I saw both of these movies on 7/4. Ratatoullie in the morning with my daughters, and Transformers by myself late that night.
I agree the digital effects, animation and general physics that went into the motion was much better in Ratataoullie. I thought it interesting, too, that between both movies, Ratatoillie received a much better reaction: crowd noises/reactions, laughing, spontaneous clapping and applause at the end. I enjoyed it more than Transformers, too, which surprised me.
I, too, doubt that any machine gun or missile of the time could have penetrated the exterior of a spacecraft. What I suspect is that the spacecraft was already malfunctioning in some manner. The pilot firing simply coincided with the spacecraft crashing. I further suspect the spacecraft simply was not expecting our type of atmosphere, a thin, gaseous vapor incapable of supporting craft with weak airlift/deflection. If they were smaller (4 ft.) then likely their planet has higher gravity and a much denser atmosphere.
It would not surprise me that we have been visited by aliens nor that some of our technology is a direct descendant from that spacecraft. I was trying to create the image of the craft in my mind by the description of the affidavit (12-15 ft. long, about as wide, 6 ft. thick, like an egg), and was struggling with it until someone mentioned the stealth bomber. Trim the wings in a bit for a denser atmosphere and there you have it.
Why haven't we had more visitations? Would you return to a planet that could not support your technology or biology on top of which gave you a hostile welcome at the first chance of peaceful contact? Maybe in a generation or two, they'll try again. Maybe at that time our leaders will have good sense to communicate first.
I disagree, but I think service and customer service varies by area.
I've lived in the Dallas, TX area for 13 years. Through several jobs and several work-assigned cell phones, I think I've dealt with nearly all of the cell phone carriers in some form or fashion. I also did a good deal of research before purchasing a personal mobile phone and service about five years ago (I kept denying that I needed a mobile phone). Verizon is the clear winner on customer service and one of the best as far as coverage and features offered.
I haven't tested or talked to someone who uses AT&T recently, but I would wager ever since the "raising the bar" promotion a few years back that AT&T has saturated the area with coverage. I've had two dropped calls since I've been with Verizon for the past five years, there has been one billing error that was resolved quickly and easily, and I've been very pleased will all aspects of the service and customer service. My only complaint is that their marketing/sales teams do not know I'm a customer of every service they offer (wireless, land line, internet, TV), so I keep getting mail offers and knocks on the door. I can live with that.
What boggles my mind is why Apple chose AT&T only. Why limit iPhone users to a single carrier? While I'm interested in the iPhone, I will NOT leave Verizon to get it.
What I suspect is that Verizon, and possibly the other carriers, recognized this launch and lack of information for exactly what it was - a major promotion to stir up lots of consumer noise and early adopter sales. I hope the iPhone will be offered on all carriers in the future. When it comes to Verizon's service, I'll think about getting one.
Until the next expansion occurs. Then we'll see another spike, plateau and slow decline. This chart mainly follows the numbers of "achiever" type players or power-players, those that want to consume the new content as fast as possible and then complain they are bored when there is nothing left to do.
However, if this cycle occurs too often, another type of player, the casual player, will give up and quit as well. I fall somewhere in between, sort of a power-casual player. I have played since beta in October 2004, and I play two to four hours on weekdays and about eight hours each weekend day (26-36 hrs/wk). I just started experiencing "end game" content last October. When Burning Crusade was launched, I still had only visited about 40% of the high level instances. My guild departed for the new content and eventually disbanded into different playing style groups. Knowing what the flood of people would be like in the new zones, I hung back and did my best to keep interest alive in the "old" content. I had no success.
In February I started playing the new content. It took me longer since I was soloing for the most part. Mostly I slow myself down because I enjoy playing a variety of classes at various levels as opposed to playing a single character non-stop. I have yet to get a character to 70 and I've only seen a single BC instance.
I do not resent that Blizzard develops content on a faster pace than I will ever be able to consume. I realize they have to stay ahead of the curve to keep the bulk of their customers satisfied. I think they may find, however, that at some point as more content is added, casual players will throw their hands in the air and give up stating "I wouldn't be able to reach that if I played for five years, so I might as well quit."
I suspect Sparter will have numerous buyers and sellers committed, will have funds in transfer and the next wave of bans will come through and leave them holding monies without WoW account connections. Convenient.
That or some of these game companies have an underground connection with Sparter to ferret out gold farmers/bots, profit from the farm/ban/re-buy account cycle or to share in the commissions. Regardless the whole business stinks and undermines the gaming experience as a whole.
Who knows how the FBI will contact these victims, but by announcing that they will be contacting them, I foresee numerous phishing attempts from fbi.com (a blank site, last I checked).
Warn the kids and wake the neighbors. Be suspicious of any e-mail posing as the FBI and wanting a response by clicking an URL, fbi.gov or otherwise.
I don't know of anyone with the discipline to keep a single focused thought in their head for more than one minute. That's how our brains work. We take input from multiple sources, perform all manner of manipulation on it, add our own inner voice and it's rather a cacophony in there.
Imagine walking down the street of the future wearing one of these headband computers. You're dictating a memo for work, IM'ing your significant other andupdating your grocery list. Just then an attractive man/woman walks by. Not only do all the above functions stop momentarily, but fantasy kicks in and you imagine that person naked. Your headband takes this as a command to open Photoshop, capture an image of the person, alter it to match your mental image and immediately insert it into your document, send it to your SO and updates your grocery list to buy melons or sausage.
Filtering will be a key hurdle in this technology.
I beta tested LotRO and bought it when it was released despite the shortcomings I saw.
