I was more concerned that by the time we've sorted out time codes, ISO compliance, done a few PowerPoints, assembled the stakeholders, got buy in and made sure that we're all the same page we might have lost something of the spontaneity.
Re: "it's their responsibility to make it fit for purpose"
Fair play to you for getting the job done, but if you need the kit to do the job then it's down to your employer to provide it, not out of courtesy but as a legal obligation. If you can't do the job with the kit provided then it's not fit for purpose and that's that. I don't do my job out of the kindness of my heart and I don't expect any such sentimentality from my employer. I sell them my time and skills for them to use as best they can. If they can't equip me properly then that's their look out. I'll do my best to improve the way that the job is done but I am not subsidising them.
Fair point, I guess it depends on context. In my context I need to enforce a rigid separation between the customer's data and the rest of the world. There can be no possibility whatsoever of it leaking onto out corporate machines, let alone any personal kit.
I also may have been screwed over too many times, which has given me the mindset that what happens at work stays at work. My own kit is mine, not my employer's. When I walk out of here I walk out without having to prove that I've removed all trace of my employer's gubbins from my kit. Your mileage is obviously different from mine. If this lot want me to use a paperclip it's coming out their budget, not mine.
I use the kit that my employer provides to do the work with which they task me. I am not prepared to provide my own kit to do that with it, no matter that it may be a better fit for the purpose than anything the procurement team can find, if it's their kit then it's their responsibility to make it fit for purpose, sufficiently secure and to bear the cost of any necessary maintenance and upgrades.
By the same token, if I am providing and specifying the kit with which you work, then I will have control of the budget, security and permitted functions thank you very much. I'll fix it when it breaks and upgrade and replace it as necessary, but that's my call. You'll get what you need, but not necessarily what you think you want (because you're wrong).
Win95 was always oriented for home users, enterprise users were supposed to make the move to NT4 Workstation on the desktop. Win95 was still a GUI layer on top of DOS despite the shared graphics, they didn't properly integrate the OS kernels until Win2K.
I still can't forgive them for moving the GDI into Ring 0 in the shift from NT3.51 to NT4, a precursor of the sloppy thinking that eventually led to Vista.
It cost more than the 4GB that's probably sitting in the average desktop these days (and that was in 1992 pounds as well).
Intel had stopped making RAM as they were being undercut by Japanese manufacturers and the US government has decided that RAM wasn't a strategic resource (!) so there was no need to prevent the loss of the manufacturing capability. Then Kobe got hit by an earthquake which trashed a large proportion of the RAM fabs. Whoops.
The price of RAM rocketed so much that when offices got burgled (as ours did) the thieves would strip out the RAM and leave the rest of the PC behind. In the middle of all this we've got a new version of the OS that needs a RAM uplift like a fish needs water. Oh dear.
I enjoyed the trip down memory lane, thank you, it reminded of many battles lost and software written that's still somehow limping on. (Oh, and Word 2 would do everything that I need to do today, while Word 6 will still do everything that I want to do, even now).
Or, if the outsourcing is being done by asset strippers who've just taken you over, make sure that the training goes well, get in the good books of the asset strippers by indicating where the more rancid corpses are buried and use that "in" to plant some well-placed knives in some well-deserving backs and justify your continuing employment until you choose to leave. If you're reading this Joe, I salute you for your ninja skills in this respect.
I still keep a reel-to-reel tape kicking around to scare the youngsters with. I used to laugh at the old fart who kept a reel of punch-tape for similar purposes. I am horribly aware of what I have become. And why was there no Centronics lead in the box? Surely everyone has one of those somewhere?
If the installation of a fountain in the foyer of HQ the death knell of a company - which it is - what does it mean when the whole office is tricked out like a nursery?
There's mainframe software still in revenue service that was developed on kit that had its architecture laid down in the 1970s that is being run in an emulation of that hardware running in an antique UNIX that in turn is running in an LPAR on an AIX box. This makes perfect commerical sense. As long as there's someone kicking around who can keep the original system ticking over its little emulated corner of the data centre, it can be much less risky and less expensive to keep it wrapped up in all those emulations and virtualisations than reimplementing something that cost many millions of 1980-s GBPs to develop and that, given that it's still running, is probably a cornerstone of the business.
