You should have to register to vote and give a fingerprint, then sign on to the system with said fingerprint.
That would cut out quite a bit of fraud.
Also, just a note, the voting machines in ohio (I live there) do take both the electronic vote and print something, I heard a printer in the machine when I submitted the ballot.
First, if you feel you're horribly undercompensated then it's time to:
1. Change Jobs 2. Leave the field 3. Find alternative means of income generation (investments, rental properties, etc).
A solid mutual fund will return 7-12% a year. Give up the unnecessary expenses, carpool, stop drinking starbucks. Stash a few grand away and suddenly your investments will be making triple inflation.
Second, considering that most people I run into in IT are barely competant enough to keep their jobs I don't see where the whole we all deserve raises comes in. Are you creating value for your company? If so, do they know about it? You should be blowing a trumpet when your new application saves 500 hours in productivity. That's a bottom line that can be MEASURED. IT is hard to measure, you have to show your bosses the things you do add value.
Third, be a team player. Help your coworkers, share ideas with your manager. Be enthusiastic about your job. Lack of passion is rampant in the field.
Yeah yeah, it's easier to bitch and moan, but I'm always the first through the door with new ideas. I went back to school to add a business background to my IT skills so I can speak the executive language better, and when my pay isn't up to par, I move.
The result? Average raises of 6-8% from 1999-Present. Yes folks, even during the IT "Crash" I was getting good raises. I've changed jobs 3 times for a net raise of 20% each time. I've also accumulated almost $10,000 in bonuses in the last 3 years simply from pointing out productivity improvements from my work and how much money the company is saving since I did the work.
My main point is that no one is going to "give" you anything. If you want it you have to justify it with performance and let people know how valuable you are. Most managers have so much on their mind they aren't looking at every little thing you do.
Microsoft.NET Adoption Among Large Enterprises Now Surpasses J2EE Adoption
"Microsoft.NET adoption is now exceeding J2EE adoption as the preferred development platform for large organizations. While the two technologies will continue to co-exist, in less than three years since its initial release, the.NET Framework has quickly gained critical mass according to several recent analyst reports. Forrester Research reports in their independent study that.NET is now preferred by 56% to 44% over J2EE in North American firms as their primary development platform. Finally, Gartner also reports in September 2004 that Microsoft leads in Web Services vision and ability to execute, placing Microsoft.NET as the overall winner of its Web Services Magic Quadrant analysis."
So the comment that.NET is knocking the socks off J2EE is fairly relevant considering they started from square 1.
Now, I'm still going to disagree that interoperability is all that special. "Switch out a platform when you need to"? Switching out a platform is damn expensive, and in general I've found that developing things to be able to be "switched out" with minimum pain is also damn expensive. For the majority of businesses out there, switching out is something that simply does not happen often, if ever.
Agreed, web services are still in the growth stage. They're perfectly interoperable if you don't return datasets and instead return standard xml. They are the interoperability killer because most businesses prefer not to share their implementation details even with partners if they don't have to.
Webservices and SOA architecture also solve the whole "linux front end playing with the windows back end". The beloved linux desktop was a bit of a troll I admit, but I do agree with the linux community that your average peon probably doesn't need to be paying a load of money for a windows license. However, the microsoft servers and development tools are easy, user friendly, have a broad install base, tons of support available, and ultimately make development teams more productive.
I love how people jump on the eclipse bandwagon while bashing MS for copying ideas from other vendors when eclipse copied and extended ideas from visual studio.
Am I reading this correctly? A common claim from the java crowd for superiority is how it has better interoperability? That is one of the least important things in a business today.
If you look at the statistics Windows 2003 server is really catching on with businesses, that advances the.NET platform.
There's this thing called XML web services, if you've been living under a rock or just plain closed your eyes to the real world this means that you can communicate with any system, so Java as a web platform has lost its major advantage it once had over MS products.
In fact, the ease of installing a server, the cleanness of.NET, power of ASP.NET means that in a company you can now embrace your beloved linux for the worker desktops, have one microsoft server running ASP.NET / SQL Server, and service the entire company with one application that is cheap and easy to build.
That is why.NET is starting to knock the socks off java in the business world.
