What does Web 2.0 have to do with people neglecting the basics of good design? As far as I can tell they have always done that.
This is some BBC guy, their version of good design probably = "Flash and shinny buttons with special effects and blinking links". I actually prefer the basic and simple looks of a basic MoinMoin wiki or a simple blog -- the less flash and crap the better, just the information.
This is indeed very surprising as we clearly got intelligent teachers and a great educational system that churns out science and math geniuses every academic year...the Chinese, Indian and Russian students shudder just at the thought of competing in science and programming contests against American students...Oh wait...nevermind.
[start_rant]
I have come to just not expect very much from our school systems. This wasn't just one crazy teacher it was a number of them. One could have slipped through the cracks but this is a whole bunch of idiots, which means that there are many many more of them there. It is not as if our teachers are underpaid and starving-- yes they often go on strikes and whine a lot but their salaries are much higher than the average salary, some make $70k, even $80k with Summers off. That should mean that all of them should have been very well selected and be very professional. I attended only one year in a US high school and it was appalling: everyone, including the teachers only talked and cared about sports, other extracurricular activities, prom, and other pointless shit like that. I was there as sophomore and I ended up tutoring seniors in math and physics and I wasn't even that good in my country (Russia). At the end of that year I felt that I got stupider just by attending a US high school...
Students fake a gunman attack to test how prepared the teachers and the cops are. Results: teachers not prepared, cops freak out and shot half of the kids.
But seriously, good think none of the students decided to jump from the window and died or badly injured themselves.
No you don't if you visit. With scientology if you want find out more about the "church" you have to take classes that are quite expensive. On the first visit to their center they will pressure you to buy their books and audio tapes. With the mainstream Churches, you can go to the services and find out what they are teaching without having ot pay. Otherwise everyone who vists a Cathedral in Europe would be taken to a room and shown a promotion video, then taken to the library and forced to buy Bibles, I don't think that's the case...
At least with those wierdos you don't have to hand them your credit card when you go visit them. And if you want to make fun of them, go ahead, you'll piss them off but they won't sue you. Not unlike these people who will blow themselves up to get you and of course these goofballs who will sue and make your life a living hell.
Completely agree on the Usenet. I have the same problem. I was using it when I was 15 and, well, let's just say that some stuff just sounds silly and stupid. I would not want a recruiter to see those results as the first results that come up. But by now, I mostly "fixed" the problem. Here is what I had to keep in mind:
1. Google is good at retaining stuff -- it doesn't care if it is good or bad.
2. Google will show the most recent results at the top.
After you read point # (2) say "Bingo!" and go to Usenet and start posting everyday some good posts. Go to charity forums, help the kittens, puppies babies. Sound professional, give people advice about programming. If you see noobs asking "OMG! how do I do this" then start sounding like a parent figure and politely help them out with their homework programming problem. Then create another account and use that account to rate your previous posts with 4 or 5 stars so they always show at the top.
After half a year or a year, depending on how much you post, whoever searches for your name will have to scroll 10 pages before they even see you 1980's posts. Trust me that's what I did and it work. You "can" use Google for your advantage!
I guess that's why they mostly end up hiring people outside of Madison. If it wasn't for the internet I would have ended up working for them probably...
You forget, they're still are "the majority of shareholders". So on one hand they say "do no evil" on the other they vote "to do evil". Actions speak much louder than words, that's what I believe.
Exactly. It was our mistake to regard Google as some kind of entity with 'feelings' and moral convictions. In reality corporations are dumb money making machines (as far as their goal state is concerned). They always try to maximize the "make more $$$" function. If that means saying "do no evil" -- alright. If it means putting someone in jail over the censorship -- sure!. If there is a conflict between "making more $" and "do no evil" the issue gets sent to the PR and finance department that calculates risks associated with each and picks the choice that would... surprise... makes more $$$!
Yes, I "fired" a certain Healthcare IT company that was interviewing me after finding out by Googling that they practically run a sweatshop, paying a salary and making people work up to 60hrs/week. They especially love H1B individuals and make them slave day and night, at least for 5 years and if they complain they are fired and are asked to repay the 'legal' fees incurred for their H1B visa processing. I am a citizen, so that would not have concerned me directly but any company that does that is not a place I want to work.
So yeah, if I had not known, I would have been unpleasantly surprised by the working environment. Google works both ways.