I preferred this industry when it was about creating intellectual property then defending it, rather than buying reams of iother people's ideas then beating each other to a bloody pulp with it.
I remember when CB radio arrived, but I can't ever remember a time before the idiots got hold of it, sadly.
The comments on ElReg are by and large better informed and more intellectually engaged than many other communication streams that are available, they are still just people lobbing statements at each other over the internet.
by people who want to tell me using the medium of a comments thread on a website that they don't use Facebook, Twitter, FriendFace, Friendster, Bebo, MySpace ...
One of my favourite quotes regarding progress came from Frederick Lanchester, the engineer: "If you have to measure an improvement, you haven't got one".
Not smart enough to dissociate myself from your sweeping generalisation, no. Being misinterpreted must be a problem common to all people who make sweeping generalisations.
As a woman with a degree in Physics I wish I could think of something more considered to say than "Fuck off", but I'm afraid that I can't, sorry. I must be too fluffy-minded.
Has anyone asked HP? They spent a large part of the 1990s trying to convince the world that touchscreen interfaces on PC monitors were the way forward. The world, I recall, quite rightly laughed at them as PCs, as then configured, worked much better with mice and keyboards and this holds true today for the tasks for which typing-oriented PCs are used. Browsing-oriented PCs, such as tablets, do work much better with a touch interface, as do specialised devices such as medical monitoring kit where HP did turn their touchscreens into an advantage, but if you need to type anything of any length then I'd much rather have the appropriate interface. Never mind writing a novel, how about coding a decent sized lump of C++ using a touchscreen? Mouses and keyboards for courses.
If we're only supposed to stick to our preferred OS across all platforms, can I have a VME tablet please? I'll use VMS for second preference, just anything rather than Windows.
It's not possible to undo the injustices of our forebears, but what we can do is learn from them and ensure that they are ever repeated. Alan Turing's treatment was inhumane, unjust and ended with the tragic waste of his life. His sentence can not be revoked, not can we stop it driving him to suicide. Honour his life by remembering what drove him to his death and stop it happening again, don't waste effort tying to change the unchangeable.
You mean a Kamm tail? By constraining the turbulent flow behind the moving vehicle it actually reduces drag to a level not much above that of a full tear-drop shape while giving a much more practical shape for a car.
As much as I wanted a BBC, Dad ran the numbers on his Olivetti (mechanical) calculator and came back with a Dragon32. It was good preparation for coping with incompatible later in life.
Apart from playing Defender and Elite on friend's machines, I only really came to know the BBC at Swansea University - Prifysgol Abertawe - where they were used as workstations to access the Prime mini. I spent more time writing a screenscraper in 6502 assembler for the BBC than doing my assignments on the Prime. Happy days.
...who said that while they didn't mind us playing Doom - heck, they put some hours in themselves - but would we lay off the chaingun during office hours?
Register
194 posts • joined Tuesday 7th October 2008 11:26 GMT
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Re: Tut Tut
No, sadly standing next to a COBOL programmer is only equivalent to standing next to someone as old as God.
Re: BOFH vs Steve Bong
I admire and approve of your thinking. Just make sure that it's "crossover" and not "slash", please *shudders*
That Dragon manual has made a happy woman feel very old.
Chairs
The chairs look a litte under-sized. They look as though the teachers in a primary school were sitting on the pupil's chairs.
Pimania and Jeff Minter
I hope that their absence is due to a deeper article in the near future.
Re: "business grade sex"
I was more concerned that by the time we've sorted out time codes, ISO compliance, done a few PowerPoints, assembled the stakeholders, got buy in and made sure that we're all the same page we might have lost something of the spontaneity.
Re: The first law in robotic sex acceptability
If the robot's doing surgery, the last thing I want to do at that point is wake up.
"business grade sex"
No thanks.
Re: "it's their responsibility to make it fit for purpose"
Fair play to you for getting the job done, but if you need the kit to do the job then it's down to your employer to provide it, not out of courtesy but as a legal obligation. If you can't do the job with the kit provided then it's not fit for purpose and that's that. I don't do my job out of the kindness of my heart and I don't expect any such sentimentality from my employer. I sell them my time and skills for them to use as best they can. If they can't equip me properly then that's their look out. I'll do my best to improve the way that the job is done but I am not subsidising them.
