I don't hate Microsoft by any means. In fact, I think they write some excellent application code - I use it on my Mac. I do, however, despise Microsoft's tactics, and choosing them as an IT vendor may make fiscal sense today... but will it make sense when they sue Red Hat, Novell, Apple, Sun, and everyone else out of the market in a flurry of patent suits? They don't even have to win the suits to force several major companies out of business in legal spending. Or worse, those companies could roll over... either way, we end up with Microsoft as a true monopoly.
And they won't engage in price fixing... no... not Microsoft... never....
What is going to take for the open source community to fight back? To stop porting code to Windows? To stop releasing Firefox for Windows? To create artificial incompatibilities - I know that's counter-productive, but let's talk politics and economics, for a second.
If the U.S. government won't use the Sherman Anti-trust Act to stop Microsoft, we need to rely on one of the fundamental principles of capitalism - Adam Smith's invisible hand. We need to stop buying, supporting, using, and working with Microsoft software. I do know how crazy that sounds, but revolutions require revolutionary thinking.
Many of you claim that you use Windows because your employers do - that's a crock. Make a personal choice. I work for a Fortune 50, in an enterprise-level position, and I haven't owned a Windows machine in over 5 years. I have may 98% of everything I need at home and work function with Mac OS or Linux. In the extreme cases (that last 2%), I use CrossOver Office. Once (ONCE) in the last five years, I had to borrow a colleagues' Windows machine to complete some training - because our server software was so out of date that the manufacturer's Mac drivers didn't support the old protocols. Every opportunity I have to recommend standards, I oppose the implementation of further Windows desktop or server deployments.
Not, seriously, I'm not crazy - I know all of this isn't feasible for all of you. Don't do anything to risk your livelihood, your sustainable income, or the ability to feed your family, but seriously ask yourself... "Am I doing everything I can to support Linux and Open Source, and help prevent the patent threat that Microsoft represents?"
So may on Slashdot these days have become Microsoft apologists - they aren't that bad... their UI is far superior... I have to use them at the office... all the good games are only written for Windows... ad nauseam. We need to use what power we have to stave off a serious threat to the technologies we are personally passionate about. We are the developers, the administrations, and the infrastructure of the nation and world's IT organizations. We must stand strong if we want to have any options. Because after Linux, it's Mac OS, then Solaris, then AIX, until all that's left is Windows. All that's left is crap. Yes, it is *that* slippery a slope.
And, if we stand united, we can affect Microsoft's profits. Make their shareholders listen. Make the board of directors require policy changes. I don't hate Microsoft or any company - but this "Patent Cold War" is despicable.
I am not advocating overnight change 180 degrees. Only that you ask yourself one simple question every day...
"Am I doing everything I can to enable choice in technology?"
Let's be perfectly clear here - when Novell says "cross-platform" referring to Windows and Linux, they mean Mono. As much as it sucks, they usually mean Mono.
Thanks, Miguel... I'm sure that.NET stuff will offer great performance and stability!
Don't get me wrong, Mono sounds great in theory - cross-platform, ECMA-based code would be ideal. The problem is, the implementations I've seen to date (cough, cough, Beagle, cough) have serious resource-consumption issues.
So, basically, you're suggesting the Gentoo Strike Fighter or GSF. If I read at least part of your intentions correctly, you imply that every foreign buyer should essentially:
Novell is no doubt more than aware that comparing NetWare to Linux is an unfair comparison, just as comparing earnings from this point last year is. Let's take a quick rundown of some differences:
NetWare vs. Linux:
NetWare is typically licensed per-user, Linux per-server - this is a HUGE difference! For a large enterprise for, let's say 100,000 NetWare users, Novell was licensing annually on a per-user basis. This could come out to millions of dollars if they even charged $10-$20/user (approximately the list price based on 50-100 user bundles). SUSE Linux, on the other hand, is no doubt licensed per-server. That same enterprise can probably support those same users with far fewer servers - let's use an estimate of 2000. Even at the list price of $899 for up to 16 CPUs, that is still a huge shortfall. So, it a significantly different pricing model.
NetWare was entirely developed in-house - alright, so it was based on DOS, but for all intensive purposes, Novell had a captive developer community, entirely controlled product direction, cost, support, and other factors. With Linux, Novell has managed to trade some of the cost of development for total control of the product - but they still must support and maintain all those users still running NetWare 3(good heavens!), 4, 5, and 6. So, they need almost twice the support staff, and we already discussed the falling revenue. Plus, they still support and patch some versions of NetWare 6, so they are some developers still committed to NetWare.
