I read this book (having been a fan since "Chaos" in my high school days) - and it's a great commentary and reflection on our society and how we demand more, faster, and don't notice it.
The only downside (if there is one) is that it's all reflection and no solutions. I think the review tried to suggest this, but didn't quite pull it off. After reading about 20 chapters of ludicrous human behavior, (How many of us keep hitting the close door button on an elevator praying it might work quicker if we hit it more) - I guess I kind of was hoping for the author's opinion as to the solution, but he didn't have any. You get done with the book feeling the changes in society are permanent. And barring economic disaster, maybe they are.
Otherwise, it was a great book - I really recommend this one myself
I suppose the old model of us vs. them has gone away. Now we are dealing with two seperate and distinct entities (but like a Hollywood Power Couple, they still manage to sleep together and make each other look good)
One is the Government. Distrusted by many, Inefficient, Erratic, and dependant upon the whims of the elected parties at that time. Full of old men who know nothing of Technology, subject to the whim of lobbists and the dollar. Nevertheless, They are dependant upon US to vote them into office. I know for a fact that at least the fat cats in Washington will respond if enough people vote them out of a job. (Al Gore, defender of Tobacco - whoops - check the polls - now he turns into Al Gore, Vilifier of Tobacco)
On the other hand, Corporate America is beholden to nothing but the profit. The Jon Katz article earlier today with WAVE America is just a reinforcement. Profit rules, and rights, intellectual property, even individuality is simply a tool used to make more money. And how much say do we have over them? If we can't make it unprofitable for them to monitor, spam, sue, patent, and chuck the Internet full of corporate crap, then it won't go away. That's not speculation, that's a fact verfied by years of historical tradition.
Perhaps the solution is partially based upon the Govt. It's easier to motive Politicans to do good, in my opinion, than corporate America.
I've read a few posts about overvalued IPO's and failed businesses. Although this bodes ill for LinuxCare and other startups and their IPO's, I don't necessarily see all Linux companies heading out the door. While it's true that many Tech Stocks are on their way down the toilet, this is mostly the.com's that spent their venture capital on advertising and trying to build a brand name for the services they were selling
As it stands, I don't think this has been the case with most Linux startups. (Quick, name me the last time you saw a Linux commercial?) - Now it sounds like this CIO and CEO may have blown the finances in other ways, so that may have an impact on THIS company. I'm not prepared to give up yet on the Linux business model just because every CDNow, Amazon and 2000 other.com's are losing money. They were spending their dollars in the wrong place, that's all.
For a great article, read the latest column on Abcnews.com's Silicon Insider - http://abcnews.go.com/sections/business/siliconins ider/siliconinsider.html - (if this doesn't reference Silicon valley and IPO's, run a search on SOMA - that'll bring it up.) Very informative and shatters many of the illusions around the Valley at this time.
Unless the Linux start-up companies are following business models like these, they should be able to maintain some level of profitability
Ask Jon Johansen what the impact on U.S. laws have been to him. Many countries enforce worldwide patent/copyright legislation and intellectual property. If we set the standard here, it will filter out. Sony Japan is already freaking about the DVD bug in their Playstation 2 that allows users to view region 1 DVD's. They will be removing it from the design and looking for ways to pull it from existing players. The world market will bow to the U.S. and for better or worse, you'd best be ready. (unless you live in a country where no one cares what we think ) The additional voices can't hurt. Worst case scenario, create a hotmail address here in the U.S.
Let's see, if we apply the judge's ruling to it's logical conclusion, it is unduly restrictive and burdensome to do the following tasks 1. Type ADV: in your subject line or at least present an honest description of your junk in the Subject Line 2. require us to show the path the mail took across the internet (which is usually done automatically anyway) 3. Post a valid reply address in your email As usual, this is another case of a legal system trying to take existing laws and bending them to fit the virtual world. This doesn't work. In most cases, the law's requirements are easier than breaking them. So, what is it called when you drive a bus full of Judges and Lawyers off a cliff and there's still an empty seat or two? A missed opportunity RB
This is an easy one. All Universities Public and Private (like companies) protect their assets on campus from people who aren't students. I'm not allowed in the U of M library because I'm not a student. Now, if students want to download Mp3's, that's their business. But you could probably cut the traffic in half if you cut off the "Server" function of Napster outside the campus. If you don't let non-students pull your bandwidth from the Napster "servers" on campus, you'd probably get some of your bandwidth back. And most students wouldn't care as long as they can steal their mp3 from offsite. Just set up screening for a protocol or port outside the campus and ban the traffic going out the router.
