You're making *huge* assumptions here, which, to be fair may be true for your own situation.
On the other hand, I regularly have to install legitimate and mandatory software that fails unless I turn off AV during the installation process or "exempt" it as an exception. Big projects requiring extreme focus are often done on a weekend because that's the only time a team can work without constant bureaucratic distraction. Many of the Service Desks or people authorized to alter group policy to allow disabling of AV are often only available during limited hours...typically leave early on Friday, etc....meaning the install will fail...until the three-day weekend is over. It's narrow thinking like yours that demoralizes those that actually work at making a difference....and people wonder why bureaucracies can never think outside of the box and constantly lose their top performers.
My use-case is getting around the annoying iTunes ecosystem. I want to use simple file-system level organization and commands. For a bunch of reasons, I like full tower desktop computers and the command line as the very first icon on the desktop. I travel a lot and keep a full tower desktops in several cities. iTunes seems to think I only need to be tethered to one computer AND THREATENS to ERASE ALL my data because it's synching with a computer other than my "home" computer, which is typically in a completely different city when I want to transfer my media files. I don't like devices that try to restrict me to certain paths and channels and assert control over devices and data that I built and own. I also walk around a lot without a backpack so, I want use my phone as a makeshift tablet.
Want to sell your new model for $1,000? For me it's simple. Put back the audio jack, make it a bit thicker and stronger. Add the capability to routinely swap micro-SD cards and I'll gladly pay $1,200. I feel like the new smart phones are still trying to market sexy styling ahead of swiss army knife capability...much like cars.
This one is easy to field only, if you're ignorant about economics and how the real world works.
You seem to start with a number of false, but emotionally-validating assumptions: 1.) No human has ever done enough work to justify $600,000,000." This means you equate work with effort. While loosely related, they are not the same. For example, lots of people put huge effort into producing minimal changes in outcome. There are some rare individuals that can produce big changes in outcome with minimal effort. For concrete examples of decoupled relationships between effort and outcome, watch a football game. You'll find plenty of examples where effort did not equal outcome. 2.) "They didn't do it on their own." You seem to want to believe that "going it alone" is the only legitimate way to create large changes in value. While it might be emotionally satisfying, history shows this generally isn't true so you need to get that notion out of your head and grow up. There are many ways to create large changes in value and most involved large numbers of relatively unskilled people organized and focused by one pivotal individual with rare skills, whom without, the project would have failed. Most meaningful changes in outcome require a team organized in a hierarchical pyramid of skills. 3.) They did it off the back off hundreds of other people who will never see a penny of that money, despite earning it for them. I'm going to assume your emotional statement of jealousy and hatred is referencing rank-and-file employees at the bottom of the pyramid. Obviously, they already received more than a penny of money for their efforts. It's highly likely they earned "dollars" instead of a single penny for their efforts. In fact, it's statistically likely they earned several hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a major project...whether that project was successful or not! Some of it in direct pay, some of it in indirect benefits. The ownership or management classes of whom you're jealous and hateful likely took deferred compensation, by agreement from those that risked capital.
You seem to have little actual real-world experience in the economy that you're too willing to criticize with nothing more than statements of jealousy. To change your sorry situation, I suggest you stop putting emotional effort into criticizing others and re-direct your energy into producing something of value and go make it successful. Do not surround yourself with those that think the way you write...or you'll fail.
I used to spend most of my days passing through airports and on the road, needing to print to whatever printer was at that day's location. After installing a few hundred printer "drivers" you get a feel for just how much everyone else owns your computer, and that, yes, "security updates" may indeed be misnamed. I developed a strong appreciation for the detailed view of Task Manager, SNORT and WinPcap. I hated that so much of my attention was diverted from business and sunk into studying all the "legitimate" crap on my computer. Inkjets were the worst offenders and HP was the worst of the brands for crapware. I also remember developing a strong bias for a certain Asian "sewing machine brand" of cheap printers because their drivers and software was measured in kbytes TOTAL size and didn't try to sell me anything or collect info.
Those of us interested in tracking every detail of your single-purchase behaviors...then selling that info to another entity...strongly disagree that there isn't a need to force you to voluntarily register and create an account. Despite your tone indicating that you disagree with this practice, our records clearly show you clicked "I agree."
