I'm a computer programmer. And I used to like my job. But then I got a project which turned out to be a fiasco.
First, my boss ordered me too tight dead-lines despite all my arguments. Then our company was merged to another company and now I'm working in a quite large corporation (which is itself a really bad thing, trust me). Then the contact person and the specialist at the client side, who had all required information for the project, left the company. Time past by and the project was more or less in coma. Few months ago things changed and the client got a new specialist and the project started to make progress.
So, for a year, I hated my job. I was doing my project and at the same time attending to smaller projects to keep myself employed and sane. But now I kind of like my job again. The project is almost finished and new challenging tasks are waiting for me.
So, what is the moral of this story: patience will pay off. Sooner or later. Or the alternative will be unemployment (because there is no such thing as a job which is good and enjoyable all the time, as far as I know).
Now, picture your IT workplace. Look around at your workmates. Do *you* get together on weekends?
Umm... I have to be with my co-workers 7-10 hours per day, five days per week. At weekends, I don't want to see, hear or think anything related to my work. And my co-workers are one thing, which reminds me of my job. At weekends I want to be with my fianceé and my friends or just stay at home and sleep.
I'm a programmer and I'm quite tired of my job. Maybe that is one reason, why I don't want to socialize with my workmates.
I'm a Linux user and until now I had no way to get any other kind of connection to my Linux box than modem (now I finally was able to subscribe a cable modem connection). I had to pay three times more compared to Winmodems to get a fully functional external V.90 modem.
I'm a poor university student and every penny counts. I cannot afford to *DSL connection or any other kind of high-speed connection. Also until resently it was techincally impossible to get cable modem to my apartment. So modem was the only reasonable way to get connected. And for student it is rather tempting to by cheap Winmodem rather that the real one.
And now to the point... First of all: there is still places where it is difficult/expensive/impossible to have *DSL or cable modem connections. Second: there always is a (large) group of people who want to have an Internet access but even cheapest REAL modem is too expensive. Winmodem is dirty cheap alternative but it limits user to Windows environment. That's why it's quite important to have support for cheap "hard"ware under Linux. After all, one reason to have Linux installed is the cheap price.
Yes, I'm the stupid one, who first bought a Winmodem and was tied to Windows platform before I had a chance to buy a real piece of hardware.
It's interesting to read this kind of announcements... people are talking about ability to run Windows binaries under different operating systems. But the fact is that the most noticable thing for small operating systems is the ability to run Linux binaries. With Linux support the OS has more credibility with smaller effort than with supporting proprietary binaries.
I'm waiting that day when people will realize that the point isn't Windows. It's Linux (for example *BSD know this and have binary support for Linux).
My point is that it is waste of resources to even try to create binary compatibility/emulation/support for Windows. Today it's more important to have Linux support because it's more realistic to have someting actually working.
So the path SkyOS is heading to is right, but the final goal is wrong.
But how does this affect to the future of FreeBSD? The FreeBSD is, after all, an open source project and will continue to evolve with or without commercial support. Right?
I can't see anything special about this case. Nowadays all components seem to carry some kind of fans with them (processors, video cards, even some hard drive racks have a fan). So attaching extra fans to the case seems a bit pointless. The whole thing seems to be noisy, power consuming monster. But then, this seems to be for overclockers.
What I would like to see, is a case without a cover. Just a rack holding the motherboard and cards. And the power supply at the bottom of the whole thing. I've tried to use regular mini-tower without the cover, but it is inconvinient, heavy and just too big. And quite unstable, because the power is at the top side of the thing.
We will have PCs or some other kind of desktop computers in future. The reason is simple: using office applications (wordprocessors, spreadsheets,...) in real life is almost impossible with portable/handheld computer. I've been trying to learn to write documents with portable PC and all I've got is wrist pains and headache.
I noticed that version 1.0.0 doesn't support Aureal. Darn. And I just installed Aureal drivers. I also noticed several comments telling about version 1.0.1 which should be a bug fix for this problem. But I can't find any information about the bugfix or any link for downloading it.
I'm searching the fix from www.xmms.org (should be the right place, right?)
Finally I can format my Windows 98 partition. The only reason, why I still have W98 is my Terratec sound card. I hope that the driver will support wavetables.