For client side apps java is still the winner for multiplatform... but outside of handhelds it's largely irrelevant b/c Windows dominates the desktop market.
I live in Cleveland, and I know of about 20 positions off hand for experienced developers that have been open for over 2 months. There are plenty of interviews, and very few hires. Why? Because all they get in the door is people who are posers and unqualified.
Every developer I know who is moderately talented is hired and being paid quite well.
Microsoft is opening the file format and banking on the concept that their products interoperate flawlessly, are easy to install and maintain, and are supported by a well known company that isn't going anywhere.
The free open source community simply can not compete with a traditional company on service and interoperability, especially when you consider that OSS is not really a community, but small collections of developers who go their own way on things. That's why we have 500000000 flavors of linux and a significant portion of OSS development is spent just trying to get your software working on all the flavors instead of innovating.
The FOSS community will not "defeat" Microsoft until they can actually work together more and focus on innovation instead of the "me-too" copying that is going on now. The current strategy means FOSS is lagging behind the market by months and in some cases years.
Spam actively hogs a very large % of the world's available bandwidth. That bandwidth does not come free to providers. Toss in the countless hours businesses spend fighting spam and filtering it out and you have a crapload of money wasted because of spammers.
So yes, I think 25 years for prolific spammers is just fine given the amount of potential damage they cause.
As for 3 years being draconian? Not hardly. Pre-releasing a cut of a film means cutting into the box office sales. It's not the theft of "one $8.00 movie ticket", it is the theft of a movie ticket for every person that downloads the film and decides not to go see it after all. If I recall, felony theft is over $1000, so only 125 people need to download the film and not go see the movie in the theater and suddenly it's the equivalent of knocking over a gas station.
Let me get this straight. You're a Microsoft developer who quit a job because they are moving to the latest Microsoft tools and c#?
I hope you don't plan on being a Microsoft developer for much longer in your career because that's where the current is flowing...
That being said, always have a job lined up before you quit. Even if you slack off and do nothing for the last month of your employment it looks better to a new employer that you are currently employed. Makes you look more "employable".
First of all, with Mono don't believe the portability hype. You can port.NET applications over to other environments fairly easily.
There really isn't enough information in the post to make an intelligent decision. Are most of your clients running microsoft software? If so.NET is the logical choice because of performance, scalability, and frankly, Microsoft's RAD Tools (visual studio, etc) are far superior to most things you find in the Java/OSS world.
In addition, with HIPPA requirements and the medical field's demand for accountability from vendors you're going to make a solid case for your platform if it's backed by an entity like Microsoft rather than the mysterious OSS Community.
In addition, J2EE / OSS software generally require a more knowledgable (read expensive) IT staff in place to manage patches etc. The more niche your market is (not so bad for J2EE, but php, python, etc are definately niche) the more expensive consulting talent will become! Microsoft is banking on.NET and Windows Server technologies to be easier to maintain and faster to develop with.
In the end though, you need to research what the target markets are using now and tailor a technology that is appropriate for the market.
You know, I spent time in Omaha recently on company business. "Rural" state but also one of the major tech support areas in the US. Why? Because midwesterners have the easiests accents to understand across the board.
This is the same thing the EPA in the US has been doing for years. My father works for a nuclear plant. Nuclear plants make almost no air pollution, so they get air pollution credits which they sell to coal plants so they can *gasp* pollute the air more.
The kyoto treaty is a farse, and Bush is right to stay out of it.
If you actually used the IIS Lockdown tool in IIS 5 you won't be affected either.
So once again this is slashdot blowing something way out of proportion. If you're running the latest server software (IIS6, W2K3) or did your due diligence with the lockdown tool, you're perfectly safe.
It seems to me that both Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry are all about educating the workforce, job creation, and lowering costs for businesses.
However, it has been well documented that as far as broadband and our data infrastructure is concerned, that we are falling far behind many other countries (like Korea and Sweden) as far as the availability of broadband.
Question: Wouldn't an infrastructure overhaul work wonders for job creation (alot of bodies and materials needed to lay all that fiber), new service creation (saturation of high speed data/digital into homes and businesses), and education (distance learning!)?
Follow up: What are your feelings on the government taking over the infrastructure and then leasing the lines to competing companies (sort of like the wireless spectrum) instead of allowing local providers (cable in particular) to have a monopoly on services?