Hopefully their fashionable office is more flexible and able to accommodate their changing needs than their phones. I miss phones with protective bezels, distinctive-feeling controls at the edges, changeable memory cards, upgradable batteries and standardized audio jacks. Fair or not, I generally assign blame to Apple for for the loss of these features and laughably-thin form factors requiring after-market protection shock-protection on even the majority most non-Apple phones. If their office is absolutely locked into a certain "visionary and innovative plan" well...Apple will just have to deal with it, just like they've made us deal with their silly fashion dictates.
I respect that facebook needs to make money. I would like to see a user-paid option, thus allowing me to participate by spending my money to pay my own way, so that facebook can monetize me directly filter out all ads and protect my private info.
Participation was not optional, in my case, if I wanted to keep my high-paying IT job. Our clients used facebook as the sole method for registration and tracking in mandatory activities.
I objected strenuously on principle and offered several workable alternatives, including asking the organizers to make up a fictitious account for me to use (I didn't want to be the one committing fraud) and was told I was being a "P.I.T.A." about privacy, as the whole point was to use a single, consolidated, low-cost method for tracking/reporting registration, participation, etc.
There's only one reason individuals & institutions reference the Oxford English Dictionary and it isn't to keep up with slang. Funny how Oxford English Dictionary lexicographers want to keep in sync with popular use of English, but, don't seem want to keep in sync with the dictionary's current role as a de facto authoritative reference. There more it strays from that de facto role, the more likely it is to lose its relevance...and enviable position as the world's authority in a rapidly growing language.
There's a parallel lesson to be learned from watching Radio Shack give up its dominance in a market about to show rapid growth. In the late 1970's and early 1980's Radio Shack was the de facto nerdy electronics store. They had nearly 100% of the market. One indicator of its dominance was that everyone included Radio-Shack part-numbers in their circuit designs. Another was that, to learn electronics, people bought reference books from Radio Shack and not a book store. In switching their floor-space to selling ordinary consumer goods, they failed to recognize their dominant position in a market about to show major growth. They left a vacuum in their wake obvious to everyone but Radio Shack and allowed firms like Fry's Electronics to fill the space they didn't recognize was valuable. Similarly, the Oxford English Dictionary has a core-competency as the world's authority on a language that's rapidly becoming the world's standard.
Attorney: Sir, You clicked "I agree." User: "Prove it. (I didn't agree to anything, as I don't install my own software. A technician does that.) Until you can prove I read and clicked the agreement, go away."
So...slashdot is where online retailers post ads at no cost, solicit consumer feedback on shopping deals. I had slashdot bookmarked under tech/science. Long past time to change that.
TSA wants laptops in cargo hold where they can't be observed by other passengers or extinguished. Phone batteries and 115v outlets obviously produce more power than 9 volt batteries.
The people in the seats next to me are getting fatter. The seats are shrinking.
If TSA won't let me be engrossed in my high-end laptop on a coast-to-coast flight, I'm pretty sure some optional meetings just aren't going to happen anymore...at least in my case.
I'd consider longer-duration ground travel once self-driving cars are routinely and economically available.
The FCC, of all people, should show leadership in implementing the obvious. It's a shame they haven't. My PowerPoints somehow ended up on the internet with my cell number still on the last slide. My phone gets flooded with SIP-spoofing robocallers.
There are times you need high security, trust and credential-based accountability. Different times, you need cheap, easy, free-wheeling communication that allows high anonymity and will accept a lot of junk communication as a consequence. I think we currently have this, and just pretend it's well regulated, when it's obviously not.
1. We need one very secure phone system in which spoofing is extremely difficult and well regulated. It's misuse involves tough criminal penalties and a well-funded unit, with global reach, for investigation of its mis-use. It's okay if its expensive. For many it will be worth it.
2. We need one phone system that is very lightly regulated and allows spoofing, anonymity, etc. It must allow for rapid innovation, have stable, well-understood interconnect standards, allow lots of small competitors, be cheap and globally available.
A reasonable conceptual starting point is something similar to SIPRNet and NIPRNet, but architected for citizens and businesses.
You reap what you sow, but too many people my age are these weird cargo cultists who expect good fortune to one day rain down on them from the sky. Whatever. Less people I have to compete with so I don't really care what they do.
