Thank you. I run Vista Ultimate and only have to authorize things like display settings changes, software updates, anything where a virus or trojan would happily ransack my system. So, I'd say I have to Cancel or Allow three apps per week, and the installs that don't comply with Vista's installer prompt me two or three times, but only during the install. Web browsing, developing, debugging don't bug me for authorization. It's not really disruptive, just a change in behavior.
The whole "Cancel or Allow" thing is great marketing on Apple's part, but FUD just like Windows Fanboys like to spin about Linux or Linux Fanboys spin about Windows.
Of course, it would be nice if I had more info on what I'm authorizing. That's up to the developers though. The OS has little way of predicting what's about to happen.
Unfortunately the current legal environment in the U.S. doesn't consider much trivial, at least when good lawyers are involved.
In most cases, the law will state that the employee is the one that pushed the Install button and therefore is at least an accomplice. Unless the employee can prove beyond hearsay (i.e., in writing) the threat of being fired or otherwise harmed, the employee is seen as having free will. The phrase, "I was only following orders" just doesn't cut it.
Also the current legal environment discourages companies from hiring someone who has the slightest blemish on their legal record. That, and someone known to have ratted out or sued their former employer. Even at an honest company, the hiring manager usually doesn't want to risk anything when two qualified people are up for the same job.
So it's a catch-22... stay and violate copyright, or leave and report the problem, possibly being blacklisted? Or leave and fail to report, leaving the problem to someone else? I've faced the same dilemma myself and responded differently based on the circumstances.
In the end, it's best to be up front and polite about the licensing; management may simply be oblivious to the license fees. Getting them to agree to a 500-machine deployment is a lot easier if someone forgets to mention the per-PC license. Once they've committed, they may feel like they can wait a year to get the licenses up to date. When they're backed into a corner, you'd be surprised how management justifies these things, as if it's a line of credit. One violation leads to another, and it can get out of hand. Like driving on the interstate at 120mph... 5 years, no accidents, so it's safe, right?
Yes, it does appear this is their last temper tantrum and/or marketing scheme. The 10K further describes $10 million in negative assets, 16 million debt to the shareholders... and this tidbit suggests their patent's intent was only for one product named SiteFlash which they are now licensing. This is a far different description than I know of the.Net framework, which I would consider the foundation to enable the SiteFlash product to exist. The patent text appears to describe the web technology, and not the.Net / CLR technology. (I'm not a lawyer; they speak a different alien language.)
--
The Company's primary core internet technology is SiteFlash(TM). The SiteFlash(TM) technology utilizes XML and publishes content on the Web, enabling the user to build and efficiently operate Websites with the unique ability to separate form, function, and content. SiteFlash(TM) uses an advanced component-based structure to separate, parse, and store the various components of even the most complex Web pages, which permits these components to be named, organized, filed and eventually redeployed onto the Web pages of a Website. Once all of the components of the Web page are converted into " objects," they can be grouped, as required by the user, into the three main types of web page components: content, form and function. Content consists of text, pictures or multimedia. Form includes graphics and web site colors, layout and design. Function refers to the activities performed by or actions executed on the website. In this way, each element of a Website created using SiteFlash(TM) is interchangeable with any other similar element, and these elements may be grouped together in almost any combination to create complex Websites. This separation of form, function, and content also allows for the rapid creation of affiliated Websites. This unique ability is patented (U.S. Patent number 6,826,744) and has many applications in the Web arena. The Company is in the process of licensing this patent. The Company has retained the law firm of Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro in connection with the licensing of SiteFlash(TM).
I would feel more comfortable knowing there are 20+ cops with radios, training and coordination.
Say you have 20 students packing within an area where the shooter starts his assault. They might be accurate shots, but can you imagine the crossfire? Cops have incredible restraint and have to rely on years of training and experience to know where the threat is and what will be between his gun and the bullet when he pulls that trigger. Unfortunately, a few training classes and a weekly trip to the range isn't enough to train for real life combat situations. The range has static targets, not teenagers running around screaming.
