This is why an incinerator is such a nice thing to have. It's kind of hard to identify your spending and consumption habits from a pile of ash and slag.
Not to mention that in these days of expensive energy we could recapture the energy from burning those petrochemical based containers that have invaded our lives.
They learned from their mistakes is what happened.
The boys in the military must be gibbering with joy. Imagine an armored vehicle that can recognize friend or foe. Just set this baby loose and watch the fun.
But the civillian benefits are going to be cool too. For instance, screw magnets imbedded in roads, etc. Just use the roads we have now and tell the vehicle where you want to go.
I know numerous parents that buy their kids any video game they ask for, regardless if it shows sex, violence, etc. Better to do that than suffer the wrath of a pissed off pre-teen.
The abdication of parental responsibility in the last twenty years is astounding. But I'm part of the generation that spoils its kids but fortunately have no little curtain climbers.
If I did have kids they'd sure as hell play by my rules though.
Cubes are mostly echo proof as it is. There's no need for an eletronic device to mask the contents of your personal calls.
Instead, why not raise the height of the standard 5'6" cube walls with 7 or 8 foot. Then put a roof and door on it. Voila - problem solved.
I suspect the reason we don't do this is because a 7x7x7 cubicle would be a bit too much like a cocoon. As a cubicle dweller I'd say you don't have to provide me with anything but overhead bins. Then I'll sling my hamock in and enjoy my day.
It's because we have this assinine 'use tax'. If you buy something at a lower tax rate or with no tax, you're on the hook to remit the 7% to the state when you file your yearly taxes.
The problem I have with this is that it violates interstate commerce rules. But RI sidesteps that by saying they are not taxing the purchase of the item, but the use of said item.
But then this is Rhode Island. They used to call Massachusetts by the name Taxachussets but RI has since taken the title.
I'm an in-between in the tech world. I started my career some 13 years ago managing a DG MV9600. Since then I've experienced the joys of Windows 3.1, 95, NT 3.5, NT 4, Novell 3.20 and 4.11, Windows 2000 workstation and server, W2K3 server, MS-SQL, MySQL (Which I prefer over all others) and several variants of Linux/Unix. Did I mention phone systems? Done those too.
I loathe what has happened to cell phones with the exception of text messaging. Who the hell needs a camera or even web access on their cell phone? I don't. Of course I can get IM's and emails via SMS so it's not a total loss.
And I also refuse to consider the quality of current cell networks as acceptable. That is precisely why I prefer to be texted as opposed to called.
There is one more side benefit to text messages. You can ignore them. It is a bit harder to igone a ringing phone.
Doctors and surgeons are basically glorified technicians. I'd much prefer a doctor with long experience than one with no or little experience.
And as an I.T. person with over 12 years of experience it burns me that some idiot who just got his MCSE gets hired because he's cheaper. You get what you pay for.
So enjoy that third eyeball in the back of your head. Your young surgeon knew what he was doing.
Average transit bus weighs something on the order of 12 tons. How much does a light rail car weigh? Probably significantly more than a car. All you need is one car vs. rail car accident and people will give those light rails a wide berth.
My office is solidly on Office 2000 with no intention of upgrading.
It does what we need it to do which is basic word processing.
To be honest, I.T. is the only unit that regularly uses Excel and PowerPoint, or even understands what they should be used for.
But many folks here use custom Access applications. I remember the pain going from Access 97 to Access 2000 and would be loathe to do that even for 2003 or v12. Sometimes the status quo is the best path.
But I see us moving to OpenOffice instead of MS Office 12 in the future. If MA can do it so can we.
Symantec - I only use one of their products these days. The bloated software and subscription boondoggle are what pushed me away.
But I'm much happier with Firefox than I am with IE. Why? Because things get fixed faster. And lets face facts, IE is so closely intertwined with the OS that when it has security holes the scope of vulnerability is magnified.
This positively reeks of MS trying to eliminate the competition. As we all know, press releases serve no purpose but to advertise. When you consider who would have the motivation to kill Firefox guess where the fickle finger of fate points.
The whole record industry set up stinks to high heaven.
There really isn't any reason the average band can't record and digitize their stuff themselves these days. What they can't do is front themselves the money for touring.
Hmmm... how about a financing company that finances tours for a reasonable cut of revenue, instead of gouging the crap out the bands.
Bravo! The majority of the time I use vi but every now and then I have to use emacs.
I much prefer vi. I don't ever recall having to twist my fingers into knots trying to ctrl-right_shift-something, though being a Windows user ctrl-alt-delete is easy enough.
And vi uses nice easy to remember commands like cw to change word, r to replace a character, dd to delete a line, etc.
