Exactly.... "Explosions" are event driven. They don't just naturally happen after a recession slowly comes to an end.
In IT, the events that drive hiring explosions are technology-related. Some new technology has to catch on in the mainstream, causing a sudden sharp increase in demand for workers to supply and manage it. Last time, it was the mass attempt to commercialize the Internet that did it. What's next, and when? The near future of IT looks rather dull to me. More incremental speed and storage increases for the dollar, but no "killer app" on the horizon to make a brand new and exciting use of it. Almost makes me want to get out of my IT career, personally.... After 12+ years of this stuff, it's starting to get a little boring!
I've never thought they were the same. In fact, where I'm at, we have a seperate dept. for software development and IT.
Nonetheless, many good IT people have to know at least a little bit about programming of one type or another. For example, maybe you're writing complex batch files to automate processes on a server, or maybe you're working with SQL statements, or debugging troublesome macros in Excel? This isn't the same as application development, but it does take some of the same skills as programming. Often, it's skills like this that seperate the "senior" level IT staff from the rest.
I've run into Novell CNE's who didn't even know how to delete or rename files at a DOS command prompt.
I've also met CNE's who were absolutely brilliant though. As usual, having the certification doesn't really amount to a hill of beans, in and of itself. The only reason, IMHO, you might have better luck with CNE's than MCSE's is because the CNE isn't hyped up much anymore. People choosing to get certified in it nowdays do so typically because they already work hands-on in a Novell environment and desire to become better at it.
Everyone wanted the MCSE after all the radio and newspaper ads promised you an instant high-paying career job just by passing the exams.
If companies were smart, they'd test potential new hires themselves - and not be concerned with the possession of these certs. Ask them what *you* want to know if they know!
This same thing has been happening with engineers too, not just IT people. The language barrier still causes lots of inefficiency though. If a business starts recruiting workers from outside the US for their US business, I have no problem with it - assuming the person really is the best suited for the job. If it's simply done as a cost-cutting measure (AKA. We only have to pay these guys X amount instead of Y!), they're being shortsighted. The poor English skills many of these people possess causes countless wasted hours redoing work due to misinterpretations of a manager's instructions, or inability to read English documentation.
I recently bought an Epson Stylus Photo 820 printer, because it was top-rated for the price at printing photos - mainly due to the fact that it uses a 6 color ink system.
I hoped that this time around, I'd at least be able to buy 3rd. party ink cartridges and get decent performance. (My last inkjet was a Stylus Photo 700, and every time I used anything other than real Epson ink, it would clog up after 2 or 3 pages were printed - and nothing would unclog it again, short of putting new Epson cartridges in and running it through 14 or 15 cleaning cycles.)
My first experience with ink carts. off eBay was dismal though. The colors just wouldn't print uniformily. Every time I printed a test pattern, one color would be missing completely or streaked up. Sure enough, putting in a real Epson cartridge made it start working again.
I think with these high DPI Epson printers, Epson must be putting some type of thinner or solvent in their ink that nobody else is using. Everything else seems to clog up their nozzles real fast. Quite frustrating.....
Yrah, I'm with you - except for one thing. I think you'll find that when the original supplies in that color laser do start wearing out, you'll be forking out big $'s for them. For example, the Tectronics Phaser 740 color laser we use where I work has a replaceable fuser, fuser roll, charge grid, imaging unit, imaging drum, black toner, magenta toner, yellow toner and blue toner.
Buying a new toner cartridge isn't too bad, but then you realize that if one color (or black) is worn out, the others are soon to follow. That adds up quick. Also, after you've gone through your second set of toners, it's about time for a new imaging unit (not to mention you may or may not have gone through the drum sub-portion of the unit, and/or one charging grid by then). That puppy will set you back well over $200. You'll also have probably swapped out at least one fuser roll in this time, and the fuser will be down to maybe 20% of it's useful remaining life.
All that being said though, yeah - I *still* think they may be a little cheaper to operate than inkjets. (With a laser, you don't deal with the penalty of ink drying up if it's not used, and wasted ink used by the printer's cleaning mechanism.) It just hits you all at once with big expenses, instead of $25 here and $25 there every couple months.
Re:Why do PC cases continue to be "difficult"?
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Bubble-Plexi Case Mod
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· Score: 2
Eh, I think it's probably a good idea they still use screws to hold the PC cards in place. Sometimes they've used alternatives. Again, Dell, for a prime example, often uses a strange little clip type of device on their Poweredge servers. You put the card in and then rotate the clip so it pressed down firmly on the top of the card, where you'd normally screw in the screw.
Problem is, those things take a little fighting with to engage/disengage and tend to bust up your fingers. It's worse if you have a card where the metal bracket is a little bit bent-up.
When you're dealing with cards with ports on the back (SCSI, etc.), you really want to be sure the card is locked down tight. Otherwise, you might push it partially out of the socket when you attach the cable and fry it when you power up.
I'd rather just take the extra 30 seconds and screw the stuff in.
Personally, I fail to see the big deal about junk faxes. It seems like almost an outdated issue.
