I've found that the greatest barier to inclusion is often the users themselves. In other words this is a group that tends to spend too much time looking down it's nose. What I've also found is that those who say RTFM often don't understand enough to explain it anyway. I've gotten TONS of flames from various "Linux Users" written with outlook express. In fact if I write an article and do get flamed it always seems to be from someone running windwoze rather than Linux. So my advice is when someone says RTFM just send all future mail from them to the bit bucket and stick with the real users of Linux. They do answer questions, provide assistance and they only thing they ask is.
Ask questions that are specific. Give me the details, the more you tell me the more I can help.
Be prepared to do the same when it's your turn to help.
Re:Why I never upgraded my Palm III
on
Palm In Trouble?
·
· Score: 2
And to continue your thought. They thrash. Everyweek they head in a new direction. New ideas, New meetings, New CEO, NO results. Things they shoulda coulda done are numerous like.
Have a standard serial port config. That way each and every addon device could be transfered to your new palm when you buy it.
Concentrate on partnerships with 3rd party software vendors to develop extension apps
Release information about hardware interface to 3rd part companies for the development of extensions. (my Go keyboard is a great example of what can be done.)
Listen to their users.
In other words do what the competition has done, ie Handsprings.
The last thing they could have done? Not spun off from 3com.
There was a worm back then that was spread by data disks and tapes called animal. Now animals like to eat. They also store food for the winter. So animal would slowly grab any and all available memory *of any kind* it could find. Until the mainframe choked due to insificiant memory. The cure was a worm called hunter. Now hunters, hunt animals and kill them. What hunter would do is replicate itself onto disks and tapes and first look for animals. If it found one it killed the animal and then would lie in wait until it saw anouther one. I also would like to report that within a few weeks the animals were all extinct.
Why on God's green Earth should Microsoft have to demonstrate that the programs are funded differently from the OS? Nothing personal, but that's just silly. Should KDE have to demonstrate that Konqueror or Kedit or any other app was created differently or separately from the rest of the environment?
The easiest way to explain this is that even though Konqueror is a part of KDE, KDE isn't a part of Linux, or X for that matter. KDE is in and of itself a program. I don't use KDE, I happen to enjoy WindowMaker much more and as such use it. I don't even have KDE installed on my box. In other words I HAVE A CHOICE!!! That is all I'm asking for. A choice. I also dislike know it alls like Mundie telling me I'm a communist because I enjoy coding and working in open source. That fscking b#$#@rd was in diapers when I was in the Nam, and I'm damn sure not a commy. I am however one of the people who gave you things like word processors, tcp/ip and e-mail. I've been here since ARPANET and I plan on being here when Micro$oft is gone. I outlasted IBM and I can dang sure outlast gates. Don't hand me this check MSDN network. I have I do, I'm forced/need/want to. I do however know that what is being said is true. The first example would be with Word Perfect. MS refused to give them what they needed to run it under Windows 3.1 until they assisted MS in getting Word 1.0 to work properly. (For those who used that program it was a nightmare we don't want to remember) Oh yes stop repeating the words of the infamous, and believe no one. Not even me, then check and verify a little history. MS learned well at the IBM teat, Now IBM is beginning to show them why they were here first. Watch listen, investigate and maybe, just maybe if you close the big hole and open the two little ones on either side of your heads..... you might learn what really happenend. If this is inflammitory. Sei La Gare. I'm inflammed, and I'm tired of listening to retoric that is repeated without knowledge on both sides of the "battle". Linux is a kernel. Windows is a cludge. Sometimes I wish I still had my trash80 running on pascal (that's right you don't need an OS just a the language thank you).
Oh and I forgot one thing. When is the last time GM or IBM paid resellers a bonus for reporting people who don't buy thier car or Operating system. M$ does.
