Actually, it will have to be a lot better than windows
Interestingly, I was at an Entrepreneurial Conference put on by SEA (www.sea.org.au) in 1999, and a gentlemen pointed out that you'll never be successful making a better product, You're successful by making your product different.
To be quite honest, open source products are not going to be chosen simply because they are "better" - you have to show the consumer what's in it for them, what the product is going to give them over the competition.
One cannot think of Microsoft products individually, the difference/value that Microsoft provides its customers is a family of integrated/all work-together products. That's where Microsoft's success is: in it's product cohesion.
Cohesion/Consistency is what the consumer wants and ironically are willing to put up with a few BSODs every week (tho if you've used XP, this is a hell of a lot less...). Most "Joe Average's" I know associate "free" with "cheap/nasty". Until such times as Open-source products can get past this mis-informed attitude, then it will be relegated to the back office and those adventurous souls that actually know better.
As for Microsoft and Open-source co-existing? I think today that Microsoft would probably be happy as far as the consumer market is concerned... However, in the server arena they are more worried...
-- Dan "Maybe I should have done marketing instead of Software Engineering" Thomas =)
person a: "Hey can you rewind? I missed what that guy said"
person b: "too late, it's been wiped..."
Also, what would happen if you paused the DVD - would it still degrade?
I'm sorry, but I think it's a bad idea. In addition, what about all these wasted/junk DVD disks? Plastic Bags are enough of a problem, what about millions of junked DVDs?
I would chew off my right leg to get as good a deal as you guys are getting. Have a look at the Australian Broadband community website: Whirlpool then while you're at it look at this Broadband pricing plan which is a 31 percent increase over what it was a month ago!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not ticked off at you guys for complaining, but just remember, no matter how bad you've got it - we've got it worse..
This was noticed by scientists in the 19th century, who postulated that in time, the world would be taken over by morons. My belief is that this actually happened, but we are now too stupid to realise.
wha!?;)
I haven't laughed so much at a/. reply in ages - well done.
[Yoda] disturbance I sense yes...
[NSYNC] {Tell me baby, yea...}
[Anikin] Must resist...
[Sidious] You cannot resist the power of the dark side...
[Anikin] {Girl I need you baby yea}
[Yoda] Ah Sh*t!
[Padme] Note to self - don't let kids near dad - he's obviously full of evil...
It's interesting to think of what holes there are in the system.
I love the google example! Up until about 12-18 months before the xbox was released, xbox.com.au was a chinese news/information site (I wonder what problems M$ had there?), and would prolly fall under a "legitimate" category...
Example: http://www.melbournecup.com/ The melbourne cup carnival
about a year and a half ago this was a dodgy website for "Melbourne Cups"...
I think domain speculation is going to be with us for quite awhile, but to be honest it really irks me. I hate the whole concept of sitting on something that you know someone else will have to buy off you.
in.au land. When a company is registered, it automatically has rights to its.com.au name over anyone else. It ensures the registered business can have their online presence without having to negotiate around people already there and wanting $$$ for what you already essentially own... (doesn't apply to.orgs and.nets tho)
Trademarks are a lot easier to enforce as I understand it, than company trading names...
I remember seeing on either "The Planets" or "Stephen Hawking's Universe" documentaries, mention of plans (prolly drawingboard stuff) to place an array of hubble like telescopes past the asteriod belt to create a VLT in space...
I'm curious to know - because of the limited size (surface area) on earth (which cosmologically is a pinprick in space) what kind of performance increase would one get by placing those telescopes in space and would it be a better move in the long run?
-- Top post on the page atm: --
UK Government Solicits Advice On Open Source
Posted by timothy on Tuesday January 01, @01:39AM
from the you-have-til-march dept.
--
... And we thought the y2k bug would get us and there in the wings was the eeevil of y2k2! =)
I'm betting it's a one-line fix;)
-- Dan (who spent new years nursing his sick gf back to health - not unlike a lot of others I'm sure...)
Actually, I can agree with the "right tool for the right job" which is what you are saying however, I can see points for the other side of the coin (especially in a large corporate environment).
- Standardisation upon one language and/or platform drops training costs for the org (and keeping people up to speed to maintain parts of the system).
- This allows one guy on one project to be shifted to another with minimal re-training (just some familiarisation time).
I will make the point though, that as developers we should be able to language-hop easily as we know the concepts common to all languages.
However, from a business point of veiw - it does make sense to put all the eggs in the one basket (though at times you feel like all your problems look like nails because you've been given a 'hammer' to work with).
