I've known for years that I'm a terrible speller. Konqueror finaly includes a spell checker in these forms, so I have a chance of speeling things correctly. Those complaining about my spelling for years can rejoice, I've found a web browser that checks my spelling!
Now if it would just make sure I get things its/it's right, but I make mistakes there less often than spelling mistakes.
To those writing other communication/IM tools, please follow KDE's lead and include a spell checker.
I hope with your holy-er than thou attitude you are also unemployed, but because in your hurry to flame me you completely ignored one issue of booting.
If Microsoft's USB drivers don't support booting from USB it doesn't matter what your BIOS supports. I'm not sure how windows boots, but I know that OS/2 which is similar in some ways has a separate boot driver that loads the OS and then the main driver has code to take over, if those pieces are not written there is no chance of booting from USB. (You could write your own drivers, but I'd don't own the tools to do that)
Again, I don't know if Microsoft has done the work to make sure their drivers support booting from USB. I know that many BIOS do not. (though this may be mostly historical, if current ones seem to support it)
Don't forget about their machines. If they upgrade their machines often, it is quite likely that they don't have a machine slower than 1.0Ghz anymore to test with, so they call their slowest machine the minimun specs.
My guess marketing sets the slowest machine based on what they think everyone has, and the company then throws away slower machines.
The above, or any other factor others have noted could be it. Likely a combonation.
Part of the problem is booting from USB is still new relative to booting from CDs. (Or do you forget how long between the appearance of CDs, and good support for booting from them took?) Either wait a few years for programers to work out the bugs, or work them out yourself. You can offer bonties in various places to encourage people to do the work if you can't do it yourself.
However, since I'm unemployed I'll do the work of making open source tools work (Microsoft has to support booting from usb before I will guarantee it will work) if you give me a working computer that can boot from USB (mine won't, too old), and a USB key to boot from.
People keep forgetting that all this so called waste is recycleable, for more power than the orignal action to produce it.
I know nothing about the state of UK's power, but I find it hard to belive that you couldn't make a profit in the free market with nuclear power. What other choices do you have for your power? Wind and tide sound like good ideas, but just don't produce that much. Import coal/gas/oil? Not enough sun to make solar worth trying on a large scale. Not enough land to grow a renewable source (see solar above). Or do I just not understand the UK, something I'll admit to.
Two months ago I was driving hom in sticky snow, and needed to merge. Looked over my shoulder, and discovered that the snow was sticky enough that I couldn't see anything to the right side of my car! Ended up signaling for a short time, and moving, only to have a horn honk (guess he didn't belive my signal, but that is another story). Luckely I got over safely, but I dont' know how, I couldn't see anything. (Though I was going slow enough that an accident wouldn't have been deadly, it wasn't safe to drive fast)
Sure in an ideal world I would have clean windows, but we dont' have wipers for side windows in cars yet, even rear wipers are rare. Anything that helps me not get into trouble when I can't see is good. So long as it doesn't get people over confident in their ability to stay on the road when things are bad.
Inside mirror? oh, that thing pointing at back window. Too bad I drive a work truck with a solid topper. There is no way to adjust the inside mirror so I can see anything, sheet metal is good for keeping tools in, but not very good for letting me see.
Overall I agree, when you have 3 mirrors in a standard car. Don't assume that a standard car is everyone. A lot of drivers cannot use that inside center mirror.
You obviously fail to realize just how large the earth is. 1/2 the size of the earth is still a lot of land. Come to think of it, 2/3s of the earth is covered by water, so if you restrict landers to only land, there is more room on Mars. (assuming we accept your numbers, I don't feel like checking them and they sound right).
Space junk is a problem in orbit because it is moving very fast. Space junk on Mars is not moving. Everybody will avoid the functioning rovers, because there is a lot of area to cover so it is best to cover something far away. You wouldn't make claims about the goegraphy of the earth based on only samples from your backyard, and you don't make claims about Mars from samples from one area, you try to cover them all.
Most people that fear being in business for themselves have good reason to do so. You posted to/., a technical community. In my expirence most people who are good with technology are not good with business tasks. I'm smart enough to run a buisness, I'm also smart enough to know that I wouldn't like it. (and I still was talked into it...)
Unions account for maybe 20% of the workforce total today, and it is going down. There is good reason for that. What do you get from the uniion? Every carpender I know has looked at the union, and most just laugh at the join the union ads. Too many restrictions, too much B.S. I want to get paid a good wage for good money. When the union guys refuse to do something because the contract says someone else should, or get mad because I do something that the contract days they should, I want nothing to do with them. When the union guys can't build an addition to their house, why would I want to help them?