So for my money I'd choose vi. I suppose if I knew emacs better I'd vote it equal but that is not the case at this juncture in my career.
Indeed, Pandora's Box has been opened and there's no changing it.
But they'll keep trying to defend a dying distribution mechanism until they ultimately succumb because they were distributing crap.
Here's what I don't get. The overhead costs associated with net distribution are much less than CD media distribution. This is why I don't understand the pricing scheme for things like iTunes and Yahoo Music. True track cost should be ten to twenty cents, not seventy-nine cents or ninety-nine cents.
Then there is the elephant in the room. Apple crows about it's iPod but to be honest - who is going to pay thousands of dollars to fill their iPod. Nobody, that's who. Much of the music on iPods is more than likely illegaly downloaded tracks. Recent rulings would come down and say that Apple enables copyright violation. But curiously nobody touches them.
Lets not mention iTunes and the MyTunes Redux application. Nothing like snatching music while it's being streamed to you.
My point is that copyright violations have been occuring on a regular basis for the past 30 or so years. I can't count how many albums I recorded to tape when I was a kid, each time violating the sanctity of the RIAA. I'm pretty sure those of us that came in at the beginning of the digital revolution did much the same. But now the RIAA sees fit to persecute. Note the choice of the word.
Instead of cultivating a potential market that makes their lives easier, they'd prefer to litigate. It is high time to put the lawyers against the wall.
Their heyday was the 50's to the 80's and then the bottom dropped out of the equipment market. But IBM adapted.
Microsoft shows some signs of adaptation with the X-Box line but I don't think it will be enough. The bigger they are, the harder they fall and it's usually 30 or so years of the good life, followed by the remainder being rough.
Why do I get the feeling that this article pushes outsourcing more than it says I.T. units are bad for the rank and file.
Think about it, no visits to desks but you have to phone Bangalore to figure out that your printer is out of paper.
Of course I use things like VNC, and the web interfaces on printers and the like to check that from the comfort of my chair. The padding on my chair has actually worn down and conforms nicely to my butt.
But seriously - big business is trying to outsource EVERYTHING. All you'll have left in this country is upper level managers. Hell of a lot of good that will do. In my experience the upper level managers are the ones least likely to even know what a computer is, let alone use one.
What are the odds that these schools are running SCT Banner and using IIS?
Pretty damned good. Banner in itself is an ungainly beast, an overlay on top of an Oracle database. But they host the web components on IIS which is a guaranteed point of failure.
I've loathed IIS and MS-SQL ever since I was exposed to LAMP. But universities decided their I.T. shops couldn't produce a good product so they got snowed by the SCT folks. Disgusting I tell you.
I love tabbed browsing. And for those who can't break away from IE (I can't make a complete break as many of the apps I use break in Firefox.) you can download Foxie which gives IE tabs, etc. but sitll uses the same method FF does to close a tab.
But I'm comfortable with tabs the way they are. Wouldn't work any other way for me.
The one point I'd like to make from looking at the map (Nice work with Google Maps by the way.) is that most of the spam seems to originate from the northeast and the west coast.
This doesn't surprise me. Penetration of broadband is higher in those areas. But they aren't the true sources of spam. That comes from elsewhere. It's pretty easy to have a bunch of zombies spew your messages out there.
But here's the interesting part - the broadband providers are letting that volume of spew through because they don't want to actively filter email.
I know for a fact that both Cox and Verizon only allow use of their SMTP servers and in the case of Verizon you have to authenticate against the server.
With every generation homo sapiens becomes less like sapiens and more like superior.
And it isn't just brain size that's been growing, but as was indicated genetic resistance to disease, etc.
Who know, maybe the premise that the captors of the 4400 isn't so far off.
I mean, most people describe the greys as humanoid in shape, with large heads and eyes, no nose but nasal openings, and a very narrow mouth.
I mean, in case anyone hadn't read about it, they've figured out that the human jaw is getting more narrow because more of our food is processed before we eat it.
But I've gone off in 'what if' territory here for too long.
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This is why an incinerator is such a nice thing to have. It's kind of hard to identify your spending and consumption habits from a pile of ash and slag.
Not to mention that in these days of expensive energy we could recapture the energy from burning those petrochemical based containers that have invaded our lives.
They learned from their mistakes is what happened.
The boys in the military must be gibbering with joy. Imagine an armored vehicle that can recognize friend or foe. Just set this baby loose and watch the fun.
But the civillian benefits are going to be cool too. For instance, screw magnets imbedded in roads, etc. Just use the roads we have now and tell the vehicle where you want to go.
Unfortunately this bill misses the mark.
