Head Honcho to team:- Guys, this memo from SB says we may have to take a pay cut like other employees. What can we do?
One of the team replies meekly:- Sue someone?
Head Honcho:- Great Idea. Who?
Another team member replies:- My new car has this awesome sat nav. Shame it is not made by us
Head Honcho:- Great. Lets sue them into oblivion. That should keep SB from threatening to cut our salaries.
Two of the team leave muttering Oh Great. My Tom-Tom is great. Now we will all have to remove them from our cars. Yeah. How are we going to find our way round this place if we don't have a decent SatNav? Shhhhhh. If SB hears that you will get your pink slip on the spot.
Yeah and it is total crap. Just watch the lines of cars waiting for the charging period to end at 6pm.... The crappiness is increased by the idiots currently running it on behalf of Tfl. Thats fine because IBM are supposed to take over soon. The buffoons think they can get away with trying to charge me for entering the zone in a car that was scrapped 3+ years ago. Even the DVLA says it has been scrapped.
At least it has one saving grace. You know how much it is going to be before you go in. Some of the 'ezPass' systems described here are fatally flawed as you have no idea about how much you are going to have to pay before you enter the zone/road on ramp.
So I'm a visitor to state ZZ. How do I get an eZpass so I don't get extorted with so huge bill when I get home? Total crap.
Quote However, Linux isn't sitting still: with ext4 now stable we expect it to be adopted into distros fairly quickly. end Quote
Sigh, they have obviously not been keeping up with what is going on in leading edge distros. Fedora 11 (Alpha available today) uses ext4 as its default filesystem. But (another big sigh) too many people seem to think that Ubuntu is the ONLY Linux Distro or even worse LINUX == Ubuntu == Linux. Which mightily pisses me off. Right, I'm off to start banging my head agaist the brick wall as pennance for daring to criticize the almighty Ubuntu who can do no wrong.
Funny that. My ex (who hails from Old Reekie) used to say that about people from Dundee (where her Father came from) especially around the time of her Birthday...
especially when it was never sold outside of North America. If it was such a world beating innovative 'must have' then it should have been available worldwide.
The writing was even on the wall from day 1. What marketing droid said 'sell it in Brown'? Duh? Then came all the recent lockups.
Come on Microsoft, put the injured beast out of its misery.
And while you are doing that, have another long hard think about launching a DRM crippled Music Download service. Many of us Elephants have long memories. Does 'Plays for Sure' ring any bells?
I did say a reasonable amount of targetted advertising is ok. However if you get sites that are in my opinion almost content free because the adverts take up more than 50% of the page space then the laws of diminishing returns take over. Many of the IT product review sites IMHO have gone beyong the 50%. You end up getting frustrated because the review spreads over many pages when it did not need to. You end up being unable to see the wood for the trees.
Don't forget that repeat site visitors are more likely to be customers than one timers. With the average attention span of Americans getting less and less every year and the time people are willing to wait for a page to be loaded reducing annually, there will be a tipping point where simple the level of advertising is such that people won't wait for the real content of the page to be loaded before moving on. As is a favourite comment here on/.
Move on, nothing to see here.
Because the Ads are still loading when the use says 'sod this I'm off elsewhere'. There are now many sites have reaced this tipping point. I am aware that companies need Ad revenue. But with all Communication there is Communication and 'Effective communication'. Too many ads mean that the message/product/news/service being offere by the site is lost in the noice generated by the Ads. This is surely not effective communication.
Unless, the site is there just for the Ads and not the content? There could/probably/are sites just like this around today.
Has left pretty well all these Ad merchants behind. If I'm browsing some site in say the USA and I'm based in Europe I don't give a **** about ads for US services (and most products come to think of it). They just don't have any relevance to me whatsoever and just consumes the bandwith/download quota I PAY FOR every month.
Very few sites check your IP for location and serve you up an Ad free page if you are outside their target location on this wonderful planet of ours.
