Who knows... maybe it won't be a smoke and mirrors type of screw-over. It could just be that your device stops working because it can't boot up after "taking on a big task to carefully and silently update millions of iOS devices."
I theorize that short-sided thinking has a lot to do with this. Majority of people don't seem to be great at abstract thinking to grasp long-term large-scale problems like fossil fuel resources or global climate changes. Any ideas on how to get more people to understand the importance of the larger picture outcomes of our choices?
If we've never drilled 3.7 miles below the ocean floor to the mantle, then how do we know that it exists at all? Am I the dumb one here or is it everyone else?
Everyone is telling you that you need more resources (people, project managers) to get the work done, but I think you already know this. What people aren't telling you is how to go about convincing upper management that you need more resources. So, without giving you a full college course, here's what you need to do:
1) Start recording metrics. As much as possible. How much time is being spend on which projects? How much money does that time cost? How much money is the the result of that project going to save/make the company? How much OT is your team putting in, which reduces their quality of life, which reduces their overall focus? If you don't know how to answer these, then start taking "quality questions" to your management regarding some of these concerns.
2) Once you have metrics, find which projects are marked "high" which aren't actually resulting in high-output.
3) Once you have even more metrics, prove that your team is saving the company money and you can save them even more if you have a bigger team.
4) Good luck!
I might be a little late on posting this to get any notice, but for the longest time I've wanted to see MS make what I would call "Windows Business". An operating system with 3 primary focuses:
1) Focus on ease of developer support and application stability. QUIT releasing a "new" operating system every 4 to 7 years and start releasing "Windows Business" 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, etc. This way developers can easily tell the end user "To run this version of our application you must be running 'Windows Business' 3.0 or greater". Then charge $99 for users of "Windows Business" to upgrade from 2.0 to 3.0. What changes in this upgrade? Oh, not much, a few minor feature improvements and new development libraries.
2) Focus on management. Part of what I mentioned in the ease of developer support falls into the ease of management. (EG: "Dear IT, We need 'Windows Business' 3.0 to run our applications.") Now to focus on IT. Sure, Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and so on are all "easy" to manage. Gobs of GPOs and 3rd party tools, but come on! I want to see REAL management. How about licensing, for example. I have yet to see an obviously easy way for IT to audit their licensing. There are a lot of solutions for it and they all do it their own way, but if MS wants to keep people legal, you'd think Windows Server would have a licensing management, auditing, and tracking system that far surpasses what we have now. I digress. Every aspect of "Windows Business" should be manageable without the need for 3rd party utilities. I could go on talking about management needs for days.
3) Users need a simple environment to work in. This is really a mixed topic for both ease of management and ease for the end user. Windows is already customizable and you can lock down the user environment to specific apps and profiles, but this isn't good enough. It's a PITA to get things just the way you want them. We really need to be able to easily make an over-the-top application specific end user environment that really completes the entire package. Remember, the computer at work is a tool to do work, not a "computer" in the typical end user sense of thinking.
To finalize, MS needs to take the market position and technology they already have and make it work for the people, instead of making the people work around the technology.
Now Google is going to jack up their search price to compensate for all the people that won't click on their ads... what are we thinking here... $2 per search? Maybe they'll do a bargain deal. $10/day of unlimited searching?
Actually, a DS-1 (T1) only requires one pair of cable... and if you're wondering how they can run 24 channels on 1 phone line... they run 50+ phone lines on every pair of copper. You'd be amazed at how the telcos change how the medium is used. Now, once the T1 is at your d-mark, it might come in to the DSU/CSU on 24 pairs, but sometimes it doesn't.
Why do we need wireless USB when we already have bluetooth? and vice versa? and beyond that, why do we need wireless HDMI?
Try to put your questions into perspective here. Why do we need USB when we have perfectly good parrallel cables? Why do we need DVDs when we have perfectly good CDs? Why do we need laptops when we already have desktops? Why do we need refridgerators when we have already have iceboxes? Why do we need washing machines when we have perfectly good wash-boards? Why do we need cars when we have perfectly good horses? Why do we need horses when we already have feet? I can do this for years...
I can't believe the patents companies are submitting. We better hurry up and patent every damn feature of our new appliance before someone else does! Just because it involves a computer and/or the Internet does not mean it needs a patent. In a real-life comparison, this would be like a car-rental company offering the name and information of the previous renter of said car, including their opinion of the car. I no way is this an invention for patent (or very useful).
I should have reviewed my post before postings;)
Correction:
I have found a complete lack of inovative ways, by IT departments, to save time and money.
I'm tired, give me break.