I want a Bill Gates action figure! Then, every time my NT machine does something weird at work, I can beat that figure and kick it over the room.
Hmm... of course, it also would be quite cool to use this Bill figure as some sort of voodoo doll with needles and that kind of stuff... (OK, that was quite sick) . . . Why on earth someone would be actually interested in buying this kind of crap? I think that parents who are buying these figures for their kids are irresponsible and are doing quite large damage to their kids. (Or are these figures targeted for NT network administrators?)
What actually is the function of these figures? There isn't any kind of comics series or movies about these figures...
Actually this doesn't sound that strange after using this new Key Tronic Ergoforce keyboard. It seems that Ergoforce is designed to be as non-responsive as possible. After 15 minutes of work with it will cause me terrible pains. But with this good oldtimer Key Tronic keyboard with clicking keys (and without those stupid M$ keys) there isn't any problems. I think that there really is a connection between insufficient resistance and wrist pains.
It would be more useful to have selfdestructive floppy disks. Something like in that TV series "Mission Impossible". I'd like to put my backups to that kind of media;)
Can someone explain me what is the difference between this and Apsfilter (except that network printing and automatic doc. type detection)? I've been using Apsfilter about couple of years without any difficulties (formerly with HPDJ550 and now with Canon BJC-6000, which isn't even a supported printer).
And what was that talk about selecting suitable filter e.g. to print PDF files? I thought that to convert all images, PFDs and text files to PostScript is easy enough.
Well, maybe I'm too old to understand this kind of new technology;)
This kind of articles are extremely good. We all should learn from them. This is because the world is moving towards information society. And this means that everybody should have a computer. But we can't expect that everybody knows what is inside their computers. The point is that we should actively develop simpler solutions for soft/hardware.
Majority of all replies in Slashdot are saying things like:
"he should has tried to use a newer version of the distribution" or "why not use RedHat?" or "he's stupid because he doesn't know what is inside of his computer"
And this is all wrong.
The problem isn't the user, the problem is that computers should be like kitchenware. User uses the hardware (and the software) but doesn't know what is inside of it. And he doesn't even want to know.
(It is possible that I didn't make my point clear or I lost it but who cares...)
You're right. W95/98 isn't the best possibly choise for operating system but the fact is that the driver support for hardware is better than for NT or Linux (I'm myself a Linux user). Another thing is that W95/98 is one of the most used operating systems at the home use. So, to get as much paying customers as possible it is (unfortunately) wice to write W95-programs.
I've been testing Mesa 3D-library under Linux but accelerated 3D (for example with 3DFX Voodoo Rush chipset) support is poor. Well, it works in full screen mode but I haven't succeeded to get things work in the window...
But I've heard that the OpenGL support isn't good (or stable under Win95/98). Actually, I even didn't know that TNT would support windowed acceleration.
Java banner ads aren't the problem because it's possible to turn Java support off from the browser. This will be better than with animated gifs because, as far as I know, there isn't any option in Netscape Communicator (or other browsers) which will prevent loading animated gifs.
And all kinds of animations are just annoying and useless. Or am I wrong?
Actually, only good thing with gifs is that it has that transparency option in it.
Now, this is very, very bad marketing. In this situation, when the new product is planned to be published in few months, the company should do everything to make people interested in their products.
For me, this silence just tells that something has gone very badly wrong and the company is currently trying to figure out how to not to lose their face.
But what if a car manufacturer has made a calculation error in the brakes of the car and you get killed because the brakes don't work? OK, you own the car but the manufacturer is still responisible of its mistakes.
And what if a hospital buys some software (open source)? Do the hospital have to check the code line by line before using it?
Taxes or some other kind of way to collect money from all participants is required because this kind of system isn't free to maintain.
To have virtual lawyers... hmm... when there is millions of individuals connected together then there will be conflicts (thanks to human nature). That's why there should be some kind of police force and judicial system. This kind of system cannot be maintained without some kind of funding.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a computer programmer. And I used to like my job. But then I got a project which turned out to be a fiasco.
First, my boss ordered me too tight dead-lines despite all my arguments. Then our company was merged to another company and now I'm working in a quite large corporation (which is itself a really bad thing, trust me). Then the contact person and the specialist at the client side, who had all required information for the project, left the company. Time past by and the project was more or less in coma. Few months ago things changed and the client got a new specialist and the project started to make progress.