I the artwork (not to be confused with graphics) is a bit drab. The artwork in the manual (unsure if it's the same artist/team) is even worse. There's one elf that looks like a middle-aged, overweight geek wearing cheap Renaissance Faire garb and Spock ears. I'd have much preferred to see artwork from the Hildebrant brothers.
The crafting system and gathering resources are tedious. The sad part is, to my knowledge (only lvl 14 so far), there isn't really a benefit. According to the manual, there's a chance at high levels of crafting to create an epic weapon, armor or what have you.
The UI could use some improvement. I like the ability to move any and every component of the interface, but even then it's difficult to arrange the "desktop" neatly so that some items do not overlap. The main improvement needed is the icons. They are small with intricate patterns that are difficult to see (playing on a 19" LCD at 1024x768x32bit).
Running with the mouse takes some adjusting. You must press the right button first, then press the left button and hold them down. (basically reverse of WoW). Being unable to move the camera around while running limits visibility. I often get attacked from the side even though I'm zoomed out quite a ways.
The music is simple and ordinary. The sounds are pretty good, and the directional sound is very good (hearing things come at you from sides - but I still get jumped.:-) It's interesting to note that if you zoom out, the sound "disappears" or stays near your character.
WoW still holds my interest more, but I purchased LotRO as a fall back game, for those few times when I don't feel like playing WoW.
I will say that from what I've seen so far, Turbine is much more adherent to Tolkien's work than Jackson was. I'm looking forward to meeting Bombadil.
Will Jobs and Gates bring their own security teams? Will they be like their operating systems?
The Apple attendees will walk in casually in their tie dye shirts and Birkenstocks, sit down and wait for the movie... er event to start with a glaze in their eyes and a half smile on their lips. Their wallets and ID will be safe and no one will get sick. They paid twice as much to attend, but no one will complain.
The Microsoft attendees will each be stopped at the door and asked "You are entering the auditorium. Accept or cancel?" When they go to sit down they'll discover their wallet is gone. Every fifth person will have a cold or some sort of virus so by the time the event is over, all the attendees will leave sick. They'll sit expectantly waiting for something to happen, but each time Bill walks out onto the stage he stumbles, falls and has to restart his entrance. Once he does get going all he'll talk about is how beautiful the backdrop is.
I personally think it would be rather humorous that they each give a presentation created and shown on their respective systems. We know Bill has been embarrassed by crashes a few times. Think he'll use Vista or XP?
I was going to pick on 9-track tape usage and loading, but I saw another poster comment on still using that.
Does anyone know of punch cards still being used? Did I miss the 1990 report of dead skills that included this?:-)
I had nearly forgotten about them until I started working at my current job. Here they have a "computer history" museum on display. It includes a punch card "typewriter/coder," a punch card sorter and an old IBM machine that reads punch cards.
What about circuit board wiring? I can still do this as a hobby for small projects (model rocket launching), but I wonder if anyone still does it professionally. Circuit board fabrication makes Wozniak's creation of the Apple look like art.
I think the term "PC Network Admin" from TFA is talking about workgroup networks as in less than 10 machines using NetBEUI or IPX/SPX to communicate where you have to set up user level permissions and such. A Network Admin on the other hand concentrates on the client-server relationships and issues.
I'm a System Administrator currently, but in a smaller company I'd be considered the Network Admin as well. I have my CCNA, but I don't consider myself nearly skilled enough to manage more than a handful of routers, firewalls, switches or heaven forbid, a Catalyst or similar network core. I had no inclination that TFA was talking about myself or people in similar occupations. I really think it referred to the workgroup level networking I mentioned.
BTW, for your retransmission issue, do you have a domain controller (DHCP/DNS) involved or only workstations attached to a router? Sounds like you are getting redundant queries that are looping back to the requester. You might try setting the primary DNS on your game system to the local host (127.0.0.1) and the secondary to your gateway or your ISPs primary name server. (This is typically only done for DNS servers.) PM me if you'd care to discuss it further. I had a similar issue setting up SBS 2003 (I know, yuck) for a small business I supported.
Typing is definitely not a required skill for IT work, but it is a definite boost.
In one half a semester of high school I reached 80wpm w/o errors. I'd guess I'm still around 65-70wpm. Computers, of course, have allowed me to be lazy with quick backspace correction and especially auto-correct in some editors; however, I can typically see how much more efficient I am than my co-workers in regards to time spent typing.
Just the fact that I can input my passwords in two seconds where my co-workers take five to ten seconds shaves of a few minutes every day.
I can generate a 200 word e-mail in the same time most people type 50 words. More time saved.
Due to my speed I can type complete, grammatically correct sentences that gets my point across clearly the first time as opposed to short, choppy sentences that require multiple e-mails to clarify.
I have to record details of trouble tickets, so input of that data allows me to close tickets quicker, get on to the next job and never get questioned on "what I meant" in the work log.
If I were a developer (I script, but not heavily), I think typing would have more of an impact. Granted most code is already written somewhere and only needs to be copied and edited, but that editing goes quicker with good typing skills.
I've done my share of technical writing and system documentation. By all means being able to publish a paper in a day as opposed to a week is noticed by my manager.
When I'm not at work, my typing makes a huge difference for me in MMO's. Again getting the point across clearly and quickly makes a big difference. I despise l33t speak because I see it crippling the English language IMO. For that matter being able to move, cast spells and react without looking at the keyboard is a major advantage. Too bad I don't PvP.:-)
Necessary? Nah. A factor in efficiency, accuracy and ultimately doing an above average job noticed by supervisors? You bet.