Ok, try this, remove IE from your box and replace it with netscape. Micro$oft neither provides the "hooks" for developers to accomplish this nore does it allow the user the choice. Functionality is there for Netscape to do the same things within the OS as IE does. It's simply a case of M$ refusing to release the information to allow them (Netscape) to develop the tools for a user to make a choice. Please reflect on the word choice. You see that's all I'm asking for.... the ability to chose.
Welllllllll if you don't want graphics. (it can't render correctly transperancey in either.gif or.png files) Don't feel the need to use PHP or CSS. Avoid Java and Javascript.... it works pretty well. I'd say in a year or two they could have a browser as good as Netscape 1.0 maybe even IE 3.0 I'm sorry but I'm sticking with Konqueror.... it works. AND it fits on a 20 gig drive *grin*.
Nothing wrong with a monopoly? Excuse me while I gag uncontrollably. Let's see other words for a monopoly. Dictatorship, Microsoft, IBM (pre-PC) ATT in the 60's and 70's (Yes virginaia they did charge you for EACH AND EVERY handset in your house.) Standard Oil comes to mind. Controlling everything from well to pump. The 1920's version that is. And what did ATT learn from all that. Simple split your company up. Create a new company and then have it slowly buy up all the pieces of your old one. How do you spell ATT with a 21st century twist? SBC eyup. They now own almost all of the old baby bells. (I believe the count is PacBell SouthWest Bell, Ameritech, Southern Bell, and Atlantic Bell, ) Dang sure sounds like a monopoly to me Gomer!. Want to know what it's like when only one player is controlling the entire game? Then please go to and see what my friend is going through,as well as follow the links to other poor souls story's. I'm sorry but this does worry the heck out of me for sure. What a combo SBC + D.C. = you get screwed.
Actually it's a matter of cheap. Cheap fans and god how I hate them cheap cdrom drives. One of the comps I have from my company sounds like a 747 winding up when it begins to read.(40X) Arrrgggghhhhh. I put an old 8x in the box in my bedroom just so that I can work without disturbing my wife. Can a computer be silent. Yes. Peltiers for the cpu, High quality power supplies. (in fact a power supply from a notebook is often higher quality than the one in a desktop) High quality fans if you do need them. If any one reading this has worked in a room filled with computers you know that you can and do recieve damage to your hearing from long term exposure to the noise. (Not as obvious as a rock concert but just as dangerous) if ever there was a reason for quality this is it. Besides Carpal Tunnel there is the very real aspect of Tinnitus from all the D%^& fans in the room. I can't give you a link but I have read of readings of 120+db in a computer center just from fans alone. This really is a serious problem we may be young now but I for one don't want to be deaf and 40 that's for sure.
A-freaking-men. I've got 4 recent programing grads outside my office, all of them are just a drag on our resources. I've also got two experienced programers who are doing 90% of our companies "real" coding. (New company, one team) Out of these four I think I can salvage one. The other three are either too timid our two green to be worthwhile for another year or so. No it comes down to this, "never trust anyone over 30". We said it when we were in our 20's and it's coming round to bite us in the ass in our 40's. I really believe that the wild west days of the net are over. Soon profitability will out weigh neat new ideas. The value of knowledge will come to bear when this change occurs. The end result? Coders with experience will out do the ones without. Theory is great, in fact, mathmatical theory is the one thing that seems to seperate the men from the boys when it comes to coding. But theory has it's limits and that is all a good school teaches. Experience is something that only time can give any of us. The down side to age seems to be this god awful feeling that we know something. At this stage of the game I have to constantly remind myself that even though I am older and I have been at it longer, young pups can still come up with some of the neatest tricks on their own. Even when they do it takes someone who knows a little more to teach them when is a good time to do the trick and when isn't. The ideal situation is a strong mix of experience and enthusiasm. Like the young bull and the old bull. The young bull wants to run down the hill and get himself a cow. The old bull knows that if he walks down the hill he can get them all.
