Organizations have no loyalty to their IT departments. Vendors try to go over, around and through the IT department to show their goodies to the higher ups and throw out the buzzword of the day littering in-flight magazines and through a combination of lies, fear and half-truths try to get management to buy off on the IT trinket of the day. And if the IT department doesn't play along, they have a consulting department full of IT professionals who will be happy to implement it for them. Companies waste a phenomenal amount of time looking at sales presentations and dealing with vendors. It's amazing. Simplify.
The other thing I see is organizations being badgered and raped by a combination of Dell and Microsoft. So much overhead to support their stuff. You can't just run a decent firewall and push out disk images as you need them. There's firewall, anti-virus, backup servers, mail servers, management servers, web servers, database servers and the clients plod along at a level just above a calculator. Most home users have more freedom and functionality that most enterprise desktops I deal with all week. It's insane.
If I'm setting up an office tomorrow, there's not going to be one piece of Microsoft software on that network, anywhere. Not because I don't like them...I don't but that's besides the point...but because their stuff brings insecurity, liability and complexity. All the major software would be web-based or framed, open source databases, outsource email to Google, OpenOffice. All I want is an internet connection, Smoothwall and Ubuntu on slim desktops. No off the shelf software, custom web apps. If I can't build them I'll pay some of you to help out. Macs are welcome, one copy of Windows will be grounds for termination.
My network at home goes for months without any problems. We have more problems in a hour at the customer than I have in a year and they spend all their time working on their computers instead of working.
And dealing with vendors. I need to set up a phone system sales people can't get through. One of you help me with that part.
At some point in every sea change, the big established market makers will make a mistake. That mistake will sometimes allow a new type of business to get a toe-hold. The more the old industries know, the more likely they are to get stuck in their ways.
We're at an interesting point in technology. Interest in non-Windows operating systems is on the rise. Vista happens. Companies want/need an alternative they can get in bulk. People like me...and a lot of you...could easily set up an entire office on Ubuntu, if we could bid the job by the unit we might even be competitive. More people would sell hardware if they could call up and get a room full of blanks and configure a custom OS installation and service local markets.
If HP, Dell or whoever isn't supplying the machines, start a company that only supplies no-OS machines. Microsoft can't whine it encourages piracy after five years of product activation. Publish your hardware specs, coordinate drivers.
Your customers will be geeks, hobbyists and companies where...people like us work. You won't have the AOL crowd trying to buy PC's from you. Give them to Dell and HP and Microsoft. Do you really want to do work for the general public? The best use I've seen for them is Soylent Green. Restore some natural selection in the gene pool.
Work out your configurations with an overseas supplier. Opportunities like this don't come along every day in technology. Take advantage. Start small, don't go into debt. Anyone know Mandrin? Email me, let's try it. WTF?
In August I took a month long vacation to Central America, backpacking from one Mayan ruin to the next, and I never officially took time off.
I want to go along with a camera crew and shoot a documentary about your adventures working on the road. And, just think, I can file the dailies, look at the rough cuts and hack out the promos while we're at the hotel. Try not to hog all the bandwidth.
You're not far off. I'm getting one of those infrared thermometers with the laser sight for each of the entry teams. They're not that accurate over about +500 F, but if it's hotter than that you don't want to touch it anyway.
Besides, lasers in a smoky building are cool looking.:)
Besides the obvious military and athletics applications, the technology is also potentially useful for firefighters, stroke victims, and people with multiple sclerosis.
As a volunteer firefighter I have my doubts. Generally the ability to sense heat is a good thing fighting a fire. I remember the days before nomex hoods were common. Our ears functioned as heat detectors. People would think we were listening at the door but we were actually checking to see if it was hot. Now with nomex hoods you have to take your glove off or pull your jacket sleeve up to figure out if the room is hot or feel a door. I can tell you firefighters hate checking for hot doors with their hands. We have thermal cameras but not enough for every entry team. Besides, that's just one more piece of crap we have to carry. Not to mention we also have to carry it back out, sometimes also toting some fat ass (it's always the fat, ugly ones passing out, never thin, attractive people). We carry enough crap now.
Now wildland firefighters or approach teams, who spend longer amounts of time in hot areas, might find it useful...if they feel like packing it around, but not us truckies. Put the wet stuff on the hot stuff and go home.
