This exactly the attitude Schneier was decrying. People's VCR's didn't used to flash 12:00 because the people were dumb, but because the VCR interfaces were terrible. We pay for our systems with nearly unlimited flexibility by having a nearly unlimited number of attack vectors. For most users, business or personal, the appliance in a walled garden model actually makes a lot more sense. But IT guys for some reason seem to constantly lead the charge against that, then get annoyed when users use their machines the way the machines are designed and configured to be used.
Maybe. But in my experience, it's mostly a communications/expectations issue. If a business unit wants a service, and goes to IT to get it, IT should ask for (and get) solid requirements, and then give a timeline and expectations. In practice, the business units often get annoyed when IT cannot read their mind on requirements, and constantly demand shorter timelines and higher service levels. This is particularly true when there is no internal charge model, so IT is "free" to the business users. The practical upshot is that neither side talks the other's language, and neither is willing to work within the real-world constraints of the other.
The best model I've seen is similar to the military model. A department head would have an HR directory, an IT director and a finance director reporting to him (and depending on the organization, perhaps legal or other "shared services"). The HR, IT and finance departments would be responsible for policy, and for training the various directors that are sent out to report to different department heads. (And possibly managers at a lower level.) The department head gets to tell them what to do but not how. The IT and other support departments get to say how things get done but not what. This organization is rare, but effective.
Actually, you've got that backwards. Apple's goal is to be as profitable as possible (which is why they earn the majority of the mobile profits despite not having the largest market share, and do something similar with desktops and laptops). The means Apple uses to differentiate its products (and thus to get their higher profit margins) is doing a few features really, really well.
Of course not, but tyranny is tyranny, and tyrants act like tyrants. When you give them control, they grab for more. Europe and the US are both heading down this slope, which will have a bad end if not reversed.
Well, given that we (in the US) currently have a government that thinks "Atlas Shrugged" is a great story about how to run a railroad, I suppose it will be a while before stuff like this gets sorted out. And it probably won't be pleasant.
Glenn Reynolds constantly says that he'll start believing that there is a crisis when the people who keep saying there's a crisis start acting like there's a crisis. For example, if environmental activists fly in private jets to conferences around the world to discuss how people use too much energy: no energy crisis.
If only there were some branch of knowledge that dealt with the allocation of finite resources. We could call it "economics," and it would give us all kinds of insights about how people choose things, and what happens when they do. In fact, it would also tell us why it's utterly idiotic to do things like raising gas taxes to prevent gas from being more expensive later — ok, that was a gimme on its face — or arguing that growing populations mean we'll all be starving soon. If only we could find someone to think up something like that, it would be really useful.
So I suppose he can be forgiven as a matter of self-interest for omitting Rathergate, CNN's deliberate reporting of Saddam's propaganda in order to retain access, NBC rigging pickups to explode to get an "exposé" and the like. Or maybe not, since they directly implicate the real responsible party for the loss of trust in the news media: the constant lies of commission and omission of the news media themselves.
Obama has charisma? Really? I mean, the guy can spout platitudes, and present a good blank sheet for people to fill in, yeah. But charisma? Not that I can tell.
It's the same mentality as progressive taxation schemes, and with much the same result likely. You get less of what you penalize, and more of what you subsidize.
Speaking of non-sequiturs.... Does this mean we should resurrect the old arguments comparting the cost of Apollo to the amount of money spent on makeup in the same period?
Everyone seems to be missing something really obvious to me. Look at the wall, and point at the place that's 1/3 of the way up from the bottom. Now look at the wall, and point at the place that's 6/10 of the way up from the bottom. You are likely to be both faster and more accurate with the former than with the latter. Humans seem to naturally think in base 12, and have to be taught how to eyeball in base 10. So because our numerical system is decimal, it is relatively easy to do mechanical measurements, and thus engineering and scientific work, in decimal - which immediately makes metric easier. But for human estimations, imperial measurements are often easier. In the end, whatever you are taught is what you know best, and I tend (because of my engineering training) to think in metric more than in imperial units. But it's not as if there's no reasonable basis for using imperial units.
I would amend that slightly. People like being told what to do, but they like thinking that they are unique, creative individuals, responsible for themselves, and not needing or wanting to be told what to do. In other words, yes, most people want to be sheep, but they also want to see themselves as sheepdogs.
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This exactly the attitude Schneier was decrying. People's VCR's didn't used to flash 12:00 because the people were dumb, but because the VCR interfaces were terrible. We pay for our systems with nearly unlimited flexibility by having a nearly unlimited number of attack vectors. For most users, business or personal, the appliance in a walled garden model actually makes a lot more sense. But IT guys for some reason seem to constantly lead the charge against that, then get annoyed when users use their machines the way the machines are designed and configured to be used.
