We are running a SAM project here (software asset management) and Oracle is one of our biggest offenders. They have the most weird, complex, and obnoxious licensing terms in their contracts, but the problem is we USE IT A LOT. I'd happily suggest people to swap off, but since I'm far from a DBA my word carries no weight, and even if it did, there's a lot of politics in play that keep it planted firmly.
I am hoping that after the discovery of this project and seeing how much money we piss away on Oracle (needlessly), that people's eyes will open. This behavior really is just much of the same from this company.
I tire of so many crappy games that it's nice that what seems to be a pretty nice, funny, and smart guy got this far with an idea he started for fun. I haven't bought it because I don't think it's really my genre, but I'm looking forward to Scrolls.
I think that it's got a lot of good information, and this guy desperately wants Google to embrace different ideals than they've held in the past. That said, I think rant is an inappropriate word for this. It's very interesting.
I can say that there's a valid anger at the Wall Street folks. First look at the way they operate... they make microtransactions that use computer algorithms operating at the speed of light to buy and sell all kinds of financial property from one bank to another. There is *NO* benefit to the economy here, they are simply playing on the gains and losses through a day, all day, every day. And usually at the expense of everybody else.
Next, they don't have to worry about long term planning, because their bonuses are paid UP FRONT, not on performance over a X year period. So if they make the company $20 million, they might get a $100k bonus, even though those same investments next year will lose the company $100 million. They don't get dinged for bad performance, and it's easy to say "market conditions" any time this happens. Interesting fact... 80% of private finance firms CANNOT BEAT mainstream market indexes, like the S&P 500. That means if you invest your money into an index fund like anything that mirrors the S&P, you have an 80% chance of doing better than most finance firms.
Of course, the way these banks really make money is through fees. They get you 8% return, and take 1.5% as a 'cut'. So you're getting 6.5% return YOY, but the S&P did 8% on its own, and you would have paid a pittance in fees because there's no need to "manage" that portfolio. Of course, nobody knows this, and the investors are happy keeping you in the dark about it.
In addition to all this, add up the fact that the co-opting of banks into our colleges that made credit easy and tuition skyrocket really pisses people off. What's more, is that you CAN'T declare bankruptcy on student loans -- ever. Students graduate with 5-6 figures in debt with almost 30% unemployment and then people say they are wrong in being mad? They aren't wrong. Our system is wrong. It rewards short term risk, encourages stress on our economy whose job is to prop up the work of these banks, and almost no regulation or oversight. Not to mention, most of the people who investigate financial crimes (the SEC) wind up GOING TO WORK FOR THE BANKS. And there are no rules against THAT either. So one day you can be an SEC investigator making 75k a year, and the next day you can work as an "analyst" in a Wall Street bank making $350k a year.
So yea, the #occupywallstreet protests are valid, if not a bit misdirected and full of mixed messages. They need proper spokespeople to get out there and explain their positions in a logical and rational way that hits home with the average person. And honestly, I can think of nobody better than Elizabeth Warren.
Agreed on the XBox Live account for Netflix. I don't want to pay twice for Netflix, so I won't. It's just annoying to get a service that's basically free, only when you're a member of something else. Blargghhggh!!%$!@$
Honestly, if the media center extender worked on other Windows PCs, I'd rather just buy a small dell zino box and set it up on my TV. No such luck though... another boneheaded thought by microsoft.
My home is set up with a Ceton Cablecard hookup and Windows Media Center.
It is the best DVR I've ever had the pleasure of using, and the UI and usability far surpasses everything out there. What they will do with the XBox integration is beyond me, but I've saved over $400 a year by swapping to media center (2 boxes = $40 a month).
Granted not everything Microsoft does is great, but Media Center is one of their best products that nobody knows about. That said, I think if it's in the same vein, that their TV service will do well.
Heh, so do I (sadly). We care about security, it's on the edge network. Our web apps are not going to get retested though, and that was made clear a long while ago when Firefox was a hip and happening thing. This is an off Wall Street firm, but I know my WS friends are in the same boat as me.
Security problems are one things, full version changes are quite another.
MS seems to release quite a few patches that don't make you upgrade a browser version entirely. It's not a stupid argument, it's a very valid one if you work in a finance, insurance, mortgage, consulting -- fuck it -- any company that's not a tech company.
IT is put secondary in those firms, it's seen as a "cost", and it's cheaper to be on the same version longer. Plain and simple. Whether you think they need to update or not is irrelevant really, it's just the reality at those types of firms.
