No mod points, but +1 for Grado. Besides the great sound, I was surprised with how often I had, "Wow, I never even heard that instrument before!" moments when listening to orchestral music with my SR60s.
Seriously tough, I think that when people choose to use a browser that messes with system internals above other browsers that are NOT messing with the kernel, they get what they ultimately deserve.
I don't think people have this coming to them given that:
most people don't "choose" a browser -- they just use the one that comes with their OS
an extremely small percentage of computer users actually know what a kernel is
Should users be more educated? Maybe. But I don't think it's going to happen because most people don't care. They just want their computer to work.
What people really deserve is great software with as few bugs and security holes as possible irrespective of their technical understanding of computers.
The question I have is how much squinting at fine fonts I'd do at 1920x1200 on only 17" of screen - it's great on a 26", but can't see it being that good on a laptop.
I had a Dell M60 with 1920X1200 17" screen and I did find the fonts to be a bit small. Sure, the room was nice to have but I did have to increase some fonts so that they would be easier to read. e.g. when reading online documents in a browser I would increase the default fonts for a more comfortable reading experience.
Patents only last 20 years. Copyrights should last no longer, but at least patents are of a reasonable length. TFA says Google owns the design, but that's incorrect; it only has a 20 year lease on the design.
2. Overtime policy - This generally doesn't vary much due to have a legislated minimum here (1.5x pay past 8 hours a day (or 12 if that's your schedule) or 40 hours per week), but it's always good to know.
The laws vary by province so check your local listings. For example, in Ontario Information Technology workers are exempt from overtime policy (among other policies).
I'm normally as disparaging of teenagers as they come, having recently left that "I know everything there is to know" stage of my life (I'm 22).
I think you may still have some more more moments in the future where you realize how little you knew as a teenager and how, at 22, you vastly underestimated the amount you didn't know as a teen.:)
This isn't a flame at you, I just think it's what happens as we learn more and reflect.
Wow, ACMS...I haven't heard that one in a while! ACMS stands for Application Control and Management System and was the TP monitor that processed the transactions. The UI pieces were probably done using DECForms. At the time I thought it was pretty decent technology. (Just don't set the timeout to 10 seconds!)
I don't usually buy 'Advil' or 'Bayer'. I buy 'ibuprofen' or 'aspirin'. I have little need for a brand name attachment to the drug I'm after.
Where I live, Aspirin is a brand name trademarked by Bayer.
"Today, Aspirin is a registered trademark of Bayer AG in Germany and more than 80 other countries." See http://www.aspirin.com/faq_en.html for more info (if you are really bored).
The article says that you cannot bridge the gap by working your up the corporate ladder and that those who do catch up are ones who jump ship to other employers.
Obviously, if you enter the workforce when times are tough, your wages will be affected. However, to think that there is some sort of predestined reason that you have to be underpaid over decades is false. I think it comes down to how you manage your career. If you want to be paid a "fair market wage" by your current employer, you need to convince them why the salary is "fair" and why you deserve it. If you cannot do that and your research is correct you should be able to find a job at that wage somewhere else. Now, if there is protracted downturn, it may be possible that you might find yourself making more than you could get on the open market but less than people hired in years around you. But over 20 years this seems unlikely.
I think the main problem is that most people go into their performance review and just take the X percent raise that they are offered.
People with technical skills are a dime a dozen (unless you are striving to get into some very abstract programming job)
In my experience this isn't true. I guess it depends how you define technical skills, though. But in so many IT shops you see the same problems from the same sorts of programmers (who, I assume have technical skills?): Why wouldn't you check for null? If you caught the exception, why wouldn't you log an error? Why would you catch an exception and then ignore it? Why would you use a cookie to determine if a user was admin? Why didn't you use a transaction for those two database operations? etc. I'm not making this stuff up. I guess it's Sturgeon's Law for programming.
So I certainly wouldn't expect the US government to come out with a net gain on this (though it'd be amusing if they did), but the net loss is going to be far less than the upfront cost.
I have seen and heard many people mention something similar with quite a few thinking that the government will actually come out ahead in the long run.
A very interesting article by former FDIC Chairman William Isaac makes the argument that the current "need" for a bailout is mainly due to the Fair Value Accounting rules (mark to market) that are crippling the market now.
