Saint Gore is the patron saint of Environmentalists. If you pray hard enough, he will make an appearance. He appears before you in a cloud of carbon dioxide, his chubby (face) cheeks glow with pride and joy, and he will bless you and praise you for doing your part to fight the evil demons of Global Warming, the coming of the Heat Inferno on Planet Earth.
Bottom line is China wants to make the United States as just another trading partner, but not THE ONLY trading partner for certain key technologies. Right now they are buying and importing our good technology in a few key areas where there is no domestic Chinese substitute, namely big equipment. Stuff like Caterpillar monster trucks and General Electric Hydroelectric Turbine Generators. Everything else they can create domestically. Now their central government (which incidentally has a heavy representation of civil engineers) wants to cut the umbilical cord with the United States on these key systems. So this will ultimately give them more flexibility and wiggle room when negotiating on the world stage.
Chinese Diplomat: For motherland, we want Taiwan now. We now annex Taiwan to Greater China.
American Diplomat: Well, then, I'm sorry to inform you that the discount wholesale price on those new Boeing 787s you ordered is now NULL and VOID ! You have to pay Full Price + Extra Tariffs ! Take that, LOL !
Chinese Diplomat: We have satisfactory improved domestically manufactured Chinese copy of Tupolev 9000 airplane. We now cancel all orders for 787s. Please to be refunding our initial deposit.
American Diplomat: Oh sh*t
Chinese Diplomat: For motherland, we want Mongolia now. We now annex Mongolia to Greater China.
Offtopic, negotiating with Verizon ?
on
The End for Vonage?
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
This is somewhat offtopic, but I was wondering if anybody has any experience negotiating a lower monthly bill with Verizon? Right now I'm paying about $55 a month for pretty basic cell phone and SMS texting services. I think with healthy competition in the marketplace I can bring this down to about $40 - $45 per month. I'm thinking about calling them up soon and threatening to jump ship over to Cingular / AT&T when the new iPhone is available. Then I will propose to stay with Verizon provided that they give me a lower rate. Has anybody done this successfully? Or will they simply tell me to go fsck myself and they don't really need my business after all ?
The PSP needed a 10-20 GB hard disk to be able to download new games. Also an open-ended developer SDK so that anybody could write their own games and port classic games to this mobile platform.
I had one for about 4 months, the screen was beautiful, the controls were acceptable, but the UMB format was unfortunately stillborn. I eventually traded it in for a PS3.
I find it hard to appreciate calling a new virus a "Proof-of-Concept". I know this description is a valid label for this thing, but for some reason this seems like a bad way to brand new viruses. In my mind, the name "Proof-of-Concept" is more applicable to something that is useful and beneficial. So, if you are writing a new, faster algorithm to approximate a solution to some business or scientific or other computational problem that needs to be solved, then that is a good thing to name a PoC. But if you are writing something that's main purpose is destructive, not constructive, I think we should attach a negative label to that task. Perhaps "Waste-of-Time" ? or maybe "Proof-of-Bad-Idea" ? I think we should extend this negative label to people who work on making more deadly weapons / ways to hurt / ways to destroy things.
The counter-argument is, of course, that having a new sample virus allows antivirus engineers to create a defense before a real virus enters the wild. Sort of like a vaccine maker needs the real virus to make a cure. But I would still prefer a name like "Virus Sample", or "Dangerous New Virus" rather than "Proof of Concept".
When comparing two files side-by-side, it's very convenient to see one on the left and one on the right, maximized to use all available screen real estate.
So if you're a professional software developer, (as are many in the Slashdot audience), this is one of many possible uses for a 2-monitor-configuration.
If you use Photoshop or or media editing tools, a common setup is to have your tools palette on one screen, and the photo you are editing, blown up to full screen on the 2nd monitor.
The more articles I read about this lawsuit campaign by the RIAA mafia against individual citizens, and I read about counterattacks and people pooling their resources to mount an effective legal defense, the more I realize that there is a very real and very serious WAR going on. It is a War of Attrition between the recording industry and you and me. They are hoping that we will eventually cave in and resign ourselves to paying twice or thrice for something we already own.
The body count of this war are the grandmothers and senior citizens who are being sued for having a zombie botware PC.
The collateral damage in this war are our freedoms and civil liberties and the concept of private property and ownership.
Perhaps it is time to stop the battle and make peace.
