly(most errors in stitching software comes when you didn't shoot the images perfectly overlapping, or at different angles, or you took a step forward/back, etc.) You can buy software off the shelf that does a better job than NASA's job.
Check me if I'm wrong Sammy, but I don't see how making employees sign in and out is all that terrible.
...especially since the #1 problem with timecards, according to a friend who manages a small manufacturing business, is that employees regularly clock each other in/out as favors.
So lets get this straight- it prevents theft and reduces peer pressure("Hey bob, clock me in early tomorrow, will ya? The kid needs new braces.") It involves absolutely nothing intrusive(I fail to see how storing the dimensions of your hand is intrusive) and is merely an improvement on a system that's been in use for almost a CENTURY.
What's the problem here? That biometrics are evil?
Under the terms of the program, Novell will offer indemnification for copyright infringement claims made by third parties against registered Novell customers who obtain SUSE Enterprise Linux 8 after January 13, 2004, upgrade protection and a qualifying technical support contract from Novell or a Novell channel partner
Wow. I smell a great conspiracy theory here. SCO's actually the puppet of Novell etc, to get businesses to buy Linux distros from vendors who will indemnify them from the big bully SCO.
I'd discuss my theory more, but I just heard a click on my telephone line and that sounds like a black helicopter nearing the house!
Seems that future digicams won't need a compact flash anymore
Eh? [looks over at his digicam with 330MB IBM compactflash microdrive]
Digicams and PDAs have been using microdrives for years. They're up to 4GB these days I think; 1GB is more common, the older 180 is pretty much NLA and the 330 is almost too.
Furthermore- you've obviously not understood the point of removable media. Most digicams, even if they support USB 2.0 or Firewire, can't move data very fast; one camera(the Kodak 14n) barely manages 1.5MB/sec despite costing five thousand dollars and generating 14 megapixel files(yes, 14). I can nearly max out my CF card using either a PCMCIA, USB2, or Firewire CF reader, but on-camera transfer usually blows, because the processors are very slow, using embedded solutions for JPEG/RAW image compression; the CPU is more and more just a 'supervisor'. Slow clock speeds = slow transfer speeds. More importantly, i can pop out the CF card, and pop in a new one when I fill it up. If I'm a sports or event photographer, I hand that card to a guy who sprints over to the truck and editors start downloading the images while I shoot onto another card.
And yes, the kinds of people who would need 4GB in a digicam are precisely the kind of people who need to be able to pop ANOTHER 4gb in. Top of the line Canon EOS 1Ds will generate 11+ megapixel files. They get big, fast. Leaf and Phase One now make 11-20MP digital backs for medium format, as does Kodak and now Fuji. The digital backs generate enormous files, to the point that some are tethered-operation only, or come with a unit that attaches to the bottom of the camera and houses a laptop hard drive.
Your average consumer, and even many prosumers, have absolutely no use for a 4GB hard drive in their camera, and the power requirements mean camera makers would never go for it. A solid-state card is so much more power efficient than any hard drive, it's not funny.
Slashdot Mirror
Dude, I know you're not supposed to read the story, but at least read the text you quoted.
This list is not final and if people want to ante in to try this with their favorite distro, let us know at bc2004 at osuosl dot org or in #beaverchallenge on the Freenode.net IRC network.
Note what's implied...
Translation from Long Marketingspeak: We'll take Cooker and freeze it, and then a couple months later, after we've fixed everything, it will be released. By which time it will be completely outdated, of course...and you won't be able to install (insert KDE or GNOME package here) because it needs version 3.4.2.5.34, not 3.4.2.5.33...you'll have to wait for the NEXT release(which will be unusable of course until -it- is sorted) to get .34....
Boy, they're right, that does sound nicer :-)
Last time I checked, Steve's name wasn't Olivier Lebra, and Steve didn't live in Montreal, Quebec.
If it's supposed to be a parody, you could have fooled me...
It has little to do with marketing budgets; they advertise in Macintosh magazines- they're regularly the first two pages in Macworld. You wouldn't be asking questions if you saw how much Office for the Mac costs.
