Remember, everyone in your company has a job to do; your job is to help them do their jobs. Sometimes employees will be impacted by security issues; but when their time is spent primarily working around your paranoid security restrictions, then you're hurting your business. Right now, you're more likely to either 1: Get fired, 2: insult an important business client, 3: piss off a valuable employee who will decide to move to a company who doesn't have an @$$h0l3 running their network...
It's good that you can disable word documents from email in the event of an outbreak; if, and only if an outbreak does occur, then disabling word documents from email might be your only option.
The other thing to consider is that, if a virus starts spreading though word documents in email attachments, you're going to start seeing a lot of SPAM with word documents attached. Consider being more restrictive to SPAM with regard to attachments.
10 years ago, When I learned C in high school, on the first day, the instructor handed out a photocopy of a very simple program. Our assignment was to type in to the computer EXACTLY as printed. Many of my peers had difficulty getting their versions to run. I even had a few minutes of head scratching until I found my missing semicolon.
You give very little information about your students. Do they have any programming experience at all? Are they writing games on their calculators? Did they overhear that "C is language that all the good programmers use?" IMO, I would only teach C to a teenager who's already written a simple video games that are beyond your abilities. (I wrote a simple video game when I was 13 in GWBasic.)
Now that 10 years have passed, I think there are much better languages that you can teach to teenagers. For beginner programmers, consider teaching them HTML, JavaScript and PHP by having them modify existing web pages. (I learned GWBasic when I was 10 by modifying games that I used to play when I was 5.) For intermediate and expert programmers, use Visual C# or Visual Basic.Net. (Both are very similar.) They're forgiving enough so that casual programmers can get something done; yet powerful enough to allow an expert teenage programmer to create professional-grade games, servers, and multimedia applications. (If only I had C# when I was in high school...)
In addition, if you teach C#, it's very easy for a motivated student to transition to straight C. C# has very similar syntax, (which will help you because you already know some C,) and it allows programmers to play with pointers. (Ick!)
If you do decide to bite the bullet and teach C, don't make the mistake that my high school Pascal teacher did... He taught us structures, pointers, and then how to allocate memory. He didn't even mention returning memory, nor did he intend to until I made a huge stink about it in class.
Intel's approach is to put lots of general-purpose cores on a single die; AMD's approach is to have a couple of finely-tuned cores on a single die. I really don't think there's much of a difference, as once can speculate that lots of general-purpose cores could perform on-par with a couple of finely-tuned cores.
It's too difficult to develop Mac applications. Apple's XCode is missing features that Windows C# developers take for granted, like Intellisense, inline documentation, and autocompletion. Cocoa uses a complex set of connections, outlets, and actions that are avoided in Microsoft Visual C# by simple multicast events.
I have mixed feelings towards Microsoft. Here's my opinion as to why they will remain dominant for the forseeable future in two words: VISUAL STUDIO
Throughout college I tried various programming environments; during my internships I would use Microsoft Visual Studio. It was always signifcantly better then anything else. When Visual Studio.Net with C# came out, I hopped on the bandwagon. My entire professional career, starting in the summer of 2003, has been with projects that are 100%.Net, and primarily C#. Microsoft Visual Studio, while imperfect, has Intellisense and auto-completion; two vital features that allow me to jump into unfamilar APIs and learn them in minutes.
Recently, with the whole Vista debacle, I decided to jump ship and buy a top-of-the-line 17" MacBook pro. This week I decided to teach myself how to create a Mac GUI program. It's a nightmare! XCode, Apple's flagship development tool, doesn't have Intellisense or auto-completion. It feels like Apple has completely ignored all of the features that make.Net GUI programming so quick and easy.
For example, I'm trying to create a program that displays a web page. In C#, I simply type WebBrowser.Navigate("http://foo.com"). Visual Studio makes sure that my dependancies for the WebBrowser object are present when I drop it into my window. I still haven't figured out the way to do it on a Mac, but I will state that XCode does not assist me in any way with making sure that my dependancies are present.
My point is that Microsoft will continue to remain dominant while it has the best development environment. I don't see myself becoming a professional Mac programmer anytime soon because the learning curve is so high.
Besides, I always thought muslims DID believe in jesus christ, just not in the same way christians do. Quite similar to how judaïsm believes in jesus christ in a different way than christians. Both religions acknowledge the existence of jesus christ, they just have different interpretations. Perhaps people of these, or other, religions can clarify? Either way; having muslims "star" as the main non-christian group seems suspicious, considering the large amount of other non-christians groups.
