The foss office apps have each had their own format. Now there is a chance that there will be just one ( or at least, one dominant one ).
This improves the chances of eroding the MS hold on office docs.
For people who think about such things they will have the choice of saving in ms and having it useful in one place or saving it in the new open format and having their docs be able to go many places.
With only one std os format ms might even implement it out of pressure, be it government, criticism, or simply trying to kill foss open apps.
Common sense reasons why online shopping would inspire fewer impulsive purchases:
1. Even with a high speed connection buying anything online is a very deliberate act. You have to be determined. You have to look up a url and go through multiple screens. If you are in this frame of mind you have pretty much decided what you want ( & don't ) want to buy.
2. You have to take trouble to physically go to a brick-n-mortar store. Hence the mentality to load up while you are there. Your PC/Mac is always there so if you are unsure about a purchase you always bag it and come back later.
3. Impulse buys happen in checkout lines where you are forced to wait and stare at the impulse item they want you to buy. Not so on the web, and if they tried the customer would perceive an enforced wait or redirect as an intrusion and bag the purchase.
I think that once money changes hands that formal terms of service...with concomitant legalities, will follow.
If someone implements a subscription system on their forum they had better be ready for professional and mature management.
Heh, that hasn't happened here
However, out of the total number of regular slashdot users how many do you think pay to use slashdot?
How many would keep using slashdot if they had to pay to use it any level?
For those willing to pay, would they be willing to keep paying if they were not happy with the management?
I think that once money changes hands that formal terms of service...with concomitant legalities, will follow.
If someone implements a subscription system on their forum they had better be ready for professional and mature management.
They risk losing customers otherwise and possibly even risk legal headaches from people who are not content to simply cancel their subscription and move on.
There will be less room for the inconsistent and sophomoric forum management often seen on the web.
When people pay, they expect more.
The original poster mentioned that the forum members in the article were angry because they felt that they contributed to building the community for which they are now being told to pay for.
Healthy on line communities often happen by accident.
It takes a different set of skills to throw a successful party then it does to set up an internet forum.
There is no shortage of empty web boards, abandoned email lists, unused Usenet groups and forgotten IRC channels.
A person looking to implement a subscription based forum should be sure of his/her social skills and ability to intentionally create ( or at least maintain ) a successful social environment.
S/he may have to start one (over) from scratch if people chose to leave ( or not come ),
If a forum owner has these skills then s/he has something to offer in exchange for charging a fee where other forums owners with the same I.T. skills do not.
Any technically skilled person can set up a web board, an email list or an IRC channel. However very few people who can do these things also know how to create a successful social environment.
If someone wants to charge a fee for a forum s/he should be aware that if s/he only has I.T. skills then she will have a huge number of competitors...and a huge number of free competitors to deal with.
All good points. It seems like an interesting job, with fair pay, fair hours, and stability seems to the holy grail of the programming job market.
However, I am sure there are people who want to point out that you have work.
Others will also want to say there are those outside of the Silicon Valley elite who often have days eating 3 meals at the office, but instead of the fancy cafeteria it is a choice of the 4 food groups:
- chinese takeout
- pizza
- the candy machine
- soda
I say it's way past time Canada and the rest of the world told the US to go fuck itself.
I think it is way past time for Canada to point out to the UN that the US is in violation of UN resolutions, has had questionable elections, and should be invaded by a U.N. force to restore democracy.
If Conoleeza Rice and Tom Delay are part of the collateral damage we will learn to live with it.
I and many others have brought up the point that management of emails should be no different than management of phone use.
My question, is sending a message via a phone, different then sending a message through email?
The first thing that comes to mind is that you can
point to an email after the message is delivered,
it hangs around.
Someone brought up the example of an engineer
who accidently hit "reply all", shot his mouth off
to the clients, and lost a big project for the
company.
Similar comments would have been damaging in
a teleconference, but no one would have had an
exact copy of his words to circulate around.
Just a thought
Reading some of these posts I realized how fortunate I am to be an I.T. professional having worked in a number of companies, none of which had these draconian rules.
Sure, they all had ominous sounding policies, but at least as far as I could tell it was never enforced or made an issue of.
I can't tell you how many otherwise intelligent people I meet in the year 2005 who are too lazy to set up a free web mail account to avoid using their business address for personal use.
Then a big faceless corporation in addition to the corporation you work for can monitor the steamy details in the emails you are exchanging with your new lover.
Too bad you didn't use those years in school to learn how to spell and punctuate properly.
Too bad you didn't spend your school years building up enough character to not need to insult someone and need to do so anonymously.." "anonymous coward"... ahem!