Re: @Admiral GH
Fair point, I guess it depends on context. In my context I need to enforce a rigid separation between the customer's data and the rest of the world. There can be no possibility whatsoever of it leaking onto out corporate machines, let alone any personal kit.
I also may have been screwed over too many times, which has given me the mindset that what happens at work stays at work. My own kit is mine, not my employer's. When I walk out of here I walk out without having to prove that I've removed all trace of my employer's gubbins from my kit. Your mileage is obviously different from mine. If this lot want me to use a paperclip it's coming out their budget, not mine.
No.
I use the kit that my employer provides to do the work with which they task me. I am not prepared to provide my own kit to do that with it, no matter that it may be a better fit for the purpose than anything the procurement team can find, if it's their kit then it's their responsibility to make it fit for purpose, sufficiently secure and to bear the cost of any necessary maintenance and upgrades.
By the same token, if I am providing and specifying the kit with which you work, then I will have control of the budget, security and permitted functions thank you very much. I'll fix it when it breaks and upgrade and replace it as necessary, but that's my call. You'll get what you need, but not necessarily what you think you want (because you're wrong).
"Acoustic modem"?
Acoustic coupler, please.
Re: Win95
Win95 was always oriented for home users, enterprise users were supposed to make the move to NT4 Workstation on the desktop. Win95 was still a GUI layer on top of DOS despite the shared graphics, they didn't properly integrate the OS kernels until Win2K.
I still can't forgive them for moving the GDI into Ring 0 in the shift from NT3.51 to NT4, a precursor of the sloppy thinking that eventually led to Vista.
(Old Git because there's no Old Grandma).
About that 2MB of RAM
It cost more than the 4GB that's probably sitting in the average desktop these days (and that was in 1992 pounds as well).
Intel had stopped making RAM as they were being undercut by Japanese manufacturers and the US government has decided that RAM wasn't a strategic resource (!) so there was no need to prevent the loss of the manufacturing capability. Then Kobe got hit by an earthquake which trashed a large proportion of the RAM fabs. Whoops.
The price of RAM rocketed so much that when offices got burgled (as ours did) the thieves would strip out the RAM and leave the rest of the PC behind. In the middle of all this we've got a new version of the OS that needs a RAM uplift like a fish needs water. Oh dear.
I enjoyed the trip down memory lane, thank you, it reminded of many battles lost and software written that's still somehow limping on. (Oh, and Word 2 would do everything that I need to do today, while Word 6 will still do everything that I want to do, even now).
Word App?
Cameo
"disappint"
Freudian slip. Nearly the weekend.
Well, I'm happy to disappint you.
This movie has provided more usuable quotes with a direct application to my day job than is healthy.
"Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away? ".
Re: Quality Training
Or, if the outsourcing is being done by asset strippers who've just taken you over, make sure that the training goes well, get in the good books of the asset strippers by indicating where the more rancid corpses are buried and use that "in" to plant some well-placed knives in some well-deserving backs and justify your continuing employment until you choose to leave. If you're reading this Joe, I salute you for your ninja skills in this respect.
Re: Don't remind me about the box
A Toshiba Satellite 486 laptop (from when they were bulletproof ...
Happy days indeed.
I still keep a reel-to-reel tape kicking around to scare the youngsters with. I used to laugh at the old fart who kept a reel of punch-tape for similar purposes. I am horribly aware of what I have become. And why was there no Centronics lead in the box? Surely everyone has one of those somewhere?
Right choice
(But whatever you choose to do will be wrong for someone).
If the installation of a fountain in the foyer of HQ the death knell of a company - which it is - what does it mean when the whole office is tricked out like a nursery?
A Laura Ashley vs. Next flamewar would be an interesting diversion from the normal run of thing.
Re: we can only imagine
Emulate 80s hardware, you say?
There's mainframe software still in revenue service that was developed on kit that had its architecture laid down in the 1970s that is being run in an emulation of that hardware running in an antique UNIX that in turn is running in an LPAR on an AIX box. This makes perfect commerical sense. As long as there's someone kicking around who can keep the original system ticking over its little emulated corner of the data centre, it can be much less risky and less expensive to keep it wrapped up in all those emulations and virtualisations than reimplementing something that cost many millions of 1980-s GBPs to develop and that, given that it's still running, is probably a cornerstone of the business.