Really it's a case of "if you're not one of us, you're against us". It's the same reason why I will activly tell people that "I'm not Christian", even though I follow many of Jesus's teachings. This is primarily a tool to quickly expose rhetoric, predjudice, and irrationality.
Is it just me, or am I the only person who has trouble with touchtones on SkypeOut? I've called my cellphone, hit a number on my computer, and not heard anything go through to the cell phone.
What gripes me more than slow startup is the idea that a computer can't be shut off quickly.
My favorite dumb Windows defects are when you tell it to shut down or hibernate, and then close the lid of a laptop. When you re-open the laptop, it comes out of sleep mode and continues shutting down or hibernating.
This morning I opened my work laptop so that it could boot up while I ate breakfast. As soon as I opened, it continued shutting down from last evening.
All of this "The Net IS the OS" stuff is just ridiculous. This kind of thing doesn't even have a chance until broadband is as ubiquitous and as reliable as electricity. I think that we're still a good 10 years out from this even beginning to happen.
Consider:
10 years isn't a long time.
It took Microsoft 5 years to make Vista, which built upon more then 20 years of work with DOS & Windows
Put simply, the best time to start moving toward "The Net IS the OS" is yesterday.
This is even more reason for having the artists and consumers connect directly. For example, go to Metallica's website, download non-drm tracks for a buck a pop or whatever, and metallica gets 100% of the money. Throw in merchandise sold directly through the same website and artists could stand to make a lot more money than with the RIAA.
Ultimatly, for a band to be successful it needs engineers, publicists, promoters, ect. The RIAA's organizations have historically provided these services and recording equipment.
Is it possible for a band to go without the RIAA? Yes, but they will still need a team of 2-10 people who can run the computers, wire the mikes, stuff the envelopes, make the phone calls, ect, ect. Thanks to technology, one could produce a "Sgt. Peppers" or a "Pet Sounds" using equipment that costs much less then equivilent equipment in the 1960s. A band might even be able to afford comparable recording equipment without getting into significant debt.
My point is that no band can ever go "big" like Metallica and still keep 100% of their profits. Even without the RIAA, it takes many talented people working behind the scenes in order for a band to succeed.
Something to consider is that the "business" of making a television show will change dramatically in the next few years. It used to be that you'd shop around the major networks until someone gave you money for a pilot. Now, you can put together a short clip and post it on YouTube. (Remember, South Park started because of a short that was floating around the internet...)
I really believe that in 5-10 years we'll be watching shows that started as short clips on YouTube. These shows might end up being hosted by Google.
"Bob Sutor, IBM's vice president for open source and standards, called Microsoft's Office formats technically unwieldy - requiring software developers to absorb 6,000 pages of specifications, compared with 700 pages for OpenDocument. 'The practical effect is the only people who are going to be in a position to implement Microsoft's specifications are Microsoft,' Sutor said."
May the best standard win!
Seriously, with the move towards web-based document editors, and people getting sick of paying high prices for MS Office, there's plenty of room for some honest competition.
That being said, I'm going to continue to use my $20 corporate liscense version of Office for the forseeable future.;)
It's important to note, however, that our ads are created and managed under the exact same guidelines, principles, practices and algorithms as the ads of any other advertiser. Likewise, we use the very same tools and account interface...
My company forces me to use a similar VPN system. While I don't have a smartcard, my computer is scanned every time I connect. (Actually, I can only connect company-controlled computers through the VPN.)
It's such a pain to use the VPN due to all of the security measures. I'd rather have typical remote access software restricted to a VNC-like program that I can run on any computer.
Silicon Valley (where I live) isn't hot. The reasons why a company would locate their data center here are numerous:
Many companies were started here because this is where there's lots of venture capital
It's easy to start a small data center close to where you live because you can just walk in and fix something.
There's lots of talent in this area
Some data centers grow organically. Remember that Google started as a bunch of computers cobbled together in an office at Stanford, which is in Silicon Valley.
I'll pay ~$20 for a CD-DVD combo or SACD; a little more if it's a new release, a little less if it's a remaster of an album that's older then 5 years old. This is provided that there's a 5.1 mix. (I'll pay a little more if it's true DVD-A/SACD, a little less if it's lossy AC3 or DTS.) For new releases that are only a CD, I'll pay a little more then $15.
For CDs that are over 5 years old, $15 / CD, or $0.99 / track is highway robbery. I've been picking up Beatles and Pink Floyd over the past few years, and I'm getting fed up with being asked to pay $18 for an item that's essentially been unchanged since the super-duper-stereo-remaster came out 10 years ago. (Fortunatly I can find most of them used.)
