I agree. I've started to look more and more at IBM hardware and software. I started working as a contractor for them about 2 months ago, and I've been pretty impressed by their internal business practices as well. Such as the blurb on CNN about them not tracking vacation hours, and not requiring you to call in sick if you need to stay home (the reality on that last one is that it varies depending on your area and job... big surprise).
They're still a business, so of course they encourage their employees to file patents THROUGH them like fiends. And they'll pay you extra for that too. Not as much as you'd get for licensing some of those patents, but for the more useless of patents it could be profitable.
If the contents of your brain are finite, and the universe is finite (mind bogglingly large, but still finite), then given a powerful enough computer with enough data, it can all be computed and predicted.
For now they only have the power to predict motions in the short-term. Soon they will be able to predict aggressive or anti-social behavior based on past behaviors. Then they'll be able to monitor a whole person's life and be able to tell with great accuracy what a decision will be based on the person's past experiences and biology. Etc, etc.
It's not paranoia, it's simple mathematical logic. I don't care if they monitor me and let me know what I'm thinking.
For business and large organization use, a large government agency I used to work for first tried Retrospect. The whatever-it-is industrial strength version. We didn't have a very easy time of things, mostly minor technical issues that constantly plagued us, not generally with restoring, usually just with backups timing out, taking forever, jamming, etc.
We were finally given the go-ahead to try something new, and since our backup guy had been checking out Tivoli Storage Manager and really like it, we gave that a shot. I don't think I've ever had a smoother backup solution that worked for both our 800 Macs and our 900 PCs.
I've used NetBackup, Tivoli, and Retrospect, though I've never used NetBackup for Macs (we do at my current employer, but I've never touched it).
There's probably plenty of other good commercial backup solutions, but I have to admit that I was impressed. Things may have changed, since that was back in the 10.2 days, but who knows.
I know, I'm a freak. And I don't play more than maybe 10 hours a week due to my other interests like fixing up my Jeep, rock climbing, and of course my wife and kids.
However, EVERY STINKING MMOG has been SO dumbed down that I feel like I'm a monkey banging on a keyboard and watching the game play for me. I feel like I'm in Progress Quest.
PLEASE give me the long travel times, the lack of point-to-point transportation, the heavy death penalties, etc. In fact, when I die at or near the level cap... I want to UNDING at least a full level!
I may be sick, I may be a niche market, but I LOVE the challenge. It's also why I tend to solo more often than group, because I almost feel like I'm cheating when I group, since there are other people around to cover my mistakes.
I'm so glad that someone has the cajones to produce a game that is doing the opposite of what the money(or monkey)-makers are doing.
Must have been a Planetside issue (which I too played). I started playing EQ in beta, and the week it came out I started the retail. I made a character named Everfeld, that stayed level 2 until just a few months ago. They deleted him due to the consolidation of servers, but he would have stayed for a much longer time I'm sure. I also have another character that I stopped playing 3 months after I started EQ, a level 22 barb shammy. He also still exists to this day, even with the server consolidations.
This is all after a lull of 2 years of my not giving Sony my money. I'm pretty sure they don't make a habit of deleting characters that are unused. Why? Because that's just bad business sense. If my toons were deleted, why would I go back?
I can attempt to answer that question to a small degree.
During a WWDC for Apple a few years ago, I sat down to lunch next to a Secret Service agent. I was curious to see what he was doing there, and he told me he was evaluating the security risks of Mac OS X (this was around public beta time), as well as other interesting information. He said he's the reason the Army switched to Macs running Mac OS 9 (that and having been hacked not too far back) running WebStar (I think that's the name). He also told me about trying to convince the Whitehouse to switch, and about how they were running Sparc/Solaris and their admins weren't that great. He was also trying to convince other branches of the service of what would be the most secure for their needs.
So it could very well be the Secret Service, or even that specific agent that did that particular push. Or something completely different...
The first two may have been a travesty, but the two reasons to go to the first showing are obvious...
It's the last episode we'll see in a long time (probably), so this completes the visual story for all of us. The sooner I can get that done, the sooner I can either cherish the whole thing or forget about it.
The standing in line for the midnight showing with all the nerds like me is just too cool.
