Even if you had a chute big enough, most airline accidents occur at take off and landing, altitudes well below where a parachute recovery system would be effective.
Remember the old Road Runner cartoons? Whenever the coyote would try a parachute he'd turn into a lawn dart, then the parachute would pop out of the smoking hole in the ground?
Or is this just another attempt to grab server market share from Apache and the Linux community?
This is MS trying to show everyone they can play in the "cloud" with the cool kids. It's the Zune for SAS.
Back in the day MS came out with Explorer and hosed Netscape. Seems like ever since they wait for the trend to establish itself and then come in with a competing product trying to recreate that market capture moment from years ago. Only they show up late with products that are usually tied to their OS platform and maybe a little dorky.
Microsoft trying to be hip and trendy sometimes reminds me of a middle-aged guy hitting on his daughters college-age friends.
And a glint in the sky to the northwest as the Ballmer shagadellic jet wings its way south, a fresh load of office chairs fixed to the hard points and Ride of the Valkyries blasting out of the built-in Big Zune sound system.
...are you seeing the sorts of 'crashing down to Earth' expectations of college grads described here?
I see a little of that 20-something narcissism here and there, but it's not universal. What I see more of is what I would call intellectual stubbornness. Every so often I'll interview someone I think has potential and, even if they don't get hired for that job, I'll keep them on a short list for future openings. Along with that give them some suggestions for areas of focus that would give them an edge on the next interview. Do this, this and this and the next time we have an opening I don't have to advertise it, just hire out of the pool. Saves me sorting through the resume slush pile.
At first I was subtle about the suggestions, but very few would pick up on them. Even when I would contact them quarterly to see how they were doing, trying to show them they really were on the short list. I finally had to quit being subtle and just give them the right answers. But even when I did that, it's amazing how few would give me that answer back. One I suggested they get familiar with a non-MSFT development framework. Any one. Zend, Cake, Rails...anything. They didn't have to develop an app, just learn about one. An hour of reading. And the next time we talked they were in another.NET class. Then acted surprised when they didn't get that job, either. ????
That I do see that a lot in young people. They're convinced they have the right answers and won't budge or take a suggestion. There's no curiosity or willingness to explore. they seem really regimented in their thinking. Something I found profoundly saddening personally and, as hiring authority, really freaking annoying.
Using public money borrowed against future generations, to build an unnecessary private bridge for one of the most profitable companies in America.
I can take you for a drive not far from here and show you roads, bridges, exits and overpasses built for several profitable multi-national companies. In fact, many times those highly profitable companies demanded those amenities in exchange for locating facilities in those areas. In exchange for their mere presence they not only forced states to borrow against future generations, but they got tax breaks which will also fall on future generations. I know at least some of the funds used in construction were state highway funds, some of which come from the federal government.
So in spite of all that we're going to level snippy sarcasm at Microsoft because they're footing half the bill for a road project that benefits the entire community. At least they're not asking for a new railroad spur, or ship canal. Come on, now. A little perspective on this one. It's not like Bill Gates is asking the nation to foot the bill for his private runway, or a special exit off the highway for his house.
The City of Redmond thinks the project has value as well for traffic in other parts of the city. MS is picking up half the cost because they're the main beneficiary.
I'm the first one to scalp MS or jump on wasteful spending, but this doesn't seem that bad. It'll provide a lot of construction jobs, ease traffic on other roads in Redmond. I supposed you could argue there are other bridge and road projects in Washington that need the money worse. But as long as it's a public roadway and not some kind of gated private road...to me this doesn't seem to be in the same class as the Bridge to Nowhere.
These kinds of efforts always start out with the best intentions. Then the company gets sold or new management comes on board, money gets tight and it's not long before they're taking another look at monetizing their patent portfolio.
If RedHat was really serious about the patents being defensive, wouldn't it make sense for them to donate them to an open source patent pool?
Does it bother anyone this is the same type of gadget analysis that got us into the current economic situation? Your most valuable employees aren't always the most communicative.
We have one developer who shuns any type of contact, doesn't have a phone on his desk, rarely sends an email longer than two sentences. Yet he's the most heads-down, dogged and prolific programmer I've ever worked with. I suppose the gadget developers would argue that would be accounted by how often his code fragments turn up in other projects but how do you really account for the source of a code fragment? Especially one that is later modified for other uses?
I can see a lot of bad conclusions coming from this kind of analysis. Where the most outgoing employees are valued over those actually meeting deadlines. So you end up with a company full of a lot of talkers and lay off all the actual doers. Which, come to think of it, is pretty much how we got in the economic mess we're in.
