willing to ditch Outlook. My company sells servers that feature the following:
Qmail (mta, plugins for virus scanning etc)
Courier (IMAP)
Squirrelmail (with lots of plug-ins)
OpenLDAP for company address books
Webcal (with email reminders--- not terribly feature rich, but it does what it says, and is web-accessable)
Htdig for file repository (does word, pdf, html, text in different languages and is web accessable)
Hylafax for remote webfaxing (send receive)
Until LDAP becomes the standard by which everything authenticates, we've got perl scripts to tie together all the password hell for all the different parts. It works, and hell, you don't need your damn Outlook client to check your calendar, email, or get a file you need when you're in Shanghai
And You Thought Airport Shuttles Were Expensive
on
Going Up?
·
· Score: 2
So just how much would the airport shuttle to the middle of the Pacific be? Hmmm?
Sigh, I'll rephrase. For what would you be buying support, hmmm? It wouldn't be the db, because by itself it doesn't do anything. You'd be buying support for what? Let's hear it again class. Repeat after me.
"It's the apps stupid."
Support is just a necessary evil and keeps the vampires fangs well connected to fresh blood. So let's review shall we?
You don't go to oracle and say I'd like to buy support. They'd probably sell it to you, but then you'd probably the state of California. Noooo! You need to have a need for which they have a solution, an ERP for example with a bunch of addon modules. Now to get that you need two things:
a db support
Right? But the reason you went to Oracle in the first place is because they had an app that you needed.
The db and support are just two things that make the app more attractive but they are definitely NOT why you bought from Oracle.
A crappy ERP, with a kick ass db and wiz-bang support isn't gonna cut it now is it?
Bzzt! wrong again... clients don't use oracle for their support (that's what trained dba's are for), or their db. They use them for their apps.
Oracle isn't about db's, only partially about support (to sell you more apps), and most definitely 95% about their application solutions.
Oracle could switch over to postgres is they wished and except for PR issues, it wouldn't significally change their ability to supply solutions to companies that need them.
It's just that for 99.9% of companies out there the apps are just way overkill... must people can get by with postgres or mysql with custom written stuff or downloaded stuff and do just fine. Of course give the open source community a few more years and there will be off the shelf apps that will rivel those of Oracle, I'd be willing to bet.
I'll second that! I use grip+cdparanoia exclusively and haven't had a problem with my over 700 cd's, some from the early 80's. You can even set the thing to auto-rip on insert. I stick the disk in and forget about it. It downloads the cdinfo, rips, and tags/encodes. Then I'm left with some nice -q 5 ogg's that sound way better than mp3 (for me even better than mp3 at 256, as I can still hear annoying pre-echo in mp3 sometimes)-- that warbley thing
Yeah, but don't forget about all the companies selling firewall products based on the linux kernel. There are lots and lots of them with serious serious dinero.
Nortel is close to going broke... always be wary when you start to hear about patents and companies in trouble. Investers, creditors start looking really hard for company "assets" to recoup their losses.
It's the classic change of stategy to ligitation to keep your company afloat.
Hmmm, then how come the Russian rockets had an ejection module? It was actually used at some point, I believe. Rocket was blowing up beneath them, and they ejected and landed safely miles away.
Kinda makes you wonder if we had the same for Challenger, eh?
The Russian's mistake through the space race was underestimating our stupidity. They should have just stuck to their technology instead of copying what ended up being a loser (shuttle).
The role of creator carries with it a certain burden, that by being the creator, it is inherently difficult to accept/deal with criticism or "suggestions." You pour so much into your creation, and when all you get is, "How you can make this better" it starts to undermine your motivation and animation. I mean, that's why normally programmers in larger companies don't deal with end users.
One: The company knows that programmers are grouchy creative types and aren't especially good talking to l-users.
Two: If they (programmers) hear all the complaints or "suggestions" they will just get frustrated and demotivated.
