In the beginning of the "bubble", I think it was equal parts shoddy research and bad management. I don't think software design had much to do with it. It certainly varied from company to company but I bet it all averaged out.
For instance, my wife worked for a.com that was going to change the way the construction industry exchanged information and purchased materials. Now, given enough time, money (in conjunction with a low burn rate) and a dogged persistence it would have doubtless worked out. The problem was that they needed the industry to change NOW in order to meet their sales goals/revenue targets. Needless to say it didn't work out - they found from their reporting that even when contractors signed up for the system, they didn't use it. This could have (likely) been overcome in the long-run as the subscriber base reached a critical mass but one year (or less) just isn't enough time for this type of thing.
of almost every.com I've heard of that was created and died during the.com goldrush. My wife was there for 2 of 'em and when I heard her spouting this shit for the second time around, I was forced to smack her around a bit -
her: "well, we're REAL close to getting funding"
me: "are you going to get a paycheck this month"
her: "if we get funding"
me: "call the temp place tomorrow and find a temp position immediately."
her: "but we're close, we'll probably get a sheet by the end of the week"
me: "yeah, we're close too....close to having to live in a fucking box on the street corner unless you get a paycheck"
In one of the earlier stories on this subject, I read that the "steering" (or lack thereof) is the reason the US Navy didn't jump into this decades ago. Now, of course, we seem to be in a desperate rush to catch up.
I'm sick of seeing these words together. I don't normally rant on/. but: Wether in reference to servers (IBM's recent "server heal thyself" ad) , software, airplanes...it's all bullshit. I'm sure somewhere there's an example of this technology (other than gas tanks) but I haven't found it and I suspect that most of us will be 6' (2 odd meters for you 'outsiders':) under before any of this stuff comes to pass.
but, in conjunction with several others, I'm going to reiterate a very cogent point: Action on the governmental level is the only way to preclude this runaway machine that has become "content protection". Hacking DeCSS and watermarks is all well and good but it isn't going to stop this shit: only delay it. The expected replies to every story like this one is always "it'll be two weeks before someone posts a crack/hack for this POS" and, while true, it misses the point. As has been demonstrated in court numerous times, the law (as currently written) is on the side of the publisher(s). We need to get the law back into a middle ground that reigns in these crazy protection schemes, protects the consumers rights to material he/she has purchased and also provides a legal recourse for those copyright holders who are being ripped off.
this was already passed. Good 'ol Virginia. I live in Northern VA and I love all the tech companies being up here. All you have to do is raise the specre of some piece of legislation or other act of the Gov't pissing off the tech companies and the Gov't will shit themselves trying to repeal/amend/implement new/different laws and taxes.
I think you hit the nail on the head. The question is rapidly going to become one of infrastructure. Even if you've got a 1.5mb DSL line (not a given with the DSL companies folding like card tables) how long would it take to download even a piece of MS Office? What happens when half the users on the net are busy downloading/using these kinds of apps. Gridlock, that's what.
ooooooo....the Clintons were putting press releases on the internet in '92. Is that so? How did you find it? Archie? Gopher? back in them days putting it "on the internet" was a good as hiding it....
Since the poster doesn't like the charge for update agent, what other ways would he/she have them make money? Look, the redhat update agent is the very definition of "Value Added Service" and it seems very reasonable to charge for it. They noted in the post that the old way of getting the files and applying updates still works just fine. Why not charge a (in my mind) paltry 10 bucks to make it easier? Look, not everyone has their linux server hacked together from 486 parts and hooked to a cable service. Some folks are trying to push it into the enterprise and services like this are great for that.
Without the DNS stuff, AD is pretty cool. I don't think it's that unique but it is nifty. When you throw the DNS stuff into the equation, it is a mess. I wonder what possesed them to do that?
useful? Having robots kill each other is, at best, mildly entertaining. Battlebots is a lousy show, it takes them like 20 minutes just to get new bots into the ring. I would think that NASA would be more interested in robotics as it might apply to some of their responsibilities. The best they've been able to do so far is a robotic arm on mars that dug up some dirt and a little shoebox with wheels that rolled around for awhile to look at things. Honestly, what about a robot that, if it survived its crash-landing due to a conversion error, could walk for a couple hundred miles and really survey the area?
of these famous/infamous sites will die. Even with huge traffic. They will either die or become hobbies. This is the reality facing most of these sites. Just subsidizing bandwidth won't make it happen. Having a hobby is great but as most of you who have lived longer than 10 years know, they come and go. So too, will most of these sites. Even mine.
but get ye to an attorney now. An IP attorney in particular. Have him evalutate the contract before you do anything else. I realize that this is a difficult time but unless you get a qualified opinion first, everything else is just bunk. No VC, even back in "the good old days", is going to invest in a company with legal action hanging over it's head. Most times I would advise people to work with their employer on sticky issues like this but it sounds like you're working for a bunch of dicks.