I like programing. I sometimes do go home and work on some open source project, and every union I know of would prevent that. (I haven't bothered to check out any programers union though)
My teachers in high school were union. Some of them could not teach (there is a difference between unpopular and unable to teach), but the union still protects their job.
Unions encourage pay by length of service. Nevermind that some programers output 10X others, it is pure length of service. Why would I want to be paid the same as someone not doing nearly as much. (this is hard to measure, lines of code is wrong for instance)
Sounds like your an IT guy, well guess what, I'm not. I'm a programer. When I was working I could go for days without speaking to someone, and it wouldn't matter much as far as getting the job done. Mind not speaking to people is a bad idea politically, and I didn't, but I could have.
Sure I'm a native speaker of english. (I speak better than I write), but I'm still not good at IT tasks, and I don't want to be. I love to program. There are much less local jobs for programers. Mom&pop don't care who wrote their program, they can't afford to hire me to write it, not compared to the price of quickbooks. Sure I could write a Quickbooks clone that would exactly fit their needs, and wouldn't have extras they wouldn't use anyway. I might even give them a feature they wouldn't get in Quickbooks, but it still isn't worth my cost. Paying someone to set them up with Quickbooks is however worth it to them.
Sure, if you can run a bsuiness. I'm terribal at some of the things needed to run a buisness. Selling for instance, I can't sell product. I couldn't sell a cure for cancer to someone dieing of cancer, not even for a penny.
I have in fact found partners to go into buiseness with. I'm a terribal judge of people though. My partners, while excited at first, soon realized this was real work and left me with a buisness that I couldn't make work alone. (It could have made some money if they had done their part...)
I like working 9-5 and not worrying after that. Sure I'll never be rich as far as money goes, but I'm richer than even Bill Gates because I don't tie my life to money. Sure I can't have a lot of things I want, but I can decide what I want to do, and there are plenty of cheap things to do.
I think you need to get your life in focus. Money isn't everything.
I took a job for slightly less than average, because I knew the company, and it was a fun job and all. Better yet, they were established and had been around for along time. Well 5 years and a new CEO latter the company decides the project that was critical to the future of the company is worthless and gets rid of our entire division. The company itself is still around and making money. The product...
Don't fall for the 10 years down the road line, they won't pay you more. Truth is you get two chances to get more wages, when you start, and when you threaten to leave. It is dangerious to use the second one, they may call your bluff, and even if they don't they are likely to look for your replacement because of it. So you start out a little more, with the promise that you will get rasies... Well guess what, the guy who didn't fall for that line and started at 10,000 more than you also gets rasies. And current salery isn't taken into account until you reach the top of your pay scale, at which time they consider promoting you. If you two do = work, you both get a 4% raise, but he is getting 4% of a larger number! Then when he hits the top of the current position scale (sooner than you, remember the position scale is also going up every year!) he gets promoted even though you both are doing essentially the same work.
You will likely need windows for some things, unfortunatly. Fortunatly Wine works very well for a lot of window programs, and since you are looking for which one you use, you can demand Wine compatability from the start.
Don't be a jerk instisting on all open source, you have a buisness to run, and that means spending money once in a while. Don't waste your money (except by sending it to me....), but don't be too frugal either. If you can only get what you need from a pay software, buy it and get on with your buieness.
P.S. buy Crossover as your wine implimentation, those guys put a lot of support into wine and should be helped. (Or alternativly you can get WineX, but they focus on games so I doupt you care about their advantages)
Return codes... Unfortunatly to really do error handling you can't complete any assignments. Remember Fred Brooks? To go from a working system to something you can sell takes 9 times the effort? All those error codes are part of the reason. Sure I should check for malloc failing, but what if it does? exit(-1) is the only answer that can be implimented in 2 lines of code, true robust error handeling takes far more effort.
There isn't time or ability to do it in a 1 semester class, so professors are forced to hand wave over it, which I recall them all doing. The assignments all said "ignore errors unless otherwise noted" because there just isn't time to write the program. They put that clause in hoping that everyone will think of this as an exception. (I know I ignore error handling too much myself)
Sure it would be nice to get software engineering seperated, with big projects. However you still need all those alogrythms before you can do it.
Worse, proper error handeling (exit -1 is not proper error handeling) obscures the code. I can write quick sort in a few lines of code, and demonstrat I understand it. Error handling means that it is much harder to see what the code is doing, a big consideration when you are teaching 40 kids.
Re:Maybe time to drop this "securitier than thou"
on
Remotely Crash OpenBSD
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· Score: 1
It should be amusing and rare to hear about these holes in ANY OS. OpenBSD should get more press than Windows for holes, after all openBSD has so few that you can safely assume the people using openBSD don't bother to pay attention, while those using Windows have to pay attention. Therefore we need extra effort to get the attention of OpenBSD users on the rare times it is needed.