Plus, if you have 20 students with guns, how does one know the other 19 aren't threats? Crossfire might be the least of the worries if each thinks the other is the original shooter.
Since the CT scan is expensive, time consuming and often has an hour-long wait even in emergency rooms, they now use the CT scan only if they are fairly certain there's a problem and are often discouraged from doing more than one a day on a single patient. A device like this could be used like the O2 Saturation monitors or cardiac monitors: preventative, non-invasive and don't require scheduling of the million-dollar equipment.
I can see this tech being used some day to detect clots in legs, arms, etc.
From what I've read of the other posts, it seems CEUs have no credibility, so little that people aren't willing to even look at the curriculum before judging. Maybe it's from being lumped in with the "special summer courses" on handwriting analysis and speed reading. Or because votech makes people think more of engine repair than rocket science. Regardless, it's a step in the right direction.
If you have O'Reilly in your foundation, you're well equipped as far as source material; the quality of instruction is the next question. Via CEU or full regional accreditation, if your students are well trained, your training program will gain credibility.
I.T. students go after vendor certs like candy from a piñata. Why, when someone offers more foundational skills, do they criticize it? Probably because there's no 'brand name' effect to it; if they were offered CEU's from MIT I wonder if they'd complain as loudly.
Translation: Use the skills you learn from the books (you'll need more than one), and start making projects that solve a problem. Start simple: things you wish you could do, like right-click on a file name and accomplish a task related to that file. Then move to paid projects or find employment in a company that would be willing to let you tinker with some programming. If you learn fast, the experience grows exponentially as people realize, "Hey, this guy's good" and start asking you to write stuff for them.
When you have no experience, the experience you do get is worth more than gold. Distill all your experience into a resume, minute-long demo or a dozen pictures on a website. That's when you'll want marketing and business skills. And communication, of course... communicate the results in a business-problem solution and you can write your own ticket. The key is realizing that the business world has problems and it's up to you to convince them that you have (or can create) the solution.
Learning -> Knowledge -> Experience -> Application to a Problem -> Results -> "I can solve your problem."
So technically, the book itself doesn't give you experience, but applying the information does.
Two levels of software certification: "Works With Windows Vista" and "Certified for Windows Vista" mean different levels of integration. Full test specs are available to anyone:
Basically, you pay a testing fee, have a third party test according to criteria outlined in the program specs and if it passes, you get the sticker. Some criteria are easy to pass, others are tougher.
SuperFetch will pre-load applications into main memory according to usage patterns. Using a ReadyBoost-enabled hard drive or USB memory stick, Vista will load the app files onto flash memory. From first access to second access, load times can go down by 75% or more because flash memory and SDRAM have nanosecond access times.
A quick Google search for "Vista superfetch" found Tom's Hardware did a review.
True, transmitting a large index over a network does take time, if the index isn't optimized for the query. Also, queries take time for locks. Foxpro reads index files over a network link (using seeks whenever Rushmore lets it), and does have a set minimum time that it locks resources (3ms, if I'm correct). So when you get into a multi-user scenario, about 200 users can saturate the locking timeframe and cause an exponential delay. Seeing that first hand, I've come up with a few index pointers:
The SYS(3054,11) command tells you what Rushmore is doing to optimize a query. Using 32-bit integers as the primary key is hundreds of times faster than a char(50). Keep join complexity down below 4 tables, and denormalize just a little. Index on Deleted() if you delete a lot. Use read-only tables when possible to bypass lock delays. Certain commands use an implicit table lock and cause noticeable delays in a multi-user system.
But you're certainly right that if you have a 100MB table and a 80MB index, Foxpro could be doing the equivalent of a table scan. n-Tier database backends like SQL Server can intercept all 200 users and handle locking better. So, I would say VFP is good for 50 users (or 100 users if well-controlled) for interactive use, and less if the workstations do mass updates.
"...it certainly is a step in the right direction."
Exactly. Proof of concept. Decades ago we had punch cards and vacuum tubes. Now we have Blu-Ray and quad core.
