Microsoft NEVER go with a pre-existing stadard as-is. Its like they feel the need to have their own customized version of everything for some reason. I guess they feel it gives them control of something. Consequently even if Microsoft licenced Blu-Ray, I'd bet they'd change parts of it somehow to make it their own in some way that would be incompatible with everything else.
I'm an old GenX'er been a software developer for 30+ years. I think Gen Y, being mostly amoral and self-serving to the bone, is exactly what we the cube moneys in corporate Amerika need. The problem is, corporations have gotten used to getting away with treating their employees like shit and most stupid GenX'ers will take all the corporations dish out wthout complaint, such as being required to regularly work excessive overtime with no extra pay.
I like the fact that Gen.Y professionals will challenge this and send the message that corps can't get away with expecting employees to dedicate their life to a company or expect people to suffer with shit work environments any more, without paying for it.
I've been a software developer for over 30 years. Back in the day, the usual IT department even in a large comapny was one or two guys who knew about setting up unix networks.
Then Microsoft became popular as a desktop environment. The low quality of their entire product range combined with very poor documentation caused in most companies one or two people (usually developers who had played with windows in their spare time) to emerge as the unofficial domain experts on solving microsoft-specific issues.
Microsoft very quickly realised this and enocuraged this model as it mitigated the need for them to provide support for their own products. That combined with the fact that Microsoft jumped on the 'professional certification' bandwagon led to them creating hundreds of new IT job titles and certifications for them that until then no-one had ever even heard of before, let alone actually needed. Fast forqward a few years and now most IT-driven companies are working under the illusion that there needs to be masses of IT staff usally with different Microsoft certifications to support a simple computer network, which has become a self-fulfilling prophecy beacuse the office network in most places has been made unnecessarily complex by the same Microsoft-trained IT staff, apparently partly as job-preservation and partly to get around the technical shortcomings of Microsoft operating systems and products. now many IT departments have transitioned to an incorrect yet frequently-encounterd mentality that they now believe that their role is to be gatekeepers rather than just to provide a service to the people in comapnies that actually make the companies product or service.
My point is, that given the above, I think that if anything, management generally massively overvalue IT departments.
I've seen in most companies that the IT dept get larger budgets than entire production departments, IT employees usually get top-end PC's with widescreen monitors etc. to answer their emails on while developers and engineers, the guys actually making the product, are struggling to compile code bases on hand-me-down hardware.
yes its definately true that (again from my experience from a software development career spanning 30 years) nearly all 'personnel' people do not have enough technical knowledge to understand the position they are trying to fill. This includes but is not limited to recruitment agents looking to represent self-employed contractors.
In my current company our HR department people are completely clueless about the skillset our developers need to have, but they still continually refuse to relinquish enough control to allow technical staff to make the first cut through submitted resumes. The HR dept. frequently rejects potentially ideal candidates out of hand or ask us to interview candidates who's skills are completely unrelated to the vacancy.
This does seem to be a very common problem though.
I am a software developer involved in interviewing for other software developers in Phoenix, AZ.
It seems there really is a shortage of skilled software developers.
There are plenty of people that call themselves developers and respond to adverts for skilled devleopers, but there really is a big shortage of people that actually have the actual skills and ability to write good, reliable and well-structured software.
>>...and praises Ohio University for its ban on P2P applications last year.
Its one thing for some old politician to not properly understand the technology that he is trying to ban, but one would think a university would be better educated than to assume ALL p2p traffic must be copyright infringment.
All the talk about individuals spreading torrents of the paid-for tracks is missing the point.
Anyone care to bet that the RIAA and/or labels themselves aren't putting non-label artists tracks on the Pirate Bay just to undermine artists attempts to try and find an alternative business model?
>> Ignoring the ridiculousness that in a "free" country we have "travel restrictions",
Lol. As a well-traveled world citizen I was amazed to discover first-hand just how much the USA is one of the least free countries I've ever visited, with respect to (the total lack of) true freedom of speech, the vast amount of paranoid fear of just about everything, tons of radical religious intolerance, and a long history of how oppressively the police and government behave to their own citizens. Yet bizarrely most Americans still completely believe the US is the very definition of the Land Of The Free(tm) and that everywhere else in the world is totally oppressed by comparison.