First, the continual updates make it difficult for businesses to use, because they won't re-test all their web-apps every time there's an update. I know the counter argument to this already, to make proper web-apps that are compliant with standards but guess what -- it doesn't happen. That's why the popularity of Silverlight grows hugely in the enterprise space, because they can build a webapp, and not care about the browser. It runs the same.
The second problem, is that Chrome takes a lot of memory up. Not that Firefox is innocent either, but I find IE to use less with the same amount of tabs open. Granted, I still prefer Chrome due to Adblock and other things, but if IE comes out with a decent plugin engine and keeps the memory usage down, it could be a good competitor. IE9 is really not that bad, just barren in terms of usability for more advanced users.
I have a Dell Venue Pro (unlocked), and I'm extremely happy with it. This is after two years of an iPhone, and 6 months of an Android phone.
Android felt like a basic copy of the iPhone in a lot of ways, and the battery life was so bad I couldn't keep using it. Windows Phone came out and I checked it out, seemed pretty good and different, and the battery goes on for two days with regular use. While I don't think I'll be convincing anybody here, I have to say that I've found this phone the best one so far, and with the cloud integration I find it extremely handy in a pinch.
Sure it could, but then we have no baseline for performance either. Silverlight sandboxes everything so we know exactly what result we are going to get. Plus, we have no ruby/python developers in house, only Java/.NET, and Silverlight was the lesser of two evils for us.
Silverlight is actually great for line of business apps, but you'd never know it because they are only going to be found in corporate intranets.
It's hugely popular though, and a great platform for what we use it for. We tried going down the Java road and saw the costs and timelines... said "fuck it" and got the Silverlight project done underbudget and ahead of time. Now I'm just waiting for my bonus that will never come:p
Well said, and there's the argument that if capital gains go up, investors will be more likely to calm down because they will take tax hits on short deals rather than long term ones.
Slashdot Mirror
Like the plump chick standing next to a bunch of real fatties?
You must live in the US.
When you're in EU/Asia, people don't care what the OS on the phone is. They want it to be a NOKIA.
Just like in the US where people want it to be an iPhone regardless of what it does or doesn't do.
Good thing there is no such thing as hell, eh?
Time to answer call, time to resolve ticket, abandoned tickets (unresolved).
If you google a few of those it will bring some more, but that's a simple start.
We are running a SAM project here (software asset management) and Oracle is one of our biggest offenders. They have the most weird, complex, and obnoxious licensing terms in their contracts, but the problem is we USE IT A LOT. I'd happily suggest people to swap off, but since I'm far from a DBA my word carries no weight, and even if it did, there's a lot of politics in play that keep it planted firmly.
I am hoping that after the discovery of this project and seeing how much money we piss away on Oracle (needlessly), that people's eyes will open. This behavior really is just much of the same from this company.
Good for him (Notch).
I tire of so many crappy games that it's nice that what seems to be a pretty nice, funny, and smart guy got this far with an idea he started for fun. I haven't bought it because I don't think it's really my genre, but I'm looking forward to Scrolls.
She's a man baby!
Sorry, it's Friday. That's all I got.
It is a chick, not a dude. Just FYI.
I think that it's got a lot of good information, and this guy desperately wants Google to embrace different ideals than they've held in the past. That said, I think rant is an inappropriate word for this. It's very interesting.
(in IT)
I can say that there's a valid anger at the Wall Street folks. First look at the way they operate... they make microtransactions that use computer algorithms operating at the speed of light to buy and sell all kinds of financial property from one bank to another. There is *NO* benefit to the economy here, they are simply playing on the gains and losses through a day, all day, every day. And usually at the expense of everybody else.
Next, they don't have to worry about long term planning, because their bonuses are paid UP FRONT, not on performance over a X year period. So if they make the company $20 million, they might get a $100k bonus, even though those same investments next year will lose the company $100 million. They don't get dinged for bad performance, and it's easy to say "market conditions" any time this happens. Interesting fact... 80% of private finance firms CANNOT BEAT mainstream market indexes, like the S&P 500. That means if you invest your money into an index fund like anything that mirrors the S&P, you have an 80% chance of doing better than most finance firms.
Of course, the way these banks really make money is through fees. They get you 8% return, and take 1.5% as a 'cut'. So you're getting 6.5% return YOY, but the S&P did 8% on its own, and you would have paid a pittance in fees because there's no need to "manage" that portfolio. Of course, nobody knows this, and the investors are happy keeping you in the dark about it.
