Zune wasn't rejected because it was late to market.
It was rejected because Microsoft refused to give up on their lockin, and make the system open so that users could play any non-DRM'd format. Like it or not, the enforced DRM presents a serious usability issue for non-technical users. (Technical users don't care about usability problems - but they appreciate "slick" when it's there, and they appreciate ways to work around "only plays protected.WMV files"). When grandma's Zune won't play the files that little Johnny ripped off his CD or Napster, they don't give a fuck who's rights are being violated. All they know is "shit's broken".
Add to this; Microsoft was far-behind in terms of technical capabilities, compared to other players. (video, audio quality, etc - and later, iPod touch with apps and all that). Microsoft could have sunk enough R&D into Zune to do all that. But I think MS never really believed that they could succeed.
The worst part about metro is that it's straight-up ADWARE. Right there on the main screen of the computer, delivered by the OS developer.
You can remove it, you can change it, but by default, Microsoft decides what "tiles" are on your screen, and what gets displayed. The user wants an application-picker. Metro is like a billboard, when the user needs a dashboard - and it's no surprise that drivers go careening into the guardrails every time they sit down behind the Windows 8 wheel.
In general, CEO's are the "rock star" of the business world today.
But I would say that MS was an exception. Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer founded that company. They were executives because they were there at the start. Not because they were charismatic, or even technically competent. All they did was oversee the OS's pillaging of IBM's former market dominance. (look at IBM now, lol!).
If you look at Microsoft's products, "charisma" is not a factor in the equation. There's lots of "attempted charisma" that falls far short of the self-scrutiny that is required to attain real charisma. Here and there, Microsoft does shine, technically. (like Active Directory). But the business-side of it was run basically like organized crime (lockin). And that put a nasty stink on everything that came out of Redmond. Ballmer was pretty handy with the gangster stuff. But that's about it.
The only reason he was ever employed at Microsoft in the first place, is because he was Bill Gates' card-playing business-major friend in college. He was a co-founder of Microsoft. If Bill Gates didn't know him, I am pretty sure that this obtuse, bullying gangster would never have had the technical chops to get in to such a position. I have to say one thing about Microsoft is that they were so successful, even Ballmer's intimate involvement could not sink them.
150 years from now, we'll be saying that banning CO2 was the best environmental law we ever passed. Or, we'll be saying, "maybe tomorrow, if we can finish crossing this wasteland, we'll find an abandoned town we can scavenge some food from"... "or at least some ammo."
When I worked at Seagate, the Sales and Marketing guys got a "package" for making some quarterly goal, which included a South African safari for the whole team, and a commemorative wristwatch (about $2000 value). No engineer EVER got any kind of perk like that. Three quarters later, our group was being sold-off to another company. Which was bought by another company two years later. We engineers were treated very much like cattle. I'm sure the sales guys are all retired now because they got way more in stock options and bonus packages than us engineers, who still have to work, and will probably be laid off in our late 40's.
When I was working at Lockheed Martin; 7 years ago, there was a company-wide initiative SPECIFICALLY FOR training younger employees to head into that advancement pipeline. Included tuition-reimbursement programs, special mentoring programs. Etc. LM saw this coming, and they took serious measures to try to avoid it. The rumor mill was saying that Boeing was trying to do this as well, but I didn't know anyone who worked at Boeing to confirm.
doesn't really kill the power braking. I think that in a car the size of a prius, loss of power steering isn't a big deal either.
What happens to the brakes is the vacuum pump (or manifold vacuum) falls off, and the vacuum assist to the brake booster drops off. However, ALL brake boosters I'm familiar with, have enough vacuum in the reservoir for at least 3 brake pumps after vacuum is removed. I think this may be a NHSA regulation. Without brake booster, you still have hydraulic assist, AND a handbrake that is a mechanical linkage. Unless you're towing 5000 lbs, I have a hard time believing that brakes weren't strong enough.
UNLESS - the software failure somehow affected the antilock brakes and/or electronic stability control. But in my understanding, those solenoids would HAVE to be firing like crazy, and the driver would know something was up because that is loud. It would have been reported.
