I absolutely agree with you - I'm a strong proponent of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of design. However, when your only 'published information' is purely graphical with nothing else backing it up, and the summarisation of the screenshots can be reduced to 'looks just like the last version, but gray' then I'm not going to care whether they're there or whether they're taken down.
Definitely a case of "Nothing to see here... move along now."
Now if they'd started incorporating some <I>true</I> GUI innovations a la Apple, that would have been something I'd have liked to see!
...forget about the Longhorn screenshots, check the 'use large icons' in your copy of XP display settings, then apply a charcoal gray colour scheme.
I'm not intending to Microsoft bash here (I'm even happy to use an 's' in their name rather than a '$' sign;-) but those screenshots don't look different enough from XP for me to even <i>care</i> that they're up on the web.
Like hearing my 2.5 year old son giggle manically when we spot him peeking through our bedroom door at 7:00am.
Like seeing grandma's face when she says "See the sun going down?" to our five year old daughter and our daughter says "Actually the sun stays still - the part of the Earth we live on is just turning away from it."
Like having two little guys who are small enough to crawl under Daddy's desk and help him fish cables, and who get such an enormous kick from doing it.
I'll now return you to our normal Slashdot cynicism:)
I absolutely agree, but it may take many years before a middle-class is created which rivals that in this country. During those years immense damage (or, depending on your point of view, immense change) will be done to the competing Western economies.
These things tend to have cycles measured in decades. I'm confident that it will have all re-balanced by the time my children enter the workforce, but I'm not so sure about OUR rosy future.
I say 18 months because considering the in-roads that both China and India have made into the Western markets in the last five years with just their current 'business as usual' business plans, I'd hate to see what they'll be capable of with a new aggressive partnership!
There are also a number of banks and financial institutions that use calculation agents running on desktop PC's to perform calculations such as trade and portfolio valuation, credit risk calculation etc. When the PC's are idle, then join the corporate "SETI at home" style grid and contribute to the various financial calculations being performed. The ultimate goal is to gain as close to 100% CPU utilization as possible across all hardware within the organization.
DataSynapse is one of the more prevalent vendors of cross-platform grid computing solutions.
In your scenario, it can and probably WILL happen, but the European developers code can still be used as Prior Art to nullify the American developers patent in either the US or the EU courts.
Assuming you can afford the millions of dollars that it would cost to defend yourself in a patent infringement case, of course.
There's a quote in the article that a lot of people seem to be missing:
Interactive advertising was part of TiVo's distribution deal with Comcast announced earlier this month.
This functionality was a requirement of TiVo's distribution agreement with Comcast. Rather than 'good company gone evil' I think this is a case of 'desperate company gets in bed with the Devil.'
Now I'm not going to defend this business practice in any way. I've been using the DirecTiVo since day one and have evangelised the product on many occasions in the past, but the second I start getting invasive pop-up advertising during FF I'll shed a tear and move on to something else. TiVo MUST know that this is the sentiment of a significant and vocal number of the install base, which makes me think that they saw no other way forward for themselves.
A sad day indeed for TiVo enthusiasts, and definitely I feel a sign of the 'End of Days' for TiVo.
Not only are they 'heavily investED' in it, but they are still 'heavily investING' in it. They continue to invest in it not because they have in the past, but because they see significant benefit to investing in it in the future.
Just for information, there are plenty of Windows application developers using Java to create new systems within big business these days.
Many financial institutions, for example, are heavily invested in Java technology and using it on a day-to-day basis to create everything from minor utility software to large scale mission critical system.
If I were providing the conceptual images I would DEFINITELY have included more orbiting alien Death-Stars.
Honestly, these conceptual artists have no imaginations!
OK, point number one is that Oracle wasn't actually mentioned in the article. That one just got added to the header for some reason only known to the submitter/editor.
Point number two, lets not suggest that Oracle feels threatened by mySQL. Oracle/Sybase enterprise databases are entirely different beasts from mySQL deployments, and are targetted at entirely different markets.
...or of course when he's talking about The College Formerly Known (tm) as Queen Mary College, then Queen Mary and Westfield College, and now just Queen Mary.
Mass of the star: approx 6x10^30 kg
Velocity: 670,000 m/s
Kinetic energy = 0.5 x m x v^2
Energy is very approximately 1.3x10^42 Joules, which I believe is enough to heat a Googleplex of Libraries of Congress for 3.141 Millenia.
