It's said that someone rated the parent post as "Informative" when it's entirely inaccurate:
The code-bases for XP embedded and XP Pro are IDENTICAL. The binaries for both of these OSs are IDENTICAL. The only difference is that with XPe you get to choose which binaries/config (i.e components) are put on the hard drive image.
The only way XPe is more secure than XP Pro is that you can create a smaller image with less components. For example, you can use HTML and other "web content" components and not install any of the RPC or "windows file sharing" disasters.
My more important question is: What bonehead can find a reference to hooking these things up to the Internet in the article?
Just because they are "web-enabled" does not mean that it must be connected to the Internet. I would guess that the "web content" is Intranet-based, or is being served locally.
This is content and O/S issue, and not a connectivity change.
The article does not say that these machines are connected to the Internet - I highly doubt that they are. I would imagine that all "web content" is coming from Wells Fargo's internal intranet or is being served locally from the ATM itself.
IT unemployment is quite low right now. A lot of people who jumped into it have left the field, and a ton of jobs have come back (more than in 1999 now (check out the facts).
Look at the job listings. If you're good at what you do you'll easily get a job and get paid a good deal of money too.
The very fact that you're spouting these statistics as revelant shows your ignorance. IQ tests were created by men. Men defined the criteria for "intelligence" around their own experience of it. Therefore men do better in the tests!!
Because what *we* have (assuming you're a white male, as I am) is a built in privilege! It's called White Male Privilege. It's almost hidden because as a WM you don't have to earn it, you don't have to buy it, and you can act like it's not there. But you *do* have it because you're born with it. You don't have to consider sexism in the workplace (rarely anyway) and you don't have to be aware that it's possible you're being underpaid compared to the WM sitting next to you doing the same job.
Once you realize that you already have special privileges (just because you're a WM) then it doesn't seem so unfair when others are given the same.
It depends on how white you are and what kind of accent you have. I'm from Europe (England), and so I'll probably remain an 'imgrant until my accent changes over time. I'm white enough to make the grade.
There are more people TODAY working in IT (all fields combined) than there were just before the slump occurred. We went through a few bad years and now we're back up there again. I'm talking about the US here, and not jobs off-shored to other countries. Check out the stats at www.bls.gov
Additionally, salary rates for computer engineers are very high right now and there is a lot of opportunity for advancement as the IT field is expected to grow over the coming decades. It's still the case that you can come out of school, get a couple of years of experience, and then earn 60-80K a year. That's an amazing amount of money compared to the vast majority of other fields. Becoming a doctor or lawyers requires a lot more education, hard work and toil in the early years of the career. IT is easy in comparison.
If you're just talking about a basic helpdesk position, then I might agree with you. Setting up servers, figuring out email issues, etc, is another thing. That requires some problem solving skills, some of which can be taught.
Software development is different again. Writing software is 80% aptitude and 20% experience and education. You have to have both, but aptitude is more important. I have hired many developers and have done a lot of development myself. Some people have it and some people don't. There are a TON of bad developers out there that really have no idea what they're doing but jumped onto the.com bandwagon when they saw they could get more money than their job in purchasing.
You are only thinking about Windows XP or similar. In that case, you are correct that there is a limit to what you can install. Basically, it's everything and then you fight with it to get rid of a fraction of the bloat.
HOWEVER, are you aware of XP Embedded or more appropriately - Windows CE? With CE you can build your own custom OS, even to the point of kernel changes (if you pay enough of a license fee). CE is not easily available (not free) to the whole world and so very few people are aware of what it can do. CE used to be a pile of junk, but now it's actually quite a capable OS.
I still agree that Linux is the better OS for robotics, just not for the same reason.:)
My house is surrounded by Pines, Firs and Cedars. Every October/November it just takes a bit of rain and wind and a LOT of leaves/needles come falling down.
OK, so 75% stays on the tree, but the rest comes down during a one month period. I live in Seattle, so it may differ in warmer climates - I don't know.
