During the opening credits, I just barely pay attention to who did the soundtrack. But later on in the movie, I notice that during the slow-mo scenes I'm hearing this music and woman singing that sounds remarkably like Gladiator's soundtrack. Sure enough, go to the credits and you'll see Hans Zimmer is the man responsible. I think he cut a few corners and decided to use the music, or at least the same singer and orchestra to produce MI2's soundtrack.
What the hell is with Jolie and her brother? Every damn awards show I watch she's hanging on him, kissing him and thanking him when she receives an award.
She's not even that pretty, did you folks see her at the Oscars? Can we say Morticia Adams? She was a horrible pick for the movie and I hope it bombs.
Just how close is anyone to creating a independent "thinking" machine. I hesitate calling this machine an android or a robot, but you know what I'm asking.
You wrote: A total inavalability of alteritives is not required in order for a business to legally have monopoly power. All that is required is that they have enough control over the market that they can raise prices over what a competitive firm would offer, and not lose revenue through sales lost to the competition. The judge found that this was the case for Microsoft. I'm sorry, but I don't understand this. Can you rephrase? Your post brings up another piece of history, it seems whenever a large company has a market in his it's grip, it does "bad" things to keep competition out. Would you agree that it's a natural reaction that the company will do this? Remember they have stock holders to answer to. Monopolies seem to keep popping up: AT&T, Standard Oil, Microsoft. What can the United States do to prevent monopolies in the future?
You've made some strong counter-arguments. You point out an example of how Microsoft forces distributors to sell/bundle XYZ if they want to sell ABC. There's nothing wrong with that, let me give you a counterexample which ties in with the last paragraph:
Cisco has been known to make binding agreements and with companies, giving them discounts, free support, free hardware on the condition that they ONLY use Cisco equipment on their network. Hmmmm, smells like Microsoft:)
I think what it boils down to is that all humongous companies are going to inherently be evil and try to muscle other companies.
You can't blame MS and Cisco. These companies are out there in a dog-eat-dog marketplace trying to survive. They walk a fine line between honesty, morality and making a buck. I'm not saying that whatever they do is right, I'm just saying it's to be expected.
But what do we do? I think that we should adopt a hands-off policy and let the open source take off. The GNU and FSF organizations have such a toe-hold and momentum I think they'll eventually break down Microsoft to be more managable.
Granted, I haven't read any of the court briefs or paid attention to much of the news regarding this case. If I have any facts wrong please don't hesitate to slap me with a trout and correct me.
IMHO, I don't agree with the DOJ going after Microsoft. There are plenty of large companies out there performing the same 'unethical' business practices, but are they sued by the US government? Oh true, those other companies aren't a monopoly.
Fine, let's take monopoly for a sec. Microsoft does NOT have a frigging monopoly people. Get that through your heads. At any time people can install Linux, FreeBSD, Be or buy a Macintosh. Look back at previous monopolies of this size: the oil industry (there was a true monopoly, only one company controlled oil production and distribution), the phone industry (AT&T was the local and long distance carrier, period).
So what's going to happen now? The DOJ wants to punish Microsoft for trying to keep hold of their market share (albeit in deemed 'illegal' ways). There is no easy way to go about this. Breakup? Exorberant fines? Hell I don't know, I think a breakup will probably happen but I'm against it. Do they really think breaking up the companies will stop Bill Gates from controlling them? Heh, for those of you who think yes you're naive.
Lastly, think on this: Is Cisco next on DOJ's list to tackle? They're huge, they have a 'monopoly' as defined by the DOJ (as seen with MS).
Exactly! E-this and E-that. Do these companies have ANY idea what e-Commerce is? Hell, does the public? You could create a startup that sells absolutely nothing, put a bunch of words together and you'd be able to get VC capital up the wazoo. Just call yourself something like e-Business Commerce Solutions Inc.
IMNSHO the term ecommerce is annoying and overused. Does it mean business2business? business2consumer? consumer2consumer? banking? retail? asset systems? auctions? Well, all of the above I guess.
