Shouldn't Pinkium be matched with Brainium? "What do you want to do tonight, Brain" ------ Brain: Any questions? Pinky: Yes, do you know the way to San Jose? [Later] Brain: Make a right at Oxnard. Pinky: Come again? Brain: It's the way to San Jose. You get to Oxnard and make a right.
'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.' 'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.' 'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.'
Most useful functionality we ever added to one application 20 years ago: when it displayed a MessageBox to the user, it logged the exact text, along with the error code, and offered to email the error report to the support desk.
And the support desk was given a comprehensive manual with instructions on how to guide the user through what they were trying to do.
A friend of mine wrote that function, and I have reused it many times.
"Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils." -- General John Stark "Give me liberty, or give me death!" -- Patrick Henry "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves" -- Abraham Lincoln "If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter" -- George Washington
If the ISP or email provider host the domain that your email is at, is it really that much of a problem?
Actually, it is. The NSA tapped Google's communication lines with the help of Big Mother Bell (AT&T), and the NSA and anyone they decided to let see the data could read everyone's emails. http://www.theguardian.com/wor...
>> I'm not opposed to text ads, banners, and animated GIFs provided they're not deceptive and clearly identify as ads.
Add "and do not interfere with viewing the content." That covers popups. floatovers, and tons of other intrusive things.
>> The journalism has declined.
One thing you didn't point out; fact checking and verification of sources has fallen off so much as to render most content worthless.
Even major outlets, such as the New York Times, have become incredibly sloppy, publishing a great deal of blatantly garbage content, that five minutes of checking sources and facts would catch.
You missed one thing; if the provider of the movie decides to end their contract with Amazon for that movie, it may also disappear from your library. I recall that happening with at least one movie.
Actually, Apple might do this. Anyone in California who wants an Apple iPhone can go over the state line and pick one up, or have a friend or family member in another state pick it up and send it. After gangs starts running truckloads of illegal Apple iPhones into California (easy enough to do), and California regulators are taking flack for all this inconvenience and extra cost, they'd most likely back down. Especially in California, where it's easy for the citizens put a bill on the ballot to repeal this law.
As others have pointed out: - Deer jumping into traffic: this is exacerbated by poor highway design and maintenance, that limits the view of the diver, so that he has no chance of seeing the deer until it is directly in his path. - Other drivers: I cannot tell you how many times I have seen a poor driver change lanes directly into another vehicle, or lane changing in front of another car in such a way as to impact the left front quarter panel and drive the law-abiding driver into the guardrail or off the road. - My first car was in an accident when my father borrowed it; a woman was speeding and talking on the phone, swerved to pass a car stopped at a stop light, and ran a red light to plow into the side of my car. 2 good points: there were witnesses, so her lies to the police did not hold up, and the car was an Olds Delta 88, and damage was minimal. He car was totaled. Driving defensively only goes do far in keeping you safe.
Doesn't that pinhead Trump realize Microsoft doesn't understand the Internet - That's why the Internet runs on Linux and BSD. Hell, even MS is recommending deploying their Azure environment on Linux...
Yep, one of the buggest reasons for paper in my office is meetings. Everyone needs to print stuff out and bring it in for reference. Then there are the handouts, all the emails printed out for cross-referencing, etc.
And faxes by the hundreds. This accounts for paper by the ton.
>> Serials are returning, authors are able to more directly keep in contact with readers
On reason for the uptick in serials is the lack of delay with e-books. I can read an already published serial, see how the first book is, then at 10PM, when I finish the first, immediately download the next in the series, starting to read it right away. Compare that to waiting for the bookstore to be open, finding it or placing an order, then waiting for them to receive it and picking it up from them. Two minutes versus one day versus a few weeks.
Sometimes a hardcopy is better; certainly it is easier to use alongside a keyboard when writing something; but as noted, the ability to have my whole library in the palm of my hand is a huge point in e-book's favor.
