Most small to medium sized government agencies (water districts, most school districts, most cities, etc) are going to be run (governed) by small to medium sized businessmen on a part time basis (i.e. used cars by day, city council by night). They may not be tech savvy on computing technology, but they know about saving money. You can almost be certain of that unless you happen to be living near Santa Clara or Seattle.
They will be looking for the simplest and most easily available way to do something. That will almost certainly mean they will be thinking MS or Apple, and the list for most won't even be that long. They know what they see when they walk into Best Buy or Target or WalMart, and when you argue for something different, they will think "exotic = weird = expensive".
You can argue your rights all you want, but if any of the city's/county's/school's/water agency's IT people start to argue that heterogeneity will be more expensive to purchase and support, you will be dead. You will need a counterargument, in black and white, that shows how it will be cheaper. Not just equivalent, but actually better in some long term way. More important, that shows how dumping [Office] is not going to be a killer on training and general ease of use. Because for the most part, these guys are risk averse for items of little interest to them. They don't need another headache. And when the first hiccup comes along and they need to cough up another umpty dollars for IT support for "foreign formats", they don't want to ruefully remember the old saying "no one ever got fired for choosing IBM". or MS.
Just saying, They Understand Money. Maybe not too well, but they do get it when you mention "savings".
MS's revenue stream will increasingly become the annual license fee. The difference between NT5/2000 and XP was more in the nature of a major enhancement. "Stepping up" to Vista or eventually Win7 will likely be much the same for the average user. They may have completely rewritten the internals (or not), but the user will only want to see that all apps run smoothly and reliably and securely. They will not care about new features they do not perceive they need. Therefore, no new OS purchases.
On the other hand, users more or less understand that they need patches and bug fixes in the OS. MS bundles those with purchase at the moment. But they do sell extended support beyond the basic EOL. Expect that to increase so that the EOL horizon comes closer, and extended support becomes a series of 1 - 3 year support agreemnts.
MS will eventually become the IBM, DEC, Burroughs, etc. service and support dinosaur that it replaced, so many moons ago.
Electrical appliances? Go further. Just return most prisons to 1850 - 1900 level of technology. No TV, radio, phones, electrical (other than lighting). Mail, magazines and newspapers once per week, inspected of course. If you want to move up to 1930 (radios and phones) or swanky 1960 (TV in color, air conditioning), you gotta earn it.
I somewhat agree jamming is a possible solution. But the prison in particular really don't need to do it. Instead, they should install micro-, nano-, or pico- cells right inside the walls of the prison. The cells need to use every available mobile (CDMA, TDMA, GSM, etc.) technology, and provide absolute five bar coverage at every point inside the fence.
A typical cell will connect to the strongest signal it can get. They only look for a backup cell when the primary signal starts to waiver, and it is difficult to alter this behavior. The prison owned, operated, and monitored cells will capture every phone inside the fence. From there, it should be relatively easy to track who is calling whom. Or just route all calls through the prison switchboard, like the good old days. If a real civilian gets caught, apologize and route them through.
All agreed. It was a disaster on several levels. For the sake of telling the story, I'm ready to accept the conceit of "just this one time because it will be cool and we're special". that kind of seduction could happen among unsupervised youngsters. But these kids aren't unsupervised, and they are supposed to be the best of the bunch.
And that in no way means the authority figures should just shake it off, simply because the kids were convinced they would. That is so backward thinking it is insulting.
And thanks for the TV Tropes. I got so wrapped up in reading it yesterday, I forgot to respond to you:)
You may be right, I don't recall that detail. But to repeat a class they've already taken? Unless they had failed it, that would basically be a snooze. Take minimal notes on subjects they already understand and regurgitate on command. Somewhat humiliating, but hardly a strain considering the enormity of what they had done.
Hell, I've heard that the Naval Academy has shown "The First Duty" to incoming cadets as discussion about the honor code.
I hate to be a fanboy here, but that comment scares me a bit. The lesson people might take away is frightening.
The First Duty was a fine episode in many respects. The loyalty, duty, and honor contrasts and stresses it points up are just about perfect.
But the writers pulled their punches at the last and ruined it. I really hate the result. The survivors should have all been expelled, and the leader jailed. Actual punishments for actual wrongdoing and conspiracy to conceal wrongdoing. Instead, one is expelled, and the others are offered the "punishment" of a reprimand and an additional year at what is reputed to be one of the finest universities around.
Its like they won a fifth year scholarship, for the price of a cadet's life and wearing an "I'm sorry" tag around their neck. That isn't a punishment, its a gift. "Gee sir, sorry about your dead kid and the part I played in killing him, but I'll suffer through these advanced classes knowing his death made it possible for me to stay here." Pathetic.