I can say this is true from personal experience. I work for a small company, where I am both programmer and tech support. I find that I slip into despair about the job I have done less when someone else deals with the tech support "issue." Since, clients/users don't call you to tell you how wonderful your product is, or how they love X feature, or how it's the greatest thing since sliced bread... you are left dealing with the nitpicks (some legitimate and some not).
It ends up making you kick the cat a lot *G*.
So, my advice is to pat your friendly neighborhood developer on the back more often. Talk about what you LOVE in a separate email all by itself. Don't combine a "I love X feature... but...". If yer gonna compliment, send an email with JUST that.
Feature request should be polite and humble. Try to be more questioning (Socratean method), rather than demanding. Lead the programmer to make the same conclusion that you have, but don't just throw it in his face. Lead him to it with questions. He will feel empowered, not helpless and frustrated and put upon. You are building teamwork, not a master-slave relationship.
Does that mean that German speaking people wouldn't be able to differentiate between the two?
Bah.... expect AOL-Time-Warner-Netscape to follow
on
Is Linux Dead?
·
· Score: 2
Expect an equally biased viewpoint pro Open Source from CNN-Time-Warner-Netscape tomorrow that practically glows with regards to Open Source. Note the MS part of MSNBC... haven't any of you noticed how CNN reports on EVERY bug report in XP/IE/IIS and how equally quiet MSNBC is at the same time?
I always wondered why Redhat and Mandrake and the ilk always made binaries available for download for free. People would sometimes scream and cry about SUSE not offering ISO's at EXACTLY the same time as the packaged distro for purchase. People would scream bloody murder but forget that the GPL is a SOURCE CODE license, not a binary license. The binaries are yours to do with what you want. If you want to sell your brand of Linux for 1 million dollars per seat, you can. However, you cannot deny anyone access to the gpl'd source code. If they wish to recompile the entire distro and sell it for $1 or give it away, there's nothing Caldera can do to stop them. And there's no reason for Caldera to worry about that.
They don't care. They want to do business with people that want to exchange money. Companies forge relationships by the exchange of money. That's how business is done.
They like it.
Open Source coders build relationships by exchanging code.
They like that.
The GPL allows for both and encourages both. It's really pretty simple and elegant... any engineer can appreciate that can't they?
Look... why is it that highly paid movie editors who poured over Spider-Man for many months with millions of dollars, couldn't find what the movie viewing public did in the opening weekend? According to movie-mistakes.com:
Fans have so far spotted 77 continuity errors, the most flaws identified in an opening weekend, according to Web site movie-mistakes.com.
Jon Sandys, who runs the site, said the number of mistakes could be a symptom of the movie's popularity.
"It's obviously possible that it's got a higher than average number of errors, but huge numbers of people are going to see it and that makes for lots of pairs of eyes checking every inch of the screen," he told the Independent newspaper today.
That sound remarkably familiar to Eric Raymond's Cathedral and the Bazaar? When Spider-Man was checked for bugs by the highly paid editor (programming team) and none were found, did they not exist. Is the movie inherently more flawed when the bugs were found and reported by the viewing public (open source programmers)?
IE 6 doesn't have full alpha layer for PNG yet... no word on if it ever will. 24 bit png with alpha layer (transparent/translucent) works just great in Mozilla, blending into background, without all the tricks and hacks that you have to do with IE. I can use a style sheet to change colors on the fly and don't have to to re-save all the damn graphics and screw with them to get the shadows, edges to come out right. For me that's IE's biggest drawback.
What do most people who design for IE do to avoid this silliness? Is there any 24 bit graphic format that supports an alpha layer in IE? No, really, I'd like to know.
Re:Suck those booth babes the easy way!
on
E3 Wrapup
·
· Score: 2
Err make that "LIMIT=194"
Suck those booth babes the easy way!
on
E3 Wrapup
·
· Score: 3, Informative
#/bin/bash
LIMIT=294
for ((a=108; a <= LIMIT ; a++))
do
wget http://www.envynews.com/reviews/images/112/$a.jpg
done
I agree with you wholeheartedly. (wish I had mod points). I hate the stupid desks that most office furniture places sell as ergonomic computer desks... little stupid pull-out try for a keyaboard at your waist, monitor placed on a platform above eye level... arrrggghh, whenever I have to type for more than a few minutes at a client's desk, I find that I have extraordinary amounts of pity for them.
