probably means antiquated in the sense of something that has gone way beyond its useful life, something basically true for most generations of MS products, usually very shortly after release....
Unix, otoh, is extremely similar to its first releases..., and still useful. I still have scripts and code that run without any changes from 20 years ago, and they're non-trivial pieces of code. Ironically, the technology on which they performed their magic HAS become obsolete.
The only cause for celebration (their words, not mine...) is
more money for a questionable product. I'm not judging the
quality of this new optical mouse, just wondering what would make
it worth the money (if you "buy", you get links for prices
ranging from $25 to $31). Sure it may look pretty, but really,
it's another mouse with another pitch from MS about why you
should buy THEIRS! Come one, really! A museum piece? I don't
think so.
This just doesn't feel like news. It feels like a free ad.
This MAY be great news, but it feels more like a publicity stunt... I'm willing and ready to purchase one and not go through all the hoops of converting a windows box.... Just try and go to the HP site and in a straightforward way navigate to the laptop with linux. What a pain! And, at least in my case, when you finally find the model, and click through to "customize", you'll NOT find linux listed there as an option for OS anymore. Go figure.
Of course, ymmv.... I'm sure someone will try and find linux and claim it is there and easy to find. But, I navigated, and drilled down about four or five different ways, and never really ended up with an option I was looking for. (This is about two or three times more than I normally afford a web site when looking for something -- before moving on to some easier to use business selling the same item.)
Additional disclaimer: it may not be only "hiding" linux -- I've shopped the HP web site before and had similar frustrating experience just trying to find a normal laptop or desktop with the configuration I wanted. But, finding the linux configuration was well nigh impossible.
This would be a silver bullet. Maybe not to shoot aol and yahoo out of the air/sky..., but to finally open up the protocols. This would be anathema to the proprietary message services, but how nice to finally not having to explain to friends, relatives, etc... why they can't talk to so-and-so. Once everyone starts moving to Gjabber (google jabber).
I suspect google may have something more up their sleeve, incorporating some of their smarts and technology into the messaging to make it even more attractive. I can hardly wait.
It really is price vs. demand. But the demand isn't there. The capping by ISP's is a gimmick... a way to make money.
Don't you think for a second if there was demand people would gladly pay to light up that fiber? Right now the telcoms can't sell traffic on those pipes for 10% of what it cost to put in.
It isn't that there's so much available bandwidth, it's that there is no demand or evidence of demand to push the bandwidth to the next quantum. Yeah, some people today may be living on the edge of what they consider acceptable for throughput, but unless they're willing to prop up the rest of the population that doesn't care noone is going to invest/re-invest in those big pipes.
Those switches and routers are too damned expensive because noone is flocking in droves to buy them -- when they are sold in one's and two's, their price won't go down.
The telcom industry is STILL reeling (I know, I'm a layoff casualty) from heavy investment in optic fiber still dark today. The technology to lube the internet to lightning speeds (whatever that means) is merely interesting, but unnecessary, and unlikely to come to fruition unless there is compelling evidence of a burgeoning market -- one I doubt exists. I wouldn't invest my money in it. Once bitten...
Consider the comment from the article: Polishuk also questioned the need for higher-speed networks. "Who's going to buy it when 40-Gb networks aren't getting off the ground?" he asked.
A state is not bound to sign on, but for an annoying settlement over CD price gouging, Kansas I'm guessing was not of the ilk to bother with settling privately. It doesn't make the settlement any more palatable. Just more convenient, which is what the music industry (I cringe every time I call them the "industry", as if they somehow are the creators of the music) counted on to slide in under the radar with their dumping of their surplus inventory.
I have read and followed the MS case -- I testified in it.
I don't normally respond to ad hominem but I will this time.
Thanks for letting have an opinion. I guess it IS a complaint. I (IMO) don't think it's idiotic but fairly well reasoned and based on some of the other responses others agree.
