I will second this. I had a nice job with a state department as the highest paid person (I was a consultant at the time). I was supposed to be converted to an employee with benefits, but they had a hard time getting the state to actually pay a _decent_ wage (I have 12 years as a programmer).
So, I spent 3 months or so picking my nose with little tiny things to do here or there. I was going nuts. I personally don't know how anyone can be at work for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and just "browse the web". I set up a proxy server at home and use FoxyProxy so I could get to any site that was blocked (youtube, fark, but not/.). Still, it was not good enough.
I brought in a USB HD with GB's of stuff on it, like... games. I still wanted to slam my face on a fork. Daily.
As a programmer I actually want and need to... Program! It engages my brain and makes me feel warm and cozy.
So, during my many, many of hours of downtime, I just started looking for a new job on monster, etc. Then I would just leave without even needing to tell anyone, and go on interviews.
Found a new job. Now happy.;-)
Though to be honest, with a state job, once you have about 1 year under you belt, it almost takes an amendment to the state constitution to get you fired. Which was nice from a security point-of-view. Though it also allowed a lot of under-skilled "programmers" to be permanent fixtures.
Apple has a big hole in their lineup... Yup. My feelings as well. I have an Intel iMac and an Intel MacBook. What I really want is a mid-tower that I can replace the graphics card in. The Mac Pro is too much money for my tastes. My iMac is almost perfect, except for the fact that the graphics card will get outdated for my needs and then my only option is to buy a new iMac or switch away from Mac OS.
Come on Apple, put out a mid-tower priced around $800-$1,000 and they will sell like crazy.
don't make it illegal to do something that you think might increase the rate of murder.
Though there are already many laws like this. For example, it is illegal to sell or give a firearm to someone that is "mentally ill" (which could just even mean depressed). The two reasons I have been told is because of suicide risk and homicide risk. Down here in SC I just heard on the news something about making it illegal to own a gun if you have had any domestic violence conviction or even a domestic violence restraining order placed against you. Where did the 2nd amendment go?
Because if a person who would benefit from the sale of your dead body was facing financial ruin, it may just be enough of an incentive to kill you or have you killed. Heck, there are people that have been killed over 10's of dollars, or a pair of shoes or even a beer or two. If you are worth more dead than alive, you might just find yourself dead sooner rather than later. It happens all the time to people with a big life insurance policy.
Imagine if some ghetto/trailer trash could just knock-off a family member and get a fat pay-day.
The frozen parts are sold for medical doctors/students to practice surgery on. Dead cells don't matter when you just want to practice the procedure and get the experience.
It is a big deal because some sleazy "business" people are being dishonest and making a profit while doing it. If a family wants the body put in the ground, that is where it should go.
My biggest beef is that the family of the deceased doesn't get any part of the profit. If the body is being used for science and some business dude can make up to $250K, why shouldn't the family get a nice chunk of that? Say half? This would be a good way to help people who don't have life insurance to help out their loved ones after they die. When they die they donate their body and the family gets some of the profits of selling the body/parts for science. Instant life insurance.
Though I guess some people might want to knock off their wife/husband/mom/dad/etc if they knew they could get $100K or so. But that could be a positive and help clean up the gene pool.;-)
Actually, that is what I was thinking, though not wrt free/open source apps. If I spend time and money to develop an app, I don't have choice with the iPhone about how I can distribute it or most importantly, the cost structure. It seems a little arrogant to me for Apple to say they get 30% of my profits if I want to sell an iPhone app. End of story. No choice, take it or leave it.
Pretty lame to me. My home network is made up of 2 iMacs, 2 Macbooks, one Fedora box and one WinXP box. Most of the stuff I have been buying, after I bought my first Mac, has been Apple made. I bought 2 iPods, though I did not buy 2 iPhones, for my wife and I, and now I am really glad I did not buy the iPhones.
Apple, I am a fan, and most importantly, a paying customer. However, give up the MS-like control. Charging developers $100 for a cert then telling them that you are going to take 30% of the sales? Lame, freaking Lame.
Try some of their earlier stuff. I became a big fan when I first heard "Pretty Hate Machine" when it came out in 1989. I still listen to that CD often. I don't think anything since "Pretty Hate Machine" has been as good, but that is just me.
