What is it with Americans who don't know the purpose of what Italics are used for. Italics are for quotations; please, stick the conventions, its not difficult.
Oh, and btw, what we're saying is, "get used to it - the free ride is over".
Welcome America to what the rest of the world is subject to; we all pay on a usage basis, whether its mobile phone internet or ADSL internet connection. When you make something flat rate - it will be subject to abuse.
In New Zealand we have already have experimented with flat rate; around 10 years ago there was cable internet setup for $90 per month, flat rate, unlimited internet - under the Chello brand. Within months the network was crippled, people were barely downloading above dial up speeds.
Fast forward to 1 years ago - Telecom tried the same thing again; flat rate internet with traffic shaping. Again, even with all the maneuvering they did - it was killed off because people abused the system.
People here go, "well, upgrade the network" - explain to me why they should keep upgrading the network at a frantic pace and never making enough money to recoup the infrastructure costs. Telecoms are businesses, they invest, they make their money back (with profit) then upgrade the network again. The abuse of the network which flat rate plans do simply result in unsustainable traffic growth.
Depends on how you define IT; IT can cover a huge number of different areas - not just the pencil pushing mouth breathing MSCE's who seem to inhabit the IS departments of large organisations.
IT, engineering etc. are all going through trouble finding people - not only people, but *GOOD* people. The problem is that due to the pathetic recruiting procedures and what they consider important - they get a person who can sell themselves rather than a person who knows his or her stuff. They then piss and moan over the fact that the person they hire is as useful to their organisation as the plastic pot plant sitting in the corner of the room.
Heck, I've seen people working in IT who as thick as two short planks, put into positions of importance but constantly rely on ringing up the tech support desk of the software/hardware company to get something working.
So basically it comes down to:
1) Shit recruitment practices - those who use recruitment companies in lieu of their own in house hiring, I question why they even have a HR department in the firstplace given they've already outsourced the recruiting process already. Given the number of drop kicks who come through that system, one has to ask, with such a crap failure rate, maybe the old fashion sitting down and interviewing each one is better. 2) Companies don't know what the fuck they want - so the hire the person in the suit rather than the expert sitting a pair of jeans 3) When they find someone, they micromanage the person to death which forces them to leave 4) The pay is shit for what is involved, and interesting, in every company who hires engineers, the first place where job cuts occur is in engineering - not the pointless paper shuffling parts of the organisation. 5) Management are clueless morons whom, one doesn't expect them to have expert knowledge, but at least a a generalised overview of what the company is actually fucking doing goes along way in terms of communication between management and the engineers.
That isn't the case; I'm doing a 'humanistic degree' right now - Bachelor of Arts majoring in Religious Studies and Philophy (going to become a teacher in the area of history/social studies etc).
Before going to the university I attempted for 2 years to get into the IT sector; I just gave up in the end and got myself a job as a department manager. It is the industry itself which treats engineers (and other qualified people) like shit, then turn around pissing and moaning because there aren't enough people with the said qualification.
Sorry, but when you have engineers (and others) who have gone through the mincer and spat out the other side - many of them bitter, they tell kids what their experience within the engineering area is like, most kids end up saying, "fuck that for a joke" and look for a job elsewhere. That is the cold hard reality of the situation.
When you have wankers have recruiters, wankers as bosses, and the pay is just one big giant wank - one can't help by feel one is just one big giant bitch for the system to have its way with.
Would I ever go back to IT? no way. Many engineers who get out of the field never want to go back - unless they trip over an idea in their garage and they can be their own boss.
IIRC it worked about the same amount per week as the cost of 7 coffee's. When you take into account the amount of coffee I do drink, I'm better off many times over.
Reminds me of what I said to my boss - don't give me that pay rise; get a cappuccino machine and free coffee and I'll be happy. He couldn't believe it - the fact I was happy to give up a pay rise for that. As I said to him, if I get free coffee at work, I don't have to pay for it, which means I come back better off in the end:D
Hang on, hang on, you're saying here that to get double the revenue - you need to more than double your workforce? I don't know about you, but that is pretty damn terrible human resource management if you need to do that!
Good gracious; now sure, with operating systems you can't cross pollinate programmers too much, but there should be no need to, in regards to middleware and desktop applications, to have that amount of over lap between different divisions.