I wonder just how bad it has to get before they start to question their own propaganda.
Why on earth would anyone want to buy them? After having repeatedly demostrated nothing but utter incompetence even their name is in negative equity. You'd be better starting a new company rather than try to rebuild the Diebold name.
MS will implement this GNUish wrapper in the same way they implemnented POSIX and STL under windows.... very badly.
Then their marketing dept. will use it to demonstrate how crap GNU is compared to native windows functionality to the executive managers of large traditionally MS-only IT depts looking to migrate to Linux.
The sad reality is that most managers will believe the MS droids that they're looking at a truly representative GNU environment so will agree GNU is bad, without ever having seen a real GNU environment.
19 grand for a corporation that blatantly forged documents? Its a laughingly tiny fine for a corp. They basically got let off even though they committed what sounds like perjury in court. Its disgusting.
>> 1- You don't see how the next U.S. president will affect the entire world? Yes I do.. other than inside the US, hardly at all unless he stops the US invading other countries.
>> A great deal of research is paid for by the U.S. gov't. Just like every other major government.
>> You might as well say, "Why are all these linux articles on slashdot? I thought this was a tech website, and only 3% of people use linux anyways.) No, see linux articles directly relate to technology. Unlike repoting on opinion of who gets to be the president.
>> More that 3% of slashdotters live in the U.S. I'm sorry if you are offended by that. I'm not offended by that at all, I'm just offended by those Americans that are ignorant and egotistical enough to believe/act like the US is the centre of the universe and that no other country is significant.
>> There's no minimal competency required to slap "Software Engineer" on your card,
I'm guessing you're not aware that in some countries (for example, Germany I believe) one cannot legally call oneself an Engineer without the appropriate qualifications, in the same way that one cannot call oneself a Doctor. I very much like this and feel that the job title 'Engineer' should be earned, and in those countries where it must be, the title does seem to have some value.
From my own experience, just the difference in respect and regard of a Software Engineers skills and opinions is very noticeable between working in Germany and the US. In the US Software Engineers in general seem to be very unappreciated. Its probably a self-fulfilling prophecy when unqualified people can legally just arbitrarily call themselves Engineers.
its all in control of large companies who have a vested interest in not fixing it. At least because its an unnecessary cost as users don't have any real alternative.
>> inhumane state practices appear such as denying health care to the obese in the UK
At what point do you take responsibility for your own actions?
It seems to me that denying limited resources (state healthcare) to people too greedy/lazy to look after themselves is perfectly valid and in fact a good idea, as it goes to people who otherwise would value it and not immediately hit the donut store once they are lout of hospital again.
The article is about human digninty really, but if the obese truly valued their dignity, they wouldn't have gotten obese in the first place.
>> let's just stipulate that there is no god and be done with the pope already?
Firstly let me make it clear that I personally do not follow any religion, so have no iterest in defending the christian church, however: * There is no evidence that proves God doesn't exist. Until that is found your stipulation has no merit. * His point seems to be that this stuff is an affront to human dignity, which has nothing to do with religion. E.g. I for example have dignity yet am not a follower of any religion.
Actually without reading more than the headline, I think the pope's point is very well made. Personally I feel scientists in some cases are definately going too far. I also have seen more than enough evidence to prove that most companies will do anything to make money for now, regardless of the ethics or wider implication of their actions.
Slashdot Mirror
This is excellent news as it will push even more people to migrate to Linux.
Microsoft NEVER go with a pre-existing stadard as-is. Its like they feel the need to have their own customized version of everything for some reason. I guess they feel it gives them control of something.
Consequently even if Microsoft licenced Blu-Ray, I'd bet they'd change parts of it somehow to make it their own in some way that would be incompatible with everything else.
I'm an old GenX'er been a software developer for 30+ years.
I think Gen Y, being mostly amoral and self-serving to the bone, is exactly what we the cube moneys in corporate Amerika need.
