If the Amiga had lived, I might be working in IT
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AmigaOS 4
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I sometimes think that if the Amiga had lived on, I would be working in an IT or tech-related field today.
I had an A500 as a kid and later got an A1200 when I was about 13. On the A1200 in particular, I learnt the ins and outs of how AmigaOS worked including the command line, not just the GUI. I just loved all the clever things you could do to it, like assigning volume names to a directory or set of directories, the ease of multitasking, and how easy it was to plug in new libraries, new fonts, or any variety of new OS extension you wanted just by putting it in the right directory. I also loved the way that what you got on your screen in terms of the GUI actually represented the way the directories were set up on the computer, unlike the Windows of the day with its Program Manager.
Not long after I got the A1200, Commodore went to the wall and within a couple of years it was clear that the Amiga was dead. You couldn't get one here in Australia anymore for the most part and it didn't seem to be doing any better overseas. There was no commercial software and the magazines were closing down. I lost interest in computing generally, and when I finally replaced it with a Windows 98 PC a few years later, I didn't bother to learn the ins and outs of it - I just used it like a regular user.
I don't know what it was, I could just never get into the Windows PC and I still don't care about them today. I can still tell you the specs of my A1200 (OS 3.0, 14Mhz 68020, 10Mb RAM, 560Mb HDD in the end) but about all I can tell you about the one I have these days is that it has a Core Duo processor and it runs XP.
Why would switching to gold help? Other than jewellery and a couple of specialist applications, gold isn't exactly the most useful of metals. I don't see how a gold standard is any more 'real' than shares, promisory notes, hard currency or just about anything else that you can't do anything tangible with (like eat, live in, make something out of, etc). Perhaps someone can fill me in?
I think it makes sense that telecommuting would decrease your chances of promotion - you're out of sight and out of mind, as the old cliché goes.
If you're physically present at work, you're in the boss's face, they can see you doing things, you can look busy and look like you've got a variety of things on the go. (I make no comment as to whether you actually do or not). You're available for meetings at short notice, you're there when a crisis unfolds, you're part of the 'team' in the day-to-day work environment.
At home, sure, you're getting your job done and you're getting your work in on time and so on, but you're not physically there.
I see this problem in my job with one member of our team who is still in the office but sits at a desk that is some way distant from the rest of the team, so I can only imagine it would be multiplied if you weren't even in the office.
I seem to remember about ten years ago that they had to cancel the boat race you described (I think it's called the Todd River Regatta)...because there was, in fact, water in the river that year.
Back when I was using an Amiga 1200 as my primary computer, I timed it as taking around seven seconds from flicking the power switch to being 'ready to go'. I, too, wonder why it takes my HP laptop more than 30 seconds to be in a usable state from hitting the power button. Sure, it probably has to do more on bootup than the old Amiga did, but the Amiga ran a 14Mhz 68020 and the HP runs a 1.8GHz Core Duo...you'd think that would make some sort of difference to things.
I thought years of sci-fi had taught us that the 'look' for space travel was the silver jumpsuit, ideally with some sort of stripe down the side. Even better if everyone has the same one. So I ask: shouldn't we be working on choosing which colour stripe the whole human race will have on their silver suits? I vote red.
Is it possible to go anywhere or do anything these days without being advertised at? Seems you just can't get away from it anymore.
In any case, if I'm standing on a train platform looking at a billboard, I can just read the damn billboard. What is the point of sending me a message to tell me about what's on the billboard?
I've never been much of a civil libertarian, I must admit (usually because in this part of the world, civil libertarians are generally defending the indefensible, promoting rights for criminals at the expense of their victims and so on), but this sort of thing does worry the hell out of me - simply because I enjoy driving, and it seems like just about everything is being done to suck the fun out of it. (Not that speeding in and of itself is particularly fun - 70 in a 60 zone doesn't hold a lot of thrills although say, 140 on a deserted backroad does).
There are times, as others have said, where it's actually necessary to exceed the speed limit to get yourself out of a sticky situation. Generally these occasions are because of misjudgements - either yours, or somebody elses. Saying that you shouldn't misjudge things when driving is easy, but then, nobody intentionally misjudges anything - that's why they're misjudgements.
A better solution could be to cut you off at say 15 or 20km/h over the speed limit, to give you that safety margin, and combine this with a process of examining all speed limits and looking for opportunities to increase them where appropriate (as opposed to just dropping them all the time, which is what seems to happen here in Australia).
Simply because if the car didn't absorb the impact of the accident, you would. That's why the car crumpled.
A car that bounced when you hit it would either need to be massively rigid (meaning the force would be transferred to you inside), or made of rubber (which would come with its own set of problems - for starters, you couldn't make your engine parts out of rubber so there'd still be a big lump of metal sitting in front of you).
Is it simply a matter of writing the appropriate amount under "work related expenses" when you do your taxes, or is there more to it than that? Just seems a little too convenient that the Tax Office would just happily accept that you bought a laptop and you use it for work, just like that.
I can't remember seeing a bottle of alcohol here that was marked at higher than 37% - I'm guessing there's some sort of arbitrary restriction on alcohol content.
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I sometimes think that if the Amiga had lived on, I would be working in an IT or tech-related field today.