Dead on, and me without mod points.
This is slashdot. It's not merely safe but wise to dismiss effectively everything, including this, as insane rambling.
Maybe. But in my experience, it's mostly a communications/expectations issue. If a business unit wants a service, and goes to IT to get it, IT should ask for (and get) solid requirements, and then give a timeline and expectations. In practice, the business units often get annoyed when IT cannot read their mind on requirements, and constantly demand shorter timelines and higher service levels. This is particularly true when there is no internal charge model, so IT is "free" to the business users. The practical upshot is that neither side talks the other's language, and neither is willing to work within the real-world constraints of the other.
The best model I've seen is similar to the military model. A department head would have an HR directory, an IT director and a finance director reporting to him (and depending on the organization, perhaps legal or other "shared services"). The HR, IT and finance departments would be responsible for policy, and for training the various directors that are sent out to report to different department heads. (And possibly managers at a lower level.) The department head gets to tell them what to do but not how. The IT and other support departments get to say how things get done but not what. This organization is rare, but effective.
Actually, you've got that backwards. Apple's goal is to be as profitable as possible (which is why they earn the majority of the mobile profits despite not having the largest market share, and do something similar with desktops and laptops). The means Apple uses to differentiate its products (and thus to get their higher profit margins) is doing a few features really, really well.
Of course not, but tyranny is tyranny, and tyrants act like tyrants. When you give them control, they grab for more. Europe and the US are both heading down this slope, which will have a bad end if not reversed.
Well, given that we (in the US) currently have a government that thinks "Atlas Shrugged" is a great story about how to run a railroad, I suppose it will be a while before stuff like this gets sorted out. And it probably won't be pleasant.
Glenn Reynolds constantly says that he'll start believing that there is a crisis when the people who keep saying there's a crisis start acting like there's a crisis. For example, if environmental activists fly in private jets to conferences around the world to discuss how people use too much energy: no energy crisis.
If only there were some branch of knowledge that dealt with the allocation of finite resources. We could call it "economics," and it would give us all kinds of insights about how people choose things, and what happens when they do. In fact, it would also tell us why it's utterly idiotic to do things like raising gas taxes to prevent gas from being more expensive later — ok, that was a gimme on its face — or arguing that growing populations mean we'll all be starving soon. If only we could find someone to think up something like that, it would be really useful.
Yes, Victor Davis Hanson is a noted anti-intellectual.
Sarcasm, for those who can't tell.
Um, peacefully waging a campaign of pressure? I think not.
So I suppose he can be forgiven as a matter of self-interest for omitting Rathergate, CNN's deliberate reporting of Saddam's propaganda in order to retain access, NBC rigging pickups to explode to get an "exposé" and the like. Or maybe not, since they directly implicate the real responsible party for the loss of trust in the news media: the constant lies of commission and omission of the news media themselves.
Yup. I had the location wrong. Oops.
Obama has charisma? Really? I mean, the guy can spout platitudes, and present a good blank sheet for people to fill in, yeah. But charisma? Not that I can tell.
Per the announcement, it was in Abbottabad, which is nowhere near Islamabad. (It's near Peshawar.)
Mod ++
Well done, indeed.
It's the same mentality as progressive taxation schemes, and with much the same result likely. You get less of what you penalize, and more of what you subsidize.
Speaking of non-sequiturs.... Does this mean we should resurrect the old arguments comparting the cost of Apollo to the amount of money spent on makeup in the same period?
Everyone seems to be missing something really obvious to me. Look at the wall, and point at the place that's 1/3 of the way up from the bottom. Now look at the wall, and point at the place that's 6/10 of the way up from the bottom. You are likely to be both faster and more accurate with the former than with the latter. Humans seem to naturally think in base 12, and have to be taught how to eyeball in base 10. So because our numerical system is decimal, it is relatively easy to do mechanical measurements, and thus engineering and scientific work, in decimal - which immediately makes metric easier. But for human estimations, imperial measurements are often easier. In the end, whatever you are taught is what you know best, and I tend (because of my engineering training) to think in metric more than in imperial units. But it's not as if there's no reasonable basis for using imperial units.
And since the app is open source, there's no way an enterprising developer will ever be able to remove the degradation of precision.
I would amend that slightly. People like being told what to do, but they like thinking that they are unique, creative individuals, responsible for themselves, and not needing or wanting to be told what to do. In other words, yes, most people want to be sheep, but they also want to see themselves as sheepdogs.
I think you mean Pithon, Perl, PHP.
But succeeded with the original iMac (the semi-transparent one) and, IIRC, eMachines.
Or perhaps conventional wisdom (about Apple pricing) is just two decades out of date, if it were ever true.
All excellent points.