We're all sorry to see Jobs go sooner rather than later. but considering the screw ups they went through last time, we all want to see the plan that have this time. And *any* good business/corporation/government would and should do the same
Actually, you, your managers, and especially your timekeepers need to get over the 40 hours per week paradigm. US Labor law mandates it to some extent, but usually that is the only real constraint you MUST deal with. Just figure out how much work really needs to be done, how long it should take, what is a REALISTIC work efficiency factor (.5 -.8), then just get out of the way and let people work.
OK, now that we've had a nice trip to fantasy land... 9 hours/day x 9 days give you 81 hours in a two week pay period. Implement flexible work hours and work days. You will need to pick "core hours" and "core days" (e.g. Tuesday - Thursday, 9a - 4p) when (more or less) everyone must show up in person. The extra day and the extra hour are YOURS to build up and spend as you please, within reason. (i.e. No 20 week paid holidays sitting in the bank allowed).
It can work. We do it here. When a mandatory meeting comes up, people flex their RDO. They burn their extra hours up usually by taking an extra day off every other month. Keeps work and project schedules in line and doesn't stress the guys that have to work on the days or hours you are off.
Only company discipline can keep the managers from trouncing the system. They have to stand behind their own words when they say you don't have to come in on an RDO. And they have to be willing to take it when you throw their words back in their faces. "a day off does NOT mean Come in to work". If your managers don't have integrity, you're screwed. But that would be true anyway, not matter what you are doing.
So on the bottom line, is the a CPU penalty of significance with this new spec?
And while we are at it, what would the theoretical maximum USB rate be, using the same basic architecture? At some point it would be impossible to push bits down the bus any faster, right?
I've always felt the real test of GMO food is the real world test.
Put the engineered organisms in controlled real world trial and compare the the 3rd and fourth generations to their "natural" counterparts for abnormalities. This is especially true for meat and animal products. I don't doubt the experts can produce the good effects they claim. What I want to avoid is unintended side effects that take years to show up, and have meanwhile loaded potential time bombs into millions of people.
I'm thinking about Mad Cow type prions, but anything of that nature will serve as well ("Bird Flu: The Mutant", anyone?). Lets see if that crap blooms out unexpectedly or breeds true BEFORE we go into mass production.
Teach them assembler at a young age. That'll get 'em going.
That is probably right.
Assembler is basic (BASIC) enough to teach the principles of real Computer Science and algorithms to a novice, even if it is processor specific. From there, expanding to larger concepts and larger architectures should be (relatively) easy. Then take off into the various language implementations and large scale applications.
This is where "the good old days" of 6502 and 8080 had an advantage over some of the latest hardware. The darned things were so simple a motivated kid could learn them with about the same effort as they could learn to use wrenches and screwdrivers.
The only real dilemma here is deciding who owns the machine, and what it exists for.
If it belongs to the student for their purposes, then maximum freedom consistent with minimal school discipline and control on uses is the way to go. If it is a school computer that is just another tool for the student, then maximum control and consistent with the school's purposes is the rule.
You can't go both ways. You can't have "all the freedom we decide you deserve". That is a con the students will resent and will make you pay for.
But that is the whole problem. I understand the fun of fiddling around with a system and experimenting with something new. If you want to pay for that kind of fun, go for it. We all know you can push something up to the ragged edge, and over, and have a good time doing it.
But really, it should just work, reliably every day, and without having to watch a temperature gauge or worry if the water pump is going to give out or chase dust bunnies out of the heat sink. And by the way, how much did you save when you bought the cheap processor AND the cooling equipment to keep it alive?
I just gotta say it. Overclocking is sooo lame. For a 5% improvement in performance you risk losing 50% of service life and reliability. And then end up buying another cpu, which totally blows the performance/price comparison all to hell. You might as well just spend the money increment more and buy the next one that actually has the reliable performance the overclocking gets you. Some people just can't be comfortable unless they are living on the edge, even artificially.
But of course, you do get techie cool points when the thing is working, and sympathy points when it smokes. That must be worth the price of buying a new one, right?
Some cell phones work INSIDE a closed elevator box. Creating a good shielded enclosure is not a casual thing to do.
The only way to be sure, besides nuking from orbit, would be to seal up the phone, then call it. If it doesn't answer, you have *probably* got it right. But no guarantees.
I thought you just wanted to stream live video from the VG ship as it went up and came back! I'd pay for that, and for views of the Earth from LEO. Add some girl on girl action to all of that and I'd never leave Home!
My suggestion: One Copyright of 25 years, with two renewals of 25 years each. Then its OVER.
