One of the age old problems is the assumption that IT for most companies is simply capital expenditure. ROI is hard to measure for IT for most companies.
So true. Note that the bottom line never assesses all of "typing pools, filing clerks, huge mail rooms" noted by the GP that they no longer need to employ, nor any potential expansion of their business that would be impossible without IT.
Funny how no one ever seems to assess the ROI on the accounting department, for example...
Is Usenet still even useful for file transfers? It seems like with file sizes these days the limitations of NNTP make it about the most inefficient mechanism out there.
Well, people are certainly still using it, there are even DVD image groups. It boggles the mind that people still use it in the age of BitTorrent, but there it is.
To me, the biggest inefficiency that got me away from Usenet is the header downloads. If you have a long retention provider like Giganews, some of the groups can have multiple millions of headers, so just in order to see what is available on the big binary groups can take more than hour even on broadband.
Well, technically Vorbis is *one* audio codec compatible with the Ogg container, though it is by far the most common. But FLAC, Speex, and OggPCM are also audio codecs which are supported by the Ogg container.
I've seen so many weird things launch from WMP over the years that my solution is to make sure that no media files types are associated with it. If on the rare occasion I need to play a WMV that has problems in VLC, I just do a right-click "Open with...".
Does anyone know for sure whether or not this vector can be launched from other media players? My guess is not.
They hid file extensions by default in Windows 2000 as well, which is one of the things I would always turn off as ritual when building out a new machine. I always felt there should be an OS install or user account setup option of "User is not an idiot".
I bought a Honda Fit this year after looking at several other things including the Smart4two, and I am very happy with it. The sticker claimed 50 mpg, but with my mostly 70 mph+ highway driving it gets about 35 mpg or so in reality. It has 4 seats, but if you put the rear seats down it has more cargo space than you could ever expect from a subcompact, an order of magnitude more than the 2-seater Smart. The Smart just seemed severely compromised in comparison.
Personally I enjoy the extra ten seconds per add-ridden page I add to my life where I am not waiting for all the useless ad content to load.
And for those of us who are beginning to get on in years, another issue is eyestrain. All the blather upthread about whether or not you are affected by the ads you see is besides the point IMO, I simply find using a non-adblocked browser to be stressful on my eyes and makes reading online much more fatiguing because I have to visually scan so much more to find what I am looking for.
There is a difference between parents believing that their lives are better with kids than non-parents believing that their lives are better without them; the parents have experienced both, the non-parents haven't.
However, the other side of the coin is that parents have more potential reason to rationalize their decision compared to non-parents. For a non-parent to regret not having children, it takes the form of "Gee, I wonder if my life wouldn't have been better if I had kids." But if the parent has any regrets about having children, that inevitably takes the form "Gee, little Timmy ruined everything." It's harder to "go there" in the latter case.
I've never had a commercially pressed CD rot, but I've had decay and bronzing on a number of home-burned CDs.
That said, the ones that had problems were almost always from the first generation of CD-Rs from the mid-90s, and the exceptions being ones that had been in my car and likely exposed to excessive heat from time to time. I have many that were burned 8-9 years ago that still play fine, some that have taken considerable abuse as well. I agree that it's not as big of a deal as it's made out to be, especially for recently manufactured discs, but I wouldn't depend on any pre-2000 CD-R media.
I didn't like it either. However, I quickly found an extension, oldbar, that pretty much restores the old URL bar functionality.
Past that, FF3 is pretty damn nice, IMHO. JavaScript execution alone is so much better that the improvement in browsing speed reminds me of getting broadband for the first time.
Not for nuthin', but when I was trying out Opera, I went to the Opera forums and asked some questions as to how to come up with the same functionality. Invariably, some would come up with some convoluted hack, which I couldn't get to work and wasn't even close to the convenience of just installing an extension. If I commented that the hack was not really an equivalent functionality, I'd get commentary like yours, basically anyone who won't go through the extra pains so they could use Opera were lazy and/or stupid.
Hey, if Opera works for you, I'm happy for you. But there seems to be a strain of Opera user that gets really surly when you find their "solutions" less than perfect.
Firefox has extensions. Which is where the real advantage is.
Bingo. I've tried Opera several times, and it seems quite a bit faster to me, but it has some serious functionality gaps compared to FF with extensions that are a deal-killer for me. Ad-block is a non-negotiable feature at this point.
There's enough spoofing software out there, and since it's incoming VOIP there's no way to verify the sender like you'd have with an old fashioned incoming phone call via a fixed line.
Well, my POTS Caller ID often times either comes up as Blocked Call or something weird, and I simply don't answer those calls. While it may be trivial for them to spoof a phone number, it is not trivial to find a number that I will trust (say, a friend or relative). That does somewhat limit the threat.
Still, it doesn't make me want to rush out to get VOIP.
While I am in total agreement with your sentiment, I would point out one small nit:
what they are selling may or may not be quality;
The last sentence of the summary would seem to suggest that what they sell is *not* quality. So a more accurate description would be "illegally counterfeit or substandard pharmaceuticals". Of course, that probably isn't as effective at pushing the buttons of soccer moms as "illegal drugs".
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So true. Note that the bottom line never assesses all of "typing pools, filing clerks, huge mail rooms" noted by the GP that they no longer need to employ, nor any potential expansion of their business that would be impossible without IT.
