We can sit around all we want and say stuff like "when people get tired of (malware|viruses|spyware|whateverelse)" they will switch to (Linux|Mac).
I couldn't agree more. I'm project manager for a significant roll-out of new accounting systems for local governments in the Indonesian province of Aceh. We're installing a network of PCs with a lot of data entry screens connected to a server running Oracle. All of it is on Windows. When I asked "Why not Linux / Open Source?" I was told that they wouldn't be able to handle running / maintaining a new system. These people have, in the past, used Excel spreadsheets for everything, so not too computer savvy. We give them on-site assistance for one year, with experienced IT consultants. The system is used by a small group of about 25 people in each office, and is not (yet) connected to anything else. To me, this is an ideal site for OSS.
Last month, one site got hit by a virus and was down for a couple of days (don't ask). When I went back and asked about Open Source, people were more interested. But guess what -- we've already started with Windows, it's too late to change.
I call bullshit. I bet those retards working there are constantly getting confused by windows and it's cryptic error messages and mysterious slowdowns, lockups, locked files, re-arranging icons, ever changing taskbars etc.
I don't think the claim was that everyone there can use windows effectively, the discussion was about convincing decision-makers that their people could use Linux effectively. That this is difficult has been my experience recently also.
I am managing a project to install and train users in a local government accounting package throughout the Indonesian province of Aceh. We run a programmed front-end into an Oracle database. The LANs will eventually be connected to the internet, although they are not yet. To me, this is a classic OSS situation: developing country, critical data, lots of virii about...
Can I get anyone to buy in? No, and the reason is always the same: After the consultants are gone, local governments need to maintain the systems, and we need to give them what they are familiar with / can support. I know that their people could figure out the minimum amount they would need to, but I have lost that argument. It's a shame, because in a year or two another project will equip hundreds of local governments throughout the country with a full financial management system, and I don't think they're looking at Linux / OSS either.
FWIW, I googled Perfect 10 and clicked on images. The first three pages do not have any links to their site, nor did I see anything that looked like ripped-off porn -- but I'm at work and didn't investigate as much as I'd like;-)
In a seemingly effortless way, AMD has been able to counter virtually every single one of Intel's attempts to regain desktop performance leadership with its current product generation.
If you're going to write this badly, it's probably a good thing if you don't have anything to say.
The definition of communicating I like is one I got from an old sales-training book. It is:
Assuming 100% of the responsibility that the other party understands your message
You haven't communicated. In fact, I wanted to rewrite your text into something more understandable, but I couldn't understand line No. 5. "...what signifies what things changes?"
Indeed, it's not like Australia has a shortage of lethal animals.
Yeah, you're not wrong! I was visiting Cairns (cane toad and poisonous thingy capital of the world) last year, and was surprised to learn that, of the 11 most poisonous snakes in the world, 11 of them are found (only) in Australia.
The only rotary engines I knew about were ones in planes beginning many decades ago.
They may use, or have used, rotary (Wankel) engines in planes, but I think you are talking about a radial engine, which is a very different beast. Radial engines have the cylinders and pistons radiating around the crankshaft, not in one or two rows. Wankel engines have no cylinders or pistons.
Let's see. While the Chinese are unlikely to block port 443, they could monitor sites for which the percentage of 443 vs. port 80 https requests exceeds a reasonable threshhold.
But, it seems that I need to communicate with someone in China first, and offer my computer up to them, and then we both need to install something on our computers, and I give him a userid and password.
It's not at all clear that AT&T has done something illegal, if for no other reason than if they had, this lawsuit would not be necessary. The whole point of a lawsuit, after all, is to try to prove that somebody did something illegal. In fact, if the EFF loses this case, it will establish a precedent that what AT&T did is not illegal.
Actually, you're wrong. It may sound like nitpicking, but your misunderstanding really does relate to what you have said. The purpose of a civil suit (tort) is to right a wrong. This can be through damages or court orders to return something or change one's behaviour (or lots of other stuff).
The purpose of a criminal trial is to decide whether someone did something illegal. Precedents do apply to both under common law systems, but I wouldn't worry too much about a lower court ruling in a civil case becoming an important precedent on such a significant issue.
Now that's interesting (and renders every other post on this topic moot). I don't understand exactly what they're patenting, but it isn't (only) the one-button emoticon thing. The core of the patent seems to be:
...wherein the multi-media message comprises an animated entity audibly delivering a text message...
I don't know how cell phones look in the states, but an animated face reading your text message out loud is not what I am used to. Isn't that what is implied in the patent (not application)?
You've raised some good points yourself. I'm a management consultant, focused on HR management, and come across this from time to time. Not that often, actually, because firms that don't pay for training also don't pay for consulting.
