I have wondered for years how long it would take us Canadians to finally get rid of that awful piece of currency. Especially given that it takes more money to produce it than it is actually worth. No one can buy anything with pennies anymore and they really are nothing more than just metal wasting space. Plus, vending machines have never taken them which has made them even more useless than before.
And with the power out, how exactly are you going to use the vending machine? And who's to say if you smashed the glass and got it open that the phone in the machine would even be charged
This is another case of a parent who doesn't want their kids to fail in anything until they get to the real world and realize that, uhm, people fail at a lot of things and your daddy isn't going to help you any.
Seriously, I took chemistry twice and sucked at it and just got through it. We can't all have classes that are picture perfect for us. Some things we're good at and others we're not. Deal with it.
I have had television my whole life. On top of that, I can't ever remember not having cable TV in my home (live in Canada, cable gives us the major US networks). As of today, I pay $75/mo for cable in two rooms in my house with two PVR's, time shifting, some HD channels, and a good chunk of regular programming.
I've found myself for the first time in my life thinking about cancelling cable and going straight with Netflix and torrent downloads for my TV shows. All for one simple reason. Money. The fact is, if I can download all of these shows at no cost, or pay a small premium fee (such as Netflix) to watch them when I want to watch them, why would I fork out $75/mo to watch the news, sports, and channel surf. I don't watch sports on TV and I read all the news online.
I realize that torrent downloads don't help to pay for the shows I watch, or prevent them from being cancelled, but I'm in Canada and our viewing habits do not influence US shows from cancellation. On top of that, there's no good television "service" that allows me to watch the programs I want without commercials. I would gladly pay the $75/mo for my television service if it meant I could watch anything I want, anytime I want, but without commercials.
It feels like people's viewing habits are changing now that television programs are available on demand and that as the demand for on demand (as lame as that sounds) continues, I don't think it's the death of TV, but the death of broadcast/cable television.
I really shrug my shoulders and shake my head when I see comments like this
I mean, really? Is that really what people are so paranoid about? Are you so scared that by telling your friends you are at Starbucks for coffee that others are going to break into your house and steal everything you own? Are you really that worried that there's SO many people out there that want to steal YOUR stuff that they are watching everything YOU do and just waiting for you to leave the house to take your stuff?
I get wanting to take precautions and I get wanting to be safe, but just because the service is there doesn't mean you have to use it. Hell, a simple tweet or FB status update can tell the world that you're at work. How is that any different? Do you ever do an update that says where you are? Probably at least once you have.
Yes, it has happened where people's homes have been broken into because other folks knew they weren't home. It's also happened when people drive by your house, see no one home, and break in. I would bet the odds are higher that the latter would happen versus theft via FB update.
To assume that the usage of location based services like this or FourSqaure immediately means people are going to use it to commit a crime against you comes across as being a bit paranoid. Relax. Not everyone is out there to steal your stuff.
Ya it blows. Love how they launch a service for a site that has 500 million people on it but then only make this "feature" available to a small subset.
There's a misconception amongst hardcore OSS folks that everyone in the world likes to "tinker". No, they don't. No they want things to just WORK and when it doesn't, to be able to get answers easily without being chastised and made fun of because of their "inferior" knowledge.
I consider myself a full on geek as I have been surrounded by computers since I was 7 years old (30 years ago). I've programmed in DOS to C to PHP. I've built servers, I've taught classes, I've blah blah blah. I know how to get shit done when it needs done and I don't know everything but I know enough.
I have tried several times over the years to make the switch from Windows and proprietary software to Linux. I love the idea that Linux is open and that there's such a huge community of open source out there. I really want to embrace it.
But every single time I have tried to make the jump, it's been made clear to me what the difference is. Most of the points made in your post are true. Documentation is horrible. Yes, there are a TON of sites on the internet with information and YES there are some sites that are really well done. But how does someone who has NO KNOWLEDGE of these sites find them? Telling me to "google it" is not an answer. How much time should I be spending "searching" for answers.
Most installs I have done have gone off without a hitch, but when something doesn't work, it's hell trying to find an answer. Scouring through message boards and countless other sites trying to get an answer on the simplest questions is not fun. Plus, in many instances, the Linux community comes back with the harshest of answers saying that if I don't know how to recompile my kernel, or don't know how to fix a driver issue, I shouldn't be using Linux in the first place.
These are the reasons that Linux has never and will never become a mainstream desktop OS unless there's a fundamental change in the way the OSS community treats NON-geeks. Regular users. Regular users JUST WANT STUFF TO WORK! They don't care about how it works, or why it works, they just want it to work.
This is why Windows and OS X are so popular. You can whine all you want about power hungry corporations blah blah blah. But the products they produce are easily used by millions worldwide and most of them are dumbass users who have no clue how anything works, and they are content to be that way.
So with all of that said, do you really think it's a good idea to have an OSS version of Facebook where instead of having what FB is now, we have 100 crappy copies of it that are all basically the same thing but with very minute differences? How does that HELP anyone?
I'm ok with the $549 pricetag. What I want is to be able to get my hands on one before forking out the cash. There are no Apple stores east of Quebec so us in Atlantic Canada are kind of screwed unless they will be selling them at Future Shop.
It is worth it for some people
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iPad Review
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· Score: 1
I've been reading reviews and keeping up on the iPad info from various places because it is something that I am very interested in. In reading this review here, it doesn't surprise me that people are bashing it. It seems that the tech savvy folks are attacking the iPad for a whole pile of reasons because it doesn't do what they want it to do. Then we get reviews like this one that go at it because of the lack of Flash and a pile of other things that seriously sound like nitpicking. But, everyone has an opinion and here is mine.