The dynamics of their community has changed - in the 90's, the certification to have was the CNE. It meant something. Novell had a huge community of resellers, developers, support engineers, and other partners - essentially under their thumb. Now, they have to compete as just another Linux vendor. Why be just a Novell partner when I can partner with Red Hat, IBM, HP, and everyone else? Why get a Novell CLP9 or CLE9 certification, when I can get the more recognized LPI certification - or (worse, from their perspective) an RHCE certification?
Their customers' path away has not been Linux - it's been Windows - Novell has been steadily losing file and print customers for years to Microsoft. No offense, people, but face it: most former NetWare admins moved on to WinNT and Win2K years ago. Very few moved on to UNIX or Linux - there are certainly some, but most people that identified themselves as CNE's moved on to be MSCE's, not RHCE's. The problem is, customers are still moving en masse to Windows, and the Linux strategy from Novell has not prevented that.
Okay - I've beat up the Linux/NetWare differences enough, but what about the business differences, and their impact on earnings?
One year ago, the Microsoft settlement boosted earnings - if you don't get this one, RTFA. The MS settlement was a nice temporary earnings boost, but Novell knew that. Why the market glossed over it still amazes me, but then, it's the sort of thing tech investors tend to do.
Novell has matured in the past year - I know there's been a lot of negative press about the leadership changes and departures at Novell - especially here at Slashdot, but let me tell you - this is what a company undergoing a major merger integration needs. Especially one changing it's fundamental vision and product focus. Some of the losses were unfortunate - Chris Stone, for example. Some just underscored the growing pains of a company merging several cultures at once - open source and proprietary, US and Germany, GNOME and KDE - too many for all the chiefs to stay and agree. However, IMHO, the current leadership and vision at Novell is remarkable. Novell has done a superb job of selecting the best and brightest from their talent pool to lead the company, and their corporate vision and strategy demonstrate that.
Novell has strived to maintain product continuity - even at the expense of earnings. Doesn'
I work for a very large corporation (Fortune 50, 100,000+ employees, tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue) in a highly regulated industry - banking, investments, and other diversified financial services. We don't use Exchange as our e-mail system, however, we do have limits that are driven as much by risk mitigation as by storage and cost issues.
Our standard corporate users have the following restrictions on e-mail:
E-mail files are limited to between 30 and 500 MB, depending on job function and line of business. The average user has a 100 or 200 MB file limit.
If a user exceeds this limit, all incoming and outgoing e-mail is "locked" (spooled and held) until the file is reduced back into compliance.
No e-mail message may be kept for greater than one year from it's addition to the file. After one year, e-mails are automatically deleted.
No e-mail message may be printed, saved, replicated, or other duplicated for the purposes of long-term storage. E-mails may be printed for normal day-to-day, but may not be filed in hardcopy format.
Laptop users may not replicate their e-mail files locally. All e-mail must be accessed online from the server.
Of course, exceptions to these policies exist for groups with regulatory requirements for message retention, such as investment bankers. Additionally, customer interactions via e-mail are subject to a completely different set of rules - this is the just the ruleset for the average employee without much direct customer interaction.
One of the largest drivers for these policies is to limit liability and exposure in the event of legal action. The goal here is not to eliminate messages (burn the evidence!), but to make backup and recovery feasible over the long-term. While an individual employee may not be able to keep an e-mail for more than one year, corporately we maintain backups of all e-mail messages for seven years. We are attempting to put reasonable limits in place to ensure that in the event an e-mail must be recovered for legal or regulatory reasons, it can be easily found and identified. We've also added additional technological measures to make this easier, such as using content-addressable storage for long-term archive of e-mail messages.
This policy is an inconvience for many workers - 200 MB of e-mail goes pretty quick, especially when e-mail is the preferred medium for exchanging documents. This is has forced our employees to change the way they use e-mail, as well as to take better advantage of other systems that had become passé, such as our file and print system.
If you are planning on putting limits such as these in place, make certain you communicate them well in advance. Provide your employees resources and guidance on how to best transition to the new policies, and offer tips on breaking bad e-mail habits.
Overall, large corporations cannot afford the risk or the cost of storing gigabytes of e-mail for every employee. It's a tough road, but one that many companies appear to be taking. Best of luck with your endevours.
Wiki technology must be great for open source project pages, or at least Novell thinks so... As best I can count, they have eight (or more) projects set up that either they manage, contribute to, or support using MediaWiki.
Mind you, these are all great sites, with good content. They seem to really be embracing the notion of community-driven projects, to the point of not only accepting community code, but also accepting additional community support though the use of Wiki for the websites and documentation. Take a browse through these sites, if you have time - they are full of great ideas on how to use a wiki.