There isn't one and you know why? Because thankfully the entire development, OS, application, network and infrastructure world realized that piling all of those functions into a single server-client application is poor design, too server intensive, too network intensive, too unstable and unwieldy.
Notes tries to be the end-all, be-all application: e-mail, database, collaboration, forms, newsgroups. It tries, it struggles and it does poorly.
Not everyone needs all those functions yet you have to open the same, bulky, system hogging client as everyone else. I worked at one (horrendous) organization where they tried to use all of Notes functionality. The Notes admins worked diligently to add features people wanted so the company ended up with this monstrous, multi-tentacled beast that slowly crawled its way onto everyones desktop any time it was started. (I won't mention names, but their initials are 'CSC.')
Most of us just wanted mail or contacts. Exchange/Outlook does this much more efficiently and quickly.
Some people wanted to access and share databases. SQL is rock solid, fast and quickly becoming the de facto database server.
Newsgroups? Please, even Outlook Express handles them better.
All the rest of Notes features ends up being file sharing, web browsing or collaboration that can all be done in many different ways simpler and quicker.
Scalable? Sure if you have no budget limit. When I was asked to configure and price out a Notes system and an Exchange system, I quickly discovered that you needed 4x the hardware for a Notes system than for an Exchange system for a given number of people. In essence you could buy four separate systems (mail, database, file, collaboration) for the price of one Notes system. Even then on these "equivalent" systems, Notes would perform much more slowly and crash more often.
There are reasons there is no single solution client: it's impossible to build such a thing to run quickly with stability, very few people need/want all those functions in one application and servers/networks function better when they distribute the workload.
I have the skills to be a Notes admin due to my experience, but I've passed on numerous job opportunities as soon as I see "Notes." No, thank you. Never again.
The primary reason you are upgrading is to get more stability and features. Very likely the secondary reason you are upgrading is to leave some problems with the existing OS behind.
When you upgrade you only partially reach these objectives. Yes, you have new features, but likely you brought your legacy applications with you and they may or may not be able to take advantage of the new OS features or may not run at all. If you had problems (stability, memory leak, drivers) and you perform an upgrade, you're bringing your problems with you.
Almost every Windows upgrade I've attempted in the past has ended the same way: back up the data, reformat and load the new OS from scratch, restore data.
NOW you have a new system as opposed to a patchwork quilt with numerous inherent issues.
Vista was by far the smoothest upgrade (too bad it wasn't worth keeping). I'm beginning to think MS is learning the fallacy of an upgrade and simply performing a backup/load/restore underneath the GUI shell.
Integrity, not generally. Portions of my life, however, have been sacrificed.
I just had lunch with several (male) co-workers. Often during lunch they made comments about women that entered the restaurant. I was repulsed by the conversations in general, did not participate and felt slightly guilty that I didn't say anything to stop them. I guess that is losing a bit of my integrity.:-(
I often witness sub-standard work, and I either suggest an improvement for the co-worker or I correct it myself later. Am I losing integrity by letting it occur at all or not fixing it at the source. Probably.
Do I allow or participate in unethical practices in the workplace? No. Do I myself cut corners on a job just to get in done in time? No. Do I mis-report time, costs or other data? No. Am I 100% honest in everything I do? I'd be lying if I said I were.
I figure I'm above average on maintaining my integrity. Obviously I'm biased and only stating my point of view, but by the reactions of colleagues, supervisors and peers who call me "responsible, reliable and trustworthy" I must be doing something right.
As for the portions of my life, I have compromised myself for the sake of the job in the past. I stayed in a job that kept me away from my family for 85% of an eight month period. I've missed family events because I had to work. I have let my work dictate my free time because I was on call or had work to do at some point while I was away from the office. I have let my work, in general, come before my family. Only over the past years have I realized those mistakes and worked at making sure they do not happen again. I have sought a position and company that allows the person to come before the work, and it is acceptable for me to say "No" if the work interferes with my life.
Honestly I think this latter part is why there are so few women in IT. Women have values and they stick to them. They will always put the family first. They will not work in a job where they cannot do an excellent job AND have a healthy personal life. IT asks for a great deal of sacrifice. Over the years IT has devolved into positions that are perfectly designed for a single male: travel, little personal time, challenge of "fixing," and rewards based upon effort not necessarily efficiency.
Why aren't there more women in IT? Because they are smart and can see that IT work puts life out of balance.
Exactly right, and how badly is Dell going to compromise their already suffering quality to meet the price structure forced onto them by Wal-Mart?
I realized Wal-Mart is crap when someone pointed out the ballpoint pens. You know why pens are cheaper at Wal-Mart than they are at an office supply? Look at the clear ones and check how much ink is in them. Last I checked, pens sold at Wal-Mart have about half as much ink as those sold elsewhere. Extrapolate this to any other product. Clothes at Wal-Mart are typically one-offs that did not meet quality standards to be sold in quality retail outlets most often because the size is off. ALWAYS try on any piece of clothing at Wal-Mart before you buy it; do not trust the size label. Bottled water sold at Wal-mart uses cheaper plastic bottles which can easily crush as soon as you remove the cap resulting in a gush of water all over yourself or someone else.
I've had enough difficulty with Dell in the past. Their method of getting your money, waiting a week or two until component prices drop then buying bulk, sometimes inferior brands while your purchase steadily decreases in value irks me to no end. Who knows how low they'll stoop to meet the minimum requirements of Wal-mart?
Both companies treat their employees poorly and treat their customers only slightly better.