I have yet to put my hands on an iPad but I already know exactly what I would use it for and why it would work so well. I work for a large IT company and have been a tech savvy geek for more than 20 years so I know all about what is good and what is crap, but I also have seen plenty of folks on sites like this bitch about products like the iPad for a pile of reasons that ultimately don't add up to much down the road.
I absolutely can see this type of device being used for CASUAL computing. Not sitting at your desk typing out reports, or spending hours upon hours doing work stuff. But for simple uses like basic web surfing, watching tv and movies, and providing other types of content in an interface that is simple and easy to use. I give you my own experience.
I have a small laptop which could almost pass as a netbook and I have it because it's portable and I can take it places. A lot of times it (or my wife's laptop) sit on the kitchen table and if we want to look something up, we open it up, and check our bank account or other various online activities. I've used it to stream music in our kitchen, but mostly we read the news, check Twitter or Facebook, read our email, or do quick little look ups of stuff. We don't use it heavily in the kitchen but it is there.
I got an iPhone through work and have been using it for almost two years. Around the same time, I was also trying to come up with some sort of multimedia/internet solution for my kitchen. I wanted to be able to stream my MP3 collection and Shoutcast radio to my kitchen amp. I also thought it would be nice if I had a touchscreen interface to access the stations and music I wanted, along with basic internet surfing if I wanted to check my bank balance, or update my Twitter & Facebook. I never got a good solution but I did buy a dock for my iPhone which lets me play music through my amp. I ended up with my or my wife's laptop on the kitchen table to do the other stuff. I always thought that if I had an iPhone that was a lot bigger, it would likely be able to do what I want.
Well wouldn't you know it, the iPad arrives. This gives me exactly what I want.
I'll be the first to admit that my situation is unique, but I would like to point out that Apple is going after a market for people that want an EASY solution for CASUAL internet and multimedia. I'll tell you, nothing irritates me more than when Iopen my laptop and it takes 10-20 seconds for me to get the web browser open because it was asleep and I have to wait for it to come out of hibernation, and then it acquires a wifi signal and blah blah blah. Regardless of what laptop I use, it still takes me anywhere from 15-60 seconds to go from opening the lid of my laptop, to having a webpage loaded. When I do it with my iPhone, I have pages loaded before the browser on my laptop has even opened. My laptops are decent machines with good RAM and are solid, but coming out of sleep mode, they suck.
The idea that I can just grab a tablet, tap the screen a few times, and I have my bank account open is EXTREMELY appealing. Apple is king when it comes to ease and interface. This has been shown again and again. People can argue all they want about being locked in to their app world, and the lack of open source and all of that stuff, but at the end of the day, they create products and interfaces that JUST WORK! I don't have to spend countless hours trying to put something together to give me what I want. I can just buy a product that has it. I could have built
I'd hire the one that did better in the interview. Of the two, which one of them does my gut tell me would do a better job.
The diploma does not dictate the person.
If I couldn't decide based on my interview, I'd request a second interview with different questions, different scenarios until I knew which one was better for job.
I went to college. I don't have a "degree" per say, but I received two diplomas from local colleges. Now mind you, the college is long gone now, and a lot of people were screwed by them, but I did get something. No, I don't have a university degree and I really have no intention of getting one.
What do I do? I'm a product consultant now with the world's largest enterprise software company.
How did I start? Did crap work for the government. My schooling got me an unpaid internship at the government where I did some programming for them. That lead to two other contract jobs for the same government outfit. I earned those contracts based on my good work I did previously
When I got out of school, I worked for the school district, then as a programmer for IBM, and eventually as a sysadmin for a box manufacturing company.
How did I get to where I am now? By proving myself as someone of value.
Having a degree is nice, and I will admit that maybe down the road, it will hinder my desire to get into management, but I won't know til I get there. I make a good pay (same level as my peers) but I had to work hard to get here. My first IT job was in the summer of 1993. That was when I had the crap government job. Throw in 3 years of delivering pizza, and a year back in school, then I got back into IT. I got hired onto where I am now in 2006.
I had to start somewhere and prove that I was valuable enough to "climb the ladder".
Any company that won't hire someone because they don't have a degree is not a company I want to work for. Companies that realize that real value comes from the person, and their experience, not the diploma or education they have, are the ones that you want to aim for.
Here in Canada it's a tough place to find IT work, but there's always somewhere to start, regardless of education.
A lot of what I am seeing in these replies is "tech" related. USB keys, secret codes, special software, etc. What do you do when the people around you are not as tech savvy as yourself?
I look at my situation. I have a few tech friends but none of whom I would trust with that kind of information. My wife, although not a dumbass, is not a super tech person and wouldn't have a clue how to "decrypt" files or anything like that.
For me, it's simply a matter of including information in my will about how to disconnect my websites, log on to social network sites and inform people, and where and how to access my data.
I'm not going to go out and rent a safety deposit box for the sole purpose of holding my passwords. My opinion, that's retarded. Who pays that kind of money out every month for something like that? If you do, I suspect it's paranoia. You need to be able to trust someone and in my case, I trust my wife.
I travel anywhere from once to three times a month and have been doing so for awhile so I am pretty familiar with the whole delays because of boarding issues.
First off, boarding by row number is a good idea but the problem is you will ALWAYS have these idiots who insist that they need to board first before anyone else. They don't listen to the gate agent (who you can barely understand at times over those damn PA's) and are insistent that they go on first or that since they are already at the counter, they should just be allowed to board.
I think the gate agents should do a hell of a lot more to prepare the folks for boarding. Tell them that if they intend to put their jacket above, to take it off before they get on the plane. Tell them they need to put their bag or whatever in the above bin, or below quickly to help with the boarding.
Telling folks they can't have carry-on bags is retarded. There is no way in hell I would trust a baggage handler with my laptop and I know I'd lose my luggage and have no clothes for the first day of meeting a new client. Forget it. Besides, those of us who do travel a lot have status with the airline and board first, or have traveled enough that we know exactly what we need to do to get out of the way so the plane can take off.