What they will do is elect slick thugs in suits that promise to take money from you (or your progeny) and rain down benefits on them. They won't quite state it so simply. They will sugar-coat it or cloak it in victimization or equality. Frankly, the rest is just detail.
Instead of borrowing, I worked many jobs in college as well. As a high-school kid, I had a paper route, flipped burgers at McDonalds, etc., so, I already had my own money. For college, I picked majors (engineering, economics) and individual classes that had long-term economic value. I assumed classes in oil painting history or dance interpretation were for those who were heirs of the very wealthy and most definitely *not* intended for someone that wanted to make something of themselves or build cool things. The economy was awful. I got picked up, full-time, in my second year of college by a campus recruiter that didn't care if I finished my degree. She said she liked the consistent pattern of hard work, good decisions, economic literacy and technical aptitude. She pulled me into an old and storied publicly-traded global computer firm. That I already had years of experience getting up at 5:30am to deliver papers or flip eggs for the drive through certainly didn't hurt. I didn't expect to raise a family on minimum wage. That's either stupid, ignorant or both. I knew and accepted they were starter jobs. Politicians are hell-bent on removing all the bottom rungs of a career ladder. Too bad it's politically incorrect to say so.
Apple is that stylish chic majoring in Art. As long as you're free with your wallet, she's a reliable and easy date, a lot of fun, and can be serious in some limited areas. You're not a sports coach, so you don't care about stats showing that she can't sprint as fast as the next woman. She's fast where it matters. She reliably shows up seconds after you phone her and she rarely complains. Having her on your arm impresses others. Until she has a breakdown. It's a total breakdown that requires an appointment with this genious shrink at the same shopping mall where you first met her.
Windows is the controlling and demanding wife that your co-workers want you to stick with. You married her because it was expected of you. Giving her your wallet seems to make things better. She pretends to like your female acquaintances and embraces them, looking predatory as she does so. After a few years they mysteriously vanish from the scene and your wife seems to have picked up some of their habits. Your wife is familiar to you. That's gotta count for something, right? You're adjusting to her constant false alarms, nagging to upgrade the furniture and regularly renew your marriage vows. Then she comes back from the beauty shop with a complicated hairdo and strange makeover she expects you to like. Don't like it? Tough! It's because you're some kind of TROGLODYTE with a strange fetish for "classic" looks. You suspect she's trying to evolve her look to be more like that fun liberal arts major you're tempted to have a fling with.
Linux is that attractive, dark-haired woman from South America that barely speaks your native language. The easily-intimidated like to look at her, but don't bother to ask her out. She's a bit mysterious, even strange. She seems more comfortable living without the limitations of clothes, or even "style." She seems simultaneously young and ancient. For you, she is willing to put on many different styles to make shallow people like you comfortable. Just pick a look that is a good compromise between pretty and functional. Her hairdo is old-world classic, long and straight. Money doesn't seem to impress her, but you have to invest time in finding just the right words to woo her. You had to learn the right words to even get your first date with her. She respects your funds and your privacy. On your first date, you notice she doesn't constantly demand your attention, your wallet or paw through your contact list then send your information to her mother. You've learned that if you ignore her for a long time, she doesn't get tired, impatient or shut down. She merely blinks and waits patiently for your command...in the language she knows well and you're still trying to master. She is always compliant. Despite all this, something about her says "very dangerous." Maybe it's that she rarely questions what you say, she just does it. You sense that if you placed a loaded revolver on the table and suggested a game of Russian Roulette, there's a possibility she might ask "Are you sure?" but once you said "yes," she'd be pulling the trigger. One time, at the dinner table, she starting placing down items in front of you: A brake rotor, brake pad, hydrualic fluid...and you interrupt her. "What is this stuff?" you ask. She says "You asked me to give you a brake. Did you not want one?" You comment that she's not intuitive. She ought to come with a manual. She replies that, in her case, she does in fact, come with one...you just need to Read The Fine Manual. (RTFM) You pick it up, flip to a random page and notice it's in the same language that she thoroughly understands and you're still trying to master. Years into the relationship, you ask her to marry you. Let's get a marriage license. She looks at you strangely and says she already gives freely of herself asks why you need a piece of paper to feel legitimate. You sense you said something horribly wrong and update the manual as a warning to others. You learn of a young man that keeps saying the wrong words to his own woman. Now a veteran at this, you irritably tell the stupid noob to "Read The Fine Manual"...and then it dawns on you... You've become one of "them."