I am 25 years old and have been a consulting systems engineer for 6 years. I'm sure some of you are going to feel that this is in no way enough experience to put a lot of input on the subject, but I can't make time go any faster. I have been in charge of some pretty large projects over the years. I am currently managing a sizable Novell to Active Directory migration. These projects, of course, have to be done in a very timely manner. This migration, for example involves 18 servers and 5 locations. I started 3 weeks ago and I will be done on Thursday. In my experience working with IT departments on these projects I have a complete lack of inovative ways to save time and money. My rant is that when a crew of people work on the same damn network every day there is no reason it should have any problems. If I was in charge of a companies network I would make sure that the question of the users not appreciating the network never comes up. I just don't understand how IT departments can let themselves work on such a small budget. I would personally write up a very informative presentation on how spending more on IT saves MUCH more money in every other department at the company. There is no excuse for a user to be without a computer for more than an hour. I guess that's what I would demand out of my IT department. I don't want to be without a functional workstation for more than one hour, and I don't want the servers to be down during business hours, EVER. There are so many cost effective ways to avoid serious problems that I almost never see implemented. Don't even get me started on IT departments not taking advantage of GPO's. I apologize for trolling on. I probably posted too late for anyone to notice, anyhow.
If they thought ahead they would have realized that it's much more efficient to put 2 robotic arms on IIS. One to catch the capsule and one to throw it back to Earth. Now IIS will have to take it's glove off before it can throw the capsule back down.
You and I both know that this is just a stupid, fun project that will never go anywhere with any type of consumer market. Most new ideas we see posted on/. are things that will never make it to a real consumer market. My issue is that if this was an opensource project, or maybe done by a group of MIT students it would be "neat". Since this has been done by Microsoft we immediately flame them etc etc etc. I think the entire/. community needs to look at things with a more open mind and less judgement towards non-community owned projects. It is neat, I don't want one, but it's neat to see new ways to interface with your computer, even if it is to delete spam (LOL).
Verizon is a producer of bandwidth, not an end user or a middle man. They can make as much bandwidth as they want. If I build 100 motorcycles a year, but I decided to keep 25 of them for myself, would you bitch because other people could be using those 25 motorcycles?
I have been looking for a good DV cam to use for a long time, but I didn't want to use miniDV, I want to use flash ram. Recently Panasonic has come out with a whole line of them that use SD cards, but they're a little pricey, and you can't get much video at DVD quality on one SD card. I don't know about the durability of the hardware, but at least this option would take out all of the mechanics.
Slashdot Mirror
Who knows... maybe it won't be a smoke and mirrors type of screw-over. It could just be that your device stops working because it can't boot up after "taking on a big task to carefully and silently update millions of iOS devices."
I theorize that short-sided thinking has a lot to do with this. Majority of people don't seem to be great at abstract thinking to grasp long-term large-scale problems like fossil fuel resources or global climate changes. Any ideas on how to get more people to understand the importance of the larger picture outcomes of our choices?
Nothing to see here.
If we've never drilled 3.7 miles below the ocean floor to the mantle, then how do we know that it exists at all? Am I the dumb one here or is it everyone else?
Everyone is telling you that you need more resources (people, project managers) to get the work done, but I think you already know this. What people aren't telling you is how to go about convincing upper management that you need more resources. So, without giving you a full college course, here's what you need to do: 1) Start recording metrics. As much as possible. How much time is being spend on which projects? How much money does that time cost? How much money is the the result of that project going to save/make the company? How much OT is your team putting in, which reduces their quality of life, which reduces their overall focus? If you don't know how to answer these, then start taking "quality questions" to your management regarding some of these concerns. 2) Once you have metrics, find which projects are marked "high" which aren't actually resulting in high-output. 3) Once you have even more metrics, prove that your team is saving the company money and you can save them even more if you have a bigger team. 4) Good luck!
I suggest checking this out. I've used it for a few clients. http://www.publicip.net/
More piracy creates more sales... the statistics are simple. Google it. In fact, look at the movie industry growth over the past 5 years.
I might be a little late on posting this to get any notice, but for the longest time I've wanted to see MS make what I would call "Windows Business". An operating system with 3 primary focuses:
1) Focus on ease of developer support and application stability. QUIT releasing a "new" operating system every 4 to 7 years and start releasing "Windows Business" 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, etc. This way developers can easily tell the end user "To run this version of our application you must be running 'Windows Business' 3.0 or greater". Then charge $99 for users of "Windows Business" to upgrade from 2.0 to 3.0. What changes in this upgrade? Oh, not much, a few minor feature improvements and new development libraries.
2) Focus on management. Part of what I mentioned in the ease of developer support falls into the ease of management. (EG: "Dear IT, We need 'Windows Business' 3.0 to run our applications.") Now to focus on IT. Sure, Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and so on are all "easy" to manage. Gobs of GPOs and 3rd party tools, but come on! I want to see REAL management. How about licensing, for example. I have yet to see an obviously easy way for IT to audit their licensing. There are a lot of solutions for it and they all do it their own way, but if MS wants to keep people legal, you'd think Windows Server would have a licensing management, auditing, and tracking system that far surpasses what we have now. I digress. Every aspect of "Windows Business" should be manageable without the need for 3rd party utilities. I could go on talking about management needs for days.