Serisously, it's very difficult to be compelled to pay high margins for material that's older then 5 years old.
I agree; I switched to T-Mobile's $100 for 1000 minutes prepaid a year ago. It's been so good that I just dropped my (unused and malfunctioning) Vonage. What's also great is that (in theory) I can put my GSM chip in any mobile device, as opposed to being chained to Verizon's line of inferior crippled phones.
My only bone with T-Mobile is that their call centers really need improvement. When I transfered my Verizon number to them, they held me on the phone for over an hour forwarding me to different reps who were all too incompetant to switch my number.
Refills over the phone are also a pain, because I always get selected for "random" verification... Still, it's easier to put up with T-Mobile's BS every 6-7 months then deal with Verizon treating me like a ca$h cow.
Pretty much every study of programmers motivations i have ever read has shown them to be intrinsically motivated by the opportunity to solve puzzles, and to be able to hang out with birds of similar feather. The fact is that money isn't that much of a motivator for coders, provided there is sufficient to buy toys. The latest laptop. A 30" lcd into which to plug said laptop. A plasma telly and an xbox 360 on which to play halo.
You almost described the perfect reason for a programmer to start a business. For example, I want to start a business so that I can:
Solve puzzles of my choosing
Hang out with birds of a similar feather of my choosing
Have 5 of the latest laptops with 300" LCDs to plug them into, and a 2-story tall TV.
Working on someone else's puzzle is nice, but after awhile it gets old.
Really, all you need to do is sell a portable player with a huge hard drive. My entire CD collection, (about 300 at last count,) is 85 gigs compressed using WMA lossless.
In my car, I use a Nomad that I modified to have an 80-gig hard drive. It's filled with MP3s ripped at 320kbps VBR.
The thing to be careful about is that stupid audiophiles don't blow money on portables. They're more likely going to buy a $10,000 fanless computer that downloads 64-bit 1000khz lossless wave files then a $1000 MP3 player.
Skype supports video conferencing. I use it with my parents, and it's very good quality. I think you can configure it to auto-answer, but I'm not sure if you can configure it to auto-dial.
I hear your pain. When I fly home, I usually carry a phone, MP3 player, 2 laptops, bulky headphones, and 2 big hardcover books. Normally, I'd throw most of the gear in my checked baggage; but I don't trust the baggage handlers at all.
Our only recourse is to learn to travel light. (Granted, I could always switch employers to one who allows me to VNC directly into my desktop using personal hardware.)
A couple of weeks ago I met an ex-marine who (I think) was on the front lines during the invasion. After awhile, we both ended up drinking ONE, and I stress ONE, beer at a restaurant.
It became very clear to him, and me, that his drinking with non-military people isn't a good thing. As soon as his lips started to loosen, he started talking about his victories like a teenager would brag about killing the bad guys in the latest shoot-'em-up video game. When I offered him another beer he refused.
I felt incredicly sorry for him because his occupation, during the years when he would normally be in college, was to kill people. Let that statement sink in for a minute. His job was to kill people.
IMO, the best thing that I can do for anyone who's been in Iraq is to just listen. Don't ask any questions, just listen. I'm not equiped to handle the damage that occurs when someone is trained to be a professional killing machine, but I can let someone talk at me if it helps.
Slashdot Mirror
Remember, everyone in your company has a job to do; your job is to help them do their jobs. Sometimes employees will be impacted by security issues; but when their time is spent primarily working around your paranoid security restrictions, then you're hurting your business. Right now, you're more likely to either 1: Get fired, 2: insult an important business client, 3: piss off a valuable employee who will decide to move to a company who doesn't have an @$$h0l3 running their network...
It's good that you can disable word documents from email in the event of an outbreak; if, and only if an outbreak does occur, then disabling word documents from email might be your only option.
The other thing to consider is that, if a virus starts spreading though word documents in email attachments, you're going to start seeing a lot of SPAM with word documents attached. Consider being more restrictive to SPAM with regard to attachments.
10 years ago, When I learned C in high school, on the first day, the instructor handed out a photocopy of a very simple program. Our assignment was to type in to the computer EXACTLY as printed. Many of my peers had difficulty getting their versions to run. I even had a few minutes of head scratching until I found my missing semicolon.
You give very little information about your students. Do they have any programming experience at all? Are they writing games on their calculators? Did they overhear that "C is language that all the good programmers use?" IMO, I would only teach C to a teenager who's already written a simple video games that are beyond your abilities. (I wrote a simple video game when I was 13 in GWBasic.)