we'll see a quantum computer the day after there is a fusion reactor (magnetic jar vessel) to power it...:) Sadly, this technology appears to be in the same vein as fusion: always 5 years away. Shit, I didn't even bother to read the article. SA ran one about 4 or 5 months ago about that I bothered to read and while the technology seems nifty one has to question when it will actually show. I think that SA was having what is the magazine equivalent of a "slow news day"
Here's what I did: I went to my employer and negotiated a deal with them. In the deal that I negotiated, they bought a license to the tool and we split the revenue from the tool that I built 80-20 when we licensed it to the third party. The revenue split and license deal worked out well but there are, however, two things that I learned: the first is that in my case, the tool addressed about 90% of the clients needs, therefore to tool had to be modified. This led to somewhat of a debate about who should modify it and when - and what the resulting ownership of those mods was going to be. The second was ongoing upgrades etc. Even though my employer was really cool about the whole thing, I always felt that they were doubly on the lookout about what I was doing - I presume to make sure I wasn't working on that tool (or others) on their time. Both are fair but sticky issues. The way that I opened the door to negotiations was to approach the most easy-going (cooles) of my supervisors on a non-official basis (lunch or something) and feel him out about it.....ymmv however if your company is a bunch of tight-asses.
I'll believe it when I see it. This seems really cool but it has all the markings of a technology that is going to go noplace. 20 companies will come out with different flavors and none will work together. Kind of like the current state of digital cameras. The memory stick is cool - it's a convenient form factor, has a nice protective case and can hold like 128MB of data but nobody but Sony uses it.
Interesting points all but I think the one about not using GPS signals to guide weapons is wrong. IIRC, the last attack that the US launched on the Iraqi air defense infrastructure utilized weapons that were guided by gps. I remember the news story about the particular weapon - it was a gravity bomb that could be released about 40 miles from a target (from 30k feet up or something) and all guidance from there on out was gps-based.
Yes, it could be viewed as a protest. However, just because you're protester doesn't give you any grounds to break the law. There is another side to civil disobedience. If you don't like the law, get it changed. Failing that, stop buying CD's.
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In the beginning of the "bubble", I think it was equal parts shoddy research and bad management. I don't think software design had much to do with it. It certainly varied from company to company but I bet it all averaged out.
.com that was going to change the way the construction industry exchanged information and purchased materials. Now, given enough time, money (in conjunction with a low burn rate) and a dogged persistence it would have doubtless worked out. The problem was that they needed the industry to change NOW in order to meet their sales goals/revenue targets. Needless to say it didn't work out - they found from their reporting that even when contractors signed up for the system, they didn't use it. This could have (likely) been overcome in the long-run as the subscriber base reached a critical mass but one year (or less) just isn't enough time for this type of thing.
For instance, my wife worked for a
of almost every .com I've heard of that was created and died during the .com goldrush. My wife was there for 2 of 'em and when I heard her spouting this shit for the second time around, I was forced to smack her around a bit -
her: "well, we're REAL close to getting funding"
me: "are you going to get a paycheck this month"
her: "if we get funding"
me: "call the temp place tomorrow and find a temp position immediately."
her: "but we're close, we'll probably get a sheet by the end of the week"
me: "yeah, we're close too....close to having to live in a fucking box on the street corner unless you get a paycheck"
Needless to say, the paycheck never came....
In one of the earlier stories on this subject, I read that the "steering" (or lack thereof) is the reason the US Navy didn't jump into this decades ago. Now, of course, we seem to be in a desperate rush to catch up.
I'm sick of seeing these words together. I don't normally rant on /. but: Wether in reference to servers (IBM's recent "server heal thyself" ad) , software, airplanes...it's all bullshit. I'm sure somewhere there's an example of this technology (other than gas tanks) but I haven't found it and I suspect that most of us will be 6' (2 odd meters for you 'outsiders' :) under before any of this stuff comes to pass.
but, in conjunction with several others, I'm going to reiterate a very cogent point: Action on the governmental level is the only way to preclude this runaway machine that has become "content protection". Hacking DeCSS and watermarks is all well and good but it isn't going to stop this shit: only delay it. The expected replies to every story like this one is always "it'll be two weeks before someone posts a crack/hack for this POS" and, while true, it misses the point. As has been demonstrated in court numerous times, the law (as currently written) is on the side of the publisher(s). We need to get the law back into a middle ground that reigns in these crazy protection schemes, protects the consumers rights to material he/she has purchased and also provides a legal recourse for those copyright holders who are being ripped off.
this was already passed. Good 'ol Virginia. I live in Northern VA and I love all the tech companies being up here. All you have to do is raise the specre of some piece of legislation or other act of the Gov't pissing off the tech companies and the Gov't will shit themselves trying to repeal/amend/implement new/different laws and taxes.
and companies like them? DSL companies that focus only on Businesses. Anyone think that they will survive the onslaught of the Baby bells?