I've worked in companies where revenue has increased by 30% without even needing to budge an inch in terms of head count, in fact, one company I was at, we were under what was considered 'the amount required' in regards to staff to revenue (as set my head office).
The problem is that when you get large bloated organisations like Microsoft (US Defence department etc. etc.) there is a tendency to be wasteful because there is no pressure to be economical and put constraints - even though money maybe plentiful.
What people ignore is this; the issue isn't so much the idea of Linux pre-installed (which is important) but the OEM's actually offering choice to the customer; that the OEM ensures that when they assemble their machines they don't design the machine in such a way that it virtually makes it a 'Windows only machine'. That is the issue.
Yes, offer Linux pre-installed, but at the same time, offer me the ability to say, "no, I don't want an operating system at all, I just want the laptop, and I'll obtain an operating system of choice through my own means" - in my case, something like OpenSolaris or a *BSD of some flavour.
I worked at an organisation, I averaged 70-80 hour work weeks; one stretch I worked for 42 days straight without a break.
After 12 months the department I was in charge had gone from one of the worst performing to one of the best; from wastage measured in the double digits to below 1%. From having loss leaders during specials to everything making a profit due to better procurement of stock.
Who made these changes? Me. Did I get any pay rise or kudos? fuck no! I was working quietly and dillgiently hoping that one day the manager of the organisation would say, "hey son, you've done a great job with this department, we need a real can do person like yourself - how about a promotion" - nope, not even that. Not even a damn bonus after all the money I worked to save the company.
Sorry, I don't expect million dollar salaries, I don't expect huge amounts of cash, but I do expect at the very least an attempt by management to acknowledge those who go far beyond what management expects through some form of recognition. I've since left that organisation, and funny enough, under 3 months everything has not only gone backwards but worse than before I started.
Was I offered a job? yes, I told them that they never took the time to give me due respect when I was there, buggered if I was going to bend over backwards for them now!
You're right. I find it funny when it comes to spending money on work related expenses that add to the bottom line - they're more than happy to scream that they don't have enough money. When it comes to management expenses like expensive meals, private jets, $400 hair cuts and the like, it seems they've got so much money they don't know what to do with it.
It has nothing to do with 'more office space' it has everything to do with management actually spending the time (and money) to demonstrate their appreciation for the work subordinates do. Pay for a office Christmas party, give bonus; when they work exceptionally hard, give then a pat on the back - SHOCK! FUCKING HORROR! human relations skills! perish the thought! the very skills one cannot acquire from high and mighty business universities.
The thing that actually killed MiniDisc was the late adoption of native mp3 playback on Hi-MD's though... A great mistake by Sony.
Nothing to do with mp3; I used ATRAC3pro, it is far superior to mp3. The problem is that they stuck with Hi-MD at 1gig, if they pushed it up to something like 8gigs, the media was sold at $3 per media, no one would have gone for anything else. Had they actually allowed clones/MD compatible devices, it would have spurred development and innovation. Like BetaMax, they proprietartised possible partners and 'cloners' out of the market. Ultimately, Sony only have themselves to blame.
But can you honestly blame him? unless you're one of those energy drink sipping geek who bounces around the office like some sort of hyped up 8 year old who has just been given a new toy - I've yet to have a single year when I've looked back and thought, "wow, that was one hell of year" then look at awe over all the great products released that year.
1) The iPhone delivered only to the US and using GSM 2G - and people are hyping it? I'm looking around New Zealand; at the bottom of the world, sitting at the crevice of the ass crack when it comes to technology availability, and yet, I'm seeing far superior smart phones being delivered, CDMA and 3G GSM.
2) The PS3 - Sony just don't get it. They didn't get it with BetaMax, they didn't get it with MiniDisc, and now they're repeating the same mistake with BluRay - apart from the mouth frothing PS3 zealots/fanboys - PS3 and BluRay have been a resounding failure.
3) Windows Vista has only made inroads because of it being the default installation on new computers; the better view is this; look at the rate at which Apple's Mac sales are growing compared to the rest of the industry. If Windows Vista was such a resounding success, Apple's market share should be staying static of shrinking. Neither have happened.
I could go on and on, but you get the basic idea; nothing to do with 'maturity' - just people willing to tolerate technology thats 'good enough' rather than expecting the 'fuck thats awesome!' factor.
The pentagon stop wasting tax payers money; here is an example, which always surprises me.