Heh... you non-gamers. Try running World of Warcraft on your Mac laptop for 6 hours straight. That's a spicy meatball!
Then again, I'm also using Powerbooks and now the plastic insulated iBook. The 17" and the slightly older 15" G4s.
I was part of a certain center's major OS 9 to OS 10 upgrade, and Word 5.1 is still used by many people at the center (most of them have been here since dirt was first invented). Turns out that it has (according to them) the best mathematical formula display and editor. I personally did some testing with Word 5.1 for one of them on OS X in classic mode, and with the exception of a couple of font display problems that were fixed, it worked perfectly STILL.
Sick, but nice that this person we upgraded doesn't have to rewrite millions of pages of documentation on flight characteristics and such of various aircraft/spacecraft and whatever else she had.
Just sad that something as simple as that equation editor isn't in current releases.
Okay, gotta give you that. Blizzard is not only very Mac faithful so far, but also has one of THE best QA departments I have ever seen. Time and time again I've set up LAN parties using their games the DAY they come out, completely patchless, both Mac and PC LANers, and had no problems at all... in fact, with Diablo 2 the game server was up for 3 days without crashes. Not bad for a Winders server.
Sadly, there are still very few games for Linux and Mac, and even worse, some of the games that get ported to Mac, that are important to me, aren't compatible with the Windows versions (read: Everquest). Even when they are compatible in the network code, they're often gimped or less feature-filled for Linux and Mac (read: tools for NWN, bad server code for Q3 and UT for the Mac, which I personally beta tested and filed many bugs on that exact topic). In the real game world right now, for most games, the best solution is to run Win98Lite for playing games, and Linux or FreeBSD for serving them.
Windows.
No, seriously... I'm a UN*X sys admin, converted to an OS X deployment tech due to my previous experience working at Apple and my OS X fanaticism, converted to... a Windows build engineer.
Kill me now.
PS, first post ever... w00t!
Slashdot Mirror
I agree. I've started to look more and more at IBM hardware and software. I started working as a contractor for them about 2 months ago, and I've been pretty impressed by their internal business practices as well. Such as the blurb on CNN about them not tracking vacation hours, and not requiring you to call in sick if you need to stay home (the reality on that last one is that it varies depending on your area and job... big surprise).
They're still a business, so of course they encourage their employees to file patents THROUGH them like fiends. And they'll pay you extra for that too. Not as much as you'd get for licensing some of those patents, but for the more useless of patents it could be profitable.
If the contents of your brain are finite, and the universe is finite (mind bogglingly large, but still finite), then given a powerful enough computer with enough data, it can all be computed and predicted.
For now they only have the power to predict motions in the short-term. Soon they will be able to predict aggressive or anti-social behavior based on past behaviors. Then they'll be able to monitor a whole person's life and be able to tell with great accuracy what a decision will be based on the person's past experiences and biology. Etc, etc.
It's not paranoia, it's simple mathematical logic. I don't care if they monitor me and let me know what I'm thinking.
For business and large organization use, a large government agency I used to work for first tried Retrospect. The whatever-it-is industrial strength version. We didn't have a very easy time of things, mostly minor technical issues that constantly plagued us, not generally with restoring, usually just with backups timing out, taking forever, jamming, etc.
We were finally given the go-ahead to try something new, and since our backup guy had been checking out Tivoli Storage Manager and really like it, we gave that a shot. I don't think I've ever had a smoother backup solution that worked for both our 800 Macs and our 900 PCs.
I've used NetBackup, Tivoli, and Retrospect, though I've never used NetBackup for Macs (we do at my current employer, but I've never touched it).
There's probably plenty of other good commercial backup solutions, but I have to admit that I was impressed. Things may have changed, since that was back in the 10.2 days, but who knows.
*slowly raises hand*
I know, I'm a freak. And I don't play more than maybe 10 hours a week due to my other interests like fixing up my Jeep, rock climbing, and of course my wife and kids.
However, EVERY STINKING MMOG has been SO dumbed down that I feel like I'm a monkey banging on a keyboard and watching the game play for me. I feel like I'm in Progress Quest.
PLEASE give me the long travel times, the lack of point-to-point transportation, the heavy death penalties, etc. In fact, when I die at or near the level cap... I want to UNDING at least a full level!
