Ok, I know the question is, "What would be the perfect office?", so mod this as off topic if you must, but how 'bout no office or cubicle or desk-in-a-corner at all?
Am I the only guy that still dreams of working in front of his wireless laptop at home with the CD music shaking the windows? You never got the urge to get up, put on the bathrobe, and tap at the keyboard without first having to act like you know how to dress yourself and then commute 15 miles to the office? What a way to start the day...
Do we miss office politics that much? It's the only reason why you feel "out of the loop" when you're not in the office - Come on, admit it!
How many managers have you ever liked let alone admired? And the few good managers (open minded, considerate, inspirational) you managed to work for generally don't last long since most of the qualities that you like aren't the same qualities that most organizations encourage, let alone put up with.
The only reason that telecommuting isn't a reality today is because the management structure in most organizations date back to when Prussia was a colonial power. Without offices and cubicles managers don't 'control' floor space. Without floor space, there isn't people 'under' you. Without all that going on, a manager would be nothing more than a receiver and coordinator for the output of others. A ticket puncher and bean counter.
The technology for remote, at home, offices has been in place for FIFTEEN years! My home office is my perfect office, IMHO.
One can only hope. When I first admitted that I was interested in C programming (remember Power C's $20 compiler and libs?) I was scrounging for books that would definitively explain C programming from the point of view of a novice, NOT a programmer!. In the early 90's, that nearly didn't exist. The technical priesthood still held sway and they did demand their tithe.
The early Linux efforts at documentation carried through with the priesthood mentality - Every person writing the documentation just assumed you already knew what he or she knew and what they wrote offered only what he or she thought you needed to know. Not all mind you, but most.
Which is the worst assumption any writer can ever make, IMHO.
The idea doesn't work when you consider that even with hi-tech weapons, you have to put boots on the ground to "walk across the planet and dominate it".
When you notice that the US can put 5 to 10 million troops in active combat deployment, then you might have reason for concern.
As a society viewing the initial private sojourns into space we need to prepare for the risk these people will take and we need to prepare ourselves for the first casualties. Otherwise, when someone does die, we'll knee-jerk the issue to the point that someone will suggest "There ought to be a law...".
There's been quite enough of that already, thank you very much. Get ready for it, it's going to happen. Every pioneering effort accumulates causualties.
My disappointment originated with the seeming vacuous celebrity and adulation in the tone of that particular question. Here we have a man who contributed somewhat (or a great deal in the early days) to Linux and he's asked the rockstar equivalent question of whether he rakes or shaves his armpits. Ok, so geekdom has some qualities of stardom. [shrug]
LQ) what's the hostname of your most favored linux box and why is it named that?
Ok, mod this as troll bait if necessary and I know that email interviews can home in on minutae, but if this guy is a person of interest, aren't there better questions to ask? Was there no moderator screening the questions?
Since the hydrogen fuel cell biggest selling point is that the "exhaust" is largely nothing more than water vapor...
... won't the added humidity to the environment cause unintended climate effects, such as ruined $40 hairdo's and what about an added "rust factor" to externality calculations?
It just seems that as long as you're not outright *stealing*, you can get away with pretty much anything, and it's not fraud. Has this always been the case?
Perhaps, but it's a symptom too. As much as the WWW "evolved", organizations such as W3C not addressing this within the programmatic client/server model bears as much a relationship to how profit/information oriented organizations have used technology standard as it exists today.
It could be noted that government bodies get involved as a last resort and usually because the people with the ability to handle the problem ignored and are still ignoring the issue. And like the carpenter whose only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail - Governments tend to use laws as the only tool they have. The technology standards effort should have addressed this issue a long time ago and it is my opinion that is where the onus should be established for what is a global phenomena.
It is outside the practical issue of laws and simple behavior modification.
What is the legal liability within the WWW community of the standard for setting cookies and other session tracking techniques within this law? It's this relationship between web server and web client that leaves the door open for spyware.
The intent of the law will be to establish the intent of the person using the browser rather than the intent of the web site organization who put up the url. But the web operator doesn't force anyone to click their link and the tools are available to prevent most spyware from loading across the link. Will the legal standing become nothing more than the equivalent of individual intent and unstated permissions?
It'll be an interesting legal question as to where various digital rights boundaries start and stop.
I've noted a lot of "why weren't the games tested" statements. And its a valid question in the face of what appears to be a bug many encountered during play.