I'm with Pacbell at home and Covad through Internet Connect at work. The work situation is better and faster all around. The problem is two fold, first Flashcom....... nuff said. (Don't want the guys here to get any more nasty grams telling them to remove comments *sigh*) Second PacBell, the response time you got is almost Identical to the response time we get operating straight from PacBell. I've been arguing with them for a while because what the say we are getting (784 up and 1.5 down) isn't what even THIER people test our line speed at (256 up and 784 down) However because our distance from the DCO says we should get the higher speed they still want to charge us for the higher speed. Until now I've gone from disatisfied to totally appalled at how far behind the rest of the Telco's PacBell seems to be. Then to make it worse I've found out that I could have gone to CompUSA bought an INTERNAL DSL modem for our firewall, installed it myself and had DSL in a week at the same speed for only 49.95 a month. arrrrgggghhh. In short, Don't blame the problem on anything other that since you're in Silicon Valley where everybody and his sister are out to get rich of all of us DotCom millionares (yeah right) Sorry but the truth is that the desire for broadband internet exceeds the ability of any of these organizations to implement it. Also the laws for right of way and easement for laying the lines are still out of the early 1900's and designed for Gov controlled monapolies, not the best situation for what is needed these days. The best thing I can tell you is be calm, polite and friendly on the phone(everyone else yells at them so that makes you someone they want to help) second when they tell you it can't be done, begging is a viable option. It's degrading but it works. If you've been nice up to that point I've found that things "magically" happen that weren't happening before. Finally don't be afraid to bug them a little calling everyday if needed. It got my six week install date moved up 5 weeks!, and I deal with much of the same people. Also complaining about how much money it's costing you won't hurt either.
Again I repeat where do you find these prices. I'm not smoking anything I'd just like to know. For reference check out this page at U-Bid.com or this page at ibm.com Which is the only version of this comp listed on IBM's site. The dealer may have told you it was a z50 but according to IBM it's not. (still a damn good little pda) As for it running Netbsd I won't argue that. I mentioned I didn't know. I only work with FreeBSD myself. Not that NetBSD is bad just I don't use it at work. Again I'm not disputing the price, just can't find that price for the z50, companion PDA yes, z50 no.
Ok upon checking the net the Workpad z50 seems to actually be priced around $1000.00 dollars not the $250.00 - $400.00 range mentioned in the article. However the IBM Workpad Companion is more of a regualr PDA and is priced in the range. It however runs runs something called Wordpad O/S not Windows CE (can't execute?). The Wordpad z50 is not in short supply as the article says. It is instead not even due out until Mid May 2000. As for the NetBSD port that part I haven't verified yes or no. But if the facts play out in the same manor as they have so far then..... well... You do the math.:) It does seem that the cpu it's running should be capible of supporting either a BSD style or Linux style of Unix. However I still love my little Libretto. No porting needed it has an AMD K-5. Check this ZDnet article here.
Thanks I couldn't have said it better myself. This in fact is precisly why I don't listen to MP3's from the net. With each successive download errors are induced so that by the 3rd or 4th iteration it's nerve racking to listen to all the skips, etc (sorry can't explain the noise in normal words) I've found that a lot of these "over-the-counter MP3's are the best that the person ripping can do. But still not enjoyable over the long term. However the potential for the record companies far outways the drawbacks if they get their heads out of their posteriors and start smelling the new brew in the air.
In the early 1960's (god I'm giving away my age) when I was but a kid, I remember the bru-ha-ha over a new medium of marketing music called the Cassette. (either 8-track or the currently seen 4 track) This was predicted by the Music companies as being the end of thier ability to be profitable because it made pirated copies too easy to make. However the opposite turned out to be the case. Although it was easy to make a copy, the expense, time, and lower quality of a home made copy vs. a store bought one proved to be in favor of the music companies by a longshot. In addition, it turned out that this new medium actually INcreased their profits because it allowed for lower cost reproduction, more market penatration, (portible players, car audio systems etc.) In other words instead of fighting the tech the record companies embraced and even advanced the tech. ie. Dolby noise reduction, surround sound, quadrophonic sound etc. The record companies need to take a lesson from thier own history and embrace and expand. A profesionally engineered MP3 has got to be better than a dorm room rip any day. Sides why should a consumer spend an hour downloading an MP3 with a 28.8 when they could take thier Rio to the store and BANG have a copy of the latest from whoever they chose. Leading the tech means that Record companies stand to make more than fighting it. Simple math, Simple history lesson.
