Comment Free Ad (Score 1) 69
So...slashdot is where online retailers post ads at no cost, solicit consumer feedback on shopping deals. I had slashdot bookmarked under tech/science. Long past time to change that.
So...slashdot is where online retailers post ads at no cost, solicit consumer feedback on shopping deals. I had slashdot bookmarked under tech/science. Long past time to change that.
TSA wants laptops in cargo hold where they can't be observed by other passengers or extinguished. Phone batteries and 115v outlets obviously produce more power than 9 volt batteries.
The people in the seats next to me are getting fatter. The seats are shrinking.
If TSA won't let me be engrossed in my high-end laptop on a coast-to-coast flight, I'm pretty sure some optional meetings just aren't going to happen anymore...at least in my case.
I'd consider longer-duration ground travel once self-driving cars are routinely and economically available.
The FCC, of all people, should show leadership in implementing the obvious. It's a shame they haven't. My PowerPoints somehow ended up on the internet with my cell number still on the last slide. My phone gets flooded with SIP-spoofing robocallers.
There are times you need high security, trust and credential-based accountability. Different times, you need cheap, easy, free-wheeling communication that allows high anonymity and will accept a lot of junk communication as a consequence. I think we currently have this, and just pretend it's well regulated, when it's obviously not.
1. We need one very secure phone system in which spoofing is extremely difficult and well regulated. It's misuse involves tough criminal penalties and a well-funded unit, with global reach, for investigation of its mis-use. It's okay if its expensive. For many it will be worth it.
2. We need one phone system that is very lightly regulated and allows spoofing, anonymity, etc. It must allow for rapid innovation, have stable, well-understood interconnect standards, allow lots of small competitors, be cheap and globally available.
A reasonable conceptual starting point is something similar to SIPRNet and NIPRNet, but architected for citizens and businesses.
Because we're thoughtful, intelligent beings and not mindless reactionary thugs.
You reap what you sow, but too many people my age are these weird cargo cultists who expect good fortune to one day rain down on them from the sky. Whatever. Less people I have to compete with so I don't really care what they do.
What they will do is elect slick thugs in suits that promise to take money from you (or your progeny) and rain down benefits on them. They won't quite state it so simply. They will sugar-coat it or cloak it in victimization or equality. Frankly, the rest is just detail.
Instead of borrowing, I worked many jobs in college as well. As a high-school kid, I had a paper route, flipped burgers at McDonalds, etc., so, I already had my own money. For college, I picked majors (engineering, economics) and individual classes that had long-term economic value. I assumed classes in oil painting history or dance interpretation were for those who were heirs of the very wealthy and most definitely *not* intended for someone that wanted to make something of themselves or build cool things. The economy was awful. I got picked up, full-time, in my second year of college by a campus recruiter that didn't care if I finished my degree. She said she liked the consistent pattern of hard work, good decisions, economic literacy and technical aptitude. She pulled me into an old and storied publicly-traded global computer firm. That I already had years of experience getting up at 5:30am to deliver papers or flip eggs for the drive through certainly didn't hurt. I didn't expect to raise a family on minimum wage. That's either stupid, ignorant or both. I knew and accepted they were starter jobs. Politicians are hell-bent on removing all the bottom rungs of a career ladder. Too bad it's politically incorrect to say so.
I'm doing something about it. I made a bunch of snarky comments at lunch and online.
Their happiness "goes to 11."
I'd be happy as a clam if everyone was suddenly forced to migrate away from Windows.
Microsoft keeps trying to force me away. With each change, their stuff is less a "productivity platform" and more a "distraction platform."
If compared to women:
Apple is that stylish chic majoring in Art. As long as you're free with your wallet, she's a reliable and easy date, a lot of fun, and can be serious in some limited areas. You're not a sports coach, so you don't care about stats showing that she can't sprint as fast as the next woman. She's fast where it matters. She reliably shows up seconds after you phone her and she rarely complains. Having her on your arm impresses others. Until she has a breakdown. It's a total breakdown that requires an appointment with this genious shrink at the same shopping mall where you first met her.
Windows is the controlling and demanding wife that your co-workers want you to stick with. You married her because it was expected of you. Giving her your wallet seems to make things better. She pretends to like your female acquaintances and embraces them, looking predatory as she does so. After a few years they mysteriously vanish from the scene and your wife seems to have picked up some of their habits. Your wife is familiar to you. That's gotta count for something, right? You're adjusting to her constant false alarms, nagging to upgrade the furniture and regularly renew your marriage vows. Then she comes back from the beauty shop with a complicated hairdo and strange makeover she expects you to like. Don't like it? Tough! It's because you're some kind of TROGLODYTE with a strange fetish for "classic" looks. You suspect she's trying to evolve her look to be more like that fun liberal arts major you're tempted to have a fling with.
