... that even on a 1600 x 1200 the image is too big and is too slow...
... that just because it has a price tag isn't a valid selling point (actually that defines selling point...but you get my drift)...
... that various managers will buy into this and cost IT departments more and more money so that important items like pencils and paper are rationed out in ludicrious manners...
What they are saying is that whether you knowingly or unknowingly distribute a file with a virus you are liable for the damage that it causes.
Through college I worked my way out of the MIS department of a large company (and into research with another). Most of the people there were computer capable, but not literate. They didn't understand scanning drives, they didn't understand what infected files were and ultimately, they didn't care - until it affected them. It took us almost a year in one case to clean the entire system (child companies in the SW and overseas provided additional problems). We would clean the Servers, and then boom, once again the same files would appear as infected as before. We had to go to over 400 PCs at our location 600 about a 30 miles away, and create simplistic documentation for several other plants, offices and hundreds of field reps to follow. Old virus software detected the problem, informed people of the potential hazzards, but because these things were deemed "mission critical," people stupidly continued to distribute them, download them, work with them, etc...
Blatantly ignoring a problem nearly crippled our company. Even though the people were uneducated about viruses, they made no effort to report problems, viewing this problem as one that would just "go away," like a cold or the flu...
It is vitally important (especially the way the internet is expanding) that people make an effort to take responsibility in cleaning their files, machines and so on.
Let's consider the US educational system 20 to 30 years ago when todays teachers went to school.
They would get up, go to school. They would learn from books. Open discussion was not normal academic life. Then Slide projectors were added. As a child I remember considering any slide projection class as a class off. I didn't pay much attention, I just was amazed by how the slide projector worked... The late 80's brought the VCR and video tapes into the classroom, replacing the slide projector as a student's favorite way to goof off and get an education... and now, educators are bringing on computers... no big surprise students reguard these as toys.
What I failed to realize back then, but in a 20-20 hindsight, is that my teachers had a difficult time with the slide projectors, with the vcrs, with any new gadget... why? because it was new, because they were unaware of how it worked... It used to take 45 minutes to set up 15 minutes worth of video tape. Now teachers just pop and go. I'll bet the majority of people no longer even have a VCR which blinks 12:00, because it finally became integrated into american culture.
New teachers, who have used computers for years, have an advantage that they know how to use them, but they lack the experience designing a fleshed out curriculm. Old teachers, who unless they were interested in them as a hobby, never learned computers until being forced to by modern edjukashun. Now they can make a curriculum, but lack fundemental knowledge of a computer system. Students, new to both the topics, and to the novelty of a computer, are going to wind up with less and less attention spent examining the material and more time pressing buttons.
The problem is not that people are stupid or unwilling to learn, its just that our culture hasn't evolved (or been created in Kansass) enough to handle it. In five years, when people tone down the emphasis on the "internet" as a tool, and "online education" in general, we will see the improvements. Right now, the teachers, and the children though, are just guinnea pigs. give it time.
Microsoft has been in the business of arm twisting much longer than 3-5 years...
I recall when Word and Excel were sold only individually, and FoxPro was the domminant DB software, and Access was being released. Access was truly crap back then. In order to sell it, if I remember correctly, MS attempted to bundle is original "MS Office."
Since FoxPro survived that attempted attack, MS just bought it. Sure it is now included as a "programming environment" in VS, but it beat the heck out of Access, both in ease of use and in performance... Access in later versions, just contained slower stolen portions of FoxPro with very few new features...
Then they see mosaic...and the rest is the trial...
As far as splitting up the company and having them loosely re-attatch? Not possible... when AT&T went, it went... while it may take some getting used to for Microsoft, the verdict would be enforced with the strong arm of the law. The real question is this: who is rich enough to purchase any part of Microsoft from Bill Gates? I belive he looses rights to be the CEO/principal stock owner in all but one of the companies...