I agree with the above but wish to add one thing. DON'T FORGET THE INDIANS!!! ie Most startup's I've worked with concentrate so hard on hiring the guys at the top that when it comes time to dole out the payroll and benefits for the guys and gals in the trenches they don't have the funds (or the stock options) to keep them happy. A good executive seceratry type can be worth her weight in gold when it comes to keeping the office running and presenting a profesional image. If you're a software company you'll need more programers because you are going to be too busy with meetings and schmoozing to do the amount of programing you do now, and will quickly burn yourself out if you try. Second keep regular hours. I know it's more comfortable to work at night and sleep all day. But businesses and the people who run them don't do this. Third... DELEGATE!!! I know you are the next Knuth but you can't and shouldn't do it all yourself. When you do hand off a job. Don't worry about how it's being done, or whether it's being done in your style. Concentrate on the results of the persons methods. ie. DON'T micromanage. Finally, plan for the future both in where you are going and in how you spend money. Remember that although you can build your own circuit to do a simple task, if you are worth 100 dollars an hour that circuit board that costs 29.99 at Fry's can get real expensive real quick. (2 hours to design and build x 100.00 plus parts vs. 29.99 at the store) That's about it. Now for me it's back to teaching the geek I work with that reading books on salemanship doesn't make him a salesman. *sigh*
Re:If you're going to be pedantic ...
on
Happy Odd Day!
·
· Score: 1
Side point you can't count 0 because it didn't exitst in Roman numerals. So starting from an arbitrary date/time in history, (which at the time used Latin as it's international language and Roman numerals as the method of counting), the earliest number you could have had was I/I/I, or 1/1/1 The first odd day (hehe) As a result the next milenum would have to begin on 1/1/1001 then 1/1/2001, 1/1/3001 ad infanatum.
Did ya ever wonder what romans said when they had nothing?
My list of suggestions: 1. In the begining co-locate. Not only is it less headaches but small tasks like DNS etc are handled for you. Plus if you chose a co-locate carefully you will get a tremendous knowledge base you can draw from. Also if you get a hacker you will have tons of help smashing the fool.
2. backup on and off site! The offsite provides you security period. The onsite means you can have a setup where two drives are available for booting (using a sync software package) and if it drops just have the guys working at the co-locate reboot you into the other drive.
3. Print contact info, reboot instructions etc out and paste it permanently on your server. This makes it easier for people to contact you or assist you if needed.
4. If your going to run Unix or Linux make sure the service isn't an NT house. That way you don't have to explain the 3 finger salute 20 times to the tech on the phone.
5. CONCETRATE on the quality of your html the headaches you will save by doing it right the first time are imense.
6. Don't waste money on gee wizz and wizz bang. A 4.3 gig hdd is probably 10 times larger than you will need. 64 megs of ram should do in the beginning but 128 is better. Make sure all the fans are ball bearing (it'll save you in both maintenace time and in burned up cpu's) In fact extra case fans are a plus.
7. Don't waste money on a monitor or a keyboard at a co-locate. Most of the ones worth a dang have "crash carts" with monitor and keyboard.
8. Unless you plan on doing a lot of onsite installs don't waste money on a floppy drive or cdrom drive. If you need them just carry an old one with you.
9. Make sure your OS you choose is remote configurable and maintainable. It'll save you both time and gas money if you can fix small problems from wherever you are.
10. Pay attention to your log files. Not only are they a wealth of info but if the dang things get too big your system goes gaga (great technical term isn't it) Develop the habit of daily checking/downloading/deleting the files.