It's comparable to someone starting a company and advertising on company: We make stuff. Or even better: We make electronic frobs. What the hell? I'm sorry to go off on a rant, but the overcommercialization of the Internet sickens me, but I'm sure as hell not quitting my job and forfeiting my stock. I love my BMWs:)
The two founders of Cisco (then married) sold their stock after being fired for a reported $235 million. Not bad of course. Figure $100/mil each and then $50/mil after taxes.
After you reach several million, isn't it all just the same? I don't know, but I'd sure like to find out.:>
Interesting question you posed. I currently am a software engineer for Excite@Home located in Redwood City, CA. I lived in Silicon Valley for two years and then bought a house here in Houston, Texas. I arranged to work out here three to four weeks at a time and return back to the Valley for a week. It's been working out pretty well. As long as you have some kind of high speed access, a headset and a good travel agent, you're set.
Once thing that's important to note, you must stick to work when you're telecommuting. No fooling around. I try to not step out of my home office even to go grab something to eat. But if you do need to go somewhere, email your boss or your group and let them know what's up. Even if you have to do this a lot, they'll see that you're making an effort to be noticed.
Lastly, always present a responsible and approachable attitude. Especially if you're a softare engineer with customers (internal or external). People may forgot about you, if you're working remotely, don't let them! Be extra verbose in emails and promptly return all voicemail. Invest in some good groupware if you can (not only email), for instance get some kind of web messaging board and install it at work. Teach people to use it and to communicate.
Those are my thoughts, I'm enjoying telecommuting. It gives me a GREAT chance to concentrate and not be distracted.
This sounds like a good use of the service that they were building offshore in Cryptonomicon. The characters were starting a company that anonymized packets in another country other than the US and then spit them back on the net. Is anyone really doing this in real life?
When will companies wake up and smell the coffee? A reliable source that works for a media company told me that banner ads are worthless, they hardly generate any clicks that lead to purchases.
I am SO sick of the commercialization of the Internet. While it has brought about things like broadband and useful websites like/. and Google, I still am very angry at all the slimy marketing/sales folk trying to cash in with the *stupidest* business ideas.
I hope one day there is a reward and recognition for a site that's "banner-ad free". I totally understand why they're useful for revenue now, but hopefully it won't always have to be that way.
This X-Files episode was so funny! If you didn't taken it seriously at all, it was a romp. Mulder totally stole the show on this one, he was absoultely hilarious.
The equipment (guns, armor, headsets) reminded me of Aliens.
Mp3s and Napster will cause the collapse of the music industry as we know it. It will not go away, but it will really change. There will be no way for the recording industry to copyprotect their CDs.
Some suggestions that they'd think of possibly:
1) encrypt the CD. Effect: Then you'd need an encrypted CD player. Workaround: cross connect another stereo as the speakers and record it into a wav.
2) encrypt the speakers Effect: Wouldn't take off.
Face it, the recording industry is in a jam and they're going to grasp at straws by suing companies like mp3.com and Napster. Their lawsuits are unjustified. Is Microsoft suing AbsoluteFTP and wu-ftpd because those pieces of software enable people to download their applications from sites without buying them? No.
Why buy a CD when you can get the mp3 (or next-gen format) within 2 weeks from the net?
Groups will have to add more value to buying a CD. Maybe there is more they can put on there, like video or a website on the making of the CD, hell I dunno. Artists may have to just give up getting paid what they're getting now for the sake of music. Concerts will bigger money makers and you can bet we'll have to pay $100+ to see someone like U2.
You must sign an NDA to get the seed software that says you can't talk about the products they send you that are developer previews. This guy will probably lose his membership. Duh.
Slashdot Mirror
Mars:
Has no strip clubs.
Has no alcohol.
Has no dirty mags.
Utah:
Has no strip clubs.
Has no alcohol.
Has no dirty mags.
Logical.
During the opening credits, I just barely pay attention to who did the soundtrack. But later on in the movie, I notice that during the slow-mo scenes I'm hearing this music and woman singing that sounds remarkably like Gladiator's soundtrack. Sure enough, go to the credits and you'll see Hans Zimmer is the man responsible. I think he cut a few corners and decided to use the music, or at least the same singer and orchestra to produce MI2's soundtrack.