Mod up parent. I commented in this article, so I cannot spend any mod points.
While the parents words may not be the most eloquent, they are right on the money. Well said, plague3106!
B..B...B..ut if you have nothing to "hide", well you should not worry? Right?
Hey, the government has every right to know all about us surfs. After all, it is no longer OUR tax dollars that the feds are spending. It is "their" money, and they can do what they want.
You smoked a little pot in high school/college? Damn you! We have the war on DRUGS you idiot! You should go to jail. You filth.
Oh, you KILLED someone? Well that is 25 years to life, with probation after only 10 months. Just don't let us catch you smoking teh pot. You will go down!
War on Drugs
War on Poverty
War on terrorism
War on...
Hmm.. I am 35. In my 35 years as a born-and-raised American, I have been kept in a constant state of war. I served in the U.S.M.C, during the Gulf War, when I was 18 because I thought I "owed" it to my country.
I am just really sad how I have lived under the "republicans" in a constant state of war, either at home or abroad. I am really looking forward to some Dems taking the wheel for a little while and see what we get. It may not be better, but I hope it is.
As a 35 year old, born and raised American, I have not had one single 5 year period in my life where I didn't hear from the Republicans how we are in some state of "war". I don't know about you, but I am DAMN tired of war. I want some DAMN peace.
Man, you live in la-la-land. There is no such thing as a true "free-market" capitalist system, outside of books that is. It is the nature of greed that will always prevent a true "free-market" capitalist system from forming.
Big company A and Big company B have some strong competition from medium companies C, D, E and F. Big companies A and B are likely to join forces, either by a merger or by back-room nudge-wink deals to "compete" against C, D, E and F until they can bring them down. Once that happens, A and B can either merge to form a "mother" company like the old AT&T or "compete".
The goal of all public companies is to maximize profits, everything else be damned.
I think it all actually follows the theory's of how a solar system is formed. Many small bodies, begin to merge to form larger and larger bodies. You eventually end up with a few large dominating bodies. Yup, that has been Capitalism as we have seen it since the beginning.
Once a company becomes one of the large dominating body's, then they have total control of a market and there is no longer any such thing as a "free market".
It is really simple actually. Say I start selling corn as a corn farmer and have 100 other farms I compete with. I do some good business deals and I am able to buy up other farmers crops/land. I get bigger. Nothing wrong with that in a free market. However, they bigger I get, the more power I have and the easier it is to buy more land/power. Soon, I am the only player as a corn farmer. What happened to the "free market"? It is not gone? Consumers no longer have the power to "vote" with their money to influence the market. I and I alone hold it all. I can raise the price of my corn, I can lower the quality to "cut costs", I can lay off workers and give my executives bonuses at the same time, etc, etc.
The same thing goes for investing. Try to be an "average Joe" and get rich with $5,000USD to invest. Now say you have $1,000,00USD to invest. Wow, what a difference. You can turn that $1,000,000 into big bucks fast. Good luck with only $5,000. What is that saying about the golden rule? He who has the gold makes the rules? Or something?
A completely "free-market" capitalist system will never work, just like a complete system based on communism or socialism will never work. To me the best system seems to be... a balanced system! Not too left, not too right, etc, etc. Regulations against any company owning too much of a sector is a good thing IMO. Regulations bought by companies with tons of cash like MS, IBM, Walmart, etc is a bad thing. Companies should NOT be allowed to have any say in the political process of any country. The individual employees of the company can, as individuals, but that is it. Oh, I don't think any politician should be allowed "campaign contributions" as well. They are called bribes in my book. The "representatives" already make a very good salary, something like 5X the average American. Not to mention, health care for life, if they retire, raises for life. Sounds pretty freaking sweet to me.
However, we won't see this in the USA as long as companies are able to bribe our "representatives" with millions USD per year.
'The Swedish prosecutor listed dozens of works that had been downloaded through The Pirate Bay site
Uhmm, nothing was downloaded through them. They were just doing link collection. How can they be held liable (besides bribes) in Sweden when they didn't host any illegal files? IANAL, so I am just wondering here. In the USA, sure, they can get all kinds of charges thanks to laws bought by the MPAA/RIAA, but in Sweden?
