There are a good number of computer and electronics stores around here selling various upgrade components -- hard drives, faster CD/DVD drives, video cards, etc. Even Walmart, which requires a high sell-through, has some "internal" upgrades! I'm pretty sure there aren't enough geeks in the area to keep those departments open.
Many computer stores have a service department for computers, so that non-techies can have their upgrades installed (sometimes for free, sometimes not).
Or, think about it this way: how many people's computers have you personally upgraded? For myself, I know about a half-dozen computers that I've installed more RAM or a second hard drive into (not including the ones in my household). Also, the majority of computers are sold to businesses -- in my experience, they tend to be recycled and upgraded far more often than home PCs (computers are considered "assets" and are easier to upgrade than purchase).
Are you making activities for a holiday party, or a company pep rally?
If it's the former, let all the "games" be optional. The holidays are stressful enough with vacations, shopping, planning, etc. The last thing most people want at the holidays is forced team-building.
For what it's worth, none of the company holiday parties I've attended have had games of any kind.
I upgraded Yahoo Messenger on my Linux system, and it's significantly better than previous versions. There may still be problems with file transfers, but according to the Yahoo developers they're looking into it.
(Then again, if you want to "move away from being tied into politics" you might want to avoid Free Software too -- I hear that some of the leaders are quite opinionated.;)
One thing I forgot.... Screensavers. Try to reign them in early.
Some of the MS Windows screensavers have sound effects -- make sure those get turned off. Likewise, try to make a policy against political, social, or religious commentary on banner-style screensavers.... Sooner or later someone is going to spout off their personal beliefs and get people riled up (and not in a good "talking about the issues" way).
Seen it done well, and done badly
on
Cubicle Etiquette?
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Our team is moving to an open office type environment in a couple of weeks. The problem is that most of them have never worked in that type of setting before and thus may not know the do's and don'ts associated with a cube farm.
I've been in a couple of environments where cube farms have worked well, and a couple where they've caused more problems than solved.
Since you're moving into a new environment, make sure that a couple of things are taken care of. These are more management-oriented, but they're things to think about.
Verify that all of the office equipment is conveniently located for everyone. Having to walk down the hall, around the corner and down another hall just to get a one-page print-out gets very tiresome and wastes a lot of time.
Try to plan for additional staff. Any new hires won't do well if they're stuck by themselves on the other side of the building because you ran out of cubes.
If possible, have a meeting room (or just an unused office) for your group only. Personal calls can be made there, and having 3 or more people discuss projects is much easier. This also works well as a lunch-room!
Be careful of "land-grabs" from other departments. I know one company that was pressed for space, and put minimum-wage phone-slaves right next to the programmers. (Think "sharing cube walls".) The minimum wagers didn't care about etiquette, so their radios were turned up, conversations were loud, and office supplies (including chairs!) were "borrowed" from other cubes.
Get a large wastebasket that you can put in a somewhat isolated area. Let everyone know that any food-related trash should be put into the large wastebasket, and not at their desk trashbins. It's one thing to have someone eat something stinky -- another to deal with it for the rest of the day.
Try to get locking drawers for the cubes. While common sense says that people shouldn't leave anything of value around, some people do need to store medication and other personal items.
For the general etiquette tips...
As everyone else has said, keep the noise levels down. Headphones are good, and speakerphones are usually bad.
Announce yourself before entering someone's cube. There is nothing worse than having a coworker walk right up behind you and suddenly start talking. Wearing headphones compounds this. (There are little "rear-view" mirrors that aren't too expensive in case anyone doesn't get the hint.)
Don't hover outside someone's cube "door" if the person is busy. If the person acknowledges you, then you can sit down. Standing around like an idiot isn't going to make anything go faster. Standing around like an idiot for 15 minutes annoys you and them.
Don't throw things over cube walls. Murphy's Law dictates that beverages will attract projectiles in the worst possible ways.