Funny how no one ever seems to assess the ROI on the accounting department, for example...
Well, people are certainly still using it, there are even DVD image groups. It boggles the mind that people still use it in the age of BitTorrent, but there it is.
To me, the biggest inefficiency that got me away from Usenet is the header downloads. If you have a long retention provider like Giganews, some of the groups can have multiple millions of headers, so just in order to see what is available on the big binary groups can take more than hour even on broadband.
Well, technically Vorbis is *one* audio codec compatible with the Ogg container, though it is by far the most common. But FLAC, Speex, and OggPCM are also audio codecs which are supported by the Ogg container.
I've seen so many weird things launch from WMP over the years that my solution is to make sure that no media files types are associated with it. If on the rare occasion I need to play a WMV that has problems in VLC, I just do a right-click "Open with...".
Does anyone know for sure whether or not this vector can be launched from other media players? My guess is not.
They hid file extensions by default in Windows 2000 as well, which is one of the things I would always turn off as ritual when building out a new machine. I always felt there should be an OS install or user account setup option of "User is not an idiot".
I grow orchids, you insensitive clod!!
In Soviet Web 2.0, the product is YOU!!
If I was doing the interview, all they'd need to do is throw a Pound of Hash on the desk to prove they're Sharp enough for the job.
People skills count, too.
I bought a Honda Fit this year after looking at several other things including the Smart4two, and I am very happy with it. The sticker claimed 50 mpg, but with my mostly 70 mph+ highway driving it gets about 35 mpg or so in reality. It has 4 seats, but if you put the rear seats down it has more cargo space than you could ever expect from a subcompact, an order of magnitude more than the 2-seater Smart. The Smart just seemed severely compromised in comparison.
So AOL has officially devolved into a stupidity tax?
And for those of us who are beginning to get on in years, another issue is eyestrain. All the blather upthread about whether or not you are affected by the ads you see is besides the point IMO, I simply find using a non-adblocked browser to be stressful on my eyes and makes reading online much more fatiguing because I have to visually scan so much more to find what I am looking for.
That was perfect.
There is a difference between parents believing that their lives are better with kids than non-parents believing that their lives are better without them; the parents have experienced both, the non-parents haven't.
However, the other side of the coin is that parents have more potential reason to rationalize their decision compared to non-parents. For a non-parent to regret not having children, it takes the form of "Gee, I wonder if my life wouldn't have been better if I had kids." But if the parent has any regrets about having children, that inevitably takes the form "Gee, little Timmy ruined everything." It's harder to "go there" in the latter case.
I've never had a commercially pressed CD rot, but I've had decay and bronzing on a number of home-burned CDs.
That said, the ones that had problems were almost always from the first generation of CD-Rs from the mid-90s, and the exceptions being ones that had been in my car and likely exposed to excessive heat from time to time. I have many that were burned 8-9 years ago that still play fine, some that have taken considerable abuse as well. I agree that it's not as big of a deal as it's made out to be, especially for recently manufactured discs, but I wouldn't depend on any pre-2000 CD-R media.
I didn't like it either. However, I quickly found an extension, oldbar, that pretty much restores the old URL bar functionality.
Past that, FF3 is pretty damn nice, IMHO. JavaScript execution alone is so much better that the improvement in browsing speed reminds me of getting broadband for the first time.
Of course it is. Broadband penetration is critically important for the upcoming teledildonics revolution.
I just installed FF3 and the install of Adblock is failing...it says the hash check has failed indicating a corrupted download.
I'm really hoping this is just a temporary glitch. No Adblock is no good.
I couldn't help but picture a hallway adorned with nicely framed images of goatse and tubgirl.
Not for nuthin', but when I was trying out Opera, I went to the Opera forums and asked some questions as to how to come up with the same functionality. Invariably, some would come up with some convoluted hack, which I couldn't get to work and wasn't even close to the convenience of just installing an extension. If I commented that the hack was not really an equivalent functionality, I'd get commentary like yours, basically anyone who won't go through the extra pains so they could use Opera were lazy and/or stupid.
Hey, if Opera works for you, I'm happy for you. But there seems to be a strain of Opera user that gets really surly when you find their "solutions" less than perfect.
Bingo. I've tried Opera several times, and it seems quite a bit faster to me, but it has some serious functionality gaps compared to FF with extensions that are a deal-killer for me. Ad-block is a non-negotiable feature at this point.
"Stump" as in confuse or confound?
Or maybe "stump" as in tearing out a dead, decaying tree by its roots?
"Stump" as in confuse or confound?
Or maybe "stump" as tearing out the remains of a dead, decaying tree by its roots?
His superior officer, Col. Kukla X. Clanner, wasn't available for comment.
Well, my POTS Caller ID often times either comes up as Blocked Call or something weird, and I simply don't answer those calls. While it may be trivial for them to spoof a phone number, it is not trivial to find a number that I will trust (say, a friend or relative). That does somewhat limit the threat.
Still, it doesn't make me want to rush out to get VOIP.
While I am in total agreement with your sentiment, I would point out one small nit:
The last sentence of the summary would seem to suggest that what they sell is *not* quality. So a more accurate description would be "illegally counterfeit or substandard pharmaceuticals". Of course, that probably isn't as effective at pushing the buttons of soccer moms as "illegal drugs".