What I really want is unencrypted QAM for the digital (and HD??) channels that are equivalent to what they would normally make available in the "Cable-Ready" tier. Seriously, if they are going to make these available in analog, why not digital? With analog televisions going away, this would make a lot of sense from a customer's perspective... I guess, though, that the cable companies feel like they can get more money doing it this way, and soon "Cable Ready" will be no more... I'm sure some cable TV spokesman (or lawyer) will equate "Cable Ready" to theft...
Personally, since I'm kind of stuck in the Windows arena currently, I use SageTV. It is very stable, very functional, and not encumbered by any sort of DRM.
Over my cold lifeless body!
Seriously, once I can no longer run XP, I will be moving to Ubuntu most likely. I already have a couple arch servers at the house, and regularly work with RedHat and Solaris at work... Nothing in my way of a Linux/Unix shift.
Well, IMHO, users usually want something simple UNTIL they need more control for some specific problem. Then they either turn to some other tool that gives them that control (usually at the cost of extra complexity, which they then complain about) or they just complain that the software doesn't do enough.
What if the software begins with a simplified interface, but allow the user to easily set options to "reveal" more and more of the complexity until they reach a comfortable mix. The software could provide a context sensitive version of this (possibly a pop-up on hover, or on right-click) as well as a larger "options" page that would let them set each level for each functionality group all in one place.
One idea would be to have a hover on a "simplified" control show a popup with the next level of complexity, while a right-click brings up a popup menu to set the default level for that control...
As with the other complaints (i.e. stupid questions from the program), perhaps a heuristics algorithm could be used so that the "stupid" questions are only asked for a while, until the program "learns" the preferences of the user. Of course, there would be that one time that they should have gotten some reminder, but they didn't because they clicked past it before, and then they complain again...
If you get the chance, and if you're still a Sprint customer, could you please ask them *which* billing system you are running on... they currently have three that I am aware of. MacroCell, P2K, and an AmDocs solution (thier new one, post-merger)
I wouldn't be surprised if these errors are on the new system... I've heard a lot of grumbling about it from several people...
At my company, we wrote software that basically does the same thing back in the late 80's - early 90's and have been using it for high-profile, high-cost software ever since...
While I don't know if we ever applied for a patent on the idea, I would bet that there is a lot of prior art out there... I just hope that Red Hat's lawyers are good enough to find it and use it appropriately.
I guess I will need to block a range of IP addresses on my router. Anyone have the range used by WGA?
Note: I have 2 copies of XP that are legally licensed. I still object to them wasting my CPU cycles, and my bandwidth, and I object to them spying on me... no matter what the reason. This is a crock.
Yes, I shouldn't generalize like that... I should have just said "offshore outsourcing"...
I'm just currently having a LOT of trouble with our Indian team... they aren't available when we're in the office, they seem to have a holiday every other week, most don't speak English very well, if at all, they don't ask questions when they don't understand (they just say "I'll get that done", and then either don't do it, or do it wrong), and they don't have experience with our system, and yet Management wants them to do x percentage of designs and development work... We went from a very low defect rate but more expensive, to a high defect rate and cheap... Not good...
I do want to apologize to those Indian programmers who DO have a good education, Can speak English (when working for a US company), and Can do the job proficiently... I do know that there are a large percentage of you out there. I just wish I could be working with you instead of the people that I'm being forced to work with...;)
I work for a large software shop. In my experience it boils down to:
Accellerated schedules created by management / client without development buy-in.
Management cutting development phases in order to get things done faster to meet dates from #1. (i.e. design reviews, code reviews, phases of testing, etc)
Shipping portions of the development off to India teams (in order to save money) who are under trained, and can't speak the same language as the other developers, and who won't ask questions when they don't understand.
Giving development / design tasks to people with no experience in the subsystem that they are being assigned to, because management believes that one developer is as good as any other... we're just bodies...
Churn in employees... Better / more experienced people leaving for better jobs, and noobs coming in to replace them. After a while, you have too many noobs, and not enough older, more experienced folks.