Kudos to Novell for once again being innovative in open source. Give me even more hope for their future and for the success of SUSE Linux.
Actually, this is somewhat incorrect. I am a VP at top 5 US bank, and I used to lead the team that develops our public website. There are significant regulations and compliance issues that arise with public software testing, including the website. While I can only speak for my employer, we test against IE for Windows and Mac OS, Firefox on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, Safari, and Opera on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Additionally, we certify our site uses 100% W3C DTD-compliant DHTML and is fully accessable by users with disabilities.
There are certain laws that have been applied to banking websites, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and other anti-discrimination laws. Besides, it's much easier and cheaper for a bank's web team to design with accessability and browser compatibility in mind up front than do a bunch of back-porting and fixing when the customer complaints start rolling in - or worse, when the customer lawsuits start coming! Most banks I deal with also now hire external services to audit their sites for accessability.
Of course, these are only my opinions and do not officially represent the views or practices of my employer. YMMV. Blah blah blah.
I would recommend that you take your team leader or manager (assuming he or she was laid off with you), and have them start shopping the team to competitors. Additionally, everyone should get a current resumé together, and begin looking independently. You can't limit your options to one or the other, especially if no one has the resources or interest to hire your entire team - likely given the economy.
I will tell you this - several companies I've been involved with, including my current employer, have hired entire teams with skillsets we needed. I've seen displaced teams hired, and I've seen current teams recruited. Here are the important points in selling your team (in my opinion):
Focus on your synergies - Highlight the unique talents each team member brings to the table and your experience working together. Let a potential employer see you as a cohesive unit with the interdependencies, strengths, and (perhaps most importantly) weaknesses of individual members and sets of members as a part of the intrinsic value you offer. Discuss the team as a whole, time together similarities, differences, and relationships between the contributors.
Highlight team project successes - Remember, to sell yourselves as a unit, you need to focus on the accomplishments, projects, and successes you have all shared. Be certain to include anecdotes about customer satisfaction in prior projects and team efforts.
Get manager and customer endorsements - If possible, get a letter of recommendation from the team's previous manager or customer to share. Any teamwork recognition, service awards, or other artifacts of shared success will be beneficial.
Do a "group resumé" - Prepare a short (one to two page) glossy on the team, with a summary of skills, benefits, past experience, and core competencies on the front, and a brief bio (with headshot, education, and key experience before joining the team) for each member on the back.
Emphasize the value of hiring a team - This is perhaps the most important point. Most managers think they can do a damn good job of hiring a talented and cohesive team - you will need to explain why hiring a whole team is better. Focus on the value-add that bringing in a group of people who already work well together offers. This will be a huge challenge.
Use your relationships - Don't look for companies with open positions; no company is going to post jobs for a whole team (well, it's unlikely, at least). Leverage relationships you and your partners have with executives and senior leaders at competitors and former customers. You will need to have positions created for you - they won't be posted already. Your best bet is to look for companies seeking consulting engagements - they will need a team, and odds are they will need the skills of the team on an on-going basis. Hiring a consulting firm can simply be a way of getting a skilled team with the hassle of hiring the members of one - focus on the fact that you are offering them another (a better) option. Your team provides them greater control, and puts the accountability squarely on your shoulders.
Most importantly, though, don't get your hopes up. Finding a job for one person can be difficult enough - placing a whole team is a huge challenge. Consider contacting a few recruiting firms for advice, but don't expect too much. Finally, get your own resumé together, get it out there, and if something really good comes along - take it. Don't hold out forever hoping to place the whole group and pass up opportunities to put food on your table.
Please feel free to e-mail me if you'd like any further advice on this, or if you'd someone to review the "team resumé" I mentioned above. As a senior leader at Fortune 50 company, I have *some* hiring experience (wink!), and I've been on a team that was hired in together before. So, keep some hope - it does happen, rare though it might be.
I don't know... for my money, it just doesn't get any better than the flamewar on the mailing list. Nothing like Linus calling Gnomers "interface nazis" and Nat calling KDE'ers "feature sluts (who never saw a checkbox they didn't love)".
Hilarious... I love these guys - that was a great laugh for the day.
I actually posted a comment about this concept over a year ago (http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=78748&c id=6978433). Basically, the RIAA, Apple, Sony, or whoever could leverage a private currency (think of it as a complex application of gift certificates) in order to offer sub-one cent pricing for independant, emerging, or otherwise distribution-challenged artists.
This is an excellent opportunity to meet the market demand for lower cost songs. I may be willing to pay less than 99 for a b-side from a one-hit-wonder, but I doubt Apple will find much market in songs priced great than $1 - no matter how popular.