This is not as far fetched as it sounds... The digital format (jpg or whatever) may be around for a long time to come - however there may be a lack of devices that could read the storage media they are stored upon.
I remember watching a documentary on a "computer archives" project (sorry, I don't remember the name of the program) where the problem that they faced were trying to read obsolete storage media from the 70s (in some cases, even the plans didn't exist anymore)...
If we're facing that sort of problem now with stuff from 30 years ago - Imagine how we could be in 100 years time???
... Even pseudo-modern media - Does anyone remember 8 inch floppies???
paper, while not exactly a permanent solution does last a hell of a long time if kept well (papyrus even longer - but that's another story)
It's actually kind of wierd, being involved in IT - but I find myself recommending books/paper/film at least as a semi-permanent backup of historical information. It's not perfect, but let's face it - even a cave can collapse eventually...
I grew up in a city called Gladstone, QLD Australia - home of the world's largest Bauxite processing facility (QAL)...
There they take Bauxite (a reddish) ore and convert it to alumina (a white) powder. It then gets shipped off to places like the Boyne Is. smelter to be converted into Aluminium. (the website specifies the entire process and has a lot of fun chemical equations;)
I wonder, is the US bastardised spelling of Aluminium based on the middle product in the smelting process: Alumina -> Aluminum?
-- Dan =)
P.S. I wonder when we'll see *Titanum* powerbooks;)
If they do not they get blacklisted. Maybe optusnet should try and do a better job at bringing joustice to spam throwers.
For those of us on Telstra, there was an earlier problem with Telstra's mail servers being open in about (that is, someone from outside the T$ network could use the mail servs to send mail).
If Optus has a prob like this - it should be fixed fairly quickly - I'd expect to see something on one of Australia's Broadband Community Websites: Whirlpool shortly...
Ok, I can Go with the Pac-Man Analogy (only a different one), Free-Software is like Pac-Man in that you can eat up all those tasty treats that people contribute and take development to new levels.
Either that, or Open Source is round, yellow and get's chased by Ghosts... Bill, was that you dude?
While in the big-bad real world, Australia (my wonderful home!) may seem like a bit of a Backwater, the ACCC - http://www.accc.gov.au/ will be tenatious.
One of two things will happen as a result of this challenge: either all region types of DVDs will be sold in Australia, or more likely the compromise will be for DVD players to be made region-free as a mandatory requirement (Thus "negating" the region-locking).
Well, it's interesting that Comp Sci. is having a go at the Engineers here. Standards should be high, otherwise all you have is a bunch of hacks and band-aids. That's why there are Software Engineers (not someone with a major, I'm talking Fully qualified professionals with engineering degrees in this discipline).
I think the idea that Engineers turn concepts and scientific theory into reality (you know, the stuff that works), kinda bugs Comp Scis, because we don't take any crap. We're employed to build large-scale systems on time and on budget (yes, there are companies out there that can do it, so the rest are really without excuse) and we do it rather than complain that some obscure algorithm won't work right or that some neat little routine isn't elegant enough.
By all means, the Comp Scis can keep on doing what they do, but don't worry, the Engineers will get the job done, and done right.
I did my Bachelor of Engineering in Software Engineering last year. In australia we did things kinda different to they way the US seems to do things.
While all the Comp Sci. and IT ppl were getting out after 3 years - we were doing an extra year of more advanced topics. Seriously, most of those that graduated the year earlier didn't even come close in formalised construction and Engineering software that worked. It seemed by default that we also built better code because we actually THOUGHT about what we were doing rather than just hacking up a piece of crud.
The degree I did is also recognised by The Institute of Engineers of Australia (which means I'm recognised in the US aswell - at least that'a what they tell us) as engineers (It really ticks me off when people call themselves engineers when they really aren't).
As far as I'm concerned, a Software Engineering degree is the only way to go - not only do you get a far better concetptual grounding, but as a result, you WILL stand out from the crowd as someone who knows what they are doing and WILL get the job done properly.
1. Australia became a nation, not by revolution, but by a referendum which united the colonies of Australia as one Federation (100 yrs young this year too)
2. Australian society is built upon the principle that everyone deserves a "fair go", and you will find (on the most part) Australians to be a very generous and friendly people.
3. Australians can criticise and call our politicians "bastards" without too much bother (What would happen if someone did that at a meeting with the US President?).
