Posts by SirDigalot 267 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Aug 2011
my home lap a couple of laptops one for storage and a newer one for a small esx server and a desktop as a router.. I would hate to see the power bills of some of these setups!
I tend to spend most of my lab time on the work machines since I am lucky enough to work in an underutilized office so can use the existing esx infrastructure to play with.
I got rid of most of my dvd library moving across country, I am sure the local goodwill store was very happy to receive them when I dumped the ones I did not give to family/friends. I had ripped them all and took the digital copies, which is illegal.
I pay for slacker radio premium, which is ok, I buy most all my music on iTunes, not because I really want to because it is convenient, it does not have all the songs I want, and certainly not any of the older stuff I used to listen too or more geographic centric indy or smaller bands I fondly remember from my youth, I still do not want physical media! I have in the past gone to a secondhand music store to buy cd's to rip then get rid of the cd, either sell it back to the store or give it away or play Frisbee with it, at one point the music was bought, after that, the record company or artists gets nothing from the second hand market.
I copy my entire iTunes library to my file server and allow anyone on my network to access the songs, which is usually my kid, luckily they are drm free now, so we do not have to buy the same songs twice or three times.
I also buy music from HD tracks.
we pay for Netflix, most of the content is crap, I do not stream through a console or roku I use a media pc, my home theatre amp does not support dolby digital plus, (but does support dolby didgital - all the blu rays and dvd's play fine in surround) Netflix is in stereo, I pay for a uk proxy to watch BBC shows that are not available in the US I would gladly pay the BBC directly to see their content (sans BBCA constant adverts on TV) so whatever we miss on the iplayer I download to watch at our leisure or to catch up on a series we may have got interested in half way through, we also use the uk Netflix to make the subscription slightly better then just plain old American vanilla. I am not upgrading my home theatre to stream in a newer version of dolby just because it is the new thing, I am sure there is a way to fix it I am just not faffing about with it anymore, I want to watch a movie without having to arse around with converters and filters and special settings or having to buy new equipment all the time.
Pretty much all of that is illegal at some point something is paid for, because I doubt the original content provider allowed some dud to stand their in the recording studio and record his own version to put up on torrent sites. (coincidentally I had a similar discussion with a bunch of blues musicians when I was a sound man in a night club and was recording the nights music for my own reference, they thought they were going to be poor forever because I could upload it to the internet and they would not be paid, they hated it when I told them no one wanted their crap anyway, later on I was approached by a musician in a wheelchair (he had been in a motorbike accident and been severely disabled and could no longer play) he asked if I still had any of the recordings from when I was working there, I laughed and told him that not only were the recordings deleted after I had reviewed them, but I stopped doing it because you and your buddies were all paranoid I was going to give your crap away, strangely he did not like that answer either.)
for me bringing 400 movies on a raid array is a lot easier then bringing 400 physical discs with me when I move or want to rearrange the house, not to mention the previous comments made by people about adverts warnings previews and such.
yes piracy hurts the industry to a certain extent, It can also, when used correctly benefit the industry by means of exposure, most of the artists who have been extensively vocal about piracy, have already made their money, the poor ones trying to break into the industry, need the backing of a major label or exposure, and, if they are not the right stuff they are not going to get anywhere anyway, I knew some local artists who would sell their songs in a digital version for a $1 or $2 or press their own cd's for sale, piracy was not hurting them because they were too small to be noticed outside their local market and the big companies did not want none mainstream acts to promote (where is the money in that? they want marketable commodities like beibers and cyruses.
does it justify pirating, not really, do I care? not really, I buy more than I have ever pirated, I know people who never buy stuff, I will say, if the industry as a whole is hurting that much, other than natural austerity for luxury goods in the current climate, we would see massive drops in all sales digital included, they would not be still posting profits, and the current generation of noise makers and actors would not be earning the 6 and 7 figure incomes they do.
We are also to blame for allowing the industry to churn out boilerplate crap for our 'entertainment,' then charge us a lot for it, they are focusing on pirates (rather like the governments focus on welfare recipients for ruining the economy) when as a whole we are the consumers demanding and allowing them to do this. We accept the crap then complain we have to pay for it.
when all he was saying was WEEEEEEEE! now they are just plain creepy
I think the joke is meant to be the fact nobody notices he is a pig..
The bloody gecko is just as annoying and gives ex pats a real bad reputation
if progressive and geico merge will we have lipstick on a pig? (there is not much discernible difference between flo and the pig anyway)
To know I should have stayed in AV and not moved to IT exclusively.