Don't get me started on the ever increasing number of sites that are replicating the sort of things that doubleclick does. Last month I added 78 new ones to my hosts files to block. AFAIAC (As far as I am concerned), these people are signing their own death warrant. Eventually people will say 'Enough is enough' and start browsing only those sites with a reasonable (or zero) levels of ads. One site I visited recently had over 20, yes 20 other sites it was pulling ads and other crap from. Why do they do this? Greed obviously. This business model is surely untennable for the future. Sorta like the 'sub-prime mortgages' that were sold to far to many inappropriate people.
Has been around sine 1825 (see "about us" page on their website.
They have a policy that covers people taking pictures & 'gricers' on Railway Property. I have a copy of this in my Camera bag. It came in handy just before Christmas when a local Plod wanted to stop me takng pictures of Eurostar Trains in Kent. He read it and said 'sorry sir. I'll download a copy for myself'.
When someone links to your site you will get some visitors who wouldn't otherwise of stopped by. By using the title and the first sentence, this (IMHO) is enough of a taster that people who were interested in reading more would then click on the link and read the whole story. Unless:-
1) The story is only 1 sentence long.
2) you are a/. reader....:-)
Surely the NYT can beat this because they are only using a very small part of the story. If I were a book or Film critic, I would be able to use verbatim a few of the words in the book or spoken in the film in my review so what is the difference here. It is not as if they are using the whole article (or are they)
This is not the first case of this type and won't be the last. As another poster put it, I wonder how much they have estimated they are going to lose when the NYT/Globe stops linking to their sites. Less hits means less pay/per click advertising revenue. This is pure silliness if you ask me. They should be getting more people to visit their site not less. Perhaps their Lawyers found themselves with nothing to do and felt thay had to be seen to be earning their fat/huge/obscene retainers?
Hey, not everyone conversant with Fortran 77 has a low/. id. I even worked on an F77 compiler in the early 80's.
Getting back on track, Robert Plant deserves this award. I first saw Zep in 1971 and were just converted on the spot. His voice is just fantastic and the success he has had with Raising Sand shows how versatile he is.
It may piss off the French ATC to have to speak english to an Air France Pilot but at least all the other planes in the air can understand the instructions being given. A standard language is essential in this case for Passenger safety.
The RH 'up2date' is v.old. Nowadays, RH based Systems use YUM as its updaters. Yum uses Repositories which can be local or remote and like other Linux Distros, can be totally divorced from the ones hosted by RH.
You are correct in that updating can be far easier on Linux Systems than windows. Another big plus is the endless reboots are a thing of the past.
In a properly (and that is the main point) setup environment a Linux Server/Desktop solution can result in significant savings on the Bottom Line costs to the biz. Typically a 30-50% saving (gtom my experience) in Admins (because they are not MCSE Monkeys) can be made.
The Home Sec (aka Wacky Jackie Smith. You know the one who says 'I knew nothing' about the police raiding an Opposition MP's office like they do every week in Zimbabwe) is reviewing the implications of the Judgement.
From that I read 'Ok Chaps how can we get out of this fine mess you have got me into?' And an underling pipes up 'Just DNA Test Everyone. That way there can be no discrimination'
However the Court is getting wise to the tricks of NuStasi (sorry New Labour) and is going to monitor the compliance with their ruling closely.
Quote For example: solar cells on sidewalks will not become commond anytime soon./Quote
Strange this. Just this week, a Solar powered traffic sign was installed on the pavement(uk speak for sidewalk) right outside my house. Here and in France (from my observations earlier this week) large number of roadside and even railway side equipment are spouting solar panels these days.
It is a pity that the large scale panels needed for domestic use are so expensive.
Remember that SONY (grrrr) produces lots of Films./Music through its plethora of subsidiaries but also makes CD & DVD writers. Now that I come to think of it, don't they also sell a BluRay drive capable of writing content?
They (the RIAA/MPAA/etc) lawyers are being very careful but sooner or later they are going to come a cropper. It looks like they are targetting the carriers outside of the USA who don't have 'common carrier' immunity. All they are going to do is make more and more people pissed off at everything that comes out of the USA.
They can sue me(if they like) for using Bit torrent because in a few days Fedora 10 will be released and I will be seeding it once it is out in the wild but they ain't gonna win.