It irritates me to no end to see someone standing in the isle just casually taking their coat off or whatever knowing full well they are holding the line up. Get your shit off, pack it away, and get the hell out of the way of everyone else. I know because of my travel experience that I need to get my carry-on stuff in the bin quickly, and into my seat quickly, so that we can leave quickly.
The problem is that most of the time every flight will have people who don't fly a lot and don't know the problems that come from standing around. If the agents spent a minute before pre-boarding to let folks know they need to be conscious of this stuff, I think it would help reduce, not eliminate, the problems.
And please, for fuck sakes, if you have a wheely bag, don't wheel it down the isle. Pick the damn thing up and carry it til you get to your seat and can put it away. I can't count the amount of people I have seen trying to "wheel" a bag down the isle of a CRJ and keep getting it caught on people, seats, or other things. Don't be so freaking lazy!
One of the things I tend to think about when looking back at those old systems was that there was an entirely different approach to getting apps to run on them. In those days, you had to use every last bit of RAM from anywhere you could get it. I remember the days of using the cassette memory on the C64 so I would have enough RAM to display sprites correctly. Or hell, using the buffer on the 1541 disk drive to store extra data when needed. It was all about trying to use what you had and not force others to get a better system.
Nowadays, it's all about forcing the user to buy a better system or more drive space or more ram or a faster CPU. If programmer's actually USED the resources we have like we used to on those old systems, man our software today would kick ass.
As a side note, I remember very clearly having an app for the 64 that would make the 1541 disk drive play some kind of song on it. VERY bad for the drive, but funny as hell.
I live in eastern Canada (New Brunswick) where the cost of living is decent, and the population here is very low, but we have a booming IT/support sector happening out here.
I have been working in IT now for more than 10 years and my first contract job was in 1994 and I got paid $12/hr for break-fix work. That equates to about 25k/yr. I have been a break fix guy, Y2k person (yes I know, horribly lame), programmer, analyst, IT instructor, sysadmin, and consultant. Each position I have held has seen my salary go up somewhat or stay relatively the same. From 1998 to 2006, I saw my salary go from 25k - 39k per year. I only had one situation where my salary actually decreased and that was by choice. I never however broke 40k/year until my most recent position.
In the area where I live, we have some costs of living that are high, but generally, it's a pretty decent place to live. Someone who earns 40k/year as a sysadmin, or a programmer, is doing VERY well. In fact, my 39K/yr as a sysadmin was unheard of by most of the people I knew in the IT sector around here. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was in fact being paid VERY well.
Now, my salary is exceptionally well, and although I don't get a bonus, we do get substantial increases based on certain situations. Those increases are 10-15% of our annual.
Regardless, the point I am trying to make is that it depends vastly on where you live, the field you are in, and the company you work for. The company I work for is widely known as being one of the best places to work in our city, and pay is part of it. But I didn't just get handed this job. I had to go through all of the other shitty jobs I've had before, and gradually work my way up to the pay scale I am at now. It wasn't just handed to me on a silver platter.
I used to work as an instructor at an IT school and it amazed me the amount of students who would come in with only the knowledge they got in school or on their own, expect to take their course, and get a job paying 50k a year. Completely and totally unrealistic. You need to start somewhere, do the shitty work, pay your dues, and if you work hard at it, it pays off down the road.
If you find that every company you work for is paying crap wages, then maybe you need to re-evaluate what you consider crap. Maybe you have the wrong expectations for the field you are in and need to examine what it is you are expecting. Too many people put the blame on others when in fact it's your own perceptions that are flawed.
Five years ago, I would have said I was horribly underpaid and had a crap job. Looking back now, I had a crap job, but the pay was awesome and it lead me to where I am now.
I work for a company where I can pretty much sit at my desk and surf the internet anytime I want. The company is more focused on the end result and insuring that the clients are happy. As long as I get my work done and the client is happy, they could care less if I spend 4 hours on the internet.
For my job, I travel a lot so I spend countless Sunday's in airports with nothing to do when I could be home sleeping, or doing personal things. Because I give up PLENTY of my own time for the company and am paid a flat salary, the company has to find ways to compensate for that and it's not always about money. I know I can piss away an entire day of web surfing if I want to because of the amount of extra time I have put in on other projects.
It's all about balance. I've worked in places where they got all anal about web access and all it did was make the employee feel like their bosses didn't trust them and that they were being treated like little kids. The same company has had MAJOR problems with turnover because of the micro-managing of its staff.
The internet does make it easier to slack off, so there are those who abuse it, but if your HR department knew how to hire the right people, they would hire people that will give results, and deserve a little bit of slack time.
I personally believe that any company that gets so anal about people doing a little bit of personal stuff on company time, is not a company I want to work for. People are not drones and they need a little bit of a break or distraction once in awhile to bring them back to the real world. If a company wants to be anal about web access, they designate specific times for breaks, and give access during those times. At least that's something
Rogers is the only GSM provider in Canada and has been tapped to sell the iPhone there this fall. I have a friend who works for Rogers and he already mentioned it to me like a week or so ago. The iPhone is coming this year for us.
Front-ends were my worst problem
on
Project Arcade
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I took an old Street Fighter II box and re-did it as a MAME box a few years ago but for me, I wanted to do more than just the arcade games. I also included NES, and Atari stuff in it as well. I also liked the idea of running some of the well done remakes of classics (Activision's Space Invaders was done very well, as were some of the other remakes).
What I found was that pretty much every one of the launchers/front-ends I found sucked. I found nothing that allowed me to incorporate multiple emulators, and non-emulation apps, into one nice little launcher. Yes, there were some nice apps out there but nothing really worked overly well, and I was very disappointed. All I wanted was a long list of games, each with a screenshot, and a launch button. Nothing fancy.
