Seems like a real pain in the ass for doing things like moving it a few feet so you can get something out of the garage [...]
Walk into the garage, see the shovel behind the car, say, "Siri, move the car into the driveway." Garage door opens and car moves into the driveway. Grab the shovel and say, "Okay, Siri, you can move the car back." Car moves back into the garage.
Versus walk into the garage, see the shovel behind the car, go back inside, get the car keys, come back out and get in the car, hit the remote for the garage door, drive out into the driveway, get out of the car, grab the shovel and put it someplace convenient, get back in the car, and move it into the garage, then grab the shovel.
The first one sounds much more convenient.
Plus, I always thought part of the American experience was just going out for a drive for fun.
There are enthusiasts who enjoy that, yes. But for the vast majority, a car is transportation from point A to point B.
It is a good point, but that's also a management issue.
I've seen projects work when off-shored as well as fail miserably. The reason they usually fail miserably is managing the time-space problem. Lots of managers do the MBWA thing--management by walking around--which doesn't work very well in these situations. Issues that come up overseas can bring teams to a halt while they wait a few days for guidance. These have to be factored into timelines and such, but usually aren't. Exact specifications must exist--you can't get subtle with these sorts of things unless you want to create a mess--and should include performance metrics (yes, everybody can write a quick sort, but using one with 1,000,000 records may be somewhat less than ideal). Writing these specifications can take as long as writing the code, because you basically have to spell everything out (and you need someone who has the skill set to know exactly what is needed). In some cases, by the time you finished writing the spec, someone could have actually written the code that would do the task!
Usually, the stuff that has worked has been more like libraries and the like. I need a set of functions, clearly defined, which will perform these tasks when called with the appropriate inputs and return these results in this amount of time. Things that are iterative and fuzzy--like UI design--don't really work well ("Can you make it more webbish--but not too webbish?")
Again, a particular service is not mission critical, so we don't need to spend the money to make it so. Things like test servers and the like could fall into this category. After all, you really don't need 99.999997% uptime for this.
At least until the power goes out at the data center and you've got a room full of testers and developers sitting around waiting for it to come back on and there's a deadline looming. Then you don't look so smart for saving an extra few bucks a month.
I wonder how dynamic the services like that are. I could see, say, going with the less reliable service for 10 months and, as I approach crunch time, telling them "reliability is key" and paying the extra money for those couple months.
Sure they can. They're called laws. If the Internet is "public", they can attach laws to it's use.
Car analogy: I can't go driving my car around at night on public roads without the headlights on. But if I want to do so on a private road, that's between me and the owner of the road.
To me, one of the interesting issues regarding twitter is TV spoilers. She's remarked a few times that she has to be very careful reading her twitter feed when there is "an important episode" of a TV show. I remarked that I'm surprised that twitter doesn't have some way to say "Don't show me any tweets with this hashtag until after my local time." So if you tweet something at 8:30PM ET, I won't see it until 8:30PM PT.
I'm not sure what they mean by "non-chronological timelines"--sounds kind of oxymoronic as "non-chronological" would be not related to time so how can you have a timeline which is not related to time? Isn't that just a list?
Keep in mind, also, that while the T-34 wasn't a great tank, they had lots of them and lots of people to drive them.
I remember reading about US vs. Soviet tanks back in the 1980s. Something that was mentioned was that the front-line US Battle Tank--I think it was the M-1--could be relied upon to take out 3 Soviet tanks. The problem was that the Soviets had 5 times the number of tanks.
How about Willys Jeeps? I grew up with a 1949 Willys Jeep CJ-3A. My Dad picked it up in 1969 or so and sold it in 2001. It still ran well but it was pretty badly rusted after 30 years of Vermont winters.
Yes, the first shots were fired because Americans were collecting weapons and gunpowder in order to fight the British.
Keep in mind, though, the the second amendment starts with "In order to have a well-trained militia." So licensing gun owners is perfectly reasonable, requiring rigorous training is perfectly reasonable, and making guns unavailable to those who are not licensed is perfectly reasonable--in order to have a well-trained militia.
If the reason for personal gun ownership was to prevent government tyranny, I would think that probably would have been spelled out. Don't you?
Hydrogen would also provide a super-cool secure erase facility! And most excellent data center fires:-o.
I was thinking about that. "Gee, let's put a flammable gas inside something that can get really hot! What could possibly go wrong?"
However, Hydrogen has a pretty high auto-ignition temperature (over 900 degrees F), so your computer would have probably melted into slag long before your hard drive exploded.
Yeah, I guess the amount of hydrogen would be quite small...
True, but figure it's a data center so you have a whole lot of them. Of course, they wouldn't all go up at once, so you'd have more of a pop-pop-pop than a big kaboom.
Give it some time and you'll see better security - either from improvements among the early movers or new entrants who took the time to do it right and managed to survive long enough to get to market.
...or there will be some public exploit that makes the news and suddenly makes it a priority over some really cool demo-able feature that has to be added before the next trade show.
Slashdot Mirror
Hilary, is that you?
Seems like a real pain in the ass for doing things like moving it a few feet so you can get something out of the garage [...]
Walk into the garage, see the shovel behind the car, say, "Siri, move the car into the driveway." Garage door opens and car moves into the driveway. Grab the shovel and say, "Okay, Siri, you can move the car back." Car moves back into the garage.
Versus walk into the garage, see the shovel behind the car, go back inside, get the car keys, come back out and get in the car, hit the remote for the garage door, drive out into the driveway, get out of the car, grab the shovel and put it someplace convenient, get back in the car, and move it into the garage, then grab the shovel.