Um... visual studio actually has a project type of "Visual Studio Add-in". MS exposes a large amount of the functionality in this project type, and allows you to build tightly integrated plug-ins that modify and extend behavior.
All of your nicer 3rd party tools integrate right into VS. Microsoft has been known to purchase these components for the purpose of releasing them with visual studio. I don't remember for sure, but I think they're doing something with nUnit in visual studio team system.
Either way, point is that visual studio is quite open. You just don't get the source.
Visual studio accepts plug-ins that you code yourself. Integration is pretty tight. Many companies do make a profit selling these add ons (ActiveReports, etc).
Microsoft has been known to purchase these plug-ins and integrate them with visual studio. I have never known them to take a free plug-in and incorporate it without compensating the author.
My company focuses on applications that are very easy to use. To achieve this we jam two concepts into our developer's heads:
1. Have a goal of the average person being able to figure out how to use a feature without any documentation.
We achieve this by turning a few users loose in our test bed, giving them a task to accomplish, and seeing how they go about it.
2. If it is a complex feature that requires some documentation, it should be designed so a user can figure it out in less than 10 minutes.
If you can't do #1 or #2, you need to shift your thinking. Yeah, this causes alot of pain to some developers, because in general developers have a pretty hard wired way of thinking of things. But in the end we get high praise from our end users about how intuitive and clean our interfaces are.
Well, there's really a significant difference between something like BBEdit and what a model like ours does.
BBEdit isn't hosted. You install it once and use it, and it's good. The support needs are probably minimal. That type of software definately doesn't fit a subscription.
Most Enterprise products you generally have to buy a support contract for. Support contracts are very much like a subscription, except that if you don't upgrade to future versions, eventually they will not sell you support anymore. For businesses this is a problem. However on the subscription model the business doesn't have to worry about anything, they'll always be on the most current version and always have support from the company. It's a convenience that businesses are willing to pay for.
Hosted subscriptions also have the potential to be less expensive than their counterparts on many levels. You cut out all of the time the IT staff spends administrating, patching, backing up, etc. With a subscriber base the software company has a rock solid estimate of future cash flows which leads to better pricing. The software company can also set up some badass servers that are beyond what a typical company could/would pay for on their own and share it between several subscribers. Then all the subscribers benefit from being on the latest and greatest technology without having to front the high starting costs associated with it.
I normally buy pc stuff online, but any electronic equipment I buy in a physical store 95% of the time I shop at best buy.
I have a best buy card, I buy stuff with rebates all the time, I've successfully used the PSPs. This was all shopping in NY, and OH stores. I have never had a problem with a rebate, return, or anything like that.
I can only conclude that either I've been very lucky for the last 6 years, or else there are alot of morons out there who can't fill out rebates properly and don't know how to finesse their way into a successful return/exchange.
I believe that the future trend is going to be software as a hosted service service. With free software etc people are starting to get loathe to spend tens of thousands on a closed source solution that you have to do all the maintenance/install/admin/backup duties for. However I do believe there is alot of value-added for a company that has a nice product and is willing to host it for you too.
BEGIN SHAMELESS PLUG
In fact, I'm in the process of launching a start-up that does precisely this. We have an asset management/helpdesk product that is hosted/web based that not only do we do all the grunt maintenance work on, but instead of paying for version upgrades/migrations, while you're a subscriber all the new features etc are free, you're basically paying to be on the most current version of the software.
To start with we're just offering a basic hosted subscription plan. Going forward we're going to open up the software with web services and source-included plans. This is where the OSS model really works, we charge for the hosting, and then have the opportunity to make consulting revenue by customizing the product per customer request. Hopefully it works!
END SHAMELESS PLUG
Slashdot Mirror
You should have to register to vote and give a fingerprint, then sign on to the system with said fingerprint.
That would cut out quite a bit of fraud.
Also, just a note, the voting machines in ohio (I live there) do take both the electronic vote and print something, I heard a printer in the machine when I submitted the ballot.