Don't ask the old guys "about where they want to be in 5 years"
They don't give a toss as long as they are coding/testing etc. Take it from me, once you get to a certain age, you don't give a shit about the greasy pole. They know their limitations and thus can work within them and get on with the job. And yes, I have called an old boss of mine a dipstick. He didn't give me the sack. He just labelled me as an awkward bastard as what I told him about the project was true and it saved his ass.
I'm 55 and happlily desiging complex systems. I don't want to be a manager or team leader. I'm a Designer/coder/Architect/General Dogsbody who will tell you whats what with a proposal/project. Once my new boss understands that, we generally get along fine. Which is why I am a contractor and not a permie. I'm no threat to their job.
Why on earth would I write it in Starbucks?:-) We don't have one anywhere near where I live (yes I know this is a problem for some) and IMHO, their stuff is overpriced.
I wrote most of it at home and then edited it while staying in a croft on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis, many miles from a Starbucks.
I'm an IT consultant with over 30 years experience since I graduated. There are good times and bad times. The good times for me were in the mid 1990's when I worked in the old Soviet Block. There, I could see the work I was doing making a difference. The bad times were when the company I worked for got taken over and the whole job changed. Suddenly we were supposed to apply production line metrics to consulting assignments. Luckily I got out and started on my own.
However in your job, it does weem that you are predominantly occupied looking at the down side of IT. Keeping those pesky hackers at bay is not a job I'd want to do. I'm a fairly creative person. So I have concentrated in spending more time doing things outside of IT. I've just signed a deal to get my first novel published. Not a huge amount of money. But I can concentrate on the positive for at least part of the day.
Perhaps you do really need to take a long hard look at your work life balance.
Slashdot Mirror
Go on then.
Please tell us how many apps (and the names thereof) document the zillions of registry keys they create/use/modify in normal operations?
AFAIK, I have yet to come upon a consumer grade windows app that does that.
Scene in Office of Microsoft Legal team.
Head Honcho to team:-
Guys, this memo from SB says we may have to take a pay cut like other employees.
What can we do?
One of the team replies meekly:-
Sue someone?
Head Honcho:-
Great Idea. Who?
Another team member replies:-
My new car has this awesome sat nav. Shame it is not made by us
Head Honcho:-
Great. Lets sue them into oblivion. That should keep SB from threatening to cut our salaries.
Two of the team leave muttering
Oh Great. My Tom-Tom is great. Now we will all have to remove them from our cars.
Yeah. How are we going to find our way round this place if we don't have a decent SatNav?
Shhhhhh. If SB hears that you will get your pink slip on the spot.
For the rest of us would you like to name & shame the ISP? This way we can avoid them when we go shopping for a new isp
You have been out in the cold far too long....
Yeah and it is total crap. Just watch the lines of cars waiting for the charging period to end at 6pm....
The crappiness is increased by the idiots currently running it on behalf of Tfl. Thats fine because IBM are supposed to take over soon. The buffoons think they can get away with trying to charge me for entering the zone in a car that was scrapped 3+ years ago. Even the DVLA says it has been scrapped.
At least it has one saving grace. You know how much it is going to be before you go in.
Some of the 'ezPass' systems described here are fatally flawed as you have no idea about how much you are going to have to pay before you enter the zone/road on ramp.
So I'm a visitor to state ZZ. How do I get an eZpass so I don't get extorted with so huge bill when I get home? Total crap.
Quote
However, Linux isn't sitting still: with ext4 now stable we expect it to be adopted into distros fairly quickly.
end Quote
Sigh, they have obviously not been keeping up with what is going on in leading edge distros. Fedora 11 (Alpha available today) uses ext4 as its default filesystem.
But (another big sigh) too many people seem to think that Ubuntu is the ONLY Linux Distro or even worse LINUX == Ubuntu == Linux.
Which mightily pisses me off.
Right, I'm off to start banging my head agaist the brick wall as pennance for daring to criticize the almighty Ubuntu who can do no wrong.
Interested in Superbore? Nope.
Roll on the Six Nations next weekend. No special teams there....
Funny that. My ex (who hails from Old Reekie) used to say that about people from Dundee (where her Father came from) especially around the time of her Birthday...