For starters, the fax machine itself is obsolete technology. It keeps getting used today only because scanners aren't standard equipment with PCs, and people are too lazy to learn how to scan a document and send it via email. At the very least, fax machines should only be used to send data. Received documents should be handled by computer. Why waste paper printing out everything that's sent to you, plus deal with the privacy risks? (Anyone can walk by, pick up the fax and read it? At least your email goes directly to your own inbox.)
Even these facts notwithstanding, if you're going to outlaw mass sending of faxes, it would seem you'd also have to outlaw all "cold calling" telemarketing. It's essentially the same thing, other than in one case it's done by voice, and in the other, by screeching tones. I don't think we're really ready to take that step.
Movie ratings are always used as a marketing/sales tool instead of as an honest attempt to evaluate the content.
When a new movie is produced, they often shoot extra footage that's graphic in nature, and then only cut the minimum number of scenes necessary to move up a rating. For example, they know "sex sells", but they also know than an X rating means relatively few people will ever view a film in the theater. In the past, they pushed, prodded, and bent every rule they could to keep the R rating but get away with every little sexually provocative scene they could pack in. Finally, they decided this wasn't good enough so the NC-17 rating was born.
This is also why the PG-13 rating came about. They wanted to show material that just wouldn't cut it under the definition of PG, but the R rating would leave out all the 15 and 16 year olds who might, in fact, be the prime audience for the type of film they're producing.
Considering the fine lines between ratings these days, and the fact that many times - it's more mentally disturbing and frightening to imply something than to show it outright, I don't think theaters should waste any more time trying to police who gets to see an R rated movie.
My thoughts exactly! Once again, the federal govt. has to nose into what should be a state's own business and "protect" everyone from themselves.
I suppose they're going to try to justify it by claiming the frogs "crossed state lines", making it a federal case?
In the long run, I don't think something like a frog infestation problem is going to be cured without putting some sort of toxin or poison out. The sad thing is, there's probably a substance much more harmful to the ecosystem than some powdered caffeine that will end up being legal to use, simply because the FDA has already studied it and approved it.
Hmm... I'm not even sure it's so much "atmosphere" as it is originality. When games like Doom (or even Duke Nukem 3D) came out, they were so much fun because you never knew what was going to happen next. The weapons were mostly "never seen/done before", and the enemies would truly scare you as you kept running into more and more powerful ones with new tricks up their sleeves.
This whole 3D shooter genre has been done and re-done so many times now, I think we've gotten to the point where we've seen everything. Tricks like grenades you could toss and detonate with a second click of the mouse aren't "awesome" anymore. It's not exciting anymore when you push on a secret wall or walk over a sequence of buttons on the floor that open up a new room. All that's left is to keep incrementally improving the graphics resolution, and make good use of surround sound.
When they attempt to improve things by adding more storyline (movie sequences/intermissions), that's not even so great anymore. It is, after all, still supposed to be an action game. Those cut scenes just make for more B.S. to click past and slow down the loading of the next level. There was a time when people watched those in awe, just to see the "real-life" graphics quality of them. Nowdays, everyone's seen full-screen multimedia - and we just don't care anymore.
Yep - I tend to agree. The products that overlap are so similar, I can't even see them getting much value out of new design ideas they obtained the rights for....
Personally, I think both HP and Compaq built perfectly good servers. That said, they're all pretty much alike. I mean, let's face it. In the world of servers, all you really want is something that's fairly reliable (usually done by adding extra cooling fans and redundancy for things like power supplies), holds lots of RAM, and uses one of 2 or 3 major brands of SCSI 10K or 15K RPM hard drive. It's not rocket science to get this forumla right.... Even physical looks pretty much cease to matter with everything going to rack-mount cases. (Just don't paint the thing day-glo orange or something!)
HP LaserJet printers are still pretty respectable, but that has more to do with compatibility than anything else. If the other leading manufacturers would concentrate a little more on good device drivers for all platforms, the differences would diminish quickly. (There's still the reliability issue though. We had an IBM Lexmark laser printer that was awful. Not only did toners cost more than any other brand, but it broke quite regularly. Bad design, all around - despite good print quality when it worked.)
Well, this is basically because you don't actually buy a piece of software. You really buy the rights to use the program under their specified terms. Unlike a car, which is a piece of tangible property you own after you purchase it, software purchases are nothing more than contracts to use the code on your conputer.
(Well yeah, when you buy it retail, you usually get the media the software is on, and a nice instruction book - but that part is purely optional. You can just as easily buy nothing but a license to use the product, with no media included.)
Umm... has it ever really been court-tested and determined that warranty seals/stickers on PCs were legal and binding?
I used to work for a couple "mom and pop" type computer builders that always placed those "void if broken" seals on PCs. I don't think any of us really expected them to be legally binding if we got in a big fight with a customer. It was just an attempt to deter people from tinkering around inside their PC if they didn't know what they were doing.
In fact, we had sort of an unwritten policy that for our better (and more knowledgeable) customers, we'd skip putting on the sticker.