First, if you feel you're horribly undercompensated then it's time to:
1. Change Jobs
2. Leave the field
3. Find alternative means of income generation (investments, rental properties, etc).
A solid mutual fund will return 7-12% a year. Give up the unnecessary expenses, carpool, stop drinking starbucks. Stash a few grand away and suddenly your investments will be making triple inflation.
Second, considering that most people I run into in IT are barely competant enough to keep their jobs I don't see where the whole we all deserve raises comes in. Are you creating value for your company? If so, do they know about it? You should be blowing a trumpet when your new application saves 500 hours in productivity. That's a bottom line that can be MEASURED. IT is hard to measure, you have to show your bosses the things you do add value.
Third, be a team player. Help your coworkers, share ideas with your manager. Be enthusiastic about your job. Lack of passion is rampant in the field.
Yeah yeah, it's easier to bitch and moan, but I'm always the first through the door with new ideas. I went back to school to add a business background to my IT skills so I can speak the executive language better, and when my pay isn't up to par, I move.
The result? Average raises of 6-8% from 1999-Present. Yes folks, even during the IT "Crash" I was getting good raises. I've changed jobs 3 times for a net raise of 20% each time. I've also accumulated almost $10,000 in bonuses in the last 3 years simply from pointing out productivity improvements from my work and how much money the company is saving since I did the work.
My main point is that no one is going to "give" you anything. If you want it you have to justify it with performance and let people know how valuable you are. Most managers have so much on their mind they aren't looking at every little thing you do.
People need to get over the 2000 election. If Al Gore had won his home state he would have been sitting in the white house regardless of Florida.
Gee, I wonder how much time you'd spend on your default applications if you got sued every time you tried to bundle something?
Microsoft .NET Adoption Among Large Enterprises Now Surpasses J2EE Adoption
"Microsoft .NET adoption is now exceeding J2EE adoption as the preferred development platform for large organizations. While the two technologies will continue to co-exist, in less than three years since its initial release, the .NET Framework has quickly gained critical mass according to several recent analyst reports. Forrester Research reports in their independent study that .NET is now preferred by 56% to 44% over J2EE in North American firms as their primary development platform. Finally, Gartner also reports in September 2004 that Microsoft leads in Web Services vision and ability to execute, placing Microsoft .NET as the overall winner of its Web Services Magic Quadrant analysis."
So the comment that .NET is knocking the socks off J2EE is fairly relevant considering they started from square 1.
Now, I'm still going to disagree that interoperability is all that special. "Switch out a platform when you need to"? Switching out a platform is damn expensive, and in general I've found that developing things to be able to be "switched out" with minimum pain is also damn expensive. For the majority of businesses out there, switching out is something that simply does not happen often, if ever.
Agreed, web services are still in the growth stage. They're perfectly interoperable if you don't return datasets and instead return standard xml. They are the interoperability killer because most businesses prefer not to share their implementation details even with partners if they don't have to.
Webservices and SOA architecture also solve the whole "linux front end playing with the windows back end". The beloved linux desktop was a bit of a troll I admit, but I do agree with the linux community that your average peon probably doesn't need to be paying a load of money for a windows license. However, the microsoft servers and development tools are easy, user friendly, have a broad install base, tons of support available, and ultimately make development teams more productive.
I love how people jump on the eclipse bandwagon while bashing MS for copying ideas from other vendors when eclipse copied and extended ideas from visual studio.
Am I reading this correctly? A common claim from the java crowd for superiority is how it has better interoperability? That is one of the least important things in a business today.
.NET platform.
.NET, power of ASP .NET means that in a company you can now embrace your beloved linux for the worker desktops, have one microsoft server running ASP .NET / SQL Server, and service the entire company with one application that is cheap and easy to build.
.NET is starting to knock the socks off java in the business world.
If you look at the statistics Windows 2003 server is really catching on with businesses, that advances the
There's this thing called XML web services, if you've been living under a rock or just plain closed your eyes to the real world this means that you can communicate with any system, so Java as a web platform has lost its major advantage it once had over MS products.
In fact, the ease of installing a server, the cleanness of
That is why
For client side apps java is still the winner for multiplatform... but outside of handhelds it's largely irrelevant b/c Windows dominates the desktop market.
Absolutely.