Saddly it doesn't work that way. Windows users despite having lots (by comparition) of holes never patch, while openBSD seems to be reserved for only the paranoid who patch often.
Either way, openBSD deserves the attention they get. If I were swear everyone who knows me would talk about it, even though most of them think nothing of swearing everyday (or so it seems). Once you build (like me) an expectation it is interesting when you violate it, even though you did something that is everyday.
Software engineering is nothing without the CS behind it. Your suggestion is like asking someone to learn Mechanical engineering without learning physics, or even statics. Those form the basis of everything you do latter on. Sure no mechanical engineer would ever calculate both Ms in the gravitational equation, but you need to know they exist. (I can't even remember what the standard letter is for the equation now, maybe G?) On earth you can assume 9.8m/ss, and the attraction of the top of a bridge on the bottom is in significant. In space, maybe that isn't true, I don't know, I don't deal with space craft, if I did I would find out, but I need to know that I could ask that question.
Likewise you cannot do software engineering without alogrythms and data structures. Perhaps you don't have to go into figguring out the O for each algorythm, but you need to know how to do it, and you need to know how a O(n) algorythm differs from a O(n!) one. In other words there is room to dumb down CS a little but, but in the end you need to pick up any programing language quickly, and you need to know a lot of algorythms so you know which to choose.
In these days I'd add design patterns into the list of things you should know to get a CS degree, but I'm not sure how.
Ture, but there are places where there is no NexTel (pick your cell carrier) where someone could easially install a hotspot. Boden North Dakota still only has analog cell phone coverage. (As of 2 years ago when I last visitied some relatives there) They won't get it soon. The Ford dealer, the cafe, and the bar could each set up a hot spot though, and by tieing into this network my laptop would just work next time I'm in town.
The town isn't, big enough to justify adding a tower nearby, until someone is close enough to 100% coverage that they want to advertise having gone all the way. Unlikely, there are still parts of ND with no cell coverage at all.
For that matter, if setup right, I could open my access point up at home, confident that someone else is taking care of all the buisness details. ie: I save $.50/month on my bill when someone uses my access point. Not much, but all my neighbors ahve done this, so it just happens my backyard hits a neighbor's AP not mine, but everything works. The third part takes care of making sure spammers using my AP are delt with.
Don't limit yourself to Starbucks, there are plenty of other places with APs. Take care of the admin details and many would open them up. I end up paying an extra $4.50/month and am assured my laptop works. (normally $5, but I've opened my acccess point). For large buisnesses you can make a compelling case if you get the bulk pricing correct.
You are an idiot for not having bought ads when you were number one. Remember, the purpose of ads as far as google is concerned is to pay for their service. If their service is helping you earn money, then you ethically owe them for helping you. And by having ad words in place you would not have lost nearly as much buisness when the algorythm changed.
I hate to use the above tone, but the internet is not free. Google is not free. It just looks that way.
Why don't you preemptivly solve the problem: work with all the toher access providers. Agree on a common authentification scheme so that no matter where I am my machine always works. At first I might pay large roaming costs, but once you have the identification in place you are set to make roaming cheaper. (Remember you are competing against cell providers, if you are faster and in more places you can charge a little more but not a lot. This is a buisness decision).
But start with the wasy part: a access scheme so that I can use my machine anywhere if I'm willing to pay for it. Get roaming working technically, and then let management deal with the charging issues.
P.S. bring the buisnesses with their wifi onboard too. When a service rep walks into my office and the net just works you are on your way. Buisnesses won't charge perhaps, but they only cover their building and can be pretty sure that only their people (not just employees, customers and services) use it - they can do an audit to see who locally is using their net but not for their buisnesses.
I remember when people used to gather all their friends for when their car was going to hit 100,000 miles (all zeros), and go on a trip so everyone could see it. This car was an old beat up kunker by that time that burned oil. Today I know people with 300,000 miles on their car and don't think it is a big deal. If a car doesn't make it to 150,000 miles you can safely assume it was totaled in an accident before then, and in most cases you would be right.
I'm just old enough that I don't remember doing a tune up every 6,000 miles, which included carberator adjustments, new plugs cap and roter, and every other time you also filed the points. Today you can go 100,000 before you think of a tune up. And when your car quit back then you didn't have a comptuer giving you a clue as to what was wrong. Sure comptuers bring new problems, but they diagnose a lot more than they bring, and they also compensate for a lot so you can go farther before a problem needs to be taken care of.
Back in the 60s you could get gas for 20 cents/gallon, but adjusted for inflation gas is cheaper now.