4. Australians are very relaxed and layed-back, but have a reputation for determination and perseverance (you want something done, get an Aussie to do it)
5. A "free" public education system (including universities). I would never have been able to afford to go to uni unless it was publicly funded (and I would never have recieved and honours degree). This is one area I have absolutely no qualms about paying my taxes for: someone to get a good education.
6. Voting is party-preferred, and if they needed to recount, they would (all our votes are manually counted in approx 24hours for ~10 million or so eligible voters)
The only real problems we have are:
1. Lack of decent prices for bandwidth.
2. Our government wanting to screw up our public health care and education systems (so they work like the US), bunch of wankers that they are.
3. The Aussie Dollar being worth about 56 US cents (though for you coming here that's a good thing)
4. The Crocodile man - We are really really really sorry to produce that tool.
All in all, It's always good to know that where you live is known as "the lucky country" - I hope it stays that way.
Where I work uses Server-side java for all its business logic: Worldlingo.com
Like any language, java has its caveats and benefits. We have found it exceptional for our purposes. We even farmed al lot of the core processing away from 3rd party software systems we use into a pure-java back end because we could do things far more reliably (and surprisingly, no performance hit). We also use a TurboLinux cluster to serve up our wares.
While java may not be for everyone, in my opinion, Linux, Apache and Java are a darn good combination (and don't get me started on databases;)
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, it will have to be a lot better than windows
Interestingly, I was at an Entrepreneurial Conference put on by SEA (www.sea.org.au) in 1999, and a gentlemen pointed out that you'll never be successful making a better product, You're successful by making your product different.
To be quite honest, open source products are not going to be chosen simply because they are "better" - you have to show the consumer what's in it for them, what the product is going to give them over the competition.
One cannot think of Microsoft products individually, the difference/value that Microsoft provides its customers is a family of integrated/all work-together products. That's where Microsoft's success is: in it's product cohesion.
Cohesion/Consistency is what the consumer wants and ironically are willing to put up with a few BSODs every week (tho if you've used XP, this is a hell of a lot less...). Most "Joe Average's" I know associate "free" with "cheap/nasty". Until such times as Open-source products can get past this mis-informed attitude, then it will be relegated to the back office and those adventurous souls that actually know better.
As for Microsoft and Open-source co-existing? I think today that Microsoft would probably be happy as far as the consumer market is concerned... However, in the server arena they are more worried...
-- Dan "Maybe I should have done marketing instead of Software Engineering" Thomas =)
But if this RFC was followed it would probably mean I'd get all these emails with the subject "I Love You" before any others...
-- Dan =)
person a: "Hey can you rewind? I missed what that guy said"
:|
person b: "too late, it's been wiped..."
Also, what would happen if you paused the DVD - would it still degrade?
I'm sorry, but I think it's a bad idea. In addition, what about all these wasted/junk DVD disks? Plastic Bags are enough of a problem, what about millions of junked DVDs?
/me shakes head
-- Dan
you guys don't know how good you've got it:
Have a look at the latest broadband offerings in australia. THEN complain about your services.
I would chew off my right leg to get as good a deal as you guys are getting. Have a look at the Australian Broadband community website: Whirlpool then while you're at it look at this Broadband pricing plan which is a 31 percent increase over what it was a month ago!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not ticked off at you guys for complaining, but just remember, no matter how bad you've got it - we've got it worse..
-- Dan "Not happy Jan" Thomas =(
In the hallowed halls of Google... Row upon row of uber-boxen with a Bagillion megabytes of ram...
Then someone trips over the power chord...
-- Dan =)
This was noticed by scientists in the 19th century, who postulated that in time, the world would be taken over by morons. My belief is that this actually happened, but we are now too stupid to realise.
;)
/. reply in ages - well done.
wha!?
I haven't laughed so much at a
-- Dan "duh" Thomas =)
sleep or thesis... sleep.
http://www.dreamworld.com.au/
;)
Just turn the thing into a giant "Tower of Terror" to raise funds
-- Dan =)
[Yoda] disturbance I sense yes...
[NSYNC] {Tell me baby, yea...}
[Anikin] Must resist...
[Sidious] You cannot resist the power of the dark side...
[Anikin] {Girl I need you baby yea}
[Yoda] Ah Sh*t!
[Padme] Note to self - don't let kids near dad - he's obviously full of evil...
-- Dan =)
Dush, you really raise a very good point there!
;)
It's interesting to think of what holes there are in the system.