And the list of available works keeps growing, both in e-book formats like MOBI and EPUB, and also audio books as well. I think that pressure to compete will carry over to hardcopy as well, fording publishers to adapt to printing on-demand copies.
As far as keeping in contact with the author, it is generally easier if the author is e-book savvy. For a lot of earlier authors, email and other communication went to the publisher or assistant or secretary, and the authors didn't/couldn't respond quickly. Now, many of them do and can. E-books won't kill hardcopy; but it will prune the low-hangers that should be pruned, and clear the way for an improved publishing process in time, getting rid of some geographic restrictions on publishing and distribution, and improving the quality of editing and galley review.
Some outsourcing company said it could only fill it's consultant ranks by hiring Indians. Since it knew the paperwork really well (and doing paperwork really well is an Indian core competency), it got them.
I've found there is another problem, fictitious skills/experience on resumes.
I can't tell you how many times I have seen companies list language and tool experience Years longer than the language or tool has been in existence. All the local resumes are rejected because they don't have the skills, and the bogus ones for overseas candidates accepted at face value.
"yes, I've been developing iPhone apps for 27 years..."
Then they come to work and need basic training from the existing staff.
Fortunately, not a big problem at my current employer.
As noted by another poster, one drawback is operating on the transport schedule, not mine. Where I live, missing a connection can mean a 45 minute wait. Additionally, even in a best-case scenario, commuting to work for me would be 2 and a half hours and 4 connections each way, with a walk of a few miles (often in rain, sleet, hail, snow) at the work end; and the same walk to get to a connection for transport home. If I need a side trip (groceries, pharmacy, etc, etc), I can add another half hour or so on top of the shopping time. And carry 6 or more large, heavy bags on a packed bus, and a long walk from the bus stop. Worst-case scenario is between 4 hours (one way) and no transpo at all in some areas due to weather, accidents, etc. People who push public transpo in the US tend to live in cities with lots of public transportation options. Most people in the US don't fall into this category.
Perhaps someone with better Spanish skills might like to look at it.
They interviewed 288 kids from 11 schools in the city of Ronda, Málaga province. Rather a small group and only in one city.
They did appear to use some sensible question criteria and evaluation techniques. However, I saw nothing in the paper (I freely admit I skimmed, so it might be there), anything to indicate that any other factors were considered. In addition to University Degrees, economic factors, personal experiences, any number of other things might enter into this.
It's a long way from a definitive research. At best, I'd say it's a possible starting point for more rigorous research on a -much- wider broader base of respondents.
Anyone with better Spanish skills who would like to follow up, please do so.
Excellent response. A few more points to consider for the original poster:
> I've recently been tasked with documenting our organization's IT infrastructure, > primarily focusing on cost analysis of our hardware leases and software purchases.
You appear to have only done a -partial- cost-benefit analysis.
You state that you have a "marketing department...composed...of Apple systems...[using] Adobe Creative Suite", and need to continue to use Macs to support that, and a "Sales department...[relying] on a proprietary sales platform that is Windows only"
Factor in needing the additional Apple hardware and software and the additional Windows licenses and other software. Factor in the support costs, patching, and additional IT expertise required. You may need -fewer- Windows support staff, but now you'll need some with cross-platform knowledge (Fedora and Windows),as well as dedicated Windows support staff and Fedora support staff.
Your Sales and Marketing ain't gonna move, unless you have credible replacements for the tools they are using and the solid support of a powerful majority of the corporate officers. They will bitch, and most of their bosses will shoot this up the chain. If they want to, they can and will derail -anything- you can do to bring this about.
Factor in the training costs, and the "I ain't gonna cooperate" costs. Look up "work to rule". Any of the staff who want to fight will do exactly as they are told, and call you for tech support if the reflection of the afternoon sunlight is causing a little glare.