During the bad ol' days of BBS door games, my board beta tested a new game and my users thoroughly wrung every cheat and bug out of the game they could find. They were so thorough, the game author noted design flaws rather than just programming bugs. It made the game better and far more challenging. I even demonstrated an unintended "God mode" that Sysops could abuse (or use) to interfere with play and standings.
The conclusion that not enough beta testing occurred seems to be valid.
In the long run, whether you have a degree or certs out the whazoo; Would anyone want to work for an organization who puts faith into bits of paper?
I've worked with a broad scope of IT professionals and some of the best I've worked with were all self taught. The only people with degrees and certs that impressed me were the people who truly enjoyed the technological challenges and computing in general. As much as a degree and certs indicate "time spent" achieving a goal, a lot of managers quickly find out that most strive for the pay, not the work.
I wouldn't want to work for an organization who didn't bother to note my devotion and desire for the technology and what can be done with it.
So, hey, someone put some electronics in a surf board and my opinion on that is - People must have a lot of time and money laying around and if it keeps them busy and out of trouble....
I just don't see the "Wow" factor that would justify the cost and trouble - So, here's an idea to give it a "WOW!" factor. Use it to capture a surf board's "eye view" of the rider.
Give a few of these surf boards to a group of bikini clad super model surfer gals and you can sell time on that hot spot.
I like anarchy and P2P is the best example of anarchy in the technology world. The basic principle of which is the individual is king and all matters are between individuals only.
So it might be great that my blender can forward my VoIP traffic but what happens when the guy who owns the router I use wants to mod how I use bandwidth to get to/.?
Can I take this as an opportunity to take shots at the folks who insist on using that erie blue color on a black field in terminal windows? The characters blur and I suspect only 13 year old boys can focus them clearly.
As the old saying suggests, "If the answer to a question begins, 'The government...', the question was asked in front of the wrong people."
Space is the remaining frontier and the issue of 'costs' in this context denotes the very problem at the core of the issue - Government is the last resort in everything and should only be done when a society cannot do something for itself.
The evidence on non-public funding being inadequate to perpetuate technologies that will make space travel/habitation viable isn't conclusive. Rather, the evidence of government monopoly on space exploration outright blocking the privatization of space exploration is rather conclusive and obvious, IMHO.
As long as the direction appears to be open standards, "blurring" the line between core hardware and the OS at this basic level isn't that dangerous a concept.
Is it still true that you can travel from the southern to the northern most point in Great Britain and be visually monitored the entire trip? Isn't the population of London the most technologically monitored and snooped-on population in the world, second only to China and a few other totalitarian countries?
Could someone remind me how I'm supposed to get excited when governments are doing something for the "common good"?
I see two inevitable directions for WiFi as a feature to offer. The paths will be modeled and determined by what will be two opposite, and likely warring, factions.
The first and probably the strongest faction will be business and organization demands. This will result in paid-for access, either as part the service you're buying (hotels, hot-spot kiosk/store front vendors, convention centers, and so on) or subscriptions that will follow the subscriber where ever he or she needs wireless. This path also supports individual professional and college/university haunts such as bookstores, cafes, corporate and college campus vicinity, various MAN/WAN features, etc.
Mod this as flamebait if you like, but the second and likely the weakest path are the people who still consider the Internet as a "common". This is the weakest path in terms of influence as it does not take into account constraints imposed by reality. These are the people who will insist that Internet access is akin to requiring a public restroom nearby when and if it is needed, available to all and without fee or any effort required on their part. These are the free riders who invariably want everything while harboring opinions that aren't consistent with their desires ("Give it to me, it is my right, and don't ask me for anything!").
The free riders will likely be the "tick on the dog" and many already display this mindset.
Most of the cross-over games for consoles (Ghost Recon to name one...) aren't always as challenging, probably because of having to "port" the game.
On the other hand, game developers are pushing for market share that no one else is competing in yet and mass market hardware be damned (the new version of Doom as one example).
With PC games, gamers face having to build a PC to keep up with the industry. That means hi-end hardware for anyone who has tried to scrimp and didn't like the lock-ups.
Slashdot Mirror
Ok, I know the question is, "What would be the perfect office?", so mod this as off topic if you must, but how 'bout no office or cubicle or desk-in-a-corner at all?