Colleges not training people on common coding errors, proper design principles, good design patterns, proper testing and documentation strategies, etc.
The old addage: Too many cooks spoil the broth. Some times, there are too many senior developers, architects, etc. workign on a design, an they all have their favorite ways of doing things. Many times, even within a single subsystem, one senior person will move to a new project and a new one will come in, and want to change the process / design to fit his style... and usually at the last minute...
Now, as to why bugs don't get quashed quickly:
Lack of enough informatin from the person experiencing the problem to allow development to recreate the problem.
High complexity of the systems involved.
Bad library design / separation of concerns / encapsulation, etc. means that a small bug in some unrelated libarary can cause problems where you never expected them.
Developers who aren't experienced enough with the code / subsystem to be able to find said small bugs. (i.e. see number 4 and 5 from last list).
Developers who aren't given training and experience in the proper use of debuggers, memory checkers, etc. (how many college hires out there really know how to use dbx to track down a bad pointer in the free list?)
So, having a 7 year old addicted to Quake 3 Arena and Warcraft III is a bad thing? My kids can deathmatch with the best of them, and they know where to get all of the free game demos... Luckily, I have a good firewall, antivirus, and multiple spyware and rootkit removers that I run regularly on their computer (they have 2 of their own), not to mention a fairly decent firewall with blacklist and keyword blocking...
As much as I see complaints about companies like this, I rarely see anyone suggesting anything to help remedy the situation...
Why don't we boycott FedEx? Pick UPS or some other delivery service instead!
So, what are they going to do next? Star Blazers?
BTW, Although "Arus" points me to believe they are going to use the original Lion Team Voltron, I hope they dont muck it up and use vehicle team... The cross-overs were bad enough back then...
The only thing they did not specify was whether it was going to be lion team of vehicle team... but the mention of Arus points me to believe it's going to be Lion Team (the original) Voltrol...
What's next, Star Blazers? Macross?
Hey, they signed the contract, and agreed to the assignment... I've been there twice before, on both sides, and if you agree to the contract, you agree to it. Plain and simple.
Now, as for the benefits... you usually get healthcare, 401k, etc. from the consulting company you work for, not the company you are assigned to. You agreed to that when you signed the contract... And most consultants get paid overtime, while FT employees don't. (at least they did 3 years ago when I was a contractor).
Short of it is... You agreed to the contract. If you don't like it, you can quit and get a different job. End of story.
Hey, that would be great too... Windows, Linux, Unix, Palm, GNU, BeOs, TOS, Os-X, Gem, whatever... as long as I can browse the web, listen to music, movies, etc., and read an eBook or two, it doesn't really matter what OS it runs anymore....
I'd really like a PDA/eBook/media player that is equivalent to my HP 4500 (bluetooth, WiFi, SDIO) but with a 4x5 inch screen at 800x600... that way I can somewhat comfortably read an eBook or a web page. The tiny screen on my PDA is useless for this, and tablets are too big and too expensive...
Hell, it if only had Acrobat, Media Player, and Internet Explorer, I'd be happy...
Well, I guess I work for an unusual company... I have a Computer Engineering degree, and am workign as a senior programmer(which I love)... My company hires college grads with Masters Degrees as Senior Analysts (which is where I am after 10 years and a BS) at 70k, and PHDs as Tech consultants (next higher position) for around 80k - 90k... All in all, a very good company to work for!
I remember the US Navy pix of the Sea Shadow in '91 (right when I got out), and hearing all about it's computer and satellite systems... it was sail by wire, with the possibility of being completely remote operated...
Been there, Done that... over 10 years ago...
Well, I've written implementations of Xmodem, Ymodem, Ymodem-1k, Ymodem-G, Zmodem, and Kermit... For bad lines, or through bad telnet sessions, or very different kinds of computers, Kermit rules for reliability... Nice UI for the day too... Although, I agree on the standard BBS' with a 2400 or 14.4, Zmodem ruled as a protocol...