In addition to all this, add up the fact that the co-opting of banks into our colleges that made credit easy and tuition skyrocket really pisses people off. What's more, is that you CAN'T declare bankruptcy on student loans -- ever. Students graduate with 5-6 figures in debt with almost 30% unemployment and then people say they are wrong in being mad? They aren't wrong. Our system is wrong. It rewards short term risk, encourages stress on our economy whose job is to prop up the work of these banks, and almost no regulation or oversight. Not to mention, most of the people who investigate financial crimes (the SEC) wind up GOING TO WORK FOR THE BANKS. And there are no rules against THAT either. So one day you can be an SEC investigator making 75k a year, and the next day you can work as an "analyst" in a Wall Street bank making $350k a year.
So yea, the #occupywallstreet protests are valid, if not a bit misdirected and full of mixed messages. They need proper spokespeople to get out there and explain their positions in a logical and rational way that hits home with the average person. And honestly, I can think of nobody better than Elizabeth Warren.
Agreed on the XBox Live account for Netflix. I don't want to pay twice for Netflix, so I won't. It's just annoying to get a service that's basically free, only when you're a member of something else. Blargghhggh!!%$!@$
Honestly, if the media center extender worked on other Windows PCs, I'd rather just buy a small dell zino box and set it up on my TV. No such luck though... another boneheaded thought by microsoft.
My home is set up with a Ceton Cablecard hookup and Windows Media Center.
It is the best DVR I've ever had the pleasure of using, and the UI and usability far surpasses everything out there. What they will do with the XBox integration is beyond me, but I've saved over $400 a year by swapping to media center (2 boxes = $40 a month).
Granted not everything Microsoft does is great, but Media Center is one of their best products that nobody knows about. That said, I think if it's in the same vein, that their TV service will do well.
I never thought I'd compare WebOS to the slut of the mobile OS world.
They really get around.
Heh, so do I (sadly). We care about security, it's on the edge network. Our web apps are not going to get retested though, and that was made clear a long while ago when Firefox was a hip and happening thing. This is an off Wall Street firm, but I know my WS friends are in the same boat as me.
Security problems are one things, full version changes are quite another.
MS seems to release quite a few patches that don't make you upgrade a browser version entirely. It's not a stupid argument, it's a very valid one if you work in a finance, insurance, mortgage, consulting -- fuck it -- any company that's not a tech company.
IT is put secondary in those firms, it's seen as a "cost", and it's cheaper to be on the same version longer. Plain and simple. Whether you think they need to update or not is irrelevant really, it's just the reality at those types of firms.
First, the continual updates make it difficult for businesses to use, because they won't re-test all their web-apps every time there's an update. I know the counter argument to this already, to make proper web-apps that are compliant with standards but guess what -- it doesn't happen. That's why the popularity of Silverlight grows hugely in the enterprise space, because they can build a webapp, and not care about the browser. It runs the same.
The second problem, is that Chrome takes a lot of memory up. Not that Firefox is innocent either, but I find IE to use less with the same amount of tabs open. Granted, I still prefer Chrome due to Adblock and other things, but if IE comes out with a decent plugin engine and keeps the memory usage down, it could be a good competitor. IE9 is really not that bad, just barren in terms of usability for more advanced users.
I have a Dell Venue Pro (unlocked), and I'm extremely happy with it. This is after two years of an iPhone, and 6 months of an Android phone.
Android felt like a basic copy of the iPhone in a lot of ways, and the battery life was so bad I couldn't keep using it. Windows Phone came out and I checked it out, seemed pretty good and different, and the battery goes on for two days with regular use. While I don't think I'll be convincing anybody here, I have to say that I've found this phone the best one so far, and with the cloud integration I find it extremely handy in a pinch.
Sure it could, but then we have no baseline for performance either. Silverlight sandboxes everything so we know exactly what result we are going to get. Plus, we have no ruby/python developers in house, only Java/.NET, and Silverlight was the lesser of two evils for us.
Silverlight is actually great for line of business apps, but you'd never know it because they are only going to be found in corporate intranets.
It's hugely popular though, and a great platform for what we use it for. We tried going down the Java road and saw the costs and timelines... said "fuck it" and got the Silverlight project done underbudget and ahead of time. Now I'm just waiting for my bonus that will never come :p
Google thinks they own your data too. And if you think otherwise, I have a bridge to sell you.
Not for nothing, but "Circles" is actually a feature from Diaspora that Google stole.
So Facebook just paid it forward.
Yes, Microsoft, the company that breaks compatiblity with its products all the time... *facepalm*.
I think you're thinking of Apple, and even they don't do it that much. I love FUD though.
I still do record commercials and skip through them, seems to inform me just fine.
Well said, and there's the argument that if capital gains go up, investors will be more likely to calm down because they will take tax hits on short deals rather than long term ones.
I guess time will tell :)