That's doubtful.. The OS and Office divisions are the cash cows for Microsoft. There is no way the Mac group is more profitable than the Office group.
Office is the Mac group's only product, and further, I specifically said the OS division is more profitable. Read, kay? Jesus, it was even in the text you quoted from my comment.
Here's a few numbers to wrap your head around. 1)MS Office for PCs? Included with almost every PC for nearly free. 2)Office for Macintosh? $400. What's bigger, 5% of the market at $400/copy, or 95% of the market at "near free"? Hmm?
Why do you think the Macintosh version of Office always comes out first? Why do they sign agreements committing to developing it well into the future? Why do you think it doesn't have any pisses-off-customers product activation? Hmm...maybe because they make a shitload of money off it and want to keep the gravy train rolling?
More like "from the bread-and-butter-dept". Microsoft's Macintosh division is one of its most profitable, and a profit-making division at Microsoft is getting be something of a rarity what with the company loosing money through the nose in countless divisions. In fact, I believe there's only one division more profitable- the OS division.
That's one of the reasons for the symbolic deal a few years back where MS bought $150M in Apple stock(by the way, that's not even a fraction of Apple's CASH reserves, so sit down all you "MS bailed out Apple" morons) and committed on paper to releasing Office for the next however many years(and to do so on the Mac first, as has always been the case).
And the best part is, that low frequency vibration will help the motherboard crack even faster since the Zalman coolers all cheerfully ignore the max weight limits set by motherboard companies. They have supposedly caused a few mobo deaths.
Tip- a)make sure all the standoffs are installed properly and the mobo is screwed down. b)if you move the machine, consider taking the CPU heatsink off FIRST, because if you bounce it around, the heft of the heatsink could flex the motherboard a little too much.
Yeah, a nice bit of javascript that opens over a half dozen windows in rapid-fire order, ordered a CD from Amazon using my account, sent a flaming email to GWB, redirected me to the goat-whatever guy, played the Dean Scream, and then crashed Mozilla. Well, ok, only the bit about opening up a bunch of photos.
[RANT]Folks- popup windoid things as part of your website are like talking appliances. Every so often, designers get it in their heads that it's a Hot Idea, and then everyone drags them out into the street and demonstrates how the current generation of designers got their new jobs. If I want to open something on your site in a new window, I'll goddamn hold down the modifier key and THEN click the link, thanks much.[/RANT]
What the hell is this crap? It's NOT neutral. I can see it now...
Reporter: "So Mr. Car Thief..."
Thief: "Please. I prefer the term Vehicle Posession Transferal Agent".
You ARE spying. You're looking where you shouldn't; that's spying, just like eavesdropping on 802.11b is spying; you know your victims are probably not expecting you to be looking, and you know it's wrong. If your neighbor has a 8-foot high shrub, and you stick your head through it to see what's going on in his yard, that's considered intrusive by most of the world unless you know 'em pretty well. It's not considered "viewing". If you put a mirror over the top of the stall in the bathroom to look at the guy next to you, that's spying. Not "viewing".
Why do I get the image of Comic Book Guy reading about MWD? Even the "please, call me..." crap is the same.
Mmm, except robots don't get radiation poisoning, don't get bored, ornery/grumpy/homidical when put in a can, don't suffer nasty effects from extended weightlessness, etc. Oh, and they don't require food, air, or water.
By the time our astronauts got to Mars, they'd be dead(or near it) of radiation poisoning alone. We lack the technology to shield them from deep space radiation effectively enough for them to survive.
A friend and I once built a sprinkler-valve based widget that was quite impressive. In our first test, however, we left the barrel off, and the resulting pressure wave nearly deafened us. Those valves flow pretty well...
You know how they tell you to shoot stuff into a hanging blanket, because it 'catches' the object? Our first 'victim', a magic marker, went THROUGH the blanket and was never seen again.