Brings back fond memories of a job I loved, and loved to learn, with real tangible results at the end and a warm fuzzy feeling that is not just the beer in the pub after a long hard working gig.
I will go and cry on my keyboard for a while now
awesome article
As has been said earlier, 2 or 3 people, walking in opposite directions or, 1 person(s) entering the room and having to "search" for the other party always seemed a bit to much of a stretch, then I thought about how it could be done, since the "treadmill" effect allows you to walk indefinitely, after you take a few steps. the computer would then basically surround you in your own "holoworld" possibly only a couple of feet in diameter or even just your head/shoulders in order to keep the illusion in place, then it would feed you auditory/visual clues and keep you on the "treadmill" when you look behind you the other person you entered with is actually a computer generated recreation of them until they are within touching distance therefore no one really moves more than say 3 feet from one another ( the room was big and I assume had a limited capacity for people otherwise it would not work (they would all be touching while seeming far away which would be a major mindfreak) we will of course ignore the whole forcefield thing and the ability to actually project a localized image around a person without the use of some sort of screen or diffusing device, but it is seems quite more feasible, however I would imagine unless it projects an image to an outside person at the door it would look strange to see a few people standing around in a large room seemingly talking to themselves ( or other things) rather like an Ipod party or many of the mmorpgs you see a random character just standing there...
recently going to universal studios and seeing the new harry potter ride it was very well done, but after going on it a second time it was very easy to see the issues and tricks pulled, especially in the flying scenes, although that said I do not doubt we will at least be able to have some sort of individual immersion room in the not too distant future, matter replication, and multiple people in the same room however without some sort of AI to track eyes and head movements will bea bit further off then they are hinting at in my opinion
That having to rely on a 3rd party interface for initial familiar functionality is not ideal, and you can argue somewhat that also relaying on these third party programmes may in some circumstances constitute an additional target for a security hole on the server ( I did say may)
after using 8 as the desktop operating system that we are rolling out and now are moving our servers to 2012 I am not a fan of the 2012/8 interface, but am getting used to it, I have learned that in RDC I make sure the windows key inputs are sent o the system then I can use the usual shortcuts I use on my desktop ( as long as the window is in focus!)
in vcenter console 2012 is more responsive the 08/08r2 but we rarely use that.
I look forward to taking (yet more) cert tests in 2012 because my head is not full enough of fluff from existing installations of 08.
I do not mind the challenges and the joys of living on the bleeding edge, it is the pot of lemon juice and salt used to heal the wounds I take exception to!
They have that iced stuff usually sweet, or lipton for us ex-pats, both are gross and weak, the import stores charge a fortune, so I am stuck with the British blend Tetley compare to the local offerings ( still dredged up from boston habour I think) it is drinkable. I also live in Florida, all the water here tastes like alligator piss, so a decent RO filter is necessary, a water softener is good too, but they are expensive.
coffee on the other hand is common, and cheaper than the uk (was) instant is only used in emergencies, or in my wifes home made Irish cream.
most auto dispensers seem to be able to mix tea and coffee automatically so it tastes awful, I used to use my own kettle too thanks to some ridiculous fear of being sued for using water that is too hot tepid weak tea is horrible.
I am glad they saw the light out here and actually manage to make electric kettles... though it had a tendency to blow the breaker in our old place, took care of that in our new one, dedicated circuit labeled kettle, I get cranky if I cannot have my tea because of some coffee machine or waffle maker!
I think after the whole Toyota fiasco over here, consumer reports did a test to see whether stomping on the brake would stop the car, it did in all cases even at wide open throttle, it took longer but even worked on higher horsepower cars ( I even tried it on my older car to see how if it would work, not to mention a few rentals it has stopped the car every time)
if it was an auto, or even a manual they still normally let you drop them in neutral the laguna does have one of those annoying start button things, but it also has a regular looking gear selector I assume it is not locked in drive like the majority of other autos aren't.
I think the issue is that people panic, which is understandable and as was already mentioned we do not know his disability, maybe he had some special conversion so could not operate the vehicle like an able bodied person, maybe it was the customization that caused the issue, that's the only thing I can think of that would create situations like these.