Because it's not like we have enough people in prison now.
Our corporate run detention facilities will start losing money is we don't find new reasons to fill them up with relatively minor offenses.
Half of people in prison are there for violent offenses. That half stays. The other half we need to take a good hard look at just why we're so gung ho remove people from their ability to make a living and pay to warehouse them.
Well, if he's trying to review from a 'clueless user' perspective, he's certainly on track.
Come on now, give him a little bit of credit. He learned a lot from one article to the next, and he gave it another shot. That's pretty open minded. Though it's painful to watch someone limited to the GUI.
What really hurts to watch are Windows admins trying to implement Linux desktops. They keep trying to force Linux into what they know and that will never work right.
I had to work on a Vista laptop today...now that was painful. I asked the user if it was always that slow. They confirmed that was the case. Once you get used to Linux, going back to Windows is like running in sand.
OO.o is just fine for home users that are only writing letters and occasionally making a little speadsheet. But for business?
We use OO.o at our office and work gets done just fine. Though I would be interested in seeing specific examples of things you can do in Office that you just can't in OO.o. And have a reasoned discussion about whether...whatever that is...justifies the cost.
My opinion, after implementing OO.o in a busy office, is that most users just aren't used to the differences. Once they adjust they find there are ways to do most anything they routinely need with OpenOffice. No one is not getting their work done and blaming Calc.
Every year, I help set up a terminal server with 20-30 thin-client terminals running Ubuntu at a local open source convention.
I'd love to know how you set that up. Is that outlined anywhere on your blog? Is there a source article you used for developing that type of system? The last time I went looking for thin client configs the docs were kind of old and it was still a complicated process.
Don't want to get off on a rabbit trail here, but that would be an interesting read.
Knowing what policies they're talking about might be helpful because I had the same question. What policies would require root level access? White list the proxy. Backups, share drives, printing...we have all those services on our Linux desktops. We can remote in and install any software they need...??? What policies can't be handled by a user account?
Maybe I've been away from Windows networking too long, but I can't think of why you'd need to do this.
Lawsuit by proxy...again. Apparently Microsoft didn't learn anything from that little SCO fiasco.
Hopefully Software Tree has smarter management than Darl all-your-open-source-be-belonging-to-us McBride. But they're in bed with MS, that's a strike against them right off.
I think I'm with a lot of you here in suggesting you don't sell your software product in Texas. If they're going to play host to abusive patent litigation, let them write their own software.
Politely or by Cease & Desist, depending on your relationship.
Do you have ANY idea how difficult that is? Or how much it costs? Just the research alone can take hours. Sending them a C&D is fairly easy, you can do that yourself, if you can find an address to send it. Otherwise you're going to have to get their name, a trick all by itself, and use that to get an address. That might mean hiring an investigator...$50-$60/hour these days. But following up with legal action to get it enforced would cost thousands. How many unemployed people do you think can afford that? Unless you're going to do it all yourself. And, let's suppose you blunder through the morass of the legal system and manage to get a judgment, then all you have to do is figure out how to have it properly served and enforced. By the time you get done with all that, you could almost go to law school.
That's answer is right up there with the pompous douchebags who say, "If you don't like the law get it changed." Thoughtless twits.
Just issue an email with an apology and a rebate and don't make the mistake of changing the expected quality of a service unexpectedly, especially for the same price.
That is what they should have done when it first became apparent they were getting a lot of complaints. NF, like a lot of companies, got burned by getting in bed with Microsoft and hanging their reputation on their products. That's not a new experience. But NF did stumble with their implementation and tone deaf response to the complaints that started rolling in. It's apparent they didn't have a fall back plan. The situation would also seem to suggest they didn't test the transition adequately.
Inadequate testing and no fall back plan. That's pretty much a lawn dart trajectory for an IT project.
If I'm looking at fairly equally qualified candidates and one of them spent their off time contributing to an open source project, I would tend to see that as a very big point in their favor. To me that says they really enjoy what they do and have concerns that go beyond the bottom line. And that they care enough about their skills to keep them sharp while they were off.
Community service always looks good, even if that community is virtual. And that can make those of you coming out of college stand out from your peers. An open source project can give you very marketable experience.
Otherwise they are opening themselves up to all kinds of legal trouble.
