Your company may be totally average if those things happened to you. Pensions? Bonuses? Health Insurance? I think you're living in the 1980's. What you're describing is completely normal these days. I don't think that it is indicative of anything at all, actually.
I didn't say "nothing", but it's nothing compared to what these leeches can make in one afternoon doing their dance in front of VC's. The sad thing is that I actually could do what they do, but I'd have so little respect for myself that I'd have to commit seppukku.
You have to be pretty "foolish" to leave a great paying programming job to take a shot on the next "digg.com" -- try telling that to you wife -- "but honey, when i get 50,000 visitors a day, *then* i'll figure out how to pay the mortgage".
Actually, I did that, but instead of doing yet ANOTHER web site, I did a brick-and-mortar business. It's been 4 years, and I still miss the 6 figure salary. 4 years ago: sports cars, big house, only Banana Republic clothes. today: studio apartment, lots of peanut butter, and computers from the thrift store. I still don't know if this was a good idea.
But you're exactly right about age. If I were to do the same thing today (early 30's), I doubt that I'd even have the physical energy to do it.
Seriously. These kids need to be beaten. I'm so SICK of reading about weasels that produce *NOTHING*, but because they can wear a suit and make a fucking PowerPoint presentation, they end up swimming in money from investors. I'm pissed off because I've spent the last 4 years beating my brains out to actually CREATE something (several full-time jobs with benefits, and a shitload of tax revenue for my town, thank you), nobody handed me a cent, and I'm still not anywhere near as loaded as these fuckwads are (I'm still in the Ramn Noodles and peanut butter phase). I mean, all they have to do is put together a presentation, put on some monkey suits, and all of a sudden they're in phat San Fran offices, sitting in Herman Miller chairs, sipping on $5 coffees, and talking about "synergy", WHILE PRODUCING NOTHING OF REAL VALUE. These are the kinds of people that I would beat senseless, given the opportunity.
Damn, thanks for the head's up. But to the parent poster, yes, I DO want to use a hammer this big. We're a small company, so I can decide that we're simply not doing business or communicating with China for now. We won't ship to China, and we don't buy anything directly from China, so the *only* traffic that we see from China is lots and lots of spam, and worm attempts.
That's perfect, thanks. That's exactly what I need. Even if I don't get all of them, it'll still make a huge difference. And you're right... I'd rather get 90% of Chinese traffic stopped than get 100% of Chinese, and some IP's from other countries.
So what if there aren't blue-ray movies out yet? Sony can just incorporate both kinds of new super-DVD's into the player, and tons of people (like myself) who like having one tiny box, will gladly pay extra to have the best gaming experience available today WITH a good DVD player. XBox sales haven't done well not because it's not a good box. It is. But I have a feeling that there are LOTS of people like myself who are waiting for the PS3.
I do my best to cut off all Chinese traffic because of this reason. Every block I blackhole drops my incoming spam by a significant amount. Do you happen to have a list of all chinese IP blocks? Right now, I just do it on an ad hoc basis: I get some crap, check to source, and if it's from China, I block the whole block of IP's. It would be much faster if I had some kind of definitive list, then I could just do it all at once. (They do have a shitload of IP addresses)
Wait a minute, eBay has a seller rating system, eBay has an escrow service, so who in there right mind buys a HOUSE sight unseen, from an unrated or negatively rated seller, without using escrow?
The fact that you qualified this post with "if you had used eBay's escrow services, or bought from a highly rated seller" proves that you're one of those suckers Barnum was supposedly talking about. Trusting eBay for any kind of purchase is just stupid. I haven't known anybody who HAS NOT gotten scammed from eBay at least once.
Who cares? And I mean from a consumer level, why should anybody care? Ultimately, you're going to put a shiny, round disc in your drive, and it'll play. It's that simple. I mean just a few years ago, there was much geek hand-wringing over DVD+R, and DVD-R, etc, etc. And the outcome was the same as it is with every piece of consumer electronics: the manufacturers just put the software for all of the popular formats in their products. It's not a huge deal for them either, since it's just another chip. It's not like we have 2" DVD's and 4" DVD's to worry about. If you go buy a new DVD player right now, the thing plays so many formats, I can't even keep track... DVD-R, DVD+R, 7.whatever gig DVD's, audio CD's, MP3's, CD-RW, etc.