11. Blanket banner adds are a waste however trading links and customer targeted advertising still bring in a large amount of viewers.
12. Don't skimp on motherboards fans powersupply, ethernet, cpu and ram. Do skimp on vga, don't buy sound, cdrom or floppy.
13. Find out the amount of space you will have in inches BEFORE you buy the case. Nothing like buying a 10 inch wide case and finding out you will have 8 inches of space.
14 Install a 10/100 meg ethernet card that way if your connection is to a 10 meg lan and you get upgraded to 100 you don't have to take down the site.
15. Remember having a good website is like having a happy baby. The more attention you give it the better it will turn out.
Slashdot Mirror
Suse happens to be the only distro I know of that automaticaly looks for and configures Braile readers during the initial install.
Ask questions that are specific. Give me the details, the more you tell me the more I can help.
Be prepared to do the same when it's your turn to help.
Have a standard serial port config. That way each and every addon device could be transfered to your new palm when you buy it.
Concentrate on partnerships with 3rd party software vendors to develop extension apps
Release information about hardware interface to 3rd part companies for the development of extensions. (my Go keyboard is a great example of what can be done.)
Listen to their users.
In other words do what the competition has done, ie Handsprings.
The last thing they could have done? Not spun off from 3com.
There was a worm back then that was spread by data disks and tapes called animal. Now animals like to eat. They also store food for the winter. So animal would slowly grab any and all available memory *of any kind* it could find. Until the mainframe choked due to insificiant memory. The cure was a worm called hunter. Now hunters, hunt animals and kill them. What hunter would do is replicate itself onto disks and tapes and first look for animals. If it found one it killed the animal and then would lie in wait until it saw anouther one. I also would like to report that within a few weeks the animals were all extinct.
Actually they do..... it's called a tech manual. Now what kind you buy is up to you.
Why on God's green Earth should Microsoft have to demonstrate that the programs are funded differently from the OS? Nothing personal, but that's just silly. Should KDE have to demonstrate that Konqueror or Kedit or any other app was created differently or separately from the rest of the environment?
..... you might learn what really happenend. If this is inflammitory. Sei La Gare. I'm inflammed, and I'm tired of listening to retoric that is repeated without knowledge on both sides of the "battle". Linux is a kernel. Windows is a cludge. Sometimes I wish I still had my trash80 running on pascal (that's right you don't need an OS just a the language thank you).
The easiest way to explain this is that even though Konqueror is a part of KDE, KDE isn't a part of Linux, or X for that matter. KDE is in and of itself a program. I don't use KDE, I happen to enjoy WindowMaker much more and as such use it. I don't even have KDE installed on my box. In other words I HAVE A CHOICE!!! That is all I'm asking for. A choice. I also dislike know it alls like Mundie telling me I'm a communist because I enjoy coding and working in open source. That fscking b#$#@rd was in diapers when I was in the Nam, and I'm damn sure not a commy. I am however one of the people who gave you things like word processors, tcp/ip and e-mail. I've been here since ARPANET and I plan on being here when Micro$oft is gone. I outlasted IBM and I can dang sure outlast gates. Don't hand me this check MSDN network. I have I do, I'm forced/need/want to. I do however know that what is being said is true. The first example would be with Word Perfect. MS refused to give them what they needed to run it under Windows 3.1 until they assisted MS in getting Word 1.0 to work properly. (For those who used that program it was a nightmare we don't want to remember) Oh yes stop repeating the words of the infamous, and believe no one. Not even me, then check and verify a little history. MS learned well at the IBM teat, Now IBM is beginning to show them why they were here first. Watch listen, investigate and maybe, just maybe if you close the big hole and open the two little ones on either side of your heads
Harvard Graphics
Form Tools
Multi-Mate
Wang Computers
Dr. DOS
There are more but this is a quick rant. *grin*
Oh and I forgot one thing. When is the last time GM or IBM paid resellers a bonus for reporting people who don't buy thier car or Operating system. M$ does.