I ended up writing my own little app which launches when the machine boots, and then kicks off whatever app/emu is required to launch the game.
For me, writing the app was part of my experience, but it would have been nice had I been able to just use something that already existed.
I work for a software company in eastern Canada. We have 3 locations and about 200 employees. The company is now only 10 years old but it did start in 1997 so you can imagine that it may have been like all of the other dot coms that died during the bust.
I've only been with the company for about a year and a half, but it's quite clear to me that things here are very much like things were in many other places.
I wear a t-shirt and jeans to work. We have a pool table in our common area and an Xbox in the lounge. Free BBQ's throughout the summer and even all you can drink Christmas parties and golf tournaments.
The one thing that distinguishes us from other companies is that we have an actual product that does actual work and is actually useful. Aside from that, the people responsible for hiring actually know what kind of people to look for. The reason the dot com era happened was there was a lot of money and no substance, especially at the business level.
What I find interesting in seeing posts/articles like this one is how supposedly a casual environment is such a big nono or pointer to the past when it meant all hell would break loose, and yet there are companies, like the one I work for, that are thriving and still continue to have flex hours, awesome benefits, great parties, and a great business plan.
It's definitely not Web 2.0. It's just an attitude and some reasonable business sense.
After reading a lot of people from the USA claiming this was bullshit and making a big fuss about it (something you do a lot of) I went to the site myself, and sure enough, there's PLENTY of albums available in MP3 format.
I live in Canada and we're seeing the links. I suspect that since the RIAA rules your dominion, you guys are stuck living in a DRM world for Puretracks but for Canadians, we're finally seeing some MP3's on this site.
You guys gotta stop flaming other people and claiming the story is bullshit until you do a little research. Just because you live in the US doesn't mean that you can get to it. It's the same thing that pisses me off about American websites that advertise the ability to stream TV shows but the moment I try it, no luck because I live in Canada.
BTW, since I have bought stuff from Puretracks in the past, I received an email from them just prior to reading the post on Slashdot. Here's a copy of the letter.
---- Thank you for being a Puretracks customer. We are very excited to announce that as of today Puretracks will be offering MP3 files for sale on our site at Puretracks.com: http://www.puretracks.com/content/viewer.aspx?cid= GlobalNav_MP3. And as the first North American digital service provider to launch 'a la carte' MP3 music downloads, we're happy to offer you a free MP3 track from the popular Canadian band The Barenaked Ladies. The track, called 'The Sound of Your Voice,' will be delivered along with the February 27th Puretracks newsletter. You will need to be a registered newsletter subscriber to be eligible to download this track. If you don't currently receive our newsletter (filled with weekly free tracks and exclusive content), click here to register. MP3s at Puretracks MP3 tracks are easy to download (no licenses required) and can be played on all digital audio devices. Puretracks currently offers over 50,000 tracks in French and English from popular artists such as: Sarah McLachlan, Broken Social Scene, Feist, The Barenaked Ladies, Jean Leloup and Richard Seguin. Track prices starting at $ 0.79 each. Be sure to register now for the Puretracks newsletter to get your free MP3 track from The Barenaked Ladies! Click here to register. If you are already registered, watch for your February 27th Puretracks newsletter to get your free track. Regards,
I work for a software company here in eastern Canada. We're in the top ten of privately owned software companies in Canada. We're about 200 employees. At our office in Moncton, there are no restrictions on internet access of any kind. In fact, I'm at work right now posting this message and I have no worries of my boss or anyone else watching what I am doing because in this place of work, all of the employees are trusted to do their job and get their work done.
I find it's a lot more about the philosophy of the company as a whole. Here, most employees work 8:30-5:30 with an hour for lunch. No one's watching the clock and telling us we were 5 minutes late or took an extra 10 minutes for lunch. The idea is that the managers know the staff do their work and as long as the work is done, it doesn't matter if you surf the net or take a longer lunch. Just don't abuse it.
I have plenty of colleagues who surf the net, IM, stream audio, and plenty of other non-work related stuff with the internet and they have been doing it for years. They'll do it in front of the bosses, even the COO & CEO and there's no issues. The issues don't exist because for starters, everyone knows that they have a job to do and they do it. The company also makes sure that they hire people who are not going to abuse it or go too far. When someone abuses it they are confronted and the issue is dealt with. If they continue to abuse it, and their work suffers, the employee is let go. But here, it happens so little because people are paid well, treated well, treated fairly, and they all know it and respect it so there's no problems.
I can see the whole issue of "security" but where I work, we have good security software which does its job, and an excellent IT staff who are well trained, well educated, and well experienced. They do their job. The regular staff are well trained about things they should and should not do. I've seen no issues with security or huge virus outbreaks here yet and admittedly, I'm not in the IT department but when a virus hits, everyone knows.
I think the thing is that many companies are poorly run and when things start falling apart, they blame the employees for surfing the internet instead of addressing the real problem. I worked for one firm where a controller came to me and wanted me to monitor someones internet time because she thought they were doing too much of it. The employee maybe surfed the net for a whole 15 minutes of a work day, if that. Turns out, the controller was let go because she was incompetent (sp?) and couldn't manage her staff and time right. It wasn't about internet abuse. It was about having the wrong employee working for you.
My point is, it's not about just saying you can have access or not, it's part of the whole environment and not just a technicality about internet access. I've always been of the type that if the company gives a little, they'll get back far more, provided they have the right kind of people on their payroll.
Slashdot Mirror
I have wondered for years how long it would take us Canadians to finally get rid of that awful piece of currency. Especially given that it takes more money to produce it than it is actually worth. No one can buy anything with pennies anymore and they really are nothing more than just metal wasting space. Plus, vending machines have never taken them which has made them even more useless than before.