I think you hit the nail on the head. The question is rapidly going to become one of infrastructure. Even if you've got a 1.5mb DSL line (not a given with the DSL companies folding like card tables) how long would it take to download even a piece of MS Office? What happens when half the users on the net are busy downloading/using these kinds of apps. Gridlock, that's what.
That's also why the SR leaked fuel while on the runway. Once it got up in the air and the airframe heated up, it quit leaking.
no different than movies, etc. I could care less if it keeps good games coming.
was the one about licensing and having to call in to get an ID code or whatever the hell it is. He danced right around that one!
It is difficult to smuggle such a large gun into a school unless you saw it off...btw, that last shooting in CA involved a shotgun....
Where did this "all your base stuff" come from?
ooooooo....the Clintons were putting press releases on the internet in '92. Is that so? How did you find it? Archie? Gopher? back in them days putting it "on the internet" was a good as hiding it....
You can still download the RPM's for free and install them yourself. Anyways, the only bug-free program anymore might be hello world....
Since the poster doesn't like the charge for update agent, what other ways would he/she have them make money? Look, the redhat update agent is the very definition of "Value Added Service" and it seems very reasonable to charge for it. They noted in the post that the old way of getting the files and applying updates still works just fine. Why not charge a (in my mind) paltry 10 bucks to make it easier? Look, not everyone has their linux server hacked together from 486 parts and hooked to a cable service. Some folks are trying to push it into the enterprise and services like this are great for that.
Without the DNS stuff, AD is pretty cool. I don't think it's that unique but it is nifty. When you throw the DNS stuff into the equation, it is a mess. I wonder what possesed them to do that?
useful? Having robots kill each other is, at best, mildly entertaining. Battlebots is a lousy show, it takes them like 20 minutes just to get new bots into the ring. I would think that NASA would be more interested in robotics as it might apply to some of their responsibilities. The best they've been able to do so far is a robotic arm on mars that dug up some dirt and a little shoebox with wheels that rolled around for awhile to look at things. Honestly, what about a robot that, if it survived its crash-landing due to a conversion error, could walk for a couple hundred miles and really survey the area?
of these famous/infamous sites will die. Even with huge traffic. They will either die or become hobbies. This is the reality facing most of these sites. Just subsidizing bandwidth won't make it happen. Having a hobby is great but as most of you who have lived longer than 10 years know, they come and go. So too, will most of these sites. Even mine.
but get ye to an attorney now. An IP attorney in particular. Have him evalutate the contract before you do anything else. I realize that this is a difficult time but unless you get a qualified opinion first, everything else is just bunk. No VC, even back in "the good old days", is going to invest in a company with legal action hanging over it's head. Most times I would advise people to work with their employer on sticky issues like this but it sounds like you're working for a bunch of dicks.
we'll see a quantum computer the day after there is a fusion reactor (magnetic jar vessel) to power it...:) Sadly, this technology appears to be in the same vein as fusion: always 5 years away. Shit, I didn't even bother to read the article. SA ran one about 4 or 5 months ago about that I bothered to read and while the technology seems nifty one has to question when it will actually show. I think that SA was having what is the magazine equivalent of a "slow news day"
Here's what I did: I went to my employer and negotiated a deal with them. In the deal that I negotiated, they bought a license to the tool and we split the revenue from the tool that I built 80-20 when we licensed it to the third party. The revenue split and license deal worked out well but there are, however, two things that I learned: the first is that in my case, the tool addressed about 90% of the clients needs, therefore to tool had to be modified. This led to somewhat of a debate about who should modify it and when - and what the resulting ownership of those mods was going to be. The second was ongoing upgrades etc. Even though my employer was really cool about the whole thing, I always felt that they were doubly on the lookout about what I was doing - I presume to make sure I wasn't working on that tool (or others) on their time. Both are fair but sticky issues. The way that I opened the door to negotiations was to approach the most easy-going (cooles) of my supervisors on a non-official basis (lunch or something) and feel him out about it.....ymmv however if your company is a bunch of tight-asses.
I'll believe it when I see it. This seems really cool but it has all the markings of a technology that is going to go noplace. 20 companies will come out with different flavors and none will work together. Kind of like the current state of digital cameras. The memory stick is cool - it's a convenient form factor, has a nice protective case and can hold like 128MB of data but nobody but Sony uses it.
Interesting points all but I think the one about not using GPS signals to guide weapons is wrong. IIRC, the last attack that the US launched on the Iraqi air defense infrastructure utilized weapons that were guided by gps. I remember the news story about the particular weapon - it was a gravity bomb that could be released about 40 miles from a target (from 30k feet up or something) and all guidance from there on out was gps-based.
Yes, it could be viewed as a protest. However, just because you're protester doesn't give you any grounds to break the law. There is another side to civil disobedience. If you don't like the law, get it changed. Failing that, stop buying CD's.