Ok, try this, remove IE from your box and replace it with netscape. Micro$oft neither provides the "hooks" for developers to accomplish this nore does it allow the user the choice. Functionality is there for Netscape to do the same things within the OS as IE does. It's simply a case of M$ refusing to release the information to allow them (Netscape) to develop the tools for a user to make a choice. Please reflect on the word choice. You see that's all I'm asking for.... the ability to chose.
one word Netscape
Welllllllll if you don't want graphics. (it can't render correctly transperancey in either .gif or .png files) Don't feel the need to use PHP or CSS. Avoid Java and Javascript.... it works pretty well. I'd say in a year or two they could have a browser as good as Netscape 1.0 maybe even IE 3.0 I'm sorry but I'm sticking with Konqueror.... it works. AND it fits on a 20 gig drive *grin*.
I stand corrected thanks for the info. Also thanks for Borged love the concept it creates. *grin*
Actually it's a matter of cheap. Cheap fans and god how I hate them cheap cdrom drives. One of the comps I have from my company sounds like a 747 winding up when it begins to read.(40X) Arrrgggghhhhh. I put an old 8x in the box in my bedroom just so that I can work without disturbing my wife. Can a computer be silent. Yes. Peltiers for the cpu, High quality power supplies. (in fact a power supply from a notebook is often higher quality than the one in a desktop) High quality fans if you do need them. If any one reading this has worked in a room filled with computers you know that you can and do recieve damage to your hearing from long term exposure to the noise. (Not as obvious as a rock concert but just as dangerous) if ever there was a reason for quality this is it. Besides Carpal Tunnel there is the very real aspect of Tinnitus from all the D%^& fans in the room. I can't give you a link but I have read of readings of 120+db in a computer center just from fans alone. This really is a serious problem we may be young now but I for one don't want to be deaf and 40 that's for sure.
A-freaking-men. I've got 4 recent programing grads outside my office, all of them are just a drag on our resources. I've also got two experienced programers who are doing 90% of our companies "real" coding. (New company, one team) Out of these four I think I can salvage one. The other three are either too timid our two green to be worthwhile for another year or so. No it comes down to this, "never trust anyone over 30". We said it when we were in our 20's and it's coming round to bite us in the ass in our 40's. I really believe that the wild west days of the net are over. Soon profitability will out weigh neat new ideas. The value of knowledge will come to bear when this change occurs. The end result? Coders with experience will out do the ones without. Theory is great, in fact, mathmatical theory is the one thing that seems to seperate the men from the boys when it comes to coding. But theory has it's limits and that is all a good school teaches. Experience is something that only time can give any of us. The down side to age seems to be this god awful feeling that we know something. At this stage of the game I have to constantly remind myself that even though I am older and I have been at it longer, young pups can still come up with some of the neatest tricks on their own. Even when they do it takes someone who knows a little more to teach them when is a good time to do the trick and when isn't. The ideal situation is a strong mix of experience and enthusiasm. Like the young bull and the old bull. The young bull wants to run down the hill and get himself a cow. The old bull knows that if he walks down the hill he can get them all.
I'm with Pacbell at home and Covad through Internet Connect at work. The work situation is better and faster all around. The problem is two fold, first Flashcom....... nuff said. (Don't want the guys here to get any more nasty grams telling them to remove comments *sigh*) Second PacBell, the response time you got is almost Identical to the response time we get operating straight from PacBell. I've been arguing with them for a while because what the say we are getting (784 up and 1.5 down) isn't what even THIER people test our line speed at (256 up and 784 down) However because our distance from the DCO says we should get the higher speed they still want to charge us for the higher speed. Until now I've gone from disatisfied to totally appalled at how far behind the rest of the Telco's PacBell seems to be. Then to make it worse I've found out that I could have gone to CompUSA bought an INTERNAL DSL modem for our firewall, installed it myself and had DSL in a week at the same speed for only 49.95 a month. arrrrgggghhh. In short, Don't blame the problem on anything other that since you're in Silicon Valley where everybody and his sister are out to get rich of all of us DotCom millionares (yeah right) Sorry but the truth is that the desire for broadband internet exceeds the ability of any of these organizations to implement it. Also the laws for right of way and easement for laying the lines are still out of the early 1900's and designed for Gov controlled monapolies, not the best situation for what is needed these days. The best thing I can tell you is be calm, polite and friendly on the phone(everyone else yells at them so that makes you someone they want to help) second when they tell you it can't be done, begging is a viable option. It's degrading but it works. If you've been nice up to that point I've found that things "magically" happen that weren't happening before. Finally don't be afraid to bug them a little calling everyday if needed. It got my six week install date moved up 5 weeks!, and I deal with much of the same people. Also complaining about how much money it's costing you won't hurt either.