Am I the only guy that still dreams of working in front of his wireless laptop at home with the CD music shaking the windows? You never got the urge to get up, put on the bathrobe, and tap at the keyboard without first having to act like you know how to dress yourself and then commute 15 miles to the office? What a way to start the day...
Do we miss office politics that much? It's the only reason why you feel "out of the loop" when you're not in the office - Come on, admit it! How many managers have you ever liked let alone admired? And the few good managers (open minded, considerate, inspirational) you managed to work for generally don't last long since most of the qualities that you like aren't the same qualities that most organizations encourage, let alone put up with.
The only reason that telecommuting isn't a reality today is because the management structure in most organizations date back to when Prussia was a colonial power. Without offices and cubicles managers don't 'control' floor space. Without floor space, there isn't people 'under' you. Without all that going on, a manager would be nothing more than a receiver and coordinator for the output of others. A ticket puncher and bean counter.
The technology for remote, at home, offices has been in place for FIFTEEN years! My home office is my perfect office, IMHO.
One can only hope. When I first admitted that I was interested in C programming (remember Power C's $20 compiler and libs?) I was scrounging for books that would definitively explain C programming from the point of view of a novice, NOT a programmer!. In the early 90's, that nearly didn't exist. The technical priesthood still held sway and they did demand their tithe.
The early Linux efforts at documentation carried through with the priesthood mentality - Every person writing the documentation just assumed you already knew what he or she knew and what they wrote offered only what he or she thought you needed to know. Not all mind you, but most.
Which is the worst assumption any writer can ever make, IMHO.
The idea doesn't work when you consider that even with hi-tech weapons, you have to put boots on the ground to "walk across the planet and dominate it".
When you notice that the US can put 5 to 10 million troops in active combat deployment, then you might have reason for concern.
As a society viewing the initial private sojourns into space we need to prepare for the risk these people will take and we need to prepare ourselves for the first casualties. Otherwise, when someone does die, we'll knee-jerk the issue to the point that someone will suggest "There ought to be a law...".
There's been quite enough of that already, thank you very much. Get ready for it, it's going to happen. Every pioneering effort accumulates causualties.
My disappointment originated with the seeming vacuous celebrity and adulation in the tone of that particular question. Here we have a man who contributed somewhat (or a great deal in the early days) to Linux and he's asked the rockstar equivalent question of whether he rakes or shaves his armpits. Ok, so geekdom has some qualities of stardom. [shrug]
Ok, mod this as troll bait if necessary and I know that email interviews can home in on minutae, but if this guy is a person of interest, aren't there better questions to ask? Was there no moderator screening the questions?
Since the hydrogen fuel cell biggest selling point is that the "exhaust" is largely nothing more than water vapor...
... won't the added humidity to the environment cause unintended climate effects, such as ruined $40 hairdo's and what about an added "rust factor" to externality calculations?
Perhaps, but it's a symptom too. As much as the WWW "evolved", organizations such as W3C not addressing this within the programmatic client/server model bears as much a relationship to how profit/information oriented organizations have used technology standard as it exists today.
It could be noted that government bodies get involved as a last resort and usually because the people with the ability to handle the problem ignored and are still ignoring the issue. And like the carpenter whose only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail - Governments tend to use laws as the only tool they have. The technology standards effort should have addressed this issue a long time ago and it is my opinion that is where the onus should be established for what is a global phenomena.
It is outside the practical issue of laws and simple behavior modification.
What is the legal liability within the WWW community of the standard for setting cookies and other session tracking techniques within this law? It's this relationship between web server and web client that leaves the door open for spyware.
The intent of the law will be to establish the intent of the person using the browser rather than the intent of the web site organization who put up the url. But the web operator doesn't force anyone to click their link and the tools are available to prevent most spyware from loading across the link. Will the legal standing become nothing more than the equivalent of individual intent and unstated permissions?
It'll be an interesting legal question as to where various digital rights boundaries start and stop.
I've noted a lot of "why weren't the games tested" statements. And its a valid question in the face of what appears to be a bug many encountered during play.
During the bad ol' days of BBS door games, my board beta tested a new game and my users thoroughly wrung every cheat and bug out of the game they could find. They were so thorough, the game author noted design flaws rather than just programming bugs. It made the game better and far more challenging. I even demonstrated an unintended "God mode" that Sysops could abuse (or use) to interfere with play and standings.
The conclusion that not enough beta testing occurred seems to be valid.