I agree. I just want to get stuff done. The problem with "toasters" is sometimes I want to toast standard sliced bread efficiently. Other times, it's the oversized bagel or 1 slice of last night's pizza.
I generally find I need to use all three major platforms (MacBook, Windows, 'nix) to get stuff done. I like and hate all three.
"Bang for buck" is a deeply situational metric. In one situation "bang" might mean the speed at which they can get their grandpa comfortable with video chat after unboxing the device. In another "bang" might mean maximum number of programs per buck. To a hardware enthusiast "bang" might be CPU processing power, RAM or SSD regardless of the flaky drivers and aged, semi-corrupted bloatware it's hosting. It all depends on your circumstances and I'm glad there's variety.
MacBook - My favorite for casual browsing and consumption of pop-media. It's relatively trouble-free for that use. I don't try to push it into other roles. My annoyances are iTunes thoroughly sucks when I want to work with my media *files* and *directories* to put them on my non-Apple devices. I'm glad that Apple interfaces are relatively dumbed down, consistent and don't change frequently. This means I can invest in muscle-memory and my written procedures stay relevant.
Windows & PC - Great for hardcore gaming and exotic hardware. While I hate the mandatory "cloudification platforms" that Windows and Office are becoming, for the next year or so, Windows will still be my go-to platform for interacting with other business and governments that have bought into monopolistic IT. Most files I get and must edit are produced using office and I have to submit MS-Office files. Yes there are alternative hoops to jump through, but they all suck even more than the default "me too" approach. I refuse to invest in muscle-memory with Windows interfaces anymore. Menus and buttons often move around before I can finish the illustrated cheat-sheets. Another annoyance is that licensing for a complex environment is a huge, career-sucking distraction. If my total licensing time were included in TCO calculations, Microsoft/PC platforms would regularly lose. The latest versions of Office and Windows feel less like "productivity platforms" and more like "continuous distraction platforms." I'm now investing in re-designing around open 'Nix platforms for business so that I can get some upgrade control and interface stability back.
Unix is my favorite platform for "It's MY computer dag-nabbit..not yours! Leave me the cluck alone." Apple and Microsoft keep trying to use my own computer against me to trick me into getting my wallet and data deeply entangled with them and having continuous connections to their servers. 'Nix doesn't try to hide my media files from me, study my usage patterns or keep me continuously connected to the corporate mothership or nag me (or my customers) about upgrades.
Point of Order: It's *not* a reward for failure. It's a consolation prize for not winning the bigger reward and accepting very high probability of a publicly-destroyed career, lots of humiliation and public hate. The payment is to entice someone that already has rising pay and career prospects to knowingly take on "mission impossible" like beating Google with the full knowledge it will likely destroy their career and reputation.
The many posts I've seen here validate that the risk to reputation was indeed, a real one.
Marissa was a disaster, but frankly, so was the project she took on. I'm sure that many people besides me thought they could have done better against Google, but those are untested, ego-inflating opinions of little value.
The bright circle at night is a summer-only phenomenon. As everyone from Seattle can plainly see, the ceiling is light mottled gray in the daytime and dark mottled gray at night.
Also at an old job...I was mini-mainframe programmer/analyst rendered nearly ineffective by a sysadmin that set up automatic log-out after A FEW MINUTES of keyboard inactivity from the terminal in the name of security. I didn't appreciate having my thought-train derailed every few minutes by a message saying I'd been kicked off. My terminal was a DOS-based PC running terminal emulation software. I wrote a macro to insert two keystrokes into the keyboard buffer every few minutes. (cursor-right followed by cursor-left.)
Slashdot Mirror
You're making *huge* assumptions here, which, to be fair may be true for your own situation.