Has anyone ever seen the cartoon Captian Simaian and the Space Monkeys? I belive that this is whatever the heck the thing was that gave them advice... Much more of an anoyance than anything else...
So if the nannites are watching us....
on
Smart Dust
·
· Score: 1
to the tune of "My Buddy" My Nannites, My Nannites, Where ever I go They are My Nannites My Nannite Reporting to D.C.
So if we can now be surveyed by the dust around us... who cares who has a picture of my driver's liscence? (NSA, FBI, CIA) They can now follow me where ever I go...
These make imperial probe droids look so out-dated.
On things like passports, you are expeceted to get them reprinted after major cosmetic changes. I have always assumed that that was the case with driver's liscences as well... of course, I didn't go right out and change my drivers liscence the day I shaved my head (I had hair well past my shoulders), but I did update my passport. One of the reasons why you go to the DMV every four years is for the eye and hearing test... the other is so they garountee(?) at least a *chance* at getting a new picture of you.
We used to make sensor which had a similar effect...sadly it would adversely affect what we were detecting in a major way so we had to put empty coils on other lines to prevent it...which caused more problems...self perpetuating cycle...
This is great news...now the driver I'm working on using a dead protocol can now be considered dead as well...guess our clients will be beating on our door to meet these specifications too...I hate custom equipment...
...created by the media...hyped by the media...presented by the media...hyped more by the media...turned into stars by the media... and then discoverd as fakes by the world.
Consider what this kid had - good looks, an interesting personality, and ultimately just enough skills to make some producer want to mold him into a "type."
I'd insinuate he never hacked into MTV...
I'd say that if you remember when the MTV site was "hacked" last fall with what looked like a notable hacker's name sprawled all over...MTV responded by saying that it was a publicity stunt for one of their new VJs....It's a money maker, some kid with computer skills - hyped as a hacker - the whole geek population hopefully will be desperate enough to watch the show...
Plus if the kid gets figured out, what's the worst that happens to MTV...they say "we didn't know." He's just another pawn in their market.
MTV nowdays is not about the musicians. It is about the money. I was "lucky" enough to be selected (forced) into attending a Recording industry/MTV PR talk (last year) on record companies. They freely admit that they push and push and over inflate artists until they are no longer liked. Think about it...which generates more profit for the higher ups, new bands or old bands? I bet this kid was used just the same. He didn't call himself the "Punk Hacker Kid." MTV did. He was just typecast that way...
It's not that I think that the kid isn't full of sh**, its that I think that someone else has been packing away the burrito's too...probably MTV.
The number 2 book for the US Navy is: "PC's for dummies" The number 3 book for the US Marines is: "The path of Daggers" (Robert Jordan) The number 4 book for the US Federal Judiciary System is: "Memiors of a Geisha" (#2 in House of Reps) The number 10 book for the US Senate is "Sugar Busters! Cut Sugar to Trim Fat"
...and you thought your tax dollars were wasted on Social Security...;)
Actually I do a 80%/20% NT/Linux workday. Painful, but true.
There is much more in life than linux...and there are other sites specifically for entertainment news...that's one of (what I consider) my major points of contention.
Eliminating "Entertainment" from my user profile - while it would eliminate this article, would also eliminate other things which I am interested in which are specifically related to at least the computing industry. For example some of the earlier game porting articles I found extreemely interesting...I think that the Barney protocol was under there, etc...
I (side note: can't belive I have to say this) am not a "linux hacker dude" nor would I want to be, I'll severly disappoint you in that respect. I recognize linux as probably a perferred tool of mine, but no more. I am, in fact, in complete agreement with you with everything except the inclusion of this article as "/.-worthy."
Sci-Fi has more than plenty of sites where they post news of upcoming films etc. I think that this is a great article for those places, but (and I include myself in this pile...shesh it generated 3 messages from me.) all that this has done is chew up bandwitdh which could be better suited discussing other topics...that's kind of my point.