I had an A500 as a kid and later got an A1200 when I was about 13. On the A1200 in particular, I learnt the ins and outs of how AmigaOS worked including the command line, not just the GUI. I just loved all the clever things you could do to it, like assigning volume names to a directory or set of directories, the ease of multitasking, and how easy it was to plug in new libraries, new fonts, or any variety of new OS extension you wanted just by putting it in the right directory. I also loved the way that what you got on your screen in terms of the GUI actually represented the way the directories were set up on the computer, unlike the Windows of the day with its Program Manager.
Not long after I got the A1200, Commodore went to the wall and within a couple of years it was clear that the Amiga was dead. You couldn't get one here in Australia anymore for the most part and it didn't seem to be doing any better overseas. There was no commercial software and the magazines were closing down. I lost interest in computing generally, and when I finally replaced it with a Windows 98 PC a few years later, I didn't bother to learn the ins and outs of it - I just used it like a regular user.
I don't know what it was, I could just never get into the Windows PC and I still don't care about them today. I can still tell you the specs of my A1200 (OS 3.0, 14Mhz 68020, 10Mb RAM, 560Mb HDD in the end) but about all I can tell you about the one I have these days is that it has a Core Duo processor and it runs XP.
Put a 'No Junk Mail' sticker or sign on your mailbox - this works for me, at least here in Australia where such a thing is quite common.
Why would switching to gold help? Other than jewellery and a couple of specialist applications, gold isn't exactly the most useful of metals. I don't see how a gold standard is any more 'real' than shares, promisory notes, hard currency or just about anything else that you can't do anything tangible with (like eat, live in, make something out of, etc). Perhaps someone can fill me in?
I think it makes sense that telecommuting would decrease your chances of promotion - you're out of sight and out of mind, as the old cliché goes.
If you're physically present at work, you're in the boss's face, they can see you doing things, you can look busy and look like you've got a variety of things on the go. (I make no comment as to whether you actually do or not). You're available for meetings at short notice, you're there when a crisis unfolds, you're part of the 'team' in the day-to-day work environment.
At home, sure, you're getting your job done and you're getting your work in on time and so on, but you're not physically there.
I see this problem in my job with one member of our team who is still in the office but sits at a desk that is some way distant from the rest of the team, so I can only imagine it would be multiplied if you weren't even in the office.
I seem to remember about ten years ago that they had to cancel the boat race you described (I think it's called the Todd River Regatta)...because there was, in fact, water in the river that year.
Back when I was using an Amiga 1200 as my primary computer, I timed it as taking around seven seconds from flicking the power switch to being 'ready to go'. I, too, wonder why it takes my HP laptop more than 30 seconds to be in a usable state from hitting the power button. Sure, it probably has to do more on bootup than the old Amiga did, but the Amiga ran a 14Mhz 68020 and the HP runs a 1.8GHz Core Duo...you'd think that would make some sort of difference to things.
I thought years of sci-fi had taught us that the 'look' for space travel was the silver jumpsuit, ideally with some sort of stripe down the side. Even better if everyone has the same one. So I ask: shouldn't we be working on choosing which colour stripe the whole human race will have on their silver suits? I vote red.
Honestly.
Is it possible to go anywhere or do anything these days without being advertised at? Seems you just can't get away from it anymore.
In any case, if I'm standing on a train platform looking at a billboard, I can just read the damn billboard. What is the point of sending me a message to tell me about what's on the billboard?
Surely this article is just taking the piss.
I've never been much of a civil libertarian, I must admit (usually because in this part of the world, civil libertarians are generally defending the indefensible, promoting rights for criminals at the expense of their victims and so on), but this sort of thing does worry the hell out of me - simply because I enjoy driving, and it seems like just about everything is being done to suck the fun out of it. (Not that speeding in and of itself is particularly fun - 70 in a 60 zone doesn't hold a lot of thrills although say, 140 on a deserted backroad does).
There are times, as others have said, where it's actually necessary to exceed the speed limit to get yourself out of a sticky situation. Generally these occasions are because of misjudgements - either yours, or somebody elses. Saying that you shouldn't misjudge things when driving is easy, but then, nobody intentionally misjudges anything - that's why they're misjudgements.
A better solution could be to cut you off at say 15 or 20km/h over the speed limit, to give you that safety margin, and combine this with a process of examining all speed limits and looking for opportunities to increase them where appropriate (as opposed to just dropping them all the time, which is what seems to happen here in Australia).
Simply because if the car didn't absorb the impact of the accident, you would. That's why the car crumpled. A car that bounced when you hit it would either need to be massively rigid (meaning the force would be transferred to you inside), or made of rubber (which would come with its own set of problems - for starters, you couldn't make your engine parts out of rubber so there'd still be a big lump of metal sitting in front of you).
Is it simply a matter of writing the appropriate amount under "work related expenses" when you do your taxes, or is there more to it than that? Just seems a little too convenient that the Tax Office would just happily accept that you bought a laptop and you use it for work, just like that.
I thought they were talking about Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, and was getting all excited about the forthcoming iMarvin. My bad.
Probably worth pointing out that the CSIRO is an arm of the Australian Government.
*cough* I work in that same department... Get back to work!
I can't remember seeing a bottle of alcohol here that was marked at higher than 37% - I'm guessing there's some sort of arbitrary restriction on alcohol content.
Personally, I quite enjoyed the fact that, at least on my viewing, this thread's ad came from Google.
(Should I continue to trust the objectivity of this thread?)