As for your observations about linux/unix, yes, some of the references and idioms are "hellish" and maybe even negative. But they're not really linux, they're unix, and they're historic. Computer history is chock full of idioms that may raise rankles (e.g., "master" and "slave" configurations). And, MS has seen fit to adopt (embrace and corrupt) these too.
And, as for "favorites" being stored as files that can be easily e-mailed among other actions, this is not a hard thing to do with bookmarks in other browsers. And, I would be surprised if you could name more than a couple people who not only know about the "file" nature of favorites but also do things with them like mail them, etc.
I was merely pointing out MS putting a semantic spin on an abstraction that is curious, even goofy. I can live with it, I get it. I just have always found it incredibly weird.
(I could go on... as someone else mentioned, don't get me started about "My Documents (stored under, go figure, "Documents and Settings"), logical drive mappings like C:, D:.... (as opposed to mount points transparently giving intuitive directory structure access to file systems in unix), insipid command line responses like "Invalid Syntax" to incorrectly formed commands..., but in IE, it's always struck me funny at their approach.)
One of my favorites about IE is its notion of "favorites". Another example of how MS really just doesn't "get it".
I mean, exactly what is it about marking a site that makes it "favorite"?!? Consider for example doing research on euthanasia (sp?)... would that someone sits down to use your browser and sees that you have five references to sites describing or providing "howto's" for euthansia. Are these really semantically "favorites"? I don't think so. It's really an example of how cute MS gets, but doesn't get the semantics. Netscape, Mozilla, and all of the other browsers got it right when they provided "bookmarks". The metaphor is apt, and not overreaching.
I welcome the upgrade -- it's really about time! But, I find MS' marketing/business strategy disrespectful at best, patently offensive otherwise. I've long been downloading and installing alternative browsers for people who were fed up with IE and its almost uncountable warts, security problems, etc. And people have absolutely fallen in love with the suite of other features in alternative browsers. A common lament from these mostly MS users was, "Why can't IE do this?", or "Why doesn't IE have this feature?". I pointed out that it was because MS didn't have to respond to the marketplace, because they owned it. This was when they had successfully squashed Netscape at modest cost, and reached more the 95% saturation of the markeplace.
NOW they're responding to slipping numbers once again. They only respond to this niche when they must... what a rude approach. They claim they've needed to continue business unfettered to allow their continued "creativity" and "innovation". Hockey puck! They're running scared with IE now not to satisfy pent up demand but to fend off horrible competitive consequences. It's their right to run the business that way, but I find it offensive they get to do it.
..., Kansas and other states made the settlement.,...
I wish they would have made a better settlement, but as I stated in another comment, there are probably a few layers to this onion not the least of which is that this was a settlement made with multiple states (of the U.S.). Getting agreement on what constituted a fair and equitable settlement was probably nigh impossible (consider the bickering of the states over the acceptability of the Microsoft settlement).
(and, your reference to McCarthy could well be considered the highest praise (spend some time, and read Anne Coulter's Treason...
))
..., If the AG wanted to take the stance that the settlement is total bullshit -- which it IS -- he should have sent all 51,000 back to the RIAA and said, "Piss off with your worthless crap."
I agree! It'd have been much better if they'd done that -- and I get your opinion! I just don't necessarily agree -- my guess is if Kansas COULD have said piss off, they'd have done just that. As it was, they decided to selectively accept and distribute the CD's, which as you point out does indicate the worst of both worlds.
Sigh.... I just feel the more salient insult here is the music industry's foisting inventory off as "settlement".
..., Yes, it's censorship, even if it's associated with a ridiculous "settlement."
I respectfully disagree. This isn't a case whereby they decided not to buy something, it's a case where they chose not to accept what was offered as payment. I only wish there were power to insist the settlement be in equivalent cash.