I used to play around with the C-64, but I cut my teeth on the Commodore Pet and SuperPet, before getting my own Atari 400, followed a few years later by an 800xl.
Those were the days! I wrote games, GUIs, disk utilities, hacking utilities, ran my BBS, etc. from '79 to '89 on those until I bought my PC in 90...
Well, I STILL have my old Atari 400, 800, and 800xl in a box in my closet... with 3 floppy drives, acoustic modem (300 baud of course), pen plotter, etc... The 800xl still works, and I boot it up from time to time, mostly to play M.U.L.E.
Those were the days...
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What I really want is unencrypted QAM for the digital (and HD??) channels that are equivalent to what they would normally make available in the "Cable-Ready" tier. Seriously, if they are going to make these available in analog, why not digital? With analog televisions going away, this would make a lot of sense from a customer's perspective... I guess, though, that the cable companies feel like they can get more money doing it this way, and soon "Cable Ready" will be no more... I'm sure some cable TV spokesman (or lawyer) will equate "Cable Ready" to theft...
Now if we could get a VIDEO version of this...
Personally, since I'm kind of stuck in the Windows arena currently, I use SageTV. It is very stable, very functional, and not encumbered by any sort of DRM.
Over my cold lifeless body! Seriously, once I can no longer run XP, I will be moving to Ubuntu most likely. I already have a couple arch servers at the house, and regularly work with RedHat and Solaris at work... Nothing in my way of a Linux/Unix shift.
Well, IMHO, users usually want something simple UNTIL they need more control for some specific problem. Then they either turn to some other tool that gives them that control (usually at the cost of extra complexity, which they then complain about) or they just complain that the software doesn't do enough. What if the software begins with a simplified interface, but allow the user to easily set options to "reveal" more and more of the complexity until they reach a comfortable mix. The software could provide a context sensitive version of this (possibly a pop-up on hover, or on right-click) as well as a larger "options" page that would let them set each level for each functionality group all in one place. One idea would be to have a hover on a "simplified" control show a popup with the next level of complexity, while a right-click brings up a popup menu to set the default level for that control... As with the other complaints (i.e. stupid questions from the program), perhaps a heuristics algorithm could be used so that the "stupid" questions are only asked for a while, until the program "learns" the preferences of the user. Of course, there would be that one time that they should have gotten some reminder, but they didn't because they clicked past it before, and then they complain again...
If you get the chance, and if you're still a Sprint customer, could you please ask them *which* billing system you are running on... they currently have three that I am aware of. MacroCell, P2K, and an AmDocs solution (thier new one, post-merger) I wouldn't be surprised if these errors are on the new system... I've heard a lot of grumbling about it from several people...
At my company, we wrote software that basically does the same thing back in the late 80's - early 90's and have been using it for high-profile, high-cost software ever since... While I don't know if we ever applied for a patent on the idea, I would bet that there is a lot of prior art out there... I just hope that Red Hat's lawyers are good enough to find it and use it appropriately.
I guess I will need to block a range of IP addresses on my router. Anyone have the range used by WGA? Note: I have 2 copies of XP that are legally licensed. I still object to them wasting my CPU cycles, and my bandwidth, and I object to them spying on me... no matter what the reason. This is a crock.
Yes, I shouldn't generalize like that... I should have just said "offshore outsourcing"...
;)
I'm just currently having a LOT of trouble with our Indian team... they aren't available when we're in the office, they seem to have a holiday every other week, most don't speak English very well, if at all, they don't ask questions when they don't understand (they just say "I'll get that done", and then either don't do it, or do it wrong), and they don't have experience with our system, and yet Management wants them to do x percentage of designs and development work... We went from a very low defect rate but more expensive, to a high defect rate and cheap... Not good...
I do want to apologize to those Indian programmers who DO have a good education, Can speak English (when working for a US company), and Can do the job proficiently... I do know that there are a large percentage of you out there. I just wish I could be working with you instead of the people that I'm being forced to work with...
