I once worked with a company where you could just feel the stress when you walked in the door. Every project carried with it a discussion about what would happen if it failed. This lead to an atmosphere of recrimination (even when there weren't major problems) in an attempt to protect departments and individuals from possible punishment.
After quitting I also worked with a company where things were just the opposite. Nobody ever mentioned the personal ramifications of failure. We all worked together and when we had problems they rarely involved blaming anyone for it. We might have known who all could have caused the problem, but unless it was occurring repeatedly or it was intentional we did not dwell on it. After my previous experience it took a while for me to get used to it.
At my new job we also had a large amount of control over our environment. Scheduling (very important) was done by a peer of ours and thus working with them was much easier. Once we had a member of upper management decide that rearranging the cubes would somehow increase productivity. When it was proposed at a meeting we decided it was not a good use of $ and it never occurred. The little things like that were really important to us. They maybe didn't make the job easier, but it felt like it.
Cruddy battery time is a big factor in my choice to not have a laptop for personal use. I fly overseas occasionally and it's always a disappointment when my work laptop runs out of juice or when on a trip wondering when I can get the time to charge up the batteries again.
"I believe my son was a victim of the dot-com boom," said David Bunnell
While I feel for Mr. Bunnell and his loss, I can't help but feel sorry for him blaming "the dot com boom". I for a time I worked with emotionally disturbed children most of whom came from broken families and often a substance abuse problem in one way or another was involved. In that time I learned one thing. People whom take drugs have only themselves to blame. In the end (other than a tragedy like this) people must take responsibility for their actions if they're going to get off of it.
It's always nice to blame the big bad rich guys of wall street, but that's just an excuse. While many people might not like the decadence of wall street they're not to blame, and tagging them with any responsibility of someone's drug habit only diminishes people's personal responsibility for themselves.
"That the Presidential committee doesn't include RMS as a member puts the whole report under a dark cloud, in my opinion."
Why should they have RMS on the committee. I can see good reason for interviewing him about it. Of course I think he'd first note that Open Source is not the same as Free Software and toss in "GNU" in there somewhere:-)
Yet I can't see why he should be on the committee. There's lots of people who could serve on it and I'm sure do well. I'd be somewhat wary about advisory committees made up of people whom are directly involved advocating what is being reviewed.
I don't think he meant to say those weren't good apps, but I think he was looking for apps that are so much clearly better than what many people already use (and use them for) that they would switch. Apache fits that definition. It is dominant because it is clearly better than it's competition so that people moved to it, and new people started with it.
As for the uptime that's just a red herring. Sure Windows doesn't stay up long but that's not the point. People complain about Windows stability but then again my Windows PC at work, at home, my mom's PC can afford to go down from time to time. Those PCs aren't used in the manner that uptime is that big of a deal. Heck my mom shuts hers off when she's done, she hardly ever uses it long enough to complain about it's poor resource management in the first place. I can have Linux PC stay up forever, it still doesn't have that apps that are astoundingly better than windows aps that makes most people move to Linux.
As Cringely said "To my Mom, the OS is already irrelevant,". His mom doesn't use her computer to the point where she cares about uptime it's the apps she cares about and that's what makes the difference. For just all the apps you list Windows has the same basic functionality and nothing that makes large numbers of people go "Woah, I gotta have that!"
This is not to say Linux is "bad". I have tons of fun with it (Deb) at home because somewhere in my PC enthusiast career I said:
"Hey, I can't do that in Windows, I gotta have that! I gotta have me an OS where I have more control, and I can play with it, write (well my apps suck) some apps for it, and be a part of a community building something cool."
Yeah, funny was my intent.
I've been modded pretty harshly when trying to be funny lately. I'm not sure if people are just more defensive because of trolls maybe.
I disagree with your claim that this is a non-sequitur. He might not be very detailed in his reasoning for his solution, but this is not a non sequitur. Non Sequiturs occur when writers fail to show clear connections between their premise (starting point) and conclusion. This has nothing to do with his solution to a given problem.