Please note, this post wasn't meant to discourage early adopters from buying now. Those of us without so much disposable income would very much like to see you early adopters keep buying so that we can buy when it's cheap. So remember, early adopters: if you don't have HD-DVD or whatever it's called TODAY, then you're not cool.
Well, Microsoft has always been a slow adapter of everything. USB was late, even a GUI came late. There is still support for floppy disks... no surprise here.
Actually, I'd say that Apple has always been on the bleeding edge, shortchanging their customers. I LIKE having support for old hardware. I can pick up any old $25 clunker at the thrift shop, install Windows 2000 on it, and know it's going to work. With Macs, you have no choice to buy their overpriced, bleeding edge hardware that sometimes leads to a dead end (firewire, bluetooth). How about this... I'll keep running Windows 2000 on... well... pretty much any hardware I want, and you keep running your OSX on Apple's closed, proprietary, overpriced hardware.
You're right. Anybody want to bet that the group that puts cheap technology in the hands of average (and poor) people will be Microsoft? They've already done it once. I'd put money on the fact that they'll do it before this blowhard at MIT or Harvard or wherever builds this mythical $100 laptop that hasn't even been prototyped yet. Microsoft has enabled more people access to computers than every other computer-related company on the planet. I wouldn't be surprised if they did it again, and this device was the beginning of it.
OK, so the first reason that Vista sucks is that, no matter what version you get, it's likely to be expensive.
I'm wondering if this guy has ever bought a copy of Windows. They're generally $200. I don't remember any of Widnows desktop OS's *ever* costing much more than $200, actually. Did this guy just pull this out of his ass, or something?
Practically nobody knows they were supposed to be expecting a ps3 spring launch in the first place unless they follow websites and magazines like this one religiously!
Actually, I had to have my PS2 replaced by Sony a few months ago, and a customer service rep I spoke with on the phone was allowed to tell me that the release is expected to be in the March-May time frame.
Really, what kind of "control" will Microsoft be able to exert over users of Vista, exactly? I know you're a troll, but I'm curious to see if you can back this troll up with any kind of reasoning. Let me guess.... you read somewhere that armed thugs come *free* with every purchase of Windows Vista?
Having said that it seems perfectly Dell compatable... would just be nice if tech support would accept my linux-based diagnostic info when contacting them for tech support. I've had one harddrive completely die (replaced next day), but now I have bad sectors and htey won't help me because I'm running an unsupported OS.
And the reason for this is that the cost of training 10,000 Indian call center people to begin to understand what you're talking about would greatly dwarf the cost of say, losing your business forever.
I assure you, it's not personal. It's purely business.
It's only a toy if you don't know how to use it. I think that VB is excellent for a beginner, because most people will be able to quickly make a functional program, instead of getting frustrated with the 20,000 lines it takes to build a "Hello World" app in Java or other similar languages. I know that that's what happened with me. I tried to start with C++ and Java, but the amount of reinventing the wheel that was needed for even the most basic of applications was so frustrating that I dropped them both. I started with VB. I learned AND did functional stuff at the same time. Since then, I've picked up other languages.
There's no reason that learning programming should be a miserable experience.
And of course, it depends what you're doing. If you're trying to get work done, and VB will do that, then it's the right tool. There's no point in learning how to re-bore engine cylinders if you just want to be able to change your own oil. If you want to make action games, or deal with massive amounts of database transactions, then no, VB probably isn't the right tool. Of course, it still isn't a bad place to start.
Learning how COM worked was a hell of a lot more useful than learning about pointers.
OK, that makes sense. I was thinking of our own in-house apps. I guess that if you're writing for external customers, sure, that's a whole other ball of wax. I wasn't even thinking of that.
NO IT ISN'T AAArgh! That's so damn frustrating. How does software not being supported SPECIFICALLY impact the use of it? You make it sound like somebody from Microsoft is going to drive to my office and rip the hard drive out. Software doesn't change on it's own. Theoretically, you can use the same piece of software forever. If it works, and the bugs are worked out, or you know how to work around them, why does it matter that it's "not supported"?
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Your company may be totally average if those things happened to you. Pensions? Bonuses? Health Insurance? I think you're living in the 1980's. What you're describing is completely normal these days. I don't think that it is indicative of anything at all, actually.
Our insurance company has no knowledge of audits like that, whatsoever.