It may be necessary to move to a more considerate/understanding employer, but I don't this alone would justify that. Make a business case that fully explains the benefits of the training, including discussion of improved ability to solve problems, avoid downtime, etc. It's not necessary to put numbers on things, and I wouldn't do so unless you can be very confident that you are accurate but conservative. Even one unsubstantiated claim or unreasonable statement can get the whole proposal thrown out. Identify the costs, including an estimate of the value for your time (talk to the cost accounting people to get your fully loaded cost / day, which is the right figure to use).
If you are fortunate enough to go on the training, keep track of the times you use something you learned there, and how much time it saved, or what it avoided. In six months or so, you might be able to document you have saved so many hours of your time, time of others, etc. and put a dollar figure on that. Also not intangibles, such as reduced downtime or whatever. Assuming the benefits are significantly greater than the costs, give the calculation to your boss to let him/her know that you were both right in deciding to send you on the training.
An interesting article on IT Training ROI is on cio.com. I can't seem to find quickly a good website explaining calculation of training ROI. If you want me to go through the steps, email me.
I have two boys, ages 13 and 10, and I am a little surprised at what they come across. I admit they are not constantly supervised, and I admit they are downloading songs using Limewire. It's not the message I want to send, but legal music is all but impossible to purchase here.
They are pretty good boys, and I do trust them. However, having tried limewire myself, the amount of porn that comes up is astonishing. The keywords you type are often only distantly related to the subject of the photos/videos.
As a parent of kids this age, I struggle with the balance between freedom and keeping away a lot of smut they really don't need to see. My personal preference is to lean towards giving them freedom, but it does concern me.
Back to your point: I agree we need to know what our kids are doing, but watching them all the time is neither practicable nor advisable -- we need to show them that we do trust them. I don't want Bill Gates deciding what my kids watch, nor George Bush. I just wish the technology better supported some sort of classification (I thought the.xxx domain was a great idea).
And, yes, I'm getting my kids of Limewire. It's hard, when I love music and want them to, but we can't buy anything original here (Indonesia). However, I take your point about supervision.
As a long-expatriated Canadian, I don't know whether to be terrified or proud, after reading the report (well, most of it). Terrified at what Canada is doing to her citizens, but proud of the gentleman, whom I had not heard of before, who so eloquently summarizes everything that is wrong with current initiatives collecting excessive personal information.
Could you define a "legitimate abuse of power"?
Maybe this is the foundation of the current USA government's policies? "All our abuses of power have been legitimate." I can hear George saying it now, without irony.
I think you've hit the nail on the head. I am Canadian, not American, and I do live overseas (in Asia). Everything you have said is exactly what I dislike about your current government -- not just for me, but for what they are doing to Americans.
I realize you were making a joke, but I did Google it, and quickly got to a transcript of the scene at the Bridge of Death
Priceless!
Re:Hiding information is more important than shari
on
Ambient Findability
·
· Score: 1
Interesting idea, but I'm not sure I agree. Aren't the internet and a general surfeit of data making such distinctions both harder and less relevant? Filtering has become critical, I agree, but hoarding information is much, much harder these days. In days past middle managers could make a comfortable living acting as information gatekeepers; today anyone foolish enough to try would soon be out on the street.
I agree that inside knowledge can be a part of what makes cliques, but only a part. However, in the workplace, I think openness is here to stay.
When I was in Engineering school (University of Western Ontario, class of '86) the idea of the prank was to make it fiendishly difficult to undo. The best prank had the uni staff scratching their heads for a week figuring how the car got up there, and how to get it down.
Well, I can tell you that this word is one of only two that came to English from Malay / Indonesian. (The other is amok, as in run amok.) The Indonesian root is actually two words, orang hutan which means jungle person. If anyone is interested...
Slashdot Mirror
Last month, one site got hit by a virus and was down for a couple of days (don't ask). When I went back and asked about Open Source, people were more interested. But guess what -- we've already started with Windows, it's too late to change.
Arrggghhhh!
I am managing a project to install and train users in a local government accounting package throughout the Indonesian province of Aceh. We run a programmed front-end into an Oracle database. The LANs will eventually be connected to the internet, although they are not yet. To me, this is a classic OSS situation: developing country, critical data, lots of virii about...
Can I get anyone to buy in? No, and the reason is always the same: After the consultants are gone, local governments need to maintain the systems, and we need to give them what they are familiar with / can support. I know that their people could figure out the minimum amount they would need to, but I have lost that argument. It's a shame, because in a year or two another project will equip hundreds of local governments throughout the country with a full financial management system, and I don't think they're looking at Linux / OSS either.
FWIW, I googled Perfect 10 and clicked on images. The first three pages do not have any links to their site, nor did I see anything that looked like ripped-off porn -- but I'm at work and didn't investigate as much as I'd like ;-)
type c:\windows\system32\ftp.exe | find "Copyright"
You get the same result.