This depends on how much mass there is, whether it's concentrated in a small lump, or flows through the paths of least resistance, and separates, and spreads out, (like chernobyl did). If it spreads out, the reaction slows, and then, it's largely decay-heat that's left over (which is pretty significant, but still, not 3000 degrees C significant).
Youtube is full of videos of steam-clouds that have been around the plant since roughly June 2012. This *seems* to indicate that there's something hot contacting moisture in the ground, and forcing out steam over an area of soil, but it's not consistent with a 77-ton mass of molten material dropping into a lake (ie. worst-case steam-explosion situation which is often portrayed as the result of a meltdown). The plant is along the coast, so fog has never been an unusual occurrence, so that likely conceals the fact that the core is issuing radioactive steam through cracks in the soil. A simple sampling and test of the steam should reveal if this were the case. But we're not getting that kind of data from Tepco.
. . . I mean, what if Boeing finds a problem with the avionics firmware in their 777? Just send out a broadcast radio patch, and you're good to go on all planes. What could possibly go wrong?
Banking and financial services are clearly necessary for progress.
But the winner-take-all profit skimming model certainly isn't necessary. We could be just as prosperous and successful with a national banking model that treats this function as a utility, rather than an easy method for entitled white-collar crime.
Slashdot Mirror
Zune wasn't rejected because it was late to market.
It was rejected because Microsoft refused to give up on their lockin, and make the system open so that users could play any non-DRM'd format. Like it or not, the enforced DRM presents a serious usability issue for non-technical users. (Technical users don't care about usability problems - but they appreciate "slick" when it's there, and they appreciate ways to work around "only plays protected .WMV files"). When grandma's Zune won't play the files that little Johnny ripped off his CD or Napster, they don't give a fuck who's rights are being violated. All they know is "shit's broken".
Add to this; Microsoft was far-behind in terms of technical capabilities, compared to other players. (video, audio quality, etc - and later, iPod touch with apps and all that). Microsoft could have sunk enough R&D into Zune to do all that. But I think MS never really believed that they could succeed.
The worst part about metro is that it's straight-up ADWARE. Right there on the main screen of the computer, delivered by the OS developer.
You can remove it, you can change it, but by default, Microsoft decides what "tiles" are on your screen, and what gets displayed. The user wants an application-picker. Metro is like a billboard, when the user needs a dashboard - and it's no surprise that drivers go careening into the guardrails every time they sit down behind the Windows 8 wheel.
Gates was too meek to have ever fired Ballmer. And too powerful to let him come to harm, no matter what he did.
In general, CEO's are the "rock star" of the business world today.
But I would say that MS was an exception. Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer founded that company. They were executives because they were there at the start. Not because they were charismatic, or even technically competent. All they did was oversee the OS's pillaging of IBM's former market dominance. (look at IBM now, lol!).
If you look at Microsoft's products, "charisma" is not a factor in the equation. There's lots of "attempted charisma" that falls far short of the self-scrutiny that is required to attain real charisma. Here and there, Microsoft does shine, technically. (like Active Directory). But the business-side of it was run basically like organized crime (lockin). And that put a nasty stink on everything that came out of Redmond. Ballmer was pretty handy with the gangster stuff. But that's about it.
"inherited" is right.
The only reason he was ever employed at Microsoft in the first place, is because he was Bill Gates' card-playing business-major friend in college. He was a co-founder of Microsoft. If Bill Gates didn't know him, I am pretty sure that this obtuse, bullying gangster would never have had the technical chops to get in to such a position. I have to say one thing about Microsoft is that they were so successful, even Ballmer's intimate involvement could not sink them.
Based on the prices of some programs, I don't think that "too expensive" is an issue.
When killing people is concerned, I think that no price is too high for our military.
having a sick and dying workforce is not a way to grow an economy.
yeah - if it takes effort to draw-in breath, then you have a proper seal. (used to wear one spray painting).
150 years from now, we'll be saying that banning CO2 was the best environmental law we ever passed.