That often government fund the building of an infrastructure then sell it off to private companies who do nothing with it and keep it barely functional with little improvement investment, then, demand price hikes to modernize the aforementioned pre built untouched system all the while making massive profits for shareholders and board members every year, certain things need to stay in the public domain and be damned with making a profit... healthcare and public transport.
that said, I would like to see better business practices in place for government run services, we all know a contract with the government is a literal blank cheque for the contract holder.
we pay for the development of x system (fighter jet new form of energy whatever) we subsidise the company and give them breaks to develop it and it invariably goes over budget and takes a lot longer than it was originally projected, then after all is said and done we have to also buy the finished product at market price (i.e a cost analysis of how much it actually cost to develop divided by the number scheduled to be built) from the people we just gave all the breaks and help to design it.
pure government services unless it is all the black hat stuff (which costs a fortune and we have no clue what they are doing) are hard to regulate because no matter where you are, there are many layers of people who apparently do not communicate (similar things are found in huge manufacturing companies the difference is there are many interesting rules regarding who can talk to who in the government so someone gets away with fleecing the system and there is great resistance to give any one person the full detail of what is going on in order to fix it.
we are damned both ways, a good example of entirely private research patents and sales is pharmaceuticals, and we know how much brand name drugs cost
Is totally the opposite, the people here (or at least in my social and economic circles) whinge and whine all the time and never lift a finger to fix anything (unless it has a payout attached to it) and the people I used to deal with in the uk would make MacGyver look like a amateur lego builder.
I guess the whole broadband thing is all to do with money (and afore mentioned payouts) since it is not economically viable (read makes a metric crap-ton of profit) to run high speed out to even some areas in a city then they don't it has nothing to do with urban and suburban sprawl, however since the government do not lay the cables and infrastructure first the companies are not really willing to invest (most of them barely invest in the current infrastructure until they can up the price to cover the cost of an ageing and almost broken system, yet still insist on massive profit margins and tax breaks/subsidies from the government. investment is now an expense to be paid for by the consumer not to be paid for out of existing profits (or investors whine because well, they invested and want their money to work harder then they do)
there are too many local monopolies, but I guess that's the way it should be, they got there first or have the most money so can dictate who gets what. it does not help that many of the permits required to lay say a new fibre line get happily refused by local government because they are happy with the current status quo ( and probably had a visit from a nice man/woman from the current monopoly provider with financial "incentive" for them to remain in control.
that said, I can't really complain I do not have a public sewer but I can get broadband, and a few people I know do not even have public water and can get broadband so I do not think it is all that bad, the classic line is, if you do not like it, move!
why do I get the feeling, when they say that the uk is better prepared in theevent of a storm, they are blowing smoke out of their arse? half the time they cannot get the basic tv/mobile/cable/internet services to work without the space storm, imagine how blissfully quiet life would be for a while if mobiles and such did not work for a time, people might even drive a bit better with no distractions...
and we would not have to listen to all the politicians waffle on about what they are (not) doing during the time of crisis
my particular sector in the HR industry has seen year on year growth we cap at 40% we even had growth during the recession it has exploded recently we cannot hire enough people to keep up... our clients are hiring too and we cover many industries in the small to medium business market...
most Florida homes are block and stucco, not the average stick built wonderment that passes as a house in the nor east and Midwest.. I need an 8 inch masonry bit to get through my outside wall (ok and only a fist to punch interior walls I am no ballistics expert but I am doubting even a .38 would make it through the exterior walls, (windows not included)
FWIW the CCW course really gets blown up out of all proportion, rather like the driving tests and such, like you need to be an ex navy seal to pass it. It is not actually that hard, if it was many people who currently pass would actually fail (including police some of whom should have failed the psych test in the first place :-/ )
I noticed a comment about the water here, I have not been to a single place in Florida including ft myers where the water even tastes close to actual water, I rather associate it more with the sewage equivalent of tab clear, that great sewage taste yet clear(ish) and that is straight from the municipal supply, oh, ok, chlorinated sewage, I am confused how they blend the taste so well, but they manage it... blech! the only thing I like going back up north for is the water which, although still chlorinated, does not taste like something took a crap then died in it, or vice versa..
however these stories are incredibly funny, and it does seem to be a common occurrence down here, I do not think it is just the water.
Moving to the land of the "free" My wifes family has a lot of gun nuts in it, their main points are "if the government falls who is going to protect you" and no other amendment or right has any form of regulation put on it like the second amendment has. (they ignore, unlike the swiss, the beginning part of the 2nd which can easily be inferred that in order to have the right to bear arms you must be in a well regulated militia, but that is just one interpretation of 300 year old language)
I also laugh a little knowing these same people for over a decade now, that while they may be awesome sport and target shooters, if it came to the crunch and they were being shot at, then they would be about as useful as tits on a bull since they are not trained in any shape or form to deal with bullets coming the other way i.e. at them ( I find it hilarious that one of them actually does those scary haunted tours, if you are scared by a dark house and a mouse running across the floor then you stand no chance in a real situation) but again that is personal experience. There are many well trained people out there who can hold their own when it comes to walking the walk, and, as has been shown with many statistics (even though the NRA has spent tons of money and years trying to hide the gun ownership/use stats from being made easily available) show that the ones who DO respond in a violent shooting situation are the ones trained as first responders (ex police etc) NOT the joe schmoe who thinks he is bruce willis or Rambo.