Yes Sci-Fi nerds exist...I enjoy Sci-Fi...I just think that hey...placing this article at slashdot is kind of like if the nightly news inlcuded the culinary five minutes to be the same priority as a bombing in Sudan...
"...And this just in from the kitchen, try Bob's greatest brownie recipie ever "
This is just an article that I don't think serves to pre-empt television...
as far as freaks go...I would hardly say I am an "all linux and only linux" freak (see statistic at start), but with the exception of this 3 post series for the most part I try to stick to (what I believe) what is the theme of the Website...after all I bet you there are a lot of nerds (myself included) who brew their own beer. I don't waste your time with sending CmdrTaco (or any other etc...) any news on realy good beers I've made...or any "BeerNews." I guess I just expect the same courtesy from everyone.
1. The slogan is: Slashdot - News for Nerds. Stuff that matters. If you tell me that a discussion whether anakin skywalker or some freaky little punk kid who sees ghosts is the right guy for an upcomming movie is as important as whether BSD is being released for the dreamcast you are wrong. You belong at Ziff-Davis.net or whatever. This has no bearing on anything technically related. Discussions on movies belong somewhere else, like alt.fan.orson.scott.card(?) or any discussion group at CNet, ZiffDavis or AOL...
If the userbase of slashdot has decided to focus on less technical issues and follow in the trend of previously mentioned companies then I am truly bummed. Maybe the Linux user base does really want to be as trendy as the cool kid Bill out in Redmond. I mean, people _pay_ to be his friend.
I beg the Moderators, if you insist on displaying stuff like this - please put them on a sub page for entertainment news...articles like this are not late breaking news.
*as a side note: and many of you will view this as hipocritical - the health related news (reguarding internet addiction) does have bearing here... (though also possibly in a seperate category) While I think it is a silly attempt at cash for shrinks for the most part. It is at lease directly related to the computing industry...its real, its *fact* (whether I like it or agree with it)... it is not *science fiction.*
Over the past few weeks I've noticed a unique trend at Slashdot...it is less and about penguin gear and more about movies, protohype and mass media...maybe this is the direction which slashdot wants to take, but I doubt it is the direction most of its clients want to... If I want entertainment news I'll go to e online... Hey can I get an offtopic or maybe a troll for this?
Here's someone who read "How to Get Rich Quick Off of Internet Morons" and decided to go from a Psychologitst to a P$YCHOLOGI$ST!
20 years ago this when this psychologist was a kid was having the time of his life in college, drinking, smoking, partying on wednesdays, etc...while the engineering and science students (and a few other tough majors) spent their time studying and *praying* for an ounce of time for fun on the weekend. Now finally after probably eleven years of schooling (thats the amount of time required for anyone majoring in *just* Psych to be taken seriously) he or she's grown tired of working for Barne's and Noble and realizes...HEY! I can call this Internet thing an ADDICTION! I can falsify a bit of information, conduct a completely biased study and then write a real quick paper this weekend, and still have enough time to go partying. It'll be JUST LIKE COLLEGE!
The sad part is that a lot of people will buy into this...Mostly other people with liberal arts degrees, and force their husbands, wives, or children who have a *slight* intrest in technology to go pay for some "treatment" (sessions with a therapi$t or drug$) rather than actually spend time with them or redirect them towards other hobbies as well...
Do you think you will remain "not in it for the money" when there starts to be serious money thrown towards linux?
While you may not accept money in the future for your development, and people will continue to develop for free (its cheaper for distrubutions(?) that way), once companies like RedHat hire people specifically to make drivers for deadlines on a mass scale it will be a whole different ball game. Linux Users have always had the priveledge of having a glass house - everybody has always seen what everybody else is doing. But when Caldera's backers square off against Slackware the question is how will people handle the shower situation?
Yes, I already have a distrubution which I perfer to use...some people buy American cars, some buy Japanese. The question is, will Caldera suddenly have the drive to continue its "semi-friendship" with RedHat when RedHat is really stomping all over them...