When I want to buy something for the least amount of money knowing that I have no expectations of the product lasting or providing me with 100% satisfaction, I shop at Wal-mart. When I recommend someone buy a computer knowing they'll throw it out in 18 months due to failure and poor customer service, I'll send them to Dell... I mean Wal-mart.
Anyone else getting the mental image of a Bushman tribe using a single laptop for various reasons, becoming attached to its functionality and then starting to fight over it? I could see this becoming so bad that one of the tribesmen would have to take it upon himself to rid the village of the evil this little box has brought to his people.
Well, if the Classmate cannot solve educational issues for third world country children then at least it could be the anchor point of a humorous movie.:-)
From reading TFA, all the comments there and most of the comments here, I am getting the understanding that the OLPC is aiming for the lower common denominator. If it can work in the worst conditions and provides for the most impoverished situations, then it would certainly work for any other situation. The Classmate is providing for a subset of that all-encompassing goal, but I think there are some situations where villages/towns do have power and proximity to an established or developing infrastructure and could utilize the Classmate.
Given the choice, though, the OLPC promises are most definitely outclassing the Classmate: longer battery life, recharge w/o an outlet, sealed/weatherproof, more affordable.
How do you predict? You don't. You rely upon the experience of other businesses and IT partners in similar situations. Consumer Reports probably is the most reliable third party, but they tend to look at products not the whole company. If you look at the track record of CR's review of products, I'd wager HP performs better (no facts for proof; just personal experience of a few years of reading CR.)
What you can do is evaluate and shop around. I'd suggest you contact a few resellers/vendors that deal with desktop/server hardware and their associated warranties and support. (softchoice.com, bradburyllc.com and insight.com are a few in our area) It is time consuming, but if you spend a few hours listening to the spiels and let them understand your business, they'll give you a really good idea of what options are available. They'll also let you know how good a service they receive from those vendors. Just be prepared to say "No" and prevent them from selling you extras you don't need. Softchoice was the best to work with in that regards.
If you're looking at history/reliability between Dell and HP, HP wins hands down. HP has a much more stable history, they consistently use good components, they provide decent support and they have comparable prices to Dell regarding desktops. From my own experience, if you pay a little more upfront for HP quality, you'll save yourself the time you'll spend repairing/replacing the Dells.
Had Lincoln been saved, the United States and probably the world would not be recognizable.
If I recall history correctly, it was not Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation nor even the defeat of the Confederate States in the Civil War that brought our country together. Lincoln's death had a major impact on the people as a whole. Reunification was cemented by it. The south was embarrassed by Boothe's action and rebellious groups ceased their activities.
Lincoln was a visionary and a very ethical man according to the history books. Had he lived, the country likely would have remained divided amongst the peoples, mentally and spiritually. I doubt our country would have unified, worked together and developed as we have. Very possibly Japan and Russia would have ended up as the only super powers in the 30's and 40's and that would leave us in a fascist/socialist/communist world.
SEE what havoc modern medicine can wreak?
Besides, if Lincoln were alive today he'd be appalled at the current legal, political and governmental systems we have in place. No room for ethics whatsoever. He has more value on the penny and the $5 bill. Sad really.
No, not more of the 106 and 220 re-hash. That's been beat to death.
How about some purchasing math?
Just went to Newegg to check on this. Drive is selling for $600, not the $400 the article mentioned. Zipzoomfly has it for $500 but it's out of stock. CDW has it for $450. (Anyone have better hardware buying sources?)
Just below the Hitachi 1TB were the 500Gb drives at ~$150 each. Let's see if I have $600 and the right system to support it, would I take a single 1TB drive or take 4x 500Gb drives and put them in a RAID 5 giving me 1.5TB and faster read speed (if the data is well distributed)? Hmmm
I guess I'm not as much of a geek as I used to be. I don't download very much, I don't rip CDs or DVDs and I don't do much with graphics. I'm guessing the 320Gb I just got in February will last me quite a while. I'll wait for the 2TB drives and the SATA 5 throughput, thank you very much.
23 years I've been working in IT and providing suggestions, recommendations and consulting. Most of the time those suggestions were taken into account and a sound business decision was made that improved our workflow, simplified processes, brought in more customers or in general affected the business in a positive manner.
But there was this one company, sadly a technical company, who took my ideas, converted them into their ideas with their own business twists and then wondered why it failed. You don't let a president make a technical decision no matter how skilled he thinks he is in Outlook. You don't make a hardware purchase based upon who your business partner is or how big a discount you can get from Brand X. In general you don't let the business leaders have direct influence on anything in the IT department. Their biggest influence should be the amount of money the company provides to IT so IT can spend it wisely on making upgrades and keeping the business running smoothly.
I mentioned in another thread about the difficulty of communication between different specialized fields, specifically between IT and business. While there should be some common ground upon which communication occurs, information is passed and ideas are formed, IT should be left alone to do IT things.
I've been in IT 23 years. I've been in Toastmasters six. Toastmasters made the single biggest improvement in my career and my personal skills.
I was comfortable speaking in front of a crowd as long as I was talking about computers and speaking in technical jargon. What didn't occur to me was whether or not the people understood what I was saying.
There are specific items in Toastmasters that will apply directly to what you're seeking. Overall the ability to listen well and speak directly to your audiences' needs regardless of their level of understanding.
Impromptu speaking: the ability to provide an intelligent, concise answer on the spot, or the ability to deflect it until you can provide an answer. This is a phenomenal skill when dealing with supervisors or when interviewing.