And with the power out, how exactly are you going to use the vending machine? And who's to say if you smashed the glass and got it open that the phone in the machine would even be charged
This is another case of a parent who doesn't want their kids to fail in anything until they get to the real world and realize that, uhm, people fail at a lot of things and your daddy isn't going to help you any.
Seriously, I took chemistry twice and sucked at it and just got through it. We can't all have classes that are picture perfect for us. Some things we're good at and others we're not. Deal with it.
I have had television my whole life. On top of that, I can't ever remember not having cable TV in my home (live in Canada, cable gives us the major US networks). As of today, I pay $75/mo for cable in two rooms in my house with two PVR's, time shifting, some HD channels, and a good chunk of regular programming.
I've found myself for the first time in my life thinking about cancelling cable and going straight with Netflix and torrent downloads for my TV shows. All for one simple reason. Money. The fact is, if I can download all of these shows at no cost, or pay a small premium fee (such as Netflix) to watch them when I want to watch them, why would I fork out $75/mo to watch the news, sports, and channel surf. I don't watch sports on TV and I read all the news online.
I realize that torrent downloads don't help to pay for the shows I watch, or prevent them from being cancelled, but I'm in Canada and our viewing habits do not influence US shows from cancellation. On top of that, there's no good television "service" that allows me to watch the programs I want without commercials. I would gladly pay the $75/mo for my television service if it meant I could watch anything I want, anytime I want, but without commercials.
It feels like people's viewing habits are changing now that television programs are available on demand and that as the demand for on demand (as lame as that sounds) continues, I don't think it's the death of TV, but the death of broadcast/cable television.
I really shrug my shoulders and shake my head when I see comments like this
I mean, really? Is that really what people are so paranoid about? Are you so scared that by telling your friends you are at Starbucks for coffee that others are going to break into your house and steal everything you own? Are you really that worried that there's SO many people out there that want to steal YOUR stuff that they are watching everything YOU do and just waiting for you to leave the house to take your stuff?
I get wanting to take precautions and I get wanting to be safe, but just because the service is there doesn't mean you have to use it. Hell, a simple tweet or FB status update can tell the world that you're at work. How is that any different? Do you ever do an update that says where you are? Probably at least once you have.
Yes, it has happened where people's homes have been broken into because other folks knew they weren't home. It's also happened when people drive by your house, see no one home, and break in. I would bet the odds are higher that the latter would happen versus theft via FB update.
To assume that the usage of location based services like this or FourSqaure immediately means people are going to use it to commit a crime against you comes across as being a bit paranoid. Relax. Not everyone is out there to steal your stuff.
Ya it blows. Love how they launch a service for a site that has 500 million people on it but then only make this "feature" available to a small subset.
I agree with you completely.
There's a misconception amongst hardcore OSS folks that everyone in the world likes to "tinker". No, they don't. No they want things to just WORK and when it doesn't, to be able to get answers easily without being chastised and made fun of because of their "inferior" knowledge.
I consider myself a full on geek as I have been surrounded by computers since I was 7 years old (30 years ago). I've programmed in DOS to C to PHP. I've built servers, I've taught classes, I've blah blah blah. I know how to get shit done when it needs done and I don't know everything but I know enough.
I have tried several times over the years to make the switch from Windows and proprietary software to Linux. I love the idea that Linux is open and that there's such a huge community of open source out there. I really want to embrace it.
But every single time I have tried to make the jump, it's been made clear to me what the difference is. Most of the points made in your post are true. Documentation is horrible. Yes, there are a TON of sites on the internet with information and YES there are some sites that are really well done. But how does someone who has NO KNOWLEDGE of these sites find them? Telling me to "google it" is not an answer. How much time should I be spending "searching" for answers.
Most installs I have done have gone off without a hitch, but when something doesn't work, it's hell trying to find an answer. Scouring through message boards and countless other sites trying to get an answer on the simplest questions is not fun. Plus, in many instances, the Linux community comes back with the harshest of answers saying that if I don't know how to recompile my kernel, or don't know how to fix a driver issue, I shouldn't be using Linux in the first place.
These are the reasons that Linux has never and will never become a mainstream desktop OS unless there's a fundamental change in the way the OSS community treats NON-geeks. Regular users. Regular users JUST WANT STUFF TO WORK! They don't care about how it works, or why it works, they just want it to work.
This is why Windows and OS X are so popular. You can whine all you want about power hungry corporations blah blah blah. But the products they produce are easily used by millions worldwide and most of them are dumbass users who have no clue how anything works, and they are content to be that way.
So with all of that said, do you really think it's a good idea to have an OSS version of Facebook where instead of having what FB is now, we have 100 crappy copies of it that are all basically the same thing but with very minute differences? How does that HELP anyone?
I'm ok with the $549 pricetag. What I want is to be able to get my hands on one before forking out the cash. There are no Apple stores east of Quebec so us in Atlantic Canada are kind of screwed unless they will be selling them at Future Shop.
I've been reading reviews and keeping up on the iPad info from various places because it is something that I am very interested in. In reading this review here, it doesn't surprise me that people are bashing it. It seems that the tech savvy folks are attacking the iPad for a whole pile of reasons because it doesn't do what they want it to do. Then we get reviews like this one that go at it because of the lack of Flash and a pile of other things that seriously sound like nitpicking. But, everyone has an opinion and here is mine.
I have yet to put my hands on an iPad but I already know exactly what I would use it for and why it would work so well. I work for a large IT company and have been a tech savvy geek for more than 20 years so I know all about what is good and what is crap, but I also have seen plenty of folks on sites like this bitch about products like the iPad for a pile of reasons that ultimately don't add up to much down the road.
I absolutely can see this type of device being used for CASUAL computing. Not sitting at your desk typing out reports, or spending hours upon hours doing work stuff. But for simple uses like basic web surfing, watching tv and movies, and providing other types of content in an interface that is simple and easy to use. I give you my own experience.