On the other hand, I regularly have to install legitimate and mandatory software that fails unless I turn off AV during the installation process or "exempt" it as an exception. Big projects requiring extreme focus are often done on a weekend because that's the only time a team can work without constant bureaucratic distraction. Many of the Service Desks or people authorized to alter group policy to allow disabling of AV are often only available during limited hours...typically leave early on Friday, etc. ...meaning the install will fail...until the three-day weekend is over. It's narrow thinking like yours that demoralizes those that actually work at making a difference. ...and people wonder why bureaucracies can never think outside of the box and constantly lose their top performers.
My use-case is getting around the annoying iTunes ecosystem. I want to use simple file-system level organization and commands. For a bunch of reasons, I like full tower desktop computers and the command line as the very first icon on the desktop. I travel a lot and keep a full tower desktops in several cities. iTunes seems to think I only need to be tethered to one computer AND THREATENS to ERASE ALL my data because it's synching with a computer other than my "home" computer, which is typically in a completely different city when I want to transfer my media files. I don't like devices that try to restrict me to certain paths and channels and assert control over devices and data that I built and own. I also walk around a lot without a backpack so, I want use my phone as a makeshift tablet.
Want to sell your new model for $1,000? For me it's simple. Put back the audio jack, make it a bit thicker and stronger. Add the capability to routinely swap micro-SD cards and I'll gladly pay $1,200. I feel like the new smart phones are still trying to market sexy styling ahead of swiss army knife capability...much like cars.
This one is easy to field only, if you're ignorant about economics and how the real world works.
You seem to start with a number of false, but emotionally-validating assumptions: 1.) No human has ever done enough work to justify $600,000,000." This means you equate work with effort. While loosely related, they are not the same. For example, lots of people put huge effort into producing minimal changes in outcome. There are some rare individuals that can produce big changes in outcome with minimal effort. For concrete examples of decoupled relationships between effort and outcome, watch a football game. You'll find plenty of examples where effort did not equal outcome. 2.) "They didn't do it on their own." You seem to want to believe that "going it alone" is the only legitimate way to create large changes in value. While it might be emotionally satisfying, history shows this generally isn't true so you need to get that notion out of your head and grow up. There are many ways to create large changes in value and most involved large numbers of relatively unskilled people organized and focused by one pivotal individual with rare skills, whom without, the project would have failed. Most meaningful changes in outcome require a team organized in a hierarchical pyramid of skills. 3.) They did it off the back off hundreds of other people who will never see a penny of that money, despite earning it for them. I'm going to assume your emotional statement of jealousy and hatred is referencing rank-and-file employees at the bottom of the pyramid. Obviously, they already received more than a penny of money for their efforts. It's highly likely they earned "dollars" instead of a single penny for their efforts. In fact, it's statistically likely they earned several hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a major project...whether that project was successful or not! Some of it in direct pay, some of it in indirect benefits. The ownership or management classes of whom you're jealous and hateful likely took deferred compensation, by agreement from those that risked capital.
You seem to have little actual real-world experience in the economy that you're too willing to criticize with nothing more than statements of jealousy. To change your sorry situation, I suggest you stop putting emotional effort into criticizing others and re-direct your energy into producing something of value and go make it successful. Do not surround yourself with those that think the way you write...or you'll fail.
I used to spend most of my days passing through airports and on the road, needing to print to whatever printer was at that day's location. After installing a few hundred printer "drivers" you get a feel for just how much everyone else owns your computer, and that, yes, "security updates" may indeed be misnamed. I developed a strong appreciation for the detailed view of Task Manager, SNORT and WinPcap. I hated that so much of my attention was diverted from business and sunk into studying all the "legitimate" crap on my computer. Inkjets were the worst offenders and HP was the worst of the brands for crapware. I also remember developing a strong bias for a certain Asian "sewing machine brand" of cheap printers because their drivers and software was measured in kbytes TOTAL size and didn't try to sell me anything or collect info.
So, free speech, if it's political, needs to be regulated and those exercising it to call for change need to be identifiable? Really?
I suspect that a massive amount of cost has been pushed to the unknowing consumer - possibly many times what the cost of better programming would be.
Let's see...Swift takes more memory, users react by upgrading to iPhones w/more memory and more profit margins for Apple.
Older versions of Windows get slow and bloated with extensive patching, users react by getting new computers, boosting OEM license sales.
Conclusion: It cuts expense while simultaneously increasing sales. That's win-win!