I won't define crap, or reasonable... it's an abstraction, but within the purview of Kansas to determine suitability for something offered ostensibly in lieu of cash (probably not entirely true). Crap and reasonable will be different for anyone asked, and I don't deign to know what they are. I'm just in agreement and supportive of Kansas' actions and decisions. There's probably layers of this onion to peel, but I'd guess there's a certain amount of offense taken by the AG the industry got to make the call on how to settle. Good for Kansas... (which, IMHO, is a pretty good CD, too!)
Point well made. I read the articles, and they make sense. I'm not sure I find the ideas COMPLETELY new, but there are interesting directions to consider.
You are correct, the "experts" writing books and collecting speaking fees aren't rolling out new ideas, but I submit they are convincing the deep pockets their ideas are new and worth implementing and paying a premium for.
I would also submit my two-sentence book in abstraction is the distillation of the articles referenced. Good input.
Is this a community values issue, a censorship issue, or just crap music being foisted off onto the public as part of a meaningless settlement?"...
Well, most notably this is NOT censorship. It's a reasonable rejection by Kansas of crap foisted onto them in the form of a "settlement". The hubris of the music industry in their passing off inventory as fodder for art as value would be laughable were it not so egregious and offensive.
Here in the state of Washington, the CD's provided were highlighted in the local news with local librarians and school officials beside themselves trying to fathom what they were to do with these CD's.
Hat's off to Kansas for some chutzpah and balls to reject these CD's though the music industry skates on the whole deal anyway.
Most odd to me is the permission to the industry to choose what the form of payment in settlement would be. This is similar and as offensive as the wink and nod to Microsoft to "settle" many of their claims by "contributing" software to schools... at inflated MSRP valuations.
I've been under many different managements and the most common call to action when projects fail is, "Change the methodology!" For some reason this is the all too common diagnosis. I've worked with, under, etc. many "methodologies", and generally these methodologies correlate loosely at best to measured success. Of course authors, pundits, and visionaries continue to make fortunes rolling out countless new methodologies and writing books proving they are right.
As for the notion of a "factory" -- I find the idea patently absurd. This idea presupposes software is a well defined "product", and all one needs to do is create an assembly line with interchangeable employees thus fostering efficiency, consistency, etc. It doesn't work! I've been there, done that.
As an aside, I've found IT people have a hard time picking up factory jargon and idioms, such as learning to insert the work "fucking" in between syllables of words to form new words.
I'd write a book on methodology that has ALWAYS worked for me and teams I've been on, but I could never find a publisher willing to publish a one page book:
Find someone who knows what they want. Find IT people who know how to do it. Put them in a room together until it gets done.
Readers are welcome to download this book for free.
From personal experience, after 21 years with a major corporation... I got laid off. I am near 50 years old, and made six figures. I am a unix expert and would go toe-to-toe with ANY person claiming to be a unix expert. I can create solutions in days, not weeks. But, one reality today is many companies are flushing the expense -- and on a spreadsheet, it doesn't mean shit what you've contributed, it doesn't mean shit how good you are... it's about cutting costs.
The complementary side to this situation is now looking in from the outside, companies look at you (me?) sideways when applying (why were YOU chosen for lay off?), because you're going to be too expensive, and for your "expertise", they're willing to forgo the high octane talent for someone with maybe less talent, but less than half the salary (not to mention the benefits about to kick in). Couple that with the attractive salaries of offshore talent... it's a tough market.
Will I find a job? You bet! Will it be what I made before? Don't know. But are all of the people losing jobs deadwood? No fucking way! Yes, some need to go, but I assure you there wasn't a single person in the entire company better than I at technology. Hubris?, sure..., but I was good at what I did.
For the record, since you seem to have an anti-open source, and logically (probably) anti-unix bent, I also assure I was highly expert in Windows technology, too.
Your glib "good riddance" is ill-informed, callous, and mostly just plain wrong.
I have a set of cordless 2.4Ghz phones..., and have NEVER seen any cut out in my network. However, periodically when on the phone I get earth rattling static. Many times I have to re-initiate the phone call -- it becomes unbearable and indecipherable. Does anyone else experience this? Is it the interference from my linksys?
