The new hybrid Civic is like a 4-door Insight. I believe the main difference in the drivetrain is that it uses a 4 cylinder motor instead of a 3. It has a CVT transmission, and I assume a manual too. You can read more about it at www.evworld.com.
At the current state of the art, gasoline automotive engines are cleaner than most power plants. The exceptions are natural gas fired power plants. California has mostly natural gas and some nuclear electricity, so electric and/or hydrogen cars would make sense there. But the rest of the country runs on coal (or hydro, but that has its own problems). State of the art coal plants are pretty clean, but not as clean as gasoline motors. And most coal plants are nowhere near state of the art.
I think this is exactly what's happening. Expect to see MC/Visa to move in on Paypal's business, after letting them be the guinea pig.
It's sort of like how Starbucks never goes into a neighborhood without an already established coffee house- they look for a local operation who has pioneered a local market, then go in and try to steal their business.
As always, the pioneers usually get killed. It's the settlers who come afterward that get rich.
OK, these people want to use cheap hardware, but they're using Solaris because they think they're too stupid to deal with Linux. If you were Sun, would you want to be liable for supporting these people? Talk about the 1% of the customer base that generates 99% of the support costs... If you had sold them Sun boxes, at least you'd know the hardware worked, not to mention having gotten some money from them.
I'm *so* glad it will be seen in Newport Beach!
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Revolution OS
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· Score: 2
I'm glad this movie will be screened in Newport Beach! There is no greater concentration of semi-powerful corporate drones anywhere in the world, who really need this kind of education. These people are smart, and appreciative of the kind of advantages Linux offers, but too caught up in the mess to see the light. This will help, even if it's just a little.
This is completely absurd. I'm a relative beginner at programming, but I've spent 20 years in other kinds of engineering. Engineering is collaborative by nature. Teaching new engineers how to work with others is just as important as getting them to learn the material. In fact, given the typical engineering personality, teaching collaboration may be the bigger challenge!
If all you want to be is a code monkey, you can go to trade school. Universities are supposed to be training engineers.
If collaboration isn't designed into the teaching of the material itself, this is a second rate school.
This is why the average PC user really likes MS Office/Works. When all they want to do is write a letter, create an invoice, etc., there's a ready made template that does the job. This is what's missing from Openoffice. Templates! Sure, there are great template tools, but no templates. They're not included. You have to create your own. To the average user, this really sucks, and it's the dealbreaker.
No one cares about Bonobo, XML, and the rest of the alphabet soup. Create some nice templates, and the world will beat a path to your door.
This sounds great, but just try getting a local telco to sell you a dry pair. Unless you're an alarm company, they'll do their best to give you the runaround.
...is that the actual value of such information is much, much less than it's made out to be. Information is traded as a commodity. But like any other commodity, it's subject to speculative whirlwinds. And that's what we're in the midst of now. I speak as a marketing professional- the actual value of this stuff as a marketing tool is much lower than what it's being traded for. It's worth so much because everyone assumes it has a lot more value than it really does. Eventually the market will crash, but it won't stop information being collected because it's so cheap to do it. In the short term, the rush to build databases will continue because they're valued as a corporate asset- whether or not they'll ever be useful for cost-effective marketing campaigns. Those dead dotcoms with "valuable" databases will actually be worth... nothing.
Collecting money is not that easy, and not that cheap. I had a service business for many years, and had to deal with a lot of deadbeats. Getting judgements was not the problem. Collecting the money was. Even if you already have the bank account info, and even if there's money in it, it costs a lot to collect it. At the very least, you have to get an abstract of judgement, then there's a fee to file the lien. Last time I did this, the courthouse fees alone were almost $200. On top of that, there's another fee to actually get the money from the offender's account. You have to pay this up front- the marshalls won't just take a commission, like lawyers will.
This is true. The essence of this business, especially "free" software, is support. This is what IBM does, and does so well they're kicking everyone's butts. Redhat has a long way to go to beat IBM. But if they keep at it they can be the IBM of 2015, if they don't screw up too much along th way.
I've had the same experience with Redhat. The support they include with boxed software is a joke- I get better, faster help from Linux newsgroups. I don't have any experience with their premium support. It might be really good, but the basic stuff is so bad I'm not about to give it a try.
...don't buy their products. I haven't bought an RIAA-affected CD in 10 years. Most of the stuff I listen to is from musicians I've met personally, or from small labels who are glad for any exposure at all, and willfully give their stuff away.
Outlook Express *still* ships with the preview pane turned on by default, and port 139 is still wide open by default too. These are the two biggest security flaws in Windows operating systems, allowing the spread of every virus in recent memory. Yet Microsoft has done nothing about this.