Really, the I would only let Natural Persons have renewal rights. Corporations would just have to live with expirations as a price of doing business. Just like replacing old equipment after a few years, you write it off like a depreciation.
Congrats to the woman for having the smarts to recover her laptop. Most people would be just lost. Seriously good work.
But the fucking New York Times has screwed her over again. First the article describes what was stolen from her home (thanks for the inventory). Then it describes where she lives, including nearby landmarks! So now anyone else that might wants another crack at her place knows where to find it. Including friends and relatives of the accused!!
Nothing beats being made a victim for having a brain and knowing how to use it! Thanks so much NYT:(
The cops shouldn't need a warrant (signed out by a judge), but they should definitely be signing an affadavit, the first part of the process. The cop is absolutely swearing that to the best of his knowledge the person being sought is likely in danger and the search is official business. There are too many real life incidents where people abuse searches for personal gain (hello UCLA medical). And cops are known to be just as jealous of their spouses as anyone else. A fake request could just be someone checking on a wayward soon-to-be-ex that didn't come home last night. Not exactly missing, just spending the night at a "friend's".
To ultimately settle the issue, the US courts, or prefereably the US Congress, should settle the issue of WHERE an internet transaction takes place. Is it at the buyer's location, or the seller's? If you can say that the sale always takes place at one or the other, the biggest part of the controversy is solved. To me, the obvious choice is the seller's location, but that is only because it makes it a ton easier to calculate the sales tax.
The other big piece of this is the Federal suppression of collection of sales tax. I like this. Good idea and it should stay in place to encourage internet commerce and stimulate the economy. BUT, no politician can stay away from a source of tax money for long. Eventually the fed and the states will get congress to beat this ban down. When they do, what should replace it? A flat rate tax across the board, or should it fall apart and lot every state try to set a tax rate? That way is chaos, and internet sales get it in the neck.
Zero taxes is best. If you can't do that, keep it low and simple.
Evolution has been demonstrated hundreds of times. Natural selection of successful mutation has been shown thousands of times. There is even an industry called Animal Husbandry that takes advantage of the fact that species can be bred to emphasize some characteristics and de-emphasize others. That's right, those same Patriarchs of the Bible that ID says popped into existence whole and complete were using a form of forced Evolution to make their livings. Ironic, no?
And by the way, it isn't Darwinism, it is Evolution. Darwin lived and published 150 years ago. It isn't 1860 anymore, we've learned a lot since then and, in a Scientific fashion, updated the model to conform to observed reality.
Slashdot Mirror
Do you have the Business Case to go with it?
Most small to medium sized government agencies (water districts, most school districts, most cities, etc) are going to be run (governed) by small to medium sized businessmen on a part time basis (i.e. used cars by day, city council by night). They may not be tech savvy on computing technology, but they know about saving money. You can almost be certain of that unless you happen to be living near Santa Clara or Seattle.
They will be looking for the simplest and most easily available way to do something. That will almost certainly mean they will be thinking MS or Apple, and the list for most won't even be that long. They know what they see when they walk into Best Buy or Target or WalMart, and when you argue for something different, they will think "exotic = weird = expensive".
You can argue your rights all you want, but if any of the city's/county's/school's/water agency's IT people start to argue that heterogeneity will be more expensive to purchase and support, you will be dead. You will need a counterargument, in black and white, that shows how it will be cheaper. Not just equivalent, but actually better in some long term way. More important, that shows how dumping [Office] is not going to be a killer on training and general ease of use. Because for the most part, these guys are risk averse for items of little interest to them. They don't need another headache. And when the first hiccup comes along and they need to cough up another umpty dollars for IT support for "foreign formats", they don't want to ruefully remember the old saying "no one ever got fired for choosing IBM". or MS.
Just saying, They Understand Money. Maybe not too well, but they do get it when you mention "savings".
Include me in. I too am part of the 90% that thinks they are in the top 10%.
The rest of you losers are in the 10% that knows they are in the bottom 90%.
MS's revenue stream will increasingly become the annual license fee. The difference between NT5/2000 and XP was more in the nature of a major enhancement. "Stepping up" to Vista or eventually Win7 will likely be much the same for the average user. They may have completely rewritten the internals (or not), but the user will only want to see that all apps run smoothly and reliably and securely. They will not care about new features they do not perceive they need. Therefore, no new OS purchases.
On the other hand, users more or less understand that they need patches and bug fixes in the OS. MS bundles those with purchase at the moment. But they do sell extended support beyond the basic EOL. Expect that to increase so that the EOL horizon comes closer, and extended support becomes a series of 1 - 3 year support agreemnts.