I think copywrite has a place and protection of art has a place also, but at some time the business model just has to change. Once the medium has become so ubiquitous it seems it is going to be hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube. It is SO easy for distribution of music, video, etc., and any attempt to shut that down will either: be too hard; be too confusing for the mass market consumer; or some mix.
Part of the ability for the artists, the people who create the artists, and the people who owned the artists, to own the marketplace relied heavily on the ability to control the media. With the explosion of media options, control is barely doable, and if doable is going to be way unreasonable.
So, the shift in the business model will be a sea change (a sea++ change?). And while the grubby money mungers at the top have always been able to be filthy rich with their controls and sleezy contracts now they will have to settle for less control, more flexible contracts with artists, and ultimately less wealth. They'll be dragged kicking and screaming, but eventually that's where I see the marketplace going.
(case in point: Grateful Dead completely bypassing the record industry, and basically cutting CD's live and in person at their concerts.... and encouraging fans to make copies....)
After reading the article, and the meta article (MS Awards Acad. Grants), this seems to largely be a pat on the back of MS CE by MS, albeit by proxy via Cornell. Nice that MS "rewards" innovation, a little suspect that they offer award for innovation using MS technology. It's their right, but this smells like PR, not news.
(Case in point, how is this more interesting than drones, which also can fly autonomously?)
In reading this list I must admit my disappointment at the level and tone of the rhetoric. IANAL, but I defend his right to sue, even if he IS one. You criticize and call names, you run the risk of the consequences. I don't necessarily think he should sue, but "publishing" comments calling a lawyer a shyster could have effects on his reputation, and his ability to maintain his reputation.
I know I'll get flamed and modded for this but it would have been a classier dissertation (collectively) to ignore this article rather than trot out all of the old "lawyer" saws (com'on, a little more original and critical thinking out there?!?)
Again, no endorsement from me for his choice to sue, but it's his perogative. (Everyone seems to hate a lawyer until they need one!)
I used to hunt and peck type... and a peer used to scream at me and sometimes eject me from my seat and assume the typing responsibility, even though he was the manager, and I was the coder! I used to deeply resent his brusque behavior, but realized (I highly respected this man) I was slowing HIM down.
If you don't touch type, and you work in a group, or on a team, your slow typing does more than slow you down. It slows your entire team down! This is a skill so easy to learn it is almost disrespectful to those with whom you work to not learn it.
Touch typing is one of the most valuable skills I recommend to people. Heck, it doesn't have to be anything formal, just suck it up for a week, and refuse to enter ANYTHING on the keyboard without doing it by touch. (For the record, this is how I learned..., and I drove people around me absolutely mad for that week..., but to this day, I get compliments on my typing speed. (Especially handy for editors like "vi"))
I think this is much simpler than it looks. I think companies are blowing it up the employees' asses by making them sign away their rights under duress. These kinds of agreements in many cases will not hold up in court. However, it holds impressive "stick" power over any avenues an employee may pursue when the risk of losing could result in loss of stock options, or even continued employment. The field is tilted BIG TIME against the employee. Got an employee recalcitrant to sign? NEXT!
Yes, an employee gets a salary, and benefits (hah!), but they are getting salary and benefits (hah!) ostensibly for the work they are hired to do. It strikes me as odd, no wait, make that OBSCENE, a company would lay reserve on anything you might think about while not in the office, especially for thoughts and creations unrelated to the discipline in which the employee works. I recommend strongly to all employees out there you not share or tip your hand about any ideas you have other than ones asked for.
Hmmmm, I hope my post isn't misleading... I didn't mean evidence exists of copyright violations -- (even though that may exist). I meant the evidence exists that increased download activity directly correlates with higher CD and other media sales (the curve of CD sales compared to the emergence of Napster is scary identical.... as is the curve of the decline of CD sales and the shut down of Napster.) I also can add anecdotally this has been my experience, when I would surf and download freely what amounted to "illegal" songs, my buying volume spiked. When napster was shut down, and I lost my appetite to trade jabs with the RIAA juggernaut, my buying volume returned to very low levels.