Structured thinking: you'll start writing speeches in a structure (opening, body, conclusion) and have nested structure within that. Before long it will affect your thinking and you'll find yourself telling people exactly what they need to know in a clear, easy to follow manner.
Time saving: due to time limitations of speeches, you'll put emphasis on getting your point across. In addition with practice and removal of crutch words (ah, um, so) and unnecessary pauses, you'll be able to say more in a shorter period of time.
Meeting management: perform certain tasks in a timely manner, ensure things run smoothly and accomplish all tasks/goals expected. This can apply to a formal business meeting or even a "hallway hijacking."
Leadership skills: you learn to take the helm especially when there is no apparent leader and you learn how to steer any situation in the right direction to accomplish a goal.
There are advanced projects that will help you with this specific issue: speaking to management, speaking to inform and technical presentations.
Obviously this will not happen overnight, but I am quite certain that in a good, healthy club you'll notice immediate changes within six months.
Hit the http://toastmasters.org/ website and use the "Find a club" button to locate a club near you. Visit several clubs just to get a feel for the environment and find out which ones are healthy clubs. You might even find one with numerous technical members. If you'd like specific assistance finding a club or want to know more, send me a private message. I'd be glad to help.
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I agree the digital effects, animation and general physics that went into the motion was much better in Ratataoullie. I thought it interesting, too, that between both movies, Ratatoillie received a much better reaction: crowd noises/reactions, laughing, spontaneous clapping and applause at the end. I enjoyed it more than Transformers, too, which surprised me.
It would not surprise me that we have been visited by aliens nor that some of our technology is a direct descendant from that spacecraft. I was trying to create the image of the craft in my mind by the description of the affidavit (12-15 ft. long, about as wide, 6 ft. thick, like an egg), and was struggling with it until someone mentioned the stealth bomber. Trim the wings in a bit for a denser atmosphere and there you have it.
Why haven't we had more visitations? Would you return to a planet that could not support your technology or biology on top of which gave you a hostile welcome at the first chance of peaceful contact? Maybe in a generation or two, they'll try again. Maybe at that time our leaders will have good sense to communicate first.
I've lived in the Dallas, TX area for 13 years. Through several jobs and several work-assigned cell phones, I think I've dealt with nearly all of the cell phone carriers in some form or fashion. I also did a good deal of research before purchasing a personal mobile phone and service about five years ago (I kept denying that I needed a mobile phone). Verizon is the clear winner on customer service and one of the best as far as coverage and features offered.
I haven't tested or talked to someone who uses AT&T recently, but I would wager ever since the "raising the bar" promotion a few years back that AT&T has saturated the area with coverage. I've had two dropped calls since I've been with Verizon for the past five years, there has been one billing error that was resolved quickly and easily, and I've been very pleased will all aspects of the service and customer service. My only complaint is that their marketing/sales teams do not know I'm a customer of every service they offer (wireless, land line, internet, TV), so I keep getting mail offers and knocks on the door. I can live with that.
What boggles my mind is why Apple chose AT&T only. Why limit iPhone users to a single carrier? While I'm interested in the iPhone, I will NOT leave Verizon to get it.
What I suspect is that Verizon, and possibly the other carriers, recognized this launch and lack of information for exactly what it was - a major promotion to stir up lots of consumer noise and early adopter sales. I hope the iPhone will be offered on all carriers in the future. When it comes to Verizon's service, I'll think about getting one.
Tea. Earl Grey. Hot. Engage.
However, if this cycle occurs too often, another type of player, the casual player, will give up and quit as well. I fall somewhere in between, sort of a power-casual player. I have played since beta in October 2004, and I play two to four hours on weekdays and about eight hours each weekend day (26-36 hrs/wk). I just started experiencing "end game" content last October. When Burning Crusade was launched, I still had only visited about 40% of the high level instances. My guild departed for the new content and eventually disbanded into different playing style groups. Knowing what the flood of people would be like in the new zones, I hung back and did my best to keep interest alive in the "old" content. I had no success.
In February I started playing the new content. It took me longer since I was soloing for the most part. Mostly I slow myself down because I enjoy playing a variety of classes at various levels as opposed to playing a single character non-stop. I have yet to get a character to 70 and I've only seen a single BC instance.
I do not resent that Blizzard develops content on a faster pace than I will ever be able to consume. I realize they have to stay ahead of the curve to keep the bulk of their customers satisfied. I think they may find, however, that at some point as more content is added, casual players will throw their hands in the air and give up stating "I wouldn't be able to reach that if I played for five years, so I might as well quit."
A little saltier than bald eagle, but not as tender as panda. :-P
How will Sparter handle customers who get banned? http://www.qj.net/WoW-gold-farmer-laments-on-Bliz
I suspect Sparter will have numerous buyers and sellers committed, will have funds in transfer and the next wave of bans will come through and leave them holding monies without WoW account connections. Convenient.
That or some of these game companies have an underground connection with Sparter to ferret out gold farmers/bots, profit from the farm/ban/re-buy account cycle or to share in the commissions. Regardless the whole business stinks and undermines the gaming experience as a whole.
Warn the kids and wake the neighbors. Be suspicious of any e-mail posing as the FBI and wanting a response by clicking an URL, fbi.gov or otherwise.
I don't know of anyone with the discipline to keep a single focused thought in their head for more than one minute. That's how our brains work. We take input from multiple sources, perform all manner of manipulation on it, add our own inner voice and it's rather a cacophony in there.