In the long run, whether you have a degree or certs out the whazoo; Would anyone want to work for an organization who puts faith into bits of paper?
I've worked with a broad scope of IT professionals and some of the best I've worked with were all self taught. The only people with degrees and certs that impressed me were the people who truly enjoyed the technological challenges and computing in general. As much as a degree and certs indicate "time spent" achieving a goal, a lot of managers quickly find out that most strive for the pay, not the work.
I wouldn't want to work for an organization who didn't bother to note my devotion and desire for the technology and what can be done with it.
So, hey, someone put some electronics in a surf board and my opinion on that is - People must have a lot of time and money laying around and if it keeps them busy and out of trouble....
I just don't see the "Wow" factor that would justify the cost and trouble - So, here's an idea to give it a "WOW!" factor. Use it to capture a surf board's "eye view" of the rider.
Give a few of these surf boards to a group of bikini clad super model surfer gals and you can sell time on that hot spot.
I like anarchy and P2P is the best example of anarchy in the technology world. The basic principle of which is the individual is king and all matters are between individuals only.
/.?
So it might be great that my blender can forward my VoIP traffic but what happens when the guy who owns the router I use wants to mod how I use bandwidth to get to
Anarchy, gotta love it.
Can I take this as an opportunity to take shots at the folks who insist on using that erie blue color on a black field in terminal windows? The characters blur and I suspect only 13 year old boys can focus them clearly.
As the old saying suggests, "If the answer to a question begins, 'The government...', the question was asked in front of the wrong people."
Space is the remaining frontier and the issue of 'costs' in this context denotes the very problem at the core of the issue - Government is the last resort in everything and should only be done when a society cannot do something for itself.
The evidence on non-public funding being inadequate to perpetuate technologies that will make space travel/habitation viable isn't conclusive. Rather, the evidence of government monopoly on space exploration outright blocking the privatization of space exploration is rather conclusive and obvious, IMHO.
As long as the direction appears to be open standards, "blurring" the line between core hardware and the OS at this basic level isn't that dangerous a concept.
Like my vision isn't bad enough. Why don't they just combine the cell phone, PDA and laptop into a larger palmtop device?
Can we stop squinting now?
So is WiFi and other network communications being monitored as thoroughly as the public commons?
Just curious.
Is it still true that you can travel from the southern to the northern most point in Great Britain and be visually monitored the entire trip? Isn't the population of London the most technologically monitored and snooped-on population in the world, second only to China and a few other totalitarian countries?
Could someone remind me how I'm supposed to get excited when governments are doing something for the "common good"?
So now my stylus will be able to store data and copy it to another device? A "smart" pointer?
I read that as equating to $$$ when I lose the bloody thing.
os2004 is being held in Portland the last week of July.
He probably shouldn't but it would be interesting to see him add to some of the tutorials or discussion groups.
I see two inevitable directions for WiFi as a feature to offer. The paths will be modeled and determined by what will be two opposite, and likely warring, factions.
The first and probably the strongest faction will be business and organization demands. This will result in paid-for access, either as part the service you're buying (hotels, hot-spot kiosk/store front vendors, convention centers, and so on) or subscriptions that will follow the subscriber where ever he or she needs wireless. This path also supports individual professional and college/university haunts such as bookstores, cafes, corporate and college campus vicinity, various MAN/WAN features, etc.
Mod this as flamebait if you like, but the second and likely the weakest path are the people who still consider the Internet as a "common". This is the weakest path in terms of influence as it does not take into account constraints imposed by reality. These are the people who will insist that Internet access is akin to requiring a public restroom nearby when and if it is needed, available to all and without fee or any effort required on their part. These are the free riders who invariably want everything while harboring opinions that aren't consistent with their desires ("Give it to me, it is my right, and don't ask me for anything!").
The free riders will likely be the "tick on the dog" and many already display this mindset.
Now we might have to stop buying designer stylus.
Darn.
Most of the cross-over games for consoles (Ghost Recon to name one...) aren't always as challenging, probably because of having to "port" the game.
On the other hand, game developers are pushing for market share that no one else is competing in yet and mass market hardware be damned (the new version of Doom as one example).
With PC games, gamers face having to build a PC to keep up with the industry. That means hi-end hardware for anyone who has tried to scrimp and didn't like the lock-ups.
Anything but Java, please, I can't afford the hardware it'll require to run it!