Again I repeat where do you find these prices. I'm not smoking anything I'd just like to know. For reference check out this page at U-Bid.com or this page at ibm.com Which is the only version of this comp listed on IBM's site. The dealer may have told you it was a z50 but according to IBM it's not. (still a damn good little pda) As for it running Netbsd I won't argue that. I mentioned I didn't know. I only work with FreeBSD myself. Not that NetBSD is bad just I don't use it at work. Again I'm not disputing the price, just can't find that price for the z50, companion PDA yes, z50 no.
Ok upon checking the net the Workpad z50 seems to actually be priced around $1000.00 dollars not the $250.00 - $400.00 range mentioned in the article. However the IBM Workpad Companion is more of a regualr PDA and is priced in the range. It however runs runs something called Wordpad O/S not Windows CE (can't execute?). The Wordpad z50 is not in short supply as the article says. It is instead not even due out until Mid May 2000. As for the NetBSD port that part I haven't verified yes or no. But if the facts play out in the same manor as they have so far then ..... well ... You do the math.:) It does seem that the cpu it's running should be capible of supporting either a BSD style or Linux style of Unix. However I still love my little Libretto. No porting needed it has an AMD K-5. Check this ZDnet article here.
Before Gates it was Edison, Before him Franklin....*sigh* If you can't beat 'em .... write the history books.
Thanks I couldn't have said it better myself. This in fact is precisly why I don't listen to MP3's from the net. With each successive download errors are induced so that by the 3rd or 4th iteration it's nerve racking to listen to all the skips, etc (sorry can't explain the noise in normal words) I've found that a lot of these "over-the-counter MP3's are the best that the person ripping can do. But still not enjoyable over the long term. However the potential for the record companies far outways the drawbacks if they get their heads out of their posteriors and start smelling the new brew in the air.
In the early 1960's (god I'm giving away my age) when I was but a kid, I remember the bru-ha-ha over a new medium of marketing music called the Cassette. (either 8-track or the currently seen 4 track) This was predicted by the Music companies as being the end of thier ability to be profitable because it made pirated copies too easy to make. However the opposite turned out to be the case. Although it was easy to make a copy, the expense, time, and lower quality of a home made copy vs. a store bought one proved to be in favor of the music companies by a longshot. In addition, it turned out that this new medium actually INcreased their profits because it allowed for lower cost reproduction, more market penatration, (portible players, car audio systems etc.) In other words instead of fighting the tech the record companies embraced and even advanced the tech. ie. Dolby noise reduction, surround sound, quadrophonic sound etc. The record companies need to take a lesson from thier own history and embrace and expand. A profesionally engineered MP3 has got to be better than a dorm room rip any day. Sides why should a consumer spend an hour downloading an MP3 with a 28.8 when they could take thier Rio to the store and BANG have a copy of the latest from whoever they chose. Leading the tech means that Record companies stand to make more than fighting it. Simple math, Simple history lesson.