I didn't say "nothing", but it's nothing compared to what these leeches can make in one afternoon doing their dance in front of VC's. The sad thing is that I actually could do what they do, but I'd have so little respect for myself that I'd have to commit seppukku.
You have to be pretty "foolish" to leave a great paying programming job to take a shot on the next "digg.com" -- try telling that to you wife -- "but honey, when i get 50,000 visitors a day, *then* i'll figure out how to pay the mortgage".
Actually, I did that, but instead of doing yet ANOTHER web site, I did a brick-and-mortar business. It's been 4 years, and I still miss the 6 figure salary. 4 years ago: sports cars, big house, only Banana Republic clothes. today: studio apartment, lots of peanut butter, and computers from the thrift store. I still don't know if this was a good idea.
But you're exactly right about age. If I were to do the same thing today (early 30's), I doubt that I'd even have the physical energy to do it.
Seriously. These kids need to be beaten. I'm so SICK of reading about weasels that produce *NOTHING*, but because they can wear a suit and make a fucking PowerPoint presentation, they end up swimming in money from investors. I'm pissed off because I've spent the last 4 years beating my brains out to actually CREATE something (several full-time jobs with benefits, and a shitload of tax revenue for my town, thank you), nobody handed me a cent, and I'm still not anywhere near as loaded as these fuckwads are (I'm still in the Ramn Noodles and peanut butter phase). I mean, all they have to do is put together a presentation, put on some monkey suits, and all of a sudden they're in phat San Fran offices, sitting in Herman Miller chairs, sipping on $5 coffees, and talking about "synergy", WHILE PRODUCING NOTHING OF REAL VALUE. These are the kinds of people that I would beat senseless, given the opportunity.
Damn, thanks for the head's up. But to the parent poster, yes, I DO want to use a hammer this big. We're a small company, so I can decide that we're simply not doing business or communicating with China for now. We won't ship to China, and we don't buy anything directly from China, so the *only* traffic that we see from China is lots and lots of spam, and worm attempts.
That's perfect, thanks. That's exactly what I need. Even if I don't get all of them, it'll still make a huge difference. And you're right... I'd rather get 90% of Chinese traffic stopped than get 100% of Chinese, and some IP's from other countries.
So what if there aren't blue-ray movies out yet? Sony can just incorporate both kinds of new super-DVD's into the player, and tons of people (like myself) who like having one tiny box, will gladly pay extra to have the best gaming experience available today WITH a good DVD player. XBox sales haven't done well not because it's not a good box. It is. But I have a feeling that there are LOTS of people like myself who are waiting for the PS3.
I do my best to cut off all Chinese traffic because of this reason. Every block I blackhole drops my incoming spam by a significant amount. Do you happen to have a list of all chinese IP blocks? Right now, I just do it on an ad hoc basis: I get some crap, check to source, and if it's from China, I block the whole block of IP's. It would be much faster if I had some kind of definitive list, then I could just do it all at once. (They do have a shitload of IP addresses)
Wait a minute, eBay has a seller rating system, eBay has an escrow service, so who in there right mind buys a HOUSE sight unseen, from an unrated or negatively rated seller, without using escrow?
The fact that you qualified this post with "if you had used eBay's escrow services, or bought from a highly rated seller" proves that you're one of those suckers Barnum was supposedly talking about. Trusting eBay for any kind of purchase is just stupid. I haven't known anybody who HAS NOT gotten scammed from eBay at least once.
Based on the boom in online shopping, and the boom in American's fat asses, I'd have to say resoundingly, YES.
Stating that "it'll play" is a huge oversimplification.
Are you saying that you can walk into Wal-Mart and buy a DVD or a CD that doesn't play on any of your DVD players? I find that hard to believe.
I don't know what you're going to do, but my Yahoo Calendar already syncs with everything I have (cell phone, Outlook, etc.)
Who cares? And I mean from a consumer level, why should anybody care? Ultimately, you're going to put a shiny, round disc in your drive, and it'll play. It's that simple. I mean just a few years ago, there was much geek hand-wringing over DVD+R, and DVD-R, etc, etc. And the outcome was the same as it is with every piece of consumer electronics: the manufacturers just put the software for all of the popular formats in their products. It's not a huge deal for them either, since it's just another chip. It's not like we have 2" DVD's and 4" DVD's to worry about. If you go buy a new DVD player right now, the thing plays so many formats, I can't even keep track... DVD-R, DVD+R, 7.whatever gig DVD's, audio CD's, MP3's, CD-RW, etc.