Actually, remember the contest we had for whoever came up with the best distribution of the source code for CSS? This is the winner, I think. You've got to wonder what the hell they were thinking. Then again, they're lawyers. They'll be getting paid all the way to the courtroom.
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The only downside (if there is one) is that it's all reflection and no solutions. I think the review tried to suggest this, but didn't quite pull it off. After reading about 20 chapters of ludicrous human behavior, (How many of us keep hitting the close door button on an elevator praying it might work quicker if we hit it more) - I guess I kind of was hoping for the author's opinion as to the solution, but he didn't have any. You get done with the book feeling the changes in society are permanent. And barring economic disaster, maybe they are.
Otherwise, it was a great book - I really recommend this one myself
One is the Government. Distrusted by many, Inefficient, Erratic, and dependant upon the whims of the elected parties at that time. Full of old men who know nothing of Technology, subject to the whim of lobbists and the dollar. Nevertheless, They are dependant upon US to vote them into office. I know for a fact that at least the fat cats in Washington will respond if enough people vote them out of a job. (Al Gore, defender of Tobacco - whoops - check the polls - now he turns into Al Gore, Vilifier of Tobacco)
On the other hand, Corporate America is beholden to nothing but the profit. The Jon Katz article earlier today with WAVE America is just a reinforcement. Profit rules, and rights, intellectual property, even individuality is simply a tool used to make more money. And how much say do we have over them? If we can't make it unprofitable for them to monitor, spam, sue, patent, and chuck the Internet full of corporate crap, then it won't go away. That's not speculation, that's a fact verfied by years of historical tradition.
Perhaps the solution is partially based upon the Govt. It's easier to motive Politicans to do good, in my opinion, than corporate America.
As it stands, I don't think this has been the case with most Linux startups. (Quick, name me the last time you saw a Linux commercial?) - Now it sounds like this CIO and CEO may have blown the finances in other ways, so that may have an impact on THIS company. I'm not prepared to give up yet on the Linux business model just because every CDNow, Amazon and 2000 other .com's are losing money. They were spending their dollars in the wrong place, that's all.
For a great article, read the latest column on Abcnews.com's Silicon Insider - http://abcnews.go.com/sections/business/siliconins ider/siliconinsider.html - (if this doesn't reference Silicon valley and IPO's, run a search on SOMA - that'll bring it up.) Very informative and shatters many of the illusions around the Valley at this time.
Unless the Linux start-up companies are following business models like these, they should be able to maintain some level of profitability
Ask Jon Johansen what the impact on U.S. laws have been to him. Many countries enforce worldwide patent/copyright legislation and intellectual property. If we set the standard here, it will filter out. Sony Japan is already freaking about the DVD bug in their Playstation 2 that allows users to view region 1 DVD's. They will be removing it from the design and looking for ways to pull it from existing players. The world market will bow to the U.S. and for better or worse, you'd best be ready. (unless you live in a country where no one cares what we think ) The additional voices can't hurt. Worst case scenario, create a hotmail address here in the U.S.
RB
Let's see, if we apply the judge's ruling to it's logical conclusion, it is unduly restrictive and burdensome to do the following tasks 1. Type ADV: in your subject line or at least present an honest description of your junk in the Subject Line 2. require us to show the path the mail took across the internet (which is usually done automatically anyway) 3. Post a valid reply address in your email As usual, this is another case of a legal system trying to take existing laws and bending them to fit the virtual world. This doesn't work. In most cases, the law's requirements are easier than breaking them. So, what is it called when you drive a bus full of Judges and Lawyers off a cliff and there's still an empty seat or two? A missed opportunity RB
This is an easy one. All Universities Public and Private (like companies) protect their assets on campus from people who aren't students. I'm not allowed in the U of M library because I'm not a student. Now, if students want to download Mp3's, that's their business. But you could probably cut the traffic in half if you cut off the "Server" function of Napster outside the campus. If you don't let non-students pull your bandwidth from the Napster "servers" on campus, you'd probably get some of your bandwidth back. And most students wouldn't care as long as they can steal their mp3 from offsite. Just set up screening for a protocol or port outside the campus and ban the traffic going out the router.
Actually, remember the contest we had for whoever came up with the best distribution of the source code for CSS? This is the winner, I think. You've got to wonder what the hell they were thinking. Then again, they're lawyers. They'll be getting paid all the way to the courtroom.