As I'm sure your aware Non sequitur literally means "it does not follow." It refers to a conclusion that does not grow logically from the evidence.
If he were to say that students in the US are not interested in becoming scientists and thus the us education system is the reason we have so few scientists, the I would agree that it is a Non sequitur. However I do not believe that is his premise.
True, however I would rather not have a union dictate to my employer that I (and others who want to) can't work a 70 hour week because that would be one or two less positions in the company. I've seen this happen to several friends of mine at other jobs involving unions.
I think the 70 hour work week is a bad excuse. I've worked with a few different companies and many have a large mix of people, some who work massive hours and some who do not.
Nobody at any of these companies is giving the 40 hour guys the code that must be done by the end of the week. They're working on other things, or just assisting, or administrating.
The most common thing I see is those people who have families or want to work fewer hours move into management (for better or worse for those managed by them) positions where they're still somewhat technical, just not on "the front line."
You have to plan your career. People have to realize that some positions do involve massive hours, and plan for the future when you don't want to work those hours.
I'm no physics guru so here comes a possibly dumb question. Why is it that when it comes to recent physics discoveries or research that they often seem to involve some sort of accelerator, or collider? Why is it necessary to have things go really fast or crash things into each other to find things out?
Personally I wonder if it might just be a jealous attempt to compete with the increasing popularity of NASCAR racing.
Doesn't this hurt Free Software advocacy if supporters of Free Software (or Open Source, yes they're different) try to promote their ideas to programmers and private companies, but then also ridicule a group of people who have complied with such advocates wishes?
What kind of message does this send about the advantages of creating, assisting, or moving to free software?
I would think this is a terrible way of advocating your ideas when someone you've lobbied to change does change, then you ridicule them for it.
Was the point that RMS wanted them to change their software? Or was it that they didn't change when he asked the first time and now he is upset about it?
For everyday people I would note that is a hard thing to do, I doubt there's anyone out there who's read all the source of all the software they've run.
Having said that. I still agree. Especially when your an intelligence service. It doesn't necessarily have to be open source, but if they're buying software that will use sensitive data and such I would defiantly ask for the source and have a good look at it. Even more so if I'm buying it from a company in another country.
I'm posting this under the guise of actually believing the story (I actually think it's a load of hooey).
"Makes you wonder what kind of "back-doors" may have been build into Carnivore, and who in our government has access to them. "
Also makes you wonder what OTHER governments might have access to Carnivore. Having such monitoring devices doesn't just put people at risk from mean people in our Gov, but also mean people in other Govs who might manage to access the equipment too.
I remember Mr. Taco mentioning on Slashdot Radio how he frequently receives "submissions" that are basically advertisements trying to get through as stories. I guess it was only a matter of time until someone fell for it.
Well they do mention how this is different from other such exparments in the article:
"While others have done similar work using techniques involving motors or by suspending a liquid within another liquid bath, countering gravity against a magnetic field has a multitude of advantages. He points out that with this technique scientists can study phenomena on incredibly fast time scales, down to milliseconds. Additionally, the magnetic approach allows the liquid or solid to float freely, unencumbered by the physical constraints of mechanically driven motion or the effects of a surrounding liquid bath."
I applaud any technology that makes it easier to get out of my chair and get my laptop, remote or whatever item I need but forget elsewhere. Yay, Case Western Reserve University!
Slashdot Mirror
Richard Stallman vs. Jorrit Tyberghein
ONLY ON PAY PER VIEW!
I think it's a company cultural thing myself.
I once worked with a company where you could just feel the stress when you walked in the door. Every project carried with it a discussion about what would happen if it failed. This lead to an atmosphere of recrimination (even when there weren't major problems) in an attempt to protect departments and individuals from possible punishment.