We developed the world's fastest(and messiest) french fry maker(use your imagination- sporting goods involved)...shot a 4-foot broom handle a couple hundred feet into the air and down his yard(looked like a mini-cruise-missile)...discovered it made an excellent fire extinguisher(fill barrel with water, cork, aim, blammo- between the gust of air and the water/steam, you could do a serious number a good sized fire with just two cups of water)...etc. You could even launch cylinders of compressed snow(trick is to compress it enough that it doesn't disintegrate on launch, but doesn't hurt anyone/anything when it impacts..although ice rods looked awesome fired at a brick wall).
The best was when my friend's parents got home. His mother walked out onto the porch first. "Oh my GOD, what are you DOING?" His father followed, saw the compressor, air tanks, etc..."Oh cool, whatcha guys doin'?" :-)
More seriously, what's going to happen to the earth's climate as we lighten up the moon by removing mass from it? Ah, wait- Bush wants to put trash up there to replace what we take, right?
If you don't know what I'm talking about- the moon is largely responsible for ocean currents, and those ocean currents move warm water to cold areas and cold water to warm areas, heavily influencing, if not determining, climates. Not to mention the thousands(probably hundreds of thousands) of aquatic species that depend upon currents and tides. How about international commerce, which depends on shipping, which in turn depends on currents, weather, and tide levels to navigate channels? Plenty of places are passable at high tide, and unpassable at low tide.
The list of things which depend upon the moon(and its effects on the earth) is mind-bogglingly long...and we really ought not mess around with it.
Relevant quote for the lazy:
In fairness to the president, I did a little research and found the microscopic grain of truth in what he was saying. It turns out that there is, indeed, an abundant quantity of something called helium-3 just under the surface of the moon. Forget for a second that we still lack the technology to use helium-3 for anything except making your voice sound really high and squeaky. Thanks to nuclear fusion, helium-3 will someday be that long-envisioned clean-burning, limitless energy supply.
Problem is, the Earth is actually running out of helium. I could tell you why we're running out of helium, but you probably already believe that it's all Bill Clinton's fault, so I won't bother changing your mind. The fact is, we're running out of helium...fast. How fast? Let's put it this way, by the year 2104, the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade is going to suck.
But the moon has so much helium-3 that it practically floats. Scientists estimate that the million tons of helium-3 on the moon could provide enough energy to power the Earth for thousands of years (or 28 Hummer-driving soccer moms for three weeks). Of course, these estimates depend on which scientists are making the estimates--the ones who predicted we'd all be living in a utopia of perfectly fitting unitards or the ones who've crashed two space shuttles in 17 years.
Please explain how on earth a 1U 2 processor Xserve could possibly "replace" a Sun Enterprise system. Because that's "high end", believe it or not. 32 processors. Hundreds of gigabytes of ram. Disk arrays that fill closets, not 3-5U. Please point me to the SAN(no, the Xraid is NOT a SAN!) and tape backup solutions offered by Apple. Sun *used* to be the end-all-be-all when it came to high-end servers, but apart from the Sun Fires it seems that Apple has much more to offer these days.
You're smoking crack, considering Apple makes ONE model in three configs, and Sun offers everything from a Sun Fire that costs 1/2 as much as the Xserve, to systems in the millions of dollars range...and the tools that can manage that kind of hardware effectively(apple's tools are neat, but not ready for managing hundreds of servers etc.)
Phhbt. Get real, mine's been playing(not just downloading) video for years.
Oh, and nominee for "worst named product" of the bunch: "Beetle iPOS." Visions of a mid 60's beetle in a junkyard...
No. Talk to any parent- the thing that impresses them the least is blaming problems on other people. Do you really think they're that stupid that they can't see through how scummy you are, that you're willing to rat out your coworkers/boss/whomever? That's a sure fire way to get...well...fired.
Not only does it look like you're ratting out someone, there's the lingering doubt that you might actually be the one responsible, and engaging in a little fingerpointing to save your own skin. Both are raaaather dangerous.
Ding ding ding. How about telling the execs the above?
Sample, off the top of my head: "Well, to be honest, we do have some problems, but we don't really feel comfortable going over our bosses heads, and we think that it would strain relations, interfere with teamwork, and hurt productivity. If you assure us you'll work with our bosses in a positive way, instead of coming down on them for the problems we name, we'll be happy to give you some of our views."