I know numerous parents that buy their kids any video game they ask for, regardless if it shows sex, violence, etc. Better to do that than suffer the wrath of a pissed off pre-teen.
The abdication of parental responsibility in the last twenty years is astounding. But I'm part of the generation that spoils its kids but fortunately have no little curtain climbers.
If I did have kids they'd sure as hell play by my rules though.
Cubes are mostly echo proof as it is. There's no need for an eletronic device to mask the contents of your personal calls.
Instead, why not raise the height of the standard 5'6" cube walls with 7 or 8 foot. Then put a roof and door on it. Voila - problem solved.
I suspect the reason we don't do this is because a 7x7x7 cubicle would be a bit too much like a cocoon. As a cubicle dweller I'd say you don't have to provide me with anything but overhead bins. Then I'll sling my hamock in and enjoy my day.
We don't have a push to do this.
It's because we have this assinine 'use tax'. If you buy something at a lower tax rate or with no tax, you're on the hook to remit the 7% to the state when you file your yearly taxes.
The problem I have with this is that it violates interstate commerce rules. But RI sidesteps that by saying they are not taxing the purchase of the item, but the use of said item.
But then this is Rhode Island. They used to call Massachusetts by the name Taxachussets but RI has since taken the title.
I'm an in-between in the tech world. I started my career some 13 years ago managing a DG MV9600. Since then I've experienced the joys of Windows 3.1, 95, NT 3.5, NT 4, Novell 3.20 and 4.11, Windows 2000 workstation and server, W2K3 server, MS-SQL, MySQL (Which I prefer over all others) and several variants of Linux/Unix. Did I mention phone systems? Done those too.
I loathe what has happened to cell phones with the exception of text messaging. Who the hell needs a camera or even web access on their cell phone? I don't. Of course I can get IM's and emails via SMS so it's not a total loss.
And I also refuse to consider the quality of current cell networks as acceptable. That is precisely why I prefer to be texted as opposed to called.
There is one more side benefit to text messages. You can ignore them. It is a bit harder to igone a ringing phone.
Once the military has truly autonomous vehicles it won't be that much longer before we cede our control of cars to a computer.
Just make sure it isn't using an MS operating system. Otherwise a BSOD will take on a whole new meaning.
Actually there is relevance in your analogy.
Doctors and surgeons are basically glorified technicians. I'd much prefer a doctor with long experience than one with no or little experience.
And as an I.T. person with over 12 years of experience it burns me that some idiot who just got his MCSE gets hired because he's cheaper. You get what you pay for.
So enjoy that third eyeball in the back of your head. Your young surgeon knew what he was doing.
Average transit bus weighs something on the order of 12 tons. How much does a light rail car weigh? Probably significantly more than a car. All you need is one car vs. rail car accident and people will give those light rails a wide berth.
I work with a bunch of library science and archvist types who worry about this all the time.
It's such a pain taking care of books that are a few hundred years old. But they miss the point when it comes to digital.
For example, data I had on 5.25" floppies was moved to 3.5" floppies, then to a 20MB hd, then to a CD-ROM, then onto my current system.
If it's that important you transition it to new media.
My office is solidly on Office 2000 with no intention of upgrading.
It does what we need it to do which is basic word processing.
To be honest, I.T. is the only unit that regularly uses Excel and PowerPoint, or even understands what they should be used for.
But many folks here use custom Access applications. I remember the pain going from Access 97 to Access 2000 and would be loathe to do that even for 2003 or v12. Sometimes the status quo is the best path.
But I see us moving to OpenOffice instead of MS Office 12 in the future. If MA can do it so can we.
Because sometimes only one character in oh, say a regex needs to be changed.
Symantec - I only use one of their products these days. The bloated software and subscription boondoggle are what pushed me away.
But I'm much happier with Firefox than I am with IE. Why? Because things get fixed faster. And lets face facts, IE is so closely intertwined with the OS that when it has security holes the scope of vulnerability is magnified.
This positively reeks of MS trying to eliminate the competition. As we all know, press releases serve no purpose but to advertise. When you consider who would have the motivation to kill Firefox guess where the fickle finger of fate points.
The whole record industry set up stinks to high heaven.
There really isn't any reason the average band can't record and digitize their stuff themselves these days. What they can't do is front themselves the money for touring.
Hmmm... how about a financing company that finances tours for a reasonable cut of revenue, instead of gouging the crap out the bands.
Bravo! The majority of the time I use vi but every now and then I have to use emacs.
I much prefer vi. I don't ever recall having to twist my fingers into knots trying to ctrl-right_shift-something, though being a Windows user ctrl-alt-delete is easy enough.
