This may be slightly off topic, but the biggest ASP mistakes I've seen are of two types.
The first is failing to understand that hardware fails. I've seen many systems designed with multiple SPOFs (Single Points of Failure). The application is only as good as its availability.
The other is making nifty client side applets who then send multiple queries across the Internet whenever the user does something, often in a serialized fashion. It's an easy mistake to make when you develop the applet in sight of the server when your latency is measured in single digit milliseconds. When the latency spikes, the application becomes nearly useless. Try to do all your functionality on the server leaving your 'thin client' a simple HTML page.
Try any of these solutions if you want to avoid violating this act:
1. Don't target your site to people under 13 as a specific demographic. 2. Don't ask for age on a registration form. 3. If you must ask for age, use a select list who's lowest band is above 13.
If you don't target kids, and have no way of knowing if your visitors are kids, you should be fine.
If you're paranoid, use option 3 for registrations. That way, any kid who registers with your site is lying when he selects anything from your mandatory select list.
I asked Jeeves that question and judging by the answer/questions I'd bet Emacs:
Where can I find help with Emacs? Where can I find information about Emacs? Where can I download the Web browser Emacs? Where can I find FAQs on Emacs implementations?
I had great fun with this at the Computer Museum in Boston. They have Eliza running on a machine there.
It tried to analyze me and I tried to take it's wallet. Was definitely not the least coherent conversation I had that day and the only one with a computer.
In an astonishing twist, Warner Bros. is releasing a movie based on a sci-fi book. In just a few weeks, we'll post a review so we can have a more informed discussion.
IIRC the animation of the series was started on Amigas using the Video Toaster. I'd cut 'em some slack considering...
They moved to better equipment but had legacy look and feel to support.
For what it's worth, you couldn't do the kind of battles they staged in B5 the traditional ST way (models). Did anyone notice the move to animation when the Federation v Dominion war started?
'Messages From Earth', 'Point Of No Return' and 'Severed Dreams', make a great introduction to the series in my opinion. Nearly every plot line in the story Arc intersects in that three episode series without spoiling the past episodes.
Spend a few minutes introducing each regular as they appear on screen and new people are completely hooked by the end of 'Severed Dreams.' I've given this intro to more than a dozen people and they're all huge fans now.
I've been involved in some Internet acquistions and generally they've been priced as a multiple of sales.
I tend to agree with you on how these things should be valued, but most of the people I've dealt with are concerned about top-line growth, figuring they can make the profit later.
You cannot however base the purchase of a rapidly growing business, as most Internet firms are, on profits. Not because they aren't making one, which is usually true. But rather because they are re-investing so much of their operating capital into capital expenses like infrastructure( routers, servers, etc.). Most Internet companies would be flush with cash if they suddenly stopped building out.
...Typical valuations are at 3 to 5 times earnings. Given that this site is grossing $20,000 yearly, I'd say an asking price of $650,000 is off by a factor of ten at least.
I think you mean Sales rather than earnings. Sales is your gross income whereas earnings are what is left over after you deduct all your expenses. Yahoo (YHOO) trades at a p/e of 1719 but the p/s is 159, a much smaller number (source).
A valuation of 3 to 5 times your sales is about what you should expect for a normal business. This can vary wildly depending on demand and whether there are underlying earnings.
An important thing to note is that if your sales are trending rapidly upward, it is not unreasonable to base your valuation on annualized revenues of say the last quarter. This is part of what contributes to the high valuations of Internet companies. If your doubling your sales year after year, you need to account for that in your valuation.
Aside from the issue of having actually been told about the bootlegs, are they not also making a percentage of the sales, or a listing fee?
IANAL but, if they knowingly make any money from the auction or sale of illegal/stolen merchandise, shouldn't they be atleast civilly libel, if not criminally?
I think the content arguement would hold up if they weren't actually participating in the auction (e.g. Free auctions like the kind that happen on usenet)
If you really want to get their attention without pissing too many people off, give a 400 series (transient) error instead of a 500 series (permanent/fatal) error. Imagine the pile up of queued mail on AOL's servers.
Sure, they'll try to re-deliver every hour or so, but the build up on their end will be more than worth while. Refuse the mail, and it goes right back to the sender, not much more load than proper delivery. But, if they had to frequently re-process a small fraction of their current mail, it'd be really painful and give them a big sense of urgency.
And then there's the support calls asking why the mail they sent two hours ago hasn't been delivered. Oh the mayhem...
As long as you've been employeed long enough to get health insurance, you're at very little risk of losing it. I forget what the acronym stands for, but we've got a law, C.O.B.R.A., that allows employees to extend their health benefits, for a year IIRC, at the employers group rate. You have this option regardless of the method by which you've been seperated from your company.