I have a small laptop which could almost pass as a netbook and I have it because it's portable and I can take it places. A lot of times it (or my wife's laptop) sit on the kitchen table and if we want to look something up, we open it up, and check our bank account or other various online activities. I've used it to stream music in our kitchen, but mostly we read the news, check Twitter or Facebook, read our email, or do quick little look ups of stuff. We don't use it heavily in the kitchen but it is there.
I got an iPhone through work and have been using it for almost two years. Around the same time, I was also trying to come up with some sort of multimedia/internet solution for my kitchen. I wanted to be able to stream my MP3 collection and Shoutcast radio to my kitchen amp. I also thought it would be nice if I had a touchscreen interface to access the stations and music I wanted, along with basic internet surfing if I wanted to check my bank balance, or update my Twitter & Facebook. I never got a good solution but I did buy a dock for my iPhone which lets me play music through my amp. I ended up with my or my wife's laptop on the kitchen table to do the other stuff. I always thought that if I had an iPhone that was a lot bigger, it would likely be able to do what I want.
Well wouldn't you know it, the iPad arrives. This gives me exactly what I want.
I'll be the first to admit that my situation is unique, but I would like to point out that Apple is going after a market for people that want an EASY solution for CASUAL internet and multimedia. I'll tell you, nothing irritates me more than when Iopen my laptop and it takes 10-20 seconds for me to get the web browser open because it was asleep and I have to wait for it to come out of hibernation, and then it acquires a wifi signal and blah blah blah. Regardless of what laptop I use, it still takes me anywhere from 15-60 seconds to go from opening the lid of my laptop, to having a webpage loaded. When I do it with my iPhone, I have pages loaded before the browser on my laptop has even opened. My laptops are decent machines with good RAM and are solid, but coming out of sleep mode, they suck.
The idea that I can just grab a tablet, tap the screen a few times, and I have my bank account open is EXTREMELY appealing. Apple is king when it comes to ease and interface. This has been shown again and again. People can argue all they want about being locked in to their app world, and the lack of open source and all of that stuff, but at the end of the day, they create products and interfaces that JUST WORK! I don't have to spend countless hours trying to put something together to give me what I want. I can just buy a product that has it. I could have built
Unfortunately you are probably right.
I've got a dozen or so domains with these guys and I LOVE them as a host. Awesome company and have had extremely good service with them.
I'd hire the one that did better in the interview. Of the two, which one of them does my gut tell me would do a better job.
The diploma does not dictate the person.
If I couldn't decide based on my interview, I'd request a second interview with different questions, different scenarios until I knew which one was better for job.
I went to college. I don't have a "degree" per say, but I received two diplomas from local colleges. Now mind you, the college is long gone now, and a lot of people were screwed by them, but I did get something. No, I don't have a university degree and I really have no intention of getting one.
What do I do? I'm a product consultant now with the world's largest enterprise software company.
How did I start? Did crap work for the government. My schooling got me an unpaid internship at the government where I did some programming for them. That lead to two other contract jobs for the same government outfit. I earned those contracts based on my good work I did previously
When I got out of school, I worked for the school district, then as a programmer for IBM, and eventually as a sysadmin for a box manufacturing company.
How did I get to where I am now? By proving myself as someone of value.
Having a degree is nice, and I will admit that maybe down the road, it will hinder my desire to get into management, but I won't know til I get there. I make a good pay (same level as my peers) but I had to work hard to get here. My first IT job was in the summer of 1993. That was when I had the crap government job. Throw in 3 years of delivering pizza, and a year back in school, then I got back into IT. I got hired onto where I am now in 2006.
I had to start somewhere and prove that I was valuable enough to "climb the ladder".
Any company that won't hire someone because they don't have a degree is not a company I want to work for. Companies that realize that real value comes from the person, and their experience, not the diploma or education they have, are the ones that you want to aim for.
Here in Canada it's a tough place to find IT work, but there's always somewhere to start, regardless of education.
This is EXACTLY the kind of thing that pisses me off to no end.
Companies/people who think that education and/or certification justifies someone being given a job.
I have known COUNTLESS people who have lots of education, lots of certifications, and are dumber than fish shit.
I once knew a guy who had his CS degree, and a CCNA for Cisco, but didn't know how to use the PING command.
Sounds like you would go ahead and hire this guy, give him buckets of cash, then wonder why nothing works.
Good luck buddy!
A lot of what I am seeing in these replies is "tech" related. USB keys, secret codes, special software, etc. What do you do when the people around you are not as tech savvy as yourself?
I look at my situation. I have a few tech friends but none of whom I would trust with that kind of information. My wife, although not a dumbass, is not a super tech person and wouldn't have a clue how to "decrypt" files or anything like that.
For me, it's simply a matter of including information in my will about how to disconnect my websites, log on to social network sites and inform people, and where and how to access my data.
I'm not going to go out and rent a safety deposit box for the sole purpose of holding my passwords. My opinion, that's retarded. Who pays that kind of money out every month for something like that? If you do, I suspect it's paranoia. You need to be able to trust someone and in my case, I trust my wife.
I travel anywhere from once to three times a month and have been doing so for awhile so I am pretty familiar with the whole delays because of boarding issues.
First off, boarding by row number is a good idea but the problem is you will ALWAYS have these idiots who insist that they need to board first before anyone else. They don't listen to the gate agent (who you can barely understand at times over those damn PA's) and are insistent that they go on first or that since they are already at the counter, they should just be allowed to board.
I think the gate agents should do a hell of a lot more to prepare the folks for boarding. Tell them that if they intend to put their jacket above, to take it off before they get on the plane. Tell them they need to put their bag or whatever in the above bin, or below quickly to help with the boarding.