Leveraging a private currency, however, would allow Apple to fluctuate the value of songs without changing the "price" - and change the price structure as a whole based on market forces simply by changing the conversion rate.
There's a lot off interesting ideas here, from a purely economic perspective.
I never thought I'd have an issue with identity theft, as a Vice President at a top 5 U.S. bank (in IT, of course). Two years ago, I was building a MythTV DVR PC, and wanted to get a good deal. I scoured the internet for the lowest prices on every individual component, and along the way, apparently ended up giving my Visa CheckCard number to the wrong person.
Suffice to say, they did not need my SSN, or anything beyond what would normally be used to purchase items online. I found out when my card was denied at a store - the theif had emptied my primary checking account, and because I had overdraft protection, the attached savings account in one night. Nice thing was, the bank immediately reimbursed me for the fraudlent purchases, followed up with the police, and prosecuted. (Not simply because I am an employee, mind you - but I did get something most people in my situation don't, follow-up. Typically, the bank reimburses a customer and follows up with the authorities separately - without ever contacting the customer again unless required.)
Now, I use a random card number service associated with my credit card to purchase anything on the internet. It may not be the worst form of identity theft, but it can be inconvient, expensive, and time-consuming to recover. I had to deal with bounced checks for bills, and set the fraud alert on my credit bureaus as a result of this. It's certainly worth using a temporary card service if your bank or credit card company offer it.
Just my "It happened to me" tale, but it's one we hear over and over again these days.
Since Sony wants a "proof-of-purchase" style form, has anyone with this issue completed the form, and received the response? It's be interesting to see how Sony is telling people to circumvent their technology.
I'd fill it out myself, but it's been over a year since I bought any music that wasn't from iTunes.:)
If you can wait and/or contribute, the IdeaForge module from the akoria project will do what you're looking for. Although it is more designed for group-developed content management, it will feature version control and WebDAV access to each user's work area.
Take a look at the meager homepage and see if you want to submit some feature requests.
This was me thinking the same as you - where's the open source project for group content management? But, after asking and getting few satisfactory answers, I just decided to go write it.
Any help will be much appreciated! And best of luck in your hunt...
Chrissakes, man - you're such a class-act it makes the rest of us look bad! I've see your movies, watched every episode of ST:TNG, read the blog (present tense), read the books (past tense), and I have to say, you take the cake.
Fuck the fact that this will be modded into oblivion, and I'll lose a little karma - I have to say it publically - you are one of the most talented, well-spoken, intellectually gifted, funny, and down-to-earth people I've ever had the pleasure of being exposed to.
We need more people like you in Hollywood, in publishing, and MOST OF ALL on Slashdot (snicker)... Please keep writing and keep working - we'll keep reading and watching.
(BTW - Loved you on VH-1's Top 100 Child Stars, but geez, you should have made the top 50... As you say, it's not like you were on Differ'nt Strokes.)
It's very nice to see Novell getting wise to the community. One of the biggest complaints I've always heard about SuSE was that they never made ISOs available to download. I think this a reasonable compromise - waiting several weeks to make ISOs available via FTP. That lets early-adopters buy the boxed copies and allows everyone else to wait a few weeks for an ISO download. I think this is commendable.
On the technology side, I've been using 9.3 Pro since it was released - and I've never been more impressed with a Linux distro. All of my complaints about 9.2 Pro and Novell Linux Desktop have been answered... there's better KDE/GNOME integration, enhanced YaST modules, and drivers for more recent hardware. Add to that new apps like Beagle, and I think 9.3 Pro is a glimpse of things to come in the next Novell Linux Desktop and SuSE Linux Enterprise.
Actually, US radio call signs begin with A, W, K, or N. The FCC has decided which service classes may use which call groups (e.g., broadcast stations are only assigned calls starting with W & N).
The entire alphabet is maintained by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and its precursors. The earliest assignment of these call letters to the US dates back to early radio in 1913, and has been maintained ever since.
Also, I'll have to look back into the time-dependent Schrodinger equation to remind myself how this plays in quantum mechanics.
Actually, the single-particle three-dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation does not account for spin or relativistic effects. If anything, you could use the configuration interaction method to analyze spin in a nonrelativistic Schrödinger equation.
Just wondering how little work I could get done without a network connection
On the contrary... I was just thinking about how much work I could get done with out an internet connection.
Mostly by the lack the same mechanisms... no e-mail, no slashdot, no websites... (lol) Nothing to do but focus on work.
Oh, wait - I'd need to lose the telephone and the rest of the drivelling idiots that work with me, too. (Or least lock them out of my workspace)
I don't think this is such a bad idea... isolate employees computers for work, and then give them a "communication zone" of PCs they can move to with network connections. Allow them one hour out of every four in the communication zone to do e-mail, surf the web, do research, etc. That's a great idea to increase productivity - especially in tech workers!