Most of the time people complain how "Google has ruined my chances... blah blah" what they don't realize is that Google can also be used to ones' advantage. If Google can 'store' bad stuff it can also store 'good' stuff. It is not hard at all to create some fictitious online profile (use your name and go to some charity and help the poor kittens forums) so everyone one searching for your name will end up seeing that and think 'oh, how sweet!' Yeah, I thought about starting a personal PR business to manage people's online presense and mold it to whatever they want to appear, but I like programming better...Or at least that's what my online "presense" suggests;-)
Only when people doing business grow a backbone will things change and others follow suit.
Let me guess, you were one of the ones who really fell for the "Do No Evil!" slogan...
I just think it would be cool if someone actually stood up to them.
If it will make more $$$ they'll stand up to China, if it will cost $$$$, it won't happen. Everything a company does is PR just to improve the public image, just to make more $$$$. Sorry to dissappoint...
Did you ever wonder how come big companies regularly funnel millions of dollars for sport's arenas, public park, halls, museums, big stupid and pointless sculptures called "art". Do you really think that the greedy CEOs just want to be altruistic and help others? If that would be the case, they money would go to local homeless shelters or to the starving and sick people of which there are plenty all around the world. And most of all, it would happen anonymously, without all the fanfare and publicity, because that is how I would expect someone who only want to "help" others to go about it.
You might want to consider that this was actually proposed by one of their shareholder
But you missed the point, in the end it didn't happen!. It is like Serghey saying that making a deal with China wasn't very nice, but they still kept the deal. Don't you see this is all a publicity stunt. The whole "do no evil" might have worked when Goolge was just 10 people in a garage. But tt doesn't apply anymore.
Yes, there might have been one altruistic shareholder, but it was 1 againts what? 1000? You might as well ignore that one individual as a statistical 'fluke'.
One of my friends invests in a consumer products company that does animal research. Many rabbits and hamsters are maimed, disfigured and practically tortured, to figure out if the products are "safe". My friend is against animal research (I am not, though), but yet he will not sell his stock in that company. Unfortunately, as sad as it is, $$$$ does make the world go round.
No matter what moral slogans you hear from "Google" or other companies, they only serve one purpose -- to imporove the public image -- to make more $$$$$. When it comes to "make more $$$" vs. "adhering to a moral principle", then "make more $$$$" wins.
The way I see it, a good test of moral character for a company (and for a person, for that matter) is if they would be willing to stand by their moral convictions at the expense of a significant loss in profit. Google has failed to do that...
Thanks for all the info. Perhaps, I'll give it another try if I get my hands on some "typical" Solaris hardware.
Contrary to popular belief Matrox cards are used quite often by the "Big Iron" because they are very good at 2D and have better multi-head capabilities. So workstations that are no configured for 3D modeling will sometimes have a Matrox card in them. But Sun for the longest time has used ATI cards on thier "lower" end hardware.
.Give it an honest chance and you might be surprised at what Solaris 10 can do!
Did that and I didn't even get to the part were I was supposed to get 'surprised'. The biggest drawback of Solaris 10 when it comes to just 'trying it' is hardware compatibilty. Unfortunately it doesn't even come close to Linux. My graphics card's 3D accel, audio, wireless and SATA controller did not work. I can live without 3D on a server and without audio but no hard drive and network connection!? -- Sorry. I had to pass.
Oh I know, I know, I need special hardware 'blessed' by Sun. But I will not spend thousands of dollars buying a new machine just so I can 'play' with Solaris. Linux became popular exactly because geeks and nerds could 'play' with it at home....
Are you a effectively a happier person now than you were 5 years ago, before Google maps? You think you are, but I don't it is the case.
You completely misread my post. The point was that people will 'need' to use Google maps to see their house just as much as they would 'need' to look at the nuclear reactor on the other side of town. They are both just about as much of a 'need'. In reality they are 'wants', unless you starve to death , or get sick if you cannot look at GoogleEarth (and there might be rare situations where this will be the case) you want to look at your house, you want to look at the militry installation next door to your house.
If your friend is seriously upset, up to the point where his life in impaired because he couldn't see his house on a high resolution map, you might want to advise him to seek psychiatric help. Serious OSD, depression or pshychosis should not be overlooked.
The point of the post was that what people want is just as important and there will be a company that will eventually supply that. You though , seem to be convinced that looking at Google Earth is a need, something like the need to eat, get medical help or wear clothes. I think you are a little confused...