Slashdot Mirror
probably means antiquated in the sense of something that has gone way beyond its useful life, something basically true for most generations of MS products, usually very shortly after release....
Unix, otoh, is extremely similar to its first releases..., and still useful. I still have scripts and code that run without any changes from 20 years ago, and they're non-trivial pieces of code. Ironically, the technology on which they performed their magic HAS become obsolete.
The only cause for celebration (their words, not mine...) is more money for a questionable product. I'm not judging the quality of this new optical mouse, just wondering what would make it worth the money (if you "buy", you get links for prices ranging from $25 to $31). Sure it may look pretty, but really, it's another mouse with another pitch from MS about why you should buy THEIRS! Come one, really! A museum piece? I don't think so.
This just doesn't feel like news. It feels like a free ad.
This MAY be great news, but it feels more like a publicity stunt... I'm willing and ready to purchase one and not go through all the hoops of converting a windows box.... Just try and go to the HP site and in a straightforward way navigate to the laptop with linux. What a pain! And, at least in my case, when you finally find the model, and click through to "customize", you'll NOT find linux listed there as an option for OS anymore. Go figure.
Of course, ymmv.... I'm sure someone will try and find linux and claim it is there and easy to find. But, I navigated, and drilled down about four or five different ways, and never really ended up with an option I was looking for. (This is about two or three times more than I normally afford a web site when looking for something -- before moving on to some easier to use business selling the same item.)
Additional disclaimer: it may not be only "hiding" linux -- I've shopped the HP web site before and had similar frustrating experience just trying to find a normal laptop or desktop with the configuration I wanted. But, finding the linux configuration was well nigh impossible.
This would be a silver bullet. Maybe not to shoot aol and yahoo out of the air/sky..., but to finally open up the protocols. This would be anathema to the proprietary message services, but how nice to finally not having to explain to friends, relatives, etc... why they can't talk to so-and-so. Once everyone starts moving to Gjabber (google jabber).
I suspect google may have something more up their sleeve, incorporating some of their smarts and technology into the messaging to make it even more attractive. I can hardly wait.
It really is price vs. demand. But the demand isn't there. The capping by ISP's is a gimmick... a way to make money.
Don't you think for a second if there was demand people would gladly pay to light up that fiber? Right now the telcoms can't sell traffic on those pipes for 10% of what it cost to put in.
It isn't that there's so much available bandwidth, it's that there is no demand or evidence of demand to push the bandwidth to the next quantum. Yeah, some people today may be living on the edge of what they consider acceptable for throughput, but unless they're willing to prop up the rest of the population that doesn't care noone is going to invest/re-invest in those big pipes.
Those switches and routers are too damned expensive because noone is flocking in droves to buy them -- when they are sold in one's and two's, their price won't go down.
The telcom industry is STILL reeling (I know, I'm a layoff casualty) from heavy investment in optic fiber still dark today. The technology to lube the internet to lightning speeds (whatever that means) is merely interesting, but unnecessary, and unlikely to come to fruition unless there is compelling evidence of a burgeoning market -- one I doubt exists. I wouldn't invest my money in it. Once bitten...
Consider the comment from the article: Polishuk also questioned the need for higher-speed networks. "Who's going to buy it when 40-Gb networks aren't getting off the ground?" he asked.
A state is not bound to sign on, but for an annoying settlement over CD price gouging, Kansas I'm guessing was not of the ilk to bother with settling privately. It doesn't make the settlement any more palatable. Just more convenient, which is what the music industry (I cringe every time I call them the "industry", as if they somehow are the creators of the music) counted on to slide in under the radar with their dumping of their surplus inventory.
I have read and followed the MS case -- I testified in it.