If anyone has a walkman or portable stereo, write down the serial numbers. If (when?) it vanishes, there's some proof of ownership in case it appears elsewhere in the building.
You don't work in a deli. Just because you're in an open environment doesn't mean that users can just walk in and place requests.
"It looks like they're selling a cheap box with a bad Linux distro and hoping to make an upsell. But I see nothing to suggest that they aren't actually selling the box as-is."
There's a difference between selling a box with Linux on it, and advertising that it's little more than a virus that needs to be removed for complete functionality.
Their Linux "sales" are much like the "publicly-accessible" records office in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Fry's is doing a great deal to prevent sales of Linux, despite "selling the box as-is".
... it's how you say it. The sign over the display PC reads (paraphrased by article's author):
This computer is running the Linux operating system. It is easily removed and can be replaced by Windows 98 or higher by formatting the hard drive and loading Windows. We will perform this service for you for a fee.
Had they said that it's running ThizLinux and could be changed to any PC OS, I might be a bit more understanding. But they're just trying to sell computers without the MS tax, and increase their OS sales.
The text showing up in Chinese could be the result of someone messing with the computer, rather than Fry's setting it up badly. OTOH, the author does a good job vilifying the Fry's staff.
Cheap boxes are good for small standalone terminals and for Joe Sixpack checking his email. Cheap boxes that make Linux look as awful as the article states are not helping our cause. If it were a single store, I would suggest a user group get involved. Being a chain store, the manager may be unwilling (or unable) to improve things.
If you don't mind my asking, where does your friend live (in general -- country and city), and what kind of hurdles did he have to jump through to get it?
It's a little depressing that books aren't as valued as some of the (let's be honest) crap that's being sold. In ten or twenty years the FX from the shows/movies will look cheesier, the science and politics will be even more off-base, and many of the "properties" will be made into movies while the existing movies will just get more sequels. Then again, there are lot more copies of books than there are Erin Grey bodysuits...
OTOH, I'm sure there are a bunch of authors who wish their books would simply be lost. I bought up a (well-used) paperback copy of Dangerous Visions, and started laughing at one of Harlan Ellison's introductions. He claimed that writing was like having children for authors, and having their works widely read was another form of immortality. (I can't find the book at the moment). Three decades later, Ellison tried to sue AOL and "The Internet" for making it possible to spread his works without compensating him.
"> An all-new World of Darkness launches in August of 2004. Which only makes sense, really. Putting a permanent end to WoD would mean essentially White Wolf was going out of business. What else do they do?"
Only the modern-day World of Darkness games are getting cancelled and/or rebooted. Games set in the past won't be effected.
White Wolf has a number of other product lines that won't touched even if the World of Darkness was completely dropped. Aberrant, Exalted, Ravenloft 3E (licensed from Wizards of the Coast), Sword & Sorcery, Warcraft, Everquest and others will keep White Wolf in business for a little while longer.;)
I'm hoping that the "new" WoD is similar to Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake stories, where the general public knows about monsters, and has to deal with them on a day-to-day basis. No Paradox, no Masquerade, no Veil -- almost everything is out in the open.
These systems would work well with the USB keychain drives that are out. They're fairly expensive (right now), but the memory sticks would be an ideal way to store files and configurations. The average user and Joe Sixpack will probably going to have less than 256 MB in C:\My_Documents. When keychain drives' price drops enough for one to be bundled with these systems, they could make this arrangement useful for Joe Sixpack wanting a cheap PC.
The Tiger system has pretty decent specs -- with more memory (adding 256 or 512 MB) it would fly running Knoppix. PC2100 RAM is fairly cheap now; I've even seen hard drives for under $40 (after MIR). If I weren't concerned about the warranty or power supply, I'd get one for my parents.
Re:Decision has interesting implications
on
Still More Sex.com
·
· Score: 1
"In other words, they're telling us that "intellectual property" will get treated under the law like physical property."
In this case, intellectual property has the same restrictions as physical property. Excluding non-standard name servers like OpenNIC, there can only be one "sex.com".