Kinda lazy.
What the hell is with Jolie and her brother? Every damn awards show I watch she's hanging on him, kissing him and thanking him when she receives an award.
She's not even that pretty, did you folks see her at the Oscars? Can we say Morticia Adams? She was a horrible pick for the movie and I hope it bombs.
Professor Pollack,
Just how close is anyone to creating a independent "thinking" machine. I hesitate calling this machine an android or a robot, but you know what I'm asking.
You wrote: A total inavalability of alteritives is not required in order for a business to legally have monopoly power. All that is required is that they have enough control over the market that they can raise prices over what a competitive firm would offer, and not lose revenue through sales lost to the competition. The judge found that this was the case for Microsoft. I'm sorry, but I don't understand this. Can you rephrase? Your post brings up another piece of history, it seems whenever a large company has a market in his it's grip, it does "bad" things to keep competition out. Would you agree that it's a natural reaction that the company will do this? Remember they have stock holders to answer to. Monopolies seem to keep popping up: AT&T, Standard Oil, Microsoft. What can the United States do to prevent monopolies in the future?
You've made some strong counter-arguments. You point out an example of how Microsoft forces distributors to sell/bundle XYZ if they want to sell ABC. There's nothing wrong with that, let me give you a counterexample which ties in with the last paragraph:
:)
Cisco has been known to make binding agreements and with companies, giving them discounts, free support, free hardware on the condition that they ONLY use Cisco equipment on their network. Hmmmm, smells like Microsoft
I think what it boils down to is that all humongous companies are going to inherently be evil and try to muscle other companies.
You can't blame MS and Cisco. These companies are out there in a dog-eat-dog marketplace trying to survive. They walk a fine line between honesty, morality and making a buck. I'm not saying that whatever they do is right, I'm just saying it's to be expected.
But what do we do? I think that we should adopt a hands-off policy and let the open source take off. The GNU and FSF organizations have such a toe-hold and momentum I think they'll eventually break down Microsoft to be more managable.
Granted, I haven't read any of the court briefs or paid attention to much of the news regarding this case. If I have any facts wrong please don't hesitate to slap me with a trout and correct me.
IMHO, I don't agree with the DOJ going after Microsoft. There are plenty of large companies out there performing the same 'unethical' business practices, but are they sued by the US government? Oh true, those other companies aren't a monopoly.
Fine, let's take monopoly for a sec. Microsoft does NOT have a frigging monopoly people. Get that through your heads. At any time people can install Linux, FreeBSD, Be or buy a Macintosh. Look back at previous monopolies of this size: the oil industry (there was a true monopoly, only one company controlled oil production and distribution), the phone industry (AT&T was the local and long distance carrier, period).
So what's going to happen now? The DOJ wants to punish Microsoft for trying to keep hold of their market share (albeit in deemed 'illegal' ways). There is no easy way to go about this. Breakup? Exorberant fines? Hell I don't know, I think a breakup will probably happen but I'm against it. Do they really think breaking up the companies will stop Bill Gates from controlling them? Heh, for those of you who think yes you're naive.
Lastly, think on this: Is Cisco next on DOJ's list to tackle? They're huge, they have a 'monopoly' as defined by the DOJ (as seen with MS).
Exactly! E-this and E-that. Do these companies have ANY idea what e-Commerce is? Hell, does the public? You could create a startup that sells absolutely nothing, put a bunch of words together and you'd be able to get VC capital up the wazoo. Just call yourself something like e-Business Commerce Solutions Inc.
:)
IMNSHO the term ecommerce is annoying and overused. Does it mean business2business? business2consumer? consumer2consumer? banking? retail? asset systems? auctions? Well, all of the above I guess.
It's comparable to someone starting a company and advertising on company: We make stuff. Or even better: We make electronic frobs. What the hell? I'm sorry to go off on a rant, but the overcommercialization of the Internet sickens me, but I'm sure as hell not quitting my job and forfeiting my stock. I love my BMWs
Justin
The two founders of Cisco (then married) sold their stock after being fired for a reported $235 million. Not bad of course. Figure $100/mil each and then $50/mil after taxes.