Those of us interested in tracking every detail of your single-purchase behaviors...then selling that info to another entity...strongly disagree that there isn't a need to force you to voluntarily register and create an account. Despite your tone indicating that you disagree with this practice, our records clearly show you clicked "I agree."
Hopefully their fashionable office is more flexible and able to accommodate their changing needs than their phones. I miss phones with protective bezels, distinctive-feeling controls at the edges, changeable memory cards, upgradable batteries and standardized audio jacks. Fair or not, I generally assign blame to Apple for for the loss of these features and laughably-thin form factors requiring after-market protection shock-protection on even the majority most non-Apple phones. If their office is absolutely locked into a certain "visionary and innovative plan" well...Apple will just have to deal with it, just like they've made us deal with their silly fashion dictates.
I respect that facebook needs to make money. I would like to see a user-paid option, thus allowing me to participate by spending my money to pay my own way, so that facebook can monetize me directly filter out all ads and protect my private info.
Participation was not optional, in my case, if I wanted to keep my high-paying IT job. Our clients used facebook as the sole method for registration and tracking in mandatory activities.
I objected strenuously on principle and offered several workable alternatives, including asking the organizers to make up a fictitious account for me to use (I didn't want to be the one committing fraud) and was told I was being a "P.I.T.A." about privacy, as the whole point was to use a single, consolidated, low-cost method for tracking/reporting registration, participation, etc.
There's only one reason individuals & institutions reference the Oxford English Dictionary and it isn't to keep up with slang. Funny how Oxford English Dictionary lexicographers want to keep in sync with popular use of English, but, don't seem want to keep in sync with the dictionary's current role as a de facto authoritative reference. There more it strays from that de facto role, the more likely it is to lose its relevance...and enviable position as the world's authority in a rapidly growing language.
There's a parallel lesson to be learned from watching Radio Shack give up its dominance in a market about to show rapid growth. In the late 1970's and early 1980's Radio Shack was the de facto nerdy electronics store. They had nearly 100% of the market. One indicator of its dominance was that everyone included Radio-Shack part-numbers in their circuit designs. Another was that, to learn electronics, people bought reference books from Radio Shack and not a book store. In switching their floor-space to selling ordinary consumer goods, they failed to recognize their dominant position in a market about to show major growth. They left a vacuum in their wake obvious to everyone but Radio Shack and allowed firms like Fry's Electronics to fill the space they didn't recognize was valuable. Similarly, the Oxford English Dictionary has a core-competency as the world's authority on a language that's rapidly becoming the world's standard.
Attorney: Sir, You clicked "I agree." User: "Prove it. (I didn't agree to anything, as I don't install my own software. A technician does that.) Until you can prove I read and clicked the agreement, go away."
So...slashdot is where online retailers post ads at no cost, solicit consumer feedback on shopping deals. I had slashdot bookmarked under tech/science. Long past time to change that.
TSA wants laptops in cargo hold where they can't be observed by other passengers or extinguished. Phone batteries and 115v outlets obviously produce more power than 9 volt batteries.
The people in the seats next to me are getting fatter. The seats are shrinking.
If TSA won't let me be engrossed in my high-end laptop on a coast-to-coast flight, I'm pretty sure some optional meetings just aren't going to happen anymore...at least in my case.
I'd consider longer-duration ground travel once self-driving cars are routinely and economically available.
The FCC, of all people, should show leadership in implementing the obvious. It's a shame they haven't. My PowerPoints somehow ended up on the internet with my cell number still on the last slide. My phone gets flooded with SIP-spoofing robocallers.
There are times you need high security, trust and credential-based accountability. Different times, you need cheap, easy, free-wheeling communication that allows high anonymity and will accept a lot of junk communication as a consequence. I think we currently have this, and just pretend it's well regulated, when it's obviously not.
1. We need one very secure phone system in which spoofing is extremely difficult and well regulated. It's misuse involves tough criminal penalties and a well-funded unit, with global reach, for investigation of its mis-use. It's okay if its expensive. For many it will be worth it.
2. We need one phone system that is very lightly regulated and allows spoofing, anonymity, etc. It must allow for rapid innovation, have stable, well-understood interconnect standards, allow lots of small competitors, be cheap and globally available.
A reasonable conceptual starting point is something similar to SIPRNet and NIPRNet, but architected for citizens and businesses.