And since I don't need a faster video card right now, if I wait a few months, I may be able to pick up something better for the same $50 that I'd spend now.
If somebody wants an alternative to Windows, Mandrake is a much better choice. It's designed for Linux newbies, and Mandrake 9.1 has worked well for the installs I've done.
(In all fairness, I haven't tried RH 8 or 9. For home use, I'm using Gentoo now.)
One thing to remember is that the models used for the current renders may not be what's released in the game. They may be using million polygon models, and cut it back to a "more reasonable" ten thousand for actual gameplay.
Looking at the concept art, a few ideas for Q4 can be found in the notes. Apparently humans are going to be used as power cells (one and two). Humans may be upgraded into Strogg troops, power cells, or other pieces of Strogg technology. Then again, things could very well change by the time the game is released.
I'm starting to wonder if Q4 is going to be a "retelling" of Q2, rather than a sequel.
My impression is the "minimum" is for people who are willing to sacrifice features -- instead of being forced to buy new hardware. That's a fair trade-off, because very few people buy a new $400 video card every 6-12 months. I just got Serious Sam:SE out of the bargain bin, and turned down features so I don't need to pick up a geForce-class card right away. (Gaming isn't a priority for me.)
"I think game makers/distributors are sacrificing gameplay and quality in the effort to not lock out as many buyers and therefore increase sales."
And that's a good thing! How many copies of Half-Life 3 and Doom 3 would sell if the reference platform was a 4-CPU workstation with a professional-quality video card?
You're assuming that the FLAC software will be compatible with computers and operating systems in 20-30 years. Will the current version of FLAC be compatible with gcc 6.x on a 64-bit system? Is FLAC 3.x going to be capable of reading files encoded by 1.1.0? And even if the software and compiler are compatible, how well will they work with files that aren't DRM certified?
In a worst-case scenario (no source code works on "modern computers"), FLAC is open-source and could be reimplemented, if the people looking at the files are interested enough. You do have the source code on your computer, right?:)
"Granted this is the shortest core rules turnaround of all time, it would seem that WoTC is milking the public"
It wasn't unexpected. Both first and second edition AD&D were "refreshed" around the middle-end of their run. It's a great way to get people to buy what they already have -- and Hasbro has been having money issues.
FWIW, both first and second edition AD&D were in print for about 10 years (give or take). By my guesstimate, we're 5-10 years away from the 4th edition.:)
... if something happens in the Microsoft world to alienate a large number of companies and/or users. Something along the lines of a major worm or bug appearing, with M$ refusing to offer a fix for the 9X line (and maybe Win2K).
Given the choice between upgrading to Windows Palladium (now with extra DRM!) and the latest version of MS Office for a large chunk of change, or switching to (mostly) Linux on the desktop for cheap, I think the latter is very likely for home users and small companies. Large companies don't do well with major changes, and have the resources to pay for the new licenses.
I don't think the ports (Linux or OSX) will be profitable anytime soon. There's too much of a learning curve. But there's three good reasons to continue with the ports:
First, it makes the Aurora engine much more appealing to potential licensees, especially if they follow id's model (buy the engine, and get all platforms included). The Linux and Mac gaming markets are miniscule compared to those running Microsoft OS's, but having all versions available may give a 1%-2% increase in sales. It's still an advantage.
Second, everyone in IT has heard that Redmond wants to "secure" the Windows platform. At some point in the next 3-6 years, writing software for the Wintel platform is going to get more expensive -- either through "certifications" or by paying a percentage of revenues. Bioware may be trying to move all of their eggs out of the single basket. (Yes, I know that flaming Microsoft is in bad form. Mod appropriately.)
Third, with Linux and OSX support, the Aurora engine (and possibly the tools as well) isn't restricted to the x86 32-bit platform. Other developers are bumping into the limitations of the x86 architecture, so having x86-64 or PPC support may help Bioware in the near future.