If the group can do this with only a boolean input... just imagine in the future what multiple analog inputs could provide. Thoughts are in images or concepts, and are probably very hard to interpret, but emotion and more primal responses could be used to influence a game. A hundred minds linked in a game with basic emotions of fear, deception, and mad laughter could cause the AI to change the environment, like add a surprise element. Tech like that could be only a few years away.
And if boredom can be captured, we can finally have an answer to whether or not yawns are telepathically contagious.
I'm running Windows anyway. It was hungry, so I fed it 8 of these. Windows is happy now. I'm about to restart FireFox to install them... It's like I just fed my computer ice cream, sushi and Pine Sol. Could get interesting.
Simplified information in large quantity? A database can handle that, and is probably the best choice. All you're storing is a few dozen attributes of a few updates for a billion computers. Break down the billion into thousands of thousands of thousands, and you've got partitions. Split those across server farms, and scale out until the hardware isn't screaming at every query. Granted, Oracle is probably a bit more robust, but SQL Server can handle the load if properly configured. Partition the root-level queries by geography or IP address of the computer reporting/requesting its updates, and half the battle is done.
150 Terabytes sounds like a lot of data, but it's not so bad if you eat the elephant one byte at a time.
I lived in Guatemala in '95 and had one of those in my $250/mo, 400 sq ft apartment. One pipe to the shower head, and the heater and wiring job looked just like that image. Oh, that brings back memories. Not running hot+cold water is mostly a cost issue. For framing a house, concrete blocks were cheaper than wood, and insulated so well that no A/C was needed. Water was about 60 degrees and never below 50, so these little things were cheap enough to at least give the lukewarm drip. Mine was about 1KW, enough to raise it to body temp at a dribble. I think it cost $20 -- two weeks minimum wage. Still considered a minor luxury.
Phone shared by 4 apartments, bars on the single window, metal door, drunk old men sleeping on my front doorstep. Ah, the memories.
I wouldn't call BS so easily. 300,000 accountants can be wrong if their management is locked into a comfort zone. Upgrading software and hardware to that scale becomes very expensive, and, let's face it, accountants know all about saving a buck. That company probably saved billions in the implementation and retraining that would have been repeated several times in a decade. Of course, they waited this long and if they don't upgrade soon at least to a web/smart-client app, they could be in trouble. SOX and other legal requirements demand certain security protections that Win3.11 can't easily provide. If this is just for a mainframe terminal emulator, maybe it's not so bad.
I worked for a real estate developer in '98 that had a single 1982-era DisplayWriter for their rent management system, and two in the back used for parts when they could bring the repairman out of retirement to fix it. Seriously. I upgraded them to a 20-station Win95/Linux network and rewrote their DisplayWriter piece in Visual FoxPro. They still used the mainframe for accounting, and retraining on the other systems was a mess. Convincing a few of them to use a mouse was painful. Worse was telling them their other DOS-based rent management system was going to stop working on 1/1/2000 because it only allowed two digit years, and they refused to let me rewrite it because I would require a mouse.
Even now... I work in the health MIS industry (billing software) and some of our clients as of a few years ago were using Win95 and NT 4.0 server because it would cost millions to upgrade and retrain. Several still use Win98 today. It restricts our feature set because we have to support the lowest level anyone has -- we can't just say, "Microsoft dropped Win2K support, so will we." When they do eventually upgrade, it's always a major retraining effort. Maybe mainframes will be king in the next era simply for the consistent interface.
Without actually seeing the scene, it's hard to presume the laptop would be destroyed. Consider the possibility that it sparked for a few seconds, lighting curtains or polyurethane. The flames may have traveled up and left the laptop alone where it was buried under just enough debris to shield it a little, and it was identifiable within a few minutes as "probably a laptop." Fire marshals are trained to ID the source of a fire and I imagine they can narrow it down to a 10-foot area within an hour if the conditions are right. Again, without knowing the scene or seeing an actual report, it's impossible to say.
And as for calling Dell, he did call his insurance company first.