I agree, -most- users could probably pick up Fedora quickly. But some will need a lot of hand-holding, and, of course, the Windows users will save documents in the newest Office formats, and they won't render properly in OpenOffice/LibreOffice.
And factor in your time. While you are doing this, you'll be taking time away from other work the company will want done.
If you convert, you're probably going to have to justify it in great detail, migrate slowly, and plan on much slower return on the investment.
And, as others have noted, while Outlook sucks, some people really do use the Calendar and scheduling features. There are some Linux alternatives, but you'll need to put a lot of effort into support to get started.
I agree, I'd much prefer Linux all around. But your organization doesn't sound remotely ready, and the reasons you're presenting don't seem compelling.
Licenses alone won't achieve the savings to justify this. You'll need a -lot- more return on the investment to do so.
> Answer: "It *IS* OpenOffice. It uses the exact same code even though the company > that owns it was bought out by a rival that now wants to control what you do > with their version
Excellent point. Viewed that way, this is more like one of Microsoft's product name changes than a product change. At this point, there is no difference between the products (It's not MS Office, it's MS Office.NET!)
Changes are likely to be fairly slow for a time.
There is a legitimate reason to be concerned about the corporate perception on this; but it's just a valid to say that LibreOffice is the product you've been using, from the same source. That the _CHANGE_ is that _Oracle_ purchased the name when they acquired Sun, and _Oracle_ is the cause of the perceived conflict.
Approached properly, Oracle's habit of overcharging and pissing off people (there's a reason Oracle is often called 'Orrible) could aid in driving LibreOffice to the front. It's not a lock; but it's too soon to call.
> no rule changes are warranted. cablecard standards have already solved this problem, and > enabled 3rd parties. i've been using a tivo HD with premium cable service for many years > now. it works perfect.
It appears that the order hits something else as well. From the source:
"...order that would promote competition in the marketplace for set-top boxes by ensuring retail devices such as TiVo have the __same access to prescheduled programming__ as cable providers"
If I recall properly, this has been a problem in many areas; the cable-provider's box gets full, accurate schedules, and the third parties get limited and inaccurate ones. I don't use cable, so comments from others on this would be appreciated.
> I don't see a problem with allowing calculators...disallow them the first few times, > but generally they solve problems far quicker than a human can.
Have to disagree; calculators and computers don't solve problems; they are tools to allow people to solve problems.
Many kids with calculators don't get that you have to understand what to solve -for- before punching the keys.
It's not a $75 fee for putting out a fire. Putting out fires costs a hell of a lot more in terms of costs for equipment, supplies, labor, etc. The $75 fee depends on amortizing the cost over time, and spreading the risk around a large pool of contributors. If they did charge on site, it would have to be a -very- big charge, at least thousands, probably tens of thousands of dollars.
Do you have thousands or tens of thousands to pay on site? I wouldn't; nor would most people in this position.
Others have pointed out the possibility of paying the cost by hitting him with a fine for needing the service and not paying for it previously. But this is a private firefighting company, contracted by South Fulton. They can't levy fines, nor can South Fulton, since the homeowner lives outside the city. The county could, but they didn't set up a fire fighting contract.
This is as much a failure of the homeowner and the county government as the city and the fire department.
And I think it is a failure on the part of the city and the fire department. The city chose to contract out the service, and both the city and the company should have anticipated these situations, and made some sort of arrangement with the county or state government.
Slashdot Mirror
https://iupac.org/iupac-is-nam...
"IUPAC is naming the four new elements Nihonium, Moscovium, Tennessine, and Oganesson"
Shouldn't Pinkium be matched with Brainium?
"What do you want to do tonight, Brain"
------
Brain: Any questions?
Pinky: Yes, do you know the way to San Jose?
[Later]
Brain: Make a right at Oxnard.
Pinky: Come again?
Brain: It's the way to San Jose. You get to Oxnard and make a right.
And coders will be taking every picture and video of it for years to come and editing the name out, replacing it with Boaty McBoatface...