"...he suggests that as easier-to-code interfaces like PS/2 and the floppy are rplaced with harder-to-code interfaces like USB, the end of the hobby OS may be at hand."
Why? At the very least, developers can use freely code from the BSDs with no strings attached. If the OS developers are planning on GPLing their code, they can pull code directly from Linux.
If using code from either of those OS's is unacceptable (say, the new OS is being written in a different language), the developers could actually read the BSD or Linux routines and use that as a starting point.
" I'm glad that someone finally revisted the D&D game area with some zeal and purpose. The old SSI games were (as far as I played) the last big push into that area (D&D, not fantasy in general). "
Did you miss the whole Black Isle/Bioware D&D revival? Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2 (and their expansion packs), Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale 2 (which was the first good 3E game released), all of which were powered by various incarnations of the Infinity Engine.
I'm not trying to flame, but the Infinity Engine games ended up as runners up for a couple "end of the year" awards.
Slashdot Mirror
[Getting offtopic, but anyway...]
There are a good number of computer and electronics stores around here selling various upgrade components -- hard drives, faster CD/DVD drives, video cards, etc. Even Walmart, which requires a high sell-through, has some "internal" upgrades! I'm pretty sure there aren't enough geeks in the area to keep those departments open.
Many computer stores have a service department for computers, so that non-techies can have their upgrades installed (sometimes for free, sometimes not).
Or, think about it this way: how many people's computers have you personally upgraded? For myself, I know about a half-dozen computers that I've installed more RAM or a second hard drive into (not including the ones in my household). Also, the majority of computers are sold to businesses -- in my experience, they tend to be recycled and upgraded far more often than home PCs (computers are considered "assets" and are easier to upgrade than purchase).
Are you making activities for a holiday party, or a company pep rally?
If it's the former, let all the "games" be optional. The holidays are stressful enough with vacations, shopping, planning, etc. The last thing most people want at the holidays is forced team-building.
For what it's worth, none of the company holiday parties I've attended have had games of any kind.
... The RIAA has announced that it will stop sending albums and singles to radio stations, to prevent unauthorized copying.
Come to think of it, that would be a good thing!
I upgraded Yahoo Messenger on my Linux system, and it's significantly better than previous versions. There may still be problems with file transfers, but according to the Yahoo developers they're looking into it.
;)
(Then again, if you want to "move away from being tied into politics" you might want to avoid Free Software too -- I hear that some of the leaders are quite opinionated.
One thing I forgot.... Screensavers. Try to reign them in early.
Some of the MS Windows screensavers have sound effects -- make sure those get turned off. Likewise, try to make a policy against political, social, or religious commentary on banner-style screensavers.... Sooner or later someone is going to spout off their personal beliefs and get people riled up (and not in a good "talking about the issues" way).
I've been in a couple of environments where cube farms have worked well, and a couple where they've caused more problems than solved.
Since you're moving into a new environment, make sure that a couple of things are taken care of. These are more management-oriented, but they're things to think about.
For the general etiquette tips...
"Pre-slashdotted for your convenience."
"It looks like they're selling a cheap box with a bad Linux distro and hoping to make an upsell. But I see nothing to suggest that they aren't actually selling the box as-is."
There's a difference between selling a box with Linux on it, and advertising that it's little more than a virus that needs to be removed for complete functionality.
Their Linux "sales" are much like the "publicly-accessible" records office in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Fry's is doing a great deal to prevent sales of Linux, despite "selling the box as-is".
... it's how you say it. The sign over the display PC reads (paraphrased by article's author):
This computer is running the Linux operating system. It is easily removed and can be replaced by Windows 98 or higher by formatting the hard drive and loading Windows. We will perform this service for you for a fee.
Had they said that it's running ThizLinux and could be changed to any PC OS, I might be a bit more understanding. But they're just trying to sell computers without the MS tax, and increase their OS sales.