Thanks for letting have an opinion. I guess it IS a complaint. I (IMO) don't think it's idiotic but fairly well reasoned and based on some of the other responses others agree.
As for your observations about linux/unix, yes, some of the references and idioms are "hellish" and maybe even negative. But they're not really linux, they're unix, and they're historic. Computer history is chock full of idioms that may raise rankles (e.g., "master" and "slave" configurations). And, MS has seen fit to adopt (embrace and corrupt) these too.
And, as for "favorites" being stored as files that can be easily e-mailed among other actions, this is not a hard thing to do with bookmarks in other browsers. And, I would be surprised if you could name more than a couple people who not only know about the "file" nature of favorites but also do things with them like mail them, etc.
I was merely pointing out MS putting a semantic spin on an abstraction that is curious, even goofy. I can live with it, I get it. I just have always found it incredibly weird.
(I could go on... as someone else mentioned, don't get me started about "My Documents (stored under, go figure, "Documents and Settings"), logical drive mappings like C:, D:.... (as opposed to mount points transparently giving intuitive directory structure access to file systems in unix), insipid command line responses like "Invalid Syntax" to incorrectly formed commands..., but in IE, it's always struck me funny at their approach.)
I mean, exactly what is it about marking a site that makes it "favorite"?!? Consider for example doing research on euthanasia (sp?)... would that someone sits down to use your browser and sees that you have five references to sites describing or providing "howto's" for euthansia. Are these really semantically "favorites"? I don't think so. It's really an example of how cute MS gets, but doesn't get the semantics. Netscape, Mozilla, and all of the other browsers got it right when they provided "bookmarks". The metaphor is apt, and not overreaching.
Just my $.02, and probably offtopic.
I welcome the upgrade -- it's really about time! But, I find MS' marketing/business strategy disrespectful at best, patently offensive otherwise. I've long been downloading and installing alternative browsers for people who were fed up with IE and its almost uncountable warts, security problems, etc. And people have absolutely fallen in love with the suite of other features in alternative browsers. A common lament from these mostly MS users was, "Why can't IE do this?", or "Why doesn't IE have this feature?". I pointed out that it was because MS didn't have to respond to the marketplace, because they owned it. This was when they had successfully squashed Netscape at modest cost, and reached more the 95% saturation of the markeplace.
NOW they're responding to slipping numbers once again. They only respond to this niche when they must... what a rude approach. They claim they've needed to continue business unfettered to allow their continued "creativity" and "innovation". Hockey puck! They're running scared with IE now not to satisfy pent up demand but to fend off horrible competitive consequences. It's their right to run the business that way, but I find it offensive they get to do it.
I wish they would have made a better settlement, but as I stated in another comment, there are probably a few layers to this onion not the least of which is that this was a settlement made with multiple states (of the U.S.). Getting agreement on what constituted a fair and equitable settlement was probably nigh impossible (consider the bickering of the states over the acceptability of the Microsoft settlement).
(and, your reference to McCarthy could well be considered the highest praise (spend some time, and read Anne Coulter's Treason... ))
I agree! It'd have been much better if they'd done that -- and I get your opinion! I just don't necessarily agree -- my guess is if Kansas COULD have said piss off, they'd have done just that. As it was, they decided to selectively accept and distribute the CD's, which as you point out does indicate the worst of both worlds.
Sigh.... I just feel the more salient insult here is the music industry's foisting inventory off as "settlement".
I respectfully disagree. This isn't a case whereby they decided not to buy something, it's a case where they chose not to accept what was offered as payment. I only wish there were power to insist the settlement be in equivalent cash.
I won't define crap, or reasonable... it's an abstraction, but within the purview of Kansas to determine suitability for something offered ostensibly in lieu of cash (probably not entirely true). Crap and reasonable will be different for anyone asked, and I don't deign to know what they are. I'm just in agreement and supportive of Kansas' actions and decisions. There's probably layers of this onion to peel, but I'd guess there's a certain amount of offense taken by the AG the industry got to make the call on how to settle. Good for Kansas... (which, IMHO, is a pretty good CD, too!)