Please note, this post wasn't meant to discourage early adopters from buying now. Those of us without so much disposable income would very much like to see you early adopters keep buying so that we can buy when it's cheap. So remember, early adopters: if you don't have HD-DVD or whatever it's called TODAY, then you're not cool.
Well, Microsoft has always been a slow adapter of everything. USB was late, even a GUI came late. There is still support for floppy disks... no surprise here.
... well... pretty much any hardware I want, and you keep running your OSX on Apple's closed, proprietary, overpriced hardware.
Actually, I'd say that Apple has always been on the bleeding edge, shortchanging their customers. I LIKE having support for old hardware. I can pick up any old $25 clunker at the thrift shop, install Windows 2000 on it, and know it's going to work. With Macs, you have no choice to buy their overpriced, bleeding edge hardware that sometimes leads to a dead end (firewire, bluetooth). How about this... I'll keep running Windows 2000 on
...you're the grown man playing with penguins...
You're right. Anybody want to bet that the group that puts cheap technology in the hands of average (and poor) people will be Microsoft? They've already done it once. I'd put money on the fact that they'll do it before this blowhard at MIT or Harvard or wherever builds this mythical $100 laptop that hasn't even been prototyped yet. Microsoft has enabled more people access to computers than every other computer-related company on the planet. I wouldn't be surprised if they did it again, and this device was the beginning of it.
Also from that sucky article...
OK, so the first reason that Vista sucks is that, no matter what version you get, it's likely to be expensive.
I'm wondering if this guy has ever bought a copy of Windows. They're generally $200. I don't remember any of Widnows desktop OS's *ever* costing much more than $200, actually. Did this guy just pull this out of his ass, or something?
Practically nobody knows they were supposed to be expecting a ps3 spring launch in the first place unless they follow websites and magazines like this one religiously!
Actually, I had to have my PS2 replaced by Sony a few months ago, and a customer service rep I spoke with on the phone was allowed to tell me that the release is expected to be in the March-May time frame.
Really, what kind of "control" will Microsoft be able to exert over users of Vista, exactly? I know you're a troll, but I'm curious to see if you can back this troll up with any kind of reasoning. Let me guess.... you read somewhere that armed thugs come *free* with every purchase of Windows Vista?
You're a liar and a rotten troll. Don't you think that anybody else would try this complicated task?
Having said that it seems perfectly Dell compatable... would just be nice if tech support would accept my linux-based diagnostic info when contacting them for tech support. I've had one harddrive completely die (replaced next day), but now I have bad sectors and htey won't help me because I'm running an unsupported OS.
And the reason for this is that the cost of training 10,000 Indian call center people to begin to understand what you're talking about would greatly dwarf the cost of say, losing your business forever.
I assure you, it's not personal. It's purely business.
It's only a toy if you don't know how to use it. I think that VB is excellent for a beginner, because most people will be able to quickly make a functional program, instead of getting frustrated with the 20,000 lines it takes to build a "Hello World" app in Java or other similar languages. I know that that's what happened with me. I tried to start with C++ and Java, but the amount of reinventing the wheel that was needed for even the most basic of applications was so frustrating that I dropped them both. I started with VB. I learned AND did functional stuff at the same time. Since then, I've picked up other languages.
There's no reason that learning programming should be a miserable experience.
And of course, it depends what you're doing. If you're trying to get work done, and VB will do that, then it's the right tool. There's no point in learning how to re-bore engine cylinders if you just want to be able to change your own oil. If you want to make action games, or deal with massive amounts of database transactions, then no, VB probably isn't the right tool. Of course, it still isn't a bad place to start.
Learning how COM worked was a hell of a lot more useful than learning about pointers.
OK, that makes sense. I was thinking of our own in-house apps. I guess that if you're writing for external customers, sure, that's a whole other ball of wax. I wasn't even thinking of that.
NO IT ISN'T AAArgh! That's so damn frustrating. How does software not being supported SPECIFICALLY impact the use of it? You make it sound like somebody from Microsoft is going to drive to my office and rip the hard drive out. Software doesn't change on it's own. Theoretically, you can use the same piece of software forever. If it works, and the bugs are worked out, or you know how to work around them, why does it matter that it's "not supported"?