Get yourself a big flat, L-shaped desk (position yourself in the corner as NanoGator says), push your keyboard out to arms length, recline your chair, lean back , and pull yourself up to your stomach. Make sure your elbows stay on the table, your wrists are straight and you'll have no problems.
Since most of my job involves command line stuff, I mostly interact with the computer via keyboard. I touch type and have never had a problem with repetative stress injuries.
I have both a MS Natural Keyboard and a regular IBM clicky type and I like them both. I think I can type a little bit faster on the natural keyboard, though.
Sounds like a Kurt Vonnegut short story that I read.
The 1961 story - published as part of Vonnegut's "Welcome to
the Monkey House" collection - imagines a kind of intellectual coup
in the year 2081 when "everyone is finally equal." George Bergeron,
wearing a government-issued handicap implant to keep him from taking
unfair advantage of his brain, watches his 14-year-old son,
Harrison, stage a rebellion that is snuffed out almost as quickly as
it hits the evening news.
Any of you noticed (on yourself or other information workers) a kind of scaley infection on the elbows. I've noticed on quite a few IT people and myself. It's this weird calous type thingie but ends up cracking and hurting after a while. I suspect it's either a type of fungus (like athlete's foot) or a bacteria that roughs up the skin (mild flesh eater maybe?). No idea, but I'm convinced it's related to body oils and human contamination.
Anyway, I've been cleaning regularly with bleach and have found that the problem goes away.
Ahh, now there was a show, Galaxy Rangers. It was IMHO, the precursor to the modern Batman/Justice League cartoons (called here, the "Renaissance").
Galaxy Rangers was well animated, with a more adult darker storyline. It didn't run for very long, but hell, if Cartoon Network is bringing back the Thunder Cats, they should at least bring back Galaxy Rangers... and leave the transformers where they belong, in the trash bin.
I thought at the time that it would be probably prudent to have parachutes in tall buildings.
That surly, authority challenged twenty-something that likes to jump off of buildings, bridges, etc, would have counted his blessings as he hurled himself out a window complete with parachute. Makes you think, eh?
Slashdot Mirror
willing to ditch Outlook. My company sells servers that feature the following:
Until LDAP becomes the standard by which everything authenticates, we've got perl scripts to tie together all the password hell for all the different parts. It works, and hell, you don't need your damn Outlook client to check your calendar, email, or get a file you need when you're in Shanghai
So just how much would the airport shuttle to the middle of the Pacific be? Hmmm?
Sigh, I'll rephrase. For what would you be buying support, hmmm? It wouldn't be the db, because by itself it doesn't do anything. You'd be buying support for what? Let's hear it again class. Repeat after me.
"It's the apps stupid."
Support is just a necessary evil and keeps the vampires fangs well connected to fresh blood. So let's review shall we?
You don't go to oracle and say I'd like to buy support. They'd probably sell it to you, but then you'd probably the state of California. Noooo! You need to have a need for which they have a solution, an ERP for example with a bunch of addon modules. Now to get that you need two things:
a db
support
Right? But the reason you went to Oracle in the first place is because they had an app that you needed.
The db and support are just two things that make the app more attractive but they are definitely NOT why you bought from Oracle.
A crappy ERP, with a kick ass db and wiz-bang support isn't gonna cut it now is it?
Bzzt! wrong again... clients don't use oracle for their support (that's what trained dba's are for), or their db. They use them for their apps.
Oracle isn't about db's, only partially about support (to sell you more apps), and most definitely 95% about their application solutions.
Oracle could switch over to postgres is they wished and except for PR issues, it wouldn't significally change their ability to supply solutions to companies that need them.