If you think you could find a new job in a year, you're fine. In the current economy, if you cannot get a new job in a year, you were probably fired for a good reason.
"Ok, if it's legal to copy a TV broadcast onto a VHS tape, then is it not legal to copy a music video off MTV, even for my own personal use?"
I wouldn't assume that a cable channel signal falls under the same category as a broadcast network nor would I be surprised to find out that it didn't.
My understanding is that broadcast networks, and for that matter radio, can have their signals recorded. A trade off for the limited number of licensable frequencies in a given broadcast market. Wouldn't be shocked at all to find the same rules don't apply to a closed system like cable.
I don't mind that this is short. Since the/. tag line should be "News by Nerds. Things we (at/.) are interested in," more articles with less thought would be a better formula. The more articles they post, the more likely it is that I'll find one that *matters* to me.
Thought is a finite resource. I'd rather they not spend all of it writing long winded articles on issues I don't think matter.
If you're willing to read anything that's put in front of you as long as sufficient thought has been put into it, buy a book.
Anyone know if this unit, the Apex AD-600A, deals with the difference between NTSC and PAL. Someone brought this up when I was looking for a multi-region unit a while back basically saying that even if I could get a DVD player to play region 2 movies from the U.K. (I'm in the U.S.), that they would play correctly on my television. Is that true, or is this a non-issue?
Jim Carrey is a brilliant comic Actor capable of, and apparently willing to, anything to get a laugh.
Andy Kaufmann was Comedy Incarnate. He did things that I don't think any other comedian would even contemplate. It takes balls to make your act nothing more than reading 'The Great Gatsby', turning the incensed audience into the joke.
Slashdot Mirror
IBM is the trailing dot in everything, as in:
. <= right here
slashdot . org
Probably not what Sun's market driods meant but still pretty funny to think of it that way.
--
They added 1.2 million users in the past 3 months. I wouldn't call that slowing. Sentiments and anecdotes aside, they're growing plenty fast.
--
Ummm, h ere.
--
This may be slightly off topic, but the biggest ASP mistakes I've seen are of two types.
The first is failing to understand that hardware fails. I've seen many systems designed with multiple SPOFs (Single Points of Failure). The application is only as good as its availability.
The other is making nifty client side applets who then send multiple queries across the Internet whenever the user does something, often in a serialized fashion. It's an easy mistake to make when you develop the applet in sight of the server when your latency is measured in single digit milliseconds. When the latency spikes, the application becomes nearly useless. Try to do all your functionality on the server leaving your 'thin client' a simple HTML page.
--
Try any of these solutions if you want to avoid violating this act:
1. Don't target your site to people under 13 as a specific demographic.
2. Don't ask for age on a registration form.
3. If you must ask for age, use a select list who's lowest band is above 13.
If you don't target kids, and have no way of knowing if your visitors are kids, you should be fine.
If you're paranoid, use option 3 for registrations. That way, any kid who registers with your site is lying when he selects anything from your mandatory select list.
Well, gotta go. Time for recess and then a nap.
--
I asked Jeeves that question and judging by the answer/questions I'd bet Emacs:
Where can I find help with Emacs?
Where can I find information about Emacs?
Where can I download the Web browser Emacs?
Where can I find FAQs on Emacs implementations?
--
Try robbing Eliza at gun point.
I had great fun with this at the Computer Museum in Boston. They have Eliza running on a machine there.
It tried to analyze me and I tried to take it's wallet. Was definitely not the least coherent conversation I had that day and the only one with a computer.
--
Here are some of my oberservations (gleened from my inability to actually view the images thanks to the Slashdot effect):
1. Objects in the images are closer to the ground than the satellite.
2. Some top secret projects are actually conducted indoors.
3. The remaining top secret projects actually are *cleverly* hidden in plain sight (or is that 'plane site'.)
There you have it. Conspiracy perpetuated.
--
In an astonishing twist, Warner Bros. is releasing a movie based on a sci-fi book. In just a few weeks, we'll post a review so we can have a more informed discussion.
Oh yeah. Film at 11:00...
--
The Apex AD600-A is a DVD player that also plays CD, CD-R, CD-RW, and MP3. All that for $179 at Circuit City. It's not portable, but...
--
IIRC the animation of the series was started on Amigas using the Video Toaster. I'd cut 'em some slack considering...
They moved to better equipment but had legacy look and feel to support.
For what it's worth, you couldn't do the kind of battles they staged in B5 the traditional ST way (models). Did anyone notice the move to animation when the Federation v Dominion war started?
--
'Messages From Earth', 'Point Of No Return' and 'Severed Dreams', make a great introduction to the series in my opinion. Nearly every plot line in the story Arc intersects in that three episode series without spoiling the past episodes.