Perceived drive "speed" is not all about how much data you can read or write per second. Yes, modern drives have a higher data density and this *does* produce a higher sequential data transfer speed, BUT most perceived slowness is due to waiting for the data to arrive at the head. There's a lot of random access involved, and faster RPM means that on average you wait less time for that data to get to you.
You sounds like a sysadmin or someone that works in an IT department in some kind of support role. For you, there *is* so much more you can do with Linux. It's amazingly configurable and a wonderful OS from a techinical standpoint.
For the users however, it's all about what they used to run, but now they can't. They'll have less applications and not the ones they are used to.
Yeah! I totally agree! The "idiot" poster should have read pages of documentation and educated themselves for hours before attempting to install the OS.
Debian, Knoppix, schnoppix, blue hat. WTF?!
Your post is a prime example of how the Linux community just doesn't understand normal users and what it is they want to do with their computers.
My company produces over 40,000 custom CDs a month. Each CD is different (we're not "replicating") and it's all automated with the robotic arm contraptions you mention.
However, this new solution won't really make it any cheaper. The expensive part of the whole solution is the robotic arm, the twirling bins, and the software that you have to integrate with to be able to control the system. Plus, they're a f**king rip-off, but that's another story. A 4-6 CD/DVD burning unit is about 35K USD from the manufacturer we use. This new printing method does not remove the need for the automation.
Also, the printer is one of the cheap parts of the whole operation and is not the bottleneck in the process, or the expensive part. It's less than a cent a CD for B/W printing.
You're right that most software is not very tricky but that doesn't mean that it's trivial to produce. It can take months or YEARS to reproduce a software system that someone else has created. If you're 12 months ahead of the competition then you're set. If it's going to take a million dollars and 2 months to get staffed up before you even START development, then you're going to be releasing your beta version while your competition is releasing their second version with a bunch of features that all the users requested. It can take years to catch up, if the money continues to flow of course.
The comment that you argued against has it exactly right. It's about being ahead of the competition and attempting to stay ahead.
Open source is a wonderful thing, for some projects. Arguing that it would be appropriate for something like Dreamweaver is naive at best.
I wish people in the US (FYI - that's where I live) realized that the world opinion of nuclear power is not the same as the US opinion.
People of America, pay attention! The rest of the world is not as afraid of it as you are! Sure, they're a bit weird about having it in their back yard, but they get over it. France has tons of nuclear power stations, although I would agree that we don't necessarily want to follow the French...;)
20 years into it, I would have thought that you would have figured out that *YOU* were the one that was supposed to write the spec. It's the customers job to give vague and conflicting requirements. It's your job to get those requirements on paper, get a sign off and then move on.
Customers don't provide specs. They don't think like that.
I am a PHB. I interview development candidates all the time. In fact, we're currently hiring. When candidates say they've done whatever certificate it means nothing to me. I ask what projects they undertook, what they learned, etc etc. I test their knowledge in the interview anyway - the certificate means nothing!
The thing that means the most to me - absolutely sincerely - is when someone talks about programming in basic, pascal, or assembly language when they were 10. Now THOSE people are really into programming and their brain was hard-wired at an early age. I'll hire THEM in a heartbeat.
In some cases this is very much the case. However, often it is also the case that "senior" engineers sitting on high salaries have no incentive to try hard or achieve more. They just sit there. Some senior devs are just great - they produce a lot, and they constantly work hard... The rest are clock punchers with no incentive to earn more than the 80-100K they're currently earning.
Now, young and inexperienced developers fall into 2 categories: potential, no potential. If you can find the ones with potential, then within a couple of years they'll be producing almost (or more) as much as your beloved senior developers, except they work twice as hard and you pay them less because salary.com says they're worth less. As a manager with a given budget (yes, BUDGET, the money supply is limited) you have to figure out how to get the most productivity out of a group of developers. All junior is not good. All senior is worse. You need a mix of some senior and some junior.