So, exactly how can these dudes get in trouble? I noticed the FA didn't say anything about jail time. WOW. If they were in the USA, that would have been a major point of the suit.
Were these guys smart enough to not put anything in their names? Anyone out there have more information than what TFA stated? Thanks.
Oh, come on now. Non-tech people didn't have the same "dirty" thoughts as us geeks.
I have 85 year old grandparents that have been married for over 50 years! Yeah, longer than most of us geeks were just a dirty thought in their daddy's head (no pun intended).
Older people just don't put 2 and 2 together and come up with 4 when it comes to the inter-tubes. They are after all, a series of pipes.
Now, as far as old school goes, I remember watching a pic download over a dog-old modem of a nude chick. Damn, talk about fun. I remember seeing the boobs start to show and then slowly the belly and then... damn, ouch mom, what was that slap for?
Huh? The only reason for copyright is to protect the crap spewed by some cult? Or to protect "religious" texts?
Your freaking kidding right? Right?
Copyright was made to allow cults to write crap, keep it hidden and then charge crazy money for it? Hmm? I don't remember reading that. Are you a scientology cult member?
I thought I read somewhere that copyright was made to advance the arts, create incentive and enhance the public domain. How is anything the cult of scientology is doing, living up to the purpose of copyright?
Go back an hold on to your tin-can meters and "clear" yourself of the body theatans that are attacking you. I see them now, all over you!!! OMG!!! Get them off!!!
After you are "clear", I am sure you will be happy to pay to learn about Xenu/Xemu. I am mad at him too. But luckily we have OT's like Tom to use his super human powers to save us and especially to detox all the people at ground-zero during 9/11. Tom was able to use his super human powers to "will" the bad stuff away.
I too am a high level OT, I am able to move things with my mind, implant my own reality into others and do many other wonders.
Thankfully, Tom is an OT VIII, so his powers are immense!
You stated "tech support, network operations, sys admin, and programming" in the last 7 years. That means you have less than 2 years of experience in each, on average. So where did you spend most of that time?
I am guessing tech support. If so, see if you can be a tech support manager. Don't even think you have enough experience to be a manager of programmers or real systems administrators.
Sorry, I am not trying to be rude, but the IT world is filled with non-talent "managers" who want the nice pay increase, but have zero real-world experience as a programmer or systems administrator.
I have been programming for 14 years or so. I still don't want to be an IT manager and never will. I need to get my hands in the code. I am sure the same goes for my fellow admins that know their stuff.
I think before any experienced IT people can give you an opinion, you need to elaborate on your experience more.
I personally think that if your 7 years in IT was spent doing just one specialty in IT, you wouldn't be asking this question, because your boss' would have offered you the IT manager job.
Clearly they didn't.
That should be a strong hint to stick with _something_ in IT and become good at it. After that, look into becoming an IT manager if that is what you really want.
Welcome to OLPC.
You may select to boot the Communist version of OLPC. Please note that if you continue, you may lose your family and your straw hut. If you want to be "safe" you better only click on the MS Windows link.
* MS Windows (Safe and you won't die) <---- Click this to live and not die!
* Linux??? (you will probably die)
As other pointed out, this car would suck. No pickup, it would be a death trap trying to get on a freeway. Even in the city, it would be very bad. 30 HP is just not even close to being enough for US roads. To put things in perspective, I have a lawn tractor with 27 HP!
Think of someone, like me, that lives 9 miles from work. I would love to buy a small inexpensive car. However, I would have to drive this thing with a helmet and say 10 prayers before I drive it to work or home. I would be run down by people wanting to floor it from one red light to the next one, less than a mile away.
This car could be cool for some cities in India or other places where a lot of people drive scooters.
Thanks for the info. Hosted Sharepoint is not an option. My data, my servers is my mantra. I just don't want it on some outside place. Not like it is top-secret, but it is my data and I want to control it;-)
The problem we have is not high traffic, but large datasets. SQL Express 2005 is a nice offer from MS and meets some needs, it doesn't meet ours. It doesn't support enough memory or data size. I am a geek, we don't throw anything away. And with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, we can't.