The US defence force when it is deployed, it ships a whole heap of equipment over, no attempt to find out what is and isn't needed, then once there, find our what is required, then ship back what is unneeded. Compare that ot most other defence forces. Take New Zealand, sure, we don't go into big battles, our main focus is on peace keeping, but when things are sent, the government demands that it comes out of the exiting defence force budget, that all the equipment is delivered on time and on budget.
The last big deployment by the NZ defence force was to East Timor. On that deployment, it was achieved under budget, before time - they came out of that with a surplus. Yes, a surplus.
The US government needs to start constricting spending, forcing efficiencies on these departments. Actually hold some REAL tendering of contracts rather than just rotating between the differing US defence force contractors - clue to the clueless, there are contractors outside America! and when they don't deliver on time, penalise them! This isn't charity, this is procurement. In the private sector, if suppliers aren't delivering their products ontime, there are penalties, its time the US defence force (and public service as a whole) woke up!
Alot of people think that Chinese actually care about democracy, heck, many people here think people care about democracy - and yet, demonstrated over and over again in the US elections, no one can be bothered exercising that right.
Back to China, what pisses the average Joe off there isn't so much corruption between high profile people, its when they find that their land, house, cow, donkey, car or some other piece of property is stolen by the government in the name of progress - and worse still, none of the laws designed to protect them, are actually followed.
PS. For those who are dense, there is a difference between having a law and actually enforcing it. There are alot of laws and constitutional rights which are not being held up - China's constitution allows freedom of speech, for example.
I've got a MacBook (not the x3100 model), 2.16Ghz BlackBook, and the max in theory it can hold is 4gigs but according to apple the max it can support is 3gb, and according to the forums, it can access 3.3.
What happened to 4gb? a chipset limitation or Apple castrating their hardware like usual?
ps. this is an honest question, I can't seem to get a straight answer from anyone:(
People can't stand the fucking procrastination that occurs by the likes of NASA; for the billions spent, what is the accomplishment? nothing!
People want big fucking huge things, something to point at and say, "hey, this is where our money went - look at the size of that bloody thing! its huge!", "this is where our billions went, and we got our money's worth - its HUGE!"
Where is the huge space ship, the moon base etc. All of this can be accomplished today - too bad we have screw balls on earth who are worried about the effect of 'zero g on tiny screws' than actually pushing forward with adventurous projects.
They understand supply and deamdn (they don't magically disappear in a communist society), what they don't understand is how someone could do that to themselves - the fact that the viewed the individual is so desperate, they literally did what they did to survive - that dressing up that way wasn't a voluntary choice, it was simply done to survive.
Christianity/Religion holds the same view of the above scenario - hence, Marxists of today, especially in Italy, are now asking whether they need to actually talk to religion given how close they are when it comes to social issues such as the eleviation of poverty and exploitation.
The ideal within communism is that without all those negatives women wouldn't resort to pornography and prostitution. They see those as a by product of the lack of equality between the sexes - the idolising of females rather than treating them as equals.
Or simply "we're up in space, and the Americans are still down there".
Does anyone remember Star Trek? if anyone took time to pay attention; the future turns into a quasi communist paradise where people have evolved to the point that they work for the good of each other rather than per sue their own individual animalistic desires.
The utopia view of society is hardly new, the Soviet Union, for all its flaws, had many visionaries who wanted to turn society into a place where people worked for the good of each other; where people discovered and created for the good of society rather than simply for profit and notoriety.
Lets remember the couple of guys who have died after going on an internet bender; for me, its all about balance; sure, I spend a few hours on the internet, but I tend to watch no television, what I do on the internet is reading articles or related to university study.
The problem I think also happens when people use the internet to replace human interaction; like I said, I use the internet for a few hours each day, but watching no internet and social during the day, it balances out eventually.
The question that needs to be asked - is why? why are they addicted to it? it isn't just as simple as "oh, he has an interests" - interests come and go, interests tend to have a finite limit on how long one can do that given interest before wanting to do something else.
Internet addiction tends to be the symptom of a much larger, more complex problem.
Slashdot Mirror
What is it with Americans who don't know the purpose of what Italics are used for. Italics are for quotations; please, stick the conventions, its not difficult.
Oh, and btw, what we're saying is, "get used to it - the free ride is over".