If various Linux distrubutions start weeding out the less-used, less-funded ones they become just like Micro$haft we've all grown to hate. Don't kid yourself and think that just because linux is OSS that all distrubutions will be able to keep up to date, or in use, as soon as a few companies build little IPO forts in the snow...Someone, will get burried.
(while we're on the snow-fort analogy) And lets not forget about the big bully with the snow shovel...Buy becoming an IPO for the first time, RedHat has stepped into uncharted territory by Linux users and into well charted territory by Micro$haft. Don't be surprised if things go as unexpected. Sadly even though only 10% of RH is currently available don't think Micro$haft isn't trying to figure out how to buy it and quelch this small rebellion once and for all. Let's not forget FoxPro 2.0 which was well destroyed by the awful product Access.
You may not want to be a millionare, but understand some developers would like to be one.
Wait, you mean you think that this isn't an accurate description of the gaming industry? Ok... here we go...
The gaming industry is part of the entertainment industry, theatre, arts, etc...Your company lives and dies by its patrons, who for the most part (in this case) are the stereotypical teenage boy. Try and please a 5th grader sometime (like say with a clown for birthday party, etc) and you'll find what a hard audience is. If it's in today, by the time you put it to press it will be old hat, no longer dope, homey won't play that, or whatever the posh thing to say is.
These kids think the video game market is cool because they think of the good games, not the bad ones...People flock to the industry and want to make games like Quak(insert "e" here), C&C, etc...
Entry Level programmers are not thinking "Sticky Bear Math", or "Billy Bob's F9829 Flying Fighting ACE!" (the last one is made up). They accept those kinds of jobs as their "way in" and if their succeed they will get picked up by Id, or Ig, or Ug, or whoever. But as stated, the fickle audience usually rejects. Do this once or twice, and you see if you like your job. See if anyone likes their job...see if you wouldn't want to jump out as fast as you can...
Worker Productivity is a myth for a large part. (at least I belive)
There are only a few workers that can be productive, those that contribute directly to the production of goods or services provided by a company. In other words, The worker who presses the button to make the molded rubber guard for your office furniture actually contributes something to production. The stock analist(?), working for the same company, who requires three underlings to fetch information and put them neatly into a bar graph or pie chart, so that he may nod "yes" or "no" only costs the company money...He produces nothing for the company. Lets add, legal counselors, people to answer customer service, technical support, and even the guy who arranges which company you ship with (not to be confused with the people in shipping who earn $8 an hour). Those people are "overhead".
However, in today's society people demand they talk to a person when they call the company, products must be shipped from the warehouse, decisions need to be made as to whether loans need to be applied for or not, and perhaps most distressingly - absolutely every person and thing must be checked to make sure that it is conforming to strictly enforced laws - workers comp, trade, copywright, pattent, anti-trust:), etc... The man power required for you to get a tube of toothpaste from the convenience store is mind blowing.
What company's hope (and this is stolen from an old employer's mission statement) is that Cost is less than Price, which is less than Demand. (CPD)...or something like that...Goods and services are produced only if profitable. Decisions by management are made to produce something- only if it is profitable. Each worker may be more (or less) productive based on their job, but that is quelched when the scope of production is grown.
And for those of you who think that you could rule out some of what you view as "pork" - think again...marketing people hire web developers, sales associates require MIS staff, and secretaries still exist for VPs because VPs don't have a way of keeping track of everything they have to do (and I now believe they deserve them), and basically people want more...
But here is once change that should be made: Monochrome monitors for everyone.*
*with exception to marketing, graphic artists, cad developers, architects, etc...
Slashdot Mirror
except a sausage - which has two.
... that even on a 1600 x 1200 the image is too big and is too slow...
... that just because it has a price tag isn't a valid selling point (actually that defines selling point...but you get my drift)...