Imagine walking down the street of the future wearing one of these headband computers. You're dictating a memo for work, IM'ing your significant other andupdating your grocery list. Just then an attractive man/woman walks by. Not only do all the above functions stop momentarily, but fantasy kicks in and you imagine that person naked. Your headband takes this as a command to open Photoshop, capture an image of the person, alter it to match your mental image and immediately insert it into your document, send it to your SO and updates your grocery list to buy melons or sausage.
Filtering will be a key hurdle in this technology.
I the artwork (not to be confused with graphics) is a bit drab. The artwork in the manual (unsure if it's the same artist/team) is even worse. There's one elf that looks like a middle-aged, overweight geek wearing cheap Renaissance Faire garb and Spock ears. I'd have much preferred to see artwork from the Hildebrant brothers.
The crafting system and gathering resources are tedious. The sad part is, to my knowledge (only lvl 14 so far), there isn't really a benefit. According to the manual, there's a chance at high levels of crafting to create an epic weapon, armor or what have you.
The UI could use some improvement. I like the ability to move any and every component of the interface, but even then it's difficult to arrange the "desktop" neatly so that some items do not overlap. The main improvement needed is the icons. They are small with intricate patterns that are difficult to see (playing on a 19" LCD at 1024x768x32bit).
Running with the mouse takes some adjusting. You must press the right button first, then press the left button and hold them down. (basically reverse of WoW). Being unable to move the camera around while running limits visibility. I often get attacked from the side even though I'm zoomed out quite a ways.
The music is simple and ordinary. The sounds are pretty good, and the directional sound is very good (hearing things come at you from sides - but I still get jumped. :-) It's interesting to note that if you zoom out, the sound "disappears" or stays near your character.
WoW still holds my interest more, but I purchased LotRO as a fall back game, for those few times when I don't feel like playing WoW.
I will say that from what I've seen so far, Turbine is much more adherent to Tolkien's work than Jackson was. I'm looking forward to meeting Bombadil.
The Apple attendees will walk in casually in their tie dye shirts and Birkenstocks, sit down and wait for the movie... er event to start with a glaze in their eyes and a half smile on their lips. Their wallets and ID will be safe and no one will get sick. They paid twice as much to attend, but no one will complain.
The Microsoft attendees will each be stopped at the door and asked "You are entering the auditorium. Accept or cancel?" When they go to sit down they'll discover their wallet is gone. Every fifth person will have a cold or some sort of virus so by the time the event is over, all the attendees will leave sick. They'll sit expectantly waiting for something to happen, but each time Bill walks out onto the stage he stumbles, falls and has to restart his entrance. Once he does get going all he'll talk about is how beautiful the backdrop is.
I personally think it would be rather humorous that they each give a presentation created and shown on their respective systems. We know Bill has been embarrassed by crashes a few times. Think he'll use Vista or XP?
I was going to pick on 9-track tape usage and loading, but I saw another poster comment on still using that.
Does anyone know of punch cards still being used? Did I miss the 1990 report of dead skills that included this? :-)
I had nearly forgotten about them until I started working at my current job. Here they have a "computer history" museum on display. It includes a punch card "typewriter/coder," a punch card sorter and an old IBM machine that reads punch cards.
What about circuit board wiring? I can still do this as a hobby for small projects (model rocket launching), but I wonder if anyone still does it professionally. Circuit board fabrication makes Wozniak's creation of the Apple look like art.
I'm a System Administrator currently, but in a smaller company I'd be considered the Network Admin as well. I have my CCNA, but I don't consider myself nearly skilled enough to manage more than a handful of routers, firewalls, switches or heaven forbid, a Catalyst or similar network core. I had no inclination that TFA was talking about myself or people in similar occupations. I really think it referred to the workgroup level networking I mentioned.
BTW, for your retransmission issue, do you have a domain controller (DHCP/DNS) involved or only workstations attached to a router? Sounds like you are getting redundant queries that are looping back to the requester. You might try setting the primary DNS on your game system to the local host (127.0.0.1) and the secondary to your gateway or your ISPs primary name server. (This is typically only done for DNS servers.) PM me if you'd care to discuss it further. I had a similar issue setting up SBS 2003 (I know, yuck) for a small business I supported.
In one half a semester of high school I reached 80wpm w/o errors. I'd guess I'm still around 65-70wpm. Computers, of course, have allowed me to be lazy with quick backspace correction and especially auto-correct in some editors; however, I can typically see how much more efficient I am than my co-workers in regards to time spent typing.
Just the fact that I can input my passwords in two seconds where my co-workers take five to ten seconds shaves of a few minutes every day.
I can generate a 200 word e-mail in the same time most people type 50 words. More time saved.
Due to my speed I can type complete, grammatically correct sentences that gets my point across clearly the first time as opposed to short, choppy sentences that require multiple e-mails to clarify.
I have to record details of trouble tickets, so input of that data allows me to close tickets quicker, get on to the next job and never get questioned on "what I meant" in the work log.
If I were a developer (I script, but not heavily), I think typing would have more of an impact. Granted most code is already written somewhere and only needs to be copied and edited, but that editing goes quicker with good typing skills.
I've done my share of technical writing and system documentation. By all means being able to publish a paper in a day as opposed to a week is noticed by my manager.
When I'm not at work, my typing makes a huge difference for me in MMO's. Again getting the point across clearly and quickly makes a big difference. I despise l33t speak because I see it crippling the English language IMO. For that matter being able to move, cast spells and react without looking at the keyboard is a major advantage. Too bad I don't PvP. :-)
Necessary? Nah. A factor in efficiency, accuracy and ultimately doing an above average job noticed by supervisors? You bet.