They're right, it's a hollow threat. And a really strange reaction. Document the discussions. Names, dates. places. I use Tiddlywiki for that kind of thing. It date stamps everything and displays it all in a nice time line. Keep copies of your performance evals. There's no win in this for them.
If you don't want to raise this issue to HR now, then you'll be left contesting any negative reviews are after you leave. I'd document it to HR now, but you're closer to the situation. I went through a very similar situation at one job a while ago. Documentation is your friend.
My opinion is they're bluffing. And one that's both petty and stupid. No backup plan for losing a key developer? If that represents the caliber of your IT management, I should send them a card.
Rough water stabilized, diesel electric propulsion and radar stealthy. Me likely. I want to live on it. Too bad it would probably cost a fortune to move and retrofit. The ultimate party boat, though it would be a little tough to fish off the back.
And you could always fit it with missiles and have endless fun making the great navies of the world think they were shooting at one another.
If FOSS is A: better than the alternative and B: less expensive than the alternative then why would it need taxpayer handouts?
That's the line Microsoft trots out anytime there's a hearing about giving preference to FOSS software. MS says there doesn't need to be any preference. You made a good point about FOSS lobbyists, I'd add that FOSS doesn't have marketing budget, either. No reps wining and dining the execs, calling state legislators and reminding them how much money they're getting from proprietary software, no rides with Ballmer in the private jet.
It may take a mandate or at least a preference to get FOSS in the door. If it's a preference, then I can see legions of MS reps sending out boilerplate justification packages complete with TCO and ROI documentation that MS paid for.
So, yeah, it may take some government money and a preference to FOSS to break that marketing barrier. Hey, this is our money they're spending.
Originally what got me building my own PC's was all the crapware that came with an OEM installation. Unreal. So now it looks like they're pushing the crapware model on to the web browser.
But it's more secure crapware this time. Wooo-hooo.
You could always go with the old stand by: A ballistic catapult launching steel balls. My twist on that idea was demanding the neighboring tables in lab heave to or be boarded. Arrrrrrr! Send over your wenches, ya scurvy dogs! Arrrrr!
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Even if you had a chute big enough, most airline accidents occur at take off and landing, altitudes well below where a parachute recovery system would be effective.
Remember the old Road Runner cartoons? Whenever the coyote would try a parachute he'd turn into a lawn dart, then the parachute would pop out of the smoking hole in the ground?
Kinda like that.
Or is this just another attempt to grab server market share from Apache and the Linux community?
This is MS trying to show everyone they can play in the "cloud" with the cool kids. It's the Zune for SAS.
Back in the day MS came out with Explorer and hosed Netscape. Seems like ever since they wait for the trend to establish itself and then come in with a competing product trying to recreate that market capture moment from years ago. Only they show up late with products that are usually tied to their OS platform and maybe a little dorky.
Microsoft trying to be hip and trendy sometimes reminds me of a middle-aged guy hitting on his daughters college-age friends.
And a glint in the sky to the northwest as the Ballmer shagadellic jet wings its way south, a fresh load of office chairs fixed to the hard points and Ride of the Valkyries blasting out of the built-in Big Zune sound system.
Firefox raised the bar with addons. I couldn't imagine browsing without NoScript, FlashBlock and my bookmark organizers.
A slight and likely temporary edge on rendering speed is a long way from putting IE back on top in my book.
Besides, I think Chrome is going to lap the whole field before long.
I see a little of that 20-something narcissism here and there, but it's not universal. What I see more of is what I would call intellectual stubbornness. Every so often I'll interview someone I think has potential and, even if they don't get hired for that job, I'll keep them on a short list for future openings. Along with that give them some suggestions for areas of focus that would give them an edge on the next interview. Do this, this and this and the next time we have an opening I don't have to advertise it, just hire out of the pool. Saves me sorting through the resume slush pile.
At first I was subtle about the suggestions, but very few would pick up on them. Even when I would contact them quarterly to see how they were doing, trying to show them they really were on the short list. I finally had to quit being subtle and just give them the right answers. But even when I did that, it's amazing how few would give me that answer back. One I suggested they get familiar with a non-MSFT development framework. Any one. Zend, Cake, Rails...anything. They didn't have to develop an app, just learn about one. An hour of reading. And the next time we talked they were in another .NET class. Then acted surprised when they didn't get that job, either. ????
That I do see that a lot in young people. They're convinced they have the right answers and won't budge or take a suggestion. There's no curiosity or willingness to explore. they seem really regimented in their thinking. Something I found profoundly saddening personally and, as hiring authority, really freaking annoying.
