Why didn't you start a business supporting Postnuke for the government? You could have offered a training program, manuals, and support for the installation. Instead of offering to help them save a small licensing fee (note, $200k is the cost of two $60k/year employees for a year, not the small fortune you're making it out to be), why not offer them what they were looking for?
You could have bid at $100k/year + $25k/year support contract and $25k/year in training, saved them money, and started a small business. You had your first client.
Instead of complaining that they didn't want to save money, you'd have a business started. You could line up a few other government departments and been all set.
Nobody wants open source. People WANT solutions. Offer to sell them solutions + support. Don't talk about free, talk about "cheaper, more powerful."
Geeze, people willing to drop $200k on a solution aren't interested in "email some kid in Sweden for support and maybe he'll respond."
AOL users are the target demographics for Internet users. My business does a lot of work in "Internet Marketing," primarily search engine marketing. When AOL switched to Google, we did a little dance. Our bread and butter customers are AOL users. I've run the numbers, and our AOL users are easily worth 2x-3x the Internet as a whole.
Let's be real, if I'm selling a mass market product, would I rather his "everyman" on AOL, not too tech savvy but willing to pay extra for things, or the Slashdot "everything should be free and I'll help you circumvent the New York Times free registration" crew? The largest pools of users are AOL users and college students. Which crew has more money to drop on luxury items?
Not only that, if the service is limited to AOL users & paying Time Warner users (say, through Netscape.com as the service), the ads are even more valuable. By limiting it to people that are paying for a premium service (and AOL is 20% more than most ISPs, and 100% more than the cheapest) or paying for content, I am limiting myself to people with disposable income.
I got a friend doing the struggling artist thing in New York. She was complaining that she thinks that the NYT should sell "sections" of their paper cheaper so she could just buy the sections she wants. She doesn't understand why they pass up selling to her. I tried to explain to her that advertisers aren't interested in people trying to save 50 cents on the paper...
Sony let Square bet the farm, and when Nintendo's President adviced against the movie (based upon their experience with the Super Mario Bros. movie), it caused a huge fight between Square and Nintendo which led to their falling out.
When Square collapsed, Sony picked up the pieces for pennies on the dollar, leaving a HUGE stakehold in the company. This likely also led to some ill will between Square and Sony.
Square likely has some deals in place with Sony that gives Sony some teeth, but selling the assets helps with this. Now Sony gets its share of Square heavily diluted. All of a Sudden, Square Enix has two HUGE RPG assets, a much smaller Sony investor, and free reign to do what they want.
Expect Square Enix to support Nintendo Gamecube more (RPGs are bigger in Japan, and Nintendo is a player in Japan... with Square Enix games, Nintendo is a real player in Japan). I would also expect an American-targetted Xbox RPG with the Final Fantasy name. That game would likely be glitz targetted (the Japanese perception of the American market, not unfounded).
If Square was still directly suffering financially from the Final Fantasy movie, the deal would be a bit differently. You see weird stuff like this in mergers all the time. Merging to survive is always interesting. Expect Enix's senior management was well compensated for the bailout, and acquiring Square assets into the Enix corporate shell was a nice way out of some contractual obligations.
Best example of a similar arrangement, Apple/Next. Apple was a larger, more financially stable company with dead technology. Next was a small, struggling company with good technology. Apple "bought" Next but turned the combined company into Next with the Apple name.
Just remember, the first version of Windows NT was Windows NT 3.1 because they were pushing it as an upgrade from Windows 3.1. Therefore, it's really NT 3.1 and 3.0, so not that much ahead.:)
My computer is in the home office, although I sometimes pop my laptop open on the couch. I got two couches and a chair around the home theater. I watch DVDs, because there isn't enough easily accessible HD Content, but DVDs are decent. DivX is unwatchable, sorry. I think its great that you love you 21"/23" monitor, whatever.
I had an HTPC hooked up to my system, wasn't worth the trouble. However, your computer can't compare to a reasonable home theater system.
Projectors can be powered via computer, terrific. If you are blowing it up on a projector, you're NOT going to want DivX or other crap. You're going to want a MINIMUM of DVD quality, to minimize the MPEG artifacts.
An HTPC can power a projector quite nicely (there was a Yamaha that I fell in love with at Tweeter, but can't justify dropping $10k on it...), scaling video from DVDs up to 720p, etc., but it doesn't change the fact that you are customizing a computer to serve as AV equipment.
Sorry, but a cheap 27" television, w/ mediocre DVD player, and a low-low-low end surround sound system (we're talking $500 total) is going to blow away watching a computer monitor with "AWESOME" computer speakers.
A reasonable HT system ($5k-$10k, so midrange) really blows it away, and the good systems are even more impressive.
It isn't news or a shock that the American election system does the worst job an election can of measuring opinion. The American system has too large of a "seat bonus," where 50%+1 of a district gives you all the power from it. Imagine a party sweeping through every district in the Union with 50.1% of the vote, taking the entire Senate, House, and White House. That, and not the ability to vote 3rd Party candidates higher is the flaw in our system.
The most representative is probably Israel. You vote for parties, it's one nation-wide race, and then the parties put a government together. It's extremely unstable, gives DISPROPORTIONATE power to minority views (all the 3%-5% parties in the Government can get unreasonable concessions with the threat to collapse the government), but it is the most representative.
In the US, the rules suck but the system works. Both parties have "moved towards the center," where the party meets the voter, instead of the voter choosing from many parties. Both parties are pretty close to parity, and ALL leaders have to bend to the will of the masses.
The system is stable, elections are every 2 years without fail, the system holds. Even in the 2000 tie, where a party stole power from the other by bribing a senator to switch parties (regardless of any partisan happiness from it, it is pretty scary that Senators can switch parties for the best offer... too close to a coalition government if we have 5-10 independants offering their services to make a majority), the system held surprisingly well.
Exactly though, Democracy preserves liberty, the government stays stable, and we all try to get by with the least government interference in our lives.
Sorry, you're smoking crack. For large sites that want to run OS X (this covers SUCH a large sample size) they buy two of them and call it a day. Still cheaper than paying an admin for 3 days.
If you're big enough that you're maxing out your server, you buy a new one.
There are FEW problems is computers that aren't solved by adding another server, things hosted on OS X don't fall into them.
I'm really psyched that Firewire will make everything nice... Replace the 50 wires behind my TV with 6 or 7? Wow! Who knows though, this DVI push is gumming up the works... its a shame, because Firewire would be SO nice. Send the sound and signal around that way, and have the devices figure it out among themselves? Receivers could take the legacy devices and encode the video (HA, wishful thinking).
I had AT&T Broadband, as did the post I was responded to.
I agree, a control standard would be nice, but we'll never directly see it. Firewire could do it all though, that that would.
Wow, I never actually spoke to anyone that got the promised phone/cable competition from the telecom act (back in 1996, right?), glad you found something.
I feel that after decades of wandering, we're really hitting a point where television and HT technology is getting there.
HDTV is awesome... if only someone could get the delivery mechanism right. HD-DVD, HD-PVRs, that will revolutionize things. When the random cable channels start broadcasting in 480p 16x9 (EDTV, not HDTV, but still progressive-scan DVD quality), we'll be there...