That's so true. It happened to my friend in the pre-9/11 world. He was talking something about the president and how vulnerable he would be to assination or something like that on a public forum. There was nothing about anyone wanting to do it or planning or saying that it would be a good or bad thing. Before he knows it, FBI comes to his work to have 'a talk' with him and scare him with some macho 'we are all powerful, we pop the eyes out of the 1st Ammendment's skull fuck the sockets if we want to.' Then at the same time they send a team to his house to talk to his wife and 5 year old daughter. They sat the daughter down and asked her if daddy builds bombs in the basement...
-- real story (search Kuro5hin for it). That all was happening as the real terrorists were planning their 9/11 attack. Gotta love our government...
The US Government could absolutely stop the distribution of commercial high resolution satellite imagery, plus keep tabs on what satellite imagery people obtain, at least at the outset.The method is simple.
Wait, it gets more simple than that. Russia/China/EU create a web service that replicate Google maps, why? Just because they can. What's US government going to do, nuke everyone? Or start another meaningless war -- "teh war on teh satellite image providers". And besides we all know how hard it is to censor information by force (09F9...)
Slashdot Mirror
No.
Next question please...
This is some BBC guy, their version of good design probably = "Flash and shinny buttons with special effects and blinking links". I actually prefer the basic and simple looks of a basic MoinMoin wiki or a simple blog -- the less flash and crap the better, just the information.
[start_rant]
I have come to just not expect very much from our school systems. This wasn't just one crazy teacher it was a number of them. One could have slipped through the cracks but this is a whole bunch of idiots, which means that there are many many more of them there. It is not as if our teachers are underpaid and starving-- yes they often go on strikes and whine a lot but their salaries are much higher than the average salary, some make $70k, even $80k with Summers off. That should mean that all of them should have been very well selected and be very professional. I attended only one year in a US high school and it was appalling: everyone, including the teachers only talked and cared about sports, other extracurricular activities, prom, and other pointless shit like that. I was there as sophomore and I ended up tutoring seniors in math and physics and I wasn't even that good in my country (Russia). At the end of that year I felt that I got stupider just by attending a US high school...
[/end_rant]
.But seriously, good think none of the students decided to jump from the window and died or badly injured themselves.
At least with those wierdos you don't have to hand them your credit card when you go visit them. And if you want to make fun of them, go ahead, you'll piss them off but they won't sue you. Not unlike these people who will blow themselves up to get you and of course these goofballs who will sue and make your life a living hell.
here
1. Google is good at retaining stuff -- it doesn't care if it is good or bad.
2. Google will show the most recent results at the top.
After you read point # (2) say "Bingo!" and go to Usenet and start posting everyday some good posts. Go to charity forums, help the kittens, puppies babies. Sound professional, give people advice about programming. If you see noobs asking "OMG! how do I do this" then start sounding like a parent figure and politely help them out with their homework programming problem. Then create another account and use that account to rate your previous posts with 4 or 5 stars so they always show at the top. After half a year or a year, depending on how much you post, whoever searches for your name will have to scroll 10 pages before they even see you 1980's posts. Trust me that's what I did and it work. You "can" use Google for your advantage!
No, the name starts with 'E' and ends in 'pic' and there is no letter in between those two parts... ;)
You forget, they're still are "the majority of shareholders". So on one hand they say "do no evil" on the other they vote "to do evil". Actions speak much louder than words, that's what I believe.
So yeah, if I had not known, I would have been unpleasantly surprised by the working environment. Google works both ways.
Most of the time people complain how "Google has ruined my chances ... blah blah" what they don't realize is that Google can also be used to ones' advantage. If Google can 'store' bad stuff it can also store 'good' stuff. It is not hard at all to create some fictitious online profile (use your name and go to some charity and help the poor kittens forums) so everyone one searching for your name will end up seeing that and think 'oh, how sweet!' Yeah, I thought about starting a personal PR business to manage people's online presense and mold it to whatever they want to appear, but I like programming better...Or at least that's what my online "presense" suggests ;-)
Let me guess, you were one of the ones who really fell for the "Do No Evil!" slogan...
I just think it would be cool if someone actually stood up to them.
If it will make more $$$ they'll stand up to China, if it will cost $$$$, it won't happen. Everything a company does is PR just to improve the public image, just to make more $$$$. Sorry to dissappoint...