In the early 80s any car from the 60's was a collectors item. Today cars from the 80s are not collectors itmes, and while most no longer run, those that do havge plenty of miles on them, and are often daily drivers for the owner.
In other words, make sure you have all the legal questions handled. Who owns the equipment, what happens in all the worst cases. All those other details your lawyer will make sure you know if you consult him first. Pay for that advice and heed it. Keep his number, odds are you will need it. If he talks you out of this, it is still $200 well spent.
I'll bet your lawyer will make you hire all the wiring. Between floors I'd do it anyway, there are too many legal headaches. (like can you even use the elevator shaft, and if so what wires are required. In the US you cannot, only elevator wires are allowed in the elevator shaft for fire reasons) And remember what the one poster said about using fiber, good idea.
Do a real buisness plan. Run it by a real invester and see if he would be willing to invest money. A real invester/banker will know how to spot details you are handwaving over, things that will come back to haunt you. Baiscly you want to force yourself to answer the hard questions before you commit serious money. If this turns out to be a good idea, great, but if not, you want to know before you end up in court for doing something illegal. (and the landlord testifying that he never gave you permission to use the elevator shaft!)
I agree with paying off dept. If you have any, get rid of it as best you can. Then don't take on any more.
However buying a house may or may not be a good idea. Studies have shown that you end off about the same if you buy a house, or invest your money. Sure rent always goes up, but you have home repairs otherwise. In fact, I can't rent an apartment as big as my tiny house, and one that I could rent for the same money would be just a 1 bedroom. However dont' forget to account for the other bills. I currently have to pay to pump my septic tank. I have to pay the plumber when a pipe bursts. If the furnance breaks I have to pay someone to fix it. Now some of those tasks I can do myself, but I still have to buy parts, plus account for my time in labor.
Its been said that you need to live in a house for 7 years to make it worth it. If you don't plan on living in one area for that long, renting is best.
There are plenty of other good investments. Talk to a good stock broker for instance (beware, there are many bad ones out there), and you can get on some good ideas. A house may go up in value, but you can sell stock pretty much any day, and any quantity. There is no way to sell a tenth of your house if you want that much money for something. Even if you decide to sell your house it often takes 3 months to sell and a couple more months to close. I know of some houses that took over a year to sell. Wtih stock you can get your money now, and you don't have to sell the whole thing.
Stocks are not the only investment. Bonds have a bad name currently, but they are not nessicarly bad if you understand them.
This wireless plan may or may not be a good idea. If you are planning on starting a buisness (ie there is no DSL/cable, so you will buy a T1 and split the cost plus some profit) this might be a good seed money to get started. Run the numbers though and make sure you are charging enough to pay for the line plus equipment that might break, plus support for the other users. Basicly do a full buisness plan and get someone who knows them to review it. If your bank wouldn't give you a loan to start this buisness why would you spend your own money to start it?
Compared to framing, sheetrock, or masonary, plumbing and electrical is not hard on the body. I've done all of the above on my own home, and some of it as a laborer.
Few people can do framing after 40. I see crews that do it, but the kids next door will complete a house in 1/3rd the time, and it will be better. Expirence is overrated after you have 2 years in, at least for framers. All you can learn after that is how to run people. (And if you are motivated and have the right mind I can get you = to any foreman in those two years!)
There are a few exceptions, that old guy running the masonary crew with all the kids can do more physical labor than any one of them, which he proves every month or so in a race. However that is a combination of being lucky enough to have the right genetics, and knowing all the tricks. Most people's body will not take that abuse. I did construction all last summer, and the kids starting after me were able to do more. My body just can't take the abuse their can. (It isn't brute strength, when it comes to a brute strength contest I could beat some of them, but in getting work done all day they beat me, whereas 10 years ago they would not have)
Plumbing and electrical work is one of the few places where old guys can keep going. There isn't as much heavy lifting involved, and they have the kids do what little there is. In framing there is often so much heavy lifting that everyone togather wasn't enough and a second crew had to be called to help.
Don't bring out machines. They help, but if you look closely you will notice on most crews it is the kid running the bobcat, because the machine are hard on the back. Some men[1] are exceptions again, but most while able to run the machine better than the kid, cannot take the pains they get from running it.
I'm not saying plumbing and electrical work is easy on the body, I'm saying that it is easier than most construction jobs. Even then I see a lot of kids helping the older guys, meaning that most of the kids go on to some other job.
[1]Yes men, there are almost no women in construction, genetics work against them even more because they don't get the brute strength needed for some tasks.
Years ago there was a company that made custome key caps. Seemed fairly cheap, and a cool idea. They had standard layouts, layouts for teaching typists (each finger was assigned a color, and the keys were color coded based on which finger you should use to hit it), layouts for APL, and some other custom applications that I've never heard of. I suspect they are still around if your search.