The problem is, corporations have gotten used to getting away with treating their employees like shit and most stupid GenX'ers will take all the corporations dish out wthout complaint, such as being required to regularly work excessive overtime with no extra pay.
I like the fact that Gen.Y professionals will challenge this and send the message that corps can't get away with expecting employees to dedicate their life to a company or expect people to suffer with shit work environments any more, without paying for it.
I've been a software developer for over 30 years. Back in the day, the usual IT department even in a large comapny was one or two guys who knew about setting up unix networks.
Then Microsoft became popular as a desktop environment. The low quality of their entire product range combined with very poor documentation caused in most companies one or two people (usually developers who had played with windows in their spare time) to emerge as the unofficial domain experts on solving microsoft-specific issues.
Microsoft very quickly realised this and enocuraged this model as it mitigated the need for them to provide support for their own products. That combined with the fact that Microsoft jumped on the 'professional certification' bandwagon led to them creating hundreds of new IT job titles and certifications for them that until then no-one had ever even heard of before, let alone actually needed. Fast forqward a few years and now most IT-driven companies are working under the illusion that there needs to be masses of IT staff usally with different Microsoft certifications to support a simple computer network, which has become a self-fulfilling prophecy beacuse the office network in most places has been made unnecessarily complex by the same Microsoft-trained IT staff, apparently partly as job-preservation and partly to get around the technical shortcomings of Microsoft operating systems and products. now many IT departments have transitioned to an incorrect yet frequently-encounterd mentality that they now believe that their role is to be gatekeepers rather than just to provide a service to the people in comapnies that actually make the companies product or service.
My point is, that given the above, I think that if anything, management generally massively overvalue IT departments.
I've seen in most companies that the IT dept get larger budgets than entire production departments, IT employees usually get top-end PC's with widescreen monitors etc. to answer their emails on while developers and engineers, the guys actually making the product, are struggling to compile code bases on hand-me-down hardware.
yes its definately true that (again from my experience from a software development career spanning 30 years) nearly all 'personnel' people do not have enough technical knowledge to understand the position they are trying to fill. This includes but is not limited to recruitment agents looking to represent self-employed contractors.
In my current company our HR department people are completely clueless about the skillset our developers need to have, but they still continually refuse to relinquish enough control to allow technical staff to make the first cut through submitted resumes. The HR dept. frequently rejects potentially ideal candidates out of hand or ask us to interview candidates who's skills are completely unrelated to the vacancy.
This does seem to be a very common problem though.
I am a software developer involved in interviewing for other software developers in Phoenix, AZ.
It seems there really is a shortage of skilled software developers.
There are plenty of people that call themselves developers and respond to adverts for skilled devleopers, but there really is a big shortage of people that actually have the actual skills and ability to write good, reliable and well-structured software.
>> ...and praises Ohio University for its ban on P2P applications last year.
Its one thing for some old politician to not properly understand the technology that he is trying to ban, but one would think a university would be better educated than to assume ALL p2p traffic must be copyright infringment.
All the talk about individuals spreading torrents of the paid-for tracks is missing the point.
Anyone care to bet that the RIAA and/or labels themselves aren't putting non-label artists tracks on the Pirate Bay just to undermine artists attempts to try and find an alternative business model?
>> Ignoring the ridiculousness that in a "free" country we have "travel restrictions",
Lol. As a well-traveled world citizen I was amazed to discover first-hand just how much the USA is one of the least free countries I've ever visited, with respect to (the total lack of) true freedom of speech, the vast amount of paranoid fear of just about everything, tons of radical religious intolerance, and a long history of how oppressively the police and government behave to their own citizens. Yet bizarrely most Americans still completely believe the US is the very definition of the Land Of The Free(tm) and that everywhere else in the world is totally oppressed by comparison.
I wonder just how bad it has to get before they start to question their own propaganda.
>> it is difficult to prove wrongdoing when the backend was MS Access.
Seems to me like perfect proof of incompetence right there.
Don't hold your breath. They still can't get most DX9 games working well. Actually Wine is looking better than Cedega for DX9 gaming these days.