The fact is, PCs are designed around and purchased because of their expandability and upgradeability. It runs counter to the entire design and architecture of the system to claim that opening the case makes it void of all warranties. (In fact, most items in the system would still be covered under manufacturer's original warranty anyway. Maxtor isn't going to say "Sorry, but we heard you opened the case. You can't send us back that defective drive now.")
No, just because you put it in writing doesn't mean it's legally binding. This happens all the time. Companies try to get out of responsibility for damages their product could cause by printing up statements absolving them of liability. Nonetheless, if taken to court, they often are found liable anyway.
In the case of EULAs, software companies often overstep their bounds, placing demands on the consumer that are unreasonable because they infringe on the user's own rights.
EG. I once saw an EULA for DeLorme's Street Atlas software that said you agreed not to use the product with any GPS device that wasn't authorized by them for use with their software. Sorry, but they can't tell me I'm violating their license agreement if I plug in a Garmin hand-held GPS to a COM port on my PC, place the Garmin in compatibilty (NMEA) mode, and get it working with Street Atlas. I have the right to use the Garmin with my PC any way I like.
I can see where you're coming from, but I'm not sure "The Simpsons" is written with the idea that it needs to be "timeless entertainment". As many episodes as they've done, it's much more like a late-night talk show.... You count on it being there every time you turn on the TV, and it's meant to enjoy that one time, and then sort of "throw away".
Oh, sure - there will always be re-runs, but there's enough generic humor in it to keep people watching them far into the future. I don't see any reason why they should pass over chances to poke fun at current events, simply because they're worried people won't "get it" 10 years from now.
Cameo appearances have always dated shows, but I don't think it really harms the production. Even today, the "outdated" celebrities appearing on Scooby Doo adds to the charm to those of us old enough to remember those people. The kids might not know who Don Knotts is, but they still like the episode anyway.
Personally, I find it more disturbing that 40% of those surveyed believe that astrology is based on scientific fact.
Topics like alien abduction are open for speculation, since surely, scientists aren't prepared to prove they don't exist.
Astrology, on the other hand, simply has no science behind any of it. The idea that stars and planets being in certain alignments controls one's destiny flies in the face of common sense and reason!
No, I disagree about the math (and believe it or not, this is coming from a guy who hated math in school, and is still pretty poor at higher math).
Even when I was in high-school, back in '88 or '89, I recall a number of people making the same argument you're trying to make now; why learn to do math by hand when everyone has access to calculators?
Well, for starters, we all handle money and make change on a daily basis. Do you really think it's an improvement to live in a world where most people aren't even sure if they were cheated on a sale or not without whipping out a calculator and double-checking?
Memorizing the multiplication tables makes lots of sense, even today. I'm not saying it's absolutely necessary - but it sure is darn convenient. I fought and fought with my parents about having to memorize those things. (In fact, they had to bribe me with a radio I wanted to get me to finish learning them.) I can honestly say I'm thankful for knowing them now. At least two times a week, they come in handy when I need to figure out how much I'm paying per piece on a bundle of items in the store, when I'm estimating how much I need of a home improvement item at Home Depot, or whatnot. It's nice not to have to carry around a piece of electronic equipment to do these basic things for me!
Where I start to have issues is with demands on high-school and college students to learn trigonometry and such, unless they're in a program where the skills are directly applicable.
Even with high-school geometry, I don't think I've ever used one of the "proofs" we learned to do in "real life". In the last 10 years, I might have applied skills in learned in basic algebra 4 or 5 times -- but it probably wasn't worth the year of classes I took.
Unfortunately, I have to concur with your observations.
It's frustrating to see truly talented and superior tech. support people slowly burn out underneath a system that doesn't recognize their value.
One of my good friends did phone support for a large financial firm for 6 or 7 months, and all of his co-workers quickly figured out he was the sharpest one there when it came to difficult-to-solve problems.
Unfortunately, the call-center manager was under strict order not to pay anyone more than a fixed salary cap that was unreasonably low. Therefore, he had no way to reward my friend for his hard work. He tried doing everything he could think of, including taking him out for Friday night happy hour and buying all the drinks and food - but let's face it -- that doesn't exactly pay the bills.
Then, management changed, and the new call center manager wasn't even made aware that my friend was doing an above-average job. Even if raises were eventually offered to the group, he would have been stuck in a rut for another 6+ months just to re-prove his value to the new boss! (The new guy wasn't even technically minded. He said many times that he "really had no clue about any of this technical, computer stuff". He was simply a "people person".)
Back before Xmas, when all the hype was learning towards X-Box, I said "Wait a minute! There's almost no way this thing will beat PS2 in the marketplace. Too many people already own some type of personal computer, and they don't want to own another stripped-down one with the same processor, hard drive, video adapter and RAM in it!" When I bought my game console, I went the Sony route. It had very little to do with backwards compatibility. (I never owned the PS1 and had no games for it lying around. Furthermore, I didn't want to play older technology stuff with my brand new console.) I was sold because it was different enough from my PC that I felt reasonably certain I wouldn't just end up with a bunch of games that felt just like I was playing them on the computer.