Point well made. I read the articles, and they make sense. I'm not sure I find the ideas COMPLETELY new, but there are interesting directions to consider.
You are correct, the "experts" writing books and collecting speaking fees aren't rolling out new ideas, but I submit they are convincing the deep pockets their ideas are new and worth implementing and paying a premium for.
I would also submit my two-sentence book in abstraction is the distillation of the articles referenced. Good input.
Well, most notably this is NOT censorship. It's a reasonable rejection by Kansas of crap foisted onto them in the form of a "settlement". The hubris of the music industry in their passing off inventory as fodder for art as value would be laughable were it not so egregious and offensive.
Here in the state of Washington, the CD's provided were highlighted in the local news with local librarians and school officials beside themselves trying to fathom what they were to do with these CD's.
Hat's off to Kansas for some chutzpah and balls to reject these CD's though the music industry skates on the whole deal anyway.
Most odd to me is the permission to the industry to choose what the form of payment in settlement would be. This is similar and as offensive as the wink and nod to Microsoft to "settle" many of their claims by "contributing" software to schools... at inflated MSRP valuations.
I've been under many different managements and the most common call to action when projects fail is, "Change the methodology!" For some reason this is the all too common diagnosis. I've worked with, under, etc. many "methodologies", and generally these methodologies correlate loosely at best to measured success. Of course authors, pundits, and visionaries continue to make fortunes rolling out countless new methodologies and writing books proving they are right.
As for the notion of a "factory" -- I find the idea patently absurd. This idea presupposes software is a well defined "product", and all one needs to do is create an assembly line with interchangeable employees thus fostering efficiency, consistency, etc. It doesn't work! I've been there, done that.
As an aside, I've found IT people have a hard time picking up factory jargon and idioms, such as learning to insert the work "fucking" in between syllables of words to form new words.
I'd write a book on methodology that has ALWAYS worked for me and teams I've been on, but I could never find a publisher willing to publish a one page book:
Find someone who knows what they want. Find IT people who know how to do it. Put them in a room together until it gets done.
Readers are welcome to download this book for free.
I hope you don't have the one broad brush only.
From personal experience, after 21 years with a major corporation... I got laid off. I am near 50 years old, and made six figures. I am a unix expert and would go toe-to-toe with ANY person claiming to be a unix expert. I can create solutions in days, not weeks. But, one reality today is many companies are flushing the expense -- and on a spreadsheet, it doesn't mean shit what you've contributed, it doesn't mean shit how good you are... it's about cutting costs.
The complementary side to this situation is now looking in from the outside, companies look at you (me?) sideways when applying (why were YOU chosen for lay off?), because you're going to be too expensive, and for your "expertise", they're willing to forgo the high octane talent for someone with maybe less talent, but less than half the salary (not to mention the benefits about to kick in). Couple that with the attractive salaries of offshore talent... it's a tough market.
Will I find a job? You bet! Will it be what I made before? Don't know. But are all of the people losing jobs deadwood? No fucking way! Yes, some need to go, but I assure you there wasn't a single person in the entire company better than I at technology. Hubris?, sure..., but I was good at what I did.
For the record, since you seem to have an anti-open source, and logically (probably) anti-unix bent, I also assure I was highly expert in Windows technology, too.
Your glib "good riddance" is ill-informed, callous, and mostly just plain wrong.
I have a set of cordless 2.4Ghz phones..., and have NEVER seen any cut out in my network. However, periodically when on the phone I get earth rattling static. Many times I have to re-initiate the phone call -- it becomes unbearable and indecipherable. Does anyone else experience this? Is it the interference from my linksys?
Thank Goodness you have a think skull!
I think copywrite has a place and protection of art has a place also, but at some time the business model just has to change. Once the medium has become so ubiquitous it seems it is going to be hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube. It is SO easy for distribution of music, video, etc., and any attempt to shut that down will either: be too hard; be too confusing for the mass market consumer; or some mix.