I may be sick, I may be a niche market, but I LOVE the challenge. It's also why I tend to solo more often than group, because I almost feel like I'm cheating when I group, since there are other people around to cover my mistakes.
I'm so glad that someone has the cajones to produce a game that is doing the opposite of what the money(or monkey)-makers are doing.
Must have been a Planetside issue (which I too played). I started playing EQ in beta, and the week it came out I started the retail. I made a character named Everfeld, that stayed level 2 until just a few months ago. They deleted him due to the consolidation of servers, but he would have stayed for a much longer time I'm sure. I also have another character that I stopped playing 3 months after I started EQ, a level 22 barb shammy. He also still exists to this day, even with the server consolidations.
This is all after a lull of 2 years of my not giving Sony my money. I'm pretty sure they don't make a habit of deleting characters that are unused. Why? Because that's just bad business sense. If my toons were deleted, why would I go back?
My personal reason... no cussing. I couldn't find a single video without censorship. Bah! If I can't hear the f-word a few times, what good is it? ;-)
I can attempt to answer that question to a small degree.
During a WWDC for Apple a few years ago, I sat down to lunch next to a Secret Service agent. I was curious to see what he was doing there, and he told me he was evaluating the security risks of Mac OS X (this was around public beta time), as well as other interesting information. He said he's the reason the Army switched to Macs running Mac OS 9 (that and having been hacked not too far back) running WebStar (I think that's the name). He also told me about trying to convince the Whitehouse to switch, and about how they were running Sparc/Solaris and their admins weren't that great. He was also trying to convince other branches of the service of what would be the most secure for their needs.
So it could very well be the Secret Service, or even that specific agent that did that particular push. Or something completely different...
First showing.
The first two may have been a travesty, but the two reasons to go to the first showing are obvious...
It's the last episode we'll see in a long time (probably), so this completes the visual story for all of us. The sooner I can get that done, the sooner I can either cherish the whole thing or forget about it.
The standing in line for the midnight showing with all the nerds like me is just too cool.
Heh... you non-gamers. Try running World of Warcraft on your Mac laptop for 6 hours straight. That's a spicy meatball! Then again, I'm also using Powerbooks and now the plastic insulated iBook. The 17" and the slightly older 15" G4s.
I know what Redmond's finest is... I used to climb there. (http://www.verticalworld.com/)
We are talking about running this on a climbing gym, right?
but THANK YOU! -Over-stimulated ad viewer
I was part of a certain center's major OS 9 to OS 10 upgrade, and Word 5.1 is still used by many people at the center (most of them have been here since dirt was first invented). Turns out that it has (according to them) the best mathematical formula display and editor. I personally did some testing with Word 5.1 for one of them on OS X in classic mode, and with the exception of a couple of font display problems that were fixed, it worked perfectly STILL. Sick, but nice that this person we upgraded doesn't have to rewrite millions of pages of documentation on flight characteristics and such of various aircraft/spacecraft and whatever else she had. Just sad that something as simple as that equation editor isn't in current releases.
Okay, gotta give you that. Blizzard is not only very Mac faithful so far, but also has one of THE best QA departments I have ever seen. Time and time again I've set up LAN parties using their games the DAY they come out, completely patchless, both Mac and PC LANers, and had no problems at all... in fact, with Diablo 2 the game server was up for 3 days without crashes. Not bad for a Winders server.
*drools* in anticipation of WoW
Sadly, there are still very few games for Linux and Mac, and even worse, some of the games that get ported to Mac, that are important to me, aren't compatible with the Windows versions (read: Everquest). Even when they are compatible in the network code, they're often gimped or less feature-filled for Linux and Mac (read: tools for NWN, bad server code for Q3 and UT for the Mac, which I personally beta tested and filed many bugs on that exact topic).
In the real game world right now, for most games, the best solution is to run Win98Lite for playing games, and Linux or FreeBSD for serving them.
Windows. No, seriously... I'm a UN*X sys admin, converted to an OS X deployment tech due to my previous experience working at Apple and my OS X fanaticism, converted to... a Windows build engineer. Kill me now. PS, first post ever... w00t!