As long as MS bases their game consoles on PC technology (Intel architecture), they're limiting their audience to some extent.
I absolutely agree! There was an article published about a year ago in many of the PC trade rags (PC Week, etc.) that said the BSA didn't really have the financial backing to litigate any of their outstanding cases.
Now maybe since that was announced, software companies kicked more funding their way to remedy that "problem" -- but as far as I had heard, they basically just threaten and send lots of letters out. The companies they've punished for licensing violations were always businesses that caved in and agreed to an out of court settlement, fearing a full-blown court battle.
EG. A while back, Boeing got involved in a BSA audit (I believe primarily over the accusation that they had engineers running unlicensed copies of AutoCAD products). Of course, they were found to be lacking in licensing and the BSA did their usual "song and dance" about them needing to pay up. Rather than face the bad publicity of the media announcing they were fighting in court to keep from paying for some of the software their employees use, they paid out a huge settlement fee.
Someone *really* needs to press the issue and counter-sue the BSA. Until that time, they'll just keep getting away with it. I'd bet they back off more quickly than you'd expect - once they realize it could get expensive for them.
That's my first thought too - but you also have to remember that American/Western culture doesn't always go for the same things that others do.
I think there's a strong undercurrent of "that's just too geeky/uncool to use my *telephone* with a game system!" in America. In Japan, however, I'm not so sure. These are the same folks that really got into that whole idea of wearing pagers that are set off when you come into close proximity with someone else who is highly "compatible" with you. They also like animated porn.
At the high-school level, I tend to agree with you. On the other hand, children at grade-school level are still in need of many basic skills that require lots of drill/practice/memorization.
It's great to be a "free thinker", but you also need a core set of knowledge to base your ideas on. Otherwise, you end up with utopian dreamers, and people who frustrate themselves with failed attempts at achieving their goals, simply because they don't have the basic science and math needed to do it properly.
I think it's best to get as much memorization and boring drill practice out of the way early in one's life. Until you reach a certain age, your mind isn't really ready to deal with more abstract concepts anyway. Use this to the best advantage by teaching handwriting, multiplication tables, phonics, spelling, etc. when the child is real young. (For that matter, parents of newborns should be reading to them and spelling to them. Sure, they're so young it seems pointless, but all those sounds they're hearing you speak aren't lost on them. Their brains are already hard at work, trying to process all of this to prepare them for speaking the language.)
You're pretty much correct, but the primary difference I see between computers and automobiles that cars are pretty much a stand-alone purchase. The infrastructure (roads, etc.) are already standardized and in place, so you buy your car and you're done.
With computers, we've got the infrastructure standardized (I refer to the Internet and TCP/IP here.), but after you buy your computer - you not only select an operating system, but also all the software that runs on top of it.
I think people often forget that only 10 years ago or so, we had all sorts of operating system choices - but people did nothing but complain about it, and demanded standardization. (That game is really cool on your Commodore 64 computer, but it won't run on my Atari, or on my buddy's TRS-80.) Back then, your computer and your operating system were truly tied together, since the OS was usually in firmware.
When IBM compatibles started gaining popularity (with MS-DOS as the operating system standard), it only really happened after they offered enough compelling software titles to pull everyone else away from their non PC compatible systems.
In other words, the software applications/games/utilities themselves drive people's operating system (and therefore, computer) buying decisions. Since Microsoft lucked into owning the OS (DOS) that ended up rising to the top back then, they've had the head start and the money to hang onto that position ever since.
New companies could write consumer operating systems left and right, but it won't make any difference unless compelling new software is developed that only runs on those new operating systems. Right now, except for Linux people who attempt this largely because they just want to do something to force Microsoft out, there's not much of a business reason to develop code for anything but Microsoft products. (Most game programmers, for example, are tied up developing compelling new titles for dedicated gaming systems like Playstation 2 -- not for some yet unheard-of OS for a new computer.)
Re: wrong item in the box at Best Buy
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Worst Buy
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· Score: 2
It's interesting you bring this story up!
I had a situation happen to me some years back that's similar. When the v.90 56K modems were brand new, I went to the local Best Buy store and purchased a Zoom internal.
After I got home and opened it (shrink-wrapped and all), I found a no-name brand 2400 baud internal modem in the box.
I immediately went back to the store and complained to customer service. Of course, everyone acted like I was making it up, trying to scam them out of a new modem. Finally, the store manager agreed to give me another modem - but I was treated like a criminal the whole time. Even as I walked out the door, everyone behind the counter was glaring at me and whispering things to each other.
I called corporate HQ and complained about my situation and treatment, but the lady on the phone actually laughed at me - and obviously blew me off.
At least I got a little satisfaction eventually, because not too long after this happened to me, that store got shut down by corporate. (It was a store located in Florissant, Missouri - and it made the national news when they became the subject of a fraud investigation. Turns out almost all the employees were working together to steal products from the store over a 1 year + period of time. They had to fire everyone and bring in new employees from corporate to run the place for a while, until it was shut down.)