Notes tries to be the end-all, be-all application: e-mail, database, collaboration, forms, newsgroups. It tries, it struggles and it does poorly.
Not everyone needs all those functions yet you have to open the same, bulky, system hogging client as everyone else. I worked at one (horrendous) organization where they tried to use all of Notes functionality. The Notes admins worked diligently to add features people wanted so the company ended up with this monstrous, multi-tentacled beast that slowly crawled its way onto everyones desktop any time it was started. (I won't mention names, but their initials are 'CSC.')
Most of us just wanted mail or contacts. Exchange/Outlook does this much more efficiently and quickly.
Some people wanted to access and share databases. SQL is rock solid, fast and quickly becoming the de facto database server.
Newsgroups? Please, even Outlook Express handles them better.
All the rest of Notes features ends up being file sharing, web browsing or collaboration that can all be done in many different ways simpler and quicker.
Scalable? Sure if you have no budget limit. When I was asked to configure and price out a Notes system and an Exchange system, I quickly discovered that you needed 4x the hardware for a Notes system than for an Exchange system for a given number of people. In essence you could buy four separate systems (mail, database, file, collaboration) for the price of one Notes system. Even then on these "equivalent" systems, Notes would perform much more slowly and crash more often.
There are reasons there is no single solution client: it's impossible to build such a thing to run quickly with stability, very few people need/want all those functions in one application and servers/networks function better when they distribute the workload.
I have the skills to be a Notes admin due to my experience, but I've passed on numerous job opportunities as soon as I see "Notes." No, thank you. Never again.
95->98->2000->XP->Vista
The primary reason you are upgrading is to get more stability and features. Very likely the secondary reason you are upgrading is to leave some problems with the existing OS behind.
When you upgrade you only partially reach these objectives. Yes, you have new features, but likely you brought your legacy applications with you and they may or may not be able to take advantage of the new OS features or may not run at all. If you had problems (stability, memory leak, drivers) and you perform an upgrade, you're bringing your problems with you.
Almost every Windows upgrade I've attempted in the past has ended the same way: back up the data, reformat and load the new OS from scratch, restore data.
NOW you have a new system as opposed to a patchwork quilt with numerous inherent issues.
Vista was by far the smoothest upgrade (too bad it wasn't worth keeping). I'm beginning to think MS is learning the fallacy of an upgrade and simply performing a backup/load/restore underneath the GUI shell.
No command line for joo!
I just had lunch with several (male) co-workers. Often during lunch they made comments about women that entered the restaurant. I was repulsed by the conversations in general, did not participate and felt slightly guilty that I didn't say anything to stop them. I guess that is losing a bit of my integrity.
I often witness sub-standard work, and I either suggest an improvement for the co-worker or I correct it myself later. Am I losing integrity by letting it occur at all or not fixing it at the source. Probably.
Do I allow or participate in unethical practices in the workplace? No. Do I myself cut corners on a job just to get in done in time? No. Do I mis-report time, costs or other data? No. Am I 100% honest in everything I do? I'd be lying if I said I were.
I figure I'm above average on maintaining my integrity. Obviously I'm biased and only stating my point of view, but by the reactions of colleagues, supervisors and peers who call me "responsible, reliable and trustworthy" I must be doing something right.
As for the portions of my life, I have compromised myself for the sake of the job in the past. I stayed in a job that kept me away from my family for 85% of an eight month period. I've missed family events because I had to work. I have let my work dictate my free time because I was on call or had work to do at some point while I was away from the office. I have let my work, in general, come before my family. Only over the past years have I realized those mistakes and worked at making sure they do not happen again. I have sought a position and company that allows the person to come before the work, and it is acceptable for me to say "No" if the work interferes with my life.
Honestly I think this latter part is why there are so few women in IT. Women have values and they stick to them. They will always put the family first. They will not work in a job where they cannot do an excellent job AND have a healthy personal life. IT asks for a great deal of sacrifice. Over the years IT has devolved into positions that are perfectly designed for a single male: travel, little personal time, challenge of "fixing," and rewards based upon effort not necessarily efficiency.
Why aren't there more women in IT? Because they are smart and can see that IT work puts life out of balance.
I realized Wal-Mart is crap when someone pointed out the ballpoint pens. You know why pens are cheaper at Wal-Mart than they are at an office supply? Look at the clear ones and check how much ink is in them. Last I checked, pens sold at Wal-Mart have about half as much ink as those sold elsewhere. Extrapolate this to any other product. Clothes at Wal-Mart are typically one-offs that did not meet quality standards to be sold in quality retail outlets most often because the size is off. ALWAYS try on any piece of clothing at Wal-Mart before you buy it; do not trust the size label. Bottled water sold at Wal-mart uses cheaper plastic bottles which can easily crush as soon as you remove the cap resulting in a gush of water all over yourself or someone else.
I've had enough difficulty with Dell in the past. Their method of getting your money, waiting a week or two until component prices drop then buying bulk, sometimes inferior brands while your purchase steadily decreases in value irks me to no end. Who knows how low they'll stoop to meet the minimum requirements of Wal-mart?
Both companies treat their employees poorly and treat their customers only slightly better.
When I want to buy something for the least amount of money knowing that I have no expectations of the product lasting or providing me with 100% satisfaction, I shop at Wal-mart. When I recommend someone buy a computer knowing they'll throw it out in 18 months due to failure and poor customer service, I'll send them to Dell... I mean Wal-mart.
Well, if the Classmate cannot solve educational issues for third world country children then at least it could be the anchor point of a humorous movie.