Welcome America to what the rest of the world is subject to; we all pay on a usage basis, whether its mobile phone internet or ADSL internet connection. When you make something flat rate - it will be subject to abuse.
In New Zealand we have already have experimented with flat rate; around 10 years ago there was cable internet setup for $90 per month, flat rate, unlimited internet - under the Chello brand. Within months the network was crippled, people were barely downloading above dial up speeds.
Fast forward to 1 years ago - Telecom tried the same thing again; flat rate internet with traffic shaping. Again, even with all the maneuvering they did - it was killed off because people abused the system.
People here go, "well, upgrade the network" - explain to me why they should keep upgrading the network at a frantic pace and never making enough money to recoup the infrastructure costs. Telecoms are businesses, they invest, they make their money back (with profit) then upgrade the network again. The abuse of the network which flat rate plans do simply result in unsustainable traffic growth.
Depends on how you define IT; IT can cover a huge number of different areas - not just the pencil pushing mouth breathing MSCE's who seem to inhabit the IS departments of large organisations.
IT, engineering etc. are all going through trouble finding people - not only people, but *GOOD* people. The problem is that due to the pathetic recruiting procedures and what they consider important - they get a person who can sell themselves rather than a person who knows his or her stuff. They then piss and moan over the fact that the person they hire is as useful to their organisation as the plastic pot plant sitting in the corner of the room.
Heck, I've seen people working in IT who as thick as two short planks, put into positions of importance but constantly rely on ringing up the tech support desk of the software/hardware company to get something working.
So basically it comes down to:
1) Shit recruitment practices - those who use recruitment companies in lieu of their own in house hiring, I question why they even have a HR department in the firstplace given they've already outsourced the recruiting process already. Given the number of drop kicks who come through that system, one has to ask, with such a crap failure rate, maybe the old fashion sitting down and interviewing each one is better.
2) Companies don't know what the fuck they want - so the hire the person in the suit rather than the expert sitting a pair of jeans
3) When they find someone, they micromanage the person to death which forces them to leave
4) The pay is shit for what is involved, and interesting, in every company who hires engineers, the first place where job cuts occur is in engineering - not the pointless paper shuffling parts of the organisation.
5) Management are clueless morons whom, one doesn't expect them to have expert knowledge, but at least a a generalised overview of what the company is actually fucking doing goes along way in terms of communication between management and the engineers.
That isn't the case; I'm doing a 'humanistic degree' right now - Bachelor of Arts majoring in Religious Studies and Philophy (going to become a teacher in the area of history/social studies etc).
Before going to the university I attempted for 2 years to get into the IT sector; I just gave up in the end and got myself a job as a department manager. It is the industry itself which treats engineers (and other qualified people) like shit, then turn around pissing and moaning because there aren't enough people with the said qualification.
Sorry, but when you have engineers (and others) who have gone through the mincer and spat out the other side - many of them bitter, they tell kids what their experience within the engineering area is like, most kids end up saying, "fuck that for a joke" and look for a job elsewhere. That is the cold hard reality of the situation.
When you have wankers have recruiters, wankers as bosses, and the pay is just one big giant wank - one can't help by feel one is just one big giant bitch for the system to have its way with.
Would I ever go back to IT? no way. Many engineers who get out of the field never want to go back - unless they trip over an idea in their garage and they can be their own boss.
"Pray for intelligent life somewhere up in space because there bugger all down here on earth"
IIRC it worked about the same amount per week as the cost of 7 coffee's. When you take into account the amount of coffee I do drink, I'm better off many times over.
Believe me, I drink alot of coffee - I'm surprised he hasn't come to me and say, "I give up! take the pay raise, I can't keep absorbing the cost" :P
:)
Me? I tend to drink 8-10 double shot's per day. I drink, breath and worship caffeine. I admit it, I'm a caffeine whore
Reminds me of what I said to my boss - don't give me that pay rise; get a cappuccino machine and free coffee and I'll be happy. He couldn't believe it - the fact I was happy to give up a pay rise for that. As I said to him, if I get free coffee at work, I don't have to pay for it, which means I come back better off in the end :D
Hang on, hang on, you're saying here that to get double the revenue - you need to more than double your workforce? I don't know about you, but that is pretty damn terrible human resource management if you need to do that!
Good gracious; now sure, with operating systems you can't cross pollinate programmers too much, but there should be no need to, in regards to middleware and desktop applications, to have that amount of over lap between different divisions.