Slashdot Mirror
And God of course, but that is a different issue.
I've known for years that I'm a terrible speller. Konqueror finaly includes a spell checker in these forms, so I have a chance of speeling things correctly. Those complaining about my spelling for years can rejoice, I've found a web browser that checks my spelling!
Now if it would just make sure I get things its/it's right, but I make mistakes there less often than spelling mistakes.
To those writing other communication/IM tools, please follow KDE's lead and include a spell checker.
I hope with your holy-er than thou attitude you are also unemployed, but because in your hurry to flame me you completely ignored one issue of booting.
If Microsoft's USB drivers don't support booting from USB it doesn't matter what your BIOS supports. I'm not sure how windows boots, but I know that OS/2 which is similar in some ways has a separate boot driver that loads the OS and then the main driver has code to take over, if those pieces are not written there is no chance of booting from USB. (You could write your own drivers, but I'd don't own the tools to do that)
Again, I don't know if Microsoft has done the work to make sure their drivers support booting from USB. I know that many BIOS do not. (though this may be mostly historical, if current ones seem to support it)
Don't forget about their machines. If they upgrade their machines often, it is quite likely that they don't have a machine slower than 1.0Ghz anymore to test with, so they call their slowest machine the minimun specs.
My guess marketing sets the slowest machine based on what they think everyone has, and the company then throws away slower machines.
The above, or any other factor others have noted could be it. Likely a combonation.
Part of the problem is booting from USB is still new relative to booting from CDs. (Or do you forget how long between the appearance of CDs, and good support for booting from them took?) Either wait a few years for programers to work out the bugs, or work them out yourself. You can offer bonties in various places to encourage people to do the work if you can't do it yourself.
However, since I'm unemployed I'll do the work of making open source tools work (Microsoft has to support booting from usb before I will guarantee it will work) if you give me a working computer that can boot from USB (mine won't, too old), and a USB key to boot from.
People keep forgetting that all this so called waste is recycleable, for more power than the orignal action to produce it.
I know nothing about the state of UK's power, but I find it hard to belive that you couldn't make a profit in the free market with nuclear power. What other choices do you have for your power? Wind and tide sound like good ideas, but just don't produce that much. Import coal/gas/oil? Not enough sun to make solar worth trying on a large scale. Not enough land to grow a renewable source (see solar above). Or do I just not understand the UK, something I'll admit to.
Two months ago I was driving hom in sticky snow, and needed to merge. Looked over my shoulder, and discovered that the snow was sticky enough that I couldn't see anything to the right side of my car! Ended up signaling for a short time, and moving, only to have a horn honk (guess he didn't belive my signal, but that is another story). Luckely I got over safely, but I dont' know how, I couldn't see anything. (Though I was going slow enough that an accident wouldn't have been deadly, it wasn't safe to drive fast)
Sure in an ideal world I would have clean windows, but we dont' have wipers for side windows in cars yet, even rear wipers are rare. Anything that helps me not get into trouble when I can't see is good. So long as it doesn't get people over confident in their ability to stay on the road when things are bad.
Inside mirror? oh, that thing pointing at back window. Too bad I drive a work truck with a solid topper. There is no way to adjust the inside mirror so I can see anything, sheet metal is good for keeping tools in, but not very good for letting me see.
Overall I agree, when you have 3 mirrors in a standard car. Don't assume that a standard car is everyone. A lot of drivers cannot use that inside center mirror.
You obviously fail to realize just how large the earth is. 1/2 the size of the earth is still a lot of land. Come to think of it, 2/3s of the earth is covered by water, so if you restrict landers to only land, there is more room on Mars. (assuming we accept your numbers, I don't feel like checking them and they sound right).
Space junk is a problem in orbit because it is moving very fast. Space junk on Mars is not moving. Everybody will avoid the functioning rovers, because there is a lot of area to cover so it is best to cover something far away. You wouldn't make claims about the goegraphy of the earth based on only samples from your backyard, and you don't make claims about Mars from samples from one area, you try to cover them all.
Most people that fear being in business for themselves have good reason to do so. You posted to /., a technical community. In my expirence most people who are good with technology are not good with business tasks. I'm smart enough to run a buisness, I'm also smart enough to know that I wouldn't like it. (and I still was talked into it...)
Unions account for maybe 20% of the workforce total today, and it is going down. There is good reason for that. What do you get from the uniion? Every carpender I know has looked at the union, and most just laugh at the join the union ads. Too many restrictions, too much B.S. I want to get paid a good wage for good money. When the union guys refuse to do something because the contract says someone else should, or get mad because I do something that the contract days they should, I want nothing to do with them. When the union guys can't build an addition to their house, why would I want to help them?