Now that 10 years have passed, I think there are much better languages that you can teach to teenagers. For beginner programmers, consider teaching them HTML, JavaScript and PHP by having them modify existing web pages. (I learned GWBasic when I was 10 by modifying games that I used to play when I was 5.) For intermediate and expert programmers, use Visual C# or Visual Basic .Net. (Both are very similar.) They're forgiving enough so that casual programmers can get something done; yet powerful enough to allow an expert teenage programmer to create professional-grade games, servers, and multimedia applications. (If only I had C# when I was in high school...)
In addition, if you teach C#, it's very easy for a motivated student to transition to straight C. C# has very similar syntax, (which will help you because you already know some C,) and it allows programmers to play with pointers. (Ick!)
If you do decide to bite the bullet and teach C, don't make the mistake that my high school Pascal teacher did... He taught us structures, pointers, and then how to allocate memory. He didn't even mention returning memory, nor did he intend to until I made a huge stink about it in class.
Intel's approach is to put lots of general-purpose cores on a single die; AMD's approach is to have a couple of finely-tuned cores on a single die. I really don't think there's much of a difference, as once can speculate that lots of general-purpose cores could perform on-par with a couple of finely-tuned cores.
Competition is a wonderful thing!
It's too difficult to develop Mac applications. Apple's XCode is missing features that Windows C# developers take for granted, like Intellisense, inline documentation, and autocompletion. Cocoa uses a complex set of connections, outlets, and actions that are avoided in Microsoft Visual C# by simple multicast events.
I have mixed feelings towards Microsoft. Here's my opinion as to why they will remain dominant for the forseeable future in two words: VISUAL STUDIO
Throughout college I tried various programming environments; during my internships I would use Microsoft Visual Studio. It was always signifcantly better then anything else. When Visual Studio .Net with C# came out, I hopped on the bandwagon. My entire professional career, starting in the summer of 2003, has been with projects that are 100% .Net, and primarily C#. Microsoft Visual Studio, while imperfect, has Intellisense and auto-completion; two vital features that allow me to jump into unfamilar APIs and learn them in minutes.
Recently, with the whole Vista debacle, I decided to jump ship and buy a top-of-the-line 17" MacBook pro. This week I decided to teach myself how to create a Mac GUI program. It's a nightmare! XCode, Apple's flagship development tool, doesn't have Intellisense or auto-completion. It feels like Apple has completely ignored all of the features that make .Net GUI programming so quick and easy.
For example, I'm trying to create a program that displays a web page. In C#, I simply type WebBrowser.Navigate("http://foo.com"). Visual Studio makes sure that my dependancies for the WebBrowser object are present when I drop it into my window. I still haven't figured out the way to do it on a Mac, but I will state that XCode does not assist me in any way with making sure that my dependancies are present.
My point is that Microsoft will continue to remain dominant while it has the best development environment. I don't see myself becoming a professional Mac programmer anytime soon because the learning curve is so high.
Is it just me, or am I the only person who has trouble with touchtones on SkypeOut? I've called my cellphone, hit a number on my computer, and not heard anything go through to the cell phone.
Lesson learned:
There is a market for big-ticket items that look complex.
- OR -
People like devices that are easy-to-use; yet have lots of features... ... if they can figure them out!
My favorite dumb Windows defects are when you tell it to shut down or hibernate, and then close the lid of a laptop. When you re-open the laptop, it comes out of sleep mode and continues shutting down or hibernating.
This morning I opened my work laptop so that it could boot up while I ate breakfast. As soon as I opened, it continued shutting down from last evening.
Consider:
Put simply, the best time to start moving toward "The Net IS the OS" is yesterday.
Ultimatly, for a band to be successful it needs engineers, publicists, promoters, ect. The RIAA's organizations have historically provided these services and recording equipment.
Is it possible for a band to go without the RIAA? Yes, but they will still need a team of 2-10 people who can run the computers, wire the mikes, stuff the envelopes, make the phone calls, ect, ect. Thanks to technology, one could produce a "Sgt. Peppers" or a "Pet Sounds" using equipment that costs much less then equivilent equipment in the 1960s. A band might even be able to afford comparable recording equipment without getting into significant debt.
My point is that no band can ever go "big" like Metallica and still keep 100% of their profits. Even without the RIAA, it takes many talented people working behind the scenes in order for a band to succeed.
Yes, but...