Steve Jobs made a good step in the right direction by asking the music industry to stop using DRM. He's the right person for this important task. (He's sort of like a diplomat or ambassador between , to continue my analogy between warring nation-states). Basically he's one of the few high-profile individuals who has enough street cred in both the Computer Tech industry and the Media / Entertainment industry, to make REAL CHANGE HAPPEN.
I propose that we support Mr. Jobs as our peace ambassador to cease the hostilities between us (individuals) and them (RIAA).
Because really we all just want to be happy and reach a reasonable balance and enjoy good music and new media content.
You Tube is a fad which will expire eventually
on
Thailand Bans YouTube
·
· Score: 0, Offtopic
I'm going to take a slightly higher vantage point and just comment on the You Tube phenomenon. I find it hard to understand the whole fascination with You Tube. It seems to me that putting video on the Internet has been around a whole lot longer than You Tube. Previously all you had to do was put an MPEG file on your web server and hyperlink to it. Sure, you had to have an MPG viewer client application installed on your system, and it wouldn't open inside of the same browser window as the page you were on. You Tube solved those 2 "problems", but I wonder if that is such a quantum leap improvement in technology ? It seems more like a simple convenience to me... In other words, I don't see how You Tube is so different or amazing from any other web site / web page. Certainly I don't feel it is worth 16 Billion dollars or whatever Google paid for it.... I mean they certainly haven't made any money off of me. I have probably watched dozens of different videos and never looked at or clicked on a single advertisement.
Of course this is only my opinion... Not intended to be inflammatory or a troll.
So my question is... what does You Tube do so differently, that makes it worth so much in the eyes of Wall Street investors ??
The bottom line is, this week Apple is getting some great media attention due to new features / products (Google Desktop and new powerful workstation). Meanwhile, Microsoft has gotten bad press (bad Vista review and ANI security flaw).
Apple continues to gain mindshare among influential consumers and professionals.
I have already referred a couple co-workers to check out Apple.com for their laptops when they asked me for advice on new purchases for themselves and family.
Monopolies are counteracted by converting one customer at a time to the competition.
Hmm, does anybody know if it possible to use my cell phone as a cosmic radiation shield at 35,000 feet ?
Just kidding... I know this is ridiculous.
Testing my new Slashdot account !
Slashdot Mirror
Saint Gore is the patron saint of Environmentalists. If you pray hard enough, he will make an appearance. He appears before you in a cloud of carbon dioxide, his chubby (face) cheeks glow with pride and joy, and he will bless you and praise you for doing your part to fight the evil demons of Global Warming, the coming of the Heat Inferno on Planet Earth.
Bottom line is China wants to make the United States as just another trading partner, but not THE ONLY trading partner for certain key technologies. Right now they are buying and importing our good technology in a few key areas where there is no domestic Chinese substitute, namely big equipment. Stuff like Caterpillar monster trucks and General Electric Hydroelectric Turbine Generators. Everything else they can create domestically. Now their central government (which incidentally has a heavy representation of civil engineers) wants to cut the umbilical cord with the United States on these key systems. So this will ultimately give them more flexibility and wiggle room when negotiating on the world stage.
Chinese Diplomat: For motherland, we want Taiwan now. We now annex Taiwan to Greater China.
American Diplomat: Well, then, I'm sorry to inform you that the discount wholesale price on those new Boeing 787s you ordered is now NULL and VOID ! You have to pay Full Price + Extra Tariffs ! Take that, LOL !
Chinese Diplomat: We have satisfactory improved domestically manufactured Chinese copy of Tupolev 9000 airplane. We now cancel all orders for 787s. Please to be refunding our initial deposit.
American Diplomat: Oh sh*t
Chinese Diplomat: For motherland, we want Mongolia now. We now annex Mongolia to Greater China.
This is somewhat offtopic, but I was wondering if anybody has any experience negotiating a lower monthly bill with Verizon? Right now I'm paying about $55 a month for pretty basic cell phone and SMS texting services. I think with healthy competition in the marketplace I can bring this down to about $40 - $45 per month. I'm thinking about calling them up soon and threatening to jump ship over to Cingular / AT&T when the new iPhone is available. Then I will propose to stay with Verizon provided that they give me a lower rate. Has anybody done this successfully? Or will they simply tell me to go fsck myself and they don't really need my business after all ?
The PSP needed a 10-20 GB hard disk to be able to download new games. Also an open-ended developer SDK so that anybody could write their own games and port classic games to this mobile platform.
I had one for about 4 months, the screen was beautiful, the controls were acceptable, but the UMB format was unfortunately stillborn. I eventually traded it in for a PS3.