Now, as to why bugs don't get quashed quickly:
I see each of these every day!
Score another one for a broken system that will let you patent everything... Can I patent breathing?
So, having a 7 year old addicted to Quake 3 Arena and Warcraft III is a bad thing? My kids can deathmatch with the best of them, and they know where to get all of the free game demos... Luckily, I have a good firewall, antivirus, and multiple spyware and rootkit removers that I run regularly on their computer (they have 2 of their own), not to mention a fairly decent firewall with blacklist and keyword blocking...
I had an atari 400 with a tape drive / BASIC cart. in '80 and then upgraded to an 800xl in 85. My first PC clone was a 386sx-16 in '91
As much as I see complaints about companies like this, I rarely see anyone suggesting anything to help remedy the situation... Why don't we boycott FedEx? Pick UPS or some other delivery service instead!
So, what are they going to do next? Star Blazers? BTW, Although "Arus" points me to believe they are going to use the original Lion Team Voltron, I hope they dont muck it up and use vehicle team... The cross-overs were bad enough back then...
The only thing they did not specify was whether it was going to be lion team of vehicle team... but the mention of Arus points me to believe it's going to be Lion Team (the original) Voltrol... What's next, Star Blazers? Macross?
Worst Idea Ever.... or, if you like, Hell Fuck No!
Hey, they signed the contract, and agreed to the assignment... I've been there twice before, on both sides, and if you agree to the contract, you agree to it. Plain and simple.
Now, as for the benefits... you usually get healthcare, 401k, etc. from the consulting company you work for, not the company you are assigned to. You agreed to that when you signed the contract... And most consultants get paid overtime, while FT employees don't. (at least they did 3 years ago when I was a contractor).
Short of it is... You agreed to the contract. If you don't like it, you can quit and get a different job. End of story.
Hey, that would be great too... Windows, Linux, Unix, Palm, GNU, BeOs, TOS, Os-X, Gem, whatever... as long as I can browse the web, listen to music, movies, etc., and read an eBook or two, it doesn't really matter what OS it runs anymore....
I'd really like a PDA/eBook/media player that is equivalent to my HP 4500 (bluetooth, WiFi, SDIO) but with a 4x5 inch screen at 800x600... that way I can somewhat comfortably read an eBook or a web page. The tiny screen on my PDA is useless for this, and tablets are too big and too expensive... Hell, it if only had Acrobat, Media Player, and Internet Explorer, I'd be happy...
Well, I guess I work for an unusual company... I have a Computer Engineering degree, and am workign as a senior programmer(which I love)... My company hires college grads with Masters Degrees as Senior Analysts (which is where I am after 10 years and a BS) at 70k, and PHDs as Tech consultants (next higher position) for around 80k - 90k... All in all, a very good company to work for!
I remember the US Navy pix of the Sea Shadow in '91 (right when I got out), and hearing all about it's computer and satellite systems... it was sail by wire, with the possibility of being completely remote operated... Been there, Done that... over 10 years ago...
Well, I've written implementations of Xmodem, Ymodem, Ymodem-1k, Ymodem-G, Zmodem, and Kermit... For bad lines, or through bad telnet sessions, or very different kinds of computers, Kermit rules for reliability... Nice UI for the day too... Although, I agree on the standard BBS' with a 2400 or 14.4, Zmodem ruled as a protocol...
So, when's the Atari reunion?!?!
I used to play around with the C-64, but I cut my teeth on the Commodore Pet and SuperPet, before getting my own Atari 400, followed a few years later by an 800xl.
Those were the days! I wrote games, GUIs, disk utilities, hacking utilities, ran my BBS, etc. from '79 to '89 on those until I bought my PC in 90...
Well, I STILL have my old Atari 400, 800, and 800xl in a box in my closet... with 3 floppy drives, acoustic modem (300 baud of course), pen plotter, etc... The 800xl still works, and I boot it up from time to time, mostly to play M.U.L.E. Those were the days...