/me goes off to start a new productivity consulting firm...
That's exactly what it is... which is yet another facet of the differences between Novell and Red Hat. Novell has the money to apply their resources across a much broader spectrum than Red Hat - just by virtue of having more money. Also, they have much more staff on the payroll - and by extension, more time (read: manhours).
Initially, there were a lot of concerns when Novell acquired SuSE around their committment to Free Software. But they have repeatedly (YaST, SuSE Linux Open Exchange, FreeSWAN, Hula, etc.) shown that they are committed to the philosophy of Free Software - not just buying the technology to close it up, and make money from selling something proprietary. So, those concerns have been put to bed, it makes Novell/SuSE a very attractive Linux option. They have the resources, relationships, and talent to work quickly and effectively - developing solid, certified, and feature-rich open software.
Please don't mistake this comment as Red Hat bashing. I am simply pointing out that Novell has the resources to really make a difference in the US Linux market - and things like achieving EAL4 (so quickly) prove that.
There is an interesting piece in latest issue of Wired consisting of a fake "from the future"-style memo purporedly from Linus Torvalds to Bill Gates. The memo is set several years in the future, and speculates about Linus' concerns in the company's direction after working at Microsoft for several years.
While the piece is more than a little far-fetched, it raises an interesting question - has Microsoft ever just considered applying the "Embrace and Extend" philosophy to Linux and Open Source Software? Has it ever been considered that Microsoft actively pursue the competition by taking steps such as:
release a Windows-like, MS-managed window manager for Linux,
release Office for Linux,
create a Linux compatibility layer for Windows, and/or
create a Microsoft-managed Linux distribution?
I realize this is a lot to consider, and is a grand departure from the current business model, but these tools do not need to themselves be free software, or even open source. Many companies see the value of both Microsoft products and Open Source software. We would love to leverage both together, instead of feeling compelled to make a choice. I doubt there is any question in the minds of Microsoft's shareholders that these products would sell - there is certainly an appetite in the market.
All being said, my question - simply put - is, "Has Microsoft considered 'eliminating' the competition by extending into their space?" and "Why/Why Not? When can we expect the see the results of or a change in this thinking?"
Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't hate Microsoft by any means. In fact, I think they write some excellent application code - I use it on my Mac. I do, however, despise Microsoft's tactics, and choosing them as an IT vendor may make fiscal sense today... but will it make sense when they sue Red Hat, Novell, Apple, Sun, and everyone else out of the market in a flurry of patent suits? They don't even have to win the suits to force several major companies out of business in legal spending. Or worse, those companies could roll over... either way, we end up with Microsoft as a true monopoly.
And they won't engage in price fixing... no... not Microsoft... never....
As for the philisophical basis of Open Source (or, if you prefer, Free Software) - it all comes down to whether you drink Stallman's Kool-Aid© or Raymond's Kool-Aid©... Personally, I don't necessarily see this as an Open Source issue (though, I suspect we'll be the ones carrying the banners, so to speak) - I think Novell, Red Hat, Sun, IBM, HP, and every other software company that potentially violates one of Microsoft's crap patents should take a stand and drop support for Windows. Why sit there, like lambs waiting for the slaughter?
What is going to take for the open source community to fight back? To stop porting code to Windows? To stop releasing Firefox for Windows? To create artificial incompatibilities - I know that's counter-productive, but let's talk politics and economics, for a second.
If the U.S. government won't use the Sherman Anti-trust Act to stop Microsoft, we need to rely on one of the fundamental principles of capitalism - Adam Smith's invisible hand. We need to stop buying, supporting, using, and working with Microsoft software. I do know how crazy that sounds, but revolutions require revolutionary thinking.
Many of you claim that you use Windows because your employers do - that's a crock. Make a personal choice. I work for a Fortune 50, in an enterprise-level position, and I haven't owned a Windows machine in over 5 years. I have may 98% of everything I need at home and work function with Mac OS or Linux. In the extreme cases (that last 2%), I use CrossOver Office. Once (ONCE) in the last five years, I had to borrow a colleagues' Windows machine to complete some training - because our server software was so out of date that the manufacturer's Mac drivers didn't support the old protocols. Every opportunity I have to recommend standards, I oppose the implementation of further Windows desktop or server deployments.
Not, seriously, I'm not crazy - I know all of this isn't feasible for all of you. Don't do anything to risk your livelihood, your sustainable income, or the ability to feed your family, but seriously ask yourself... "Am I doing everything I can to support Linux and Open Source, and help prevent the patent threat that Microsoft represents?"