MS will eventually become the IBM, DEC, Burroughs, etc. service and support dinosaur that it replaced, so many moons ago.
Electrical appliances? Go further. Just return most prisons to 1850 - 1900 level of technology. No TV, radio, phones, electrical (other than lighting). Mail, magazines and newspapers once per week, inspected of course. If you want to move up to 1930 (radios and phones) or swanky 1960 (TV in color, air conditioning), you gotta earn it.
I somewhat agree jamming is a possible solution. But the prison in particular really don't need to do it. Instead, they should install micro-, nano-, or pico- cells right inside the walls of the prison. The cells need to use every available mobile (CDMA, TDMA, GSM, etc.) technology, and provide absolute five bar coverage at every point inside the fence.
A typical cell will connect to the strongest signal it can get. They only look for a backup cell when the primary signal starts to waiver, and it is difficult to alter this behavior. The prison owned, operated, and monitored cells will capture every phone inside the fence. From there, it should be relatively easy to track who is calling whom. Or just route all calls through the prison switchboard, like the good old days. If a real civilian gets caught, apologize and route them through.
All agreed. It was a disaster on several levels. For the sake of telling the story, I'm ready to accept the conceit of "just this one time because it will be cool and we're special". that kind of seduction could happen among unsupervised youngsters. But these kids aren't unsupervised, and they are supposed to be the best of the bunch.
And that in no way means the authority figures should just shake it off, simply because the kids were convinced they would. That is so backward thinking it is insulting.
And thanks for the TV Tropes. I got so wrapped up in reading it yesterday, I forgot to respond to you :)
You may be right, I don't recall that detail. But to repeat a class they've already taken? Unless they had failed it, that would basically be a snooze. Take minimal notes on subjects they already understand and regurgitate on command. Somewhat humiliating, but hardly a strain considering the enormity of what they had done.
Hell, I've heard that the Naval Academy has shown "The First Duty" to incoming cadets as discussion about the honor code.
I hate to be a fanboy here, but that comment scares me a bit. The lesson people might take away is frightening.
The First Duty was a fine episode in many respects. The loyalty, duty, and honor contrasts and stresses it points up are just about perfect.
But the writers pulled their punches at the last and ruined it. I really hate the result. The survivors should have all been expelled, and the leader jailed. Actual punishments for actual wrongdoing and conspiracy to conceal wrongdoing. Instead, one is expelled, and the others are offered the "punishment" of a reprimand and an additional year at what is reputed to be one of the finest universities around.
Its like they won a fifth year scholarship, for the price of a cadet's life and wearing an "I'm sorry" tag around their neck. That isn't a punishment, its a gift. "Gee sir, sorry about your dead kid and the part I played in killing him, but I'll suffer through these advanced classes knowing his death made it possible for me to stay here." Pathetic.
If you'd ever been to a Fry's Electronics, you'd think again.
A commentator in the LA Times hits is square on the head. Apple needs to grow up and be straight with us.
We're all sorry to see Jobs go sooner rather than later. but considering the screw ups they went through last time, we all want to see the plan that have this time. And *any* good business/corporation/government would and should do the same
Actually, you, your managers, and especially your timekeepers need to get over the 40 hours per week paradigm. US Labor law mandates it to some extent, but usually that is the only real constraint you MUST deal with. Just figure out how much work really needs to be done, how long it should take, what is a REALISTIC work efficiency factor (.5 - .8), then just get out of the way and let people work.
OK, now that we've had a nice trip to fantasy land... 9 hours/day x 9 days give you 81 hours in a two week pay period. Implement flexible work hours and work days. You will need to pick "core hours" and "core days" (e.g. Tuesday - Thursday, 9a - 4p) when (more or less) everyone must show up in person. The extra day and the extra hour are YOURS to build up and spend as you please, within reason. (i.e. No 20 week paid holidays sitting in the bank allowed).
It can work. We do it here. When a mandatory meeting comes up, people flex their RDO. They burn their extra hours up usually by taking an extra day off every other month. Keeps work and project schedules in line and doesn't stress the guys that have to work on the days or hours you are off.
Only company discipline can keep the managers from trouncing the system. They have to stand behind their own words when they say you don't have to come in on an RDO. And they have to be willing to take it when you throw their words back in their faces. "a day off does NOT mean Come in to work". If your managers don't have integrity, you're screwed. But that would be true anyway, not matter what you are doing.
So on the bottom line, is the a CPU penalty of significance with this new spec?
And while we are at it, what would the theoretical maximum USB rate be, using the same basic architecture? At some point it would be impossible to push bits down the bus any faster, right?
Why can't we all just get along?