You are stupid for doing what you did. If they had ever caught you they could have done all kinds of things to you like charge you with crimes, put this on your permanent school record etc. DO NOT TELL THEM ANYTHING
Once he is out of school he can send them an anonymous email detailing the various issues.
Given how clueless they are he is probably safe from them ever figuring out who sent it.
This isn't about leaked information. Anyone who wishes to leak information has multiple avenues to do so quite easily, given that they have access to the information in the first place.
Think of how many stories there have been on slashdot about I.T. people in I.T. firms using company blackerries, emails etc to conspire against the company.
There is a huge lack of common sense out there and those who lack it will take the closest, most lame rout -- email.
No, this is primarily about "hostile work environment"
I agree. It smells like the whole drug testing issue. I can understand an employer asking me to pee into a cup if I am operating machinery, but to sit at a computer and program it makes little sense.
If I show up to work high and wasted they have every justification in the world to fire me.
Drug testing and my guess, email monitoring, is about leverage.
I once worked for a company where we could not look up any information about the state of Virginia, because "virgin" was one of the dirty strings our web filters had programmed into it.
I went to an orientation once for a big contracting firm and one of the managers had what I thought was a great way for everyone to think about using email at the office.
In a nutshell, he said people should think of using a company PC the way they already think about using a company office phone.
Nobody minds an occasional call( now email ) to take care of a small personal issue, but people do care if they spend if you spend all day on the phone ( email ).
By the same token, people in most jobs do not expect their office line to be tapped and the contents monitored.
Gates may find opening the H1-B gates toughAdd to URMI A GOSWAMI
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2005
NEW DELHI: Bill Gates has opened the proverbial Pandora's box on the contentious H1-B visas issue - giving hope where there seems to be little.
So will the average Indian skilled worker be living their American Dream soon? While Gates has a track record of getting his own way most of the time, this time round it may be somewhat difficult. The Bush administration isn't taking the bait, instead claiming that there isn't a shortage of technical skilled workers in the US.
While Gates may have articulated the desire of many an Indian skilled worker, what are the chances that the system of annual quota for H1-Bs will be thrown out of the window? The most likely scenario is an increase in the annual cap. The current annual cap stands at 65,000 with an additional 20,000 cap exempt visas, taking the total to 85,000. The highest number of H1-Bs allowed in a year has been 195,000, at the height of the IT boom.
Compete America, a coalition of over 200 corporations, universities, research institutions and trade associations - of which Microsoft is a member - has been lobbying the US Congress to raise the annual cap. The introduction of a provision for 20,000 cap exempt visas for foreign nationals, with master's and PhD degrees from US universities in the 2005 Appropiations Act was largely a result of their lobbying.
Technology companies have consistently maintained the need for larger number of skilled workers, and in the absence of qualified Americans, the need to throw open doors to foreign workers. The administration seems to hold a view that is divergent.
Commerce Department undersecretary for technology Phil Bond cautions that unemployment among US computer engineers regularly exceeds unemployment in other industries. US government figures showed 5.7 per cent of information technology employees were out of work last year as against 5.5% of all workers.
Bond may well be right, but the H1-B visa covers sectors beyond IT. America is facing shortage of nurses, medical doctors, and teachers. But traditionally, both in India, which has been the biggest user of the H1-B, and in the US, the issue of the H1-B visa has been seen as one that affects the technology sector.
Areas that are feeling the pinch of a lower cap are education (teaching) and healthcare. Teaching, both at the higher education and school level, and healthcare were areas where the demand increased appreciably between 2001 and 2002 fiscal years.
According to a report of the US Department of Homeland Security, the only three industries in the top 10 which increased between 2001 and 2002 were: colleges, universities, and professional schools (20 per cent); elementary and secondary schools (20 per cent); and general medical and surgical hospitals (22 per cent).
According to experts, these are the areas where problems will be faced because of a lower cap. This too is primarily because the US is facing a shortage in both areas. As a matter of fact, shortage in the healthcare sector has been termed as "severe".
Experts feel that unlike the tech companies, players in these fields don't really know much about lobbying for immigrants or highly skilled workers.
So, while the US administration is not taking the bait, the US Congress is willing to give Gates a second thought. The feeling being, if their is a demand, then raising the cap could well be an option. In the meantime, the 20,000 cap exempt visas mandated by the Appropiations Act are yet to be issued.
I'm with the other people on the "wait and see" attitude.
The MAC developers may be very friendly. This may be the result of an oversight or the decision of one dweeb manager for all anybody knows.