Slashdot Mirror
I will second this. I had a nice job with a state department as the highest paid person (I was a consultant at the time). I was supposed to be converted to an employee with benefits, but they had a hard time getting the state to actually pay a _decent_ wage (I have 12 years as a programmer).
/.). Still, it was not good enough.
... Program! It engages my brain and makes me feel warm and cozy.
;-)
So, I spent 3 months or so picking my nose with little tiny things to do here or there. I was going nuts. I personally don't know how anyone can be at work for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and just "browse the web". I set up a proxy server at home and use FoxyProxy so I could get to any site that was blocked (youtube, fark, but not
I brought in a USB HD with GB's of stuff on it, like... games. I still wanted to slam my face on a fork. Daily.
As a programmer I actually want and need to
So, during my many, many of hours of downtime, I just started looking for a new job on monster, etc. Then I would just leave without even needing to tell anyone, and go on interviews.
Found a new job. Now happy.
Though to be honest, with a state job, once you have about 1 year under you belt, it almost takes an amendment to the state constitution to get you fired. Which was nice from a security point-of-view. Though it also allowed a lot of under-skilled "programmers" to be permanent fixtures.
She's not called "lucky lefty" for nothin...
After reading the patent claim, I noticed they mentioned _five_ fingers many times.
;-)
What if I had a finger or two cut off? Can I put in a new patent claim for this same "idea" for three fingers?
How about just one finger? Guess which one I am holding up?
Sure there is:
1). The "midichlorian" standard.
2). The "Marklar" standard.
Come on Apple, put out a mid-tower priced around $800-$1,000 and they will sell like crazy.
No, it is not "both". Math exi
:-)
Damn, I am too drunk to type. I have one eye closed as I type.... so you win
Because if a person who would benefit from the sale of your dead body was facing financial ruin, it may just be enough of an incentive to kill you or have you killed. Heck, there are people that have been killed over 10's of dollars, or a pair of shoes or even a beer or two. If you are worth more dead than alive, you might just find yourself dead sooner rather than later. It happens all the time to people with a big life insurance policy.
Imagine if some ghetto/trailer trash could just knock-off a family member and get a fat pay-day.
The frozen parts are sold for medical doctors/students to practice surgery on. Dead cells don't matter when you just want to practice the procedure and get the experience.
It is a big deal because some sleazy "business" people are being dishonest and making a profit while doing it. If a family wants the body put in the ground, that is where it should go.
;-)
My biggest beef is that the family of the deceased doesn't get any part of the profit. If the body is being used for science and some business dude can make up to $250K, why shouldn't the family get a nice chunk of that? Say half? This would be a good way to help people who don't have life insurance to help out their loved ones after they die. When they die they donate their body and the family gets some of the profits of selling the body/parts for science. Instant life insurance.
Though I guess some people might want to knock off their wife/husband/mom/dad/etc if they knew they could get $100K or so. But that could be a positive and help clean up the gene pool.
Yup and all they needed to do to get a 100% discount was to... FOLLOW THE LICENSE! Pretty simple step to get such a large discount huh? ;-)
That is crap. I mean, I develop apps too. I am just pissed that no one can use my 386DX-only apps. WTF?
:-)
In other words, Power PC for Mac is dead. Use your PPC on Mac as long as you can/want. Just don't bitch about nothing or no one supporting it.
Hell, I still have a Commodore 64 that works great. I am not bitching about the lack of Far Cry for it.
Actually, that is what I was thinking, though not wrt free/open source apps. If I spend time and money to develop an app, I don't have choice with the iPhone about how I can distribute it or most importantly, the cost structure. It seems a little arrogant to me for Apple to say they get 30% of my profits if I want to sell an iPhone app. End of story. No choice, take it or leave it.
Pretty lame to me. My home network is made up of 2 iMacs, 2 Macbooks, one Fedora box and one WinXP box. Most of the stuff I have been buying, after I bought my first Mac, has been Apple made. I bought 2 iPods, though I did not buy 2 iPhones, for my wife and I, and now I am really glad I did not buy the iPhones.
Apple, I am a fan, and most importantly, a paying customer. However, give up the MS-like control. Charging developers $100 for a cert then telling them that you are going to take 30% of the sales? Lame, freaking Lame.