Using public money borrowed against future generations, to build an unnecessary private bridge for one of the most profitable companies in America.
I can take you for a drive not far from here and show you roads, bridges, exits and overpasses built for several profitable multi-national companies. In fact, many times those highly profitable companies demanded those amenities in exchange for locating facilities in those areas. In exchange for their mere presence they not only forced states to borrow against future generations, but they got tax breaks which will also fall on future generations. I know at least some of the funds used in construction were state highway funds, some of which come from the federal government.
So in spite of all that we're going to level snippy sarcasm at Microsoft because they're footing half the bill for a road project that benefits the entire community. At least they're not asking for a new railroad spur, or ship canal. Come on, now. A little perspective on this one. It's not like Bill Gates is asking the nation to foot the bill for his private runway, or a special exit off the highway for his house.
The City of Redmond thinks the project has value as well for traffic in other parts of the city. MS is picking up half the cost because they're the main beneficiary.
I'm the first one to scalp MS or jump on wasteful spending, but this doesn't seem that bad. It'll provide a lot of construction jobs, ease traffic on other roads in Redmond. I supposed you could argue there are other bridge and road projects in Washington that need the money worse. But as long as it's a public roadway and not some kind of gated private road...to me this doesn't seem to be in the same class as the Bridge to Nowhere.
These kinds of efforts always start out with the best intentions. Then the company gets sold or new management comes on board, money gets tight and it's not long before they're taking another look at monetizing their patent portfolio.
If RedHat was really serious about the patents being defensive, wouldn't it make sense for them to donate them to an open source patent pool?
Does it bother anyone this is the same type of gadget analysis that got us into the current economic situation? Your most valuable employees aren't always the most communicative.
We have one developer who shuns any type of contact, doesn't have a phone on his desk, rarely sends an email longer than two sentences. Yet he's the most heads-down, dogged and prolific programmer I've ever worked with. I suppose the gadget developers would argue that would be accounted by how often his code fragments turn up in other projects but how do you really account for the source of a code fragment? Especially one that is later modified for other uses?
I can see a lot of bad conclusions coming from this kind of analysis. Where the most outgoing employees are valued over those actually meeting deadlines. So you end up with a company full of a lot of talkers and lay off all the actual doers. Which, come to think of it, is pretty much how we got in the economic mess we're in.
Because it's not like we have enough people in prison now.
Our corporate run detention facilities will start losing money is we don't find new reasons to fill them up with relatively minor offenses.
Half of people in prison are there for violent offenses. That half stays. The other half we need to take a good hard look at just why we're so gung ho remove people from their ability to make a living and pay to warehouse them.
Well, if he's trying to review from a 'clueless user' perspective, he's certainly on track.
Come on now, give him a little bit of credit. He learned a lot from one article to the next, and he gave it another shot. That's pretty open minded. Though it's painful to watch someone limited to the GUI.
What really hurts to watch are Windows admins trying to implement Linux desktops. They keep trying to force Linux into what they know and that will never work right.
I had to work on a Vista laptop today...now that was painful. I asked the user if it was always that slow. They confirmed that was the case. Once you get used to Linux, going back to Windows is like running in sand.
OO.o is just fine for home users that are only writing letters and occasionally making a little speadsheet. But for business?
We use OO.o at our office and work gets done just fine. Though I would be interested in seeing specific examples of things you can do in Office that you just can't in OO.o. And have a reasoned discussion about whether...whatever that is...justifies the cost.
My opinion, after implementing OO.o in a busy office, is that most users just aren't used to the differences. Once they adjust they find there are ways to do most anything they routinely need with OpenOffice. No one is not getting their work done and blaming Calc.
Every year, I help set up a terminal server with 20-30 thin-client terminals running Ubuntu at a local open source convention.
I'd love to know how you set that up. Is that outlined anywhere on your blog? Is there a source article you used for developing that type of system? The last time I went looking for thin client configs the docs were kind of old and it was still a complicated process.
Don't want to get off on a rabbit trail here, but that would be an interesting read.
Want to lock stuff down? Don't give users root.
Knowing what policies they're talking about might be helpful because I had the same question. What policies would require root level access? White list the proxy. Backups, share drives, printing...we have all those services on our Linux desktops. We can remote in and install any software they need...??? What policies can't be handled by a user account?
Maybe I've been away from Windows networking too long, but I can't think of why you'd need to do this.
Software Tree's partners include Microsoft
Lawsuit by proxy...again. Apparently Microsoft didn't learn anything from that little SCO fiasco.