There was also a recent chart put up by a (center right) blogger Andrew Sullivan that showed the correlation between per capita expenditure and video game use and shootings per country, it showed that many civilized countries spend more on all types of video games and have multitudes of scale less shootings then America.
Also when the NRA and nut-farm like to point out that criminals don't care about regulation, they are correct, and then they point out like this most recent shooting that the guy did all these illegal things ( like shoot his mom, steal her car etc) the fact is they totally gloss over the fact she was NOT a responsible gun owner in anyway, which usually is the case, and while there are many responsible owners the majority of the vocal crowd are in no way responsible.
I am not anti-gun, in any way, in a few months I will be doing my conceal carry course, I like responsible owners, I am not scared that the government is overstepping it's bounds in anyway by trying to esure that only those who are intelligent ( I think this scares a lot of the loudmouths) and sane (another scary one here) and sober(bugger there goes the neighbourhood) enough to own a gun, you need a licence to drive a car, you need insurance to drive a car (hell if you are buying a house you need insurance or they wont give you a mortgage! houses don't kill people) so why not require both for a gun?
alternatively force everyone who wants to be a responsible owner to join the military, or the militia make it highly regulated, make them go on mandatory courses, basically bring back conscription with NO deferments, and, I think, if we did that, there would be much less American saber rattling around the world since they would all know that it would be all of our kids that potentially are going to be on the front lines.
on another note, steam has made sure video games are no longer dangerous, since you cannot kill people by throwing a download at them - yet...
but get the dude to jump around and run around and juggle with different coloured balls etc, unless you are watching mastermind, there aren't too many programmes or films that have one person sitting still without talking.. I do not disagree that it is a great advancement but how does it handle movement and change? it could go from looking nice to minecraft or worse very quick, or, suck up a lot more bandwidth...
We have hot and cold running fresh ground coffee all day ( at least in my office) the problem is I drink tea, being born and raised in the motherland, so I don't care what they serve... I bring my own..
coke on the other hand, in the old country I used to drink diet coke or pepsi max, I did not really like diet coke out here, diet pepsi was palatable barely, diet dr pepper was the best of them at least...
now I drink regular coke, the problem is it tastes different, high fructose corn syrup makes it taste weird, so I spend my time finding the Mexican coke which is made with good old fashioned sugar, the taste is subtle but noticeable, it also seems to help in not giving me a hangover when I mix the Mexican coke with whiskey, although that is probably something totally unrelated...
either way regular coke tates better in England, or at least it did..
1200lbs is not that much it is about the same as a 150 gallon fish tank (us gallons), I wouldn't put it in the middle of the living room but perfectly feasible for a house I have seen bigger fishtanks on would floors in Chicago basement would be fine, but yeah cooling and power consumption might be a problem, that said if I were dirty filthy rich, it might be fun to try, just because.
or in this case helium bearing for the heads to float there is no current way to have such a close tolerance without the use of a gaseous medium to "float" the heads on
I wondered about the whole "helium is a bugger to keep hold of" thing and not only that what will all the MRI's do? not more waste of that precious helium... why don't we just put the stuff in balloons or something sheesh!
that said a partial vacuum or lower pressure might work just as well would probably need to spin the platters a bit faster though for the same effect to happen
<----------- the one with the vacuum flask of scotch in the pocket
my career started out in early college, I was doing a btec in aerospace engineering, thought it sucked and played around with computers, that was fun, it was a hobby, I loved it, then as a job I was an A/V tech, that was also awesome! ok, I was paid poopy, it was a small company, but it was so varied and the sense of accomplishment was actually quite warm and fuzzy! I needed more money took a warehouse job at British Airways, it paid great, benefits were good, but like a turd I thought I was destined for IT greatness, so I left that job, (moved to America married a local) and waited.
My first job was helpdesk, and I thought it was the bees knees, I was in IT OMGWTFBBQSAUCE! I was a computer god all powerful! feel my root account of wrath!
oh wait... "good morning this is [$name] who can I help you?"
"I see your aol isn't working, and you cannot access your brokers account I can help with that..."