(better than Frist Post!)
I've always felt the real test of GMO food is the real world test.
Put the engineered organisms in controlled real world trial and compare the the 3rd and fourth generations to their "natural" counterparts for abnormalities. This is especially true for meat and animal products. I don't doubt the experts can produce the good effects they claim. What I want to avoid is unintended side effects that take years to show up, and have meanwhile loaded potential time bombs into millions of people.
I'm thinking about Mad Cow type prions, but anything of that nature will serve as well ("Bird Flu: The Mutant", anyone?). Lets see if that crap blooms out unexpectedly or breeds true BEFORE we go into mass production.
Teach them assembler at a young age. That'll get 'em going.
That is probably right.
Assembler is basic (BASIC) enough to teach the principles of real Computer Science and algorithms to a novice, even if it is processor specific. From there, expanding to larger concepts and larger architectures should be (relatively) easy. Then take off into the various language implementations and large scale applications.
This is where "the good old days" of 6502 and 8080 had an advantage over some of the latest hardware. The darned things were so simple a motivated kid could learn them with about the same effort as they could learn to use wrenches and screwdrivers.
The only real dilemma here is deciding who owns the machine, and what it exists for.
If it belongs to the student for their purposes, then maximum freedom consistent with minimal school discipline and control on uses is the way to go. If it is a school computer that is just another tool for the student, then maximum control and consistent with the school's purposes is the rule.
You can't go both ways. You can't have "all the freedom we decide you deserve". That is a con the students will resent and will make you pay for.
"If done properly"
But that is the whole problem. I understand the fun of fiddling around with a system and experimenting with something new. If you want to pay for that kind of fun, go for it. We all know you can push something up to the ragged edge, and over, and have a good time doing it.
But really, it should just work, reliably every day, and without having to watch a temperature gauge or worry if the water pump is going to give out or chase dust bunnies out of the heat sink. And by the way, how much did you save when you bought the cheap processor AND the cooling equipment to keep it alive?
I just gotta say it. Overclocking is sooo lame. For a 5% improvement in performance you risk losing 50% of service life and reliability. And then end up buying another cpu, which totally blows the performance/price comparison all to hell. You might as well just spend the money increment more and buy the next one that actually has the reliable performance the overclocking gets you. Some people just can't be comfortable unless they are living on the edge, even artificially.
But of course, you do get techie cool points when the thing is working, and sympathy points when it smokes. That must be worth the price of buying a new one, right?
Some cell phones work INSIDE a closed elevator box. Creating a good shielded enclosure is not a casual thing to do.
The only way to be sure, besides nuking from orbit, would be to seal up the phone, then call it. If it doesn't answer, you have *probably* got it right. But no guarantees.
I thought you just wanted to stream live video from the VG ship as it went up and came back! I'd pay for that, and for views of the Earth from LEO. Add some girl on girl action to all of that and I'd never leave Home!
My suggestion: One Copyright of 25 years, with two renewals of 25 years each. Then its OVER.
Really, the I would only let Natural Persons have renewal rights. Corporations would just have to live with expirations as a price of doing business. Just like replacing old equipment after a few years, you write it off like a depreciation.
But the fucking New York Times has screwed her over again. First the article describes what was stolen from her home (thanks for the inventory). Then it describes where she lives, including nearby landmarks! So now anyone else that might wants another crack at her place knows where to find it. Including friends and relatives of the accused!!
Nothing beats being made a victim for having a brain and knowing how to use it! Thanks so much NYT :(
The cops shouldn't need a warrant (signed out by a judge), but they should definitely be signing an affadavit, the first part of the process. The cop is absolutely swearing that to the best of his knowledge the person being sought is likely in danger and the search is official business. There are too many real life incidents where people abuse searches for personal gain (hello UCLA medical). And cops are known to be just as jealous of their spouses as anyone else. A fake request could just be someone checking on a wayward soon-to-be-ex that didn't come home last night. Not exactly missing, just spending the night at a "friend's".
The other big piece of this is the Federal suppression of collection of sales tax. I like this. Good idea and it should stay in place to encourage internet commerce and stimulate the economy. BUT, no politician can stay away from a source of tax money for long. Eventually the fed and the states will get congress to beat this ban down. When they do, what should replace it? A flat rate tax across the board, or should it fall apart and lot every state try to set a tax rate? That way is chaos, and internet sales get it in the neck.
Zero taxes is best. If you can't do that, keep it low and simple.
And by the way, it isn't Darwinism, it is Evolution. Darwin lived and published 150 years ago. It isn't 1860 anymore, we've learned a lot since then and, in a Scientific fashion, updated the model to conform to observed reality.