Hopefully Software Tree has smarter management than Darl all-your-open-source-be-belonging-to-us McBride. But they're in bed with MS, that's a strike against them right off.
I think I'm with a lot of you here in suggesting you don't sell your software product in Texas. If they're going to play host to abusive patent litigation, let them write their own software.
Politely or by Cease & Desist, depending on your relationship.
Do you have ANY idea how difficult that is? Or how much it costs? Just the research alone can take hours. Sending them a C&D is fairly easy, you can do that yourself, if you can find an address to send it. Otherwise you're going to have to get their name, a trick all by itself, and use that to get an address. That might mean hiring an investigator...$50-$60/hour these days. But following up with legal action to get it enforced would cost thousands. How many unemployed people do you think can afford that? Unless you're going to do it all yourself. And, let's suppose you blunder through the morass of the legal system and manage to get a judgment, then all you have to do is figure out how to have it properly served and enforced. By the time you get done with all that, you could almost go to law school.
That's answer is right up there with the pompous douchebags who say, "If you don't like the law get it changed." Thoughtless twits.
The American dream used to be a house in the country. Now it's a house in another country.
Just issue an email with an apology and a rebate and don't make the mistake of changing the expected quality of a service unexpectedly, especially for the same price.
That is what they should have done when it first became apparent they were getting a lot of complaints. NF, like a lot of companies, got burned by getting in bed with Microsoft and hanging their reputation on their products. That's not a new experience. But NF did stumble with their implementation and tone deaf response to the complaints that started rolling in. It's apparent they didn't have a fall back plan. The situation would also seem to suggest they didn't test the transition adequately.
Inadequate testing and no fall back plan. That's pretty much a lawn dart trajectory for an IT project.
If I'm looking at fairly equally qualified candidates and one of them spent their off time contributing to an open source project, I would tend to see that as a very big point in their favor. To me that says they really enjoy what they do and have concerns that go beyond the bottom line. And that they care enough about their skills to keep them sharp while they were off.
Community service always looks good, even if that community is virtual. And that can make those of you coming out of college stand out from your peers. An open source project can give you very marketable experience.
They're on the way, probably.
Probably. Because when you can't produce value, then you're down to monetizing your patent portfolio.
Bring it, Monkeyzilla!
Otherwise they are opening themselves up to all kinds of legal trouble.
They're right, it's a hollow threat. And a really strange reaction. Document the discussions. Names, dates. places. I use Tiddlywiki for that kind of thing. It date stamps everything and displays it all in a nice time line. Keep copies of your performance evals. There's no win in this for them.
If you don't want to raise this issue to HR now, then you'll be left contesting any negative reviews are after you leave. I'd document it to HR now, but you're closer to the situation. I went through a very similar situation at one job a while ago. Documentation is your friend.
My opinion is they're bluffing. And one that's both petty and stupid. No backup plan for losing a key developer? If that represents the caliber of your IT management, I should send them a card.
Rough water stabilized, diesel electric propulsion and radar stealthy. Me likely. I want to live on it. Too bad it would probably cost a fortune to move and retrofit. The ultimate party boat, though it would be a little tough to fish off the back.
And you could always fit it with missiles and have endless fun making the great navies of the world think they were shooting at one another.
If FOSS is A: better than the alternative and B: less expensive than the alternative then why would it need taxpayer handouts?
That's the line Microsoft trots out anytime there's a hearing about giving preference to FOSS software. MS says there doesn't need to be any preference. You made a good point about FOSS lobbyists, I'd add that FOSS doesn't have marketing budget, either. No reps wining and dining the execs, calling state legislators and reminding them how much money they're getting from proprietary software, no rides with Ballmer in the private jet.
It may take a mandate or at least a preference to get FOSS in the door. If it's a preference, then I can see legions of MS reps sending out boilerplate justification packages complete with TCO and ROI documentation that MS paid for.
So, yeah, it may take some government money and a preference to FOSS to break that marketing barrier. Hey, this is our money they're spending.
Originally what got me building my own PC's was all the crapware that came with an OEM installation. Unreal. So now it looks like they're pushing the crapware model on to the web browser.
But it's more secure crapware this time. Wooo-hooo.
You could always go with the old stand by: A ballistic catapult launching steel balls. My twist on that idea was demanding the neighboring tables in lab heave to or be boarded. Arrrrrrr! Send over your wenches, ya scurvy dogs! Arrrrr!
College was so much fun.