Something to consider is that the "business" of making a television show will change dramatically in the next few years. It used to be that you'd shop around the major networks until someone gave you money for a pilot. Now, you can put together a short clip and post it on YouTube. (Remember, South Park started because of a short that was floating around the internet...)
I really believe that in 5-10 years we'll be watching shows that started as short clips on YouTube. These shows might end up being hosted by Google.
May the best standard win!
Seriously, with the move towards web-based document editors, and people getting sick of paying high prices for MS Office, there's plenty of room for some honest competition.
That being said, I'm going to continue to use my $20 corporate liscense version of Office for the forseeable future. ;)
We just pay ourselves more then our competators.
My company forces me to use a similar VPN system. While I don't have a smartcard, my computer is scanned every time I connect. (Actually, I can only connect company-controlled computers through the VPN.)
It's such a pain to use the VPN due to all of the security measures. I'd rather have typical remote access software restricted to a VNC-like program that I can run on any computer.
Silicon Valley (where I live) isn't hot. The reasons why a company would locate their data center here are numerous:
I'll pay ~$20 for a CD-DVD combo or SACD; a little more if it's a new release, a little less if it's a remaster of an album that's older then 5 years old. This is provided that there's a 5.1 mix. (I'll pay a little more if it's true DVD-A/SACD, a little less if it's lossy AC3 or DTS.) For new releases that are only a CD, I'll pay a little more then $15.
For CDs that are over 5 years old, $15 / CD, or $0.99 / track is highway robbery. I've been picking up Beatles and Pink Floyd over the past few years, and I'm getting fed up with being asked to pay $18 for an item that's essentially been unchanged since the super-duper-stereo-remaster came out 10 years ago. (Fortunatly I can find most of them used.)
Serisously, it's very difficult to be compelled to pay high margins for material that's older then 5 years old.
I agree; I switched to T-Mobile's $100 for 1000 minutes prepaid a year ago. It's been so good that I just dropped my (unused and malfunctioning) Vonage. What's also great is that (in theory) I can put my GSM chip in any mobile device, as opposed to being chained to Verizon's line of inferior crippled phones.
My only bone with T-Mobile is that their call centers really need improvement. When I transfered my Verizon number to them, they held me on the phone for over an hour forwarding me to different reps who were all too incompetant to switch my number.
Refills over the phone are also a pain, because I always get selected for "random" verification... Still, it's easier to put up with T-Mobile's BS every 6-7 months then deal with Verizon treating me like a ca$h cow.
You almost described the perfect reason for a programmer to start a business. For example, I want to start a business so that I can:
Working on someone else's puzzle is nice, but after awhile it gets old.
Really, all you need to do is sell a portable player with a huge hard drive. My entire CD collection, (about 300 at last count,) is 85 gigs compressed using WMA lossless.
In my car, I use a Nomad that I modified to have an 80-gig hard drive. It's filled with MP3s ripped at 320kbps VBR.
The thing to be careful about is that stupid audiophiles don't blow money on portables. They're more likely going to buy a $10,000 fanless computer that downloads 64-bit 1000khz lossless wave files then a $1000 MP3 player.
Skype supports video conferencing. I use it with my parents, and it's very good quality. I think you can configure it to auto-answer, but I'm not sure if you can configure it to auto-dial.
Is anyone reminded of the descriptions of the arcing loops in Stanislaw Lem's Solaris?
I hear your pain. When I fly home, I usually carry a phone, MP3 player, 2 laptops, bulky headphones, and 2 big hardcover books. Normally, I'd throw most of the gear in my checked baggage; but I don't trust the baggage handlers at all.
Our only recourse is to learn to travel light. (Granted, I could always switch employers to one who allows me to VNC directly into my desktop using personal hardware.)
Ooops, I noticed a typo. You put "Steve Jobs" where "Linus Torvolds" should go.
A couple of weeks ago I met an ex-marine who (I think) was on the front lines during the invasion. After awhile, we both ended up drinking ONE, and I stress ONE, beer at a restaurant.
It became very clear to him, and me, that his drinking with non-military people isn't a good thing. As soon as his lips started to loosen, he started talking about his victories like a teenager would brag about killing the bad guys in the latest shoot-'em-up video game. When I offered him another beer he refused.
I felt incredicly sorry for him because his occupation, during the years when he would normally be in college, was to kill people. Let that statement sink in for a minute. His job was to kill people.
IMO, the best thing that I can do for anyone who's been in Iraq is to just listen. Don't ask any questions, just listen. I'm not equiped to handle the damage that occurs when someone is trained to be a professional killing machine, but I can let someone talk at me if it helps.