I live in Cleveland, and I know of about 20 positions off hand for experienced developers that have been open for over 2 months. There are plenty of interviews, and very few hires. Why? Because all they get in the door is people who are posers and unqualified.
Every developer I know who is moderately talented is hired and being paid quite well.
If you want to run a profitable business you will charge the maximum that the customer is willing to pay.
I don't see anything wrong with this. You can't blame the business for taking advantage of people who aren't willing to shop around.
Microsoft is opening the file format and banking on the concept that their products interoperate flawlessly, are easy to install and maintain, and are supported by a well known company that isn't going anywhere.
The free open source community simply can not compete with a traditional company on service and interoperability, especially when you consider that OSS is not really a community, but small collections of developers who go their own way on things. That's why we have 500000000 flavors of linux and a significant portion of OSS development is spent just trying to get your software working on all the flavors instead of innovating.
The FOSS community will not "defeat" Microsoft until they can actually work together more and focus on innovation instead of the "me-too" copying that is going on now. The current strategy means FOSS is lagging behind the market by months and in some cases years.
Um, in most states that are At-Will employers your company can fire you today for no reason. How is this different?
Spam actively hogs a very large % of the world's available bandwidth. That bandwidth does not come free to providers. Toss in the countless hours businesses spend fighting spam and filtering it out and you have a crapload of money wasted because of spammers.
So yes, I think 25 years for prolific spammers is just fine given the amount of potential damage they cause.
As for 3 years being draconian? Not hardly. Pre-releasing a cut of a film means cutting into the box office sales. It's not the theft of "one $8.00 movie ticket", it is the theft of a movie ticket for every person that downloads the film and decides not to go see it after all. If I recall, felony theft is over $1000, so only 125 people need to download the film and not go see the movie in the theater and suddenly it's the equivalent of knocking over a gas station.
Let me get this straight. You're a Microsoft developer who quit a job because they are moving to the latest Microsoft tools and c#?
I hope you don't plan on being a Microsoft developer for much longer in your career because that's where the current is flowing...
That being said, always have a job lined up before you quit. Even if you slack off and do nothing for the last month of your employment it looks better to a new employer that you are currently employed. Makes you look more "employable".
First of all, with Mono don't believe the portability hype. You can port .NET applications over to other environments fairly easily.
.NET is the logical choice because of performance, scalability, and frankly, Microsoft's RAD Tools (visual studio, etc) are far superior to most things you find in the Java/OSS world.
.NET and Windows Server technologies to be easier to maintain and faster to develop with.
There really isn't enough information in the post to make an intelligent decision. Are most of your clients running microsoft software? If so
In addition, with HIPPA requirements and the medical field's demand for accountability from vendors you're going to make a solid case for your platform if it's backed by an entity like Microsoft rather than the mysterious OSS Community.
In addition, J2EE / OSS software generally require a more knowledgable (read expensive) IT staff in place to manage patches etc. The more niche your market is (not so bad for J2EE, but php, python, etc are definately niche) the more expensive consulting talent will become! Microsoft is banking on
In the end though, you need to research what the target markets are using now and tailor a technology that is appropriate for the market.
You know, I spent time in Omaha recently on company business. "Rural" state but also one of the major tech support areas in the US. Why? Because midwesterners have the easiests accents to understand across the board.
This is the same thing the EPA in the US has been doing for years. My father works for a nuclear plant. Nuclear plants make almost no air pollution, so they get air pollution credits which they sell to coal plants so they can *gasp* pollute the air more.
The kyoto treaty is a farse, and Bush is right to stay out of it.
The code "rewrite" is 5 lines.
If you actually used the IIS Lockdown tool in IIS 5 you won't be affected either.
So once again this is slashdot blowing something way out of proportion. If you're running the latest server software (IIS6, W2K3) or did your due diligence with the lockdown tool, you're perfectly safe.
It seems to me that both Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry are all about educating the workforce, job creation, and lowering costs for businesses.
However, it has been well documented that as far as broadband and our data infrastructure is concerned, that we are falling far behind many other countries (like Korea and Sweden) as far as the availability of broadband.
Question: Wouldn't an infrastructure overhaul work wonders for job creation (alot of bodies and materials needed to lay all that fiber), new service creation (saturation of high speed data/digital into homes and businesses), and education (distance learning!)?