I've worked in companies where revenue has increased by 30% without even needing to budge an inch in terms of head count, in fact, one company I was at, we were under what was considered 'the amount required' in regards to staff to revenue (as set my head office).
The problem is that when you get large bloated organisations like Microsoft (US Defence department etc. etc.) there is a tendency to be wasteful because there is no pressure to be economical and put constraints - even though money maybe plentiful.
It's GPL; I'm going to create my own BSDL version called "Free Jazz" - beautiful chaos allowing free improvisation :)
What people ignore is this; the issue isn't so much the idea of Linux pre-installed (which is important) but the OEM's actually offering choice to the customer; that the OEM ensures that when they assemble their machines they don't design the machine in such a way that it virtually makes it a 'Windows only machine'. That is the issue.
:)
Yes, offer Linux pre-installed, but at the same time, offer me the ability to say, "no, I don't want an operating system at all, I just want the laptop, and I'll obtain an operating system of choice through my own means" - in my case, something like OpenSolaris or a *BSD of some flavour.
Respect the consumers right to choose
I worked at an organisation, I averaged 70-80 hour work weeks; one stretch I worked for 42 days straight without a break.
After 12 months the department I was in charge had gone from one of the worst performing to one of the best; from wastage measured in the double digits to below 1%. From having loss leaders during specials to everything making a profit due to better procurement of stock.
Who made these changes? Me. Did I get any pay rise or kudos? fuck no! I was working quietly and dillgiently hoping that one day the manager of the organisation would say, "hey son, you've done a great job with this department, we need a real can do person like yourself - how about a promotion" - nope, not even that. Not even a damn bonus after all the money I worked to save the company.
Sorry, I don't expect million dollar salaries, I don't expect huge amounts of cash, but I do expect at the very least an attempt by management to acknowledge those who go far beyond what management expects through some form of recognition. I've since left that organisation, and funny enough, under 3 months everything has not only gone backwards but worse than before I started.
Was I offered a job? yes, I told them that they never took the time to give me due respect when I was there, buggered if I was going to bend over backwards for them now!
You're right. I find it funny when it comes to spending money on work related expenses that add to the bottom line - they're more than happy to scream that they don't have enough money. When it comes to management expenses like expensive meals, private jets, $400 hair cuts and the like, it seems they've got so much money they don't know what to do with it.
It has nothing to do with 'more office space' it has everything to do with management actually spending the time (and money) to demonstrate their appreciation for the work subordinates do. Pay for a office Christmas party, give bonus; when they work exceptionally hard, give then a pat on the back - SHOCK! FUCKING HORROR! human relations skills! perish the thought! the very skills one cannot acquire from high and mighty business universities.
Nothing to do with mp3; I used ATRAC3pro, it is far superior to mp3. The problem is that they stuck with Hi-MD at 1gig, if they pushed it up to something like 8gigs, the media was sold at $3 per media, no one would have gone for anything else. Had they actually allowed clones/MD compatible devices, it would have spurred development and innovation. Like BetaMax, they proprietartised possible partners and 'cloners' out of the market. Ultimately, Sony only have themselves to blame.
But can you honestly blame him? unless you're one of those energy drink sipping geek who bounces around the office like some sort of hyped up 8 year old who has just been given a new toy - I've yet to have a single year when I've looked back and thought, "wow, that was one hell of year" then look at awe over all the great products released that year.
1) The iPhone delivered only to the US and using GSM 2G - and people are hyping it? I'm looking around New Zealand; at the bottom of the world, sitting at the crevice of the ass crack when it comes to technology availability, and yet, I'm seeing far superior smart phones being delivered, CDMA and 3G GSM.
2) The PS3 - Sony just don't get it. They didn't get it with BetaMax, they didn't get it with MiniDisc, and now they're repeating the same mistake with BluRay - apart from the mouth frothing PS3 zealots/fanboys - PS3 and BluRay have been a resounding failure.
3) Windows Vista has only made inroads because of it being the default installation on new computers; the better view is this; look at the rate at which Apple's Mac sales are growing compared to the rest of the industry. If Windows Vista was such a resounding success, Apple's market share should be staying static of shrinking. Neither have happened.
I could go on and on, but you get the basic idea; nothing to do with 'maturity' - just people willing to tolerate technology thats 'good enough' rather than expecting the 'fuck thats awesome!' factor.