The last thing the situation needs is for a bunch of venom to poured out on slashdot...possibly alienating away future cooperation...before the story is known.
Slashdot Mirror
Make more post-its
This is great news.
The foss office apps have each had their own format. Now there is a chance that there will be just one ( or at least, one dominant one ).
This improves the chances of eroding the MS hold on office docs.
For people who think about such things they will have the choice of saving in ms and having it useful in one place or saving it in the new open format and having their docs be able to go many places.
With only one std os format ms might even implement it out of pressure, be it government, criticism, or simply trying to kill foss open apps.
This is good news.
Common sense reasons why online shopping would inspire fewer impulsive purchases:
1. Even with a high speed connection buying anything online is a very deliberate act. You have to be determined. You have to look up a url and go through multiple screens. If you are in this frame of mind you have pretty much decided what you want ( & don't ) want to buy.
2. You have to take trouble to physically go to a brick-n-mortar store. Hence the mentality to load up while you are there. Your PC/Mac is always there so if you are unsure about a purchase you always bag it and come back later.
3. Impulse buys happen in checkout lines where you are forced to wait and stare at the impulse item they want you to buy. Not so on the web, and if they tried the customer would perceive an enforced wait or redirect as an intrusion and bag the purchase.
How many would keep using slashdot if they had to pay to use it any level?
For those willing to pay, would they be willing to keep paying if they were not happy with the management?
I think that once money changes hands that formal terms of service...with concomitant legalities, will follow.
If someone implements a subscription system on their forum they had better be ready for professional and mature management.
They risk losing customers otherwise and possibly even risk legal headaches from people who are not content to simply cancel their subscription and move on.
There will be less room for the inconsistent and sophomoric forum management often seen on the web.
When people pay, they expect more.
The original poster mentioned that the forum members in the article were angry because they felt that they contributed to building the community for which they are now being told to pay for.
Healthy on line communities often happen by accident.
It takes a different set of skills to throw a successful party then it does to set up an internet forum.
There is no shortage of empty web boards, abandoned email lists, unused Usenet groups and forgotten IRC channels.
A person looking to implement a subscription based forum should be sure of his/her social skills and ability to intentionally create ( or at least maintain ) a successful social environment.
S/he may have to start one (over) from scratch if people chose to leave ( or not come ),
If a forum owner has these skills then s/he has something to offer in exchange for charging a fee where other forums owners with the same I.T. skills do not.
Any technically skilled person can set up a web board, an email list or an IRC channel. However very few people who can do these things also know how to create a successful social environment.
If someone wants to charge a fee for a forum s/he should be aware that if s/he only has I.T. skills then she will have a huge number of competitors...and a huge number of free competitors to deal with.
I think the carpet bombing that usually proceeds an invasion to soften things up should commence in south Florida.
Texas too. It has oil.
M.I.T. students in spandex?
To quote Jonathan Harris ( "Dr. Smith" - Lost In Space): "Oh, the pain, the pain"
All good points. It seems like an interesting job, with fair pay, fair hours, and stability seems to the holy grail of the programming job market. However, I am sure there are people who want to point out that you have work. Others will also want to say there are those outside of the Silicon Valley elite who often have days eating 3 meals at the office, but instead of the fancy cafeteria it is a choice of the 4 food groups: - chinese takeout - pizza - the candy machine - soda
I think it is way past time for Canada to point out to the UN that the US is in violation of UN resolutions, has had questionable elections, and should be invaded by a U.N. force to restore democracy.
If Conoleeza Rice and Tom Delay are part of the collateral damage we will learn to live with it.
I and many others have brought up the point that management of emails should be no different than management of phone use. My question, is sending a message via a phone, different then sending a message through email? The first thing that comes to mind is that you can point to an email after the message is delivered, it hangs around. Someone brought up the example of an engineer who accidently hit "reply all", shot his mouth off to the clients, and lost a big project for the company. Similar comments would have been damaging in a teleconference, but no one would have had an exact copy of his words to circulate around. Just a thought
Reading some of these posts I realized how fortunate I am to be an I.T. professional having worked in a number of companies, none of which had these draconian rules. Sure, they all had ominous sounding policies, but at least as far as I could tell it was never enforced or made an issue of.
So what? All he has to do is wait 6 months to a year to send that anonymous email if he feels compelled about telling them.
I can't tell you how many otherwise intelligent people I meet in the year 2005 who are too lazy to set up a free web mail account to avoid using their business address for personal use.
Then a big faceless corporation in addition to the corporation you work for can monitor the steamy details in the emails you are exchanging with your new lover.