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Exactly.... "Explosions" are event driven. They don't just naturally happen after a recession slowly comes to an end.
In IT, the events that drive hiring explosions are technology-related. Some new technology has to catch on in the mainstream, causing a sudden sharp increase in demand for workers to supply and manage it. Last time, it was the mass attempt to commercialize the Internet that did it. What's next, and when? The near future of IT looks rather dull to me. More incremental speed and storage increases for the dollar, but no "killer app" on the horizon to make a brand new and exciting use of it. Almost makes me want to get out of my IT career, personally.... After 12+ years of this stuff, it's starting to get a little boring!
I've never thought they were the same. In fact, where I'm at, we have a seperate dept. for software development and IT.
Nonetheless, many good IT people have to know at least a little bit about programming of one type or another. For example, maybe you're writing complex batch files to automate processes on a server, or maybe you're working with SQL statements, or debugging troublesome macros in Excel? This isn't the same as application development, but it does take some of the same skills as programming. Often, it's skills like this that seperate the "senior" level IT staff from the rest.
I've run into Novell CNE's who didn't even know how to delete or rename files at a DOS command prompt.
I've also met CNE's who were absolutely brilliant though. As usual, having the certification doesn't really amount to a hill of beans, in and of itself. The only reason, IMHO, you might have better luck with CNE's than MCSE's is because the CNE isn't hyped up much anymore. People choosing to get certified in it nowdays do so typically because they already work hands-on in a Novell environment and desire to become better at it.
Everyone wanted the MCSE after all the radio and newspaper ads promised you an instant high-paying career job just by passing the exams.
If companies were smart, they'd test potential new hires themselves - and not be concerned with the possession of these certs. Ask them what *you* want to know if they know!
This same thing has been happening with engineers too, not just IT people. The language barrier still causes lots of inefficiency though. If a business starts recruiting workers from outside the US for their US business, I have no problem with it - assuming the person really is the best suited for the job. If it's simply done as a cost-cutting measure (AKA. We only have to pay these guys X amount instead of Y!), they're being shortsighted. The poor English skills many of these people possess causes countless wasted hours redoing work due to misinterpretations of a manager's instructions, or inability to read English documentation.
I recently bought an Epson Stylus Photo 820 printer, because it was top-rated for the price at printing photos - mainly due to the fact that it uses a 6 color ink system.
I hoped that this time around, I'd at least be able to buy 3rd. party ink cartridges and get decent performance. (My last inkjet was a Stylus Photo 700, and every time I used anything other than real Epson ink, it would clog up after 2 or 3 pages were printed - and nothing would unclog it again, short of putting new Epson cartridges in and running it through 14 or 15 cleaning cycles.)
My first experience with ink carts. off eBay was dismal though. The colors just wouldn't print uniformily. Every time I printed a test pattern, one color would be missing completely or streaked up. Sure enough, putting in a real Epson cartridge made it start working again.
I think with these high DPI Epson printers, Epson must be putting some type of thinner or solvent in their ink that nobody else is using. Everything else seems to clog up their nozzles real fast. Quite frustrating.....
Yrah, I'm with you - except for one thing. I think you'll find that when the original supplies in that color laser do start wearing out, you'll be forking out big $'s for them. For example, the Tectronics Phaser 740 color laser we use where I work has a replaceable fuser, fuser roll, charge grid, imaging unit, imaging drum, black toner, magenta toner, yellow toner and blue toner.
Buying a new toner cartridge isn't too bad, but then you realize that if one color (or black) is worn out, the others are soon to follow. That adds up quick. Also, after you've gone through your second set of toners, it's about time for a new imaging unit (not to mention you may or may not have gone through the drum sub-portion of the unit, and/or one charging grid by then). That puppy will set you back well over $200. You'll also have probably swapped out at least one fuser roll in this time, and the fuser will be down to maybe 20% of it's useful remaining life.
All that being said though, yeah - I *still* think they may be a little cheaper to operate than inkjets. (With a laser, you don't deal with the penalty of ink drying up if it's not used, and wasted ink used by the printer's cleaning mechanism.) It just hits you all at once with big expenses, instead of $25 here and $25 there every couple months.
Eh, I think it's probably a good idea they still use screws to hold the PC cards in place. Sometimes they've used alternatives. Again, Dell, for a prime example, often uses a strange little clip type of device on their Poweredge servers. You put the card in and then rotate the clip so it pressed down firmly on the top of the card, where you'd normally screw in the screw.
Problem is, those things take a little fighting with to engage/disengage and tend to bust up your fingers. It's worse if you have a card where the metal bracket is a little bit bent-up.
When you're dealing with cards with ports on the back (SCSI, etc.), you really want to be sure the card is locked down tight. Otherwise, you might push it partially out of the socket when you attach the cable and fry it when you power up.
I'd rather just take the extra 30 seconds and screw the stuff in.
Personally, I fail to see the big deal about junk faxes. It seems like almost an outdated issue.