Telling folks they can't have carry-on bags is retarded. There is no way in hell I would trust a baggage handler with my laptop and I know I'd lose my luggage and have no clothes for the first day of meeting a new client. Forget it. Besides, those of us who do travel a lot have status with the airline and board first, or have traveled enough that we know exactly what we need to do to get out of the way so the plane can take off.
It irritates me to no end to see someone standing in the isle just casually taking their coat off or whatever knowing full well they are holding the line up. Get your shit off, pack it away, and get the hell out of the way of everyone else. I know because of my travel experience that I need to get my carry-on stuff in the bin quickly, and into my seat quickly, so that we can leave quickly.
The problem is that most of the time every flight will have people who don't fly a lot and don't know the problems that come from standing around. If the agents spent a minute before pre-boarding to let folks know they need to be conscious of this stuff, I think it would help reduce, not eliminate, the problems.
And please, for fuck sakes, if you have a wheely bag, don't wheel it down the isle. Pick the damn thing up and carry it til you get to your seat and can put it away. I can't count the amount of people I have seen trying to "wheel" a bag down the isle of a CRJ and keep getting it caught on people, seats, or other things. Don't be so freaking lazy!
One of the things I tend to think about when looking back at those old systems was that there was an entirely different approach to getting apps to run on them. In those days, you had to use every last bit of RAM from anywhere you could get it. I remember the days of using the cassette memory on the C64 so I would have enough RAM to display sprites correctly. Or hell, using the buffer on the 1541 disk drive to store extra data when needed. It was all about trying to use what you had and not force others to get a better system.
Nowadays, it's all about forcing the user to buy a better system or more drive space or more ram or a faster CPU. If programmer's actually USED the resources we have like we used to on those old systems, man our software today would kick ass.
As a side note, I remember very clearly having an app for the 64 that would make the 1541 disk drive play some kind of song on it. VERY bad for the drive, but funny as hell.
I live in eastern Canada (New Brunswick) where the cost of living is decent, and the population here is very low, but we have a booming IT/support sector happening out here.
I have been working in IT now for more than 10 years and my first contract job was in 1994 and I got paid $12/hr for break-fix work. That equates to about 25k/yr. I have been a break fix guy, Y2k person (yes I know, horribly lame), programmer, analyst, IT instructor, sysadmin, and consultant. Each position I have held has seen my salary go up somewhat or stay relatively the same. From 1998 to 2006, I saw my salary go from 25k - 39k per year. I only had one situation where my salary actually decreased and that was by choice. I never however broke 40k/year until my most recent position.
In the area where I live, we have some costs of living that are high, but generally, it's a pretty decent place to live. Someone who earns 40k/year as a sysadmin, or a programmer, is doing VERY well. In fact, my 39K/yr as a sysadmin was unheard of by most of the people I knew in the IT sector around here. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was in fact being paid VERY well.
Now, my salary is exceptionally well, and although I don't get a bonus, we do get substantial increases based on certain situations. Those increases are 10-15% of our annual.
Regardless, the point I am trying to make is that it depends vastly on where you live, the field you are in, and the company you work for. The company I work for is widely known as being one of the best places to work in our city, and pay is part of it. But I didn't just get handed this job. I had to go through all of the other shitty jobs I've had before, and gradually work my way up to the pay scale I am at now. It wasn't just handed to me on a silver platter.
I used to work as an instructor at an IT school and it amazed me the amount of students who would come in with only the knowledge they got in school or on their own, expect to take their course, and get a job paying 50k a year. Completely and totally unrealistic. You need to start somewhere, do the shitty work, pay your dues, and if you work hard at it, it pays off down the road.
If you find that every company you work for is paying crap wages, then maybe you need to re-evaluate what you consider crap. Maybe you have the wrong expectations for the field you are in and need to examine what it is you are expecting. Too many people put the blame on others when in fact it's your own perceptions that are flawed.
Five years ago, I would have said I was horribly underpaid and had a crap job. Looking back now, I had a crap job, but the pay was awesome and it lead me to where I am now.
I work for a company where I can pretty much sit at my desk and surf the internet anytime I want. The company is more focused on the end result and insuring that the clients are happy. As long as I get my work done and the client is happy, they could care less if I spend 4 hours on the internet.
For my job, I travel a lot so I spend countless Sunday's in airports with nothing to do when I could be home sleeping, or doing personal things. Because I give up PLENTY of my own time for the company and am paid a flat salary, the company has to find ways to compensate for that and it's not always about money. I know I can piss away an entire day of web surfing if I want to because of the amount of extra time I have put in on other projects.
It's all about balance. I've worked in places where they got all anal about web access and all it did was make the employee feel like their bosses didn't trust them and that they were being treated like little kids. The same company has had MAJOR problems with turnover because of the micro-managing of its staff.
The internet does make it easier to slack off, so there are those who abuse it, but if your HR department knew how to hire the right people, they would hire people that will give results, and deserve a little bit of slack time.
I personally believe that any company that gets so anal about people doing a little bit of personal stuff on company time, is not a company I want to work for. People are not drones and they need a little bit of a break or distraction once in awhile to bring them back to the real world. If a company wants to be anal about web access, they designate specific times for breaks, and give access during those times. At least that's something
Rogers is the only GSM provider in Canada and has been tapped to sell the iPhone there this fall. I have a friend who works for Rogers and he already mentioned it to me like a week or so ago. The iPhone is coming this year for us.
I took an old Street Fighter II box and re-did it as a MAME box a few years ago but for me, I wanted to do more than just the arcade games. I also included NES, and Atari stuff in it as well. I also liked the idea of running some of the well done remakes of classics (Activision's Space Invaders was done very well, as were some of the other remakes).