Why on earth would anyone want to buy them? After having repeatedly demostrated nothing but utter incompetence even their name is in negative equity. You'd be better starting a new company rather than try to rebuild the Diebold name.
Really? I thought it was compuserve BBS.
MS will implement this GNUish wrapper in the same way they implemnented POSIX and STL under windows.... very badly.
Then their marketing dept. will use it to demonstrate how crap GNU is compared to native windows functionality to the executive managers of large traditionally MS-only IT depts looking to migrate to Linux.
The sad reality is that most managers will believe the MS droids that they're looking at a truly representative GNU environment so will agree GNU is bad, without ever having seen a real GNU environment.
>> Rep. Michael Morley says, 'I think it's a positive thing for those who are looking for a site that is dedicated to fighting pornography.'"
This guy is clueless. He can't tell the difference between a site and an ISP, and clearly believes porn is unavoidable on the internet.
19 grand for a corporation that blatantly forged documents? Its a laughingly tiny fine for a corp. They basically got let off even though they committed what sounds like perjury in court. Its disgusting.
It says this is the longest in the world but I'm pretty sure Cern in Switzerland is longer.
He wants to put levies on me burning my own source code, photos, and personal documents to blank optical media in order to help the music industry?
>> 1- You don't see how the next U.S. president will affect the entire world?
Yes I do.. other than inside the US, hardly at all unless he stops the US invading other countries.
>> A great deal of research is paid for by the U.S. gov't.
Just like every other major government.
>> You might as well say, "Why are all these linux articles on slashdot? I thought this was a tech website, and only 3% of people use linux anyways.)
No, see linux articles directly relate to technology. Unlike repoting on opinion of who gets to be the president.
>> More that 3% of slashdotters live in the U.S. I'm sorry if you are offended by that.
I'm not offended by that at all, I'm just offended by those Americans that are ignorant and egotistical enough to believe/act like the US is the centre of the universe and that no other country is significant.
>> I don't like Microsoft's products that much and I'm still bitter that my employer forced me to install Vista on my work laptop.
Dude, just dual-boot Linux, or run it in a VM if your employer won't let you partition the drive.
>> There's no minimal competency required to slap "Software Engineer" on your card,
I'm guessing you're not aware that in some countries (for example, Germany I believe) one cannot legally call oneself an Engineer without the appropriate qualifications, in the same way that one cannot call oneself a Doctor.
I very much like this and feel that the job title 'Engineer' should be earned, and in those countries where it must be, the title does seem to have some value.
From my own experience, just the difference in respect and regard of a Software Engineers skills and opinions is very noticeable between working in Germany and the US. In the US Software Engineers in general seem to be very unappreciated. Its probably a self-fulfilling prophecy when unqualified people can legally just arbitrarily call themselves Engineers.
I don't see the relevance of posting stories about US politics on a science/tech. site with global readership.
its all in control of large companies who have a vested interest in not fixing it.
At least because its an unnecessary cost as users don't have any real alternative.
>> inhumane state practices appear such as denying health care to the obese in the UK
At what point do you take responsibility for your own actions?
It seems to me that denying limited resources (state healthcare) to people too greedy/lazy to look after themselves is perfectly valid and in fact a good idea, as it goes to people who otherwise would value it and not immediately hit the donut store once they are lout of hospital again.
The article is about human digninty really, but if the obese truly valued their dignity, they wouldn't have gotten obese in the first place.
>> let's just stipulate that there is no god and be done with the pope already?
Firstly let me make it clear that I personally do not follow any religion, so have no iterest in defending the christian church, however:
* There is no evidence that proves God doesn't exist. Until that is found your stipulation has no merit.
* His point seems to be that this stuff is an affront to human dignity, which has nothing to do with religion. E.g. I for example have dignity yet am not a follower of any religion.
Actually without reading more than the headline, I think the pope's point is very well made. Personally I feel scientists in some cases are definately going too far. I also have seen more than enough evidence to prove that most companies will do anything to make money for now, regardless of the ethics or wider implication of their actions.