"Since the incident my homeowners company has been very interested in the information about the laptop. I have tried to call Dell to at least notify them of my problems,... "
Still, bad strategy. Never call a company to inform them of a pending claim/lawsuit; let the lawyers do that. One wrong word can kill a case.
Fixing someone's computer and/or order is one thing. Using a piece of machinery capable of flinging metal, rocks and glass 500 feet is another. Here in the USA, the government office would have been worried about being sued if that mower kicked a rock up and smashed someone's windshield, causing them to fly off the road at 70mph to a gruesome death. Unauthorized work isn't covered by insurance, and that includes favors.
The "could haves" rule in the world of insurance (refuse to pay) and injury law (awarding damages). For that reason, the guy whose house burned down could convince a jury that he "could have" been asleep in bed with the flu and would have died in the fire. If the laptop is at fault, he could be awarded damages in the millions for a 130 year old tinderbox, unless their lawyer argues he ignored a recall/warning.
And trust me, any 130 year old farmhouse is a tinderbox, especially if it still has heart pine flooring/ceiling joists. Heart pine is from the heart of a very old pine tree, rich with sap that has turned to turpentine (aka paint thinner)... quite flammable.
I know at least a dozen people at my workplace that have spent 10 years at the same company, same job, same position, doing the same lackluster job they started. They usually make the same mistakes as a brand new employee; they're not bad enough to fire, they're just coasting. And they're the type to give 60%, knowing they can get away with it and get their steady paycheck.
Then we get some fresh college graduate with motivation and drive, and they start out in the usual entry level position. They usually leave within a year for something that pays better, because their manager can't recognize good talent and work ethic. What remains is just enough apathy to frustrate the hard working and slow down the whole machine. I can think of a few developers that have been there 5+ years that really understand the whole picture and are eager to learn. Their value is beyond measure.
Technology changes too fast to be tied to it directly. What a business really values is the ability to adapt while maintaining consistency of the core concepts like coding practices.
Also... roads don't change their location (except during a 10.5 in California). Overlay movement data to road maps. Picture cell phones in dots on a screen. If you see a flow of dots on a screen, moving at > 20mph at any point in time, that's a road. Track one dot; if it slows down and then goes > 5mph, it's still on a road. If it stays under 3mph while others move faster, it's now a pedestrian or otherwise disqualified from the flow.
Privacy issues are not as bad as people think; anyone with a GPS-tracked 911-enabled phone made in the last 3 years is being tracked while it's on. Anyone concerned with privacy should also consider that their conversations go through the network of the very provider that knows where they are; talk about Aunt Midge's cancer treatments can be heard just as easily. Whether third-party snooping can be done depends on encryption, and that doesn't count the person 10 feet away who heard the credit card number just used to place an order of pizza. People in general complain about privacy and fail to realize just how much technology encourages them to compromise it themselves.
I would encourage the responsible use of this tech to track traffic patterns in a non-personally-identifiable way. A unique ID assigned to a dot, with as little info as necessary to track movement; no link to an account, etc. The cell provider already has the info, so they can control its use between departments by translating one unique ID to another and severing the link between the two. I do this for HIPAA-safe medical claims; de-identify the patient and the rest is valid data that can never be traced back.
Yeah, when I was in 6th grade I got beat up for being a nerd. One afternoon as I lay on the ground bleeding, a teacher called over the P.A. "Nurse to E-5 stat!" But what came out was "Nerd in E-5 Splat!"
It was the next day that I learned to defend myself. I'd had enough of being beaten up, and I won.
Slashdot Mirror
Thank you. I run Vista Ultimate and only have to authorize things like display settings changes, software updates, anything where a virus or trojan would happily ransack my system. So, I'd say I have to Cancel or Allow three apps per week, and the installs that don't comply with Vista's installer prompt me two or three times, but only during the install. Web browsing, developing, debugging don't bug me for authorization. It's not really disruptive, just a change in behavior.