The text showing up in Chinese could be the result of someone messing with the computer, rather than Fry's setting it up badly. OTOH, the author does a good job vilifying the Fry's staff.
Cheap boxes are good for small standalone terminals and for Joe Sixpack checking his email. Cheap boxes that make Linux look as awful as the article states are not helping our cause. If it were a single store, I would suggest a user group get involved. Being a chain store, the manager may be unwilling (or unable) to improve things.
He just got a VDSL 12500/6250 at $227.
:)
If you don't mind my asking, where does your friend live (in general -- country and city), and what kind of hurdles did he have to jump through to get it?
Yes, I'm jealous too.
It's a little depressing that books aren't as valued as some of the (let's be honest) crap that's being sold. In ten or twenty years the FX from the shows/movies will look cheesier, the science and politics will be even more off-base, and many of the "properties" will be made into movies while the existing movies will just get more sequels. Then again, there are lot more copies of books than there are Erin Grey bodysuits...
OTOH, I'm sure there are a bunch of authors who wish their books would simply be lost. I bought up a (well-used) paperback copy of Dangerous Visions, and started laughing at one of Harlan Ellison's introductions. He claimed that writing was like having children for authors, and having their works widely read was another form of immortality. (I can't find the book at the moment). Three decades later, Ellison tried to sue AOL and "The Internet" for making it possible to spread his works without compensating him.
"I already have a copy of Shadowrun."
LKH's books are closer to Call of Cthulhu games than Shadowrun.
"> An all-new World of Darkness launches in August of 2004.
;)
Which only makes sense, really. Putting a permanent end to WoD would mean essentially White Wolf was going out of business. What else do they do?"
Only the modern-day World of Darkness games are getting cancelled and/or rebooted. Games set in the past won't be effected.
White Wolf has a number of other product lines that won't touched even if the World of Darkness was completely dropped. Aberrant, Exalted, Ravenloft 3E (licensed from Wizards of the Coast), Sword & Sorcery, Warcraft, Everquest and others will keep White Wolf in business for a little while longer.
I'm hoping that the "new" WoD is similar to Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake stories, where the general public knows about monsters, and has to deal with them on a day-to-day basis. No Paradox, no Masquerade, no Veil -- almost everything is out in the open.
These systems would work well with the USB keychain drives that are out. They're fairly expensive (right now), but the memory sticks would be an ideal way to store files and configurations. The average user and Joe Sixpack will probably going to have less than 256 MB in C:\My_Documents. When keychain drives' price drops enough for one to be bundled with these systems, they could make this arrangement useful for Joe Sixpack wanting a cheap PC.
The Tiger system has pretty decent specs -- with more memory (adding 256 or 512 MB) it would fly running Knoppix. PC2100 RAM is fairly cheap now; I've even seen hard drives for under $40 (after MIR). If I weren't concerned about the warranty or power supply, I'd get one for my parents.
"In other words, they're telling us that "intellectual property" will get treated under the law like physical property."
In this case, intellectual property has the same restrictions as physical property. Excluding non-standard name servers like OpenNIC, there can only be one "sex.com".
Like I said, gaming isn't a priority.
And since I don't need a faster video card right now, if I wait a few months, I may be able to pick up something better for the same $50 that I'd spend now.
If somebody wants an alternative to Windows, Mandrake is a much better choice. It's designed for Linux newbies, and Mandrake 9.1 has worked well for the installs I've done.
(In all fairness, I haven't tried RH 8 or 9. For home use, I'm using Gentoo now.)
One thing to remember is that the models used for the current renders may not be what's released in the game. They may be using million polygon models, and cut it back to a "more reasonable" ten thousand for actual gameplay.
Looking at the concept art, a few ideas for Q4 can be found in the notes. Apparently humans are going to be used as power cells (one and two). Humans may be upgraded into Strogg troops, power cells, or other pieces of Strogg technology. Then again, things could very well change by the time the game is released.
I'm starting to wonder if Q4 is going to be a "retelling" of Q2, rather than a sequel.