"oh and it is my fault and I am a moron for breaking your aol, it worked yesterday.. I see"
"oh it works now, yes I know I am an idiot and I will not let it happen again thank you"
so I got some Microsoft certs and a couple of others A+ etc, still happy in the knowledge I will be seen as some day saving superhero, fast women and fat paychecks will be my rewards!
In reality it was Fat women and fast paychecks...
Now don't get me wrong, SOME parts of the job are interesting, but, it was a HOBBY then it became a CAREER, now all the passion has gone, there is no sense of accomplishment you fix one thing, and a day later it is broken again, you stop a massive issue that would have brought the company to it's knees, and no one knows, or if they do, they do not care, they only care when their widget app does not work or their email is stuck for 5 minutes, they only care when something bad happens, then you are the evil asswipe with the attitude. It is very hard not to get an attitude too, you are sitting there with console windows open, RDC windows open telnet sessions, you are conversing with the rest of your team trying to figure out why the XYZ platform is in the process of dying and taking the web app with it, and some manager comes up and asks inane questions about how can we stop this? is there anything I can do? why did this happen now? do you know this is affecting customers? Every bad thing that happens looks bad on you, every good thing that happens nobody notices until it breaks.. thankless
I think Devs might have more fun out of their jobs, they at least produce something and it is noticeable.
In short get industry certs, the current trendy boys are Cisco Microsoft, and virtualization, Linux is also quite well paid now for good admins, beg copy and steal erm... evaluate all the operating systems you can. If you really are interested in IT and I mean INTERESTED, it consumes your every moment (not gaming, not building home networks but interested in mundane scripting, switch configs firewall rules, updates, automating updates talking to idiots erm frustrated users, making a server or a network hum and buzz with activity, and you do not mind the thankless late night, long day,s weekends and holidays making sure nobody notices the next disaster ( that WILL happen) then you will enjoy it..
Otherwise go to college the OU or whatever get an BA in business or an MBA and find work as an executive manager CEO etc, it will be more rewarding ( just remember us poor IT weenies when you are :D)
my career started out in early college, I was doing a btec in aerospace engineering, thought it sucked and played around with computers, that was fun, it was a hobby, I loved it, then as a job I was an A/V tech, that was also awesome! ok, I was paid poopy, it was a small company, but it was so varied and the sense of accomplishment was actually quite warm and fuzzy! I needed more money took a warehouse job at British Airways, it paid great, benefits were good, but like a turd I thought I was destined for IT greatness, so I left that job, (moved to America married a local) and waited.
My first job was helpdesk, and I thought it was the bees knees, I was in IT OMGWTFBBQSAUCE! I was a computer god all powerful! feel my root account of wrath!
oh wait... "good morning this is [$name] who can I help you?"
"I see your aol isn't working, and you cannot access your brokers account I can help with that..."
"oh and it is my fault and I am a moron for breaking your aol, it worked yesterday.. I see"
"oh it works now, yes I know I am an idiot and I will not let it happen again thank you"
so I got some Microsoft certs and a couple of others A+ etc, still happy in the knowledge I will be seen as some day saving superhero, fast women and fat paychecks will be my rewards!
In reality it was Fat women and fast paychecks...
Now don't get me wrong, SOME parts of the job are interesting, but, it was a HOBBY then it became a CAREER, now all the passion has gone, there is no sense of accomplishment you fix one thing, and a day later it is broken again, you stop a massive issue that would have brought the company to it's knees, and no one knows, or if they do, they do not care, they only care when their widget app does not work or their email is stuck for 5 minutes, they only care when something bad happens, then you are the evil asswipe with the attitude. It is very hard not to get an attitude too, you are sitting there with console windows open, RDC windows open telnet sessions, you are conversing with the rest of your team trying to figure out why the XYZ platform is in the process of dying and taking the web app with it, and some manager comes up and asks inane questions about how can we stop this? is there anything I can do? why did this happen now? do you know this is affecting customers? Every bad thing that happens looks bad on you, every good thing that happens nobody notices until it breaks.. thankless
I think Devs might have more fun out of their jobs, they at least produce something and it is noticeable.
In short get industry certs, the current trendy boys are Cisco Microsoft, and virtualization, Linux is also quite well paid now for good admins, beg copy and steal erm... evaluate all the operating systems you can. If you really are interested in IT and I mean INTERESTED, it consumes your every moment (not gaming, not building home networks but interested in mundane scripting, switch configs firewall rules, updates, automating updates talking to idiots erm frustrated users, making a server or a network hum and buzz with activity, and you do not mind the thankless late night, long day,s weekends and holidays making sure nobody notices the next disaster ( that WILL happen) then you will enjoy it..