Try some of their earlier stuff. I became a big fan when I first heard "Pretty Hate Machine" when it came out in 1989. I still listen to that CD often. I don't think anything since "Pretty Hate Machine" has been as good, but that is just me.
Mod up parent. I commented in this article, so I cannot spend any mod points.
While the parents words may not be the most eloquent, they are right on the money. Well said, plague3106! B..B...B..ut if you have nothing to "hide", well you should not worry? Right?
Hey, the government has every right to know all about us surfs. After all, it is no longer OUR tax dollars that the feds are spending. It is "their" money, and they can do what they want.
You smoked a little pot in high school/college? Damn you! We have the war on DRUGS you idiot! You should go to jail. You filth.
Oh, you KILLED someone? Well that is 25 years to life, with probation after only 10 months. Just don't let us catch you smoking teh pot. You will go down!
War on Drugs
War on Poverty
War on terrorism
War on...
Hmm.. I am 35. In my 35 years as a born-and-raised American, I have been kept in a constant state of war. I served in the U.S.M.C, during the Gulf War, when I was 18 because I thought I "owed" it to my country.
I am just really sad how I have lived under the "republicans" in a constant state of war, either at home or abroad. I am really looking forward to some Dems taking the wheel for a little while and see what we get. It may not be better, but I hope it is.
As a 35 year old, born and raised American, I have not had one single 5 year period in my life where I didn't hear from the Republicans how we are in some state of "war". I don't know about you, but I am DAMN tired of war. I want some DAMN peace.
Unless it meas profit!
Man, you live in la-la-land. There is no such thing as a true "free-market" capitalist system, outside of books that is. It is the nature of greed that will always prevent a true "free-market" capitalist system from forming.
Big company A and Big company B have some strong competition from medium companies C, D, E and F. Big companies A and B are likely to join forces, either by a merger or by back-room nudge-wink deals to "compete" against C, D, E and F until they can bring them down. Once that happens, A and B can either merge to form a "mother" company like the old AT&T or "compete".
The goal of all public companies is to maximize profits, everything else be damned.
I think it all actually follows the theory's of how a solar system is formed. Many small bodies, begin to merge to form larger and larger bodies. You eventually end up with a few large dominating bodies. Yup, that has been Capitalism as we have seen it since the beginning.
Once a company becomes one of the large dominating body's, then they have total control of a market and there is no longer any such thing as a "free market".
It is really simple actually. Say I start selling corn as a corn farmer and have 100 other farms I compete with. I do some good business deals and I am able to buy up other farmers crops/land. I get bigger. Nothing wrong with that in a free market. However, they bigger I get, the more power I have and the easier it is to buy more land/power. Soon, I am the only player as a corn farmer. What happened to the "free market"? It is not gone? Consumers no longer have the power to "vote" with their money to influence the market. I and I alone hold it all. I can raise the price of my corn, I can lower the quality to "cut costs", I can lay off workers and give my executives bonuses at the same time, etc, etc.
The same thing goes for investing. Try to be an "average Joe" and get rich with $5,000USD to invest. Now say you have $1,000,00USD to invest. Wow, what a difference. You can turn that $1,000,000 into big bucks fast. Good luck with only $5,000. What is that saying about the golden rule? He who has the gold makes the rules? Or something?
A completely "free-market" capitalist system will never work, just like a complete system based on communism or socialism will never work. To me the best system seems to be... a balanced system! Not too left, not too right, etc, etc. Regulations against any company owning too much of a sector is a good thing IMO. Regulations bought by companies with tons of cash like MS, IBM, Walmart, etc is a bad thing. Companies should NOT be allowed to have any say in the political process of any country. The individual employees of the company can, as individuals, but that is it. Oh, I don't think any politician should be allowed "campaign contributions" as well. They are called bribes in my book. The "representatives" already make a very good salary, something like 5X the average American. Not to mention, health care for life, if they retire, raises for life. Sounds pretty freaking sweet to me.
However, we won't see this in the USA as long as companies are able to bribe our "representatives" with millions USD per year.
Uhmm, nothing was downloaded through them. They were just doing link collection. How can they be held liable (besides bribes) in Sweden when they didn't host any illegal files? IANAL, so I am just wondering here. In the USA, sure, they can get all kinds of charges thanks to laws bought by the MPAA/RIAA, but in Sweden?