I have several clients and friends in the civil/structural engineering and construction management business. All of them say that Japan is appalling when it comes to corruption in these industries- with graft being as much as 20% of the total budget of a major hotel or office building.
Bertelesman has been simply the most forward thinking and proactive among the big 4. Instead of investing in a futile battle to stem the digital tide, they embraced the digital future by investing in Napster. Now they own digital distribution, for all practical purposes.
Napster was first, is most familiar to users, and has the largest market share (even after being dormant for a few months). It's still the best designed, easiest to use music downloading application. It set a standard which will now be hard to compete with.
Eventually, one of them had to do it. Bertelesman took the initiative. Sony, Universal, and Time-Warner snoozed on this one- and lost.
I did just such a focus group, to find the best desktop package for a company overhauling their whole IT approach. We compared Mandrake and Redhat with Windows, Mac OS9, and OSX. As a long time Mandrake user, the results were no surprise to me- people familiar with Windows or Mac were initially more productive on those, but Mandrake was about as easy to use and adapt to as a Mac for Windows users, or Windows for Mac users. So really, they're all about the same. System administration tasks on Mandrake were actually easier than Windows, for Windows and Mac users!
Personally, I find Mandrake/KDE is a little bit ahead of Win2K, usability-wise, especially with moving files around, and in system administration. I use both regularly. I hear XP is a big improvement over 2K, but I haven't spent much time with it.
As a technical writer/editor/publisher who routinely deals in thousand-page documents, I'd never risk relying on Word. It's just too unreliable. Word is fine for letters, routine reports, and college term papers, but real pros use Framemaker, or Unix tools like Tex/LaTeX.
Yeah, I know, a lot of pros do use Word, but their publishers waste an awful lot of time and money fixing the inevitable problems.
The reason we don't have a common file format is that software makers don't want it. It's the main hook that keeps people locked into using a particular program. And before you unleash all your wrath on Microsoft, keep in mind that every other major player has been doing the same thing all along- Lotus/IBM, Wordperfect, Adobe, etc. Wordperfect and Adobe originally went even further, with their proprietary fonts. Things would be a lot different if these companies hadn't been more stingy than Microsoft to begin with.
The irony is that with all this underhanded maneuvering, combative bullshit, pushing the limits of business ethics, and general bad karma, these bottom feeders are still not making a penny! Nor is there any evidence they ever will. I'm glad I'm not a shareholder...
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The new hybrid Civic is like a 4-door Insight. I believe the main difference in the drivetrain is that it uses a 4 cylinder motor instead of a 3. It has a CVT transmission, and I assume a manual too. You can read more about it at www.evworld.com.
At the current state of the art, gasoline automotive engines are cleaner than most power plants. The exceptions are natural gas fired power plants. California has mostly natural gas and some nuclear electricity, so electric and/or hydrogen cars would make sense there. But the rest of the country runs on coal (or hydro, but that has its own problems). State of the art coal plants are pretty clean, but not as clean as gasoline motors. And most coal plants are nowhere near state of the art.
I think this is exactly what's happening. Expect to see MC/Visa to move in on Paypal's business, after letting them be the guinea pig.
It's sort of like how Starbucks never goes into a neighborhood without an already established coffee house- they look for a local operation who has pioneered a local market, then go in and try to steal their business.
As always, the pioneers usually get killed. It's the settlers who come afterward that get rich.
...at least according to all the tests I've seen.
OK, these people want to use cheap hardware, but they're using Solaris because they think they're too stupid to deal with Linux. If you were Sun, would you want to be liable for supporting these people? Talk about the 1% of the customer base that generates 99% of the support costs... If you had sold them Sun boxes, at least you'd know the hardware worked, not to mention having gotten some money from them.
I'm glad this movie will be screened in Newport Beach! There is no greater concentration of semi-powerful corporate drones anywhere in the world, who really need this kind of education. These people are smart, and appreciative of the kind of advantages Linux offers, but too caught up in the mess to see the light. This will help, even if it's just a little.
You'd think people in the business of writing software would be able to figure out how to generate a key and password and send it to you instantly.
This is completely absurd. I'm a relative beginner at programming, but I've spent 20 years in other kinds of engineering. Engineering is collaborative by nature. Teaching new engineers how to work with others is just as important as getting them to learn the material. In fact, given the typical engineering personality, teaching collaboration may be the bigger challenge!
If all you want to be is a code monkey, you can go to trade school. Universities are supposed to be training engineers.
If collaboration isn't designed into the teaching of the material itself, this is a second rate school.