The whole "Cancel or Allow" thing is great marketing on Apple's part, but FUD just like Windows Fanboys like to spin about Linux or Linux Fanboys spin about Windows.
Of course, it would be nice if I had more info on what I'm authorizing. That's up to the developers though. The OS has little way of predicting what's about to happen.
Will this suffice?
http://www.everybody-dies.com/
In Vista:
You are about to embark on a new career path.
Cancel or Allow?
Unfortunately the current legal environment in the U.S. doesn't consider much trivial, at least when good lawyers are involved.
In most cases, the law will state that the employee is the one that pushed the Install button and therefore is at least an accomplice. Unless the employee can prove beyond hearsay (i.e., in writing) the threat of being fired or otherwise harmed, the employee is seen as having free will. The phrase, "I was only following orders" just doesn't cut it.
Also the current legal environment discourages companies from hiring someone who has the slightest blemish on their legal record. That, and someone known to have ratted out or sued their former employer. Even at an honest company, the hiring manager usually doesn't want to risk anything when two qualified people are up for the same job.
So it's a catch-22... stay and violate copyright, or leave and report the problem, possibly being blacklisted? Or leave and fail to report, leaving the problem to someone else? I've faced the same dilemma myself and responded differently based on the circumstances.
In the end, it's best to be up front and polite about the licensing; management may simply be oblivious to the license fees. Getting them to agree to a 500-machine deployment is a lot easier if someone forgets to mention the per-PC license. Once they've committed, they may feel like they can wait a year to get the licenses up to date. When they're backed into a corner, you'd be surprised how management justifies these things, as if it's a line of credit. One violation leads to another, and it can get out of hand. Like driving on the interstate at 120mph... 5 years, no accidents, so it's safe, right?
Yes, it does appear this is their last temper tantrum and/or marketing scheme. The 10K further describes $10 million in negative assets, 16 million debt to the shareholders... and this tidbit suggests their patent's intent was only for one product named SiteFlash which they are now licensing. This is a far different description than I know of the .Net framework, which I would consider the foundation to enable the SiteFlash product to exist. The patent text appears to describe the web technology, and not the .Net / CLR technology. (I'm not a lawyer; they speak a different alien language.)
," they can be grouped, as required by the user, into the three main types of web page components: content, form and function. Content consists of text, pictures or multimedia. Form includes graphics and web site colors, layout and design. Function refers to the activities performed by or actions executed on the website. In this way, each element of a Website created using SiteFlash(TM) is interchangeable with any other similar element, and these elements may be grouped together in almost any combination to create complex Websites. This separation of form, function, and content also allows for the rapid creation of affiliated Websites. This unique ability is patented (U.S. Patent number 6,826,744) and has many applications in the Web arena. The Company is in the process of licensing this patent. The Company has retained the law firm of Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro in connection with the licensing of SiteFlash(TM).
--
The Company's primary core internet technology is SiteFlash(TM). The SiteFlash(TM) technology utilizes XML and publishes content on the Web, enabling the user to build and efficiently operate Websites with the unique ability to separate form, function, and content. SiteFlash(TM) uses an advanced component-based structure to separate, parse, and store the various components of even the most complex Web pages, which permits these components to be named, organized, filed and eventually redeployed onto the Web pages of a Website. Once all of the components of the Web page are converted into " objects
I would feel more comfortable knowing there are 20+ cops with radios, training and coordination.
Say you have 20 students packing within an area where the shooter starts his assault. They might be accurate shots, but can you imagine the crossfire? Cops have incredible restraint and have to rely on years of training and experience to know where the threat is and what will be between his gun and the bullet when he pulls that trigger. Unfortunately, a few training classes and a weekly trip to the range isn't enough to train for real life combat situations. The range has static targets, not teenagers running around screaming.
Plus, if you have 20 students with guns, how does one know the other 19 aren't threats? Crossfire might be the least of the worries if each thinks the other is the original shooter.