It's just that for 99.9% of companies out there the apps are just way overkill... must people can get by with postgres or mysql with custom written stuff or downloaded stuff and do just fine. Of course give the open source community a few more years and there will be off the shelf apps that will rivel those of Oracle, I'd be willing to bet.
I'll second that! I use grip+cdparanoia exclusively and haven't had a problem with my over 700 cd's, some from the early 80's. You can even set the thing to auto-rip on insert. I stick the disk in and forget about it. It downloads the cdinfo, rips, and tags/encodes. Then I'm left with some nice -q 5 ogg's that sound way better than mp3 (for me even better than mp3 at 256, as I can still hear annoying pre-echo in mp3 sometimes)-- that warbley thing
Anyway, a re-ripping I will go.
Yeah, but don't forget about all the companies selling firewall products based on the linux kernel. There are lots and lots of them with serious serious dinero.
Nortel is close to going broke... always be wary when you start to hear about patents and companies in trouble. Investers, creditors start looking really hard for company "assets" to recoup their losses.
It's the classic change of stategy to ligitation to keep your company afloat.
Be afraid, be very afraid.
Hmmm, then how come the Russian rockets had an ejection module? It was actually used at some point, I believe. Rocket was blowing up beneath them, and they ejected and landed safely miles away.
Kinda makes you wonder if we had the same for Challenger, eh?
The Russian's mistake through the space race was underestimating our stupidity. They should have just stuck to their technology instead of copying what ended up being a loser (shuttle).
The role of creator carries with it a certain burden, that by being the creator, it is inherently difficult to accept/deal with criticism or "suggestions." You pour so much into your creation, and when all you get is, "How you can make this better" it starts to undermine your motivation and animation. I mean, that's why normally programmers in larger companies don't deal with end users.
One: The company knows that programmers are grouchy creative types and aren't especially good talking to l-users.
Two: If they (programmers) hear all the complaints or "suggestions" they will just get frustrated and demotivated.
I can say this is true from personal experience. I work for a small company, where I am both programmer and tech support. I find that I slip into despair about the job I have done less when someone else deals with the tech support "issue." Since, clients/users don't call you to tell you how wonderful your product is, or how they love X feature, or how it's the greatest thing since sliced bread... you are left dealing with the nitpicks (some legitimate and some not).
It ends up making you kick the cat a lot *G*.
So, my advice is to pat your friendly neighborhood developer on the back more often. Talk about what you LOVE in a separate email all by itself. Don't combine a "I love X feature... but...". If yer gonna compliment, send an email with JUST that.
Feature request should be polite and humble. Try to be more questioning (Socratean method), rather than demanding. Lead the programmer to make the same conclusion that you have, but don't just throw it in his face. Lead him to it with questions. He will feel empowered, not helpless and frustrated and put upon. You are building teamwork, not a master-slave relationship.
Does that mean that German speaking people wouldn't be able to differentiate between the two?
Expect an equally biased viewpoint pro Open Source from CNN-Time-Warner-Netscape tomorrow that practically glows with regards to Open Source. Note the MS part of MSNBC... haven't any of you noticed how CNN reports on EVERY bug report in XP/IE/IIS and how equally quiet MSNBC is at the same time?
Pretty biased reporting all around, I'd say.
I'll stick to The Register *G*.
I always wondered why Redhat and Mandrake and the ilk always made binaries available for download for free. People would sometimes scream and cry about SUSE not offering ISO's at EXACTLY the same time as the packaged distro for purchase. People would scream bloody murder but forget that the GPL is a SOURCE CODE license, not a binary license. The binaries are yours to do with what you want. If you want to sell your brand of Linux for 1 million dollars per seat, you can. However, you cannot deny anyone access to the gpl'd source code. If they wish to recompile the entire distro and sell it for $1 or give it away, there's nothing Caldera can do to stop them. And there's no reason for Caldera to worry about that.
They don't care. They want to do business with people that want to exchange money. Companies forge relationships by the exchange of money. That's how business is done.