PVRs are the most amazing thing to hit the market, IMO, blowing away Laserdisc and DVDs contribution, as they really change things. DVD is nice, but HD-DVD will get us where we should be.
I had a Replay hooked up to AT&T Broadband for a year. You use the included IR Blaster, which sticks to the IR Receiver and changes the box's signal. Now that I have DirecTV, my Replay connects via Serial cable, I just bought an older receiver that works with it.
I'm waitting on an HD Tivo Series 2 DirecTivo, which I expect to come out within the year. Then I can timeshift my HDTV programming. In the mean time, the 100GB drive I installed in the Replay should suffice.
I was tempted to grab this, as I could drop-in replace my Progressive Scan DVD player and get archiving capability. However, I really don't want to buy any more gear until the HD Tivo comes out.
Dish has an HD PVR in the works, I can't imagine DirecTV won't get one out soon, given that Tivo has gone on record stating that the Series 2 COULD handle it.
The open source model has produced VERY little that is impressive.
KDE is largely funded by Trolltech to build an additional market (X11) to their development platform. The full software package (Win32 + X11 + Mac OS X) costs over $4k per developer. Even if you only have 1 build engineer for all but the target platform, you are still over $2k/workstation.
Apache was a university project.
BSD was a university project. BSD developed a completely free Unix work-alike. GNU redid that work, but sometimes uses BSD code to do so. This is fine and legal, but it is a bit morally suspect to take BSD code, improve it, lock the changes away from BSD (all fine, part of the BSDL), AND TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH MORE YOU FOCUS ON FREEDOM, that's the rude/morally suspect part.
PostgreSQL was a university project.
University projects tend to have academic methodologies applied, so they are properly designed, and people paid to work on them. There are a few corporate projects that are equally impressive.
Linux picked up corporate support, and now the kernel is being redesigned (revision by revision) to not be backwards. Many things that were solved in academia in the 60s and 70s of computer science (and read by every MIT Comp Sci undergrad in our systems class 6.033) were don't "incorrectly" by Linux which has been recovering.
Mozilla has been almost ENTIRELY funded by Netscape as a company and as an AOL Time Warner division.
Apache was derived from a publically funded project and further developed by professionals maintaining the patches for their corporate/academic jobs.
Open Office has been almost ENTIRELY funded by Sun Microsystems.
These massive hobbiest projects that we hear about don't really exist. The big projects are developed by grad students paid to do so or corporations whose employees work on them. The open source development model is 80% myth. However, Linux is a large "niche" system, the third largest marketshare of any OS. As a result, if you are a company that doesn't think that they can directly sell (and compete against the Microsofts and Suns of the world, releasing it open source helps you get deployment.
It helps a bit with bug fixes, and a LOT with mindshare. It doesn't, however, get lots of code written. There are lots of 1-person development efforts that are released GPL, and a bunch of corporate/university projects. This "grassroots" development is mostly myth. Myths are important, they teach lessons, values, and are motivational. However, they aren't real.
Alex
Re:Lost bullshit education, work hard
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Generation Wrecked
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· Score: 2
There is a difference between the liberal arts and REALLY arbitrary and absurd "scholarly" topics that are an absurd undergraduate program for anyone that isn't simply going to inherit their parents wealth.
Harvard teaches a lot of things REALLY well. Harvard, because of its wealth and endowment, is able to conduct lots of "research" in scholarly persuits. I picked "classics" as an absurd example.
You really should learn to read and not be so defensive.
I was making a statement about studying absurdly esoteric subjects when you should be getting an education that will advance your life and career. It's terrific school, offering a wide range of subjects.
However, someone that will have to enter the business world but is also going to acquire $100k in debt should learn some skills/knowledge that will help them in life.
If my kids want to study music, terrific. However, I would expect (through instilled values, not the carrot OR stick) them in studying music to spent a significant portion of the time learning related skills so that they could earn a living with music. Whether that be performance, teaching, composition, or any other area of music. At the end of schooling, they must be able to support themselves. If they went off to school to sit in coffee shops mentally masturbating, ONLY studying obscure movements in 17th century France, I'd be quite disappointed. There is a time and a place to study scholarly works. However, your education must also prepare you for life.
Hint, what is the difference between studying Philosophy at Harvard or "Classics" at Harvard? One focuses on analytical skills and reads classical literature to accomplish that, the other focuses on studying classical works for their own sake.
If someone studying biology were to pick a specific area and ONLY study the details, their education wouldn't be very worthwhile.
Besides, there is a problem with the choosing a path of financial struggle. While you may personally enjoy (or think that you would enjoy... most of the kids I know doing the struggling artist bit come from wealthy homes) barely getting by, what about your offspring? What obligations do you have to provide for your children.
I get my life's satisfaction out of the office. I bust ass all day (and all night, this is my break) to enable myself to provide a better life for my myself and my future family.
The financial aid + college costs issue is a straw man and you know it. Harvard has more money than ANY other school by a wide margin. They only charge tuition because they feel it would cheapen their school to not do so. They can really offer whatever package they want.
People from families with money can save and pay for college. People from poor families get free rides. There is a big area of the middle class where an elite private school would cost 30% of the families income but don't qualify for much (if any) financial aid.
And there are plenty of snotty prep school kids running around Harvard. My prep school, not elite at a national level by any stretch, sent about 15 kids each year. At least 7 or 8 of them were the snot-nosed silver spoon kids.
Hint, you see them running around the area playing frisbee during finals periods.:)
Alex
Re:Lost bullshit education, work hard
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Generation Wrecked
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· Score: 2
Life throws you curve balls and knock you down. Get up, dust yourself off, and pick right back up. Some of our business is Internet marketing, the recent Google/Yahoo changes just knocked 20% of our business down. Ouch, time to go back to the spreadsheets and adapt accordingly.
I was living the high life during the dot-com era... it crashed, and I had nothing. My "investing" was getting nice furniture for my apartment because it was 1-time costs. Ouch, learned a lesson.
The world isn't overpopulated. We have plenty of open land and the ability to make enough food. We can fit more people on this rock. When we run out of room, we'll get our shit together and make the space program work.
You're right, social security is inherently flawed. What can you or I do about it? Don't give me bullshit "vote," I do vote, but it ISN'T making a difference. I can do my part in voting, but it takes millions to wise up. Maybe that will happen, if not oh well. Armed revolt? Please, the short term costs are too great, so I'm going to rule that option out for the near future.
However, we need to either change social security, or increase the children/person. I would rather be part of the solution than part of the problem. Therefore, I will vote for anyone that will work to fix social security (or at least privatize it, we're GOING to pay the penalty of running the pyramid scheme this long at some point, thems the breaks, oh well), and I will have more kids.
As a Jew, I'm also concerned about the survival of my people. So I have another vested interest in increasing the population of my people.
I'll do my part to make the world a better place, hopefully others will as well.
If not? Well, I'm doing what I consider the "right thing," and taking steps to build wealth and security for myself and my family.