And vi uses nice easy to remember commands like cw to change word, r to replace a character, dd to delete a line, etc.
So for my money I'd choose vi. I suppose if I knew emacs better I'd vote it equal but that is not the case at this juncture in my career.
Indeed, Pandora's Box has been opened and there's no changing it.
But they'll keep trying to defend a dying distribution mechanism until they ultimately succumb because they were distributing crap.
Here's what I don't get. The overhead costs associated with net distribution are much less than CD media distribution. This is why I don't understand the pricing scheme for things like iTunes and Yahoo Music. True track cost should be ten to twenty cents, not seventy-nine cents or ninety-nine cents.
Then there is the elephant in the room. Apple crows about it's iPod but to be honest - who is going to pay thousands of dollars to fill their iPod. Nobody, that's who. Much of the music on iPods is more than likely illegaly downloaded tracks. Recent rulings would come down and say that Apple enables copyright violation. But curiously nobody touches them.
Lets not mention iTunes and the MyTunes Redux application. Nothing like snatching music while it's being streamed to you.
My point is that copyright violations have been occuring on a regular basis for the past 30 or so years. I can't count how many albums I recorded to tape when I was a kid, each time violating the sanctity of the RIAA. I'm pretty sure those of us that came in at the beginning of the digital revolution did much the same. But now the RIAA sees fit to persecute. Note the choice of the word.
Instead of cultivating a potential market that makes their lives easier, they'd prefer to litigate. It is high time to put the lawyers against the wall.
IBM went through similar growing pains.
Their heyday was the 50's to the 80's and then the bottom dropped out of the equipment market. But IBM adapted.
Microsoft shows some signs of adaptation with the X-Box line but I don't think it will be enough. The bigger they are, the harder they fall and it's usually 30 or so years of the good life, followed by the remainder being rough.
And when they can't ape it, they buy it. Remember that.
Why do I get the feeling that this article pushes outsourcing more than it says I.T. units are bad for the rank and file.
Think about it, no visits to desks but you have to phone Bangalore to figure out that your printer is out of paper.
Of course I use things like VNC, and the web interfaces on printers and the like to check that from the comfort of my chair. The padding on my chair has actually worn down and conforms nicely to my butt.
But seriously - big business is trying to outsource EVERYTHING. All you'll have left in this country is upper level managers. Hell of a lot of good that will do. In my experience the upper level managers are the ones least likely to even know what a computer is, let alone use one.
What are the odds that these schools are running SCT Banner and using IIS?
Pretty damned good. Banner in itself is an ungainly beast, an overlay on top of an Oracle database. But they host the web components on IIS which is a guaranteed point of failure.
I've loathed IIS and MS-SQL ever since I was exposed to LAMP. But universities decided their I.T. shops couldn't produce a good product so they got snowed by the SCT folks. Disgusting I tell you.
I love tabbed browsing. And for those who can't break away from IE (I can't make a complete break as many of the apps I use break in Firefox.) you can download Foxie which gives IE tabs, etc. but sitll uses the same method FF does to close a tab.
But I'm comfortable with tabs the way they are. Wouldn't work any other way for me.
The one point I'd like to make from looking at the map (Nice work with Google Maps by the way.) is that most of the spam seems to originate from the northeast and the west coast.
This doesn't surprise me. Penetration of broadband is higher in those areas. But they aren't the true sources of spam. That comes from elsewhere. It's pretty easy to have a bunch of zombies spew your messages out there.
But here's the interesting part - the broadband providers are letting that volume of spew through because they don't want to actively filter email. I know for a fact that both Cox and Verizon only allow use of their SMTP servers and in the case of Verizon you have to authenticate against the server.
Dr. Henry Levin, DDS is a technically excellent dentist.
But his office manner and communication with patients leaves much to be desired.
How dare they file suit against people expressing an honest opinion.
That is truly unbelievable when most retail concerns are lucky if they can post 10-20% profits.
But MS is scared. They're losing their grip on the server side, particularly in the web server, database server areas. LAMP to the rescue.
Disruptive technologies are the bane of established companies. MS is in for a rude awakening.
With every generation homo sapiens becomes less like sapiens and more like superior.
And it isn't just brain size that's been growing, but as was indicated genetic resistance to disease, etc.
Who know, maybe the premise that the captors of the 4400 isn't so far off.
I mean, most people describe the greys as humanoid in shape, with large heads and eyes, no nose but nasal openings, and a very narrow mouth.
I mean, in case anyone hadn't read about it, they've figured out that the human jaw is getting more narrow because more of our food is processed before we eat it.
But I've gone off in 'what if' territory here for too long.