3) Users need a simple environment to work in. This is really a mixed topic for both ease of management and ease for the end user. Windows is already customizable and you can lock down the user environment to specific apps and profiles, but this isn't good enough. It's a PITA to get things just the way you want them. We really need to be able to easily make an over-the-top application specific end user environment that really completes the entire package. Remember, the computer at work is a tool to do work, not a "computer" in the typical end user sense of thinking.
To finalize, MS needs to take the market position and technology they already have and make it work for the people, instead of making the people work around the technology.
I think the word you're looking for is "Upgrade" to XP.
Now Google is going to jack up their search price to compensate for all the people that won't click on their ads... what are we thinking here... $2 per search? Maybe they'll do a bargain deal. $10/day of unlimited searching?
Actually, a DS-1 (T1) only requires one pair of cable... and if you're wondering how they can run 24 channels on 1 phone line... they run 50+ phone lines on every pair of copper. You'd be amazed at how the telcos change how the medium is used. Now, once the T1 is at your d-mark, it might come in to the DSU/CSU on 24 pairs, but sometimes it doesn't.
What does 50 cent think of this knowledge? Maybe he'll sue for the back-owed 20 cent difference? ... sorry, I had to.
You completely missed the point...
Why do we need wireless USB when we already have bluetooth? and vice versa? and beyond that, why do we need wireless HDMI? Try to put your questions into perspective here. Why do we need USB when we have perfectly good parrallel cables? Why do we need DVDs when we have perfectly good CDs? Why do we need laptops when we already have desktops? Why do we need refridgerators when we have already have iceboxes? Why do we need washing machines when we have perfectly good wash-boards? Why do we need cars when we have perfectly good horses? Why do we need horses when we already have feet? I can do this for years...
I can't believe the patents companies are submitting. We better hurry up and patent every damn feature of our new appliance before someone else does! Just because it involves a computer and/or the Internet does not mean it needs a patent. In a real-life comparison, this would be like a car-rental company offering the name and information of the previous renter of said car, including their opinion of the car. I no way is this an invention for patent (or very useful).
Plus, on a LAN using thinclients will be just as fast, visually, as a local PC. Hell, I play video's over my RDP thinclients and it works quite well.
I should have reviewed my post before postings ;)
Correction:
I have found a complete lack of inovative ways, by IT departments, to save time and money.
I'm tired, give me break.
I am 25 years old and have been a consulting systems engineer for 6 years. I'm sure some of you are going to feel that this is in no way enough experience to put a lot of input on the subject, but I can't make time go any faster. I have been in charge of some pretty large projects over the years. I am currently managing a sizable Novell to Active Directory migration. These projects, of course, have to be done in a very timely manner. This migration, for example involves 18 servers and 5 locations. I started 3 weeks ago and I will be done on Thursday. In my experience working with IT departments on these projects I have a complete lack of inovative ways to save time and money. My rant is that when a crew of people work on the same damn network every day there is no reason it should have any problems. If I was in charge of a companies network I would make sure that the question of the users not appreciating the network never comes up. I just don't understand how IT departments can let themselves work on such a small budget. I would personally write up a very informative presentation on how spending more on IT saves MUCH more money in every other department at the company. There is no excuse for a user to be without a computer for more than an hour. I guess that's what I would demand out of my IT department. I don't want to be without a functional workstation for more than one hour, and I don't want the servers to be down during business hours, EVER. There are so many cost effective ways to avoid serious problems that I almost never see implemented. Don't even get me started on IT departments not taking advantage of GPO's. I apologize for trolling on. I probably posted too late for anyone to notice, anyhow.
LOL... Wow, I work too much. /me takes a smoke break.
Here's your problem. You're trying to ADD the government to this project. /me erases the TNT
If they thought ahead they would have realized that it's much more efficient to put 2 robotic arms on IIS. One to catch the capsule and one to throw it back to Earth. Now IIS will have to take it's glove off before it can throw the capsule back down.
Have you seen Flash lately! It can do 3d stuffs too... pretty neat affects
You and I both know that this is just a stupid, fun project that will never go anywhere with any type of consumer market. Most new ideas we see posted on /. are things that will never make it to a real consumer market. My issue is that if this was an opensource project, or maybe done by a group of MIT students it would be "neat". Since this has been done by Microsoft we immediately flame them etc etc etc. I think the entire /. community needs to look at things with a more open mind and less judgement towards non-community owned projects. It is neat, I don't want one, but it's neat to see new ways to interface with your computer, even if it is to delete spam (LOL).
Verizon is a producer of bandwidth, not an end user or a middle man. They can make as much bandwidth as they want. If I build 100 motorcycles a year, but I decided to keep 25 of them for myself, would you bitch because other people could be using those 25 motorcycles?
I have been looking for a good DV cam to use for a long time, but I didn't want to use miniDV, I want to use flash ram. Recently Panasonic has come out with a whole line of them that use SD cards, but they're a little pricey, and you can't get much video at DVD quality on one SD card. I don't know about the durability of the hardware, but at least this option would take out all of the mechanics.