Alex
Lost bullshit education, work hard
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Generation Wrecked
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· Score: 4, Insightful
You want to study engineering, go for it. Want to study something professional, great! Want to study things that are practical, great.
The white collar world is still nice, and growth will resume, the economy is rebounding. After the election, everyone will stop "talking down the economy" and we'll probably avoid a double-dip recession. Sure things aren't as good now as they were 3 years ago, but they are better than they were 5, 8, or 10 years ago.
The biggest problem in Gen. X was learning our parent's bullshit mistakes. The Babyboomers got everything.
People saw that educated people have money, and confused cause and effect. Rich people sent kids to play in Ivy League schools before running the family business. Bullshit education is bullshit.
Born rich? Go to Harvard to drink $8 cups of coffees and study the "classics." Sorry, but that's a luxury for the idle rich. Everyone else? Work hard, get an education to advance your career, and work harder. Invest money, and live within your means.
Want to spend $100k studying garbage? If you parents have millions? Great. Otherwise, save enough money to do so on your own. Have at least 3 kids (the population aging, let's all do our part here to fix the situation, don't be selfish and hoard money with no offspring), and work hard. In "retirement" go to the local university and amuse yourself.
Just make sure you save enough to provide your kids with the means to a better life.
Sorry, those born with a silver spoon get the perks, such is life. Instead of whining that you don't get it, provide it to your kids. That SHOULD be the goal.
Sorry, when I watched my father's friends (all doctors) keeping their $2 million homes and pulling their kids out of private school and making them go to state schools, I was ill. Your FIRST priority should be giving your kids EVERY opportunity possible. Your personal luxury is secondary.
Sure, public schooling and state schools are PERFECTLY acceptable. However, if your choice is giving your children a "better" option or buying a new Lexus? Go get a Ford Taurus and deal.
Work hard, better your life, give your kids whatever advantages you can.
I have $10k in credit card debt from starting my business, it will be paid off by my wedding next summer. The fiancee racked up some in school. We're both working, paying off the debts, and trying to save money for a house AND start Roth IRAs (after the credit cards are paid off). We balance transfer our creditcards every 6 months to get 0%-3% interest.
We'll get a nice home in 5 years, and hopefully have 4 kids. They'll all get great schooling, and we'll live nicely. If my business takes off, we'll have a life of luxury. If we don't? We'll have a reasonable home. Either way we'll be happy with our family and extended family.
The Saturn was the first "sold at a loss." Saturn + Dreamcast at loss = Sega almost bankrupt.
The Gamecube was admitted to be sold at a loss (admitted by Nintendo at launch) but it was small. Estimates were that it was sold at a $5-$15 loss, compared to the $200 or so on the Xbox. And that was only at launch, they got costs down real quick and were profitable before and after the price cut.
The "all consoles" are sold at a loss is a strange rumor. They have always been sold "at cost," retailers make ZERO markup on the consoles, or at least that was the case in the 80s. We used to get our games through a wholesaler through a family friend in retail (wholesale to mom-and-pop stores, not Toys R Us level stores), we'd save about $8 a game, but couldn't get ANY savings on consoles. I think we saved sales tax, but I don't remember if we had to pay it through their store.
I had to learn F77 for a class my freshman year (1997, not THAT long ago) and we were working with F77. A part of that appeared to be because there were free compilers. Since most Fortran code is done in research groups that aren't computer groups, they may not all think to buy a real compiler.
A Free F2000 compiler - that researchers here about - would go a long way towards getting Fortran coders into Fortran 2000.
My understanding is that F95 and now F00 (or whatever) are "modern" langugages.
Amazing what you can do WITH backwards compatibility if you put energy into it.
There are 4 lines on the Subway system, and all are based upon getting people downtown. The subways head downtown and out. Within each of the 4 colored lines (5 if you count the new Silver Line, which is a fancy bus at this point, but will be a legit extension to the Subway system in 10 years when completed) there are some splits, where they go to different, yet similar locations.
This was useful when all employment/shopping was downtown, but presents some problems as the economy spread from downtown Boston. If you are going anywhere that requires switching trains, you will be spending a minimum of 30-45 minutes on your trip. Busses can help with this, as they cut between different lines, but until a few months ago the route numbers weren't posted and the website remains difficult to use. While commuters can figure out the busses to simplify their commute, it simply isn't practical for an individual trip.
Beyond that, the system gets really slow. I live out on the Green Line, which is the most residential of the trains. After Kenmore Square, they become "Trolley lines" that are above ground, but have a dedicated area for their tracks. This means that the trains can't pass one another if one gets bogged down, and there is no meaningful way to run express trains.
The road system is a collection of disasters because of Boston's heritage. Boston is unable to rework their roads without shutting down the city, and an execessive number of buildings are declared historical, stopping progress.
On top of that, the elevated central artery, which the big dig will replace, cuts through Boston. Now ask yourself who would want to live right near a highway (and walk underneath it), and you realize why the Central Artery trashed the neighborhoods. Walking under a highway is a strange thing, and it cuts neighborhoods apart. This results in social costs in excess of the traffic.
Part of the problem with the subway system is that it is too slow. Even in Rush Hour, it is faster to drive then take the subways. If the trains go above ground (the Green Line), they are stuck waitting for lights like cars, and they have a 30 MPH limit (same as the official speed limit) plus they need to stop.
An additional problem is the system only runs trains once every 10 minutes (most busses are every 30 minutes). This makes the subway painful for short trips. If you are only going a few stops, you might spend 15 minutes waitting for the train for a 5 minute trip.
Boston has transportation nightmares. Unlike New York, that does construction at night, all road construction is done during the day in Boston, including during Rush Hour. The unionized workers don't have to put in overtime, so sometimes jobs will involve ripping up a street on Thursday/Friday, then MAYBE getting to fix it Monday or Tuesday of the next week. However, if it wasn't planned that way, it may be a week or more before they return with equipment.
The Big Dig will help with the highway crunch, but won't solve the general problems in Boston. The only nice thing will be if the Big Dig does enough, then people will take Highways (they'd be faster than city streets for a change) which might alleviate some of the other traffic. More likely, driving to work in Boston will be more pleasant, so people will get more cars bringing us back to the status quo.
Well, at least the friends of the powerful were able to buy all the slumlands next to the highway that is about to become parkland. They're going to make a fortune on those luxury apartment complexes that used to be crack houses or slums.
Alex
I wouldn't worry about the pictures...
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That Link Is Illegal
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· Score: 1, Troll
I mean, when they are working their Wall Street or Investment Banking jobs in NYC in 1-4 years, they'll have a clean hair cut, wear a suit, etc. If the pictures surface, you won't be able to recognize them!
The real joke will be if the picture comes out at a dinner party where they're gathered with their friends critizes the Democrats for blocking an initiative to put down those rebels because they have a mutual fund in their 401K that needs to exploit labor there...
Don't get me wrong, I'm a conservative Republican, I just enjoy laughing at the others that were tree-hugging lefties 3 years ago...:)
Yes and no. Right now, Digital Cable has replaced one of DSS's major pushes, the zillions of channels. DirecTV and DishNetwork currently are fighting by offering lower prices and better quality.
