Useless Conversation

[K9]

I don't really see the use of voicemail nowadays.

[Nebu]

I don't really see the use of voicemail nowadays.

I'm guessing that you don't work with many people over the age of 50. 

[Mosesandstick]

If I had a smartphone I'd practically never bother with voicemail.

[Soln]

isn't that problem with your provider and not the device?  Voicemails are taken and stored at network edge.

[DraconianOne]

It's kind of sad there are still companies out there still using Lotus Notes.  :(

It's more sad that come companies out there think that MS Sharepoint is a better alternative.

[Ironwood]

...

What ?

[Viin]

isn't that problem with your provider and not the device?  Voicemails are taken and stored at network edge.

The voicemails are there (you can dial your own number to hear them) but the phone wasn't downloading them (visual voice mail) or indicating there were any waiting due to reaching it's max storage limit. I'm pretty sure it's the phone.

And what does smart phone have to do with voice mail? You never miss a call?
If my contractor calls me about the work he's doing on my rental, I'd rather he leave a voicemail with his status update than text it to me!

[Ingmar]

It's kind of sad there are still companies out there still using Lotus Notes.  :(

It's more sad that come companies out there think that MS Sharepoint is a better alternative.

Yeah, just the other day my boss was trying to get us to switch to Sharepoint for our email server...  wait, no.

[Mosesandstick]

I'd assume that most people (professionally) who have my phone number would have my e-mail. I don't think there's that much difference between leaving a voice message or sending an e-mail if someone's busy. Voicemail's nice, I just think it's becoming increasingly redundant.

[Yegolev]

It's more sad that come companies out there think that MS Sharepoint is a better alternative.

Oh, but it is.

[DraconianOne]

Yeah, just the other day my boss was trying to get us to switch to Sharepoint for our email server...  wait, no.

Because Notes is, what, just an email system right?

[Ingmar]

Yeah, just the other day my boss was trying to get us to switch to Sharepoint for our email server...  wait, no.

Because Notes is, what, just an email system right?

More like e-memo system, am i rite?

Seriously though, in most places I've seen that use it, that is exactly all it (really we should be saying Domino anyway, Notes is just a client) is.

[Merusk]

I'd assume that most people (professionally) who have my phone number would have my e-mail. I don't think there's that much difference between leaving a voice message or sending an e-mail if someone's busy. Voicemail's nice, I just think it's becoming increasingly redundant.

You're assuming people who do business all have computers or immediate access to them.  That's cute.

Did I ever mention the vendor we're using who asked if a fax machine was a viable alternative to e-mail?

[Nebu]

Did I ever mention the vendor we're using who asked if a fax machine was a viable alternative to e-mail?

I think that people outside of the Tech industries forget that the rest of the population is still 10 years behind them in terms of tech usage. 

[DraconianOne]

Seriously though, in most places I've seen that use it, that is exactly all it (really we should be saying Domino anyway, Notes is just a client) is.

Domino is, strictly speaking, the integrated web-application server. But that's semantics. Notes/Domino, whatever. And no, I can't argue that most companies seem to use it solely for email and then complain that it's not Outlook. They're just not making full use of it. And fucking IBM have no fucking clue what to do with it or how to market it. So when people say "Outlook is so much better", it just makes me   It's like comparing a Land Rover to a Formula 1 car. The F1 vehicle goes a fuck of a lot faster than the Land Rover, handles better on race circuit, has more sophisticted technology and is a precision instrument of speed and aerodynamics. But a Land Rover can carry a family of four, the shopping, a wardrobe, tow a trailer, go off-road and all this other useful shit that an F1 car just can't do.

But there we go.

DISCLAIMER: Yes, I've spent 15 years as a Notes/Domino developer and I can bend it to my will. I tried moving to Sharepoint development last year but after spending 3 months struggling with the developer-unfriendly. piece of crap that it is, figured I'd become a ballet dancer instead. Shitepoint is to application development what Frontpage was to web development. I've yet to meet anyone who can convince me it's worth spending time with or explain to me how it's so much better than Notes.

Useless conversation - what an appropriate place for this rant. I'll say no more on the matter.

[Yegolev]

End user of Lotus Notes is end user.   I can say that what I like about Outlook is that it just does mail and calendar for me, and it doesn't move as slowly, or erratically, or whargarrbl as much.  The Sharepoint replacement for the Notes databases used for change requests is temporary.  Ironically, recent Notes server upgrades (Wintel, bleh) have unborked a great deal of the issues I had with the databases.  Now we just need to consolidate 30 different request systems into one, and since it could take years to decide on a solution, we are using a sharepoint.

I will probably hate whatever the final product is.

[Merusk]

Did I ever mention the vendor we're using who asked if a fax machine was a viable alternative to e-mail?

I think that people outside of the Tech industries forget that the rest of the population is still 10 years behind them in terms of tech usage. 

If ONLY it was 10 years.   If only.  /sigh

Back to working on that Excel 97 spreadsheet! 

[Yegolev]

Don't you draw shit by hand?

[RhyssaFireheart]

I think they let him use rulers and t-squares now.  If he's good, maybe he'll get his own protractor one of these days.

[Merusk]

I long for an isometric ellipse template or a french curve.  

Ed: I just realized if I made that joke to some of the interns they'd have no idea wtf either object was. Now I feel old.

[Ironwood]

Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue was shit.

The first two were wondrous and this one was just stinky plop.

[Merusk]

Thanks for the warning, we won't get that one now.

[Lantyssa]

That disappoints me.  I liked the first two.

Uh, I mean my, um, kids, liked the first two.

[Ironwood]

It's ok.  I'm a cynical foul tempered and harsh motherfucker and I can honestly say that the first two were awesome animations with a lot of heart and a GOOD storyline with a lot of morality for kids.