So, for a year, I hated my job. I was doing my project and at the same time attending to smaller projects to keep myself employed and sane. But now I kind of like my job again. The project is almost finished and new challenging tasks are waiting for me.
So, what is the moral of this story: patience will pay off. Sooner or later. Or the alternative will be unemployment (because there is no such thing as a job which is good and enjoyable all the time, as far as I know).
Umm... I have to be with my co-workers 7-10 hours per day, five days per week. At weekends, I don't want to see, hear or think anything related to my work. And my co-workers are one thing, which reminds me of my job. At weekends I want to be with my fianceé and my friends or just stay at home and sleep.
I'm a programmer and I'm quite tired of my job. Maybe that is one reason, why I don't want to socialize with my workmates.
I'm a Linux user and until now I had no way to get any other kind of connection to my Linux box than modem (now I finally was able to subscribe a cable modem connection). I had to pay three times more compared to Winmodems to get a fully functional external V.90 modem.
I'm a poor university student and every penny counts. I cannot afford to *DSL connection or any other kind of high-speed connection. Also until resently it was techincally impossible to get cable modem to my apartment. So modem was the only reasonable way to get connected. And for student it is rather tempting to by cheap Winmodem rather that the real one.
And now to the point... First of all: there is still places where it is difficult/expensive/impossible to have *DSL or cable modem connections. Second: there always is a (large) group of people who want to have an Internet access but even cheapest REAL modem is too expensive. Winmodem is dirty cheap alternative but it limits user to Windows environment. That's why it's quite important to have support for cheap "hard"ware under Linux. After all, one reason to have Linux installed is the cheap price.
Yes, I'm the stupid one, who first bought a Winmodem and was tied to Windows platform before I had a chance to buy a real piece of hardware.
It's interesting to read this kind of announcements... people are talking about ability to run Windows binaries under different operating systems. But the fact is that the most noticable thing for small operating systems is the ability to run Linux binaries. With Linux support the OS has more credibility with smaller effort than with supporting proprietary binaries.
I'm waiting that day when people will realize that the point isn't Windows. It's Linux (for example *BSD know this and have binary support for Linux).
My point is that it is waste of resources to even try to create binary compatibility/emulation/support for Windows. Today it's more important to have Linux support because it's more realistic to have someting actually working.
So the path SkyOS is heading to is right, but the final goal is wrong.
This is sad...
But how does this affect to the future of FreeBSD? The FreeBSD is, after all, an open source project and will continue to evolve with or without commercial support. Right?
I can't see anything special about this case. Nowadays all components seem to carry some kind of fans with them (processors, video cards, even some hard drive racks have a fan). So attaching extra fans to the case seems a bit pointless. The whole thing seems to be noisy, power consuming monster. But then, this seems to be for overclockers.
What I would like to see, is a case without a cover. Just a rack holding the motherboard and cards. And the power supply at the bottom of the whole thing. I've tried to use regular mini-tower without the cover, but it is inconvinient, heavy and just too big. And quite unstable, because the power is at the top side of the thing.
Life on Forbez
Life on Forbez is humoristic comic with well-written story.
We will have PCs or some other kind of desktop computers in future. The reason is simple: using office applications (wordprocessors, spreadsheets, ...) in real life is almost impossible with portable/handheld computer. I've been trying to learn to write documents with portable PC and all I've got is wrist pains and headache.
I noticed that version 1.0.0 doesn't support Aureal. Darn. And I just installed Aureal drivers. I also noticed several comments telling about version 1.0.1 which should be a bug fix for this problem. But I can't find any information about the bugfix or any link for downloading it.
I'm searching the fix from www.xmms.org (should be the right place, right?)
Yes, yes, yes, yes, and so on...
Finally I can format my Windows 98 partition. The only reason, why I still have W98 is my Terratec sound card. I hope that the driver will support wavetables.
I want a Bill Gates action figure! Then, every time my NT machine does something weird at work, I can beat that figure and kick it over the room.
Hmm... of course, it also would be quite cool to use this Bill figure as some sort of voodoo doll with needles and that kind of stuff... (OK, that was quite sick)
.
.
.