It seems that under this scheme, any time there is a some sort of market disruption (e.g. thinly traded markets that freeze up) institutions' balance sheets will be savaged by being forced to mark to market at prices substantially lower than the actual long term value of the assets.
Laissez Faire capitalism was tried and failed in the US nearly a century ago
Thanks for the correction -- although I'm not sure if even that is agreed upon: "...the Austrian School suggest that there was a considerable degree of government intervention in the economy--particularly after the 1820s." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez-faire Maybe nearly 200 years?
After all, the goal of socialized medicine isn't for the state to run hospitals, it's for the state to guarantee a certain level of medical services to all.
I'm not so sure. Based on how the debate is frequently framed here in Canada, what many people are concerned about is equal care (or equal access to care) as opposed to a basic level of care with the opportunity to purchase different (better?) treatments out of the patient's pocket.
I thought maybe it was the model that was new but this article from 2004 talks about a computer model too so it doesn't really look like news.
The interesting part about that article is that people are adjusting their plans based on the traffic forecasts which makes the forecasts less accurate.
One idea [...] might actually be to provide less complete traffic information to encourage drivers to adopt more varied strategies for evading congestion..."
I've seen this where I live where they have the traffic signs on the highways; the message just tells you that a certain route is moving slow but does not provide any recommendations. But the "worst" part is that it has turned into an exercise in game theory where they don't actually give you valid information -- they give you information that they think will make you behave in a certain way.
The irony is that the the company that invented the "most popular programming language" is not the one that is profiting from it. So, while Java is a huge success, from a business point of view I think Sun has failed and by naming their stock symbol JAVA that will remind me of their business failure every time I see it.
You make some good points and I'm not going to defend Microsoft's behavior.
All I'm saying is that I think it is silly to begrudge Microsoft for wanting to beat the competition and be as successful as they can -- that is their raison d'etre. The methods that they use to do that is a totally separate issue.
Maybe I just haven't beamed down to the hippie spore planet or something?
Slashdot Mirror
No mod points, but that is classic!!!
No mod points, but +1 for Grado. Besides the great sound, I was surprised with how often I had, "Wow, I never even heard that instrument before!" moments when listening to orchestral music with my SR60s.
Seriously tough, I think that when people choose to use a browser that messes with system internals above other browsers that are NOT messing with the kernel, they get what they ultimately deserve.
I don't think people have this coming to them given that:
Should users be more educated? Maybe. But I don't think it's going to happen because most people don't care. They just want their computer to work.
What people really deserve is great software with as few bugs and security holes as possible irrespective of their technical understanding of computers.
The question I have is how much squinting at fine fonts I'd do at 1920x1200 on only 17" of screen - it's great on a 26", but can't see it being that good on a laptop.
I had a Dell M60 with 1920X1200 17" screen and I did find the fonts to be a bit small. Sure, the room was nice to have but I did have to increase some fonts so that they would be easier to read. e.g. when reading online documents in a browser I would increase the default fonts for a more comfortable reading experience.
Patents only last 20 years. Copyrights should last no longer, but at least patents are of a reasonable length. TFA says Google owns the design, but that's incorrect; it only has a 20 year lease on the design.
Design patents are only valid for 14 years as compared to the 20 years that utility patents are valid.
2. Overtime policy - This generally doesn't vary much due to have a legislated minimum here (1.5x pay past 8 hours a day (or 12 if that's your schedule) or 40 hours per week), but it's always good to know.
The laws vary by province so check your local listings. For example, in Ontario Information Technology workers are exempt from overtime policy (among other policies).
So I would definitely clarify the overtime policy before accepting an offer.
No mod points but +1 for Night Stand reference!
Hey, I'm sick. I need help!
I'm normally as disparaging of teenagers as they come, having recently left that "I know everything there is to know" stage of my life (I'm 22).
I think you may still have some more more moments in the future where you realize how little you knew as a teenager and how, at 22, you vastly underestimated the amount you didn't know as a teen. :)
This isn't a flame at you, I just think it's what happens as we learn more and reflect.
I don't even RTFA and you want me to RTFL? Inconceivable!
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
"Funny? Sure. True? Yes and no."
So it looks like everyone is right on this one. :)
Wow, ACMS...I haven't heard that one in a while! ACMS stands for Application Control and Management System and was the TP monitor that processed the transactions. The UI pieces were probably done using DECForms. At the time I thought it was pretty decent technology. (Just don't set the timeout to 10 seconds!)