After quitting I also worked with a company where things were just the opposite. Nobody ever mentioned the personal ramifications of failure. We all worked together and when we had problems they rarely involved blaming anyone for it. We might have known who all could have caused the problem, but unless it was occurring repeatedly or it was intentional we did not dwell on it. After my previous experience it took a while for me to get used to it.
At my new job we also had a large amount of control over our environment. Scheduling (very important) was done by a peer of ours and thus working with them was much easier. Once we had a member of upper management decide that rearranging the cubes would somehow increase productivity. When it was proposed at a meeting we decided it was not a good use of $ and it never occurred. The little things like that were really important to us. They maybe didn't make the job easier, but it felt like it.
Normally I'd agree, but when I think about it, all I've ever seen Mobile Suits do is explode.
Cruddy battery time is a big factor in my choice to not have a laptop for personal use. I fly overseas occasionally and it's always a disappointment when my work laptop runs out of juice or when on a trip wondering when I can get the time to charge up the batteries again.
I'm still holding out for my own personal Gundam.
"I believe my son was a victim of the dot-com boom," said David Bunnell
While I feel for Mr. Bunnell and his loss, I can't help but feel sorry for him blaming "the dot com boom". I for a time I worked with emotionally disturbed children most of whom came from broken families and often a substance abuse problem in one way or another was involved. In that time I learned one thing. People whom take drugs have only themselves to blame. In the end (other than a tragedy like this) people must take responsibility for their actions if they're going to get off of it.
It's always nice to blame the big bad rich guys of wall street, but that's just an excuse. While many people might not like the decadence of wall street they're not to blame, and tagging them with any responsibility of someone's drug habit only diminishes people's personal responsibility for themselves.
"That the Presidential committee doesn't include RMS as a member puts the whole report under a dark cloud, in my opinion."
:-)
Why should they have RMS on the committee. I can see good reason for interviewing him about it. Of course I think he'd first note that Open Source is not the same as Free Software and toss in "GNU" in there somewhere
Yet I can't see why he should be on the committee. There's lots of people who could serve on it and I'm sure do well. I'd be somewhat wary about advisory committees made up of people whom are directly involved advocating what is being reviewed.
"Sure boss I can work late, just let me go home and pick up my glasses first."
I don't think he meant to say those weren't good apps, but I think he was looking for apps that are so much clearly better than what many people already use (and use them for) that they would switch. Apache fits that definition. It is dominant because it is clearly better than it's competition so that people moved to it, and new people started with it.
As for the uptime that's just a red herring. Sure Windows doesn't stay up long but that's not the point. People complain about Windows stability but then again my Windows PC at work, at home, my mom's PC can afford to go down from time to time. Those PCs aren't used in the manner that uptime is that big of a deal. Heck my mom shuts hers off when she's done, she hardly ever uses it long enough to complain about it's poor resource management in the first place. I can have Linux PC stay up forever, it still doesn't have that apps that are astoundingly better than windows aps that makes most people move to Linux.
As Cringely said "To my Mom, the OS is already irrelevant,". His mom doesn't use her computer to the point where she cares about uptime it's the apps she cares about and that's what makes the difference. For just all the apps you list Windows has the same basic functionality and nothing that makes large numbers of people go "Woah, I gotta have that!"
This is not to say Linux is "bad". I have tons of fun with it (Deb) at home because somewhere in my PC enthusiast career I said:
"Hey, I can't do that in Windows, I gotta have that! I gotta have me an OS where I have more control, and I can play with it, write (well my apps suck) some apps for it, and be a part of a community building something cool."
Yeah, funny was my intent.
I've been modded pretty harshly when trying to be funny lately. I'm not sure if people are just more defensive because of trolls maybe.
I disagree with your claim that this is a non-sequitur. He might not be very detailed in his reasoning for his solution, but this is not a non sequitur. Non Sequiturs occur when writers fail to show clear connections between their premise (starting point) and conclusion. This has nothing to do with his solution to a given problem.