So, exactly how can these dudes get in trouble? I noticed the FA didn't say anything about jail time. WOW. If they were in the USA, that would have been a major point of the suit.
Were these guys smart enough to not put anything in their names? Anyone out there have more information than what TFA stated? Thanks.
Oh, come on now. Non-tech people didn't have the same "dirty" thoughts as us geeks.
I have 85 year old grandparents that have been married for over 50 years! Yeah, longer than most of us geeks were just a dirty thought in their daddy's head (no pun intended).
Older people just don't put 2 and 2 together and come up with 4 when it comes to the inter-tubes. They are after all, a series of pipes.
Now, as far as old school goes, I remember watching a pic download over a dog-old modem of a nude chick. Damn, talk about fun. I remember seeing the boobs start to show and then slowly the belly and then... damn, ouch mom, what was that slap for?
Your freaking kidding right? Right?
Copyright was made to allow cults to write crap, keep it hidden and then charge crazy money for it? Hmm? I don't remember reading that. Are you a scientology cult member?
I thought I read somewhere that copyright was made to advance the arts, create incentive and enhance the public domain. How is anything the cult of scientology is doing, living up to the purpose of copyright?
Go back an hold on to your tin-can meters and "clear" yourself of the body theatans that are attacking you. I see them now, all over you!!! OMG!!! Get them off!!!
After you are "clear", I am sure you will be happy to pay to learn about Xenu/Xemu. I am mad at him too. But luckily we have OT's like Tom to use his super human powers to save us and especially to detox all the people at ground-zero during 9/11. Tom was able to use his super human powers to "will" the bad stuff away.
I too am a high level OT, I am able to move things with my mind, implant my own reality into others and do many other wonders.
Thankfully, Tom is an OT VIII, so his powers are immense!
You stated "tech support, network operations, sys admin, and programming" in the last 7 years. That means you have less than 2 years of experience in each, on average. So where did you spend most of that time?
I am guessing tech support. If so, see if you can be a tech support manager. Don't even think you have enough experience to be a manager of programmers or real systems administrators.
Sorry, I am not trying to be rude, but the IT world is filled with non-talent "managers" who want the nice pay increase, but have zero real-world experience as a programmer or systems administrator.
I have been programming for 14 years or so. I still don't want to be an IT manager and never will. I need to get my hands in the code. I am sure the same goes for my fellow admins that know their stuff.
I think before any experienced IT people can give you an opinion, you need to elaborate on your experience more.
I personally think that if your 7 years in IT was spent doing just one specialty in IT, you wouldn't be asking this question, because your boss' would have offered you the IT manager job.
Clearly they didn't.
That should be a strong hint to stick with _something_ in IT and become good at it. After that, look into becoming an IT manager if that is what you really want.
Clippy: Hi, I see that you are stressed out. Should I order beer and pizza? Or should I order you a hooker?
Welcome to OLPC.
You may select to boot the Communist version of OLPC. Please note that if you continue, you may lose your family and your straw hut. If you want to be "safe" you better only click on the MS Windows link.
* MS Windows (Safe and you won't die) <---- Click this to live and not die!
* Linux??? (you will probably die)
(c)ms olpc, boot ver 1.1
As other pointed out, this car would suck. No pickup, it would be a death trap trying to get on a freeway. Even in the city, it would be very bad. 30 HP is just not even close to being enough for US roads. To put things in perspective, I have a lawn tractor with 27 HP!
Think of someone, like me, that lives 9 miles from work. I would love to buy a small inexpensive car. However, I would have to drive this thing with a helmet and say 10 prayers before I drive it to work or home. I would be run down by people wanting to floor it from one red light to the next one, less than a mile away.
This car could be cool for some cities in India or other places where a lot of people drive scooters.
Thanks for the info. Hosted Sharepoint is not an option. My data, my servers is my mantra. I just don't want it on some outside place. Not like it is top-secret, but it is my data and I want to control it ;-)
The problem we have is not high traffic, but large datasets. SQL Express 2005 is a nice offer from MS and meets some needs, it doesn't meet ours. It doesn't support enough memory or data size. I am a geek, we don't throw anything away. And with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, we can't.