Usually Microsoft doesn't develop products, we buy products.
And most times I'm glad for that. Because most of the time the products they buy at least start out good before they trash it with their corporate branding.
SQL Server was one of their better products for a long time. Not so much now but it used to be a reasonably-priced and functional piece of software, at least at the low end of the load scale. Now it's like most of their products: Easy to manage but bloated beyond all recognition.
someone really needs to convince the public to stop being so afraid so that politicians will stop pulling the wool over their eyes and pushing bad legislation through in the name of "protecting the people".
I remember a town hall meeting in days after 9-11, lot of people spoke but two stuck out in my mind. One was a single mother with two kids who got up and started bawling about who was going to protect her. Nauseating enough but she was followed by another man who volunteered to give up his privacy in the name of security and he got a rousing round of applause. I found both of them to be thoroughly disgusting. I despise pussies who let fear push them around and are willing to surrender the core values that made America a great country in exchange for the illusion that we are somehow safer. But we're swimming against the tide. The bulk of our countrymen don't value freedom as much as the illusion of security.
Kinda sad that we just assume letting vendors capture all this info is part of the game
It's a gradual process. Ever been stopped on the way out the door at Costco? You're basically proving to the door lackey that you're not stealing anything. Since when is proving you didn't steal anything between the check stand and the door become part of the game? Because people let them get away with it.
Companies will keep doing whatever until customers push back. MSFT will keep being the invasive, WGA promoting rat bastards they can be until people extend their middle finger toward Redmond and learn a different operating system.
The door lackey at Wal-Mart tried stopping me the other day and I refused to prove I didn't steal anything, especially considering she had just watched me walk away from the check stand. I told her that if she thought I stole something to call the cops and walked out.
the Federal Aviation Administration may ditch Vista and Office in favor of Google's new online business applications running on Linux-based hardware.
The FAA issued a pilot advisory for the Seattle area: Pilots should be aware of the potential to encounter flying chairs any time they are east and slightly south of Seattle center controlled airspace.
Instead of just shouting at the company to sell pre-installed GNU/Linux systems, how about helping them find a way to do it?
I'm not sure that's a good use of our time. Honestly, why do we care if Dell pre-installs Linux? I'd settle for being able to buy hardware configured with the components I want and no operating system. If I'm installing Linux I don't want Dell doing it for me anyway. I want my my distro setup my way.
With all the activation hoops and anal probe WGA, MSFT can no longer use the excuse that shipping bare machines encourages piracy.
It's also possible it doesn't matter at this point. The exodus to Mac and Linux appears to be well underway without Dell's support. Businesses and schools are leading the way by experimenting with Linux to extend the life of older machines instead of incurring the expense to run Vista. That trend may be all it takes to force Dell to accommodate them when they're ready to upgrade their hardware.
It's sort of like when a friend or relative introduces you to their new baby and you wonder how they managed to get that giant head on that thing, only you can't really say that without hurting their feelings because everyone thinks their baby is the most beautiful one ever. In reality it's just a baby and some of them are not all that attractive, especially to people who don't have or want kids. Which the preface to my comment about that laptop: I'm sorry, but that's just one butt ugly computer.
You can pick out almost any organization the size of Wikipedia and I bet I can find at least one person fudging their resume, or completely faking it and probably more than one if your company has more than 50 people. All that kid would have needed was to be a few years older and he could have diploma-milled his credentials. Not much different.
Want to go through the faculty of any small or medium size community college and see how many diploma mill teachers they have on staff? Or how many people took graduate classes but never actually completed that degree they're claiming.
Buying credentials is easy, the good ones will even verify them for employment checks. Sure, sooner or later the diploma mill will be found out, but who goes back to validate credentials periodically? A few companies but not very many.
This would be shaky legal ground for the developer if he damaged someone's computer. The courts tend to take a dim view of deliberate sabotage, regardless of the perceived merits.
There's a reason even the asshats at RIAA haven't gone this far.
Welcome to the software business. If you can't deal with the realities get into another line of work.
It was a huge mistake trying to tarnish the open source community by financing the SCO fiasco. All that did is get them angry and organized. Now they know how to respond to vague IP threats. If there was anything remotely indecent about the code in Linux, it would have already turned up. Instead SCO provides a Linux code proof set, public record to back it up and a convenient online repository for all the case documentation.