As I'm sure your aware Non sequitur literally means "it does not follow." It refers to a conclusion that does not grow logically from the evidence.
If he were to say that students in the US are not interested in becoming scientists and thus the us education system is the reason we have so few scientists, the I would agree that it is a Non sequitur. However I do not believe that is his premise.
"someday you may not want to work a 70 hour week"
True, however I would rather not have a union dictate to my employer that I (and others who want to) can't work a 70 hour week because that would be one or two less positions in the company. I've seen this happen to several friends of mine at other jobs involving unions.
I think the 70 hour work week is a bad excuse. I've worked with a few different companies and many have a large mix of people, some who work massive hours and some who do not.
Nobody at any of these companies is giving the 40 hour guys the code that must be done by the end of the week. They're working on other things, or just assisting, or administrating.
The most common thing I see is those people who have families or want to work fewer hours move into management (for better or worse for those managed by them) positions where they're still somewhat technical, just not on "the front line."
You have to plan your career. People have to realize that some positions do involve massive hours, and plan for the future when you don't want to work those hours.
I'm no physics guru so here comes a possibly dumb question. Why is it that when it comes to recent physics discoveries or research that they often seem to involve some sort of accelerator, or collider? Why is it necessary to have things go really fast or crash things into each other to find things out?
Personally I wonder if it might just be a jealous attempt to compete with the increasing popularity of NASCAR racing.
If I understand the theory properly, my diet might already be over!
"No, I don't way that much, there are just way too many Higgs bosons in the bathroom where I keep my scale and that's increasing my mass!"
Doesn't this hurt Free Software advocacy if supporters of Free Software (or Open Source, yes they're different) try to promote their ideas to programmers and private companies, but then also ridicule a group of people who have complied with such advocates wishes?
What kind of message does this send about the advantages of creating, assisting, or moving to free software?
I would think this is a terrible way of advocating your ideas when someone you've lobbied to change does change, then you ridicule them for it.
Was the point that RMS wanted them to change their software? Or was it that they didn't change when he asked the first time and now he is upset about it?
Read the article.
Don't adjust your television!
They control the horizontal!
They control the vertical!
Could someone please help me buy one of these for the guy in the cube next to me!?!?!?! ..
If I have to hear Limp Biscuit one more time . .
I propose a consist where the person to find the first request for porn wins (I'm not sure what they win but they do).
For everyday people I would note that is a hard thing to do, I doubt there's anyone out there who's read all the source of all the software they've run.
Having said that. I still agree. Especially when your an intelligence service. It doesn't necessarily have to be open source, but if they're buying software that will use sensitive data and such I would defiantly ask for the source and have a good look at it. Even more so if I'm buying it from a company in another country.
I'm posting this under the guise of actually believing the story (I actually think it's a load of hooey).
"Makes you wonder what kind of "back-doors" may have been build into Carnivore, and who in our government has access to them. "
Also makes you wonder what OTHER governments might have access to Carnivore. Having such monitoring devices doesn't just put people at risk from mean people in our Gov, but also mean people in other Govs who might manage to access the equipment too.
I remember Mr. Taco mentioning on Slashdot Radio how he frequently receives "submissions" that are basically advertisements trying to get through as stories. I guess it was only a matter of time until someone fell for it.
Well they do mention how this is different from other such exparments in the article:
"While others have done similar work using techniques involving motors or by suspending a liquid within another liquid bath, countering gravity against a magnetic field has a multitude of advantages. He points out that with this technique scientists can study phenomena on incredibly fast time scales, down to milliseconds. Additionally, the magnetic approach allows the liquid or solid to float freely, unencumbered by the physical constraints of mechanically driven motion or the effects of a surrounding liquid bath."
I applaud any technology that makes it easier to get out of my chair and get my laptop, remote or whatever item I need but forget elsewhere. Yay, Case Western Reserve University!
I forgot about that article. That might be what he's talking about.
Yeah, there's got to be better things to fight about.