So may on Slashdot these days have become Microsoft apologists - they aren't that bad... their UI is far superior... I have to use them at the office... all the good games are only written for Windows... ad nauseam. We need to use what power we have to stave off a serious threat to the technologies we are personally passionate about. We are the developers, the administrations, and the infrastructure of the nation and world's IT organizations. We must stand strong if we want to have any options. Because after Linux, it's Mac OS, then Solaris, then AIX, until all that's left is Windows. All that's left is crap. Yes, it is *that* slippery a slope.
And, if we stand united, we can affect Microsoft's profits. Make their shareholders listen. Make the board of directors require policy changes. I don't hate Microsoft or any company - but this "Patent Cold War" is despicable.
I am not advocating overnight change 180 degrees. Only that you ask yourself one simple question every day...
"Am I doing everything I can to enable choice in technology?"
Oh. Thanks! :) That was really bugging me. (Short attention span, you know... articles from three days ago are ancient history!)
The hits just keep coming... I'm no Microsoft supporter, but that's a lot of bad PR for any company in one day - makes you feel sorry for them.
I wonder if all this negative press will affect their stock price in trading today. (Makes you feel sorry for their shareholders!)
Let's be perfectly clear here - when Novell says "cross-platform" referring to Windows and Linux, they mean Mono. As much as it sucks, they usually mean Mono.
.NET stuff will offer great performance and stability!
Thanks, Miguel... I'm sure that
Don't get me wrong, Mono sounds great in theory - cross-platform, ECMA-based code would be ideal. The problem is, the implementations I've seen to date (cough, cough, Beagle, cough) have serious resource-consumption issues.
So, basically, you're suggesting the Gentoo Strike Fighter or GSF. If I read at least part of your intentions correctly, you imply that every foreign buyer should essentially:
emerge fighter-software
on every piece of imported equipment.
There's official Novell screenshots (a nice sneak preview) online at http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/preview.htm l.
NetWare vs. Linux:
Okay - I've beat up the Linux/NetWare differences enough, but what about the business differences, and their impact on earnings?
Our standard corporate users have the following restrictions on e-mail:
- E-mail files are limited to between 30 and 500 MB, depending on job function and line of business. The average user has a 100 or 200 MB file limit.
- If a user exceeds this limit, all incoming and outgoing e-mail is "locked" (spooled and held) until the file is reduced back into compliance.
- No e-mail message may be kept for greater than one year from it's addition to the file. After one year, e-mails are automatically deleted.
- No e-mail message may be printed, saved, replicated, or other duplicated for the purposes of long-term storage. E-mails may be printed for normal day-to-day, but may not be filed in hardcopy format.
- Laptop users may not replicate their e-mail files locally. All e-mail must be accessed online from the server.
Of course, exceptions to these policies exist for groups with regulatory requirements for message retention, such as investment bankers. Additionally, customer interactions via e-mail are subject to a completely different set of rules - this is the just the ruleset for the average employee without much direct customer interaction.One of the largest drivers for these policies is to limit liability and exposure in the event of legal action. The goal here is not to eliminate messages (burn the evidence!), but to make backup and recovery feasible over the long-term. While an individual employee may not be able to keep an e-mail for more than one year, corporately we maintain backups of all e-mail messages for seven years. We are attempting to put reasonable limits in place to ensure that in the event an e-mail must be recovered for legal or regulatory reasons, it can be easily found and identified. We've also added additional technological measures to make this easier, such as using content-addressable storage for long-term archive of e-mail messages.
This policy is an inconvience for many workers - 200 MB of e-mail goes pretty quick, especially when e-mail is the preferred medium for exchanging documents. This is has forced our employees to change the way they use e-mail, as well as to take better advantage of other systems that had become passé, such as our file and print system.
If you are planning on putting limits such as these in place, make certain you communicate them well in advance. Provide your employees resources and guidance on how to best transition to the new policies, and offer tips on breaking bad e-mail habits.
Overall, large corporations cannot afford the risk or the cost of storing gigabytes of e-mail for every employee. It's a tough road, but one that many companies appear to be taking. Best of luck with your endevours.
Wiki technology must be great for open source project pages, or at least Novell thinks so... As best I can count, they have eight (or more) projects set up that either they manage, contribute to, or support using MediaWiki.
These are:
Mind you, these are all great sites, with good content. They seem to really be embracing the notion of community-driven projects, to the point of not only accepting community code, but also accepting additional community support though the use of Wiki for the websites and documentation. Take a browse through these sites, if you have time - they are full of great ideas on how to use a wiki.