'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master — that's all.'
Most useful functionality we ever added to one application 20 years ago: when it displayed a MessageBox to the user, it logged the exact text, along with the error code, and offered to email the error report to the support desk.
And the support desk was given a comprehensive manual with instructions on how to guide the user through what they were trying to do.
A friend of mine wrote that function, and I have reused it many times.
"Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils." -- General John Stark
"Give me liberty, or give me death!" -- Patrick Henry
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves" -- Abraham Lincoln
"If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter" -- George Washington
If the ISP or email provider host the domain that your email is at, is it really that much of a problem?
Actually, it is. The NSA tapped Google's communication lines with the help of Big Mother Bell (AT&T), and the NSA and anyone they decided to let see the data could read everyone's emails.
http://www.theguardian.com/wor...
Due process should matter to everyone.
Warrant? We don't need no stinking Warrant!
>> I'm not opposed to text ads, banners, and animated GIFs provided they're not deceptive and clearly identify as ads.
Add "and do not interfere with viewing the content." That covers popups. floatovers, and tons of other intrusive things.
>> The journalism has declined.
One thing you didn't point out; fact checking and verification of sources has fallen off so much as to render most content worthless.
Even major outlets, such as the New York Times, have become incredibly sloppy, publishing a great deal of blatantly garbage content, that five minutes of checking sources and facts would catch.
You missed one thing; if the provider of the movie decides to end their contract with Amazon for that movie, it may also disappear from your library. I recall that happening with at least one movie.
Actually, Apple might do this. Anyone in California who wants an Apple iPhone can go over the state line and pick one up, or have a friend or family member in another state pick it up and send it.
After gangs starts running truckloads of illegal Apple iPhones into California (easy enough to do), and California regulators are taking flack for all this inconvenience and extra cost, they'd most likely back down.
Especially in California, where it's easy for the citizens put a bill on the ballot to repeal this law.
As others have pointed out:
- Deer jumping into traffic: this is exacerbated by poor highway design and maintenance, that limits the view of the diver, so that he has no chance of seeing the deer until it is directly in his path.
- Other drivers: I cannot tell you how many times I have seen a poor driver change lanes directly into another vehicle, or lane changing in front of another car in such a way as to impact the left front quarter panel and drive the law-abiding driver into the guardrail or off the road.
- My first car was in an accident when my father borrowed it; a woman was speeding and talking on the phone, swerved to pass a car stopped at a stop light, and ran a red light to plow into the side of my car. 2 good points: there were witnesses, so her lies to the police did not hold up, and the car was an Olds Delta 88, and damage was minimal. He car was totaled.
Driving defensively only goes do far in keeping you safe.
Doesn't that pinhead Trump realize Microsoft doesn't understand the Internet - That's why the Internet runs on Linux and BSD. Hell, even MS is recommending deploying their Azure environment on Linux...
Yep, one of the buggest reasons for paper in my office is meetings. Everyone needs to print stuff out and bring it in for reference. Then there are the handouts, all the emails printed out for cross-referencing, etc.
And faxes by the hundreds. This accounts for paper by the ton.
>> Serials are returning, authors are able to more directly keep in contact with readers
On reason for the uptick in serials is the lack of delay with e-books. I can read an already published serial, see how the first book is, then at 10PM, when I finish the first, immediately download the next in the series, starting to read it right away. Compare that to waiting for the bookstore to be open, finding it or placing an order, then waiting for them to receive it and picking it up from them. Two minutes versus one day versus a few weeks.
Sometimes a hardcopy is better; certainly it is easier to use alongside a keyboard when writing something; but as noted, the ability to have my whole library in the palm of my hand is a huge point in e-book's favor.
And the list of available works keeps growing, both in e-book formats like MOBI and EPUB, and also audio books as well. I think that pressure to compete will carry over to hardcopy as well, fording publishers to adapt to printing on-demand copies.