Follow up: What are your feelings on the government taking over the infrastructure and then leasing the lines to competing companies (sort of like the wireless spectrum) instead of allowing local providers (cable in particular) to have a monopoly on services?
It's possible to write a virus exploiting an insecure machine...
Really now? How interesting *dripping sarcasm*.
This isn't news. In fact I'd say this whole article is a troll.
Um... visual studio actually has a project type of "Visual Studio Add-in". MS exposes a large amount of the functionality in this project type, and allows you to build tightly integrated plug-ins that modify and extend behavior.
All of your nicer 3rd party tools integrate right into VS. Microsoft has been known to purchase these components for the purpose of releasing them with visual studio. I don't remember for sure, but I think they're doing something with nUnit in visual studio team system.
Either way, point is that visual studio is quite open. You just don't get the source.
Visual studio accepts plug-ins that you code yourself. Integration is pretty tight. Many companies do make a profit selling these add ons (ActiveReports, etc).
Microsoft has been known to purchase these plug-ins and integrate them with visual studio. I have never known them to take a free plug-in and incorporate it without compensating the author.
My company focuses on applications that are very easy to use. To achieve this we jam two concepts into our developer's heads:
1. Have a goal of the average person being able to figure out how to use a feature without any documentation.
We achieve this by turning a few users loose in our test bed, giving them a task to accomplish, and seeing how they go about it.
2. If it is a complex feature that requires some documentation, it should be designed so a user can figure it out in less than 10 minutes.
If you can't do #1 or #2, you need to shift your thinking. Yeah, this causes alot of pain to some developers, because in general developers have a pretty hard wired way of thinking of things. But in the end we get high praise from our end users about how intuitive and clean our interfaces are.
Well, by "finesse" I mean going into the store, being calm, polite, and reasonable. Treat the customer service rep with respect. You'll get far.
I've seen people march in with a big chip on their shoulder and start treating store workers poorly then get "astonished" when they get bad service.
BBEdit isn't hosted. You install it once and use it, and it's good. The support needs are probably minimal. That type of software definately doesn't fit a subscription.
Most Enterprise products you generally have to buy a support contract for. Support contracts are very much like a subscription, except that if you don't upgrade to future versions, eventually they will not sell you support anymore. For businesses this is a problem. However on the subscription model the business doesn't have to worry about anything, they'll always be on the most current version and always have support from the company. It's a convenience that businesses are willing to pay for.
Hosted subscriptions also have the potential to be less expensive than their counterparts on many levels. You cut out all of the time the IT staff spends administrating, patching, backing up, etc. With a subscriber base the software company has a rock solid estimate of future cash flows which leads to better pricing. The software company can also set up some badass servers that are beyond what a typical company could/would pay for on their own and share it between several subscribers. Then all the subscribers benefit from being on the latest and greatest technology without having to front the high starting costs associated with it.
I normally buy pc stuff online, but any electronic equipment I buy in a physical store 95% of the time I shop at best buy.
I have a best buy card, I buy stuff with rebates all the time, I've successfully used the PSPs. This was all shopping in NY, and OH stores. I have never had a problem with a rebate, return, or anything like that.
I can only conclude that either I've been very lucky for the last 6 years, or else there are alot of morons out there who can't fill out rebates properly and don't know how to finesse their way into a successful return/exchange.
I believe that the future trend is going to be software as a hosted service service. With free software etc people are starting to get loathe to spend tens of thousands on a closed source solution that you have to do all the maintenance/install/admin/backup duties for. However I do believe there is alot of value-added for a company that has a nice product and is willing to host it for you too.
BEGIN SHAMELESS PLUG
In fact, I'm in the process of launching a start-up that does precisely this. We have an asset management/helpdesk product that is hosted/web based that not only do we do all the grunt maintenance work on, but instead of paying for version upgrades/migrations, while you're a subscriber all the new features etc are free, you're basically paying to be on the most current version of the software.
To start with we're just offering a basic hosted subscription plan. Going forward we're going to open up the software with web services and source-included plans. This is where the OSS model really works, we charge for the hosting, and then have the opportunity to make consulting revenue by customizing the product per customer request. Hopefully it works!
END SHAMELESS PLUG