Kudos to Novell for once again being innovative in open source. Give me even more hope for their future and for the success of SUSE Linux.
Actually, this is somewhat incorrect. I am a VP at top 5 US bank, and I used to lead the team that develops our public website. There are significant regulations and compliance issues that arise with public software testing, including the website. While I can only speak for my employer, we test against IE for Windows and Mac OS, Firefox on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, Safari, and Opera on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Additionally, we certify our site uses 100% W3C DTD-compliant DHTML and is fully accessable by users with disabilities.
There are certain laws that have been applied to banking websites, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and other anti-discrimination laws. Besides, it's much easier and cheaper for a bank's web team to design with accessability and browser compatibility in mind up front than do a bunch of back-porting and fixing when the customer complaints start rolling in - or worse, when the customer lawsuits start coming! Most banks I deal with also now hire external services to audit their sites for accessability.
Of course, these are only my opinions and do not officially represent the views or practices of my employer. YMMV. Blah blah blah.
I will tell you this - several companies I've been involved with, including my current employer, have hired entire teams with skillsets we needed. I've seen displaced teams hired, and I've seen current teams recruited. Here are the important points in selling your team (in my opinion):
Most importantly, though, don't get your hopes up. Finding a job for one person can be difficult enough - placing a whole team is a huge challenge. Consider contacting a few recruiting firms for advice, but don't expect too much. Finally, get your own resumé together, get it out there, and if something really good comes along - take it. Don't hold out forever hoping to place the whole group and pass up opportunities to put food on your table.
Please feel free to e-mail me if you'd like any further advice on this, or if you'd someone to review the "team resumé" I mentioned above. As a senior leader at Fortune 50 company, I have *some* hiring experience (wink!), and I've been on a team that was hired in together before. So, keep some hope - it does happen, rare though it might be.
I wish you the best of luck in this endeavor.
I don't know... for my money, it just doesn't get any better than the flamewar on the mailing list. Nothing like Linus calling Gnomers "interface nazis" and Nat calling KDE'ers "feature sluts (who never saw a checkbox they didn't love)".
Hilarious... I love these guys - that was a great laugh for the day.
So, basically, you're saying "Find all the people who spend their work days reading and posting on Slashdot, and execute them."
:)
Probably not a popular idea on here.
I actually posted a comment about this concept over a year ago (http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=78748&c id=6978433). Basically, the RIAA, Apple, Sony, or whoever could leverage a private currency (think of it as a complex application of gift certificates) in order to offer sub-one cent pricing for independant, emerging, or otherwise distribution-challenged artists.
This is an excellent opportunity to meet the market demand for lower cost songs. I may be willing to pay less than 99 for a b-side from a one-hit-wonder, but I doubt Apple will find much market in songs priced great than $1 - no matter how popular.
Leveraging a private currency, however, would allow Apple to fluctuate the value of songs without changing the "price" - and change the price structure as a whole based on market forces simply by changing the conversion rate.
There's a lot off interesting ideas here, from a purely economic perspective.
I never thought I'd have an issue with identity theft, as a Vice President at a top 5 U.S. bank (in IT, of course). Two years ago, I was building a MythTV DVR PC, and wanted to get a good deal. I scoured the internet for the lowest prices on every individual component, and along the way, apparently ended up giving my Visa CheckCard number to the wrong person.
Suffice to say, they did not need my SSN, or anything beyond what would normally be used to purchase items online. I found out when my card was denied at a store - the theif had emptied my primary checking account, and because I had overdraft protection, the attached savings account in one night. Nice thing was, the bank immediately reimbursed me for the fraudlent purchases, followed up with the police, and prosecuted. (Not simply because I am an employee, mind you - but I did get something most people in my situation don't, follow-up. Typically, the bank reimburses a customer and follows up with the authorities separately - without ever contacting the customer again unless required.)
Now, I use a random card number service associated with my credit card to purchase anything on the internet. It may not be the worst form of identity theft, but it can be inconvient, expensive, and time-consuming to recover. I had to deal with bounced checks for bills, and set the fraud alert on my credit bureaus as a result of this. It's certainly worth using a temporary card service if your bank or credit card company offer it.
Just my "It happened to me" tale, but it's one we hear over and over again these days.
Since Sony wants a "proof-of-purchase" style form, has anyone with this issue completed the form, and received the response? It's be interesting to see how Sony is telling people to circumvent their technology.
:)
I'd fill it out myself, but it's been over a year since I bought any music that wasn't from iTunes.
If you can wait and/or contribute, the IdeaForge module from the akoria project will do what you're looking for. Although it is more designed for group-developed content management, it will feature version control and WebDAV access to each user's work area.