I want better quality, period. Right now, I have 5 TV options: OTA, AT&T Broadband Analog, AT&T Broadband Digital, DirecTV, and Dish. Let's throw out the Analog service, because while the analog channels have a better picture, that A/B channel separation is SO painfully weird. I'll also throw out OTA because the Sopranos are on.
Right now, Dish, DirecTV, and AT&T all compete to win by business, that's 3 options. If RCN could get its act together, that would be 4 vendors. With the merger, there are 2 competitors.
See, with 3 providers, you get something like the current split. My assessment is that Dish offers the cheapest service, AT&T offers mediocre service without installation troubles, and DirecTV offers the "best" service (HD channels, hardware choice, big premium packages, the NFL pack, ESPN Gameday if I want it, etc.).
I don't know what a combined Dish/DirecTV offers. I'm not interested in the low-end price competition, I want a fight to offer me the most and best HD content. AT&T isn't in that space at all. Right now, I have two competitors, Dish and DirecTV. Merge them, and HDTV enthusiasts have ZERO competition unless they live in a Time Warner area.
See, what the FCC and I realize is that a certain market, the HDTV market that the FCC wants to nuture, remember, there are only two real players (Time Warner's region exclused), Dish and DirecTV. With them merged, their race to get more HD content will likely die.
I forgot to mention that my comments about Digital Cable don't apply to Time Warner cable, that is on the ball. Nobody else is offering good digital cable, everyone else is suffering through this overly compressed 480i garbage.
I'm jealous that you got it all from one provider. I now have it from one provider, plus antenna.
That's great, awesome that you have everything. It took me a month to get everything together at my place, and you got it easily.
Awesome for you!:) Hopefully the DSS companies will start carrying the local HD over their spot-beams. The bad thing with the merger is that they won't have any competition, the good thing is that there will be a LOT of bandwidth if they can merge satellite feeds.
Most people with HDTV sets don't have HDTV, they just get better DVD quality. A lot of people get Digital Cable (heavily compressed NTSC/480i signal) and are convinced that their expensive set is important.
I have an apartment, and I got an attic antenna giving me the local OTA signals. Combine that with DirecTV (HDNet, ShoHD, HBO-HD), and you get 8-9 HDTV signals. It's fun, it looks great, but it ain't easy.
Broadcast HDTV is going strong, slowly. All the HDTV STBes for satellites include an antenna input. Samsung has a line of OTA-only STBes.
Living in a city (I live in Boston), you start to think that everyone lives in apartments. However, more middle-class individuals live in houses in the suburbs. Home ownership remains high. Houses can put roof-top antennas up, etc.
HDTV is coming along, its coming along slowly, but its coming along. Personally, I would expect HDTV to die a few years after the DTV switchover. I would expect the local affiliates to show 6 480i signals in the HDTV over-the-air. This doesn't bother me though, if you can get 40 channels over-the-air with a $150-$200 STB, that will put a lot of preasure on cable/DSS.
MySQL is faster when doing simple selects. If you don't have any joins, etc., MySQL is faster. PostgreSQL requires some tuning to get it at a reasonable speed.
HOWEVER, once you get it going, PostgreSQL is pretty slick. If speed is really a problem, get a bigger box. Our main database server for our production system is a dual-1GHz machine with 1 GB RAM. It's not that fast a machine, it was a few grand, and it worked nicely for the past year.
If we outgrow it, we'll go and buy more iron.
It is MUCH cheaper to spend an extra $3000-$5000 on server hardware than it is to have 3-5 programmers spend an extra month on the project to work around MySQL's limitations.
If you ever move beyond trivial database needs, MySQL will kill you. Unless you are really strapped for cash (i.e. this is a hobby site that is going to have enough traffic that performance matters), you're better off going with PostgreSQL. If you find that you need the advanced options, you've got em. If you don't? You'll have 75%-95% of the performance anyways.
I guess I'm too old (at 23), but I find that the abbreviations are pointless. When I send IMs, I often send phrases instead of sentances, but I don't abbreviate words. However, I do abbreviate phrases that have been used as such for over a decade. BRB for "be right back" predates IM, but "u" for you is just silly. It's harder to read, and learning to type would make it immaterial.
Additionally, the traditional abbreviations were for "online phrases." When wat the last time you used "away from keyboard - AFK", "be right back - BRB", "laughing out loud" - LOL, "rolling on the floor laughing - ROTFL", etc., in a real life conversation?
These abbreviations are more reasonable for phrases that would only be used in an online conversation. By that logic, "oic" is an acceptable abbreviation for "oh, I see", given that you only use it to convey an online emotion.
I feel like the best thing would be for teachers to penalize, penalize heavy, and encourage students to STOP using online conventions online as well. If people would write in more reasonable English, communication would be easier.
I find people nitpicking over typos, spelling errors, and grammatical errors strange. However, none of us (unless we are slashdot editors *grin*) should STRIVE to butcher the language.
Better command of the standard language improves communication. Has anyone whose ever held a job or been in an adult relationship ever thought "communication skills are over rated?" Most business and interpersonal problems stem from miscommunications, anything that helps that is a Good Thing.
I LOVE the premise. My problem is that I don't feel like they are the first ones out in space.
Setup: First humans in deep space, only "friends" are the Vulcans that Archer hates.
Obvious Solution: Find new friends, make new allies.
Archer's Solution: Piss everyone off, choose moral high ground over allies, make no new friends, etc.
It's a strange new world, they should start becoming friendly with more powerful races. Instead, he is content to be a jerk.
The very anti-semetic pro-terrorist episode REALLY offended me. A though-provokative episode showing that the anti-terrorist rhetoric can be flawed would be a GREAT Trek episode, in the vein of some of the ST:TOS episodes. Instead we get a 1-sided episode where there Arab-looking terrorist is a great, friendly guy, and the leader of the anti-terrorist contigent looked very Jewish.
ST:TNG tackled the terrorism question, pointed out that if Washington lost, he'd have been a terrorist.
Enterprise is a LOT like Buffy. Most episodes are mediocre, some of them show tremendous promise that they'll be great episodes, but the good ones end with a cheap ending that disappoints. Each week, we tune in, ready for more disappointment... Maybe that should be UPN's slogan.:)
If you look through the racks of the Gameboy Color, you'll see some NES games that were rereleased for that platform. If you look at the Gameboy Advanced, you see some SNES games (Super Mario Advanced series (NES SMB2 and SNES SMW), and the new Zelda is Zelda3:LttP, for example).
So, now that the market for rereleases NES games ($30-$70 when new) as GBC games ($30-$40) has been exhausted, they are ready to be dumped ($5-$7).
I would expect that the Super Advanced Gameboy, when released in 6 years, will get a lot of ports from the N64, selling at $40, and an e-card reader like device allowing them to dump old SNES games for $5-$7.
That's the real reason that Nintendo can afford to "lose" the console war, they'll make enough money on the NGC to be happy and build a library of games. Then they'll make the real money porting old games to their handheld.
It's a pretty similar strategy to certain genres in Hollywood... you know the internation and video distribution royalties, so you don't care if it tanks at the box office.