Because we're thoughtful, intelligent beings and not mindless reactionary thugs.
You reap what you sow, but too many people my age are these weird cargo cultists who expect good fortune to one day rain down on them from the sky. Whatever. Less people I have to compete with so I don't really care what they do.
What they will do is elect slick thugs in suits that promise to take money from you (or your progeny) and rain down benefits on them. They won't quite state it so simply. They will sugar-coat it or cloak it in victimization or equality. Frankly, the rest is just detail.
Instead of borrowing, I worked many jobs in college as well. As a high-school kid, I had a paper route, flipped burgers at McDonalds, etc., so, I already had my own money. For college, I picked majors (engineering, economics) and individual classes that had long-term economic value. I assumed classes in oil painting history or dance interpretation were for those who were heirs of the very wealthy and most definitely *not* intended for someone that wanted to make something of themselves or build cool things. The economy was awful. I got picked up, full-time, in my second year of college by a campus recruiter that didn't care if I finished my degree. She said she liked the consistent pattern of hard work, good decisions, economic literacy and technical aptitude. She pulled me into an old and storied publicly-traded global computer firm. That I already had years of experience getting up at 5:30am to deliver papers or flip eggs for the drive through certainly didn't hurt. I didn't expect to raise a family on minimum wage. That's either stupid, ignorant or both. I knew and accepted they were starter jobs. Politicians are hell-bent on removing all the bottom rungs of a career ladder. Too bad it's politically incorrect to say so.
I'm doing something about it. I made a bunch of snarky comments at lunch and online.
If compared to women:
Apple is that stylish chic majoring in Art. As long as you're free with your wallet, she's a reliable and easy date, a lot of fun, and can be serious in some limited areas. You're not a sports coach, so you don't care about stats showing that she can't sprint as fast as the next woman. She's fast where it matters. She reliably shows up seconds after you phone her and she rarely complains. Having her on your arm impresses others. Until she has a breakdown. It's a total breakdown that requires an appointment with this genious shrink at the same shopping mall where you first met her.
Windows is the controlling and demanding wife that your co-workers want you to stick with. You married her because it was expected of you. Giving her your wallet seems to make things better. She pretends to like your female acquaintances and embraces them, looking predatory as she does so. After a few years they mysteriously vanish from the scene and your wife seems to have picked up some of their habits. Your wife is familiar to you. That's gotta count for something, right? You're adjusting to her constant false alarms, nagging to upgrade the furniture and regularly renew your marriage vows. Then she comes back from the beauty shop with a complicated hairdo and strange makeover she expects you to like. Don't like it? Tough! It's because you're some kind of TROGLODYTE with a strange fetish for "classic" looks. You suspect she's trying to evolve her look to be more like that fun liberal arts major you're tempted to have a fling with.
Linux is that attractive, dark-haired woman from South America that barely speaks your native language. The easily-intimidated like to look at her, but don't bother to ask her out. She's a bit mysterious, even strange. She seems more comfortable living without the limitations of clothes, or even "style." She seems simultaneously young and ancient. For you, she is willing to put on many different styles to make shallow people like you comfortable. Just pick a look that is a good compromise between pretty and functional. Her hairdo is old-world classic, long and straight. Money doesn't seem to impress her, but you have to invest time in finding just the right words to woo her. You had to learn the right words to even get your first date with her. She respects your funds and your privacy. On your first date, you notice she doesn't constantly demand your attention, your wallet or paw through your contact list then send your information to her mother. You've learned that if you ignore her for a long time, she doesn't get tired, impatient or shut down. She merely blinks and waits patiently for your command...in the language she knows well and you're still trying to master. She is always compliant. Despite all this, something about her says "very dangerous." Maybe it's that she rarely questions what you say, she just does it. You sense that if you placed a loaded revolver on the table and suggested a game of Russian Roulette, there's a possibility she might ask "Are you sure?" but once you said "yes," she'd be pulling the trigger. One time, at the dinner table, she starting placing down items in front of you: A brake rotor, brake pad, hydrualic fluid...and you interrupt her. "What is this stuff?" you ask. She says "You asked me to give you a brake. Did you not want one?" You comment that she's not intuitive. She ought to come with a manual. She replies that, in her case, she does in fact, come with one...you just need to Read The Fine Manual. (RTFM) You pick it up, flip to a random page and notice it's in the same language that she thoroughly understands and you're still trying to master. Years into the relationship, you ask her to marry you. Let's get a marriage license. She looks at you strangely and says she already gives freely of herself asks why you need a piece of paper to feel legitimate. You sense you said something horribly wrong and update the manual as a warning to others. You learn of a young man that keeps saying the wrong words to his own woman. Now a veteran at this, you irritably tell the stupid noob to "Read The Fine Manual" ...and then it dawns on you... You've become one of "them."