If this is Microsoft threatening Linux, then they're doing it will all the skill and clarity they demonstrated developing Zune.
Maybe if you'd shut up and build an operating system worth a crap and stop treating your customers like criminals, Linux wouldn't be nearly so much competition. But that's too much like real work. Isn't that right, fat boy?
I would just like to say thank you to all the volunteers and paid staffers working on FireFox. It's a marvelously useful piece of software and whether you're a core developer or volunteer helping with documentation, I sincerely appreciate FireFox and the universe of helpful plugins available for it.
You've all done a fantastic job and don't get nearly enough credit for how great it really is.
While the idea is plausible and scary, where's the proof?
I'd like to know that, too. Name some of these companies. Because I work with a lot of big end users, most of them running Linux in some fashion, and they all seem to enjoy telling the MSFT rep they lost those sales. I've been in the meetings, MSFT has questioned Linux IP but not in any specific fashion. When I asked them point blank if that was a threat they backed right off it.
You'd think if MSFT was really trying to muscle companies someone would be talking. Anyone have a copy of the letter? I'd be posting mine on Groklaw, then turn the stories in for here and Digg. I'd be amazed if MSFT could keep anything this big a secret as disorganized as they are.
Or maybe a couple wise guys show up at the office and say if they don't pay bad "tings" might happen?
I think Microsoft got the former CIO of Wal-Mart and that relationship appears to be influencing Wal-Mart's choice of technology. Only a massive blast of the Ballmer arrogance death ray could convince Wal-Mart to karate CHOP 35% of their potential customers.
Slashdot Mirror
Organizations have no loyalty to their IT departments. Vendors try to go over, around and through the IT department to show their goodies to the higher ups and throw out the buzzword of the day littering in-flight magazines and through a combination of lies, fear and half-truths try to get management to buy off on the IT trinket of the day. And if the IT department doesn't play along, they have a consulting department full of IT professionals who will be happy to implement it for them. Companies waste a phenomenal amount of time looking at sales presentations and dealing with vendors. It's amazing. Simplify.
The other thing I see is organizations being badgered and raped by a combination of Dell and Microsoft. So much overhead to support their stuff. You can't just run a decent firewall and push out disk images as you need them. There's firewall, anti-virus, backup servers, mail servers, management servers, web servers, database servers and the clients plod along at a level just above a calculator. Most home users have more freedom and functionality that most enterprise desktops I deal with all week. It's insane.
If I'm setting up an office tomorrow, there's not going to be one piece of Microsoft software on that network, anywhere. Not because I don't like them...I don't but that's besides the point...but because their stuff brings insecurity, liability and complexity. All the major software would be web-based or framed, open source databases, outsource email to Google, OpenOffice. All I want is an internet connection, Smoothwall and Ubuntu on slim desktops. No off the shelf software, custom web apps. If I can't build them I'll pay some of you to help out. Macs are welcome, one copy of Windows will be grounds for termination.
My network at home goes for months without any problems. We have more problems in a hour at the customer than I have in a year and they spend all their time working on their computers instead of working.
And dealing with vendors. I need to set up a phone system sales people can't get through. One of you help me with that part.
At some point in every sea change, the big established market makers will make a mistake. That mistake will sometimes allow a new type of business to get a toe-hold. The more the old industries know, the more likely they are to get stuck in their ways.
We're at an interesting point in technology. Interest in non-Windows operating systems is on the rise. Vista happens. Companies want/need an alternative they can get in bulk. People like me...and a lot of you...could easily set up an entire office on Ubuntu, if we could bid the job by the unit we might even be competitive. More people would sell hardware if they could call up and get a room full of blanks and configure a custom OS installation and service local markets.
If HP, Dell or whoever isn't supplying the machines, start a company that only supplies no-OS machines. Microsoft can't whine it encourages piracy after five years of product activation. Publish your hardware specs, coordinate drivers.
Your customers will be geeks, hobbyists and companies where...people like us work. You won't have the AOL crowd trying to buy PC's from you. Give them to Dell and HP and Microsoft. Do you really want to do work for the general public? The best use I've seen for them is Soylent Green. Restore some natural selection in the gene pool.
Work out your configurations with an overseas supplier. Opportunities like this don't come along every day in technology. Take advantage. Start small, don't go into debt. Anyone know Mandrin? Email me, let's try it. WTF?