...easy enough to find if you're in the marketplace for serious amounts of grid computing capacity:)
I would post some links, but the company I work for is currently in negotiation with vendors on this topic and so I'm taking the prudent approach.
Maybe if you're a smaller customer then $1/CPU hour might be good for you. For institutional sized customers though, you CAN get a much better deal than this.
Grid computing always seemed like a stupid idea to me.
If by stupid you mean 'cost effective', 'scalable' and 'provide a high return-on-investment' then yes, you're completely correct.
Computing resources are cheap; it's managing them and setting them up that is expensive. Dedicated machines are cheaper to manage and easier to set up than grids of under-utilized computers.
You're right about the up-front cost of the hardware being the smallest expenditure over the lifetime of the machines. The biggest cost by far is typically the cost of actually housing the machines in an air-conditioned data center. In some situations it's nice to be able to push that long-term cost onto someone else.
You also seem to be a little confused about grids. It's not a requirement that servers/compute units be permanent members of a processor grid. It's entirely possible to have regular servers that are pulled into an 'amorphous grid' during periods where their primary functionality is in low demand. In fact, from what I've seen in business this is typically the way it's done.
The ultimate goal in many grid computing situations is to maintain as close to 100% CPU utilisation as is possible. By making one departments unused CPU capacity available for general use, business centers can get closer to this ideal (lowering future hardware purchase requirements and making the fixed datacenter housing costs more palateable.) Rental systems like SUN's recently announced one are typically used to allow customers to cover short-term peak grid demand without the need to invest in new hardware that, seeing that it would only be required during those peak hours, would otherwise lower the overall CPU utilisation statistics.
Slashdot Mirror
I absolutely agree with you - I'm a strong proponent of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of design. However, when your only 'published information' is purely graphical with nothing else backing it up, and the summarisation of the screenshots can be reduced to 'looks just like the last version, but gray' then I'm not going to care whether they're there or whether they're taken down.
Definitely a case of "Nothing to see here... move along now."
Now if they'd started incorporating some <I>true</I> GUI innovations a la Apple, that would have been something I'd have liked to see!
...forget about the Longhorn screenshots, check the 'use large icons' in your copy of XP display settings, then apply a charcoal gray colour scheme.
;-) but those screenshots don't look different enough from XP for me to even <i>care</i> that they're up on the web.
I'm not intending to Microsoft bash here (I'm even happy to use an 's' in their name rather than a '$' sign
Hehe - I'll give 'em hell, but ultimately if their decision gives them a happy life then my work is done.
Like hearing my 2.5 year old son giggle manically when we spot him peeking through our bedroom door at 7:00am. Like seeing grandma's face when she says "See the sun going down?" to our five year old daughter and our daughter says "Actually the sun stays still - the part of the Earth we live on is just turning away from it." Like having two little guys who are small enough to crawl under Daddy's desk and help him fish cables, and who get such an enormous kick from doing it. I'll now return you to our normal Slashdot cynicism :)
Fair point. I think I'll file this whole article in my "We're all boned!" folder.
I absolutely agree, but it may take many years before a middle-class is created which rivals that in this country. During those years immense damage (or, depending on your point of view, immense change) will be done to the competing Western economies.
These things tend to have cycles measured in decades. I'm confident that it will have all re-balanced by the time my children enter the workforce, but I'm not so sure about OUR rosy future.
I say 18 months because considering the in-roads that both China and India have made into the Western markets in the last five years with just their current 'business as usual' business plans, I'd hate to see what they'll be capable of with a new aggressive partnership!
Somewhere, there's a joke begging to be told.
Let's see if we're all still laughing in 18 months.
That's exactly the functionality I've been waiting for them to implement.
...maybe now someone could introduce them to the concept of mount points?
There are also a number of banks and financial institutions that use calculation agents running on desktop PC's to perform calculations such as trade and portfolio valuation, credit risk calculation etc. When the PC's are idle, then join the corporate "SETI at home" style grid and contribute to the various financial calculations being performed. The ultimate goal is to gain as close to 100% CPU utilization as possible across all hardware within the organization.
DataSynapse is one of the more prevalent vendors of cross-platform grid computing solutions.
In your scenario, it can and probably WILL happen, but the European developers code can still be used as Prior Art to nullify the American developers patent in either the US or the EU courts.