Slashdot Mirror
Why didn't you start a business supporting Postnuke for the government? You could have offered a training program, manuals, and support for the installation. Instead of offering to help them save a small licensing fee (note, $200k is the cost of two $60k/year employees for a year, not the small fortune you're making it out to be), why not offer them what they were looking for?
You could have bid at $100k/year + $25k/year support contract and $25k/year in training, saved them money, and started a small business. You had your first client.
Instead of complaining that they didn't want to save money, you'd have a business started. You could line up a few other government departments and been all set.
Nobody wants open source. People WANT solutions. Offer to sell them solutions + support. Don't talk about free, talk about "cheaper, more powerful."
Geeze, people willing to drop $200k on a solution aren't interested in "email some kid in Sweden for support and maybe he'll respond."
Alex
AOL users are the target demographics for Internet users. My business does a lot of work in "Internet Marketing," primarily search engine marketing. When AOL switched to Google, we did a little dance. Our bread and butter customers are AOL users. I've run the numbers, and our AOL users are easily worth 2x-3x the Internet as a whole.
Let's be real, if I'm selling a mass market product, would I rather his "everyman" on AOL, not too tech savvy but willing to pay extra for things, or the Slashdot "everything should be free and I'll help you circumvent the New York Times free registration" crew? The largest pools of users are AOL users and college students. Which crew has more money to drop on luxury items?
Not only that, if the service is limited to AOL users & paying Time Warner users (say, through Netscape.com as the service), the ads are even more valuable. By limiting it to people that are paying for a premium service (and AOL is 20% more than most ISPs, and 100% more than the cheapest) or paying for content, I am limiting myself to people with disposable income.
I got a friend doing the struggling artist thing in New York. She was complaining that she thinks that the NYT should sell "sections" of their paper cheaper so she could just buy the sections she wants. She doesn't understand why they pass up selling to her. I tried to explain to her that advertisers aren't interested in people trying to save 50 cents on the paper...
Alex
Sony let Square bet the farm, and when Nintendo's President adviced against the movie (based upon their experience with the Super Mario Bros. movie), it caused a huge fight between Square and Nintendo which led to their falling out.
When Square collapsed, Sony picked up the pieces for pennies on the dollar, leaving a HUGE stakehold in the company. This likely also led to some ill will between Square and Sony.
Square likely has some deals in place with Sony that gives Sony some teeth, but selling the assets helps with this. Now Sony gets its share of Square heavily diluted. All of a Sudden, Square Enix has two HUGE RPG assets, a much smaller Sony investor, and free reign to do what they want.
Expect Square Enix to support Nintendo Gamecube more (RPGs are bigger in Japan, and Nintendo is a player in Japan... with Square Enix games, Nintendo is a real player in Japan). I would also expect an American-targetted Xbox RPG with the Final Fantasy name. That game would likely be glitz targetted (the Japanese perception of the American market, not unfounded).
If Square was still directly suffering financially from the Final Fantasy movie, the deal would be a bit differently. You see weird stuff like this in mergers all the time. Merging to survive is always interesting. Expect Enix's senior management was well compensated for the bailout, and acquiring Square assets into the Enix corporate shell was a nice way out of some contractual obligations.
Best example of a similar arrangement, Apple/Next. Apple was a larger, more financially stable company with dead technology. Next was a small, struggling company with good technology. Apple "bought" Next but turned the combined company into Next with the Apple name.
Alex
Just remember, the first version of Windows NT was Windows NT 3.1 because they were pushing it as an upgrade from Windows 3.1. Therefore, it's really NT 3.1 and 3.0, so not that much ahead. :)
Alex
My computer is in the home office, although I sometimes pop my laptop open on the couch. I got two couches and a chair around the home theater. I watch DVDs, because there isn't enough easily accessible HD Content, but DVDs are decent. DivX is unwatchable, sorry. I think its great that you love you 21"/23" monitor, whatever.
I had an HTPC hooked up to my system, wasn't worth the trouble. However, your computer can't compare to a reasonable home theater system.
Projectors can be powered via computer, terrific. If you are blowing it up on a projector, you're NOT going to want DivX or other crap. You're going to want a MINIMUM of DVD quality, to minimize the MPEG artifacts.
An HTPC can power a projector quite nicely (there was a Yamaha that I fell in love with at Tweeter, but can't justify dropping $10k on it...), scaling video from DVDs up to 720p, etc., but it doesn't change the fact that you are customizing a computer to serve as AV equipment.
Sorry, but a cheap 27" television, w/ mediocre DVD player, and a low-low-low end surround sound system (we're talking $500 total) is going to blow away watching a computer monitor with "AWESOME" computer speakers.
A reasonable HT system ($5k-$10k, so midrange) really blows it away, and the good systems are even more impressive.
Alex
It isn't news or a shock that the American election system does the worst job an election can of measuring opinion. The American system has too large of a "seat bonus," where 50%+1 of a district gives you all the power from it. Imagine a party sweeping through every district in the Union with 50.1% of the vote, taking the entire Senate, House, and White House. That, and not the ability to vote 3rd Party candidates higher is the flaw in our system.
The most representative is probably Israel. You vote for parties, it's one nation-wide race, and then the parties put a government together. It's extremely unstable, gives DISPROPORTIONATE power to minority views (all the 3%-5% parties in the Government can get unreasonable concessions with the threat to collapse the government), but it is the most representative.
In the US, the rules suck but the system works. Both parties have "moved towards the center," where the party meets the voter, instead of the voter choosing from many parties. Both parties are pretty close to parity, and ALL leaders have to bend to the will of the masses.
The system is stable, elections are every 2 years without fail, the system holds. Even in the 2000 tie, where a party stole power from the other by bribing a senator to switch parties (regardless of any partisan happiness from it, it is pretty scary that Senators can switch parties for the best offer... too close to a coalition government if we have 5-10 independants offering their services to make a majority), the system held surprisingly well.
Exactly though, Democracy preserves liberty, the government stays stable, and we all try to get by with the least government interference in our lives.
Alex
Sorry, you're smoking crack. For large sites that want to run OS X (this covers SUCH a large sample size) they buy two of them and call it a day. Still cheaper than paying an admin for 3 days.
If you're big enough that you're maxing out your server, you buy a new one.
There are FEW problems is computers that aren't solved by adding another server, things hosted on OS X don't fall into them.
Alex
Firewire perhaps? :)
I'm really psyched that Firewire will make everything nice... Replace the 50 wires behind my TV with 6 or 7? Wow! Who knows though, this DVI push is gumming up the works... its a shame, because Firewire would be SO nice. Send the sound and signal around that way, and have the devices figure it out among themselves? Receivers could take the legacy devices and encode the video (HA, wishful thinking).
I had AT&T Broadband, as did the post I was responded to.
I agree, a control standard would be nice, but we'll never directly see it. Firewire could do it all though, that that would.
Wow, I never actually spoke to anyone that got the promised phone/cable competition from the telecom act (back in 1996, right?), glad you found something.
I feel that after decades of wandering, we're really hitting a point where television and HT technology is getting there.