For starters, the fax machine itself is obsolete technology. It keeps getting used today only because scanners aren't standard equipment with PCs, and people are too lazy to learn how to scan a document and send it via email. At the very least, fax machines should only be used to send data. Received documents should be handled by computer. Why waste paper printing out everything that's sent to you, plus deal with the privacy risks? (Anyone can walk by, pick up the fax and read it? At least your email goes directly to your own inbox.)
Even these facts notwithstanding, if you're going to outlaw mass sending of faxes, it would seem you'd also have to outlaw all "cold calling" telemarketing. It's essentially the same thing, other than in one case it's done by voice, and in the other, by screeching tones. I don't think we're really ready to take that step.
Movie ratings are always used as a marketing/sales tool instead of as an honest attempt to evaluate the content.
When a new movie is produced, they often shoot extra footage that's graphic in nature, and then only cut the minimum number of scenes necessary to move up a rating. For example, they know "sex sells", but they also know than an X rating means relatively few people will ever view a film in the theater. In the past, they pushed, prodded, and bent every rule they could to keep the R rating but get away with every little sexually provocative scene they could pack in. Finally, they decided this wasn't good enough so the NC-17 rating was born.
This is also why the PG-13 rating came about. They wanted to show material that just wouldn't cut it under the definition of PG, but the R rating would leave out all the 15 and 16 year olds who might, in fact, be the prime audience for the type of film they're producing.
Considering the fine lines between ratings these days, and the fact that many times - it's more mentally disturbing and frightening to imply something than to show it outright, I don't think theaters should waste any more time trying to police who gets to see an R rated movie.
My thoughts exactly! Once again, the federal govt. has to nose into what should be a state's own business and "protect" everyone from themselves.
I suppose they're going to try to justify it by claiming the frogs "crossed state lines", making it a federal case?
In the long run, I don't think something like a frog infestation problem is going to be cured without putting some sort of toxin or poison out. The sad thing is, there's probably a substance much more harmful to the ecosystem than some powdered caffeine that will end up being legal to use, simply because the FDA has already studied it and approved it.
Hmm... I'm not even sure it's so much "atmosphere" as it is originality. When games like Doom (or even Duke Nukem 3D) came out, they were so much fun because you never knew what was going to happen next. The weapons were mostly "never seen/done before", and the enemies would truly scare you as you kept running into more and more powerful ones with new tricks up their sleeves.
This whole 3D shooter genre has been done and re-done so many times now, I think we've gotten to the point where we've seen everything. Tricks like grenades you could toss and detonate with a second click of the mouse aren't "awesome" anymore. It's not exciting anymore when you push on a secret wall or walk over a sequence of buttons on the floor that open up a new room. All that's left is to keep incrementally improving the graphics resolution, and make good use of surround sound.
When they attempt to improve things by adding more storyline (movie sequences/intermissions), that's not even so great anymore. It is, after all, still supposed to be an action game. Those cut scenes just make for more B.S. to click past and slow down the loading of the next level. There was a time when people watched those in awe, just to see the "real-life" graphics quality of them. Nowdays, everyone's seen full-screen multimedia - and we just don't care anymore.
Yep - I tend to agree. The products that overlap are so similar, I can't even see them getting much value out of new design ideas they obtained the rights for....
Personally, I think both HP and Compaq built perfectly good servers. That said, they're all pretty much alike. I mean, let's face it. In the world of servers, all you really want is something that's fairly reliable (usually done by adding extra cooling fans and redundancy for things like power supplies), holds lots of RAM, and uses one of 2 or 3 major brands of SCSI 10K or 15K RPM hard drive. It's not rocket science to get this forumla right.... Even physical looks pretty much cease to matter with everything going to rack-mount cases. (Just don't paint the thing day-glo orange or something!)
HP LaserJet printers are still pretty respectable, but that has more to do with compatibility than anything else. If the other leading manufacturers would concentrate a little more on good device drivers for all platforms, the differences would diminish quickly. (There's still the reliability issue though. We had an IBM Lexmark laser printer that was awful. Not only did toners cost more than any other brand, but it broke quite regularly. Bad design, all around - despite good print quality when it worked.)
Well, this is basically because you don't actually buy a piece of software. You really buy the rights to use the program under their specified terms. Unlike a car, which is a piece of tangible property you own after you purchase it, software purchases are nothing more than contracts to use the code on your conputer.
(Well yeah, when you buy it retail, you usually get the media the software is on, and a nice instruction book - but that part is purely optional. You can just as easily buy nothing but a license to use the product, with no media included.)
Umm... has it ever really been court-tested and determined that warranty seals/stickers on PCs were legal and binding?
I used to work for a couple "mom and pop" type computer builders that always placed those "void if broken" seals on PCs. I don't think any of us really expected them to be legally binding if we got in a big fight with a customer. It was just an attempt to deter people from tinkering around inside their PC if they didn't know what they were doing.
In fact, we had sort of an unwritten policy that for our better (and more knowledgeable) customers, we'd skip putting on the sticker.