In August I took a month long vacation to Central America, backpacking from one Mayan ruin to the next, and I never officially took time off.
I want to go along with a camera crew and shoot a documentary about your adventures working on the road. And, just think, I can file the dailies, look at the rough cuts and hack out the promos while we're at the hotel. Try not to hog all the bandwidth.
You're not far off. I'm getting one of those infrared thermometers with the laser sight for each of the entry teams. They're not that accurate over about +500 F, but if it's hotter than that you don't want to touch it anyway.
Besides, lasers in a smoky building are cool looking. :)
Besides the obvious military and athletics applications, the technology is also potentially useful for firefighters, stroke victims, and people with multiple sclerosis.
As a volunteer firefighter I have my doubts. Generally the ability to sense heat is a good thing fighting a fire. I remember the days before nomex hoods were common. Our ears functioned as heat detectors. People would think we were listening at the door but we were actually checking to see if it was hot. Now with nomex hoods you have to take your glove off or pull your jacket sleeve up to figure out if the room is hot or feel a door. I can tell you firefighters hate checking for hot doors with their hands. We have thermal cameras but not enough for every entry team. Besides, that's just one more piece of crap we have to carry. Not to mention we also have to carry it back out, sometimes also toting some fat ass (it's always the fat, ugly ones passing out, never thin, attractive people). We carry enough crap now.
Now wildland firefighters or approach teams, who spend longer amounts of time in hot areas, might find it useful...if they feel like packing it around, but not us truckies. Put the wet stuff on the hot stuff and go home.
Usually Microsoft doesn't develop products, we buy products.
And most times I'm glad for that. Because most of the time the products they buy at least start out good before they trash it with their corporate branding.
SQL Server was one of their better products for a long time. Not so much now but it used to be a reasonably-priced and functional piece of software, at least at the low end of the load scale. Now it's like most of their products: Easy to manage but bloated beyond all recognition.
a new sensor to check for life on Mars.
It's a giant silver robot and you stop it from vaporizing all life on Mars by saying Klaatu, barada, nickto.
Who said searching for extraterrestrial life was complicated?
Open source germs! Open source germs on you! You've got open source kooties!
Enderle doesn't deserve the attention he gets. He's a failed consultant who took SCO's side and is bitter about his self-inflicted hardship at IBM.
Anyone who listens to his IT advice deserves what they get.
someone really needs to convince the public to stop being so afraid so that politicians will stop pulling the wool over their eyes and pushing bad legislation through in the name of "protecting the people".
I remember a town hall meeting in days after 9-11, lot of people spoke but two stuck out in my mind. One was a single mother with two kids who got up and started bawling about who was going to protect her. Nauseating enough but she was followed by another man who volunteered to give up his privacy in the name of security and he got a rousing round of applause. I found both of them to be thoroughly disgusting. I despise pussies who let fear push them around and are willing to surrender the core values that made America a great country in exchange for the illusion that we are somehow safer. But we're swimming against the tide. The bulk of our countrymen don't value freedom as much as the illusion of security.
Kinda sad that we just assume letting vendors capture all this info is part of the game
It's a gradual process. Ever been stopped on the way out the door at Costco? You're basically proving to the door lackey that you're not stealing anything. Since when is proving you didn't steal anything between the check stand and the door become part of the game? Because people let them get away with it.
Companies will keep doing whatever until customers push back. MSFT will keep being the invasive, WGA promoting rat bastards they can be until people extend their middle finger toward Redmond and learn a different operating system.
The door lackey at Wal-Mart tried stopping me the other day and I refused to prove I didn't steal anything, especially considering she had just watched me walk away from the check stand. I told her that if she thought I stole something to call the cops and walked out.
the Federal Aviation Administration may ditch Vista and Office in favor of Google's new online business applications running on Linux-based hardware.
The FAA issued a pilot advisory for the Seattle area: Pilots should be aware of the potential to encounter flying chairs any time they are east and slightly south of Seattle center controlled airspace.
Instead of just shouting at the company to sell pre-installed GNU/Linux systems, how about helping them find a way to do it?
I'm not sure that's a good use of our time. Honestly, why do we care if Dell pre-installs Linux? I'd settle for being able to buy hardware configured with the components I want and no operating system. If I'm installing Linux I don't want Dell doing it for me anyway. I want my my distro setup my way.