Since the CT scan is expensive, time consuming and often has an hour-long wait even in emergency rooms, they now use the CT scan only if they are fairly certain there's a problem and are often discouraged from doing more than one a day on a single patient. A device like this could be used like the O2 Saturation monitors or cardiac monitors: preventative, non-invasive and don't require scheduling of the million-dollar equipment.
I can see this tech being used some day to detect clots in legs, arms, etc.
From what I've read of the other posts, it seems CEUs have no credibility, so little that people aren't willing to even look at the curriculum before judging. Maybe it's from being lumped in with the "special summer courses" on handwriting analysis and speed reading. Or because votech makes people think more of engine repair than rocket science. Regardless, it's a step in the right direction.
If you have O'Reilly in your foundation, you're well equipped as far as source material; the quality of instruction is the next question. Via CEU or full regional accreditation, if your students are well trained, your training program will gain credibility.
I.T. students go after vendor certs like candy from a piñata. Why, when someone offers more foundational skills, do they criticize it? Probably because there's no 'brand name' effect to it; if they were offered CEU's from MIT I wonder if they'd complain as loudly.
Find a need and fill it.
Translation: Use the skills you learn from the books (you'll need more than one), and start making projects that solve a problem. Start simple: things you wish you could do, like right-click on a file name and accomplish a task related to that file. Then move to paid projects or find employment in a company that would be willing to let you tinker with some programming. If you learn fast, the experience grows exponentially as people realize, "Hey, this guy's good" and start asking you to write stuff for them.
When you have no experience, the experience you do get is worth more than gold. Distill all your experience into a resume, minute-long demo or a dozen pictures on a website. That's when you'll want marketing and business skills. And communication, of course... communicate the results in a business-problem solution and you can write your own ticket. The key is realizing that the business world has problems and it's up to you to convince them that you have (or can create) the solution.
Learning -> Knowledge -> Experience -> Application to a Problem -> Results -> "I can solve your problem."
So technically, the book itself doesn't give you experience, but applying the information does.
It's a bit more than that.
t a/Default.aspx?LangType=4105
Two levels of software certification:
"Works With Windows Vista" and "Certified for Windows Vista" mean different levels of integration. Full test specs are available to anyone:
http://microsoft.mrmpslc.com/InnovateOnWindowsVis
Basically, you pay a testing fee, have a third party test according to criteria outlined in the program specs and if it passes, you get the sticker. Some criteria are easy to pass, others are tougher.
SuperFetch will pre-load applications into main memory according to usage patterns. Using a ReadyBoost-enabled hard drive or USB memory stick, Vista will load the app files onto flash memory. From first access to second access, load times can go down by 75% or more because flash memory and SDRAM have nanosecond access times.
s ta-superfetch-and-readyboostanalyzed/page6.html
s ta-superfetch-and-readyboostanalyzed/page5.html
A quick Google search for "Vista superfetch" found Tom's Hardware did a review.
Summary at this link; pages 1-5 show graphs with the results.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/31/windows-vi
Page 5 with comparison graphs
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/01/31/windows-vi
True, transmitting a large index over a network does take time, if the index isn't optimized for the query. Also, queries take time for locks. Foxpro reads index files over a network link (using seeks whenever Rushmore lets it), and does have a set minimum time that it locks resources (3ms, if I'm correct). So when you get into a multi-user scenario, about 200 users can saturate the locking timeframe and cause an exponential delay. Seeing that first hand, I've come up with a few index pointers:
The SYS(3054,11) command tells you what Rushmore is doing to optimize a query. Using 32-bit integers as the primary key is hundreds of times faster than a char(50). Keep join complexity down below 4 tables, and denormalize just a little. Index on Deleted() if you delete a lot. Use read-only tables when possible to bypass lock delays. Certain commands use an implicit table lock and cause noticeable delays in a multi-user system.
But you're certainly right that if you have a 100MB table and a 80MB index, Foxpro could be doing the equivalent of a table scan. n-Tier database backends like SQL Server can intercept all 200 users and handle locking better. So, I would say VFP is good for 50 users (or 100 users if well-controlled) for interactive use, and less if the workstations do mass updates.
