As Slashdot reports, there seems to be this thought that the Star Wars prequel is going to cost $300m in lost productivity... my question is, why ? I'm presuming most places have some sort of flexitime procedure in place, which means you basically work the hours at the time period of your own choosing (I prefer 1000 to 2000 myself).... I can see how some jobs wouldn't really allow this, but techies, surely, should be able to decide for themselves ? so, what price "lost" productivity there ?? but I guess I'm spoilt, my office is perfectly ok with me dropping out of work for a half hour or so to play a tiny river raid or even Quake or Broodwar, so they'd certainly not mind me taking an afternoon off for a movie... (well, heaven only knows when Attack of the Clones is going to reach this part of the planet :p)
In other news: A continuation of the soap opera that I call my quest for the full featured, low memory footprint tabbed browser (heh heh heh), led me to rediscover Opera.. I used it in my student days, when it was in v. 3 or 4, but the most recent incarnation (6.01) is REALLY something..(one low point: mouse gestures, eeeek !!! I still can't figure out how to do most of them, and I prefer using the keyboard anyway).. but it's still slick, fast, I like the skins on offer, and it seems to handle a lot of different sorts of websites quite well. nice...! ;o)
Yesterday was also the day that I downloaded and installed Hmmm... what else... well, for the moment, I'm doing this monstrosity known as Oracle forms.. ugh.. I never really liked UI design, and I'd much rather prefer to do PL/SQL programming (if I need to do anything at all with Oracle, PL/SQL is the answer ;o), but blimey, its fast to develop :o) (Swing takes about twice as long just to code up a basic frontend), and messed around a few hours last night trying to install Gnats bug tracking on a Solaris machine (what fun :p)
Don't let anybody tell you you have to look at ads. Do you ever go to the bathroom during a television commercial break? Are you stealing then?
All media, not just the web, is based on mutual cooperation between content providers and viewers. Viewers are entitled freedom to choose what they will or will not watch. (At least, as long as they live in a free market society.) Nobody has a divinely given right to make money in any way they choose; if providing content is not economical because people will not view the ads, then the content providing market is saturated with too many providers and some of them need to go out of business. If the exit of a few providers doesn't make the field profitable, then most of them will exit, and the only ones left will be the ones that do it for the satisfaction they gain instead of the money. Don't ever let someone try to tell you that you are stealing when you are exercising your freedom.
