Software on a stick?
When you buy software in stores you usually get a box with a CD, DVD or even a couple of DVDs. But isn’t that kind of – old-fashioned?
Why is the software industry still using optical media to distribute software? Besides the few companies that offer software downloads everybody else ships CDs or DVDs. I occasionally wonder why they don't use USB flash drives? Flash drives are
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small (from a hardware point of view)
USB drives are much smaller and thus much more portable than optical media - large (in terms of storage capacity)
flash memory can easily store the amount of data a DVD can and the amount will certainly grow in the future - robust
try to break apart a CD, and then do the same with a flash drive
- cheap
I don't know the exact price per Gigabyte of a CD or DVD, but USB drives are quite cheap as well.
I'm not a business analyst, but imho thumb drives are a serious alternative to optical media especially since there will be more PCs or laptops without any optical drive (such as the MacBook Air) in the future.
university & MacBook Pro
It's been a while since my last update — not because there's nothing to tell, but because I didn't find any time to write something down.
So why's that? I'm attending university now: I'm in my first semester of computer science at the university of Erlangen and it's been a tough start figuring out how things work at university, finding the rooms, getting the work done, etc.
However, it's not just about the work for university — besides that I'm also living in Erlangen now (at least during the week, rather infrequently at the weekends), which means cooking and housekeeping for myself. I currently have a room at a student hostel but will be moving into my own apartment (along with a friend of mine) by the end of december.
Another thing I desperately needed for university was a laptop, as I didn't bother moving my home computer (it's the last one left at home for parents and everybody else anyway).
It took me a good while to decide what kind of laptop to get, but I finally chose a MacBook Pro with a whooping 4 Gigabytes of RAM, because I didn't want to fiddle with neither Windows Vista nor XP anymore. Linux would have been an option, but having a GUI to configure your PC isn't that bad after all either.
Lots of people buy Macs for their product design, but the point that convinced me was the possibility to run every software that works on Linux on the Mac as well (you gotta love a real bash shell, not some emulated cr*p on Windows).
So far I'm very satisfied with my choice and the MacBook — I might blog a little bit more in detail about that soon.
So far this was just a short update from me to let you know I'm still alive.
on work atmosphere
I don’t have a lot of experience working yet — however I noticed something that does have a huge impact on my work regarding efficiency, quality and my motivation: the atmosphere at my workplace.
Whether I feel comfortable in office depends on a lot of criteria, some subtle, less important, some of uttermost importance. I'll try to list some factors here, but this list doesn't claim to be anywhere close to complete. Note that this list is compiled from my experience; your mileage might vary. You're welcome to share your opinion using the comment form.
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Co-Workers
Colleagues probably have the largest impact on the atmosphere at work (at least when working in an office with a couple of other people around). Whether they are friendly, open and humorous (jokes make work a lot more fun) is one of the two key factors deciding whether I feel comfortable working at that place.
Unfortunately you hardly talk to your co-workers before picking up work, but that's probably why there's a probationary period… -
Your Boss
They guy in charge at your company can make your work life a misery. If he doesn't like you (or he's a complete id**t) and you don't have backup from your colleagues work can be a pain.
Hey bosses, if you're reading this, here's to you: how to be a good boss (PDF document, 98KB) at number17.com -
Your Client(s)
If you're working in the services sector you're working for someone. That's fine, however there usually is a simple problem with this person (or these persons, depending on whom you're working for this might be a large user base): they've got the money. And as we all know having the money makes you the king.
We all know the saying customer is king, but sometimes you should (at least try to) parent your customers to be less exhaustive towards you.
Oh, hey clients, read this: how to be a good client (PDF document, 66KB) at number17.com -
Equipment
This one's not a very big part, but it helps if you can work with a somewhat current system. Oh, and two screens are luxury, too.
Inspired by Lektion in Unusability und “Placebo forte!” on Keep Smoking
number17 comics via pixelgraphix.de