... that various managers will buy into this and cost IT departments more and more money so that important items like pencils and paper are rationed out in ludicrious manners...
...ugh...
What they are saying is that whether you knowingly or unknowingly distribute a file with a virus you are liable for the damage that it causes.
Through college I worked my way out of the MIS department of a large company (and into research with another). Most of the people there were computer capable, but not literate. They didn't understand scanning drives, they didn't understand what infected files were and ultimately, they didn't care - until it affected them. It took us almost a year in one case to clean the entire system (child companies in the SW and overseas provided additional problems). We would clean the Servers, and then boom, once again the same files would appear as infected as before. We had to go to over 400 PCs at our location 600 about a 30 miles away, and create simplistic documentation for several other plants, offices and hundreds of field reps to follow. Old virus software detected the problem, informed people of the potential hazzards, but because these things were deemed "mission critical," people stupidly continued to distribute them, download them, work with them, etc...
Blatantly ignoring a problem nearly crippled our company. Even though the people were uneducated about viruses, they made no effort to report problems, viewing this problem as one that would just "go away," like a cold or the flu...
It is vitally important (especially the way the internet is expanding) that people make an effort to take responsibility in cleaning their files, machines and so on.
Let's consider the US educational system 20 to 30 years ago when todays teachers went to school.
They would get up, go to school. They would learn from books. Open discussion was not normal academic life. Then Slide projectors were added. As a child I remember considering any slide projection class as a class off. I didn't pay much attention, I just was amazed by how the slide projector worked... The late 80's brought the VCR and video tapes into the classroom, replacing the slide projector as a student's favorite way to goof off and get an education... and now, educators are bringing on computers... no big surprise students reguard these as toys.
What I failed to realize back then, but in a 20-20 hindsight, is that my teachers had a difficult time with the slide projectors, with the vcrs, with any new gadget... why? because it was new, because they were unaware of how it worked... It used to take 45 minutes to set up 15 minutes worth of video tape. Now teachers just pop and go. I'll bet the majority of people no longer even have a VCR which blinks 12:00, because it finally became integrated into american culture.
New teachers, who have used computers for years, have an advantage that they know how to use them, but they lack the experience designing a fleshed out curriculm. Old teachers, who unless they were interested in them as a hobby, never learned computers until being forced to by modern edjukashun. Now they can make a curriculum, but lack fundemental knowledge of a computer system. Students, new to both the topics, and to the novelty of a computer, are going to wind up with less and less attention spent examining the material and more time pressing buttons.
The problem is not that people are stupid or unwilling to learn, its just that our culture hasn't evolved (or been created in Kansass) enough to handle it. In five years, when people tone down the emphasis on the "internet" as a tool, and "online education" in general, we will see the improvements. Right now, the teachers, and the children though, are just guinnea pigs. give it time.
Microsoft has been in the business of arm twisting much longer than 3-5 years...
I recall when Word and Excel were sold only individually, and FoxPro was the domminant DB software, and Access was being released. Access was truly crap back then. In order to sell it, if I remember correctly, MS attempted to bundle is original "MS Office."
Since FoxPro survived that attempted attack, MS just bought it. Sure it is now included as a "programming environment" in VS, but it beat the heck out of Access, both in ease of use and in performance... Access in later versions, just contained slower stolen portions of FoxPro with very few new features...
Then they see mosaic...and the rest is the trial...
As far as splitting up the company and having them loosely re-attatch? Not possible... when AT&T went, it went... while it may take some getting used to for Microsoft, the verdict would be enforced with the strong arm of the law. The real question is this: who is rich enough to purchase any part of Microsoft from Bill Gates? I belive he looses rights to be the CEO/principal stock owner in all but one of the companies...
Has anyone ever seen the cartoon Captian Simaian and the Space Monkeys? I belive that this is whatever the heck the thing was that gave them advice... Much more of an anoyance than anything else...
to the tune of "My Buddy"
My Nannites,
My Nannites,
Where ever I go
They are
My Nannites
My Nannite
Reporting to D.C.