Anyway, I've done this, sorta. At my last job, I asked our president and CEO(Cathi Raffaeli) at an employee meeting(after nearly a minute of silence after she asked for feedback) the following: "It's been over a year since we merged and brought in these other companies. We've still got two completely seperate networks, and people can't print to printers sitting next to them, or share files with employees from the other company, because the networks are still seperate. It's causing a lot of aggrivation for us on the support side, and a lot of frustration and lost productivity for end-users. When will this be solved?" Yes, it was a loaded question- but it was intended to be a loaded question for someone else.
She deferred to my bosses's boss(Jerry Lepore- the someone else)- who was supposed to be on the speakerphone, as he worked out of the other office down in Georgia. Well, good ol' Jerry wasn't there anymore- he had hung up on the MANDATORY meeting quite a while ago. She was left standing going "Uhhhh...". It was like those commercials where they play tape recordings of conversations with CEOs and ask them a general question about their IT and they just stammer. She had no clue. Probably because she was a banking exec in charge of a software company.
Even though she's a wicked nasty little bitch- I've never met such a stuck up, I-want-my-latte-and-I-want-it-an-hour-ago executive(she once called US and had US running around to figure out why she was stuck on Route 95 in lower CT- which gridlocks every morning without fail...and she went through THREE executive assistants in under a year) I felt bad, and stopped by her office after the meeting an apologized for putting her into the situation. That probably smoothed things over a little, but I did hear later that Jerry was absolutely ripshit- but couldn't do anything, because it would have been recognized immediately as revenge. The guy may have only been a high school science teacher(I shit you not- VP of technology, whose only work experience was high school science), but at least he wasn't THAT stupid.
I tell you- it was, however, entirely worth it when a fellow employee bumped into me in the lunchroom while my boss was having lunch, and said "Gee, you really stuck it to Cathi with that question!" He nearly choked... :-)
Well, since the "virtual world" is privately owned, requires money to participate in, isn't tied to government in any way, etc...I'd say it's pretty clear cut; freedom of speech doesn't apply on private property.
Let's get real here folks- what's next, arrest for murder if I cut your Massively-Multiplayer-whatever-the-hell-it-is character's throat? Jeeeeeeezus...
Except that's called extortion/blackmail, and it's illegal. Being willing to report it would probably get you a plea deal, if not a get-out-of-jail-free card from the DA, because going after the exec = good PR, going after the little guy = bad PR...and besides, what'd this retirement gig cost? $10k maybe? That's not the kind of thing that lands you in jail for 20 years. Hell, Enron execs hid BILLIONS and their accountant's going away for 10-20; his wife got 5-6 months(mostly because they both did plea-deals, but anyway...)
I know it's fiction, but lets try and have a semi-believable premise, yes?
Right link
Now, before you hit that "troll" button, I suggest you read the moderator guidelines, specifically the part which says you should not moderate to promote or discount specific viewpoints.
I'm not trolling(trolling= looking to get responses; I could care less if anyone responds)- I'm expressing what I believe to be a perfectly valid viewpoint/opinion, shared by many, many other people(that we have no business exploring space until we've solved more basic problems here) that is reasonably on-topic(the article is about mars exploration, its costs, and so on).
But, of course, feel free to mod "troll" or "offtopic", because then you'll get meta-moderated "unfair" by people like me, and then you won't get to moderate anymore- I aggressively meta-moderate, and I look out overuse of moderation, on both sides of the fence- stupid stuff modded "insightful" and unpopular viewpoints modded "troll".
No, companies rightfully think that because the GPL has yet to be tested in court, there's no case history, and they'll be able to drag it out in the courts forever...that they can walk all over you.
The only answer is to dot your i's, cross your t's- give the offender all reasonable chances to comply. If they don't do it in a timely manner, SUE.
Let me repeat that.
SUE.