oh forgot to add the 4 x 10.00 for the part timer who chases after the part. hehe :)
I agree with the above but wish to add one thing. DON'T FORGET THE INDIANS!!! ie Most startup's I've worked with concentrate so hard on hiring the guys at the top that when it comes time to dole out the payroll and benefits for the guys and gals in the trenches they don't have the funds (or the stock options) to keep them happy. A good executive seceratry type can be worth her weight in gold when it comes to keeping the office running and presenting a profesional image. If you're a software company you'll need more programers because you are going to be too busy with meetings and schmoozing to do the amount of programing you do now, and will quickly burn yourself out if you try. Second keep regular hours. I know it's more comfortable to work at night and sleep all day. But businesses and the people who run them don't do this. Third ... DELEGATE!!! I know you are the next Knuth but you can't and shouldn't do it all yourself. When you do hand off a job. Don't worry about how it's being done, or whether it's being done in your style. Concentrate on the results of the persons methods. ie. DON'T micromanage. Finally, plan for the future both in where you are going and in how you spend money. Remember that although you can build your own circuit to do a simple task, if you are worth 100 dollars an hour that circuit board that costs 29.99 at Fry's can get real expensive real quick. (2 hours to design and build x 100.00 plus parts vs. 29.99 at the store) That's about it. Now for me it's back to teaching the geek I work with that reading books on salemanship doesn't make him a salesman. *sigh*
Side point you can't count 0 because it didn't exitst in Roman numerals. So starting from an arbitrary date/time in history, (which at the time used Latin as it's international language and Roman numerals as the method of counting), the earliest number you could have had was I/I/I, or 1/1/1 The first odd day (hehe) As a result the next milenum would have to begin on 1/1/1001 then 1/1/2001, 1/1/3001 ad infanatum.
Did ya ever wonder what romans said when they had nothing?
My list of suggestions:
1. In the begining co-locate. Not only is it less headaches but small tasks like DNS etc are handled for you. Plus if you chose a co-locate carefully you will get a tremendous knowledge base you can draw from. Also if you get a hacker you will have tons of help smashing the fool.
2. backup on and off site! The offsite provides you security period. The onsite means you can have a setup where two drives are available for booting (using a sync software package) and if it drops just have the guys working at the co-locate reboot you into the other drive.
3. Print contact info, reboot instructions etc out and paste it permanently on your server. This makes it easier for people to contact you or assist you if needed.
4. If your going to run Unix or Linux make sure the service isn't an NT house. That way you don't have to explain the 3 finger salute 20 times to the tech on the phone.
5. CONCETRATE on the quality of your html the headaches you will save by doing it right the first time are imense.
6. Don't waste money on gee wizz and wizz bang. A 4.3 gig hdd is probably 10 times larger than you will need. 64 megs of ram should do in the beginning but 128 is better. Make sure all the fans are ball bearing (it'll save you in both maintenace time and in burned up cpu's) In fact extra case fans are a plus.
7. Don't waste money on a monitor or a keyboard at a co-locate. Most of the ones worth a dang have "crash carts" with monitor and keyboard.
8. Unless you plan on doing a lot of onsite installs don't waste money on a floppy drive or cdrom drive. If you need them just carry an old one with you.
9. Make sure your OS you choose is remote configurable and maintainable. It'll save you both time and gas money if you can fix small problems from wherever you are.
10. Pay attention to your log files. Not only are they a wealth of info but if the dang things get too big your system goes gaga (great technical term isn't it) Develop the habit of daily checking/downloading/deleting the files.
11. Blanket banner adds are a waste however trading links and customer targeted advertising still bring in a large amount of viewers.
12. Don't skimp on motherboards fans powersupply, ethernet, cpu and ram. Do skimp on vga, don't buy sound, cdrom or floppy.
13. Find out the amount of space you will have in inches BEFORE you buy the case. Nothing like buying a 10 inch wide case and finding out you will have 8 inches of space.
14 Install a 10/100 meg ethernet card that way if your connection is to a 10 meg lan and you get upgraded to 100 you don't have to take down the site.
15. Remember having a good website is like having a happy baby. The more attention you give it the better it will turn out.
Hopes this helps.