What I found was that pretty much every one of the launchers/front-ends I found sucked. I found nothing that allowed me to incorporate multiple emulators, and non-emulation apps, into one nice little launcher. Yes, there were some nice apps out there but nothing really worked overly well, and I was very disappointed. All I wanted was a long list of games, each with a screenshot, and a launch button. Nothing fancy.
I ended up writing my own little app which launches when the machine boots, and then kicks off whatever app/emu is required to launch the game.
For me, writing the app was part of my experience, but it would have been nice had I been able to just use something that already existed.
I work for a software company in eastern Canada. We have 3 locations and about 200 employees. The company is now only 10 years old but it did start in 1997 so you can imagine that it may have been like all of the other dot coms that died during the bust.
I've only been with the company for about a year and a half, but it's quite clear to me that things here are very much like things were in many other places.
I wear a t-shirt and jeans to work. We have a pool table in our common area and an Xbox in the lounge. Free BBQ's throughout the summer and even all you can drink Christmas parties and golf tournaments.
The one thing that distinguishes us from other companies is that we have an actual product that does actual work and is actually useful. Aside from that, the people responsible for hiring actually know what kind of people to look for. The reason the dot com era happened was there was a lot of money and no substance, especially at the business level.
What I find interesting in seeing posts/articles like this one is how supposedly a casual environment is such a big nono or pointer to the past when it meant all hell would break loose, and yet there are companies, like the one I work for, that are thriving and still continue to have flex hours, awesome benefits, great parties, and a great business plan.
It's definitely not Web 2.0. It's just an attitude and some reasonable business sense.
After reading a lot of people from the USA claiming this was bullshit and making a big fuss about it (something you do a lot of) I went to the site myself, and sure enough, there's PLENTY of albums available in MP3 format.
= GlobalNav_MP3.
I live in Canada and we're seeing the links. I suspect that since the RIAA rules your dominion, you guys are stuck living in a DRM world for Puretracks but for Canadians, we're finally seeing some MP3's on this site.
You guys gotta stop flaming other people and claiming the story is bullshit until you do a little research. Just because you live in the US doesn't mean that you can get to it. It's the same thing that pisses me off about American websites that advertise the ability to stream TV shows but the moment I try it, no luck because I live in Canada.
BTW, since I have bought stuff from Puretracks in the past, I received an email from them just prior to reading the post on Slashdot. Here's a copy of the letter.
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Thank you for being a Puretracks customer. We are very excited to announce that as of today Puretracks will be offering MP3 files for sale on our site at Puretracks.com: http://www.puretracks.com/content/viewer.aspx?cid
And as the first North American digital service provider to launch 'a la carte' MP3 music downloads, we're happy to offer you a free MP3 track from the popular Canadian band The Barenaked Ladies.
The track, called 'The Sound of Your Voice,' will be delivered along with the February 27th Puretracks newsletter. You will need to be a registered newsletter subscriber to be eligible to download this track.
If you don't currently receive our newsletter (filled with weekly free tracks and exclusive content), click here to register.
MP3s at Puretracks
MP3 tracks are easy to download (no licenses required) and can be played on all digital audio devices. Puretracks currently offers over 50,000 tracks in French and English from popular artists such as: Sarah McLachlan, Broken Social Scene, Feist, The Barenaked Ladies, Jean Leloup and Richard Seguin. Track prices starting at $ 0.79 each.
Be sure to register now for the Puretracks newsletter to get your free MP3 track from The Barenaked Ladies! Click here to register. If you are already registered, watch for your February 27th Puretracks newsletter to get your free track.
Regards,
Alistair Mitchell,
CEO
I work for a software company here in eastern Canada. We're in the top ten of privately owned software companies in Canada. We're about 200 employees. At our office in Moncton, there are no restrictions on internet access of any kind. In fact, I'm at work right now posting this message and I have no worries of my boss or anyone else watching what I am doing because in this place of work, all of the employees are trusted to do their job and get their work done.
I find it's a lot more about the philosophy of the company as a whole. Here, most employees work 8:30-5:30 with an hour for lunch. No one's watching the clock and telling us we were 5 minutes late or took an extra 10 minutes for lunch. The idea is that the managers know the staff do their work and as long as the work is done, it doesn't matter if you surf the net or take a longer lunch. Just don't abuse it.
I have plenty of colleagues who surf the net, IM, stream audio, and plenty of other non-work related stuff with the internet and they have been doing it for years. They'll do it in front of the bosses, even the COO & CEO and there's no issues. The issues don't exist because for starters, everyone knows that they have a job to do and they do it. The company also makes sure that they hire people who are not going to abuse it or go too far. When someone abuses it they are confronted and the issue is dealt with. If they continue to abuse it, and their work suffers, the employee is let go. But here, it happens so little because people are paid well, treated well, treated fairly, and they all know it and respect it so there's no problems.
I can see the whole issue of "security" but where I work, we have good security software which does its job, and an excellent IT staff who are well trained, well educated, and well experienced. They do their job. The regular staff are well trained about things they should and should not do. I've seen no issues with security or huge virus outbreaks here yet and admittedly, I'm not in the IT department but when a virus hits, everyone knows.
I think the thing is that many companies are poorly run and when things start falling apart, they blame the employees for surfing the internet instead of addressing the real problem. I worked for one firm where a controller came to me and wanted me to monitor someones internet time because she thought they were doing too much of it. The employee maybe surfed the net for a whole 15 minutes of a work day, if that. Turns out, the controller was let go because she was incompetent (sp?) and couldn't manage her staff and time right. It wasn't about internet abuse. It was about having the wrong employee working for you.
My point is, it's not about just saying you can have access or not, it's part of the whole environment and not just a technicality about internet access. I've always been of the type that if the company gives a little, they'll get back far more, provided they have the right kind of people on their payroll.
moller.com
he's got it for sale now as well. Looks kinda cool.
Wish I had the cash to go out and buy one