So if we can now be surveyed by the dust around us... who cares who has a picture of my driver's liscence? (NSA, FBI, CIA) They can now follow me where ever I go...
These make imperial probe droids look so out-dated.
On things like passports, you are expeceted to get them reprinted after major cosmetic changes. I have always assumed that that was the case with driver's liscences as well... of course, I didn't go right out and change my drivers liscence the day I shaved my head (I had hair well past my shoulders), but I did update my passport. One of the reasons why you go to the DMV every four years is for the eye and hearing test... the other is so they garountee(?) at least a *chance* at getting a new picture of you.
We used to make sensor which had a similar effect...sadly it would adversely affect what we were detecting in a major way so we had to put empty coils on other lines to prevent it...which caused more problems...self perpetuating cycle...
It kind of looks like constelations...
Maybe someday we'll be like the ancient mariners and surf the web by them...
"Argh! I belive we've rounded Sun's Crab and we're within sight of the Microsoft Dragon. Scuttle and plunder her boys!"
This is great news ...now the driver I'm working on using a dead protocol can now be considered dead as well...guess our clients will be beating on our door to meet these specifications too...I hate custom equipment...
any driver news (today) is bad driver news...
Does anyone remember Mili Vanili?
...created by the media...hyped by the media...presented by the media...hyped more by the media...turned into stars by the media... and then discoverd as fakes by the world.
Consider what this kid had - good looks, an interesting personality, and ultimately just enough skills to make some producer want to mold him into a "type."
I'd insinuate he never hacked into MTV...
I'd say that if you remember when the MTV site was "hacked" last fall with what looked like a notable hacker's name sprawled all over...MTV responded by saying that it was a publicity stunt for one of their new VJs....It's a money maker, some kid with computer skills - hyped as a hacker - the whole geek population hopefully will be desperate enough to watch the show...
Plus if the kid gets figured out, what's the worst that happens to MTV...they say "we didn't know." He's just another pawn in their market.
MTV nowdays is not about the musicians. It is about the money. I was "lucky" enough to be selected (forced) into attending a Recording industry/MTV PR talk (last year) on record companies. They freely admit that they push and push and over inflate artists until they are no longer liked. Think about it...which generates more profit for the higher ups, new bands or old bands? I bet this kid was used just the same. He didn't call himself the "Punk Hacker Kid." MTV did. He was just typecast that way...
It's not that I think that the kid isn't full of sh**, its that I think that someone else has been packing away the burrito's too...probably MTV.
Linux - never leave the office without it.
The number 2 book for the US Navy is:
;)
"PC's for dummies"
The number 3 book for the US Marines is:
"The path of Daggers" (Robert Jordan)
The number 4 book for the US Federal Judiciary System is:
"Memiors of a Geisha" (#2 in House of Reps)
The number 10 book for the US Senate is
"Sugar Busters! Cut Sugar to Trim Fat"
...and you thought your tax dollars were wasted on Social Security...
Actually I do a 80%/20% NT/Linux workday. Painful, but true.
There is much more in life than linux...and there are other sites specifically for entertainment news...that's one of (what I consider) my major points of contention.
Eliminating "Entertainment" from my user profile - while it would eliminate this article, would also eliminate other things which I am interested in which are specifically related to at least the computing industry. For example some of the earlier game porting articles I found extreemely interesting...I think that the Barney protocol was under there, etc...
I (side note: can't belive I have to say this) am not a "linux hacker dude" nor would I want to be, I'll severly disappoint you in that respect. I recognize linux as probably a perferred tool of mine, but no more. I am, in fact, in complete agreement with you with everything except the inclusion of this article as "/.-worthy."