The first one sounds much more convenient.
Plus, I always thought part of the American experience was just going out for a drive for fun.
There are enthusiasts who enjoy that, yes. But for the vast majority, a car is transportation from point A to point B.
A local Walmart did that, as did our local library.
But wouldn't fifty-foot trees also affect how much sunlight they get in the mornings and afternoons? Y'know, shadows and such.
I suppose it isn't that big of a deal if you're talking about several acres of land...
It is a good point, but that's also a management issue.
I've seen projects work when off-shored as well as fail miserably. The reason they usually fail miserably is managing the time-space problem. Lots of managers do the MBWA thing--management by walking around--which doesn't work very well in these situations. Issues that come up overseas can bring teams to a halt while they wait a few days for guidance. These have to be factored into timelines and such, but usually aren't. Exact specifications must exist--you can't get subtle with these sorts of things unless you want to create a mess--and should include performance metrics (yes, everybody can write a quick sort, but using one with 1,000,000 records may be somewhat less than ideal). Writing these specifications can take as long as writing the code, because you basically have to spell everything out (and you need someone who has the skill set to know exactly what is needed). In some cases, by the time you finished writing the spec, someone could have actually written the code that would do the task!
Usually, the stuff that has worked has been more like libraries and the like. I need a set of functions, clearly defined, which will perform these tasks when called with the appropriate inputs and return these results in this amount of time. Things that are iterative and fuzzy--like UI design--don't really work well ("Can you make it more webbish--but not too webbish?")
There may not be much of one, I'll grant you, but you really only need to sell one...
Again, a particular service is not mission critical, so we don't need to spend the money to make it so. Things like test servers and the like could fall into this category. After all, you really don't need 99.999997% uptime for this.
At least until the power goes out at the data center and you've got a room full of testers and developers sitting around waiting for it to come back on and there's a deadline looming. Then you don't look so smart for saving an extra few bucks a month.
I wonder how dynamic the services like that are. I could see, say, going with the less reliable service for 10 months and, as I approach crunch time, telling them "reliability is key" and paying the extra money for those couple months.
It's!
Sure they can. They're called laws. If the Internet is "public", they can attach laws to it's use.
Car analogy: I can't go driving my car around at night on public roads without the headlights on. But if I want to do so on a private road, that's between me and the owner of the road.
I don't use twitter but a friend of mine does.
To me, one of the interesting issues regarding twitter is TV spoilers. She's remarked a few times that she has to be very careful reading her twitter feed when there is "an important episode" of a TV show. I remarked that I'm surprised that twitter doesn't have some way to say "Don't show me any tweets with this hashtag until after my local time." So if you tweet something at 8:30PM ET, I won't see it until 8:30PM PT.
I'm not sure what they mean by "non-chronological timelines"--sounds kind of oxymoronic as "non-chronological" would be not related to time so how can you have a timeline which is not related to time? Isn't that just a list?
Keep in mind, also, that while the T-34 wasn't a great tank, they had lots of them and lots of people to drive them.
I remember reading about US vs. Soviet tanks back in the 1980s. Something that was mentioned was that the front-line US Battle Tank--I think it was the M-1--could be relied upon to take out 3 Soviet tanks. The problem was that the Soviets had 5 times the number of tanks.
Very funny, but I think eight locomotives would have no problem pulling 10,000 trash cans.
How about Willys Jeeps? I grew up with a 1949 Willys Jeep CJ-3A. My Dad picked it up in 1969 or so and sold it in 2001. It still ran well but it was pretty badly rusted after 30 years of Vermont winters.
Yes, the first shots were fired because Americans were collecting weapons and gunpowder in order to fight the British.
Keep in mind, though, the the second amendment starts with "In order to have a well-trained militia." So licensing gun owners is perfectly reasonable, requiring rigorous training is perfectly reasonable, and making guns unavailable to those who are not licensed is perfectly reasonable--in order to have a well-trained militia.
If the reason for personal gun ownership was to prevent government tyranny, I would think that probably would have been spelled out. Don't you?
The moment I go and buy a bat with the intention of carrying out a crime, then all bets are off.
Since you just said he has kids, he was teaching his kid to play baseball.
Reasonable doubt and all that.
His grandson will be Harry Broderick?
Hydrogen would also provide a super-cool secure erase facility! And most excellent data center fires :-o.
I was thinking about that. "Gee, let's put a flammable gas inside something that can get really hot! What could possibly go wrong?"
However, Hydrogen has a pretty high auto-ignition temperature (over 900 degrees F), so your computer would have probably melted into slag long before your hard drive exploded.
Yeah, I guess the amount of hydrogen would be quite small...
True, but figure it's a data center so you have a whole lot of them. Of course, they wouldn't all go up at once, so you'd have more of a pop-pop-pop than a big kaboom.
Because it's children! Dear God, won't somebody think of the children!
No, they're not selling the counterfeit wines. They're selling the wines that he bought with the money that he made from selling counterfeit wines.
...but not necessarily in that order.
Give it some time and you'll see better security - either from improvements among the early movers or new entrants who took the time to do it right and managed to survive long enough to get to market.
...or there will be some public exploit that makes the news and suddenly makes it a priority over some really cool demo-able feature that has to be added before the next trade show.
...and how will we get it down?
...and Apple makes the coolest adapters.
I agree. The problem is, now-a-days, there's no money in showing someone else's content. You need to own it all.
I think I do. At least, I'm pretty sure I ++NO CARRIER