[quote]He could probably go for a minor raise, but the opportunity is ripe for picking up a few quality of life perks.[/quote] What might be considered is asking for official courses in as many areas under his responsibility as possible. While it isn't as good as a raise, increased expertise and understanding would benefit the company, and at least having (recent) documentation that he really do know these things can only help when applying for future jobs.

Agreed. Though a more important question, as far as I am concerned, is whether or not something as important, and voluntarily, as computer/network/internet infrastructure should be run for profit (specifically government/utility system software/hardware). One could argue that there is a financial incentive for companies to make a good product, but time and time again it seems that companies are happy sacrificing the long term for short term profit. Even when that means taking short cuts that risk creating significant problems down the road. Thankfully my country, Norway, has decided to start shifting all software used by the state over to Open Standard alternatives.

The company was connected to the largest regional transport and buss service. 1.6 million NOK is about 230.000 dollars; not a lot, but quite a lot if you can save that expense in a year. And the higher the gas prices go the more you save. Unfortunately I couldn't find that particular story (was reported in a local paper I read when I visited my folks).

However I found a couple of other newsreports, including this one; it is in Norwegian but I'll do some rough translations.

Quote:
"The reduction is diesel consumption is on average above 5%, though for some drivers the reduction is above 10%. The number of gear changes is also reduced.

However the most surprising result is that the buses are arriving faster by altering their driving styles.
"We are not talking about a dramatic speed increase, but during our various test runs the average speed improved from 48 km/h to 50 km/h." Says Mjelde (department leader for Tide in Arna, Osterøy og Nordhordland.
"About ten million NOK a year can be saved if all drivers in Tide manage to reduce their consumption to the goal set by the corporate leadership."
QUOTE END

So from what I have read the drives don't take longer and the savings despite "nok isn't many $$$" is still a sum most companies (even US ones) would consider substantial.

I wanted to add that one thing that has become more popular in Norway lately is eco-driving. Or as wiki calls it "Fuel economy-maximizing behaviours". Basically by sending people (mostly from the transport sector) to eco-driving courses they cut down on fuel consumption; saving both money and the environment. One specific case I recall reading about a few months back was a company up North that saved about 1.6 million NOK a year after they sent all their drivers to such a course. So as far as companies goes; better driving = less fuel consumption = more profit.

That might be true, but you'd "save" the most if you compared the 50mpg with the 10mpg one. MPG might be a poor way to rate cars, but more mpg is better than less regardless of what the difference is between it and a previous model.

What should have been mentioned in the summary isn't the rather misleading and weak example, but something a bit more informative like:

"Being a Christian REQUIRES one to believe the OT."
Not necessarily, there are groups within Christianity that considers anything "before the word of Christ" to be insignificant. Their bible being basically only the new testament. There is no "right" definition of what it or isn't a christian, what is or isn't required. Thought here are certainly a lot of groups and individual that want you to believe that their definition is the "right one".

Perhaps it be better to call it a final distribution solution (though I am not a big fan of the word final). Online distribution methods can easily replace one format for another, and they can list all your purchases and make them available for downloading at your convenient (not saying that online distributors do this but that is not a limitation inherited in the technology). One of the things feared by the old establishment is that someone buys a product and then have, or expect to have, infinite access to that product with no chance of losing it or wearing it out; or re-selling for that matter. That and the costs of storage and distribution is significantly lower, in many regards, to printing and shipping physical media, and thus offers less chances for the distributor to legally leech money from other peoples artistic and/or entertainment products.

While talk is cheap and action speak louder than words, I will maintain that it is perfectly fine to criticize (preferably in a rational manner) despite ones previous accomplishments or lack thereof. Debate in various forms is by nature an engagement using words and arguments. Trying to invalidate someone's opinions and arguments by attacking their related or unrelated personal achievements seems sidetracking from the relevant topics in question. Of course sometimes criticism is so inane that the fiery curse of the nerdrage starts taking hold, but I feel that someone as experienced as mister Jobs should know better than to lash out.

Precisely. Steve Jobs should refrain from trying to enforce his own moral codex upon the technology. I understand that it is "his product" to do with as he will, but I prefer to get my hardware and software without a lecture about what I should or shouldn't read, watch and/or play. A service mechanic that helped making adult material only available to adults is fine, but outright censorship because he "feels it is wrong" I do not agree with.

While the current "PC world" might slip away with time, as everything does inevitably, there is little doubt that computers in various ways and forms will be with us for the predictable future. They might not all be PCs as we understand them today, but neither do I think it will all be apple products.

Penumbra Official Site
Penumbra Wiki Quote from wikipedia:

And in Firefox (and presumable other browsers), and Open Office, you can hold CTRL and Scroll up/down (with mouse wheel) to adjust size of the text on the page.

Personally I don't have very good eye sight (and studies have showed that working with small text wears you out faster and lowers your focus) so I prefer to have comfortable size when I read/write. Running 1680*1050 on a 22'' widescreen at the moment (okay so it isn't really very big), got about 133% font size set (running Windows 7) and have most webpages I frequent sized up quite a bit. For the most part it works fine, though I admit the UI of Windows leaves much to be desired, especially in regards to setting comfortable size on the various elements.

P.S. It might be worth mentioning that I have a friend who I converted to having larger font size and stuff and he claims his headaches got a lot better when he wasn't sitting around straining to read small text all day.

I would go so far as to claim that "Art" is just a word and that whether or not video games should be "allowed" to use that tag is a debate on the verge of being without meaning. Personally I enjoy music, books, movies, and yes; computer games. If the things I like can be classified as art, proper art, true art, or any other constructed sub-category, is not something that enters into my mind when I am busy enjoying whatever it is I am devoting time to at that particular moment.

Roger Ebert seems to have bound himself deeply to his personal definition of what art should be and is desperately grasping at straws to try and convince others that he is right. Creating, and trying to enforce rules, for what constitute art is the goal of a pedantic bureaucrat without the capacity to just enjoy.

Art is whatever I say it is! *smack* Obey my authority!

And all they needed to do was create a game that was unplayable out of the box; pure genius.

I shall refrain from passing judgement upon this case or the alleged victim until the girl has been satisfactory examined by a neutral party with the knowledge (and possibly lab) required to study this case properly. This may or may not be a false claim; but it is easy to jump to conclusions. I believe that dismissing a case simply by gut instinct is to risk perpetrating a great crime against the potential victim.