Let's see. While the Chinese are unlikely to block port 443, they could monitor sites for which the percentage of 443 vs. port 80 https requests exceeds a reasonable threshhold.
But, it seems that I need to communicate with someone in China first, and offer my computer up to them, and then we both need to install something on our computers, and I give him a userid and password.
Isn't this just too clunky to work?
I agree with everything you said, except the bit that seems to be picking a fight with my sig.
The purpose of a criminal trial is to decide whether someone did something illegal. Precedents do apply to both under common law systems, but I wouldn't worry too much about a lower court ruling in a civil case becoming an important precedent on such a significant issue.
I don't know how cell phones look in the states, but an animated face reading your text message out loud is not what I am used to. Isn't that what is implied in the patent (not application)?
You've raised some good points yourself. I'm a management consultant, focused on HR management, and come across this from time to time. Not that often, actually, because firms that don't pay for training also don't pay for consulting.
It may be necessary to move to a more considerate/understanding employer, but I don't this alone would justify that. Make a business case that fully explains the benefits of the training, including discussion of improved ability to solve problems, avoid downtime, etc. It's not necessary to put numbers on things, and I wouldn't do so unless you can be very confident that you are accurate but conservative. Even one unsubstantiated claim or unreasonable statement can get the whole proposal thrown out. Identify the costs, including an estimate of the value for your time (talk to the cost accounting people to get your fully loaded cost / day, which is the right figure to use).
If you are fortunate enough to go on the training, keep track of the times you use something you learned there, and how much time it saved, or what it avoided. In six months or so, you might be able to document you have saved so many hours of your time, time of others, etc. and put a dollar figure on that. Also not intangibles, such as reduced downtime or whatever. Assuming the benefits are significantly greater than the costs, give the calculation to your boss to let him/her know that you were both right in deciding to send you on the training.
An interesting article on IT Training ROI is on cio.com. I can't seem to find quickly a good website explaining calculation of training ROI. If you want me to go through the steps, email me.
Well, yeah, but....
.xxx domain was a great idea).
I have two boys, ages 13 and 10, and I am a little surprised at what they come across. I admit they are not constantly supervised, and I admit they are downloading songs using Limewire. It's not the message I want to send, but legal music is all but impossible to purchase here.
They are pretty good boys, and I do trust them. However, having tried limewire myself, the amount of porn that comes up is astonishing. The keywords you type are often only distantly related to the subject of the photos/videos.
As a parent of kids this age, I struggle with the balance between freedom and keeping away a lot of smut they really don't need to see. My personal preference is to lean towards giving them freedom, but it does concern me.
Back to your point: I agree we need to know what our kids are doing, but watching them all the time is neither practicable nor advisable -- we need to show them that we do trust them. I don't want Bill Gates deciding what my kids watch, nor George Bush. I just wish the technology better supported some sort of classification (I thought the
And, yes, I'm getting my kids of Limewire. It's hard, when I love music and want them to, but we can't buy anything original here (Indonesia). However, I take your point about supervision.
Wow!
As a long-expatriated Canadian, I don't know whether to be terrified or proud, after reading the report (well, most of it). Terrified at what Canada is doing to her citizens, but proud of the gentleman, whom I had not heard of before, who so eloquently summarizes everything that is wrong with current initiatives collecting excessive personal information.
Could you define a "legitimate abuse of power"? Maybe this is the foundation of the current USA government's policies? "All our abuses of power have been legitimate." I can hear George saying it now, without irony.
I hate to submit it but....
Me Too.
I think you've hit the nail on the head. I am Canadian, not American, and I do live overseas (in Asia). Everything you have said is exactly what I dislike about your current government -- not just for me, but for what they are doing to Americans.
I realize you were making a joke, but I did Google it, and quickly got to a transcript of the scene at the Bridge of Death
Priceless!
Interesting idea, but I'm not sure I agree. Aren't the internet and a general surfeit of data making such distinctions both harder and less relevant? Filtering has become critical, I agree, but hoarding information is much, much harder these days. In days past middle managers could make a comfortable living acting as information gatekeepers; today anyone foolish enough to try would soon be out on the street.
I agree that inside knowledge can be a part of what makes cliques, but only a part. However, in the workplace, I think openness is here to stay.
When I was in Engineering school (University of Western Ontario, class of '86) the idea of the prank was to make it fiendishly difficult to undo. The best prank had the uni staff scratching their heads for a week figuring how the car got up there, and how to get it down.
Those were the days...
Well, I can tell you that this word is one of only two that came to English from Malay / Indonesian. (The other is amok, as in run amok.) The Indonesian root is actually two words, orang hutan which means jungle person. If anyone is interested...