With all the activation hoops and anal probe WGA, MSFT can no longer use the excuse that shipping bare machines encourages piracy.
It's also possible it doesn't matter at this point. The exodus to Mac and Linux appears to be well underway without Dell's support. Businesses and schools are leading the way by experimenting with Linux to extend the life of older machines instead of incurring the expense to run Vista. That trend may be all it takes to force Dell to accommodate them when they're ready to upgrade their hardware.
It's sort of like when a friend or relative introduces you to their new baby and you wonder how they managed to get that giant head on that thing, only you can't really say that without hurting their feelings because everyone thinks their baby is the most beautiful one ever. In reality it's just a baby and some of them are not all that attractive, especially to people who don't have or want kids. Which the preface to my comment about that laptop: I'm sorry, but that's just one butt ugly computer.
It was like the sound of thousands of MSFT reps all calling their elected representatives at once.
You can pick out almost any organization the size of Wikipedia and I bet I can find at least one person fudging their resume, or completely faking it and probably more than one if your company has more than 50 people. All that kid would have needed was to be a few years older and he could have diploma-milled his credentials. Not much different.
Want to go through the faculty of any small or medium size community college and see how many diploma mill teachers they have on staff? Or how many people took graduate classes but never actually completed that degree they're claiming.
Buying credentials is easy, the good ones will even verify them for employment checks. Sure, sooner or later the diploma mill will be found out, but who goes back to validate credentials periodically? A few companies but not very many.
This would be shaky legal ground for the developer if he damaged someone's computer. The courts tend to take a dim view of deliberate sabotage, regardless of the perceived merits.
There's a reason even the asshats at RIAA haven't gone this far.
Welcome to the software business. If you can't deal with the realities get into another line of work.
When it involves Microsoft it should be called "pay and pay and pay as you go."
Please make a note.
Bring it, Monkey Boy.
It was a huge mistake trying to tarnish the open source community by financing the SCO fiasco. All that did is get them angry and organized. Now they know how to respond to vague IP threats. If there was anything remotely indecent about the code in Linux, it would have already turned up. Instead SCO provides a Linux code proof set, public record to back it up and a convenient online repository for all the case documentation.
If this is Microsoft threatening Linux, then they're doing it will all the skill and clarity they demonstrated developing Zune.
Maybe if you'd shut up and build an operating system worth a crap and stop treating your customers like criminals, Linux wouldn't be nearly so much competition. But that's too much like real work. Isn't that right, fat boy?
U.S. copyright lobby is increasingly out of touch with the rest of the world. This just in from the Well Duh department.
I would just like to say thank you to all the volunteers and paid staffers working on FireFox. It's a marvelously useful piece of software and whether you're a core developer or volunteer helping with documentation, I sincerely appreciate FireFox and the universe of helpful plugins available for it.
You've all done a fantastic job and don't get nearly enough credit for how great it really is.
I mean, since the info is true, does it legally have any bearing if PJ is one of IBM's lawyers, a real person, or the Easter Bunny?
It matters.
Sue customers
Blame ISP's for suing wrong customer and try to make them do your job
?????
PROFIT!!!!
While the idea is plausible and scary, where's the proof?
I'd like to know that, too. Name some of these companies. Because I work with a lot of big end users, most of them running Linux in some fashion, and they all seem to enjoy telling the MSFT rep they lost those sales. I've been in the meetings, MSFT has questioned Linux IP but not in any specific fashion. When I asked them point blank if that was a threat they backed right off it.
You'd think if MSFT was really trying to muscle companies someone would be talking. Anyone have a copy of the letter? I'd be posting mine on Groklaw, then turn the stories in for here and Digg. I'd be amazed if MSFT could keep anything this big a secret as disorganized as they are.
Or maybe a couple wise guys show up at the office and say if they don't pay bad "tings" might happen?
Let's see some proof or this is FUD.
Looks like Wall Mart got the Microsoft Kool-Aid.
I think Microsoft got the former CIO of Wal-Mart and that relationship appears to be influencing Wal-Mart's choice of technology. Only a massive blast of the Ballmer arrogance death ray could convince Wal-Mart to karate CHOP 35% of their potential customers.