Why on earth someone would be actually interested in buying this kind of crap? I think that parents who are buying these figures for their kids are irresponsible and are doing quite large damage to their kids. (Or are these figures targeted for NT network administrators?)
What actually is the function of these figures? There isn't any kind of comics series or movies about these figures...
OK, cool. I hope that there will be a Linux version of the player. Then I'll be able to see those funny Dilbert animations with my Linux box. :-)
First there was insecure web browser and web server, then there was insecure Hotmail. Now there's insecure (Web)TV!!! What next? Insecure MS-Mouse?
Hmm, he's like Midas... Bill Gates can turn all kinds of products insecure just by touching them.
It seems that in future we will have insecure toilets, cars and houses. Oh yeah!
I haven't read it and I don't know if it is useful in this situation. But it seems that there is support for Ultra DMA 66 under Linux.
Actually this doesn't sound that strange after using this new Key Tronic Ergoforce keyboard. It seems that Ergoforce is designed to be as non-responsive as possible. After 15 minutes of work with it will cause me terrible pains. But with this good oldtimer Key Tronic keyboard with clicking keys (and without those stupid M$ keys) there isn't any problems. I think that there really is a connection between insufficient resistance and wrist pains.
It would be more useful to have selfdestructive floppy disks. Something like in that TV series "Mission Impossible". I'd like to put my backups to that kind of media ;)
Can someone explain me what is the difference between this and Apsfilter (except that network printing and automatic doc. type detection)? I've been using Apsfilter about couple of years without any difficulties (formerly with HPDJ550 and now with Canon BJC-6000, which isn't even a supported printer).
;)
And what was that talk about selecting suitable filter e.g. to print PDF files? I thought that to convert all images, PFDs and text files to PostScript is easy enough.
Well, maybe I'm too old to understand this kind of new technology
This kind of articles are extremely good. We all should learn from them. This is because the world is moving towards information society. And this means that everybody should have a computer. But we can't expect that everybody knows what is inside their computers. The point is that we should actively develop simpler solutions for soft/hardware.
Majority of all replies in Slashdot are saying things like:
"he should has tried to use a newer version of the distribution"
or
"why not use RedHat?"
or
"he's stupid because he doesn't know what is inside of his computer"
And this is all wrong.
The problem isn't the user, the problem is that computers should be like kitchenware. User uses the hardware (and the software) but doesn't know what is inside of it. And he doesn't even want to know.
(It is possible that I didn't make my point clear or I lost it but who cares...)
You're right. W95/98 isn't the best possibly choise for operating system but the fact is that the driver support for hardware is better than for NT or Linux (I'm myself a Linux user). Another thing is that W95/98 is one of the most used operating systems at the home use. So, to get as much paying customers as possible it is (unfortunately) wice to write W95-programs.
I've been testing Mesa 3D-library under Linux but accelerated 3D (for example with 3DFX Voodoo Rush chipset) support is poor. Well, it works in full screen mode but I haven't succeeded to get things work in the window...
But I've heard that the OpenGL support isn't good (or stable under Win95/98). Actually, I even didn't know that TNT would support windowed acceleration.
I would like to see some day a cheap 3D card supporting windowed 3D acceleration with full OpenGL support. Nothing else...
Java banner ads aren't the problem because it's possible to turn Java support off from the browser. This will be better than with animated gifs because, as far as I know, there isn't any option in Netscape Communicator (or other browsers) which will prevent loading animated gifs.
And all kinds of animations are just annoying and useless. Or am I wrong?
Actually, only good thing with gifs is that it has that transparency option in it.
Now, this is very, very bad marketing. In this situation, when the new product is planned to be published in few months, the company should do everything to make people interested in their products.
For me, this silence just tells that something has gone very badly wrong and the company is currently trying to figure out how to not to lose their face.
But what if a car manufacturer has made a calculation error in the brakes of the car and you get killed because the brakes don't work? OK, you own the car but the manufacturer is still responisible of its mistakes.
And what if a hospital buys some software (open source)? Do the hospital have to check the code line by line before using it?
Taxes or some other kind of way to collect money from all participants is required because this kind of system isn't free to maintain.
To have virtual lawyers... hmm... when there is millions of individuals connected together then there will be conflicts (thanks to human nature). That's why there should be some kind of police force and judicial system. This kind of system cannot be maintained without some kind of funding.