My impression is the "minimum" is for people who are willing to sacrifice features -- instead of being forced to buy new hardware. That's a fair trade-off, because very few people buy a new $400 video card every 6-12 months. I just got Serious Sam:SE out of the bargain bin, and turned down features so I don't need to pick up a geForce-class card right away. (Gaming isn't a priority for me.)
"I think game makers/distributors are sacrificing gameplay and quality in the effort to not lock out as many buyers and therefore increase sales."
And that's a good thing! How many copies of Half-Life 3 and Doom 3 would sell if the reference platform was a 4-CPU workstation with a professional-quality video card?
You're assuming that the FLAC software will be compatible with computers and operating systems in 20-30 years. Will the current version of FLAC be compatible with gcc 6.x on a 64-bit system? Is FLAC 3.x going to be capable of reading files encoded by 1.1.0? And even if the software and compiler are compatible, how well will they work with files that aren't DRM certified?
:)
In a worst-case scenario (no source code works on "modern computers"), FLAC is open-source and could be reimplemented, if the people looking at the files are interested enough. You do have the source code on your computer, right?
"Granted this is the shortest core rules turnaround of all time, it would seem that WoTC is milking the public"
:)
It wasn't unexpected. Both first and second edition AD&D were "refreshed" around the middle-end of their run. It's a great way to get people to buy what they already have -- and Hasbro has been having money issues.
FWIW, both first and second edition AD&D were in print for about 10 years (give or take). By my guesstimate, we're 5-10 years away from the 4th edition.
... if something happens in the Microsoft world to alienate a large number of companies and/or users. Something along the lines of a major worm or bug appearing, with M$ refusing to offer a fix for the 9X line (and maybe Win2K).
Given the choice between upgrading to Windows Palladium (now with extra DRM!) and the latest version of MS Office for a large chunk of change, or switching to (mostly) Linux on the desktop for cheap, I think the latter is very likely for home users and small companies. Large companies don't do well with major changes, and have the resources to pay for the new licenses.
I don't think the ports (Linux or OSX) will be profitable anytime soon. There's too much of a learning curve. But there's three good reasons to continue with the ports:
First, it makes the Aurora engine much more appealing to potential licensees, especially if they follow id's model (buy the engine, and get all platforms included). The Linux and Mac gaming markets are miniscule compared to those running Microsoft OS's, but having all versions available may give a 1%-2% increase in sales. It's still an advantage.
Second, everyone in IT has heard that Redmond wants to "secure" the Windows platform. At some point in the next 3-6 years, writing software for the Wintel platform is going to get more expensive -- either through "certifications" or by paying a percentage of revenues. Bioware may be trying to move all of their eggs out of the single basket. (Yes, I know that flaming Microsoft is in bad form. Mod appropriately.)
Third, with Linux and OSX support, the Aurora engine (and possibly the tools as well) isn't restricted to the x86 32-bit platform. Other developers are bumping into the limitations of the x86 architecture, so having x86-64 or PPC support may help Bioware in the near future.
"...he suggests that as easier-to-code interfaces like PS/2 and the floppy are rplaced with harder-to-code interfaces like USB, the end of the hobby OS may be at hand."
Why? At the very least, developers can use freely code from the BSDs with no strings attached. If the OS developers are planning on GPLing their code, they can pull code directly from Linux.
If using code from either of those OS's is unacceptable (say, the new OS is being written in a different language), the developers could actually read the BSD or Linux routines and use that as a starting point.
" I'm glad that someone finally revisted the D&D game area with some zeal and purpose. The old SSI games were (as far as I played) the last big push into that area (D&D, not fantasy in general). "
Did you miss the whole Black Isle/Bioware D&D revival? Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2 (and their expansion packs), Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale 2 (which was the first good 3E game released), all of which were powered by various incarnations of the Infinity Engine.
I'm not trying to flame, but the Infinity Engine games ended up as runners up for a couple "end of the year" awards.