The fact is, PCs are designed around and purchased because of their expandability and upgradeability. It runs counter to the entire design and architecture of the system to claim that opening the case makes it void of all warranties. (In fact, most items in the system would still be covered under manufacturer's original warranty anyway. Maxtor isn't going to say "Sorry, but we heard you opened the case. You can't send us back that defective drive now.")
No, just because you put it in writing doesn't mean it's legally binding. This happens all the time. Companies try to get out of responsibility for damages their product could cause by printing up statements absolving them of liability. Nonetheless, if taken to court, they often are found liable anyway.
In the case of EULAs, software companies often overstep their bounds, placing demands on the consumer that are unreasonable because they infringe on the user's own rights.
EG. I once saw an EULA for DeLorme's Street Atlas software that said you agreed not to use the product with any GPS device that wasn't authorized by them for use with their software. Sorry, but they can't tell me I'm violating their license agreement if I plug in a Garmin hand-held GPS to a COM port on my PC, place the Garmin in compatibilty (NMEA) mode, and get it working with Street Atlas. I have the right to use the Garmin with my PC any way I like.
I can see where you're coming from, but I'm not sure "The Simpsons" is written with the idea that it needs to be "timeless entertainment". As many episodes as they've done, it's much more like a late-night talk show.... You count on it being there every time you turn on the TV, and it's meant to enjoy that one time, and then sort of "throw away".
Oh, sure - there will always be re-runs, but there's enough generic humor in it to keep people watching them far into the future. I don't see any reason why they should pass over chances to poke fun at current events, simply because they're worried people won't "get it" 10 years from now.
Cameo appearances have always dated shows, but I don't think it really harms the production. Even today, the "outdated" celebrities appearing on Scooby Doo adds to the charm to those of us old enough to remember those people. The kids might not know who Don Knotts is, but they still like the episode anyway.
Personally, I find it more disturbing that 40% of those surveyed believe that astrology is based on scientific fact.
Topics like alien abduction are open for speculation, since surely, scientists aren't prepared to prove they don't exist.
Astrology, on the other hand, simply has no science behind any of it. The idea that stars and planets being in certain alignments controls one's destiny flies in the face of common sense and reason!
No, I disagree about the math (and believe it or not, this is coming from a guy who hated math in school, and is still pretty poor at higher math).
Even when I was in high-school, back in '88 or '89, I recall a number of people making the same argument you're trying to make now; why learn to do math by hand when everyone has access to calculators?
Well, for starters, we all handle money and make change on a daily basis. Do you really think it's an improvement to live in a world where most people aren't even sure if they were cheated on a sale or not without whipping out a calculator and double-checking?
Memorizing the multiplication tables makes lots of sense, even today. I'm not saying it's absolutely necessary - but it sure is darn convenient. I fought and fought with my parents about having to memorize those things. (In fact, they had to bribe me with a radio I wanted to get me to finish learning them.) I can honestly say I'm thankful for knowing them now. At least two times a week, they come in handy when I need to figure out how much I'm paying per piece on a bundle of items in the store, when I'm estimating how much I need of a home improvement item at Home Depot, or whatnot. It's nice not to have to carry around a piece of electronic equipment to do these basic things for me!
Where I start to have issues is with demands on high-school and college students to learn trigonometry and such, unless they're in a program where the skills are directly applicable.
Even with high-school geometry, I don't think I've ever used one of the "proofs" we learned to do in "real life". In the last 10 years, I might have applied skills in learned in basic algebra 4 or 5 times -- but it probably wasn't worth the year of classes I took.
Unfortunately, I have to concur with your observations.
It's frustrating to see truly talented and superior tech. support people slowly burn out underneath a system that doesn't recognize their value.
One of my good friends did phone support for a large financial firm for 6 or 7 months, and all of his co-workers quickly figured out he was the sharpest one there when it came to difficult-to-solve problems.
Unfortunately, the call-center manager was under strict order not to pay anyone more than a fixed salary cap that was unreasonably low. Therefore, he had no way to reward my friend for his hard work. He tried doing everything he could think of, including taking him out for Friday night happy hour and buying all the drinks and food - but let's face it -- that doesn't exactly pay the bills.
Then, management changed, and the new call center manager wasn't even made aware that my friend was doing an above-average job. Even if raises were eventually offered to the group, he would have been stuck in a rut for another 6+ months just to re-prove his value to the new boss! (The new guy wasn't even technically minded. He said many times that he "really had no clue about any of this technical, computer stuff". He was simply a "people person".)
Back before Xmas, when all the hype was learning towards X-Box, I said "Wait a minute! There's almost no way this thing will beat PS2 in the marketplace. Too many people already own some type of personal computer, and they don't want to own another stripped-down one with the same processor, hard drive, video adapter and RAM in it!" When I bought my game console, I went the Sony route. It had very little to do with backwards compatibility. (I never owned the PS1 and had no games for it lying around. Furthermore, I didn't want to play older technology stuff with my brand new console.) I was sold because it was different enough from my PC that I felt reasonably certain I wouldn't just end up with a bunch of games that felt just like I was playing them on the computer.