Or, we'll be saying, "maybe tomorrow, if we can finish crossing this wasteland, we'll find an abandoned town we can scavenge some food from"... "or at least some ammo."
ppp chat. It's the only way to be sure. Unless. . . TEMPEST. . . .
yeah. Basically, there are two use-cases. Civil Defense alerts. And spam.
Companies are sitting on an historically mammoth pile of cash (in general) :
https://www.stlouisfed.org/pub...
http://www.dailyfinance.com/on...
http://bgr.com/2013/10/02/appl...
http://www.theatlantic.com/bus...
Why are they being so stingy?
They have realized that it is far more profitable to invest in CONGRESSMEN, than it is to invest in their own labor-pool.
Yeah, well, cars cost $20000. Good luck with your $10000 car. (hint: buy the extended warranty).
When I worked at Seagate, the Sales and Marketing guys got a "package" for making some quarterly goal, which included a South African safari for the whole team, and a commemorative wristwatch (about $2000 value). No engineer EVER got any kind of perk like that. Three quarters later, our group was being sold-off to another company. Which was bought by another company two years later. We engineers were treated very much like cattle. I'm sure the sales guys are all retired now because they got way more in stock options and bonus packages than us engineers, who still have to work, and will probably be laid off in our late 40's.
When I was working at Lockheed Martin; 7 years ago, there was a company-wide initiative SPECIFICALLY FOR training younger employees to head into that advancement pipeline. Included tuition-reimbursement programs, special mentoring programs. Etc. LM saw this coming, and they took serious measures to try to avoid it. The rumor mill was saying that Boeing was trying to do this as well, but I didn't know anyone who worked at Boeing to confirm.
Why not a network made up of only known friends? It would be the ultimate clique -
. . . like a BBS?
The question is; is the Cs-137 from the Navy, or is it from Fukushima?
Don't they have surplus nuclear warheads? Or do you think they're going to use them all?
so, basically, we're going to litter mars with piles of dead bodies of suicidal people. Typical humanity.
Can't do "bread and circuses" without bread.
I do not want my car grinding to a halt because the police are looking for some runaway or a bank was robbed.
. . . or I didn't endorse the right political candidate.
doesn't really kill the power braking. I think that in a car the size of a prius, loss of power steering isn't a big deal either.
What happens to the brakes is the vacuum pump (or manifold vacuum) falls off, and the vacuum assist to the brake booster drops off. However, ALL brake boosters I'm familiar with, have enough vacuum in the reservoir for at least 3 brake pumps after vacuum is removed. I think this may be a NHSA regulation. Without brake booster, you still have hydraulic assist, AND a handbrake that is a mechanical linkage. Unless you're towing 5000 lbs, I have a hard time believing that brakes weren't strong enough.
UNLESS - the software failure somehow affected the antilock brakes and/or electronic stability control. But in my understanding, those solenoids would HAVE to be firing like crazy, and the driver would know something was up because that is loud. It would have been reported.
This depends on how much mass there is, whether it's concentrated in a small lump, or flows through the paths of least resistance, and separates, and spreads out, (like chernobyl did). If it spreads out, the reaction slows, and then, it's largely decay-heat that's left over (which is pretty significant, but still, not 3000 degrees C significant).
Youtube is full of videos of steam-clouds that have been around the plant since roughly June 2012. This *seems* to indicate that there's something hot contacting moisture in the ground, and forcing out steam over an area of soil, but it's not consistent with a 77-ton mass of molten material dropping into a lake (ie. worst-case steam-explosion situation which is often portrayed as the result of a meltdown). The plant is along the coast, so fog has never been an unusual occurrence, so that likely conceals the fact that the core is issuing radioactive steam through cracks in the soil. A simple sampling and test of the steam should reveal if this were the case. But we're not getting that kind of data from Tepco.
. . . I mean, what if Boeing finds a problem with the avionics firmware in their 777? Just send out a broadcast radio patch, and you're good to go on all planes. What could possibly go wrong?
Banking and financial services are clearly necessary for progress.
But the winner-take-all profit skimming model certainly isn't necessary. We could be just as prosperous and successful with a national banking model that treats this function as a utility, rather than an easy method for entitled white-collar crime.