Why? First off, chances are most of these companies really can't afford a legal battle either. If you file papers- I'd bet a lot of companies would simply recognize you're serious, and cave in. You negotiate for your legal fees and force compliance on them, and you're done. If not, and you have what most people feel is a solid case, you'll have the whole Open Source community behind you, because we'll realize just how important your case is. The FSF assists your lawyer(they specifically state they'll assist- they just can't pursue on their own), we help you pay for your lawyer with a legal fund through donations(I'd donate!), and so on.
Not to mention, it's a lot easier to ask a judge for access to the company's source code than it is to go through all sorts of hoops to prove it. Show the trail of breadcrumbs leading up to the door, and the judge won't have much of a problem letting you open the door to see if there's a mouse nibbling on a cracker behind it.
So we loose some market share because people think we're evil bad guys who go around suing(this is why it's important to give people a chance). Who gives a fuck about market share? We're in this for the CONCEPT. Loosing some market share is better than the open-source concept becoming a joke("why should I open-source my stuff, if someone's just going to rip it off tomorrow, and I'll have no recourse against them?")
All it will take is a few lawsuits, and everyone else chasing down violators will have ammunition and WON'T have to sue...but our "nice guy" methodology isn't going to play, because we have no teeth to back up our "please comply" requests.
That's not all- the images are clearly composited, which is why they look so stunning(yes, the huge, low-noise ccd helps, as does a great lens). The very first image released(the 8mpixel one) had a very very obvious stitching error right smack down the middle, which is pretty bad, considering that with a robotic rig and known lens characteristics, you should be able to stitch the image exactly(most errors in stitching software comes when you didn't shoot the images perfectly overlapping, or at different angles, or you took a step forward/back, etc.) You can buy software off the shelf that does a better job than NASA's job.
"How much so a man can walk on mars?"
...especially since the #1 problem with timecards, according to a friend who manages a small manufacturing business, is that employees regularly clock each other in/out as favors.
So lets get this straight- it prevents theft and reduces peer pressure("Hey bob, clock me in early tomorrow, will ya? The kid needs new braces.") It involves absolutely nothing intrusive(I fail to see how storing the dimensions of your hand is intrusive) and is merely an improvement on a system that's been in use for almost a CENTURY.
What's the problem here? That biometrics are evil?
Wow. I smell a great conspiracy theory here. SCO's actually the puppet of Novell etc, to get businesses to buy Linux distros from vendors who will indemnify them from the big bully SCO.
I'd discuss my theory more, but I just heard a click on my telephone line and that sounds like a black helicopter nearing the house!
Eh? [looks over at his digicam with 330MB IBM compactflash microdrive]
Digicams and PDAs have been using microdrives for years. They're up to 4GB these days I think; 1GB is more common, the older 180 is pretty much NLA and the 330 is almost too.
Furthermore- you've obviously not understood the point of removable media. Most digicams, even if they support USB 2.0 or Firewire, can't move data very fast; one camera(the Kodak 14n) barely manages 1.5MB/sec despite costing five thousand dollars and generating 14 megapixel files(yes, 14). I can nearly max out my CF card using either a PCMCIA, USB2, or Firewire CF reader, but on-camera transfer usually blows, because the processors are very slow, using embedded solutions for JPEG/RAW image compression; the CPU is more and more just a 'supervisor'. Slow clock speeds = slow transfer speeds. More importantly, i can pop out the CF card, and pop in a new one when I fill it up. If I'm a sports or event photographer, I hand that card to a guy who sprints over to the truck and editors start downloading the images while I shoot onto another card.
And yes, the kinds of people who would need 4GB in a digicam are precisely the kind of people who need to be able to pop ANOTHER 4gb in. Top of the line Canon EOS 1Ds will generate 11+ megapixel files. They get big, fast. Leaf and Phase One now make 11-20MP digital backs for medium format, as does Kodak and now Fuji. The digital backs generate enormous files, to the point that some are tethered-operation only, or come with a unit that attaches to the bottom of the camera and houses a laptop hard drive.
Your average consumer, and even many prosumers, have absolutely no use for a 4GB hard drive in their camera, and the power requirements mean camera makers would never go for it. A solid-state card is so much more power efficient than any hard drive, it's not funny.