This was NOT.  It was about a father who should have had social services called on him and how humans met fairies.  Which fagged up the whole fucking thing.  The first two was about the Fairy community and the endearing way that shit worked, this was just a 'let's put some human shite in there and hope the kids will connect.'

My four year old, who sat (AND STILL SITS) entranced by the first two was wiggling about and ready to bolt after 20 minutes and I couldn't disagree.  It was that bad.

Sorry.


Also, clearly done on the cheap.  All the great voice cast of the first two were fucking gone and Terrance had two lines, one at the start and one at the end.  It was really, really fucked.

I gotta get a job.

[Engels]

I love posts that include 'harsh motherfucker' and 'fairies'.

[Ironwood]

I eagerly await the Warhammer/Tinkerbell crossover.

[RhyssaFireheart]

I long for an isometric ellipse template or a french curve.  

Ed: I just realized if I made that joke to some of the interns they'd have no idea wtf either object was. Now I feel old.

I'll be old right alongside then.  I still have all my curves and ellipse templates/guides I used back in college getting that art degree.  I think a few of the triangles even have pennies still taped to the bottom in order to raise them up for inking.

Sad that traditional art and draftsman skills aren't still commonly taught or emphasized any more.  Nothing can really replace good, basic drawing skills if you're an artist of some sort, IMO.

[Musashi]

I just bought a huge ass drawing board off craigslist for 70$, complete with Vemco machine.  I had to replace the top of the table, but I found out it was a bargain when I went to clean the arm.  I found the manual on the internet, and they're still selling the exact same model for 800$.  It's an art table as far as I'm concerned, since I know shit about drafting - not to give the impression I do.

[Selby]

Sad that traditional art and draftsman skills aren't still commonly taught or emphasized any more.  Nothing can really replace good, basic drawing skills if you're an artist of some sort, IMO.

While not the same, I have been going through my company's archives looking for a specification and have been finding ALL sorts of drawings from the 1960's that have an amazing level of detail on all parts of the system, all drawn by hand and just incredible.  I doubt most of this could easily be reproduced today.  We've lost something since you can rarely find that level of detail anymore in the current things being put out.  Sometime in the 1980's it all seemed to go by the wayside.

[Merusk]

Ooh the penny trick. I'd almost forgotten that one, Rhyssa.  I didn't ink many drawings, since inking wasn't required outside of school.

As far as things going to pot on the drawing side, detail takes time and time is money.  You think the drawings from the 60's are hot, you should see some of the ones from the earl 1900's.   One of my old internships had a 48"x72" print of one Elevation drawing from the old Cincinnati Post building.  The level of detail was mystifying.  Carving details for the gargoyles and grotesques along side connection details for the flagpole brackets and sections of the skin to show how to form the flutes in the stone skin.  Fucking incredible and humbling to look at, I wish I'd gotten a line on where he'd picked it up before he died.

These days I'm excited when we get outsourced drawings from India and the section matches the plan.    I shudder to think what we'll be getting when the entire industry shifts over to 3d models vs the few segments that require it right now.

[K9]

I don't really see the use of voicemail nowadays.

I'm guessing that you don't work with many people over the age of 50. 

Not really no. Everyone I work with has full mastery of text and e-mail.

[Sky]

Sometime in the 1980's it all seemed to go by the wayside.

Construction in general took a giant dump right around the late 50s. My grandfather's advice was never buy a house built after 1960. Look at any downtown in the US, some great old buildings, even the tenements had more architectural detail than a 'modern' buidling.

And parking lots. Motherfuckers can't even build a parking lot anymore. It takes a whole lot of education and thought to really fuck up the simplicity of a motherfucking parking lot. I don't know about you guys, but around here, we love when a new parking lot is built. I love the new heights of shitty usability and total hassle of getting in and out. Some grand plan smoked up with opium that is utter fail in execution. Hell, out at the walmart they put in a new two lane road to handle the traffic, which was almost a good move...until they made what had been the turning lane into a straight/turn lane, so now you have to stop at that light every time.

My grandfather made his living in paving, so I get worked up about how shitty it's done. Won't even get into the way the city paves the roads now. They just laid an initial layer over the scraped bed and left it for two weeks, it's about to get school bus traffic. I almost asked them to let me pour the concrete around the manholes and service pipes, I'm pretty sure the city yard is some substance abuse work release program. Ok, I got into it a little. I'll stop now.

Point I was going to make is there is a general loss of skilled labor. It's ironic with all the technology and wealth we have, things are cheaper and don't work as well.

[Musashi]

Dagnabbit!

 

[RhyssaFireheart]

Point I was going to make is there is a general loss of skilled labor. It's ironic with all the technology and wealth we have, things are cheaper and don't work as well.

It's a result of the disposable culture we're living in these days and yeah, that started in the 80s more or less.  Why make a widget so it'll last for years when you can make it to break within 6-10 months, forcing folks to buy a new widget and you get more $$$!! Rampant consumerism (tied in with the rise in credit purchases) and all hail the almighty capitalistic society!  

I predict that is someone ever invents a surfacing material for roads which doesn't have to be replaced and lasts for as close to forever as we can manage - that person will be hailed as a hero.  /sulks about the road resurfacing projects on 355/290.

[Rasix]

Construction in general took a giant dump right around the late 50s. My grandfather's advice was never buy a house built after 1960. Look at any downtown in the US, some great old buildings, even the tenements had more architectural detail than a 'modern' buidling.

Out here it just really depends on the builder. There are certain ones that you know it's going to be shitty and cheap before it's even done.

In Tucson it seems like everything was either build in the 40s/50s or late 90s+. Not a lot in between.  At least not that we've looked at.