Given how clueless they are he is probably safe from them ever figuring out who sent it.
There is a huge lack of common sense out there and those who lack it will take the closest, most lame rout -- email.
I agree. It smells like the whole drug testing issue. I can understand an employer asking me to pee into a cup if I am operating machinery, but to sit at a computer and program it makes little sense.If I show up to work high and wasted they have every justification in the world to fire me.
Drug testing and my guess, email monitoring, is about leverage.
I once worked for a company where we could not look up any information about the state of Virginia, because "virgin" was one of the dirty strings our web filters had programmed into it.
I went to an orientation once for a big contracting firm and one of the managers had what I thought was a great way for everyone to think about using email at the office.
In a nutshell, he said people should think of using a company PC the way they already think about using a company office phone.
Nobody minds an occasional call( now email ) to take care of a small personal issue, but people do care if they spend if you spend all day on the phone ( email ).
By the same token, people in most jobs do not expect their office line to be tapped and the contents monitored.
Same facts, but from a different view, ...interesting.
s id-1093499,curpg-2.cms
From
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/m
Gates may find opening the H1-B gates toughAdd to
URMI A GOSWAMI
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 2005
NEW DELHI: Bill Gates has opened the proverbial Pandora's box on the contentious H1-B visas issue - giving hope where there seems to be little.
So will the average Indian skilled worker be living their American Dream soon? While Gates has a track record of getting his own way most of the time, this time round it may be somewhat difficult. The Bush administration isn't taking the bait, instead claiming that there isn't a shortage of technical skilled workers in the US.
While Gates may have articulated the desire of many an Indian skilled worker, what are the chances that the system of annual quota for H1-Bs will be thrown out of the window? The most likely scenario is an increase in the annual cap. The current annual cap stands at 65,000 with an additional 20,000 cap exempt visas, taking the total to 85,000. The highest number of H1-Bs allowed in a year has been 195,000, at the height of the IT boom.
Compete America, a coalition of over 200 corporations, universities, research institutions and trade associations - of which Microsoft is a member - has been lobbying the US Congress to raise the annual cap. The introduction of a provision for 20,000 cap exempt visas for foreign nationals, with master's and PhD degrees from US universities in the 2005 Appropiations Act was largely a result of their lobbying.
Technology companies have consistently maintained the need for larger number of skilled workers, and in the absence of qualified Americans, the need to throw open doors to foreign workers. The administration seems to hold a view that is divergent.
Commerce Department undersecretary for technology Phil Bond cautions that unemployment among US computer engineers regularly exceeds unemployment in other industries. US government figures showed 5.7 per cent of information technology employees were out of work last year as against 5.5% of all workers.
Bond may well be right, but the H1-B visa covers sectors beyond IT. America is facing shortage of nurses, medical doctors, and teachers. But traditionally, both in India, which has been the biggest user of the H1-B, and in the US, the issue of the H1-B visa has been seen as one that affects the technology sector.
Areas that are feeling the pinch of a lower cap are education (teaching) and healthcare. Teaching, both at the higher education and school level, and healthcare were areas where the demand increased appreciably between 2001 and 2002 fiscal years.
According to a report of the US Department of Homeland Security, the only three industries in the top 10 which increased between 2001 and 2002 were: colleges, universities, and professional schools (20 per cent); elementary and secondary schools (20 per cent); and general medical and surgical hospitals (22 per cent).
According to experts, these are the areas where problems will be faced because of a lower cap. This too is primarily because the US is facing a shortage in both areas. As a matter of fact, shortage in the healthcare sector has been termed as "severe".
Experts feel that unlike the tech companies, players in these fields don't really know much about lobbying for immigrants or highly skilled workers.
So, while the US administration is not taking the bait, the US Congress is willing to give Gates a second thought. The feeling being, if their is a demand, then raising the cap could well be an option. In the meantime, the 20,000 cap exempt visas mandated by the Appropiations Act are yet to be issued.
If this is not a PR move microsoft can save themselves the trouble of a meeting. All they need to do is open their file formats.
"I've fallen into a sand dune and can't get up!"
It is also friday, go outside and get some fresh air.
This being slashdot I don't think it is the longest standing pet peeves ever.
However, I will try ( can't promise ), not to do that.
I'm with the other people on the "wait and see" attitude.
The MAC developers may be very friendly. This may be the result of an oversight or the decision of one dweeb manager for all anybody knows.
The last thing the situation needs is for a bunch of venom to poured out on slashdot...possibly alienating away future cooperation...before the story is known.