"...it certainly is a step in the right direction."
Exactly. Proof of concept. Decades ago we had punch cards and vacuum tubes. Now we have Blu-Ray and quad core.
If the group can do this with only a boolean input... just imagine in the future what multiple analog inputs could provide. Thoughts are in images or concepts, and are probably very hard to interpret, but emotion and more primal responses could be used to influence a game. A hundred minds linked in a game with basic emotions of fear, deception, and mad laughter could cause the AI to change the environment, like add a surprise element. Tech like that could be only a few years away.
And if boredom can be captured, we can finally have an answer to whether or not yawns are telepathically contagious.
Ok, now how many of you just yawned?
I'm running Windows anyway. It was hungry, so I fed it 8 of these. Windows is happy now.
I'm about to restart FireFox to install them... It's like I just fed my computer ice cream, sushi and Pine Sol. Could get interesting.
Simplified information in large quantity? A database can handle that, and is probably the best choice. All you're storing is a few dozen attributes of a few updates for a billion computers. Break down the billion into thousands of thousands of thousands, and you've got partitions. Split those across server farms, and scale out until the hardware isn't screaming at every query. Granted, Oracle is probably a bit more robust, but SQL Server can handle the load if properly configured. Partition the root-level queries by geography or IP address of the computer reporting/requesting its updates, and half the battle is done.
150 Terabytes sounds like a lot of data, but it's not so bad if you eat the elephant one byte at a time.
I lived in Guatemala in '95 and had one of those in my $250/mo, 400 sq ft apartment. One pipe to the shower head, and the heater and wiring job looked just like that image. Oh, that brings back memories. Not running hot+cold water is mostly a cost issue. For framing a house, concrete blocks were cheaper than wood, and insulated so well that no A/C was needed. Water was about 60 degrees and never below 50, so these little things were cheap enough to at least give the lukewarm drip. Mine was about 1KW, enough to raise it to body temp at a dribble. I think it cost $20 -- two weeks minimum wage. Still considered a minor luxury.
Phone shared by 4 apartments, bars on the single window, metal door, drunk old men sleeping on my front doorstep. Ah, the memories.
I wouldn't call BS so easily. 300,000 accountants can be wrong if their management is locked into a comfort zone. Upgrading software and hardware to that scale becomes very expensive, and, let's face it, accountants know all about saving a buck. That company probably saved billions in the implementation and retraining that would have been repeated several times in a decade. Of course, they waited this long and if they don't upgrade soon at least to a web/smart-client app, they could be in trouble. SOX and other legal requirements demand certain security protections that Win3.11 can't easily provide. If this is just for a mainframe terminal emulator, maybe it's not so bad.
I worked for a real estate developer in '98 that had a single 1982-era DisplayWriter for their rent management system, and two in the back used for parts when they could bring the repairman out of retirement to fix it. Seriously.
I upgraded them to a 20-station Win95/Linux network and rewrote their DisplayWriter piece in Visual FoxPro. They still used the mainframe for accounting, and retraining on the other systems was a mess. Convincing a few of them to use a mouse was painful. Worse was telling them their other DOS-based rent management system was going to stop working on 1/1/2000 because it only allowed two digit years, and they refused to let me rewrite it because I would require a mouse.
Even now... I work in the health MIS industry (billing software) and some of our clients as of a few years ago were using Win95 and NT 4.0 server because it would cost millions to upgrade and retrain. Several still use Win98 today. It restricts our feature set because we have to support the lowest level anyone has -- we can't just say, "Microsoft dropped Win2K support, so will we." When they do eventually upgrade, it's always a major retraining effort. Maybe mainframes will be king in the next era simply for the consistent interface.
They're still working on making the reverse beeper signal loud enough to be heard in space.
Without actually seeing the scene, it's hard to presume the laptop would be destroyed. Consider the possibility that it sparked for a few seconds, lighting curtains or polyurethane. The flames may have traveled up and left the laptop alone where it was buried under just enough debris to shield it a little, and it was identifiable within a few minutes as "probably a laptop." Fire marshals are trained to ID the source of a fire and I imagine they can narrow it down to a 10-foot area within an hour if the conditions are right. Again, without knowing the scene or seeing an actual report, it's impossible to say.