I don't usually buy 'Advil' or 'Bayer'. I buy 'ibuprofen' or 'aspirin'. I have little need for a brand name attachment to the drug I'm after.
Where I live, Aspirin is a brand name trademarked by Bayer. "Today, Aspirin is a registered trademark of Bayer AG in Germany and more than 80 other countries." See http://www.aspirin.com/faq_en.html for more info (if you are really bored).
Good article on Joel on Software about the IE8 standards mess: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/03/17.html
The article says that you cannot bridge the gap by working your up the corporate ladder and that those who do catch up are ones who jump ship to other employers. Obviously, if you enter the workforce when times are tough, your wages will be affected. However, to think that there is some sort of predestined reason that you have to be underpaid over decades is false. I think it comes down to how you manage your career. If you want to be paid a "fair market wage" by your current employer, you need to convince them why the salary is "fair" and why you deserve it. If you cannot do that and your research is correct you should be able to find a job at that wage somewhere else. Now, if there is protracted downturn, it may be possible that you might find yourself making more than you could get on the open market but less than people hired in years around you. But over 20 years this seems unlikely. I think the main problem is that most people go into their performance review and just take the X percent raise that they are offered.
People with technical skills are a dime a dozen (unless you are striving to get into some very abstract programming job)
In my experience this isn't true. I guess it depends how you define technical skills, though. But in so many IT shops you see the same problems from the same sorts of programmers (who, I assume have technical skills?): Why wouldn't you check for null? If you caught the exception, why wouldn't you log an error? Why would you catch an exception and then ignore it? Why would you use a cookie to determine if a user was admin? Why didn't you use a transaction for those two database operations? etc. I'm not making this stuff up. I guess it's Sturgeon's Law for programming.
3) Genocide based on genetic properties is evil.
As opposed to regular "good" genocide. ;)
So I certainly wouldn't expect the US government to come out with a net gain on this (though it'd be amusing if they did), but the net loss is going to be far less than the upfront cost.
I have seen and heard many people mention something similar with quite a few thinking that the government will actually come out ahead in the long run.
A very interesting article by former FDIC Chairman William Isaac makes the argument that the current "need" for a bailout is mainly due to the Fair Value Accounting rules (mark to market) that are crippling the market now.
It seems that under this scheme, any time there is a some sort of market disruption (e.g. thinly traded markets that freeze up) institutions' balance sheets will be savaged by being forced to mark to market at prices substantially lower than the actual long term value of the assets.
Oops:
Laissez Faire capitalism was tried and failed in the US nearly a century ago
Thanks for the correction -- although I'm not sure if even that is agreed upon: "...the Austrian School suggest that there was a considerable degree of government intervention in the economy--particularly after the 1820s." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laissez-faire Maybe nearly 200 years?
I'm not so sure. Based on how the debate is frequently framed here in Canada, what many people are concerned about is equal care (or equal access to care) as opposed to a basic level of care with the opportunity to purchase different (better?) treatments out of the patient's pocket.
The interesting part about that article is that people are adjusting their plans based on the traffic forecasts which makes the forecasts less accurate.
I've seen this where I live where they have the traffic signs on the highways; the message just tells you that a certain route is moving slow but does not provide any recommendations. But the "worst" part is that it has turned into an exercise in game theory where they don't actually give you valid information -- they give you information that they think will make you behave in a certain way.Why link to an inaccurate summary posted on another forum? Go to the source for the actual information: http://umanitoba.ca/mainframe/index.php
The number one reason: "You never get to do things the right way". So maybe some of the blame is circumstances?
Actually, I could see Kiss doing this. Kiss Meets Akira. I pray Simmons doesn't read Slashdot. :/
The irony is that the the company that invented the "most popular programming language" is not the one that is profiting from it. So, while Java is a huge success, from a business point of view I think Sun has failed and by naming their stock symbol JAVA that will remind me of their business failure every time I see it.
You make some good points and I'm not going to defend Microsoft's behavior. All I'm saying is that I think it is silly to begrudge Microsoft for wanting to beat the competition and be as successful as they can -- that is their raison d'etre. The methods that they use to do that is a totally separate issue. Maybe I just haven't beamed down to the hippie spore planet or something?