I find it hard to appreciate calling a new virus a "Proof-of-Concept". I know this description is a valid label for this thing, but for some reason this seems like a bad way to brand new viruses. In my mind, the name "Proof-of-Concept" is more applicable to something that is useful and beneficial. So, if you are writing a new, faster algorithm to approximate a solution to some business or scientific or other computational problem that needs to be solved, then that is a good thing to name a PoC. But if you are writing something that's main purpose is destructive, not constructive, I think we should attach a negative label to that task. Perhaps "Waste-of-Time" ? or maybe "Proof-of-Bad-Idea" ? I think we should extend this negative label to people who work on making more deadly weapons / ways to hurt / ways to destroy things.
The counter-argument is, of course, that having a new sample virus allows antivirus engineers to create a defense before a real virus enters the wild. Sort of like a vaccine maker needs the real virus to make a cure. But I would still prefer a name like "Virus Sample", or "Dangerous New Virus" rather than "Proof of Concept".
When comparing two files side-by-side, it's very convenient to see one on the left and one on the right, maximized to use all available screen real estate.
So if you're a professional software developer, (as are many in the Slashdot audience), this is one of many possible uses for a 2-monitor-configuration.
If you use Photoshop or or media editing tools, a common setup is to have your tools palette on one screen, and the photo you are editing, blown up to full screen on the 2nd monitor.
http://www.nextengine.com/todd/decimation/deci-stu dy-2x.jpg
m ages/fig1.jpg
http://www.solidworks.com/swexpress/pages/feb06/i
Ok, First think that goes through my mind when I see these pictures... How did he get his head on this little platform ?
I wonder what is the turnover rate among new employees at Next Engine ?
What is really going on here?
The more articles I read about this lawsuit campaign by the RIAA mafia against individual citizens, and I read about counterattacks and people pooling their resources to mount an effective legal defense, the more I realize that there is a very real and very serious WAR going on. It is a War of Attrition between the recording industry and you and me. They are hoping that we will eventually cave in and resign ourselves to paying twice or thrice for something we already own.
The body count of this war are the grandmothers and senior citizens who are being sued for having a zombie botware PC.
The collateral damage in this war are our freedoms and civil liberties and the concept of private property and ownership.
Perhaps it is time to stop the battle and make peace.
Steve Jobs made a good step in the right direction by asking the music industry to stop using DRM. He's the right person for this important task. (He's sort of like a diplomat or ambassador between , to continue my analogy between warring nation-states). Basically he's one of the few high-profile individuals who has enough street cred in both the Computer Tech industry and the Media / Entertainment industry, to make REAL CHANGE HAPPEN.
I propose that we support Mr. Jobs as our peace ambassador to cease the hostilities between us (individuals) and them (RIAA).
Because really we all just want to be happy and reach a reasonable balance and enjoy good music and new media content.
I'm going to take a slightly higher vantage point and just comment on the You Tube phenomenon. I find it hard to understand the whole fascination with You Tube. It seems to me that putting video on the Internet has been around a whole lot longer than You Tube. Previously all you had to do was put an MPEG file on your web server and hyperlink to it. Sure, you had to have an MPG viewer client application installed on your system, and it wouldn't open inside of the same browser window as the page you were on. You Tube solved those 2 "problems", but I wonder if that is such a quantum leap improvement in technology ? It seems more like a simple convenience to me... In other words, I don't see how You Tube is so different or amazing from any other web site / web page. Certainly I don't feel it is worth 16 Billion dollars or whatever Google paid for it.... I mean they certainly haven't made any money off of me. I have probably watched dozens of different videos and never looked at or clicked on a single advertisement. Of course this is only my opinion... Not intended to be inflammatory or a troll. So my question is... what does You Tube do so differently, that makes it worth so much in the eyes of Wall Street investors ??
The bottom line is, this week Apple is getting some great media attention due to new features / products (Google Desktop and new powerful workstation). Meanwhile, Microsoft has gotten bad press (bad Vista review and ANI security flaw). Apple continues to gain mindshare among influential consumers and professionals. I have already referred a couple co-workers to check out Apple.com for their laptops when they asked me for advice on new purchases for themselves and family. Monopolies are counteracted by converting one customer at a time to the competition.
Hmm, does anybody know if it possible to use my cell phone as a cosmic radiation shield at 35,000 feet ? Just kidding... I know this is ridiculous. Testing my new Slashdot account !