I love the google example! Up until about 12-18 months before the xbox was released, xbox.com.au was a chinese news/information site (I wonder what problems M$ had there?), and would prolly fall under a "legitimate" category...
I think you need some modding up on your points
Example: http://www.melbournecup.com/ The melbourne cup carnival
.au land. When a company is registered, it automatically has rights to its .com.au name over anyone else. It ensures the registered business can have their online presence without having to negotiate around people already there and wanting $$$ for what you already essentially own... (doesn't apply to .orgs and .nets tho)
about a year and a half ago this was a dodgy website for "Melbourne Cups"...
I think domain speculation is going to be with us for quite awhile, but to be honest it really irks me. I hate the whole concept of sitting on something that you know someone else will have to buy off you.
in
Trademarks are a lot easier to enforce as I understand it, than company trading names...
-- Dan =)
I remember seeing on either "The Planets" or "Stephen Hawking's Universe" documentaries, mention of plans (prolly drawingboard stuff) to place an array of hubble like telescopes past the asteriod belt to create a VLT in space...
I'm curious to know - because of the limited size (surface area) on earth (which cosmologically is a pinprick in space) what kind of performance increase would one get by placing those telescopes in space and would it be a better move in the long run?
-- Dan =)
-- Top post on the page atm: --
;)
UK Government Solicits Advice On Open Source
Posted by timothy on Tuesday January 01, @01:39AM
from the you-have-til-march dept.
--
... And we thought the y2k bug would get us and there in the wings was the eeevil of y2k2! =)
I'm betting it's a one-line fix
-- Dan (who spent new years nursing his sick gf back to health - not unlike a lot of others I'm sure...)
Actually, I can agree with the "right tool for the right job" which is what you are saying however, I can see points for the other side of the coin (especially in a large corporate environment).
- Standardisation upon one language and/or platform drops training costs for the org (and keeping people up to speed to maintain parts of the system).
- This allows one guy on one project to be shifted to another with minimal re-training (just some familiarisation time).
I will make the point though, that as developers we should be able to language-hop easily as we know the concepts common to all languages.
However, from a business point of veiw - it does make sense to put all the eggs in the one basket (though at times you feel like all your problems look like nails because you've been given a 'hammer' to work with).
-- Dan =)
[And so Operation "Cat Nap" comes unglued when an unexpected event occurs...]
General1: "Pavelovich? what is your kitty doing here?"
General2: "It is not my kitty..."
General1: "I wonder if it is true Russian Kitty..."
General2: "I will fetch the Vodka."
General1: "Let us see if you drink Vodka like true Russian Kitty..."
-- Dan =)
This is not as far fetched as it sounds... The digital format (jpg or whatever) may be around for a long time to come - however there may be a lack of devices that could read the storage media they are stored upon.
I remember watching a documentary on a "computer archives" project (sorry, I don't remember the name of the program) where the problem that they faced were trying to read obsolete storage media from the 70s (in some cases, even the plans didn't exist anymore)...
If we're facing that sort of problem now with stuff from 30 years ago - Imagine how we could be in 100 years time???
... Even pseudo-modern media - Does anyone remember 8 inch floppies???
paper, while not exactly a permanent solution does last a hell of a long time if kept well (papyrus even longer - but that's another story)
It's actually kind of wierd, being involved in IT - but I find myself recommending books/paper/film at least as a semi-permanent backup of historical information. It's not perfect, but let's face it - even a cave can collapse eventually...
-- Dan,
I grew up in a city called Gladstone, QLD Australia - home of the world's largest Bauxite processing facility (QAL)...
;)
;)
There they take Bauxite (a reddish) ore and convert it to alumina (a white) powder. It then gets shipped off to places like the Boyne Is. smelter to be converted into Aluminium. (the website specifies the entire process and has a lot of fun chemical equations
I wonder, is the US bastardised spelling of Aluminium based on the middle product in the smelting process: Alumina -> Aluminum?
-- Dan =)
P.S. I wonder when we'll see *Titanum* powerbooks
For those of us on Telstra, there was an earlier problem with Telstra's mail servers being open in about (that is, someone from outside the T$ network could use the mail servs to send mail).
If Optus has a prob like this - it should be fixed fairly quickly - I'd expect to see something on one of Australia's Broadband Community Websites: Whirlpool shortly...
-- Dan =)
Mr Eastern Standard time!?
Ok, try International date line and a commercial television station that won't run it for two years and THEN it will be on at midnight...
Oh, we are talking that new-fangled "Star Trek: The Next Generation" series coming out right?