From reading TFA, all the comments there and most of the comments here, I am getting the understanding that the OLPC is aiming for the lower common denominator. If it can work in the worst conditions and provides for the most impoverished situations, then it would certainly work for any other situation. The Classmate is providing for a subset of that all-encompassing goal, but I think there are some situations where villages/towns do have power and proximity to an established or developing infrastructure and could utilize the Classmate.
Given the choice, though, the OLPC promises are most definitely outclassing the Classmate: longer battery life, recharge w/o an outlet, sealed/weatherproof, more affordable.
What you can do is evaluate and shop around. I'd suggest you contact a few resellers/vendors that deal with desktop/server hardware and their associated warranties and support. (softchoice.com, bradburyllc.com and insight.com are a few in our area) It is time consuming, but if you spend a few hours listening to the spiels and let them understand your business, they'll give you a really good idea of what options are available. They'll also let you know how good a service they receive from those vendors. Just be prepared to say "No" and prevent them from selling you extras you don't need. Softchoice was the best to work with in that regards.
If you're looking at history/reliability between Dell and HP, HP wins hands down. HP has a much more stable history, they consistently use good components, they provide decent support and they have comparable prices to Dell regarding desktops. From my own experience, if you pay a little more upfront for HP quality, you'll save yourself the time you'll spend repairing/replacing the Dells.
If I recall history correctly, it was not Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation nor even the defeat of the Confederate States in the Civil War that brought our country together. Lincoln's death had a major impact on the people as a whole. Reunification was cemented by it. The south was embarrassed by Boothe's action and rebellious groups ceased their activities.
Lincoln was a visionary and a very ethical man according to the history books. Had he lived, the country likely would have remained divided amongst the peoples, mentally and spiritually. I doubt our country would have unified, worked together and developed as we have. Very possibly Japan and Russia would have ended up as the only super powers in the 30's and 40's and that would leave us in a fascist/socialist/communist world.
SEE what havoc modern medicine can wreak?
Besides, if Lincoln were alive today he'd be appalled at the current legal, political and governmental systems we have in place. No room for ethics whatsoever. He has more value on the penny and the $5 bill. Sad really.
How about some purchasing math?
Just went to Newegg to check on this. Drive is selling for $600, not the $400 the article mentioned. Zipzoomfly has it for $500 but it's out of stock. CDW has it for $450. (Anyone have better hardware buying sources?)
Just below the Hitachi 1TB were the 500Gb drives at ~$150 each. Let's see if I have $600 and the right system to support it, would I take a single 1TB drive or take 4x 500Gb drives and put them in a RAID 5 giving me 1.5TB and faster read speed (if the data is well distributed)? Hmmm
I guess I'm not as much of a geek as I used to be. I don't download very much, I don't rip CDs or DVDs and I don't do much with graphics. I'm guessing the 320Gb I just got in February will last me quite a while. I'll wait for the 2TB drives and the SATA 5 throughput, thank you very much.
23 years I've been working in IT and providing suggestions, recommendations and consulting. Most of the time those suggestions were taken into account and a sound business decision was made that improved our workflow, simplified processes, brought in more customers or in general affected the business in a positive manner.
But there was this one company, sadly a technical company, who took my ideas, converted them into their ideas with their own business twists and then wondered why it failed. You don't let a president make a technical decision no matter how skilled he thinks he is in Outlook. You don't make a hardware purchase based upon who your business partner is or how big a discount you can get from Brand X. In general you don't let the business leaders have direct influence on anything in the IT department. Their biggest influence should be the amount of money the company provides to IT so IT can spend it wisely on making upgrades and keeping the business running smoothly.
I mentioned in another thread about the difficulty of communication between different specialized fields, specifically between IT and business. While there should be some common ground upon which communication occurs, information is passed and ideas are formed, IT should be left alone to do IT things.
I was comfortable speaking in front of a crowd as long as I was talking about computers and speaking in technical jargon. What didn't occur to me was whether or not the people understood what I was saying.
There are specific items in Toastmasters that will apply directly to what you're seeking. Overall the ability to listen well and speak directly to your audiences' needs regardless of their level of understanding.
Impromptu speaking: the ability to provide an intelligent, concise answer on the spot, or the ability to deflect it until you can provide an answer. This is a phenomenal skill when dealing with supervisors or when interviewing.
Structured thinking: you'll start writing speeches in a structure (opening, body, conclusion) and have nested structure within that. Before long it will affect your thinking and you'll find yourself telling people exactly what they need to know in a clear, easy to follow manner.
Time saving: due to time limitations of speeches, you'll put emphasis on getting your point across. In addition with practice and removal of crutch words (ah, um, so) and unnecessary pauses, you'll be able to say more in a shorter period of time.
Meeting management: perform certain tasks in a timely manner, ensure things run smoothly and accomplish all tasks/goals expected. This can apply to a formal business meeting or even a "hallway hijacking."
Leadership skills: you learn to take the helm especially when there is no apparent leader and you learn how to steer any situation in the right direction to accomplish a goal.
There are advanced projects that will help you with this specific issue: speaking to management, speaking to inform and technical presentations.
Obviously this will not happen overnight, but I am quite certain that in a good, healthy club you'll notice immediate changes within six months.
Hit the http://toastmasters.org/ website and use the "Find a club" button to locate a club near you. Visit several clubs just to get a feel for the environment and find out which ones are healthy clubs. You might even find one with numerous technical members. If you'd like specific assistance finding a club or want to know more, send me a private message. I'd be glad to help.