As far as keeping in contact with the author, it is generally easier if the author is e-book savvy. For a lot of earlier authors, email and other communication went to the publisher or assistant or secretary, and the authors didn't/couldn't respond quickly. Now, many of them do and can. E-books won't kill hardcopy; but it will prune the low-hangers that should be pruned, and clear the way for an improved publishing process in time, getting rid of some geographic restrictions on publishing and distribution, and improving the quality of editing and galley review.
That's you, and I suspect most Slashdot readers. But for a lot of non-technical users, it *is* their login to everything account.
Facebook pushed the single sign on through Facebook some time ago, and it's worked.
Tons of people use it.
Some outsourcing company said it could only fill it's consultant ranks by hiring Indians. Since it knew the paperwork really well (and doing paperwork really well is an Indian core competency), it got them.
I've found there is another problem, fictitious skills/experience on resumes.
I can't tell you how many times I have seen companies list language and tool experience Years longer than the language or tool has been in existence. All the local resumes are rejected because they don't have the skills, and the bogus ones for overseas candidates accepted at face value.
"yes, I've been developing iPhone apps for 27 years..."
Then they come to work and need basic training from the existing staff.
Fortunately, not a big problem at my current employer.
As noted by another poster, one drawback is operating on the transport schedule, not mine. Where I live, missing a connection can mean a 45 minute wait.
Additionally, even in a best-case scenario, commuting to work for me would be 2 and a half hours and 4 connections each way, with a walk of a few miles (often in rain, sleet, hail, snow) at the work end; and the same walk to get to a connection for transport home.
If I need a side trip (groceries, pharmacy, etc, etc), I can add another half hour or so on top of the shopping time. And carry 6 or more large, heavy bags on a packed bus, and a long walk from the bus stop.
Worst-case scenario is between 4 hours (one way) and no transpo at all in some areas due to weather, accidents, etc.
People who push public transpo in the US tend to live in cities with lots of public transportation options.
Most people in the US don't fall into this category.
> If the community's citizens didn't want such a business there, the business would get no customers and close down naturally.
Not necessarily. It always possible that the customers come over from other towns.
No actually disagreeing with you; just disagreeing on this particular bit of reasoning.
A few points from the original research article (in Spanish). One link I found: http://digibug.ugr.es/bitstream/10481/4858/1/18616252.pdf
Perhaps someone with better Spanish skills might like to look at it.
They interviewed 288 kids from 11 schools in the city of Ronda, Málaga province. Rather a small group and only in one city.
They did appear to use some sensible question criteria and evaluation techniques. However, I saw nothing in the paper (I freely admit I skimmed, so it might be there), anything to indicate that any other factors were considered. In addition to University Degrees, economic factors, personal experiences, any number of other things might enter into this.
It's a long way from a definitive research. At best, I'd say it's a possible starting point for more rigorous research on a -much- wider broader base of respondents.
Anyone with better Spanish skills who would like to follow up, please do so.
Excellent response. A few more points to consider for the original poster:
> I've recently been tasked with documenting our organization's IT infrastructure,
> primarily focusing on cost analysis of our hardware leases and software purchases.
You appear to have only done a -partial- cost-benefit analysis.
You state that you have a "marketing department ...composed...of Apple systems ...[using] Adobe Creative Suite", and need to continue to use Macs to support that, and a "Sales department ...[relying] on a proprietary sales platform that is Windows only"
Factor in needing the additional Apple hardware and software and the additional Windows licenses and other software. Factor in the support costs, patching, and additional IT expertise required. You may need -fewer- Windows support staff, but now you'll need some with cross-platform knowledge (Fedora and Windows),as well as dedicated Windows support staff and Fedora support staff.
Your Sales and Marketing ain't gonna move, unless you have credible replacements for the tools they are using and the solid support of a powerful majority of the corporate officers. They will bitch, and most of their bosses will shoot this up the chain. If they want to, they can and will derail -anything- you can do to bring this about.