:>
After you reach several million, isn't it all just the same? I don't know, but I'd sure like to find out.
I heard from somewhere that one share of Cisco stock bought the day after it's IPO would be worth $7000 today. That's pretty incredible.
Hey there,
Interesting question you posed. I currently am a software engineer for Excite@Home located in Redwood City, CA. I lived in Silicon Valley for two years and then bought a house here in Houston, Texas. I arranged to work out here three to four weeks at a time and return back to the Valley for a week. It's been working out pretty well. As long as you have some kind of high speed access, a headset and a good travel agent, you're set.
Once thing that's important to note, you must stick to work when you're telecommuting. No fooling around. I try to not step out of my home office even to go grab something to eat. But if you do need to go somewhere, email your boss or your group and let them know what's up. Even if you have to do this a lot, they'll see that you're making an effort to be noticed.
Lastly, always present a responsible and approachable attitude. Especially if you're a softare engineer with customers (internal or external). People may forgot about you, if you're working remotely, don't let them! Be extra verbose in emails and promptly return all voicemail. Invest in some good groupware if you can (not only email), for instance get some kind of web messaging board and install it at work. Teach people to use it and to communicate.
Those are my thoughts, I'm enjoying telecommuting. It gives me a GREAT chance to concentrate and not be distracted.
j
This sounds like Oop! The software they were developing in the book Microserfs by Doug Coupland.
So what are the new features? I can't seem to find a webpage listing what all is new. Are there going to be any visual changes?
Which is it? Hot or cold?
:)
This sounds like a good use of the service that they were building offshore in Cryptonomicon. The characters were starting a company that anonymized packets in another country other than the US and then spit them back on the net. Is anyone really doing this in real life?
...on the commercialization of space, and means of getting there, check out January's Wired issue.
When will companies wake up and smell the coffee? A reliable source that works for a media company told me that banner ads are worthless, they hardly generate any clicks that lead to purchases.
/. and Google, I still am very angry at all the slimy marketing/sales folk trying to cash in with the *stupidest* business ideas.
I am SO sick of the commercialization of the Internet. While it has brought about things like broadband and useful websites like
I hope one day there is a reward and recognition for a site that's "banner-ad free". I totally understand why they're useful for revenue now, but hopefully it won't always have to be that way.
Hard links will only work on the same filesystem. mv'ing passwd and then hard linking back to /etc is pretty much redundant.
This song should never have been nominated. I'm a bit disappointed that the Phantom Menace's "Duel of the Fates" wasn't nominated.
REDUNDANT should get -1
This X-Files episode was so funny! If you didn't taken it seriously at all, it was a romp. Mulder totally stole the show on this one, he was absoultely hilarious.
The equipment (guns, armor, headsets) reminded me of Aliens.
Mp3s and Napster will cause the collapse of the music industry as we know it. It will not go away, but it will really change. There will be no way for the recording industry to copyprotect their CDs.
Some suggestions that they'd think of possibly:
1) encrypt the CD.
Effect: Then you'd need an encrypted CD player.
Workaround: cross connect another stereo as the speakers and record it into a wav.
2) encrypt the speakers
Effect: Wouldn't take off.
Face it, the recording industry is in a jam and they're going to grasp at straws by suing companies like mp3.com and Napster. Their lawsuits are unjustified. Is Microsoft suing AbsoluteFTP and wu-ftpd because those pieces of software enable people to download their applications from sites without buying them? No.
Why buy a CD when you can get the mp3 (or next-gen format) within 2 weeks from the net?
Groups will have to add more value to buying a CD. Maybe there is more they can put on there, like video or a website on the making of the CD, hell I dunno. Artists may have to just give up getting paid what they're getting now for the sake of music. Concerts will bigger money makers and you can bet we'll have to pay $100+ to see someone like U2.
You must sign an NDA to get the seed software that says you can't talk about the products they send you that are developer previews. This guy will probably lose his membership. Duh.
Thanks for taking the time to read them dsplat. :)
I can say it's not me, it was postfixed to the article after I sent it in by Slashdot. Support /.