I like programing. I sometimes do go home and work on some open source project, and every union I know of would prevent that. (I haven't bothered to check out any programers union though)
My teachers in high school were union. Some of them could not teach (there is a difference between unpopular and unable to teach), but the union still protects their job.
Unions encourage pay by length of service. Nevermind that some programers output 10X others, it is pure length of service. Why would I want to be paid the same as someone not doing nearly as much. (this is hard to measure, lines of code is wrong for instance)
Sounds like your an IT guy, well guess what, I'm not. I'm a programer. When I was working I could go for days without speaking to someone, and it wouldn't matter much as far as getting the job done. Mind not speaking to people is a bad idea politically, and I didn't, but I could have.
Sure I'm a native speaker of english. (I speak better than I write), but I'm still not good at IT tasks, and I don't want to be. I love to program. There are much less local jobs for programers. Mom&pop don't care who wrote their program, they can't afford to hire me to write it, not compared to the price of quickbooks. Sure I could write a Quickbooks clone that would exactly fit their needs, and wouldn't have extras they wouldn't use anyway. I might even give them a feature they wouldn't get in Quickbooks, but it still isn't worth my cost. Paying someone to set them up with Quickbooks is however worth it to them.
Sure, if you can run a bsuiness. I'm terribal at some of the things needed to run a buisness. Selling for instance, I can't sell product. I couldn't sell a cure for cancer to someone dieing of cancer, not even for a penny.
I have in fact found partners to go into buiseness with. I'm a terribal judge of people though. My partners, while excited at first, soon realized this was real work and left me with a buisness that I couldn't make work alone. (It could have made some money if they had done their part...)
I like working 9-5 and not worrying after that. Sure I'll never be rich as far as money goes, but I'm richer than even Bill Gates because I don't tie my life to money. Sure I can't have a lot of things I want, but I can decide what I want to do, and there are plenty of cheap things to do.
I think you need to get your life in focus. Money isn't everything.
I took a job for slightly less than average, because I knew the company, and it was a fun job and all. Better yet, they were established and had been around for along time. Well 5 years and a new CEO latter the company decides the project that was critical to the future of the company is worthless and gets rid of our entire division. The company itself is still around and making money. The product...
Don't fall for the 10 years down the road line, they won't pay you more. Truth is you get two chances to get more wages, when you start, and when you threaten to leave. It is dangerious to use the second one, they may call your bluff, and even if they don't they are likely to look for your replacement because of it. So you start out a little more, with the promise that you will get rasies... Well guess what, the guy who didn't fall for that line and started at 10,000 more than you also gets rasies. And current salery isn't taken into account until you reach the top of your pay scale, at which time they consider promoting you. If you two do = work, you both get a 4% raise, but he is getting 4% of a larger number! Then when he hits the top of the current position scale (sooner than you, remember the position scale is also going up every year!) he gets promoted even though you both are doing essentially the same work.
You will likely need windows for some things, unfortunatly. Fortunatly Wine works very well for a lot of window programs, and since you are looking for which one you use, you can demand Wine compatability from the start.
Don't be a jerk instisting on all open source, you have a buisness to run, and that means spending money once in a while. Don't waste your money (except by sending it to me....), but don't be too frugal either. If you can only get what you need from a pay software, buy it and get on with your buieness.
P.S. buy Crossover as your wine implimentation, those guys put a lot of support into wine and should be helped. (Or alternativly you can get WineX, but they focus on games so I doupt you care about their advantages)
Return codes... Unfortunatly to really do error handling you can't complete any assignments. Remember Fred Brooks? To go from a working system to something you can sell takes 9 times the effort? All those error codes are part of the reason. Sure I should check for malloc failing, but what if it does? exit(-1) is the only answer that can be implimented in 2 lines of code, true robust error handeling takes far more effort.
There isn't time or ability to do it in a 1 semester class, so professors are forced to hand wave over it, which I recall them all doing. The assignments all said "ignore errors unless otherwise noted" because there just isn't time to write the program. They put that clause in hoping that everyone will think of this as an exception. (I know I ignore error handling too much myself)
Sure it would be nice to get software engineering seperated, with big projects. However you still need all those alogrythms before you can do it.
Worse, proper error handeling (exit -1 is not proper error handeling) obscures the code. I can write quick sort in a few lines of code, and demonstrat I understand it. Error handling means that it is much harder to see what the code is doing, a big consideration when you are teaching 40 kids.
It should be amusing and rare to hear about these holes in ANY OS. OpenBSD should get more press than Windows for holes, after all openBSD has so few that you can safely assume the people using openBSD don't bother to pay attention, while those using Windows have to pay attention. Therefore we need extra effort to get the attention of OpenBSD users on the rare times it is needed.