The pentagon stop wasting tax payers money; here is an example, which always surprises me.
The US defence force when it is deployed, it ships a whole heap of equipment over, no attempt to find out what is and isn't needed, then once there, find our what is required, then ship back what is unneeded. Compare that ot most other defence forces. Take New Zealand, sure, we don't go into big battles, our main focus is on peace keeping, but when things are sent, the government demands that it comes out of the exiting defence force budget, that all the equipment is delivered on time and on budget.
The last big deployment by the NZ defence force was to East Timor. On that deployment, it was achieved under budget, before time - they came out of that with a surplus. Yes, a surplus.
The US government needs to start constricting spending, forcing efficiencies on these departments. Actually hold some REAL tendering of contracts rather than just rotating between the differing US defence force contractors - clue to the clueless, there are contractors outside America! and when they don't deliver on time, penalise them! This isn't charity, this is procurement. In the private sector, if suppliers aren't delivering their products ontime, there are penalties, its time the US defence force (and public service as a whole) woke up!
After much debate within the men's community, there has been a decision to classify females as an entirely new species.
Confirming the almot accepted idea that men are from earth and women are from planet far away and at constant war every 28 days.
Alot of people think that Chinese actually care about democracy, heck, many people here think people care about democracy - and yet, demonstrated over and over again in the US elections, no one can be bothered exercising that right.
Back to China, what pisses the average Joe off there isn't so much corruption between high profile people, its when they find that their land, house, cow, donkey, car or some other piece of property is stolen by the government in the name of progress - and worse still, none of the laws designed to protect them, are actually followed.
PS. For those who are dense, there is a difference between having a law and actually enforcing it. There are alot of laws and constitutional rights which are not being held up - China's constitution allows freedom of speech, for example.
I've got a MacBook (not the x3100 model), 2.16Ghz BlackBook, and the max in theory it can hold is 4gigs but according to apple the max it can support is 3gb, and according to the forums, it can access 3.3.
:(
What happened to 4gb? a chipset limitation or Apple castrating their hardware like usual?
ps. this is an honest question, I can't seem to get a straight answer from anyone
hummus
People can't stand the fucking procrastination that occurs by the likes of NASA; for the billions spent, what is the accomplishment? nothing!
People want big fucking huge things, something to point at and say, "hey, this is where our money went - look at the size of that bloody thing! its huge!", "this is where our billions went, and we got our money's worth - its HUGE!"
Where is the huge space ship, the moon base etc. All of this can be accomplished today - too bad we have screw balls on earth who are worried about the effect of 'zero g on tiny screws' than actually pushing forward with adventurous projects.
They understand supply and deamdn (they don't magically disappear in a communist society), what they don't understand is how someone could do that to themselves - the fact that the viewed the individual is so desperate, they literally did what they did to survive - that dressing up that way wasn't a voluntary choice, it was simply done to survive.
Christianity/Religion holds the same view of the above scenario - hence, Marxists of today, especially in Italy, are now asking whether they need to actually talk to religion given how close they are when it comes to social issues such as the eleviation of poverty and exploitation.
The ideal within communism is that without all those negatives women wouldn't resort to pornography and prostitution. They see those as a by product of the lack of equality between the sexes - the idolising of females rather than treating them as equals.
Or simply "we're up in space, and the Americans are still down there".
Does anyone remember Star Trek? if anyone took time to pay attention; the future turns into a quasi communist paradise where people have evolved to the point that they work for the good of each other rather than per sue their own individual animalistic desires.
The utopia view of society is hardly new, the Soviet Union, for all its flaws, had many visionaries who wanted to turn society into a place where people worked for the good of each other; where people discovered and created for the good of society rather than simply for profit and notoriety.
Lets remember the couple of guys who have died after going on an internet bender; for me, its all about balance; sure, I spend a few hours on the internet, but I tend to watch no television, what I do on the internet is reading articles or related to university study.
The problem I think also happens when people use the internet to replace human interaction; like I said, I use the internet for a few hours each day, but watching no internet and social during the day, it balances out eventually.
The question that needs to be asked - is why? why are they addicted to it? it isn't just as simple as "oh, he has an interests" - interests come and go, interests tend to have a finite limit on how long one can do that given interest before wanting to do something else.
Internet addiction tends to be the symptom of a much larger, more complex problem.