Part of the ability for the artists, the people who create the artists, and the people who owned the artists, to own the marketplace relied heavily on the ability to control the media. With the explosion of media options, control is barely doable, and if doable is going to be way unreasonable.
So, the shift in the business model will be a sea change (a sea++ change?). And while the grubby money mungers at the top have always been able to be filthy rich with their controls and sleezy contracts now they will have to settle for less control, more flexible contracts with artists, and ultimately less wealth. They'll be dragged kicking and screaming, but eventually that's where I see the marketplace going.
(case in point: Grateful Dead completely bypassing the record industry, and basically cutting CD's live and in person at their concerts.... and encouraging fans to make copies....)
After reading the article, and the meta article (MS Awards Acad. Grants), this seems to largely be a pat on the back of MS CE by MS, albeit by proxy via Cornell. Nice that MS "rewards" innovation, a little suspect that they offer award for innovation using MS technology. It's their right, but this smells like PR, not news.
(Case in point, how is this more interesting than drones, which also can fly autonomously?)
In reading this list I must admit my disappointment at the level and tone of the rhetoric. IANAL, but I defend his right to sue, even if he IS one. You criticize and call names, you run the risk of the consequences. I don't necessarily think he should sue, but "publishing" comments calling a lawyer a shyster could have effects on his reputation, and his ability to maintain his reputation.
I know I'll get flamed and modded for this but it would have been a classier dissertation (collectively) to ignore this article rather than trot out all of the old "lawyer" saws (com'on, a little more original and critical thinking out there?!?)
Again, no endorsement from me for his choice to sue, but it's his perogative. (Everyone seems to hate a lawyer until they need one!)
So I'll assume the position..... mod away!
I used to hunt and peck type... and a peer used to scream at me and sometimes eject me from my seat and assume the typing responsibility, even though he was the manager, and I was the coder! I used to deeply resent his brusque behavior, but realized (I highly respected this man) I was slowing HIM down.
If you don't touch type, and you work in a group, or on a team, your slow typing does more than slow you down. It slows your entire team down! This is a skill so easy to learn it is almost disrespectful to those with whom you work to not learn it.
Touch typing is one of the most valuable skills I recommend to people. Heck, it doesn't have to be anything formal, just suck it up for a week, and refuse to enter ANYTHING on the keyboard without doing it by touch. (For the record, this is how I learned..., and I drove people around me absolutely mad for that week..., but to this day, I get compliments on my typing speed. (Especially handy for editors like "vi"))
I think this is much simpler than it looks. I think companies are blowing it up the employees' asses by making them sign away their rights under duress. These kinds of agreements in many cases will not hold up in court. However, it holds impressive "stick" power over any avenues an employee may pursue when the risk of losing could result in loss of stock options, or even continued employment. The field is tilted BIG TIME against the employee. Got an employee recalcitrant to sign? NEXT!
Yes, an employee gets a salary, and benefits (hah!), but they are getting salary and benefits (hah!) ostensibly for the work they are hired to do. It strikes me as odd, no wait, make that OBSCENE , a company would lay reserve on anything you might think about while not in the office, especially for thoughts and creations unrelated to the discipline in which the employee works. I recommend strongly to all employees out there you not share or tip your hand about any ideas you have other than ones asked for.
Hmmmm, I hope my post isn't misleading... I didn't mean evidence exists of copyright violations -- (even though that may exist). I meant the evidence exists that increased download activity directly correlates with higher CD and other media sales (the curve of CD sales compared to the emergence of Napster is scary identical.... as is the curve of the decline of CD sales and the shut down of Napster.) I also can add anecdotally this has been my experience, when I would surf and download freely what amounted to "illegal" songs, my buying volume spiked. When napster was shut down, and I lost my appetite to trade jabs with the RIAA juggernaut, my buying volume returned to very low levels.