Linux is that attractive, dark-haired woman from South America that barely speaks your native language. The easily-intimidated like to look at her, but don't bother to ask her out. She's a bit mysterious, even strange. She seems more comfortable living without the limitations of clothes, or even "style." She seems simultaneously young and ancient. For you, she is willing to put on many different styles to make shallow people like you comfortable. Just pick a look that is a good compromise between pretty and functional. Her hairdo is old-world classic, long and straight. Money doesn't seem to impress her, but you have to invest time in finding just the right words to woo her. You had to learn the right words to even get your first date with her. She respects your funds and your privacy. On your first date, you notice she doesn't constantly demand your attention, your wallet or paw through your contact list then send your information to her mother. You've learned that if you ignore her for a long time, she doesn't get tired, impatient or shut down. She merely blinks and waits patiently for your command...in the language she knows well and you're still trying to master. She is always compliant. Despite all this, something about her says "very dangerous." Maybe it's that she rarely questions what you say, she just does it. You sense that if you placed a loaded revolver on the table and suggested a game of Russian Roulette, there's a possibility she might ask "Are you sure?" but once you said "yes," she'd be pulling the trigger. One time, at the dinner table, she starting placing down items in front of you: A brake rotor, brake pad, hydrualic fluid...and you interrupt her. "What is this stuff?" you ask. She says "You asked me to give you a brake. Did you not want one?" You comment that she's not intuitive. She ought to come with a manual. She replies that, in her case, she does in fact, come with one...you just need to Read The Fine Manual. (RTFM) You pick it up, flip to a random page and notice it's in the same language that she thoroughly understands and you're still trying to master. Years into the relationship, you ask her to marry you. Let's get a marriage license. She looks at you strangely and says she already gives freely of herself asks why you need a piece of paper to feel legitimate. You sense you said something horribly wrong and update the manual as a warning to others. You learn of a young man that keeps saying the wrong words to his own woman. Now a veteran at this, you irritably tell the stupid noob to "Read The Fine Manual"
I agree. I just want to get stuff done. The problem with "toasters" is sometimes I want to toast standard sliced bread efficiently. Other times, it's the oversized bagel or 1 slice of last night's pizza.
I generally find I need to use all three major platforms (MacBook, Windows, 'nix) to get stuff done. I like and hate all three.
"Bang for buck" is a deeply situational metric. In one situation "bang" might mean the speed at which they can get their grandpa comfortable with video chat after unboxing the device. In another "bang" might mean maximum number of programs per buck. To a hardware enthusiast "bang" might be CPU processing power, RAM or SSD regardless of the flaky drivers and aged, semi-corrupted bloatware it's hosting. It all depends on your circumstances and I'm glad there's variety.
MacBook - My favorite for casual browsing and consumption of pop-media. It's relatively trouble-free for that use. I don't try to push it into other roles. My annoyances are iTunes thoroughly sucks when I want to work with my media *files* and *directories* to put them on my non-Apple devices. I'm glad that Apple interfaces are relatively dumbed down, consistent and don't change frequently. This means I can invest in muscle-memory and my written procedures stay relevant.
Windows & PC - Great for hardcore gaming and exotic hardware. While I hate the mandatory "cloudification platforms" that Windows and Office are becoming, for the next year or so, Windows will still be my go-to platform for interacting with other business and governments that have bought into monopolistic IT. Most files I get and must edit are produced using office and I have to submit MS-Office files. Yes there are alternative hoops to jump through, but they all suck even more than the default "me too" approach. I refuse to invest in muscle-memory with Windows interfaces anymore. Menus and buttons often move around before I can finish the illustrated cheat-sheets. Another annoyance is that licensing for a complex environment is a huge, career-sucking distraction. If my total licensing time were included in TCO calculations, Microsoft/PC platforms would regularly lose. The latest versions of Office and Windows feel less like "productivity platforms" and more like "continuous distraction platforms." I'm now investing in re-designing around open 'Nix platforms for business so that I can get some upgrade control and interface stability back.
Unix is my favorite platform for "It's MY computer dag-nabbit..not yours! Leave me the cluck alone." Apple and Microsoft keep trying to use my own computer against me to trick me into getting my wallet and data deeply entangled with them and having continuous connections to their servers. 'Nix doesn't try to hide my media files from me, study my usage patterns or keep me continuously connected to the corporate mothership or nag me (or my customers) about upgrades.
Please mod parent up as informative.
Point of Order: It's *not* a reward for failure. It's a consolation prize for not winning the bigger reward and accepting very high probability of a publicly-destroyed career, lots of humiliation and public hate. The payment is to entice someone that already has rising pay and career prospects to knowingly take on "mission impossible" like beating Google with the full knowledge it will likely destroy their career and reputation.
The many posts I've seen here validate that the risk to reputation was indeed, a real one.
Marissa was a disaster, but frankly, so was the project she took on. I'm sure that many people besides me thought they could have done better against Google, but those are untested, ego-inflating opinions of little value.
The bright circle at night is a summer-only phenomenon. As everyone from Seattle can plainly see, the ceiling is light mottled gray in the daytime and dark mottled gray at night.
Please mod parent up.
Also at an old job...I was mini-mainframe programmer/analyst rendered nearly ineffective by a sysadmin that set up automatic log-out after A FEW MINUTES of keyboard inactivity from the terminal in the name of security. I didn't appreciate having my thought-train derailed every few minutes by a message saying I'd been kicked off. My terminal was a DOS-based PC running terminal emulation software. I wrote a macro to insert two keystrokes into the keyboard buffer every few minutes. (cursor-right followed by cursor-left.)
Machines have less problems. I'd like to be a machine. -- Andy Warhol