HDTV is awesome... if only someone could get the delivery mechanism right. HD-DVD, HD-PVRs, that will revolutionize things. When the random cable channels start broadcasting in 480p 16x9 (EDTV, not HDTV, but still progressive-scan DVD quality), we'll be there...
PVRs are the most amazing thing to hit the market, IMO, blowing away Laserdisc and DVDs contribution, as they really change things. DVD is nice, but HD-DVD will get us where we should be.
Alex
I had a Replay hooked up to AT&T Broadband for a year. You use the included IR Blaster, which sticks to the IR Receiver and changes the box's signal. Now that I have DirecTV, my Replay connects via Serial cable, I just bought an older receiver that works with it.
I'm waitting on an HD Tivo Series 2 DirecTivo, which I expect to come out within the year. Then I can timeshift my HDTV programming. In the mean time, the 100GB drive I installed in the Replay should suffice.
I was tempted to grab this, as I could drop-in replace my Progressive Scan DVD player and get archiving capability. However, I really don't want to buy any more gear until the HD Tivo comes out.
Dish has an HD PVR in the works, I can't imagine DirecTV won't get one out soon, given that Tivo has gone on record stating that the Series 2 COULD handle it.
Alex
The open source model has produced VERY little that is impressive.
KDE is largely funded by Trolltech to build an additional market (X11) to their development platform. The full software package (Win32 + X11 + Mac OS X) costs over $4k per developer. Even if you only have 1 build engineer for all but the target platform, you are still over $2k/workstation.
Apache was a university project.
BSD was a university project. BSD developed a completely free Unix work-alike. GNU redid that work, but sometimes uses BSD code to do so. This is fine and legal, but it is a bit morally suspect to take BSD code, improve it, lock the changes away from BSD (all fine, part of the BSDL), AND TALK ABOUT HOW MUCH MORE YOU FOCUS ON FREEDOM, that's the rude/morally suspect part.
PostgreSQL was a university project.
University projects tend to have academic methodologies applied, so they are properly designed, and people paid to work on them. There are a few corporate projects that are equally impressive.
Linux picked up corporate support, and now the kernel is being redesigned (revision by revision) to not be backwards. Many things that were solved in academia in the 60s and 70s of computer science (and read by every MIT Comp Sci undergrad in our systems class 6.033) were don't "incorrectly" by Linux which has been recovering.
Mozilla has been almost ENTIRELY funded by Netscape as a company and as an AOL Time Warner division.
Apache was derived from a publically funded project and further developed by professionals maintaining the patches for their corporate/academic jobs.
Open Office has been almost ENTIRELY funded by Sun Microsystems.
These massive hobbiest projects that we hear about don't really exist. The big projects are developed by grad students paid to do so or corporations whose employees work on them. The open source development model is 80% myth. However, Linux is a large "niche" system, the third largest marketshare of any OS. As a result, if you are a company that doesn't think that they can directly sell (and compete against the Microsofts and Suns of the world, releasing it open source helps you get deployment.
It helps a bit with bug fixes, and a LOT with mindshare. It doesn't, however, get lots of code written. There are lots of 1-person development efforts that are released GPL, and a bunch of corporate/university projects. This "grassroots" development is mostly myth. Myths are important, they teach lessons, values, and are motivational. However, they aren't real.
Alex
There is a difference between the liberal arts and REALLY arbitrary and absurd "scholarly" topics that are an absurd undergraduate program for anyone that isn't simply going to inherit their parents wealth.
:)
Harvard teaches a lot of things REALLY well. Harvard, because of its wealth and endowment, is able to conduct lots of "research" in scholarly persuits. I picked "classics" as an absurd example.
You really should learn to read and not be so defensive.
I was making a statement about studying absurdly esoteric subjects when you should be getting an education that will advance your life and career. It's terrific school, offering a wide range of subjects.
However, someone that will have to enter the business world but is also going to acquire $100k in debt should learn some skills/knowledge that will help them in life.
If my kids want to study music, terrific. However, I would expect (through instilled values, not the carrot OR stick) them in studying music to spent a significant portion of the time learning related skills so that they could earn a living with music. Whether that be performance, teaching, composition, or any other area of music. At the end of schooling, they must be able to support themselves. If they went off to school to sit in coffee shops mentally masturbating, ONLY studying obscure movements in 17th century France, I'd be quite disappointed. There is a time and a place to study scholarly works. However, your education must also prepare you for life.
Hint, what is the difference between studying Philosophy at Harvard or "Classics" at Harvard? One focuses on analytical skills and reads classical literature to accomplish that, the other focuses on studying classical works for their own sake.
If someone studying biology were to pick a specific area and ONLY study the details, their education wouldn't be very worthwhile.
Besides, there is a problem with the choosing a path of financial struggle. While you may personally enjoy (or think that you would enjoy... most of the kids I know doing the struggling artist bit come from wealthy homes) barely getting by, what about your offspring? What obligations do you have to provide for your children.
I get my life's satisfaction out of the office. I bust ass all day (and all night, this is my break) to enable myself to provide a better life for my myself and my future family.
The financial aid + college costs issue is a straw man and you know it. Harvard has more money than ANY other school by a wide margin. They only charge tuition because they feel it would cheapen their school to not do so. They can really offer whatever package they want.
People from families with money can save and pay for college. People from poor families get free rides. There is a big area of the middle class where an elite private school would cost 30% of the families income but don't qualify for much (if any) financial aid.
And there are plenty of snotty prep school kids running around Harvard. My prep school, not elite at a national level by any stretch, sent about 15 kids each year. At least 7 or 8 of them were the snot-nosed silver spoon kids.
Hint, you see them running around the area playing frisbee during finals periods.
Alex
Life throws you curve balls and knock you down. Get up, dust yourself off, and pick right back up. Some of our business is Internet marketing, the recent Google/Yahoo changes just knocked 20% of our business down. Ouch, time to go back to the spreadsheets and adapt accordingly.
I was living the high life during the dot-com era... it crashed, and I had nothing. My "investing" was getting nice furniture for my apartment because it was 1-time costs. Ouch, learned a lesson.
The world isn't overpopulated. We have plenty of open land and the ability to make enough food. We can fit more people on this rock. When we run out of room, we'll get our shit together and make the space program work.
You're right, social security is inherently flawed. What can you or I do about it? Don't give me bullshit "vote," I do vote, but it ISN'T making a difference. I can do my part in voting, but it takes millions to wise up. Maybe that will happen, if not oh well. Armed revolt? Please, the short term costs are too great, so I'm going to rule that option out for the near future.
However, we need to either change social security, or increase the children/person. I would rather be part of the solution than part of the problem. Therefore, I will vote for anyone that will work to fix social security (or at least privatize it, we're GOING to pay the penalty of running the pyramid scheme this long at some point, thems the breaks, oh well), and I will have more kids.
As a Jew, I'm also concerned about the survival of my people. So I have another vested interest in increasing the population of my people.
I'll do my part to make the world a better place, hopefully others will as well.
If not? Well, I'm doing what I consider the "right thing," and taking steps to build wealth and security for myself and my family.
Alex
You want to study engineering, go for it. Want to study something professional, great! Want to study things that are practical, great.