Did you ever wonder how come big companies regularly funnel millions of dollars for sport's arenas, public park, halls, museums, big stupid and pointless sculptures called "art". Do you really think that the greedy CEOs just want to be altruistic and help others? If that would be the case, they money would go to local homeless shelters or to the starving and sick people of which there are plenty all around the world. And most of all, it would happen anonymously, without all the fanfare and publicity, because that is how I would expect someone who only want to "help" others to go about it.
*NOTE: Except when in conflict with making more money. Otherwise, yeah...whatever, we'll do no evil...
But you missed the point, in the end it didn't happen!. It is like Serghey saying that making a deal with China wasn't very nice, but they still kept the deal. Don't you see this is all a publicity stunt. The whole "do no evil" might have worked when Goolge was just 10 people in a garage. But tt doesn't apply anymore.
Yes, there might have been one altruistic shareholder, but it was 1 againts what? 1000? You might as well ignore that one individual as a statistical 'fluke'.
One of my friends invests in a consumer products company that does animal research. Many rabbits and hamsters are maimed, disfigured and practically tortured, to figure out if the products are "safe". My friend is against animal research (I am not, though), but yet he will not sell his stock in that company. Unfortunately, as sad as it is, $$$$ does make the world go round.
No matter what moral slogans you hear from "Google" or other companies, they only serve one purpose -- to imporove the public image -- to make more $$$$$. When it comes to "make more $$$" vs. "adhering to a moral principle", then "make more $$$$" wins.
The way I see it, a good test of moral character for a company (and for a person, for that matter) is if they would be willing to stand by their moral convictions at the expense of a significant loss in profit. Google has failed to do that...
Contrary to popular belief Matrox cards are used quite often by the "Big Iron" because they are very good at 2D and have better multi-head capabilities. So workstations that are no configured for 3D modeling will sometimes have a Matrox card in them. But Sun for the longest time has used ATI cards on thier "lower" end hardware.
Did that and I didn't even get to the part were I was supposed to get 'surprised'. The biggest drawback of Solaris 10 when it comes to just 'trying it' is hardware compatibilty. Unfortunately it doesn't even come close to Linux. My graphics card's 3D accel, audio, wireless and SATA controller did not work. I can live without 3D on a server and without audio but no hard drive and network connection!? -- Sorry. I had to pass.
Oh I know, I know, I need special hardware 'blessed' by Sun. But I will not spend thousands of dollars buying a new machine just so I can 'play' with Solaris. Linux became popular exactly because geeks and nerds could 'play' with it at home....
You completely misread my post. The point was that people will 'need' to use Google maps to see their house just as much as they would 'need' to look at the nuclear reactor on the other side of town. They are both just about as much of a 'need'. In reality they are 'wants', unless you starve to death , or get sick if you cannot look at GoogleEarth (and there might be rare situations where this will be the case) you want to look at your house, you want to look at the militry installation next door to your house.
If your friend is seriously upset, up to the point where his life in impaired because he couldn't see his house on a high resolution map, you might want to advise him to seek psychiatric help. Serious OSD, depression or pshychosis should not be overlooked.
The point of the post was that what people want is just as important and there will be a company that will eventually supply that. You though , seem to be convinced that looking at Google Earth is a need, something like the need to eat, get medical help or wear clothes. I think you are a little confused...
I'll turn 13 in 11 years, buy my mommy says I am a boi already.
Nah...wait someone is at my doo.DD:KSDFKFDSD HFKSDHFK adfkasdf
That's so true. It happened to my friend in the pre-9/11 world. He was talking something about the president and how vulnerable he would be to assination or something like that on a public forum. There was nothing about anyone wanting to do it or planning or saying that it would be a good or bad thing. Before he knows it, FBI comes to his work to have 'a talk' with him and scare him with some macho 'we are all powerful, we pop the eyes out of the 1st Ammendment's skull fuck the sockets if we want to.' Then at the same time they send a team to his house to talk to his wife and 5 year old daughter. They sat the daughter down and asked her if daddy builds bombs in the basement... -- real story (search Kuro5hin for it). That all was happening as the real terrorists were planning their 9/11 attack. Gotta love our government...
Wait, it gets more simple than that. Russia/China/EU create a web service that replicate Google maps, why? Just because they can. What's US government going to do, nuke everyone? Or start another meaningless war -- "teh war on teh satellite image providers". And besides we all know how hard it is to censor information by force (09F9...)