Saddly it doesn't work that way. Windows users despite having lots (by comparition) of holes never patch, while openBSD seems to be reserved for only the paranoid who patch often.
Either way, openBSD deserves the attention they get. If I were swear everyone who knows me would talk about it, even though most of them think nothing of swearing everyday (or so it seems). Once you build (like me) an expectation it is interesting when you violate it, even though you did something that is everyday.
Software engineering is nothing without the CS behind it. Your suggestion is like asking someone to learn Mechanical engineering without learning physics, or even statics. Those form the basis of everything you do latter on. Sure no mechanical engineer would ever calculate both Ms in the gravitational equation, but you need to know they exist. (I can't even remember what the standard letter is for the equation now, maybe G?) On earth you can assume 9.8m/ss, and the attraction of the top of a bridge on the bottom is in significant. In space, maybe that isn't true, I don't know, I don't deal with space craft, if I did I would find out, but I need to know that I could ask that question.
Likewise you cannot do software engineering without alogrythms and data structures. Perhaps you don't have to go into figguring out the O for each algorythm, but you need to know how to do it, and you need to know how a O(n) algorythm differs from a O(n!) one. In other words there is room to dumb down CS a little but, but in the end you need to pick up any programing language quickly, and you need to know a lot of algorythms so you know which to choose.
In these days I'd add design patterns into the list of things you should know to get a CS degree, but I'm not sure how.
Ture, but there are places where there is no NexTel (pick your cell carrier) where someone could easially install a hotspot. Boden North Dakota still only has analog cell phone coverage. (As of 2 years ago when I last visitied some relatives there) They won't get it soon. The Ford dealer, the cafe, and the bar could each set up a hot spot though, and by tieing into this network my laptop would just work next time I'm in town.
The town isn't, big enough to justify adding a tower nearby, until someone is close enough to 100% coverage that they want to advertise having gone all the way. Unlikely, there are still parts of ND with no cell coverage at all.
For that matter, if setup right, I could open my access point up at home, confident that someone else is taking care of all the buisness details. ie: I save $.50/month on my bill when someone uses my access point. Not much, but all my neighbors ahve done this, so it just happens my backyard hits a neighbor's AP not mine, but everything works. The third part takes care of making sure spammers using my AP are delt with.
Don't limit yourself to Starbucks, there are plenty of other places with APs. Take care of the admin details and many would open them up. I end up paying an extra $4.50/month and am assured my laptop works. (normally $5, but I've opened my acccess point). For large buisnesses you can make a compelling case if you get the bulk pricing correct.
You are an idiot for not having bought ads when you were number one. Remember, the purpose of ads as far as google is concerned is to pay for their service. If their service is helping you earn money, then you ethically owe them for helping you. And by having ad words in place you would not have lost nearly as much buisness when the algorythm changed.
I hate to use the above tone, but the internet is not free. Google is not free. It just looks that way.
Why don't you preemptivly solve the problem: work with all the toher access providers. Agree on a common authentification scheme so that no matter where I am my machine always works. At first I might pay large roaming costs, but once you have the identification in place you are set to make roaming cheaper. (Remember you are competing against cell providers, if you are faster and in more places you can charge a little more but not a lot. This is a buisness decision).
But start with the wasy part: a access scheme so that I can use my machine anywhere if I'm willing to pay for it. Get roaming working technically, and then let management deal with the charging issues.
P.S. bring the buisnesses with their wifi onboard too. When a service rep walks into my office and the net just works you are on your way. Buisnesses won't charge perhaps, but they only cover their building and can be pretty sure that only their people (not just employees, customers and services) use it - they can do an audit to see who locally is using their net but not for their buisnesses.
I remember when people used to gather all their friends for when their car was going to hit 100,000 miles (all zeros), and go on a trip so everyone could see it. This car was an old beat up kunker by that time that burned oil. Today I know people with 300,000 miles on their car and don't think it is a big deal. If a car doesn't make it to 150,000 miles you can safely assume it was totaled in an accident before then, and in most cases you would be right.
I'm just old enough that I don't remember doing a tune up every 6,000 miles, which included carberator adjustments, new plugs cap and roter, and every other time you also filed the points. Today you can go 100,000 before you think of a tune up. And when your car quit back then you didn't have a comptuer giving you a clue as to what was wrong. Sure comptuers bring new problems, but they diagnose a lot more than they bring, and they also compensate for a lot so you can go farther before a problem needs to be taken care of.
Back in the 60s you could get gas for 20 cents/gallon, but adjusted for inflation gas is cheaper now.
In the early 80s any car from the 60's was a collectors item. Today cars from the 80s are not collectors itmes, and while most no longer run, those that do havge plenty of miles on them, and are often daily drivers for the owner.