Take a look at the meager homepage and see if you want to submit some feature requests.
This was me thinking the same as you - where's the open source project for group content management? But, after asking and getting few satisfactory answers, I just decided to go write it.
Any help will be much appreciated! And best of luck in your hunt...
Chrissakes, man - you're such a class-act it makes the rest of us look bad! I've see your movies, watched every episode of ST:TNG, read the blog (present tense), read the books (past tense), and I have to say, you take the cake.
Fuck the fact that this will be modded into oblivion, and I'll lose a little karma - I have to say it publically - you are one of the most talented, well-spoken, intellectually gifted, funny, and down-to-earth people I've ever had the pleasure of being exposed to.
We need more people like you in Hollywood, in publishing, and MOST OF ALL on Slashdot (snicker)... Please keep writing and keep working - we'll keep reading and watching.
(BTW - Loved you on VH-1's Top 100 Child Stars, but geez, you should have made the top 50... As you say, it's not like you were on Differ'nt Strokes.)
It's very nice to see Novell getting wise to the community. One of the biggest complaints I've always heard about SuSE was that they never made ISOs available to download. I think this a reasonable compromise - waiting several weeks to make ISOs available via FTP. That lets early-adopters buy the boxed copies and allows everyone else to wait a few weeks for an ISO download. I think this is commendable.
On the technology side, I've been using 9.3 Pro since it was released - and I've never been more impressed with a Linux distro. All of my complaints about 9.2 Pro and Novell Linux Desktop have been answered... there's better KDE/GNOME integration, enhanced YaST modules, and drivers for more recent hardware. Add to that new apps like Beagle, and I think 9.3 Pro is a glimpse of things to come in the next Novell Linux Desktop and SuSE Linux Enterprise.
Well done, guys. Keep up the good work!
Actually, US radio call signs begin with A, W, K, or N. The FCC has decided which service classes may use which call groups (e.g., broadcast stations are only assigned calls starting with W & N).
The entire alphabet is maintained by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and its precursors. The earliest assignment of these call letters to the US dates back to early radio in 1913, and has been maintained ever since.
73 de N4JCK
Actually, the single-particle three-dimensional time-dependent Schrödinger equation does not account for spin or relativistic effects. If anything, you could use the configuration interaction method to analyze spin in a nonrelativistic Schrödinger equation.
On the contrary... I was just thinking about how much work I could get done with out an internet connection.
Mostly by the lack the same mechanisms... no e-mail, no slashdot, no websites... (lol) Nothing to do but focus on work.
Oh, wait - I'd need to lose the telephone and the rest of the drivelling idiots that work with me, too. (Or least lock them out of my workspace)
I don't think this is such a bad idea... isolate employees computers for work, and then give them a "communication zone" of PCs they can move to with network connections. Allow them one hour out of every four in the communication zone to do e-mail, surf the web, do research, etc. That's a great idea to increase productivity - especially in tech workers!
It's really a matter of money and time.
That's exactly what it is... which is yet another facet of the differences between Novell and Red Hat. Novell has the money to apply their resources across a much broader spectrum than Red Hat - just by virtue of having more money. Also, they have much more staff on the payroll - and by extension, more time (read: manhours).
Initially, there were a lot of concerns when Novell acquired SuSE around their committment to Free Software. But they have repeatedly (YaST, SuSE Linux Open Exchange, FreeSWAN, Hula, etc.) shown that they are committed to the philosophy of Free Software - not just buying the technology to close it up, and make money from selling something proprietary. So, those concerns have been put to bed, it makes Novell/SuSE a very attractive Linux option. They have the resources, relationships, and talent to work quickly and effectively - developing solid, certified, and feature-rich open software.
Please don't mistake this comment as Red Hat bashing. I am simply pointing out that Novell has the resources to really make a difference in the US Linux market - and things like achieving EAL4 (so quickly) prove that.
While the piece is more than a little far-fetched, it raises an interesting question - has Microsoft ever just considered applying the "Embrace and Extend" philosophy to Linux and Open Source Software? Has it ever been considered that Microsoft actively pursue the competition by taking steps such as:
I realize this is a lot to consider, and is a grand departure from the current business model, but these tools do not need to themselves be free software, or even open source. Many companies see the value of both Microsoft products and Open Source software. We would love to leverage both together, instead of feeling compelled to make a choice. I doubt there is any question in the minds of Microsoft's shareholders that these products would sell - there is certainly an appetite in the market.
All being said, my question - simply put - is, "Has Microsoft considered 'eliminating' the competition by extending into their space?" and "Why/Why Not? When can we expect the see the results of or a change in this thinking?"
Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.