I generalize, of course, but I have experience of exactly this situation in a team of developers that I manage. Yes, I said "manage". Get over it. I'm your PHB. Kneel before me!!!!
Finally, I should say that I used to be a developer (and still dabble occasionally). Been there, done that. If you're smart enough you'll get bored too. Trust me. If you think you're "constantly learning new things" just because the syntax just changed again, then you won't understand what I'm talking about.
Of course the cost will go down (per GB). However, the cost of magnetic storage will also go down at the same time, again per GB.
I can buy one of these drives for about the same $/GB as a magnetic drive back in the 80s (late 80s I think). So they're 20 years behind in my guess. Therefore I think we'll have 200GB models for $200 in 20 years. SWEET!!!
However, we'll have 200TB vanilla hard drives for $200, and we'll all be moaning about the crappy 200GB flash drives and how we can only fit a few hours of uncompressed video on them.
How boringly predictable.
Also, I've seen Linux systems that boot off Flash (you can get small 32/64MB Flash IDE drives that are quite affordable) and they really don't boot much faster...
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The code-bases for XP embedded and XP Pro are IDENTICAL. The binaries for both of these OSs are IDENTICAL. The only difference is that with XPe you get to choose which binaries/config (i.e components) are put on the hard drive image.
The only way XPe is more secure than XP Pro is that you can create a smaller image with less components. For example, you can use HTML and other "web content" components and not install any of the RPC or "windows file sharing" disasters.
Just because they are "web-enabled" does not mean that it must be connected to the Internet. I would guess that the "web content" is Intranet-based, or is being served locally.
This is content and O/S issue, and not a connectivity change.
The article does not say that these machines are connected to the Internet - I highly doubt that they are. I would imagine that all "web content" is coming from Wells Fargo's internal intranet or is being served locally from the ATM itself.
You have no sense of humor.
IT unemployment is quite low right now. A lot of people who jumped into it have left the field, and a ton of jobs have come back (more than in 1999 now (check out the facts).
Look at the job listings. If you're good at what you do you'll easily get a job and get paid a good deal of money too.
Once you realize that you already have special privileges (just because you're a WM) then it doesn't seem so unfair when others are given the same.
Additionally, salary rates for computer engineers are very high right now and there is a lot of opportunity for advancement as the IT field is expected to grow over the coming decades. It's still the case that you can come out of school, get a couple of years of experience, and then earn 60-80K a year. That's an amazing amount of money compared to the vast majority of other fields. Becoming a doctor or lawyers requires a lot more education, hard work and toil in the early years of the career. IT is easy in comparison.
Everyone makes generalizations...
Software development is different again. Writing software is 80% aptitude and 20% experience and education. You have to have both, but aptitude is more important. I have hired many developers and have done a lot of development myself. Some people have it and some people don't. There are a TON of bad developers out there that really have no idea what they're doing but jumped onto the .com bandwagon when they saw they could get more money than their job in purchasing.
HOWEVER, are you aware of XP Embedded or more appropriately - Windows CE? With CE you can build your own custom OS, even to the point of kernel changes (if you pay enough of a license fee). CE is not easily available (not free) to the whole world and so very few people are aware of what it can do. CE used to be a pile of junk, but now it's actually quite a capable OS.
I still agree that Linux is the better OS for robotics, just not for the same reason. :)
My house is surrounded by Pines, Firs and Cedars. Every October/November it just takes a bit of rain and wind and a LOT of leaves/needles come falling down. OK, so 75% stays on the tree, but the rest comes down during a one month period. I live in Seattle, so it may differ in warmer climates - I don't know.
Perceived drive "speed" is not all about how much data you can read or write per second. Yes, modern drives have a higher data density and this *does* produce a higher sequential data transfer speed, BUT most perceived slowness is due to waiting for the data to arrive at the head. There's a lot of random access involved, and faster RPM means that on average you wait less time for that data to get to you.