The price of slate these days?
Oh for smileys on /.
especially when it was never sold outside of North America.
If it was such a world beating innovative 'must have' then it should have been available worldwide.
The writing was even on the wall from day 1. What marketing droid said 'sell it in Brown'? Duh?
Then came all the recent lockups.
Come on Microsoft, put the injured beast out of its misery.
And while you are doing that, have another long hard think about launching a DRM crippled Music Download service.
Many of us Elephants have long memories. Does 'Plays for Sure' ring any bells?
I did say a reasonable amount of targetted advertising is ok.
However if you get sites that are in my opinion almost content free because the adverts take up more than 50% of the page space then the laws of diminishing returns take over. Many of the IT product review sites IMHO have gone beyong the 50%. You end up getting frustrated because the review spreads over many pages when it did not need to. You end up being unable to see the wood for the trees.
Don't forget that repeat site visitors are more likely to be customers than one timers. /.
With the average attention span of Americans getting less and less every year and the time people are willing to wait for a page to be loaded reducing annually, there will be a tipping point where simple the level of advertising is such that people won't wait for the real content of the page to be loaded before moving on.
As is a favourite comment here on
Move on, nothing to see here.
Because the Ads are still loading when the use says 'sod this I'm off elsewhere'.
There are now many sites have reaced this tipping point.
I am aware that companies need Ad revenue. But with all Communication there is Communication and 'Effective communication'. Too many ads mean that the message/product/news/service being offere by the site is lost in the noice generated by the Ads. This is surely not effective communication.
Unless, the site is there just for the Ads and not the content? There could/probably/are sites just like this around today.
Has left pretty well all these Ad merchants behind.
If I'm browsing some site in say the USA and I'm based in Europe I don't give a **** about ads for US services (and most products come to think of it). They just don't have any relevance to me whatsoever and just consumes the bandwith/download quota I PAY FOR every month.
Very few sites check your IP for location and serve you up an Ad free page if you are outside their target location on this wonderful planet of ours.
Don't get me started on the ever increasing number of sites that are replicating the sort of things that doubleclick does. Last month I added 78 new ones to my hosts files to block.
AFAIAC (As far as I am concerned), these people are signing their own death warrant. Eventually people will say 'Enough is enough' and start browsing only those sites with a reasonable (or zero) levels of ads. One site I visited recently had over 20, yes 20 other sites it was pulling ads and other crap from. Why do they do this? Greed obviously.
This business model is surely untennable for the future. Sorta like the 'sub-prime mortgages' that were sold to far to many inappropriate people.
http://www.btp.police.uk/passengers/advice_and_information/rail_enthusiasts.aspx
Perhaps Amtrak should adopt something similar?
When someone links to your site you will get some visitors who wouldn't otherwise of stopped by. /. reader.... :-)
By using the title and the first sentence, this (IMHO) is enough of a taster that people who were interested in reading more would then click on the link and read the whole story.
Unless:-
1) The story is only 1 sentence long.
2) you are a
Surely the NYT can beat this because they are only using a very small part of the story. If I were a book or Film critic, I would be able to use verbatim a few of the words in the book or spoken in the film in my review so what is the difference here.
It is not as if they are using the whole article (or are they)
This is not the first case of this type and won't be the last.
As another poster put it, I wonder how much they have estimated they are going to lose when the NYT/Globe stops linking to their sites. Less hits means less pay/per click advertising revenue.
This is pure silliness if you ask me. They should be getting more people to visit their site not less.
Perhaps their Lawyers found themselves with nothing to do and felt thay had to be seen to be earning their fat/huge/obscene retainers?
And no it is not the 1st April
Hey, not everyone conversant with Fortran 77 has a low /. id. I even worked on an F77 compiler in the early 80's.
Getting back on track, Robert Plant deserves this award. I first saw Zep in 1971 and were just converted on the spot. His voice is just fantastic and the success he has had with Raising Sand shows how versatile he is.
It may piss off the French ATC to have to speak english to an Air France Pilot but at least all the other planes in the air can understand the instructions being given. A standard language is essential in this case for Passenger safety.