The white collar world is still nice, and growth will resume, the economy is rebounding. After the election, everyone will stop "talking down the economy" and we'll probably avoid a double-dip recession. Sure things aren't as good now as they were 3 years ago, but they are better than they were 5, 8, or 10 years ago.
The biggest problem in Gen. X was learning our parent's bullshit mistakes. The Babyboomers got everything.
People saw that educated people have money, and confused cause and effect. Rich people sent kids to play in Ivy League schools before running the family business. Bullshit education is bullshit.
Born rich? Go to Harvard to drink $8 cups of coffees and study the "classics." Sorry, but that's a luxury for the idle rich. Everyone else? Work hard, get an education to advance your career, and work harder. Invest money, and live within your means.
Want to spend $100k studying garbage? If you parents have millions? Great. Otherwise, save enough money to do so on your own. Have at least 3 kids (the population aging, let's all do our part here to fix the situation, don't be selfish and hoard money with no offspring), and work hard. In "retirement" go to the local university and amuse yourself.
Just make sure you save enough to provide your kids with the means to a better life.
Sorry, those born with a silver spoon get the perks, such is life. Instead of whining that you don't get it, provide it to your kids. That SHOULD be the goal.
Sorry, when I watched my father's friends (all doctors) keeping their $2 million homes and pulling their kids out of private school and making them go to state schools, I was ill. Your FIRST priority should be giving your kids EVERY opportunity possible. Your personal luxury is secondary.
Sure, public schooling and state schools are PERFECTLY acceptable. However, if your choice is giving your children a "better" option or buying a new Lexus? Go get a Ford Taurus and deal.
Work hard, better your life, give your kids whatever advantages you can.
I have $10k in credit card debt from starting my business, it will be paid off by my wedding next summer. The fiancee racked up some in school. We're both working, paying off the debts, and trying to save money for a house AND start Roth IRAs (after the credit cards are paid off). We balance transfer our creditcards every 6 months to get 0%-3% interest.
We'll get a nice home in 5 years, and hopefully have 4 kids. They'll all get great schooling, and we'll live nicely. If my business takes off, we'll have a life of luxury. If we don't? We'll have a reasonable home. Either way we'll be happy with our family and extended family.
Alex
The Saturn was the first "sold at a loss." Saturn + Dreamcast at loss = Sega almost bankrupt.
The Gamecube was admitted to be sold at a loss (admitted by Nintendo at launch) but it was small. Estimates were that it was sold at a $5-$15 loss, compared to the $200 or so on the Xbox. And that was only at launch, they got costs down real quick and were profitable before and after the price cut.
The "all consoles" are sold at a loss is a strange rumor. They have always been sold "at cost," retailers make ZERO markup on the consoles, or at least that was the case in the 80s. We used to get our games through a wholesaler through a family friend in retail (wholesale to mom-and-pop stores, not Toys R Us level stores), we'd save about $8 a game, but couldn't get ANY savings on consoles. I think we saved sales tax, but I don't remember if we had to pay it through their store.
Alex
I had to learn F77 for a class my freshman year (1997, not THAT long ago) and we were working with F77. A part of that appeared to be because there were free compilers. Since most Fortran code is done in research groups that aren't computer groups, they may not all think to buy a real compiler.
A Free F2000 compiler - that researchers here about - would go a long way towards getting Fortran coders into Fortran 2000.
My understanding is that F95 and now F00 (or whatever) are "modern" langugages.
Amazing what you can do WITH backwards compatibility if you put energy into it.
Alex
Some of us citizens don't get to vote in this state. We don't have elections in Mass, we have Democratic primaries...
Alex
There are 4 lines on the Subway system, and all are based upon getting people downtown. The subways head downtown and out. Within each of the 4 colored lines (5 if you count the new Silver Line, which is a fancy bus at this point, but will be a legit extension to the Subway system in 10 years when completed) there are some splits, where they go to different, yet similar locations.
This was useful when all employment/shopping was downtown, but presents some problems as the economy spread from downtown Boston. If you are going anywhere that requires switching trains, you will be spending a minimum of 30-45 minutes on your trip. Busses can help with this, as they cut between different lines, but until a few months ago the route numbers weren't posted and the website remains difficult to use. While commuters can figure out the busses to simplify their commute, it simply isn't practical for an individual trip.
Beyond that, the system gets really slow. I live out on the Green Line, which is the most residential of the trains. After Kenmore Square, they become "Trolley lines" that are above ground, but have a dedicated area for their tracks. This means that the trains can't pass one another if one gets bogged down, and there is no meaningful way to run express trains.
The road system is a collection of disasters because of Boston's heritage. Boston is unable to rework their roads without shutting down the city, and an execessive number of buildings are declared historical, stopping progress.
On top of that, the elevated central artery, which the big dig will replace, cuts through Boston. Now ask yourself who would want to live right near a highway (and walk underneath it), and you realize why the Central Artery trashed the neighborhoods. Walking under a highway is a strange thing, and it cuts neighborhoods apart. This results in social costs in excess of the traffic.
Part of the problem with the subway system is that it is too slow. Even in Rush Hour, it is faster to drive then take the subways. If the trains go above ground (the Green Line), they are stuck waitting for lights like cars, and they have a 30 MPH limit (same as the official speed limit) plus they need to stop.
An additional problem is the system only runs trains once every 10 minutes (most busses are every 30 minutes). This makes the subway painful for short trips. If you are only going a few stops, you might spend 15 minutes waitting for the train for a 5 minute trip.
Boston has transportation nightmares. Unlike New York, that does construction at night, all road construction is done during the day in Boston, including during Rush Hour. The unionized workers don't have to put in overtime, so sometimes jobs will involve ripping up a street on Thursday/Friday, then MAYBE getting to fix it Monday or Tuesday of the next week. However, if it wasn't planned that way, it may be a week or more before they return with equipment.
The Big Dig will help with the highway crunch, but won't solve the general problems in Boston. The only nice thing will be if the Big Dig does enough, then people will take Highways (they'd be faster than city streets for a change) which might alleviate some of the other traffic. More likely, driving to work in Boston will be more pleasant, so people will get more cars bringing us back to the status quo.
Well, at least the friends of the powerful were able to buy all the slumlands next to the highway that is about to become parkland. They're going to make a fortune on those luxury apartment complexes that used to be crack houses or slums.
Alex
I mean, when they are working their Wall Street or Investment Banking jobs in NYC in 1-4 years, they'll have a clean hair cut, wear a suit, etc. If the pictures surface, you won't be able to recognize them!
:)
The real joke will be if the picture comes out at a dinner party where they're gathered with their friends critizes the Democrats for blocking an initiative to put down those rebels because they have a mutual fund in their 401K that needs to exploit labor there...
Don't get me wrong, I'm a conservative Republican, I just enjoy laughing at the others that were tree-hugging lefties 3 years ago...
Yes and no. Right now, Digital Cable has replaced one of DSS's major pushes, the zillions of channels. DirecTV and DishNetwork currently are fighting by offering lower prices and better quality.