I agree. I just want to get stuff done. The problem with "toasters" is sometimes I want to toast standard sliced bread efficiently. Other times, it's the oversized bagel or 1 slice of last night's pizza.
I generally find I need to use all three major platforms (MacBook, Windows, 'nix) to get stuff done. I like and hate all three.
"Bang for buck" is a deeply situational metric. In one situation "bang" might mean the speed at which they can get their grandpa comfortable with video chat after unboxing the device. In another "bang" might mean maximum number of programs per buck. To a hardware enthusiast "bang" might be CPU processing power, RAM or SSD regardless of the flaky drivers and aged, semi-corrupted bloatware it's hosting. It all depends on your circumstances and I'm glad there's variety.
MacBook - My favorite for casual browsing and consumption of pop-media. It's relatively trouble-free for that use. I don't try to push it into other roles. My annoyances are iTunes thoroughly sucks when I want to work with my media *files* and *directories* to put them on my non-Apple devices. I'm glad that Apple interfaces are relatively dumbed down, consistent and don't change frequently. This means I can invest in muscle-memory and my written procedures stay relevant.
Windows & PC - Great for hardcore gaming and exotic hardware. While I hate the mandatory "cloudification platforms" that Windows and Office are becoming, for the next year or so, Windows will still be my go-to platform for interacting with other business and governments that have bought into monopolistic IT. Most files I get and must edit are produced using office and I have to submit MS-Office files. Yes there are alternative hoops to jump through, but they all suck even more than the default "me too" approach. I refuse to invest in muscle-memory with Windows interfaces anymore. Menus and buttons often move around before I can finish the illustrated cheat-sheets. Another annoyance is that licensing for a complex environment is a huge, career-sucking distraction. If my total licensing time were included in TCO calculations, Microsoft/PC platforms would regularly lose. The latest versions of Office and Windows feel less like "productivity platforms" and more like "continuous distraction platforms." I'm now investing in re-designing around open 'Nix platforms for business so that I can get some upgrade control and interface stability back.
Unix is my favorite platform for "It's MY computer dag-nabbit..not yours! Leave me the cluck alone." Apple and Microsoft keep trying to use my own computer against me to trick me into getting my wallet and data deeply entangled with them and having continuous connections to their servers. 'Nix doesn't try to hide my media files from me, study my usage patterns or keep me continuously connected to the corporate mothership or nag me (or my customers) about upgrades.
Please mod parent up as informative.
Point of Order: It's *not* a reward for failure. It's a consolation prize for not winning the bigger reward and accepting very high probability of a publicly-destroyed career, lots of humiliation and public hate. The payment is to entice someone that already has rising pay and career prospects to knowingly take on "mission impossible" like beating Google with the full knowledge it will likely destroy their career and reputation.
The many posts I've seen here validate that the risk to reputation was indeed, a real one.
Marissa was a disaster, but frankly, so was the project she took on. I'm sure that many people besides me thought they could have done better against Google, but those are untested, ego-inflating opinions of little value.
The bright circle at night is a summer-only phenomenon. As everyone from Seattle can plainly see, the ceiling is light mottled gray in the daytime and dark mottled gray at night.
Please mod parent up.
Also at an old job...I was mini-mainframe programmer/analyst rendered nearly ineffective by a sysadmin that set up automatic log-out after A FEW MINUTES of keyboard inactivity from the terminal in the name of security. I didn't appreciate having my thought-train derailed every few minutes by a message saying I'd been kicked off. My terminal was a DOS-based PC running terminal emulation software. I wrote a macro to insert two keystrokes into the keyboard buffer every few minutes. (cursor-right followed by cursor-left.)