Otherwise go to college the OU or whatever get an BA in business or an MBA and find work as an executive manager CEO etc, it will be more rewarding ( just remember us poor IT weenies when you are :D)
I admit it is totally different to when I was back in school, and it is a bit of a bugger that they have decided to shaft future generations, however, compared to the cost of the same course in an American college, I think it is quite a good deal, yes, you earn less than a store clerk after graduating, but then again, you have just graduated, your head is full of stuff that needs to be taught how to be applied practically, for most intents and purposes, although smart you are as practical as a tin of sardines at a bus stop. However after a short time on the job, it will all be worthwhile, and after about a decade, you should be earning more than the store clerk (who is not department head or maybe a manager (gawd bless em). They are at the peak of their career, and you still have a lot of potential.
Now the crux is that in the U.K. at least (and I will say many parts of the US) there is little enough respect for engineers, yes a few are highly paid, but, they can be seen as a loss leader, or necessary evil. (though moving to the US from the UK with a decent degree you stand to make a metric crap-ton more money than if you stayed there, which I guess is what Dyson is saying.
If the person addressed their issues with the builder before writing the review, if that is the case then they have some evidence obviously.
if it was theft maybe she should look "closer to home" for the culprit.
I think that if you leave a review online about a service you have physically received at your house or business before you have even approached the supplied of said service, you deserve all the shite you get. If they install a shower upside down, you see the work, say nothing at the time, then write a scathing review in the online journals, then you deserve to be slapped with an old, wet herring!
I would love to be like stark or brucey (either of them to be honest) I think the future of warfare is more big honking robots, just because they are big and roboty and kick arse.
Although I have the suspicion future superheroes are going to be more geeky and nerdy, we seem to be getting away from the "I have big rippling muscles" to I am an super genius with personality issues, and not allowed near razorblades or alcohol.
Oh and apparently they are all socially inept too, I think watchmen is actually closer to reality...
though I still want javis, that would be cool.
that the end of B5 would have been better if all the first ones got pissed off at the young'uns and went on a rampage destroying them all for being so insolent...
loved all the star treks, there were time continuity issues but what do expect the 1960's idea of tech was laughable, and even seeing TNG stuff it seemed so bulky however as entertainment goes it was fun...
and unless it was a 2 parter like every other good US drama they always fixed it in the space between the final 5 minutes of commercials!.
I had model kits of all the major ships/stations in ST all customized with lighting before it became trendy... only had a couple of B5 though, and they were pretty aweful quality (though I did have most of the good meshes in Lightwave, however the week long rendering for a decent 20 second clip was horrid.
There just does not seem to be any awesome scifi anymore, maybe they could make a few of the current scifi books into some decent series, it all seems to be mystical and non spacey now,
It is sexy, it is quick, it has stuff I want and need often at a good price, I know all my frequently used CC numbers off by heart, I am never safe around a steam sale (despite this year, which I have maintained a level of inebriation that has prevented me from "being arsed" to buy games on sale). I love the fact I get my game now, I do not have to get in the car or on the bicycle, get to town find the store hope they have a copy buy it go back home install it blah blah blah, by then I have hit the same level as "can't be arsed" as being drunk!
no physical media either space on bookshelf for either dead trees awards trophies, pictures of naked women, more booze!
Also now as a responsible member of productive society or something like that my chosen family cave is a little while away from "town" and since here in the consumerist hell of the sunshine state, the time I have to go mall hopping is the same time that every other gosh darn person with a car and family goes too, so the places are packed, but now everyone is a lot quieter and most seem to be walking round with their heads buried in their phones playing tweeting face-booking so steam makes sense, it saves me gas money and, unless the mall will turn out to be an episode of dead rising, my sanity.
however...
downloading your entire steam library after something goes horribly pear shaped with the machine... not cool! although not awful if you have a decent speed you can leave it over night for the most part, unless you have one of those really annoying data cap things by your isp, admittedly I have only need to do this once so far, but still a pain.