I want better quality, period. Right now, I have 5 TV options: OTA, AT&T Broadband Analog, AT&T Broadband Digital, DirecTV, and Dish. Let's throw out the Analog service, because while the analog channels have a better picture, that A/B channel separation is SO painfully weird. I'll also throw out OTA because the Sopranos are on.
Right now, Dish, DirecTV, and AT&T all compete to win by business, that's 3 options. If RCN could get its act together, that would be 4 vendors. With the merger, there are 2 competitors.
See, with 3 providers, you get something like the current split. My assessment is that Dish offers the cheapest service, AT&T offers mediocre service without installation troubles, and DirecTV offers the "best" service (HD channels, hardware choice, big premium packages, the NFL pack, ESPN Gameday if I want it, etc.).
I don't know what a combined Dish/DirecTV offers. I'm not interested in the low-end price competition, I want a fight to offer me the most and best HD content. AT&T isn't in that space at all. Right now, I have two competitors, Dish and DirecTV. Merge them, and HDTV enthusiasts have ZERO competition unless they live in a Time Warner area.
See, what the FCC and I realize is that a certain market, the HDTV market that the FCC wants to nuture, remember, there are only two real players (Time Warner's region exclused), Dish and DirecTV. With them merged, their race to get more HD content will likely die.
Alex
I forgot to mention that my comments about Digital Cable don't apply to Time Warner cable, that is on the ball. Nobody else is offering good digital cable, everyone else is suffering through this overly compressed 480i garbage.
:) Hopefully the DSS companies will start carrying the local HD over their spot-beams. The bad thing with the merger is that they won't have any competition, the good thing is that there will be a LOT of bandwidth if they can merge satellite feeds.
I'm jealous that you got it all from one provider. I now have it from one provider, plus antenna.
That's great, awesome that you have everything. It took me a month to get everything together at my place, and you got it easily.
Awesome for you!
Alex
Most people with HDTV sets don't have HDTV, they just get better DVD quality. A lot of people get Digital Cable (heavily compressed NTSC/480i signal) and are convinced that their expensive set is important.
I have an apartment, and I got an attic antenna giving me the local OTA signals. Combine that with DirecTV (HDNet, ShoHD, HBO-HD), and you get 8-9 HDTV signals. It's fun, it looks great, but it ain't easy.
Broadcast HDTV is going strong, slowly. All the HDTV STBes for satellites include an antenna input. Samsung has a line of OTA-only STBes.
Living in a city (I live in Boston), you start to think that everyone lives in apartments. However, more middle-class individuals live in houses in the suburbs. Home ownership remains high. Houses can put roof-top antennas up, etc.
HDTV is coming along, its coming along slowly, but its coming along. Personally, I would expect HDTV to die a few years after the DTV switchover. I would expect the local affiliates to show 6 480i signals in the HDTV over-the-air. This doesn't bother me though, if you can get 40 channels over-the-air with a $150-$200 STB, that will put a lot of preasure on cable/DSS.
MySQL is faster when doing simple selects. If you don't have any joins, etc., MySQL is faster. PostgreSQL requires some tuning to get it at a reasonable speed.
HOWEVER, once you get it going, PostgreSQL is pretty slick. If speed is really a problem, get a bigger box. Our main database server for our production system is a dual-1GHz machine with 1 GB RAM. It's not that fast a machine, it was a few grand, and it worked nicely for the past year.
If we outgrow it, we'll go and buy more iron.
It is MUCH cheaper to spend an extra $3000-$5000 on server hardware than it is to have 3-5 programmers spend an extra month on the project to work around MySQL's limitations.
If you ever move beyond trivial database needs, MySQL will kill you. Unless you are really strapped for cash (i.e. this is a hobby site that is going to have enough traffic that performance matters), you're better off going with PostgreSQL. If you find that you need the advanced options, you've got em. If you don't? You'll have 75%-95% of the performance anyways.
Alex
I guess I'm too old (at 23), but I find that the abbreviations are pointless. When I send IMs, I often send phrases instead of sentances, but I don't abbreviate words. However, I do abbreviate phrases that have been used as such for over a decade. BRB for "be right back" predates IM, but "u" for you is just silly. It's harder to read, and learning to type would make it immaterial.
Additionally, the traditional abbreviations were for "online phrases." When wat the last time you used "away from keyboard - AFK", "be right back - BRB", "laughing out loud" - LOL, "rolling on the floor laughing - ROTFL", etc., in a real life conversation?
These abbreviations are more reasonable for phrases that would only be used in an online conversation. By that logic, "oic" is an acceptable abbreviation for "oh, I see", given that you only use it to convey an online emotion.
I feel like the best thing would be for teachers to penalize, penalize heavy, and encourage students to STOP using online conventions online as well. If people would write in more reasonable English, communication would be easier.
I find people nitpicking over typos, spelling errors, and grammatical errors strange. However, none of us (unless we are slashdot editors *grin*) should STRIVE to butcher the language.
Better command of the standard language improves communication. Has anyone whose ever held a job or been in an adult relationship ever thought "communication skills are over rated?" Most business and interpersonal problems stem from miscommunications, anything that helps that is a Good Thing.
Alex
I LOVE the premise. My problem is that I don't feel like they are the first ones out in space.
:)
Setup: First humans in deep space, only "friends" are the Vulcans that Archer hates.
Obvious Solution: Find new friends, make new allies.
Archer's Solution: Piss everyone off, choose moral high ground over allies, make no new friends, etc.
It's a strange new world, they should start becoming friendly with more powerful races. Instead, he is content to be a jerk.
The very anti-semetic pro-terrorist episode REALLY offended me. A though-provokative episode showing that the anti-terrorist rhetoric can be flawed would be a GREAT Trek episode, in the vein of some of the ST:TOS episodes. Instead we get a 1-sided episode where there Arab-looking terrorist is a great, friendly guy, and the leader of the anti-terrorist contigent looked very Jewish.
ST:TNG tackled the terrorism question, pointed out that if Washington lost, he'd have been a terrorist.
Enterprise is a LOT like Buffy. Most episodes are mediocre, some of them show tremendous promise that they'll be great episodes, but the good ones end with a cheap ending that disappoints. Each week, we tune in, ready for more disappointment... Maybe that should be UPN's slogan.
Alex
If you look through the racks of the Gameboy Color, you'll see some NES games that were rereleased for that platform. If you look at the Gameboy Advanced, you see some SNES games (Super Mario Advanced series (NES SMB2 and SNES SMW), and the new Zelda is Zelda3:LttP, for example).
So, now that the market for rereleases NES games ($30-$70 when new) as GBC games ($30-$40) has been exhausted, they are ready to be dumped ($5-$7).
I would expect that the Super Advanced Gameboy, when released in 6 years, will get a lot of ports from the N64, selling at $40, and an e-card reader like device allowing them to dump old SNES games for $5-$7.
That's the real reason that Nintendo can afford to "lose" the console war, they'll make enough money on the NGC to be happy and build a library of games. Then they'll make the real money porting old games to their handheld.
It's a pretty similar strategy to certain genres in Hollywood... you know the internation and video distribution royalties, so you don't care if it tanks at the box office.
Alex