Assuming you can afford the millions of dollars that it would cost to defend yourself in a patent infringement case, of course.
You've not been here long, have you?
There's a quote in the article that a lot of people seem to be missing:
Interactive advertising was part of TiVo's distribution deal with Comcast announced earlier this month.
This functionality was a requirement of TiVo's distribution agreement with Comcast. Rather than 'good company gone evil' I think this is a case of 'desperate company gets in bed with the Devil.'
Now I'm not going to defend this business practice in any way. I've been using the DirecTiVo since day one and have evangelised the product on many occasions in the past, but the second I start getting invasive pop-up advertising during FF I'll shed a tear and move on to something else. TiVo MUST know that this is the sentiment of a significant and vocal number of the install base, which makes me think that they saw no other way forward for themselves.
A sad day indeed for TiVo enthusiasts, and definitely I feel a sign of the 'End of Days' for TiVo.
Not only are they 'heavily investED' in it, but they are still 'heavily investING' in it. They continue to invest in it not because they have in the past, but because they see significant benefit to investing in it in the future.
Just for information, there are plenty of Windows application developers using Java to create new systems within big business these days.
Many financial institutions, for example, are heavily invested in Java technology and using it on a day-to-day basis to create everything from minor utility software to large scale mission critical system.
If I were providing the conceptual images I would DEFINITELY have included more orbiting alien Death-Stars. Honestly, these conceptual artists have no imaginations!
OK, point number one is that Oracle wasn't actually mentioned in the article. That one just got added to the header for some reason only known to the submitter/editor.
Point number two, lets not suggest that Oracle feels threatened by mySQL. Oracle/Sybase enterprise databases are entirely different beasts from mySQL deployments, and are targetted at entirely different markets.
...or of course when he's talking about The College Formerly Known (tm) as Queen Mary College, then Queen Mary and Westfield College, and now just Queen Mary.
Queen Mary
Yeah, I know. I preferred it when it was called Queen Mary College too.
I'm surprised the shipping costs aren't greater, coming from Gallifrey.
It's OK - they get away with using second class USPS by posting in three million years before the order's placed.
Where's the [+1 - Insane Rambling] mod when you need it?
Mass of the star: approx 6x10^30 kg Velocity: 670,000 m/s Kinetic energy = 0.5 x m x v^2 Energy is very approximately 1.3x10^42 Joules, which I believe is enough to heat a Googleplex of Libraries of Congress for 3.141 Millenia.
...just thinking about the kinetic energy that thing must be carrying with it makes my head spin.
All we need now is a super-massive baseball mitt on the end of a hyper-massive wooden pole hooked up to a mega-massive generator spindle.
And these companies are...? Links, please.
...easy enough to find if you're in the marketplace for serious amounts of grid computing capacity :)
I would post some links, but the company I work for is currently in negotiation with vendors on this topic and so I'm taking the prudent approach.
Maybe if you're a smaller customer then $1/CPU hour might be good for you. For institutional sized customers though, you CAN get a much better deal than this.
Grid computing always seemed like a stupid idea to me.
If by stupid you mean 'cost effective', 'scalable' and 'provide a high return-on-investment' then yes, you're completely correct.
Computing resources are cheap; it's managing them and setting them up that is expensive. Dedicated machines are cheaper to manage and easier to set up than grids of under-utilized computers.
You're right about the up-front cost of the hardware being the smallest expenditure over the lifetime of the machines. The biggest cost by far is typically the cost of actually housing the machines in an air-conditioned data center. In some situations it's nice to be able to push that long-term cost onto someone else.
You also seem to be a little confused about grids. It's not a requirement that servers/compute units be permanent members of a processor grid. It's entirely possible to have regular servers that are pulled into an 'amorphous grid' during periods where their primary functionality is in low demand. In fact, from what I've seen in business this is typically the way it's done.
The ultimate goal in many grid computing situations is to maintain as close to 100% CPU utilisation as is possible. By making one departments unused CPU capacity available for general use, business centers can get closer to this ideal (lowering future hardware purchase requirements and making the fixed datacenter housing costs more palateable.) Rental systems like SUN's recently announced one are typically used to allow customers to cover short-term peak grid demand without the need to invest in new hardware that, seeing that it would only be required during those peak hours, would otherwise lower the overall CPU utilisation statistics.