Spend a few minutes introducing each regular as they appear on screen and new people are completely hooked by the end of 'Severed Dreams.' I've given this intro to more than a dozen people and they're all huge fans now.
--
Don't know which Gods I've offended to draw moderator duty on April Fools Day, but it sure makes reading at -1 extra spicy.
This is like jury duty for a telivised trial with Jerry Springer acting as the judge.
I've been involved in some Internet acquistions and generally they've been priced as a multiple of sales.
I tend to agree with you on how these things should be valued, but most of the people I've dealt with are concerned about top-line growth, figuring they can make the profit later.
You cannot however base the purchase of a rapidly growing business, as most Internet firms are, on profits. Not because they aren't making one, which is usually true. But rather because they are re-investing so much of their operating capital into capital expenses like infrastructure( routers, servers, etc.). Most Internet companies would be flush with cash if they suddenly stopped building out.
...Typical valuations are at 3 to 5 times earnings. Given that this site is grossing $20,000 yearly, I'd say an asking price of $650,000 is off by a factor of ten at least.
I think you mean Sales rather than earnings. Sales is your gross income whereas earnings are what is left over after you deduct all your expenses. Yahoo (YHOO) trades at a p/e of 1719 but the p/s is 159, a much smaller number (source).
A valuation of 3 to 5 times your sales is about what you should expect for a normal business. This can vary wildly depending on demand and whether there are underlying earnings.
An important thing to note is that if your sales are trending rapidly upward, it is not unreasonable to base your valuation on annualized revenues of say the last quarter. This is part of what contributes to the high valuations of Internet companies. If your doubling your sales year after year, you need to account for that in your valuation.
Aside from the issue of having actually been told about the bootlegs, are they not also making a percentage of the sales, or a listing fee?
IANAL but, if they knowingly make any money from the auction or sale of illegal/stolen merchandise, shouldn't they be atleast civilly libel, if not criminally?
I think the content arguement would hold up if they weren't actually participating in the auction (e.g. Free auctions like the kind that happen on usenet)
If you really want to get their attention without pissing too many people off, give a 400 series (transient) error instead of a 500 series (permanent/fatal) error. Imagine the pile up of queued mail on AOL's servers.
Sure, they'll try to re-deliver every hour or so, but the build up on their end will be more than worth while. Refuse the mail, and it goes right back to the sender, not much more load than proper delivery. But, if they had to frequently re-process a small fraction of their current mail, it'd be really painful and give them a big sense of urgency.
And then there's the support calls asking why the mail they sent two hours ago hasn't been delivered. Oh the mayhem...
As long as you've been employeed long enough to get health insurance, you're at very little risk of losing it. I forget what the acronym stands for, but we've got a law, C.O.B.R.A., that allows employees to extend their health benefits, for a year IIRC, at the employers group rate. You have this option regardless of the method by which you've been seperated from your company.
If you think you could find a new job in a year, you're fine. In the current economy, if you cannot get a new job in a year, you were probably fired for a good reason.
"Ok, if it's legal to copy a TV broadcast onto a VHS tape, then is it not legal to copy a music video off MTV, even for my own personal use?"
I wouldn't assume that a cable channel signal falls under the same category as a broadcast network nor would I be surprised to find out that it didn't.
My understanding is that broadcast networks, and for that matter radio, can have their signals recorded. A trade off for the limited number of licensable frequencies in a given broadcast market. Wouldn't be shocked at all to find the same rules don't apply to a closed system like cable.
I don't mind that this is short. Since the /. tag line should be "News by Nerds. Things we (at /.) are interested in," more articles with less thought would be a better formula. The more articles they post, the more likely it is that I'll find one that *matters* to me.
Thought is a finite resource. I'd rather they not spend all of it writing long winded articles on issues I don't think matter.
If you're willing to read anything that's put in front of you as long as sufficient thought has been put into it, buy a book.
CNN Coverage can be found here: http://cnn.com /2000/TECH/computing/02/21/michigan.filters/index. html
I meant *wouldn't* play.
Must...use...'Preview'...button. Oh well.
Any help would be appreciated.
Anyone know if this unit, the Apex AD-600A, deals with the difference between NTSC and PAL. Someone brought this up when I was looking for a multi-region unit a while back basically saying that even if I could get a DVD player to play region 2 movies from the U.K. (I'm in the U.S.), that they would play correctly on my television. Is that true, or is this a non-issue?
did he ever read the whole book onstage?
I cannot imagine that he did, but I would not put it past him. He had a tendency to push something to far as long as he found it funny.
Jim Carrey is a brilliant comic Actor capable of, and apparently willing to, anything to get a laugh.
Andy Kaufmann was Comedy Incarnate. He did things that I don't think any other comedian would even contemplate. It takes balls to make your act nothing more than reading 'The Great Gatsby', turning the incensed audience into the joke.