The RH 'up2date' is v.old.
Nowadays, RH based Systems use YUM as its updaters. Yum uses Repositories which can be local or remote and like other Linux Distros, can be totally divorced from the ones hosted by RH.
You are correct in that updating can be far easier on Linux Systems than windows. Another big plus is the endless reboots are a thing of the past.
In a properly (and that is the main point) setup environment a Linux Server/Desktop solution can result in significant savings on the Bottom Line costs to the biz. Typically a 30-50% saving (gtom my experience) in Admins (because they are not MCSE Monkeys) can be made.
The Home Sec (aka Wacky Jackie Smith. You know the one who says 'I knew nothing' about the police raiding an Opposition MP's office like they do every week in Zimbabwe) is reviewing the implications of the Judgement.
From that I read 'Ok Chaps how can we get out of this fine mess you have got me into?'
And an underling pipes up
'Just DNA Test Everyone. That way there can be no discrimination'
However the Court is getting wise to the tricks of NuStasi (sorry New Labour) and is going to monitor the compliance with their ruling closely.
Quote /Quote
For example: solar cells on sidewalks will not become commond anytime soon.
Strange this. Just this week, a Solar powered traffic sign was installed on the pavement(uk speak for sidewalk) right outside my house.
Here and in France (from my observations earlier this week) large number of roadside and even railway side equipment are spouting solar panels these days.
It is a pity that the large scale panels needed for domestic use are so expensive.
Remember that SONY (grrrr) produces lots of Films./Music through its plethora of subsidiaries but also makes CD & DVD writers.
Now that I come to think of it, don't they also sell a BluRay drive capable of writing content?
They (the RIAA/MPAA/etc) lawyers are being very careful but sooner or later they are going to come a cropper. It looks like they are targetting the carriers outside of the USA who don't have 'common carrier' immunity. All they are going to do is make more and more people pissed off at everything that comes out of the USA.
They can sue me(if they like) for using Bit torrent because in a few days Fedora 10 will be released and I will be seeding it once it is out in the wild but they ain't gonna win.
Don't ask the old guys
"about where they want to be in 5 years"
They don't give a toss as long as they are coding/testing etc.
Take it from me, once you get to a certain age, you don't give a shit about the greasy pole.
They know their limitations and thus can work within them and get on with the job.
And yes, I have called an old boss of mine a dipstick.
He didn't give me the sack. He just labelled me as an awkward bastard as what I told him about the project was true and it saved his ass.
I'm 55 and happlily desiging complex systems. I don't want to be a manager or team leader. I'm a Designer/coder/Architect/General Dogsbody who will tell you whats what with a proposal/project. Once my new boss understands that, we generally get along fine. Which is why I am a contractor and not a permie. I'm no threat to their job.
Quote
4 SCSI-320 Cheetah 32GB, 15K RPM drives in RAID 0.
End Quote
What company would really want to run their DB on a Raid 0 (Striped) Disk setup? Does this not put it at risk from a single spindle failure?
Why on earth would I write it in Starbucks? :-)
We don't have one anywhere near where I live (yes I know this is a problem for some) and IMHO, their stuff is overpriced.
I wrote most of it at home and then edited it while staying in a croft on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis, many miles from a Starbucks.
I'm an IT consultant with over 30 years experience since I graduated. There are good times and bad times.
The good times for me were in the mid 1990's when I worked in the old Soviet Block. There, I could see the work I was doing making a difference.
The bad times were when the company I worked for got taken over and the whole job changed. Suddenly we were supposed to apply production line metrics to consulting assignments.
Luckily I got out and started on my own.
However in your job, it does weem that you are predominantly occupied looking at the down side of IT. Keeping those pesky hackers at bay is not a job I'd want to do.
I'm a fairly creative person. So I have concentrated in spending more time doing things outside of IT.
I've just signed a deal to get my first novel published. Not a huge amount of money. But I can concentrate on the positive for at least part of the day.
Perhaps you do really need to take a long hard look at your work life balance.
And AMD/ATi is the Ferrari ( AMD are a sponsor of them.... )