I miss the whole shopping experience, in some ways, maybe because I remember going to the store as a wee nipper and looking at all the cool games in boxes, also checking to see if my PC had the required specs, fondling shiny boxes, the excitement of wondering if the game was any good, that "new media" smell, that subtle nod that you used to give other fellow cool people in the store when looking at certain games, almost paramount to human interaction, possibly even a discussion of a title played, handing over real money that weird paper stuff that you had done numberous hours of work/chores/waited for a birthday to get the sense of achievement! The hustle and bustle of the mall, the smell of food from the food court, the screaming kids, the obnoxious security guard who always pulls you aside when you leave thinking that you probably stole half the contents of the shop even though he had been watching you like some perverted vulture all the time and the real shoplifter had left ages ago! then the distraction of walking past another favourite store and seeing something you also could have bought with that money and realizing it would be some time before that was affordable too, and then the journey home, the nice smell from the food courts overpowered by the pizza/"Italian" food store that apparently had something against vampires, or in reality people, the ride home, the half hour getting the darn thing installed, OMG it was a bloody nightmare now I think of it... never mind.
I still have most of my original PC games, however none of my sega games not having said console anymore, and also not having a TV for which some would even work on.
still it was a nice trip down memory lane for a few minutes..
if it looks good to you use it, if you work with it professionally use whatever it is you want to.
at home I am thinking bottom line cfls are cheaper leds at least at most major box stores here in the southern US are too expensive to replace, though I might use them when we redo the kitchen, dunno that's a log way off too.
most of my life is spent looking at a cursed monitor, I have colour issues too so matters little what others think, you don't like my lighting in my house then you can't have my beer or you can keep quite get drunk and not care....
If laws regarding regulation were easy to change or alter to reflect the every whim of the market then there would be little point in having them at all, at which point we simply abolish them all and go back to letting companies and business do what they want how they want. I am sure many would love this approach.
Government and regulation is too big, expensive and crap until it is something that you feel passionately about then all of a sudden you want more involvement of said beast.
but that city is bloody cold! (the people are nice though, maybe it's the cold?) other than that I agree not that I could be a CEO well I could well at least for a year get my overpayment drive the company to the brink of disaster and retire well heeled looking at most CEO pay these days.
moving from the US from her majesties great and honest land (ok I choked on my own BS thee) there is a big culture shock, (afore mentioned healthcare, rat race etc) the disease of overpaid CEO is moving east though.
did I mention Canada is bloody cold? .... nice people though
noticed that the one of the previous posters tooted their horn somewhat, to me that came across as quite condescending, I will strike it up to an over indulgence of mulled wine, with possible indigestion.
did I mention the last time I was in Canada it was march and there was lots of snow on the ground? it was really cold! Really nice people though very friendly, had a roller coaster in a mall and everything.
I like the reg because it does extract the byproduct of cellular metabolism in its articles.
cheers to the freakin' weekend oh and happy new year
We in our department are just as restricted as all the users we support, currently we are rolling out user only access to all the users (a change from years of local admin access to the machine fro ma time when the company was a lot smaller) we are the first group to be forced to use this model, yes we have an admin account but we only use that to do the admin stuff, the rest of the time it is our standard user account, and no we do not stay in the admin account either since our workflow is setup for the regular account - no email - helpdesk tickets etc on the admin account.
We also use the same vpn solution into the same systems as all the other users, and we are all going through the same proxy/firewall everyone else does, this way we cannot be accused of exactly the things you pointed out.
One of the crutches of being the company IT department is that you are expected to know every system, platform, piece of software both proprietary and commercial that any one person will ever use, you are expected to keep all systems at 100% uptime all the time and you are expected to keep the entire system 100% secure (or as close to it as humanly possible given business needs) all the time.
The restrictions seem archaic, but that is because whenever a system goes down, is slow, does not perform as expected the IT crew gets the blame even if it was not directly their fault, maybe it was a new patch from dev, but of course since the patch was rolled to prod, then if the prod system falters in anyway it was the IT guys fault for not knowing that it would hose everything. Also if there is a security breach of any kind then the buck stops at the IT department whether it be the head of the department or one of the lesser workers. in the end the buck always stops at the IT department so in order to maintain any sort of career most departments make sure the users with the best intentions cannot do something foolish that would harm the company and probably get the IT department in hot water or fired.
just because you want your tablet to do this that or the other on the network, and to you it sounds so simple just to give access to some device or share or AP, it quite often isn't.