-- Dan =)
I'm gonna say what everyone is thinking:
How do I play ?
-- Dan =)
Ok, I can Go with the Pac-Man Analogy (only a different one), Free-Software is like Pac-Man in that you can eat up all those tasty treats that people contribute and take development to new levels.
Either that, or Open Source is round, yellow and get's chased by Ghosts... Bill, was that you dude?
While in the big-bad real world, Australia (my wonderful home!) may seem like a bit of a Backwater, the ACCC - http://www.accc.gov.au/ will be tenatious.
One of two things will happen as a result of this challenge: either all region types of DVDs will be sold in Australia, or more likely the compromise will be for DVD players to be made region-free as a mandatory requirement (Thus "negating" the region-locking).
you might find this useful: http://scaletext.law.gov.au/cgi-bin/download.pl?/s cale/data/pasteact/0/115 or the definitive entry point: http://www.fed.gov.au/ where you can search for legislation etc.
Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi!
Dan =)
Well, it's interesting that Comp Sci. is having a go at the Engineers here. Standards should be high, otherwise all you have is a bunch of hacks and band-aids. That's why there are Software Engineers (not someone with a major, I'm talking Fully qualified professionals with engineering degrees in this discipline).
I think the idea that Engineers turn concepts and scientific theory into reality (you know, the stuff that works), kinda bugs Comp Scis, because we don't take any crap. We're employed to build large-scale systems on time and on budget (yes, there are companies out there that can do it, so the rest are really without excuse) and we do it rather than complain that some obscure algorithm won't work right or that some neat little routine isn't elegant enough.
By all means, the Comp Scis can keep on doing what they do, but don't worry, the Engineers will get the job done, and done right.
I did my Bachelor of Engineering in Software Engineering last year. In australia we did things kinda different to they way the US seems to do things.
While all the Comp Sci. and IT ppl were getting out after 3 years - we were doing an extra year of more advanced topics. Seriously, most of those that graduated the year earlier didn't even come close in formalised construction and Engineering software that worked. It seemed by default that we also built better code because we actually THOUGHT about what we were doing rather than just hacking up a piece of crud.
The degree I did is also recognised by The Institute of Engineers of Australia (which means I'm recognised in the US aswell - at least that'a what they tell us) as engineers (It really ticks me off when people call themselves engineers when they really aren't).
As far as I'm concerned, a Software Engineering degree is the only way to go - not only do you get a far better concetptual grounding, but as a result, you WILL stand out from the crowd as someone who knows what they are doing and WILL get the job done properly.
have a look here:Griffith University - and make the right choice.
Well, You're looking for a serious alternative...
Try Australia, here are a few reasons:
1. Australia became a nation, not by revolution, but by a referendum which united the colonies of Australia as one Federation (100 yrs young this year too)
2. Australian society is built upon the principle that everyone deserves a "fair go", and you will find (on the most part) Australians to be a very generous and friendly people.
3. Australians can criticise and call our politicians "bastards" without too much bother (What would happen if someone did that at a meeting with the US President?).
4. Australians are very relaxed and layed-back, but have a reputation for determination and perseverance (you want something done, get an Aussie to do it)
5. A "free" public education system (including universities). I would never have been able to afford to go to uni unless it was publicly funded (and I would never have recieved and honours degree). This is one area I have absolutely no qualms about paying my taxes for: someone to get a good education.
6. Voting is party-preferred, and if they needed to recount, they would (all our votes are manually counted in approx 24hours for ~10 million or so eligible voters)
The only real problems we have are:
1. Lack of decent prices for bandwidth.
2. Our government wanting to screw up our public health care and education systems (so they work like the US), bunch of wankers that they are.
3. The Aussie Dollar being worth about 56 US cents (though for you coming here that's a good thing)
4. The Crocodile man - We are really really really sorry to produce that tool.
All in all, It's always good to know that where you live is known as "the lucky country" - I hope it stays that way.
Dan
Where I work uses Server-side java for all its business logic: Worldlingo.com
Like any language, java has its caveats and benefits. We have found it exceptional for our purposes. We even farmed al lot of the core processing away from 3rd party software systems we use into a pure-java back end because we could do things far more reliably (and surprisingly, no performance hit). We also use a TurboLinux cluster to serve up our wares.
While java may not be for everyone, in my opinion, Linux, Apache and Java are a darn good combination (and don't get me started on databases ;)
AcidDan - 4 sleeps to the Space Odyssey :)