Mine's the one with the VME manual in the pocket.
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Heh.
The worrying thing I had to re-read this to make sure that it was a piss-take. I've read this sort of article too often and found that it wasn't.
Re: At last
I do hope that Princess Anne gets one.
Re: Marvellous
I hate to break this to you, but Captain Kirk was only a character. Gene Rodenberry boldy went many years since, sadly.
Marvellous
So it was all the fault of dead people.
Re: Apple are scumbags.
Find me a major corporation that has never engaged in scumbaggery. Please, I would love to work for them.
"iother" is the most Freudian misspelling that I've made in a while.
I preferred this industry when it was about creating intellectual property then defending it, rather than buying reams of iother people's ideas then beating each other to a bloody pulp with it.
@Anonymous IV
I remember when CB radio arrived, but I can't ever remember a time before the idiots got hold of it, sadly.
The comments on ElReg are by and large better informed and more intellectually engaged than many other communication streams that are available, they are still just people lobbing statements at each other over the internet.
I'm always amused
by people who want to tell me using the medium of a comments thread on a website that they don't use Facebook, Twitter, FriendFace, Friendster, Bebo, MySpace ...
I'm not trying the neural-computer interface. Didn't end well.
Measurement
One of my favourite quotes regarding progress came from Frederick Lanchester, the engineer: "If you have to measure an improvement, you haven't got one".
Freesat?
As per title.
OS/2
I remember similar predictions for OS/2. Remind me how that went again ...
Aw, bless.
@boltar
Not smart enough to dissociate myself from your sweeping generalisation, no. Being misinterpreted must be a problem common to all people who make sweeping generalisations.
As a woman with a degree in Physics I wish I could think of something more considered to say than "Fuck off", but I'm afraid that I can't, sorry. I must be too fluffy-minded.
Never mind Steve Jobs
Has anyone asked HP? They spent a large part of the 1990s trying to convince the world that touchscreen interfaces on PC monitors were the way forward. The world, I recall, quite rightly laughed at them as PCs, as then configured, worked much better with mice and keyboards and this holds true today for the tasks for which typing-oriented PCs are used. Browsing-oriented PCs, such as tablets, do work much better with a touch interface, as do specialised devices such as medical monitoring kit where HP did turn their touchscreens into an advantage, but if you need to type anything of any length then I'd much rather have the appropriate interface. Never mind writing a novel, how about coding a decent sized lump of C++ using a touchscreen? Mouses and keyboards for courses.
OS Loyalty
If we're only supposed to stick to our preferred OS across all platforms, can I have a VME tablet please? I'll use VMS for second preference, just anything rather than Windows.
Solving the insoluble
It's not possible to undo the injustices of our forebears, but what we can do is learn from them and ensure that they are ever repeated. Alan Turing's treatment was inhumane, unjust and ended with the tragic waste of his life. His sentence can not be revoked, not can we stop it driving him to suicide. Honour his life by remembering what drove him to his death and stop it happening again, don't waste effort tying to change the unchangeable.
A Blunt Back End
You mean a Kamm tail? By constraining the turbulent flow behind the moving vehicle it actually reduces drag to a level not much above that of a full tear-drop shape while giving a much more practical shape for a car.
May I introduce you to Google and Wikipedia? They're quite the coming thing I believe.
(67,000, FWIW)
As much as I wanted a BBC, Dad ran the numbers on his Olivetti (mechanical) calculator and came back with a Dragon32. It was good preparation for coping with incompatible later in life.
Apart from playing Defender and Elite on friend's machines, I only really came to know the BBC at Swansea University - Prifysgol Abertawe - where they were used as workstations to access the Prime mini. I spent more time writing a screenscraper in 6502 assembler for the BBC than doing my assignments on the Prime. Happy days.
I was once rung up by the networks team ...
...who said that while they didn't mind us playing Doom - heck, they put some hours in themselves - but would we lay off the chaingun during office hours?
No Manic Miner?
"This thing was made out of old hoover parts and egg boxes"
And a Philips Maestro keyboard, which is another reason love it.
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