As long as MS bases their game consoles on PC technology (Intel architecture), they're limiting their audience to some extent.
I absolutely agree! There was an article published about a year ago in many of the PC trade rags (PC Week, etc.) that said the BSA didn't really have the financial backing to litigate any of their outstanding cases.
Now maybe since that was announced, software companies kicked more funding their way to remedy that "problem" -- but as far as I had heard, they basically just threaten and send lots of letters out. The companies they've punished for licensing violations were always businesses that caved in and agreed to an out of court settlement, fearing a full-blown court battle.
EG. A while back, Boeing got involved in a BSA audit (I believe primarily over the accusation that they had engineers running unlicensed copies of AutoCAD products). Of course, they were found to be lacking in licensing and the BSA did their usual "song and dance" about them needing to pay up. Rather than face the bad publicity of the media announcing they were fighting in court to keep from paying for some of the software their employees use, they paid out a huge settlement fee.
Someone *really* needs to press the issue and counter-sue the BSA. Until that time, they'll just keep getting away with it. I'd bet they back off more quickly than you'd expect - once they realize it could get expensive for them.
That's my first thought too - but you also have to remember that American/Western culture doesn't always go for the same things that others do.
I think there's a strong undercurrent of "that's just too geeky/uncool to use my *telephone* with a game system!" in America. In Japan, however, I'm not so sure. These are the same folks that really got into that whole idea of wearing pagers that are set off when you come into close proximity with someone else who is highly "compatible" with you. They also like animated porn.
At the high-school level, I tend to agree with you. On the other hand, children at grade-school level are still in need of many basic skills that require lots of drill/practice/memorization.
It's great to be a "free thinker", but you also need a core set of knowledge to base your ideas on. Otherwise, you end up with utopian dreamers, and people who frustrate themselves with failed attempts at achieving their goals, simply because they don't have the basic science and math needed to do it properly.
I think it's best to get as much memorization and boring drill practice out of the way early in one's life. Until you reach a certain age, your mind isn't really ready to deal with more abstract concepts anyway. Use this to the best advantage by teaching handwriting, multiplication tables, phonics, spelling, etc. when the child is real young. (For that matter, parents of newborns should be reading to them and spelling to them. Sure, they're so young it seems pointless, but all those sounds they're hearing you speak aren't lost on them. Their brains are already hard at work, trying to process all of this to prepare them for speaking the language.)
You're pretty much correct, but the primary difference I see between computers and automobiles that cars are pretty much a stand-alone purchase. The infrastructure (roads, etc.) are already standardized and in place, so you buy your car and you're done.
With computers, we've got the infrastructure standardized (I refer to the Internet and TCP/IP here.), but after you buy your computer - you not only select an operating system, but also all the software that runs on top of it.
I think people often forget that only 10 years ago or so, we had all sorts of operating system choices - but people did nothing but complain about it, and demanded standardization. (That game is really cool on your Commodore 64 computer, but it won't run on my Atari, or on my buddy's TRS-80.) Back then, your computer and your operating system were truly tied together, since the OS was usually in firmware.
When IBM compatibles started gaining popularity (with MS-DOS as the operating system standard), it only really happened after they offered enough compelling software titles to pull everyone else away from their non PC compatible systems.
In other words, the software applications/games/utilities themselves drive people's operating system (and therefore, computer) buying decisions. Since Microsoft lucked into owning the OS (DOS) that ended up rising to the top back then, they've had the head start and the money to hang onto that position ever since.
New companies could write consumer operating systems left and right, but it won't make any difference unless compelling new software is developed that only runs on those new operating systems. Right now, except for Linux people who attempt this largely because they just want to do something to force Microsoft out, there's not much of a business reason to develop code for anything but Microsoft products. (Most game programmers, for example, are tied up developing compelling new titles for dedicated gaming systems like Playstation 2 -- not for some yet unheard-of OS for a new computer.)
It's interesting you bring this story up!
I had a situation happen to me some years back that's similar. When the v.90 56K modems were brand new, I went to the local Best Buy store and purchased a Zoom internal.
After I got home and opened it (shrink-wrapped and all), I found a no-name brand 2400 baud internal modem in the box.
I immediately went back to the store and complained to customer service. Of course, everyone acted like I was making it up, trying to scam them out of a new modem. Finally, the store manager agreed to give me another modem - but I was treated like a criminal the whole time. Even as I walked out the door, everyone behind the counter was glaring at me and whispering things to each other.
I called corporate HQ and complained about my situation and treatment, but the lady on the phone actually laughed at me - and obviously blew me off.
At least I got a little satisfaction eventually, because not too long after this happened to me, that store got shut down by corporate. (It was a store located in Florissant, Missouri - and it made the national news when they became the subject of a fraud investigation. Turns out almost all the employees were working together to steal products from the store over a 1 year + period of time. They had to fire everyone and bring in new employees from corporate to run the place for a while, until it was shut down.)