Linux support for modems is terrible. Software modems, buggy drivers, I've seen it all. Laptops are the worst for support.
For the users however, it's all about what they used to run, but now they can't. They'll have less applications and not the ones they are used to.
Debian, Knoppix, schnoppix, blue hat. WTF?!
Your post is a prime example of how the Linux community just doesn't understand normal users and what it is they want to do with their computers.
My company produces over 40,000 custom CDs a month. Each CD is different (we're not "replicating") and it's all automated with the robotic arm contraptions you mention. However, this new solution won't really make it any cheaper. The expensive part of the whole solution is the robotic arm, the twirling bins, and the software that you have to integrate with to be able to control the system. Plus, they're a f**king rip-off, but that's another story. A 4-6 CD/DVD burning unit is about 35K USD from the manufacturer we use. This new printing method does not remove the need for the automation. Also, the printer is one of the cheap parts of the whole operation and is not the bottleneck in the process, or the expensive part. It's less than a cent a CD for B/W printing.
"All software can be trivially recreated".
Your comment was interesting up until that point.
You're right that most software is not very tricky but that doesn't mean that it's trivial to produce. It can take months or YEARS to reproduce a software system that someone else has created. If you're 12 months ahead of the competition then you're set. If it's going to take a million dollars and 2 months to get staffed up before you even START development, then you're going to be releasing your beta version while your competition is releasing their second version with a bunch of features that all the users requested. It can take years to catch up, if the money continues to flow of course.
The comment that you argued against has it exactly right. It's about being ahead of the competition and attempting to stay ahead.
Open source is a wonderful thing, for some projects. Arguing that it would be appropriate for something like Dreamweaver is naive at best.
I wish people in the US (FYI - that's where I live) realized that the world opinion of nuclear power is not the same as the US opinion.
People of America, pay attention! The rest of the world is not as afraid of it as you are! Sure, they're a bit weird about having it in their back yard, but they get over it. France has tons of nuclear power stations, although I would agree that we don't necessarily want to follow the French... ;)
Therefore, your post is a dupe!!
DUPE, I tell ya, DUPE!!!!!!!
Customers don't provide specs. They don't think like that.
The thing that means the most to me - absolutely sincerely - is when someone talks about programming in basic, pascal, or assembly language when they were 10. Now THOSE people are really into programming and their brain was hard-wired at an early age. I'll hire THEM in a heartbeat.
Now, young and inexperienced developers fall into 2 categories: potential, no potential. If you can find the ones with potential, then within a couple of years they'll be producing almost (or more) as much as your beloved senior developers, except they work twice as hard and you pay them less because salary.com says they're worth less. As a manager with a given budget (yes, BUDGET, the money supply is limited) you have to figure out how to get the most productivity out of a group of developers. All junior is not good. All senior is worse. You need a mix of some senior and some junior.
I generalize, of course, but I have experience of exactly this situation in a team of developers that I manage. Yes, I said "manage". Get over it. I'm your PHB. Kneel before me!!!!
Finally, I should say that I used to be a developer (and still dabble occasionally). Been there, done that. If you're smart enough you'll get bored too. Trust me. If you think you're "constantly learning new things" just because the syntax just changed again, then you won't understand what I'm talking about.
I can buy one of these drives for about the same $/GB as a magnetic drive back in the 80s (late 80s I think). So they're 20 years behind in my guess. Therefore I think we'll have 200GB models for $200 in 20 years. SWEET!!!
However, we'll have 200TB vanilla hard drives for $200, and we'll all be moaning about the crappy 200GB flash drives and how we can only fit a few hours of uncompressed video on them.
How boringly predictable.
Also, I've seen Linux systems that boot off Flash (you can get small 32/64MB Flash IDE drives that are quite affordable) and they really don't boot much faster...