They like it.
Open Source coders build relationships by exchanging code.
They like that.
The GPL allows for both and encourages both. It's really pretty simple and elegant... any engineer can appreciate that can't they?
Look... why is it that highly paid movie editors who poured over Spider-Man for many months with millions of dollars, couldn't find what the movie viewing public did in the opening weekend? According to movie-mistakes.com:
That sound remarkably familiar to Eric Raymond's Cathedral and the Bazaar? When Spider-Man was checked for bugs by the highly paid editor (programming team) and none were found, did they not exist. Is the movie inherently more flawed when the bugs were found and reported by the viewing public (open source programmers)?
Well that doesn't count *G*
IE 6 doesn't have full alpha layer for PNG yet... no word on if it ever will. 24 bit png with alpha layer (transparent/translucent) works just great in Mozilla, blending into background, without all the tricks and hacks that you have to do with IE. I can use a style sheet to change colors on the fly and don't have to to re-save all the damn graphics and screw with them to get the shadows, edges to come out right. For me that's IE's biggest drawback.
What do most people who design for IE do to avoid this silliness? Is there any 24 bit graphic format that supports an alpha layer in IE? No, really, I'd like to know.
Err make that "LIMIT=194"
#/bin/bash
LIMIT=294
for ((a=108; a <= LIMIT ; a++))
do
wget http://www.envynews.com/reviews/images/112/$a.jpg
done
# 108 to 194
I agree with you wholeheartedly. (wish I had mod points). I hate the stupid desks that most office furniture places sell as ergonomic computer desks... little stupid pull-out try for a keyaboard at your waist, monitor placed on a platform above eye level... arrrggghh, whenever I have to type for more than a few minutes at a client's desk, I find that I have extraordinary amounts of pity for them.
Get yourself a big flat, L-shaped desk (position yourself in the corner as NanoGator says), push your keyboard out to arms length, recline your chair, lean back , and pull yourself up to your stomach. Make sure your elbows stay on the table, your wrists are straight and you'll have no problems.
Since most of my job involves command line stuff, I mostly interact with the computer via keyboard. I touch type and have never had a problem with repetative stress injuries.
I have both a MS Natural Keyboard and a regular IBM clicky type and I like them both. I think I can type a little bit faster on the natural keyboard, though.
Sounds like a Kurt Vonnegut short story that I read.
Is it just me or does this distinctly bring back Bitboys Memories (TM)?
A new chip that does something so mindblowingly amazing... etc.
Any of you noticed (on yourself or other information workers) a kind of scaley infection on the elbows. I've noticed on quite a few IT people and myself. It's this weird calous type thingie but ends up cracking and hurting after a while. I suspect it's either a type of fungus (like athlete's foot) or a bacteria that roughs up the skin (mild flesh eater maybe?). No idea, but I'm convinced it's related to body oils and human contamination.
Anyway, I've been cleaning regularly with bleach and have found that the problem goes away.
FYI
Ahh, now there was a show, Galaxy Rangers. It was IMHO, the precursor to the modern Batman/Justice League cartoons (called here, the "Renaissance").
Galaxy Rangers was well animated, with a more adult darker storyline. It didn't run for very long, but hell, if Cartoon Network is bringing back the Thunder Cats, they should at least bring back Galaxy Rangers... and leave the transformers where they belong, in the trash bin.
Go to File --> Properties
You'll see word count and bunch of other stuff there.
I thought at the time that it would be probably prudent to have parachutes in tall buildings.
That surly, authority challenged twenty-something that likes to jump off of buildings, bridges, etc, would have counted his blessings as he hurled himself out a window complete with parachute. Makes you think, eh?
This article is so like 1998.
But what hampers Linux the most, according to analysts, is a lack of applications that can run on the open source operating system.
I mean that line alone brought made me blow Dew all over my monitor. Lack of applications? Chuckle. Hehe. Good one.
Has Jill been in a cave for four years?
Sigh.