Hopefully any inhabitants on said planet are having the same conversation having seen a much smaller planet in the habitable zone around our sun and they too are preparing to launch a probe.
alternatively they already knew about us, and have sent the probe
alternatively still, the know about us and have other pressing matters to deal with or are just ignoring us because we pose no threat.
yet more:
They missed out planet or ignored it as being no threat, AND missed the probe we sent until one day (in the future) it crashes down on their world killing one of their leaders, and a now enraged planet with inhabitants at minimum 5 times bigger/stronger than us, prepare a jump-force to eradicate the puny inhabitants of our world.
even more obscure, they found our two planets (venus/earth) sent a probe to the wrong one, it was destroyed and they do not think our system habours life, however some crazy radio astronomer insists he is receiving transmissions from our system, the only part he can decipher is the beginning beats to eastenders and it has driven him insane...
or
it's just lifeless and dead
It's ok, I guess,
multi monitor support is nicer something I would like to have seen on earlier versions
storage stuff is a lot better and it mounts ISO's natively with drive letters and everything.
windows key and typing is ok, like 7 but it is too invasive, I might not want/need a whole screen to switch when searching for an app, if I am videoconferencing I might need to launch something ( not on my taskbar or in the formerly start menu start bar - I do not like having a cluttered taskbar so nothing is pinned there - the start menu was great for pinned stuff to launch, and less overall movement of the mouse if you have a screen full of icons)
the whole shutdown thing is not good, nor is getting to system settings and such, very unintuitive, the menues up the sides (which is also a tad annoying on multi monitors since it is on the sides of all monitors not just the far left/right sides) I ended up making a command prompt shortcut for faster reboots ( another darn icon) i know i do not have to reboot all the time i have not rebooted in over a week so far, but when i do i want it to be simple ( I know intuitive - go to START and select SHUTDOWN :-/ probably why it was called the windows button later not start)
i do have a lot more icons than I used to on the desktop, just quicker than windows key + typing, i fast high res mouse speeds across the screen with ease and it is often more muscle memory then observance will take a bit more getting used to with 8.
ctrl+scroll wheel zooms the app windows both tiles and all apps, useful, sort of not used much
the big thing is more keyboard use, before there may have been a time when i never needed to touch a keyboard (and vice versa with the mouse) but now it seems a lot harder to do - quickly, I do find searching through the all apps screen more difficult then the start menu, i am sure with use it will come easier, however this leads to my biggest issue:
The company i work with are going to deploy 8, we already have it and a using it, a lot of the people in my dept use 3rd party for start menu, which to me defeats the purpose, of the out of box experience, namely i should not have to install a 3rd party app to give me oem functionality even though it was the oem that changed it.
I have gotten used to 8, nearly, the 500 plus employees however is going to be a nightmare, vista was a nightmare, 7 they sort of took too, 8 is a radical change, and while adaptation is possible i feel it will result initiall in lost productivity, and, if Microsoft change the ui back or more in a future release, it will result in more frustration, remember this is not all "professional IT people" using this many people are only comfortable enough with a computer for work, some set things up in a specific way for their workflow, they will have to totally reorganize themselves when this is deployed, a situation that is frustrating for them, and us since we will have to spend out time helping them get back to at least a partial level of functionality they are used to.
yes things change, however there should simply have been an option for the "legacy" start application get people used to the new UI without ramming it on them and giving no option (and no buying the 3rd party app for every user is silly and should not have needed to be an option)
My wife, who was in level 1 support for a cable company, already has had numerous confused callers who got new pc's with 8 on them and cannot do the most basic things, even her support team were slow at helping since they had to find out how to do it too something that took 3 minutes in 7 now takes 5 plus in 8 with a lot more clicking and keyboarding, which is frustrating to none power users.
That is my biggest gripe, ok if you are new to windows/computers like say a young kid great! i think 8 will be good for them and they will do awesome ( and equally be frustrated with the "legacy" interfaces, however we are not all new to computers, and relearning how to walk again can really take the wind out of your sails, not to mention waste time for all the IT staff trying to help the users do their jobs!
for the moment I am not recommending 8 to anyone who is not overly familiar with using them, for new users I do and for IT people, whatever, you are in IT stuff changes quicker than the postman hearing the husbands key in the front door. (however change is still frustrating and the change to 8 has made my job less satisfying for now).
I agree! I work with too many people who are of the mindset live to work and they say as much, they cannot understand why, when I go home, I do not want to deal with the job... They think it is part of the career and a necessary evil, to some aspects I agree but some of them have families too! They are up at all hours usually not more than 3 steps from a computer with active VPN, then when an issue, email, question comes in, they jump on it immediately, then later at review time the old, "well you could be more responsive off hours" comes up, to which the reply is, "yeah, I could be, but since you all live on your computers working all the time why duplicate the effort?" probably why I do not see much in the way of promotion. Oh and I hate my job, career, industry...company.
It does not help I live in the land of the free... free to work as many hours there are in a day, free to be at the beck and call of a company or manager, free to quit your job whenever you like and then be shunned by society for being a slacker, only because you do not share the vision that your life should be work, work, work, sleep work, family, work.
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