... "
And as for calling Dell, he did call his insurance company first.
"Since the incident my homeowners company has been very interested in
the information about the laptop. I have tried to call Dell to at
least notify them of my problems,
Still, bad strategy. Never call a company to inform them of a pending claim/lawsuit; let the lawyers do that. One wrong word can kill a case.
Fixing someone's computer and/or order is one thing. Using a piece of machinery capable of flinging metal, rocks and glass 500 feet is another. Here in the USA, the government office would have been worried about being sued if that mower kicked a rock up and smashed someone's windshield, causing them to fly off the road at 70mph to a gruesome death. Unauthorized work isn't covered by insurance, and that includes favors.
The "could haves" rule in the world of insurance (refuse to pay) and injury law (awarding damages). For that reason, the guy whose house burned down could convince a jury that he "could have" been asleep in bed with the flu and would have died in the fire. If the laptop is at fault, he could be awarded damages in the millions for a 130 year old tinderbox, unless their lawyer argues he ignored a recall/warning.
And trust me, any 130 year old farmhouse is a tinderbox, especially if it still has heart pine flooring/ceiling joists. Heart pine is from the heart of a very old pine tree, rich with sap that has turned to turpentine (aka paint thinner)... quite flammable.
I know at least a dozen people at my workplace that have spent 10 years at the same company, same job, same position, doing the same lackluster job they started. They usually make the same mistakes as a brand new employee; they're not bad enough to fire, they're just coasting. And they're the type to give 60%, knowing they can get away with it and get their steady paycheck.
Then we get some fresh college graduate with motivation and drive, and they start out in the usual entry level position. They usually leave within a year for something that pays better, because their manager can't recognize good talent and work ethic. What remains is just enough apathy to frustrate the hard working and slow down the whole machine. I can think of a few developers that have been there 5+ years that really understand the whole picture and are eager to learn. Their value is beyond measure.
Technology changes too fast to be tied to it directly. What a business really values is the ability to adapt while maintaining consistency of the core concepts like coding practices.
I dunno, man... down here in Alabama we use it in runnin' boards, tool boxes... hell, whole trucks. Ain't nothin' stronger'n diamond plate.
And then there's Venezuela. Their president will do it just to piss ours off.
Also... roads don't change their location (except during a 10.5 in California). Overlay movement data to road maps. Picture cell phones in dots on a screen. If you see a flow of dots on a screen, moving at > 20mph at any point in time, that's a road. Track one dot; if it slows down and then goes > 5mph, it's still on a road. If it stays under 3mph while others move faster, it's now a pedestrian or otherwise disqualified from the flow.
Privacy issues are not as bad as people think; anyone with a GPS-tracked 911-enabled phone made in the last 3 years is being tracked while it's on. Anyone concerned with privacy should also consider that their conversations go through the network of the very provider that knows where they are; talk about Aunt Midge's cancer treatments can be heard just as easily. Whether third-party snooping can be done depends on encryption, and that doesn't count the person 10 feet away who heard the credit card number just used to place an order of pizza. People in general complain about privacy and fail to realize just how much technology encourages them to compromise it themselves.
I would encourage the responsible use of this tech to track traffic patterns in a non-personally-identifiable way. A unique ID assigned to a dot, with as little info as necessary to track movement; no link to an account, etc. The cell provider already has the info, so they can control its use between departments by translating one unique ID to another and severing the link between the two. I do this for HIPAA-safe medical claims; de-identify the patient and the rest is valid data that can never be traced back.
Yeah, when I was in 6th grade I got beat up for being a nerd. One afternoon as I lay on the ground bleeding, a teacher called over the P.A. "Nurse to E-5 stat!" But what came out was "Nerd in E-5 Splat!"
It was the next day that I learned to defend myself. I'd had enough of being beaten up, and I won.