Sci-Fi has more than plenty of sites where they post news of upcoming films etc. I think that this is a great article for those places, but (and I include myself in this pile...shesh it generated 3 messages from me.) all that this has done is chew up bandwitdh which could be better suited discussing other topics...that's kind of my point.
Yes Sci-Fi nerds exist...I enjoy Sci-Fi...I just think that hey...placing this article at slashdot is kind of like if the nightly news inlcuded the culinary five minutes to be the same priority as a bombing in Sudan...
"...And this just in from the kitchen, try Bob's greatest brownie recipie ever "
This is just an article that I don't think serves to pre-empt television...
as far as freaks go...I would hardly say I am an "all linux and only linux" freak (see statistic at start), but with the exception of this 3 post series for the most part I try to stick to (what I believe) what is the theme of the Website...after all I bet you there are a lot of nerds (myself included) who brew their own beer. I don't waste your time with sending CmdrTaco (or any other etc...) any news on realy good beers I've made...or any "BeerNews." I guess I just expect the same courtesy from everyone.
1. The slogan is: Slashdot - News for Nerds. Stuff that matters.
If you tell me that a discussion whether anakin skywalker or some freaky little punk kid who sees ghosts is the right guy for an upcomming movie is as important as whether BSD is being released for the dreamcast you are wrong. You belong at Ziff-Davis.net or whatever. This has no bearing on anything technically related. Discussions on movies belong somewhere else, like alt.fan.orson.scott.card(?) or any discussion group at CNet, ZiffDavis or AOL...
If the userbase of slashdot has decided to focus on less technical issues and follow in the trend of previously mentioned companies then I am truly bummed. Maybe the Linux user base does really want to be as trendy as the cool kid Bill out in Redmond. I mean, people _pay_ to be his friend.
I beg the Moderators, if you insist on displaying stuff like this - please put them on a sub page for entertainment news...articles like this are not late breaking news.
*as a side note: and many of you will view this as hipocritical - the health related news (reguarding internet addiction) does have bearing here... (though also possibly in a seperate category) While I think it is a silly attempt at cash for shrinks for the most part. It is at lease directly related to the computing industry...its real, its *fact* (whether I like it or agree with it)... it is not *science fiction.*
Over the past few weeks I've noticed a unique trend at Slashdot...it is less and about penguin gear and more about movies, protohype and mass media...maybe this is the direction which slashdot wants to take, but I doubt it is the direction most of its clients want to... If I want entertainment news I'll go to e online... Hey can I get an offtopic or maybe a troll for this?
Here's someone who read "How to Get Rich Quick Off of Internet Morons" and decided to go from a
Psychologitst to a P$YCHOLOGI$ST!
20 years ago this when this psychologist was a kid was having the time of his life in college, drinking, smoking, partying on wednesdays, etc...while the engineering and science students (and a few other tough majors) spent their time studying and *praying* for an ounce of time for fun on the weekend. Now finally after probably eleven years of schooling (thats the amount of time required for anyone majoring in *just* Psych to be taken seriously) he or she's grown tired of working for Barne's and Noble and realizes...HEY! I can call this Internet thing an ADDICTION! I can falsify a bit of information, conduct a completely biased study and then write a real quick paper this weekend, and still have enough time to go partying. It'll be JUST LIKE COLLEGE!
The sad part is that a lot of people will buy into this...Mostly other people with liberal arts degrees, and force their husbands, wives, or children who have a *slight* intrest in technology to go pay for some "treatment" (sessions with a therapi$t or drug$) rather than actually spend time with them or redirect them towards other hobbies as well...
Do you think you will remain "not in it for the money" when there starts to be serious money thrown towards linux?
While you may not accept money in the future for your development, and people will continue to develop for free (its cheaper for distrubutions(?) that way), once companies like RedHat hire people specifically to make drivers for deadlines on a mass scale it will be a whole different ball game. Linux Users have always had the priveledge of having a glass house - everybody has always seen what everybody else is doing. But when Caldera's backers square off against Slackware the question is how will people handle the shower situation?