In other words, make sure you have all the legal questions handled. Who owns the equipment, what happens in all the worst cases. All those other details your lawyer will make sure you know if you consult him first. Pay for that advice and heed it. Keep his number, odds are you will need it. If he talks you out of this, it is still $200 well spent.
I'll bet your lawyer will make you hire all the wiring. Between floors I'd do it anyway, there are too many legal headaches. (like can you even use the elevator shaft, and if so what wires are required. In the US you cannot, only elevator wires are allowed in the elevator shaft for fire reasons) And remember what the one poster said about using fiber, good idea.
Do a real buisness plan. Run it by a real invester and see if he would be willing to invest money. A real invester/banker will know how to spot details you are handwaving over, things that will come back to haunt you. Baiscly you want to force yourself to answer the hard questions before you commit serious money. If this turns out to be a good idea, great, but if not, you want to know before you end up in court for doing something illegal. (and the landlord testifying that he never gave you permission to use the elevator shaft!)
I agree with paying off dept. If you have any, get rid of it as best you can. Then don't take on any more.
However buying a house may or may not be a good idea. Studies have shown that you end off about the same if you buy a house, or invest your money. Sure rent always goes up, but you have home repairs otherwise. In fact, I can't rent an apartment as big as my tiny house, and one that I could rent for the same money would be just a 1 bedroom. However dont' forget to account for the other bills. I currently have to pay to pump my septic tank. I have to pay the plumber when a pipe bursts. If the furnance breaks I have to pay someone to fix it. Now some of those tasks I can do myself, but I still have to buy parts, plus account for my time in labor.
Its been said that you need to live in a house for 7 years to make it worth it. If you don't plan on living in one area for that long, renting is best.
There are plenty of other good investments. Talk to a good stock broker for instance (beware, there are many bad ones out there), and you can get on some good ideas. A house may go up in value, but you can sell stock pretty much any day, and any quantity. There is no way to sell a tenth of your house if you want that much money for something. Even if you decide to sell your house it often takes 3 months to sell and a couple more months to close. I know of some houses that took over a year to sell. Wtih stock you can get your money now, and you don't have to sell the whole thing.
Stocks are not the only investment. Bonds have a bad name currently, but they are not nessicarly bad if you understand them.
This wireless plan may or may not be a good idea. If you are planning on starting a buisness (ie there is no DSL/cable, so you will buy a T1 and split the cost plus some profit) this might be a good seed money to get started. Run the numbers though and make sure you are charging enough to pay for the line plus equipment that might break, plus support for the other users. Basicly do a full buisness plan and get someone who knows them to review it. If your bank wouldn't give you a loan to start this buisness why would you spend your own money to start it?
Compared to framing, sheetrock, or masonary, plumbing and electrical is not hard on the body. I've done all of the above on my own home, and some of it as a laborer.
Few people can do framing after 40. I see crews that do it, but the kids next door will complete a house in 1/3rd the time, and it will be better. Expirence is overrated after you have 2 years in, at least for framers. All you can learn after that is how to run people. (And if you are motivated and have the right mind I can get you = to any foreman in those two years!)
There are a few exceptions, that old guy running the masonary crew with all the kids can do more physical labor than any one of them, which he proves every month or so in a race. However that is a combination of being lucky enough to have the right genetics, and knowing all the tricks. Most people's body will not take that abuse. I did construction all last summer, and the kids starting after me were able to do more. My body just can't take the abuse their can. (It isn't brute strength, when it comes to a brute strength contest I could beat some of them, but in getting work done all day they beat me, whereas 10 years ago they would not have)
Plumbing and electrical work is one of the few places where old guys can keep going. There isn't as much heavy lifting involved, and they have the kids do what little there is. In framing there is often so much heavy lifting that everyone togather wasn't enough and a second crew had to be called to help.
Don't bring out machines. They help, but if you look closely you will notice on most crews it is the kid running the bobcat, because the machine are hard on the back. Some men[1] are exceptions again, but most while able to run the machine better than the kid, cannot take the pains they get from running it.
I'm not saying plumbing and electrical work is easy on the body, I'm saying that it is easier than most construction jobs. Even then I see a lot of kids helping the older guys, meaning that most of the kids go on to some other job.
[1]Yes men, there are almost no women in construction, genetics work against them even more because they don't get the brute strength needed for some tasks.
Years ago there was a company that made custome key caps. Seemed fairly cheap, and a cool idea. They had standard layouts, layouts for teaching typists (each finger was assigned a color, and the keys were color coded based on which finger you should use to hit it), layouts for APL, and some other custom applications that I've never heard of. I suspect they are still around if your search.