Not only that, but it seems to me that plumbers make way more than I do as a fairly entry level IT person. I have been working in the field for several years (luckly I got in after the bomb) and I have been bouncing from contract to contract at companies too small to support a full time IT person. I think a lot of the unhappiness does not come just from the (l)users but also the management and staff that seem to belive that IT is an expendable line item, since we don't bring in any actual revenue.
I like the place that I work, but I know that they have no loyalty to me as a worker, and that tends to weigh me down at times, especially when I hear that it's going to be a "tight year".
I started playing D&D games, many years ago, and started off with the first edition in the boxed set. Since then I have seen major revisions, changes, arguments and even fights over rules. The game has changed, but many of the player have not! I actually recently quit gaming, because even with the new rules, the death of THAC0 and the advent of mainstream MMPORPGs, I just keep on running into the same types of games. I tried some of the inde games, and found much humor and quite a bit of innovation, but I kept running into the same types of players and charaters. I am looking forward to where the game and the culture are going to go over the next couple of years due to the established feeling that a 30 year anniversery gives. I know a bunch of teenagers who are very interested in gaming, reading and fantasy, and all of them identify themselves as being on the "fringe". Now that D&D has grown up, I wonder if there is going to be a shift towards frat boys and yuppies getting into the game?
One of the big problems I have had with the idea of e-books is that there is no agreement in the industry on how we should accomplish the sale and distribution of those texts. I am a fan of the Safari website, but I know that I can't get those books for offline reading. I like to download some books for Microsoft Reader, but I know that I might not always be able to access that book, and have no guarentee that I will be able to read it on more than one computer.
E-books are a wonderful tool for research and to help some unknown authors get works out to the public, but with the uproar that MP3's have made, I can't forsee any publisher really pushing to make this a force of format. It reminds me of a technology that is very useful, user friendly, easy to produce and even fun to use, but is sidelined because the people that could make it happen are too afraid to step on any toes.
The one thing that I fear about this, though, is a format being pushed forward and then patented and soon, you end up basically paying another tax, just to read a book, because the format is locked in stone. What happens when all of the works of Shakespear are now avaliable for $19.95, and only from Adobe GreatWorks(TM).
It seems to me like we are walking a fine line between our security and our privacy. Some people are screaming to be "safe," while the other half of the population is screaming to keep individual "privacy." The positions in the Department of Homeland Security seem like a good place to set up someone to be shot down. Without a clear cut goal (none of this "make things better" stuff) all of the work that is done is totaly subjective. The department could be doing a great job, but there is no real way to tell. At the same time, if someone is doing a poor job, then we have no way to crucify the fool. With the extreem visibility of this position, it is also absurbly easy for the media to drag down anyone who does not fit what they want. Due to the subjective nature of the job, all the media has to do is make people feel unsafe and then the entire population will be howling for blood.
The thing that we need is well defined goals and some way of measuring preformance. Then I will start to worry about if I am giving up too much of my privacy in the cause of feeling "safe".
I think I will have to try that (using Rawhide). I am just still in a gripe over the whole Fedora thing. I have enough trouble getting myself totaly set up on a stable distro, I can't imagine the fun I am going to be having with something bleeding edge.
I wonder if it would be possible to set up a home inventory using RFID tags. Put one on everything you own, then use trianglation to map out the position of everything in your home. Loose your keys? No problem. Just fire up the handheld, connect to the server, run an RF ping and run a search on "keys". I don't fear the misuse of RFID (well, too much) but I don't think many of the people using them really have an idea of how much fun they could be!
...this new test release will be the bee's knees? I have to really wonder why it is that the releases for Fedora are coming out so quickly? Most of the other distros that I have been using have had a fairly regular release schedule? I have not used Fedora yet, but I feel like I am being thrown a bone, in hopes of getting the new kernel tested and patched.
I wonder if there are any books out there that deal with chareters in a similar setting, but with the Native American mythos, or even the Austrailuan? I have read several that deal with Africa, and more than a few dealing with European and English settings, but I have been looking up some of the folklore of those other cultures (of which I confess I know nothing about) and I wonder if the tragic hero can be re-hashed, yet again?
Is there _anything_ in this world that doesn't need a patent? I think I will patent complaining and whining, and make a fortune off of celebrities alone. Then I could learn how to spell and be set for life!
This reminds me of a local resturaunt being sued by the "Friendly's" chain over name infringment. I wonder what protection people like Mike Rowe have from companies that can copyright the *sounds* of a name? Is there any way for a private citizen to use his or her name without fear of repurcussions?
I can't imagine how the RIAA/MPAA think that they have truly changed a culture. Most people that I have talked to still download music, movies and television shows, but they do it in a more anonymous way than what can be readily tracked by outside agencies.
If you give someone a burned DVD of all your MP3's, no one can track you.
As far as apple and pepsi, I think that they are fairly immune to what the RIAA and MPAA think. The whole target audience that they are trying to reach are young people with lots of idle time and loose morals. The same people who have been trading music and thumbing their noses at the respectives AA's.
The only question I have is, how are you supposed to "meet new people" or "expand your social structure" if all you are doing is inviting all the people you already know. From what I have seen, most people have a fairly static social circle, and there is not much movement between them.
