Slashdot Mirror

Along comes Chavez and demands that the country gets some revenue for the oil. He then poured this money into development.

What development? Inflation is up, infrastructure ever more decrepit, crime is up — homicides quadrupled over the last 15 years

No wonder he is hated by the USA.

I don't see, who but an enemy of the people could possibly like a ruler like that. No wonder, you prefer to stay anonymous.

Global Positioning System (GPS), a satellite-based navigation system developed by the U.S. Department of Defense, provides a consistent and accurate method of simplifying navigation. It provides flexibility of positioning for surveying, navigation and Geographic Information System (GIS) data capture. With the increasing use of mobile location technologies in automotive and consumer applications, it is expected that mobile location technologies market will grow at a CAGR of about 20% to cross US$ 70 Billion by 2013, says “World GPS Market Forecast to 2013”, a new market research report by RNCOS.

World GPS Market Forecast to 2013 by RNCOS in Global, Global Positioning Systems, Satellites & Space

I need citation? The other guy didn't give any.

Go read a report like this one:
http://www.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp?productid=1911800&g=1

Or articles like this (more aimed at consoles):
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081223.wgtyearinreview1222/BNStory/PersonalTech/home?cid=al_gam_mostview

Or read Gamasutra.

Most of the "doom and gloom" PC game sales figures are for retail outlets, and fail to factor in the tens of millions(?) of sales done online, through services like Steam, Stardock, Direct2Drive, etc.

There's lots of articles out there stating that 2008 was a good year for gaming.

If there's still a problem, then it's better to enforce the rules as perfectly as possible.

According to the series of tubes "The best way to repeal a bad law is to enforce it." was first said by Lincoln, Grant, and several other old dead guys. It might hold true for criminal laws which regulate behaviors, it doesn't work so well for thing that regulate the flow of money. Mostly because the laws which regulate the flow of money, make it flow into the pockets of the powerful. Secondly they people who are in a position to make the needed changes aren't actually effected by something like a $25 CD, because they have two or three orders of magnitude more disposable income than the rest of the society. The richest 10% own 89% of the stock. In a corporate world where everything is beholden to the shareholder, those 10% are the only ones who really count. That same 10% isn't effected by overpriced CDs or overpriced gas or overpriced pharmaceuticals, because they have plenty of cash to cover it without it effecting their quality of life.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mobile/display/200608 28031933.html

old data...Motorola is a close second. However, I now consider Motorola a global company.

Thus, more recently:

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/item/?ci=29705

You missed the point, same as the last clown. America has historical significance in the computing world, and is still considered the biggest player in the internet from several fronts. In fact, many people still bitch b/c American retains control over key core Internet routers. China and India have sheer numbers to compensate, but on a per capita basis, U.S. expenditures on computers is significanly higher than most other countries. We were here first and we've shared with the world. World, using eqully impressive brains (if not equally impressive capital) now contribute significantly. My point was, exclude the U.S. from mail routing and you'll be cutting your legs out from underneath you. Sure, you can still pull yourself around on your arms or use a wheel chair, but it wouldn't be the same.

Mobile phones have been weak in the U.S. ever since inception. This is partly b/c we have such a strong land-line infrastructure. I've heard that there is more fibre in the U.S. than in the rest of the world, but lack citation to point it out as fact. Many other countries have used mobile phones b/c that's all they have. If they tried to get copper/DSL/Cable to all the residencies, their local telcos would go bankrupt. (Ours are now offering entry level DSL for $15/month. FIOS and other fibre offerings are now bringing 15MB+ to the home for less than $100/month) Now matter how cool a cell phone gets, it won't replace the beauty of raw data througput pulling down movies/ISOs/VLF (Very Large Files) in minutes instead of hours/days that most of the rest of the world currently enjoys. Plus, why can't they figure out how to simply billing in the rest of the world. Most mobile operators I've experienced South/Central America, Caribbean, UK, and Europe all have confusing rates which are constantly changing, all varying depending on if you're calling another mobile phone, a land line, and one of 3 time options. Nevermind that the U.S. enjoys free long distance to all of its massive continent while Europeans are paying different rates to 20+ countries all in near proximity. I think I just threw up a bit in my mouth thinking about it...

But, if we must, lets look at the heart of cell phones.

Qualcomm is 90% of CDMA phones. Qualcomm is US company.
Quite a few video components rely on TI components. (Texas Instruments...wonder where that was founded?)

I'd ask you to take a look at a vendor market share report, http://www.marketresearch.com/map/prod/1334374.htm l, but that would cost money...something I know linux lovers are loathe to hand out. Here's a free one for you though:
http://focus.ti.com/general/docs/wtbu/wtbugenconte nt.tsp?contentId=4605&navigationId=12046&templateI d=6123
TI has largest market share followed by Qualcomm in 2nd place. So, Nokia's first place hold on the cell phone market is dependent on the chipsets from 2 American companies, and wireless technologies, while collaborative, require significant technical innovations.

Suck it. If it makes you feel any better, you should realize that many of the "Americans" working for our companies here are 1st generation foreign nationals who came here for the superior education and stayed on for the superior pay and lifestyle. We import your best and brightest all the time. Its the American way.

Just because our politicians blow doesn't mean the rest of our hard work goes unnoticed or unrewarded.

While this might matter in Japan, where HDTV is standard in most households, in the US only 5 percent of households have an HDTV, and in most cases Dad won't let the kids play games on it, because he bought it to watch sports and pr0n.

The xBox360 doesn't have many games on a standard 480p normal TV that look that much different, and so far all the game reviews I've seen say that most of the games aren't that great.

also being covered at some sites.

I do research and buy databases of content for a living. I use "online libraries" every day more times than I can count. For many of the databases I use, I have monthly charges in the thousands. A database that is only $400/year is cheap and I woudn't think twice in most circumstnaces about buying it. I have something I buy in print that costs that much - just so I can answer one question that is asked once or twice a year.

Try going to something like MarketResearch.com. Most of the reports in there are at least $400. However, those reports are syndicated research studies and not tech books - so you expect them to cost a lot.

The question isn't whether electronic "online libraries" are better than paper books. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't - and how you determine whether they are or not is based on the value of the content, your needs, availability of alteratives, convenience, usability, etc. The question is really about value - is the content worth it given the audience and the factors listed above?

I wouldn't pay $400 dollars a seat per year for a database of technical books to help programmers. Even though I would be the one to do so if anyone would in my company. From my perspective, the value just isn't there.

I might think about it if the content were good and it were offered on a site license basis, say to all of my IT department of a couple hundred for $5000 a year and if my IT people thought it was worth it after a trial. I'd then get it for a year, market the resource and make sure I could get usage statistics to see how it is being used. Then, I'd negotiate the price or cut the resource based on the response.

Per seat licensing models are almost always either people with a new product that haven't figured out how to sell it or people that know that have something you can't get anywhere else so they charge a premium. I'd have to check to see what the content looks like, but I'd bet that this guy is going to change his business model or go out of business - fast.

At least according to Active Media Research and the folks at MIT Technology Review:

Mobile Robotics: The Next Revolution

At least according to Active Media Research and the folks at MIT Technology Review:

Mobile Robotics: The Next Revolution