Yes, I already have a distrubution which I perfer to use...some people buy American cars, some buy Japanese. The question is, will Caldera suddenly have the drive to continue its "semi-friendship" with RedHat when RedHat is really stomping all over them...
If various Linux distrubutions start weeding out the less-used, less-funded ones they become just like Micro$haft we've all grown to hate. Don't kid yourself and think that just because linux is OSS that all distrubutions will be able to keep up to date, or in use, as soon as a few companies build little IPO forts in the snow...Someone, will get burried.
(while we're on the snow-fort analogy)
And lets not forget about the big bully with the snow shovel...Buy becoming an IPO for the first time, RedHat has stepped into uncharted territory by Linux users and into well charted territory by Micro$haft. Don't be surprised if things go as unexpected. Sadly even though only 10% of RH is currently available don't think Micro$haft isn't trying to figure out how to buy it and quelch this small rebellion once and for all. Let's not forget FoxPro 2.0 which was well destroyed by the awful product Access.
You may not want to be a millionare, but understand some developers would like to be one.
Wait, you mean you think that this isn't an accurate description of the gaming industry? Ok... here we go...
The gaming industry is part of the entertainment industry, theatre, arts, etc...Your company lives and dies by its patrons, who for the most part (in this case) are the stereotypical teenage boy. Try and please a 5th grader sometime (like say with a clown for birthday party, etc) and you'll find what a hard audience is. If it's in today, by the time you put it to press it will be old hat, no longer dope, homey won't play that, or whatever the posh thing to say is.
These kids think the video game market is cool because they think of the good games, not the bad ones...People flock to the industry and want to make games like Quak(insert "e" here), C&C, etc...
Entry Level programmers are not thinking "Sticky Bear Math", or "Billy Bob's F9829 Flying Fighting ACE!" (the last one is made up). They accept those kinds of jobs as their "way in" and if their succeed they will get picked up by Id, or Ig, or Ug, or whoever. But as stated, the fickle audience usually rejects. Do this once or twice, and you see if you like your job. See if anyone likes their job...see if you wouldn't want to jump out as fast as you can...
Worker Productivity is a myth for a large part.
:), etc... The man power required for you to get a tube of toothpaste from the convenience store is mind blowing.
(at least I belive)
There are only a few workers that can be productive, those that contribute directly to the production of goods or services provided by a company. In other words, The worker who presses the button to make the molded rubber guard for your office furniture actually contributes something to production. The stock analist(?), working for the same company, who requires three underlings to fetch information and put them neatly into a bar graph or pie chart, so that he may nod "yes" or "no" only costs the company money...He produces nothing for the company. Lets add, legal counselors, people to answer customer service, technical support, and even the guy who arranges which company you ship with (not to be confused with the people in shipping who earn $8 an hour). Those people are "overhead".
However, in today's society people demand they talk to a person when they call the company, products must be shipped from the warehouse, decisions need to be made as to whether loans need to be applied for or not, and perhaps most distressingly - absolutely every person and thing must be checked to make sure that it is conforming to strictly enforced laws - workers comp, trade, copywright, pattent, anti-trust
What company's hope (and this is stolen from an old employer's mission statement) is that Cost is less than Price, which is less than Demand. (CPD)...or something like that...Goods and services are produced only if profitable. Decisions by management are made to produce something- only if it is profitable. Each worker may be more (or less) productive based on their job, but that is quelched when the scope of production is grown.
And for those of you who think that you could rule out some of what you view as "pork" - think again...marketing people hire web developers, sales associates require MIS staff, and secretaries still exist for VPs because VPs don't have a way of keeping track of everything they have to do (and I now believe they deserve them), and basically people want more...
But here is once change that should be made: Monochrome monitors for everyone.*
*with exception to marketing, graphic artists, cad developers, architects, etc...
There's my $0.02 worth...