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Not only that, but it seems to me that plumbers make way more than I do as a fairly entry level IT person. I have been working in the field for several years (luckly I got in after the bomb) and I have been bouncing from contract to contract at companies too small to support a full time IT person. I think a lot of the unhappiness does not come just from the (l)users but also the management and staff that seem to belive that IT is an expendable line item, since we don't bring in any actual revenue.
I like the place that I work, but I know that they have no loyalty to me as a worker, and that tends to weigh me down at times, especially when I hear that it's going to be a "tight year".
I started playing D&D games, many years ago, and started off with the first edition in the boxed set. Since then I have seen major revisions, changes, arguments and even fights over rules. The game has changed, but many of the player have not! I actually recently quit gaming, because even with the new rules, the death of THAC0 and the advent of mainstream MMPORPGs, I just keep on running into the same types of games. I tried some of the inde games, and found much humor and quite a bit of innovation, but I kept running into the same types of players and charaters. I am looking forward to where the game and the culture are going to go over the next couple of years due to the established feeling that a 30 year anniversery gives. I know a bunch of teenagers who are very interested in gaming, reading and fantasy, and all of them identify themselves as being on the "fringe". Now that D&D has grown up, I wonder if there is going to be a shift towards frat boys and yuppies getting into the game?
One of the big problems I have had with the idea of e-books is that there is no agreement in the industry on how we should accomplish the sale and distribution of those texts. I am a fan of the Safari website, but I know that I can't get those books for offline reading. I like to download some books for Microsoft Reader, but I know that I might not always be able to access that book, and have no guarentee that I will be able to read it on more than one computer.
E-books are a wonderful tool for research and to help some unknown authors get works out to the public, but with the uproar that MP3's have made, I can't forsee any publisher really pushing to make this a force of format. It reminds me of a technology that is very useful, user friendly, easy to produce and even fun to use, but is sidelined because the people that could make it happen are too afraid to step on any toes.
The one thing that I fear about this, though, is a format being pushed forward and then patented and soon, you end up basically paying another tax, just to read a book, because the format is locked in stone. What happens when all of the works of Shakespear are now avaliable for $19.95, and only from Adobe GreatWorks(TM).
It seems to me like we are walking a fine line between our security and our privacy. Some people are screaming to be "safe," while the other half of the population is screaming to keep individual "privacy." The positions in the Department of Homeland Security seem like a good place to set up someone to be shot down. Without a clear cut goal (none of this "make things better" stuff) all of the work that is done is totaly subjective. The department could be doing a great job, but there is no real way to tell. At the same time, if someone is doing a poor job, then we have no way to crucify the fool. With the extreem visibility of this position, it is also absurbly easy for the media to drag down anyone who does not fit what they want. Due to the subjective nature of the job, all the media has to do is make people feel unsafe and then the entire population will be howling for blood.
The thing that we need is well defined goals and some way of measuring preformance. Then I will start to worry about if I am giving up too much of my privacy in the cause of feeling "safe".
I think I will have to try that (using Rawhide). I am just still in a gripe over the whole Fedora thing. I have enough trouble getting myself totaly set up on a stable distro, I can't imagine the fun I am going to be having with something bleeding edge.
I wonder if it would be possible to set up a home inventory using RFID tags. Put one on everything you own, then use trianglation to map out the position of everything in your home. Loose your keys? No problem. Just fire up the handheld, connect to the server, run an RF ping and run a search on "keys". I don't fear the misuse of RFID (well, too much) but I don't think many of the people using them really have an idea of how much fun they could be!
...this new test release will be the bee's knees? I have to really wonder why it is that the releases for Fedora are coming out so quickly? Most of the other distros that I have been using have had a fairly regular release schedule? I have not used Fedora yet, but I feel like I am being thrown a bone, in hopes of getting the new kernel tested and patched.
I wonder if there are any books out there that deal with chareters in a similar setting, but with the Native American mythos, or even the Austrailuan? I have read several that deal with Africa, and more than a few dealing with European and English settings, but I have been looking up some of the folklore of those other cultures (of which I confess I know nothing about) and I wonder if the tragic hero can be re-hashed, yet again?
Is there _anything_ in this world that doesn't need a patent? I think I will patent complaining and whining, and make a fortune off of celebrities alone. Then I could learn how to spell and be set for life!
This reminds me of a local resturaunt being sued by the "Friendly's" chain over name infringment. I wonder what protection people like Mike Rowe have from companies that can copyright the *sounds* of a name? Is there any way for a private citizen to use his or her name without fear of repurcussions?
I can't imagine how the RIAA/MPAA think that they have truly changed a culture. Most people that I have talked to still download music, movies and television shows, but they do it in a more anonymous way than what can be readily tracked by outside agencies. If you give someone a burned DVD of all your MP3's, no one can track you. As far as apple and pepsi, I think that they are fairly immune to what the RIAA and MPAA think. The whole target audience that they are trying to reach are young people with lots of idle time and loose morals. The same people who have been trading music and thumbing their noses at the respectives AA's.
The only question I have is, how are you supposed to "meet new people" or "expand your social structure" if all you are doing is inviting all the people you already know. From what I have seen, most people have a fairly static social circle, and there is not much movement between them.