This is why the average PC user really likes MS Office/Works. When all they want to do is write a letter, create an invoice, etc., there's a ready made template that does the job. This is what's missing from Openoffice. Templates! Sure, there are great template tools, but no templates. They're not included. You have to create your own. To the average user, this really sucks, and it's the dealbreaker.
No one cares about Bonobo, XML, and the rest of the alphabet soup. Create some nice templates, and the world will beat a path to your door.
A novel purchased cheaply at a used book store just cultivates another fan and reader for that author.
...most new car dealers actually make more money from used car sales than new.
This sounds great, but just try getting a local telco to sell you a dry pair. Unless you're an alarm company, they'll do their best to give you the runaround.
...is that the actual value of such information is much, much less than it's made out to be. Information is traded as a commodity. But like any other commodity, it's subject to speculative whirlwinds. And that's what we're in the midst of now. I speak as a marketing professional- the actual value of this stuff as a marketing tool is much lower than what it's being traded for. It's worth so much because everyone assumes it has a lot more value than it really does. Eventually the market will crash, but it won't stop information being collected because it's so cheap to do it. In the short term, the rush to build databases will continue because they're valued as a corporate asset- whether or not they'll ever be useful for cost-effective marketing campaigns. Those dead dotcoms with "valuable" databases will actually be worth... nothing.
Collecting money is not that easy, and not that cheap. I had a service business for many years, and had to deal with a lot of deadbeats. Getting judgements was not the problem. Collecting the money was. Even if you already have the bank account info, and even if there's money in it, it costs a lot to collect it. At the very least, you have to get an abstract of judgement, then there's a fee to file the lien. Last time I did this, the courthouse fees alone were almost $200. On top of that, there's another fee to actually get the money from the offender's account. You have to pay this up front- the marshalls won't just take a commission, like lawyers will.
This is true. The essence of this business, especially "free" software, is support. This is what IBM does, and does so well they're kicking everyone's butts. Redhat has a long way to go to beat IBM. But if they keep at it they can be the IBM of 2015, if they don't screw up too much along th way.
I've had the same experience with Redhat. The support they include with boxed software is a joke- I get better, faster help from Linux newsgroups. I don't have any experience with their premium support. It might be really good, but the basic stuff is so bad I'm not about to give it a try.
...don't buy their products. I haven't bought an RIAA-affected CD in 10 years. Most of the stuff I listen to is from musicians I've met personally, or from small labels who are glad for any exposure at all, and willfully give their stuff away.
Outlook Express *still* ships with the preview pane turned on by default, and port 139 is still wide open by default too. These are the two biggest security flaws in Windows operating systems, allowing the spread of every virus in recent memory. Yet Microsoft has done nothing about this.
I have several clients and friends in the civil/structural engineering and construction management business. All of them say that Japan is appalling when it comes to corruption in these industries- with graft being as much as 20% of the total budget of a major hotel or office building.
Napster was first, is most familiar to users, and has the largest market share (even after being dormant for a few months). It's still the best designed, easiest to use music downloading application. It set a standard which will now be hard to compete with.
Eventually, one of them had to do it. Bertelesman took the initiative. Sony, Universal, and Time-Warner snoozed on this one- and lost.
I did just such a focus group, to find the best desktop package for a company overhauling their whole IT approach. We compared Mandrake and Redhat with Windows, Mac OS9, and OSX. As a long time Mandrake user, the results were no surprise to me- people familiar with Windows or Mac were initially more productive on those, but Mandrake was about as easy to use and adapt to as a Mac for Windows users, or Windows for Mac users. So really, they're all about the same. System administration tasks on Mandrake were actually easier than Windows, for Windows and Mac users!
Personally, I find Mandrake/KDE is a little bit ahead of Win2K, usability-wise, especially with moving files around, and in system administration. I use both regularly. I hear XP is a big improvement over 2K, but I haven't spent much time with it.
Yeah, I know, a lot of pros do use Word, but their publishers waste an awful lot of time and money fixing the inevitable problems.
The reason we don't have a common file format is that software makers don't want it. It's the main hook that keeps people locked into using a particular program. And before you unleash all your wrath on Microsoft, keep in mind that every other major player has been doing the same thing all along- Lotus/IBM, Wordperfect, Adobe, etc. Wordperfect and Adobe originally went even further, with their proprietary fonts. Things would be a lot different if these companies hadn't been more stingy than Microsoft to begin with.
...and this is just one more example.
The irony is that with all this underhanded maneuvering, combative bullshit, pushing the limits of business ethics, and general bad karma, these bottom feeders are still not making a penny! Nor is there any evidence they ever will. I'm glad I'm not a shareholder...