Factor in the training costs, and the "I ain't gonna cooperate" costs. Look up "work to rule". Any of the staff who want to fight will do exactly as they are told, and call you for tech support if the reflection of the afternoon sunlight is causing a little glare.
I agree, -most- users could probably pick up Fedora quickly. But some will need a lot of hand-holding, and, of course, the Windows users will save documents in the newest Office formats, and they won't render properly in OpenOffice/LibreOffice.
And factor in your time. While you are doing this, you'll be taking time away from other work the company will want done.
If you convert, you're probably going to have to justify it in great detail, migrate slowly, and plan on much slower return on the investment.
And, as others have noted, while Outlook sucks, some people really do use the Calendar and scheduling features. There are some Linux alternatives, but you'll need to put a lot of effort into support to get started.
I agree, I'd much prefer Linux all around. But your organization doesn't sound remotely ready, and the reasons you're presenting don't seem compelling.
Licenses alone won't achieve the savings to justify this. You'll need a -lot- more return on the investment to do so.
> Answer: "It *IS* OpenOffice. It uses the exact same code even though the company
> that owns it was bought out by a rival that now wants to control what you do
> with their version
Excellent point. Viewed that way, this is more like one of Microsoft's product
name changes than a product change. At this point, there is no difference between
the products (It's not MS Office, it's MS Office.NET!)
Changes are likely to be fairly slow for a time.
There is a legitimate reason to be concerned about the corporate perception on
this; but it's just a valid to say that LibreOffice is the product you've been
using, from the same source. That the _CHANGE_ is that _Oracle_ purchased the
name when they acquired Sun, and _Oracle_ is the cause of the perceived conflict.
Approached properly, Oracle's habit of overcharging and pissing off people
(there's a reason Oracle is often called 'Orrible) could aid in driving
LibreOffice to the front. It's not a lock; but it's too soon to call.
> no rule changes are warranted. cablecard standards have already solved this problem, and
> enabled 3rd parties. i've been using a tivo HD with premium cable service for many years
> now. it works perfect.
It appears that the order hits something else as well. From the source:
"...order that would promote competition in the marketplace for set-top boxes by
ensuring retail devices such as TiVo have the __same access to prescheduled programming__
as cable providers"
If I recall properly, this has been a problem in many areas; the cable-provider's box gets full, accurate schedules, and the third parties get limited and inaccurate ones. I don't use cable, so comments from others on this would be appreciated.
> I don't see a problem with allowing calculators...disallow them the first few times,
> but generally they solve problems far quicker than a human can.
Have to disagree; calculators and computers don't solve problems; they are tools to allow people to solve problems.
Many kids with calculators don't get that you have to understand what to solve -for- before punching the keys.
Not claiming what they did was right, but:
It's not a $75 fee for putting out a fire. Putting out fires costs a hell of a lot more in terms of costs for equipment, supplies, labor, etc. The $75 fee depends on amortizing the cost over time, and spreading the risk around a large pool of contributors. If they did charge on site, it would have to be a -very- big charge, at least thousands, probably tens of thousands of dollars.
Do you have thousands or tens of thousands to pay on site? I wouldn't; nor would most people in this position.
Others have pointed out the possibility of paying the cost by hitting him with a fine for needing the service and not paying for it previously. But this is a private firefighting company, contracted by South Fulton. They can't levy fines, nor can South Fulton, since the homeowner lives outside the city. The county could, but they didn't set up a fire fighting contract.
This is as much a failure of the homeowner and the county government as the city and the fire department.
And I think it is a failure on the part of the city and the fire department. The city chose to contract out the service, and both the city and the company should have anticipated these situations, and made some sort of arrangement with the county or state government.
"We sells...Insurance, yeah."
"Nice operation yez got here; wouldn't want to see nothing 'happen' to it..."
A nice little extortion, oops, that's "protection" plan the patent office enables.