Anyone know the proper way to dispose of a monitor?
Now thats the dumbest thing I've heard in a while. How do you think those monitors got to china anyway? People improperly dumping them in the woods, and then the monitors get up and walk to china? C'mon!
These montors and other computer junk gets sent to china because its collected properly here in the US at our transfer stations and recycling facilities. This stuff is "recycled", just like scrap metals, plastics, and paper. "Recycling" means that its collected, and sold en mass to bigger companies willing to buy it. Then, those companies sell it to bigger companies, and so on. Apparently, the end of the chain is China, and I'm fine with that.
Its like we're shipping our computer crap over there and forcing it on them. Its bought by companies over there, and shipped. Those companies employ people to process the material. Its not my fault that they don't use respirators! For crying out loud... there's a reason why we're the #1 industrialized nation, and they're a "3rd world" nation, and its not because we've spend hundreds of years feeling guilty for other nations.
Enlightenment has awesome alpha blending capabilities. For example, when moving a window, the entire window can become transparent until you drop it back in place. Although these type of effects are completely gratuitis, they look so darn pretty.
NaN Holding recognizes that, giving all circumstances and the current economic situation, moving on with Blender to this next stage will be the most beneficial thing to do, to protect past investments, but also to respect everything that has been realized until now by the NaN companies and the world-wide user community.
NaN Holding being the current owner of blender, and supposedly seeing open source as the way to go... then what am I missing here? Why does the blender fund exist for the purpose of purchasing a development license from NaN?? Bueller?
How about the obvious for video production... since going out isn't a problem... why not just hook up a recording device (could be digital media) to the video out port of the video card.
Perhaps you didn't read my post. Its not about.NET. I'm not a fan of.NET either, but I simply mentioned it ONCE to illustrate the validity of my illustrated business model. After all... the attitude in business is that "if Microsoft is doing it, its the future".
NO... they're paying for it. They receive a monthly bill for services rendered. They simply aren't paying to use the software itself.
In most vertical software markets, the users pay hefty $$ annual fees for the luxury of using the software. This is in addition to the $100,000 they put up for the initial installation.
So, do you see the advantage of my approach from the user's point of view?
YES!! These are called "vertical markets". Vertical software markets are plagued by poorly written, outdated, extremely overpriced software.
I just finished another post in this thread about how to approach a vertical market by writing good software with integrated services. Its definetely the way to go, and if you read my post, you'll probably understand my approach.
On a sidenote, I'm employed by a software company to maintain government/non-profit accounting and management software. Its used by municipal governments and school districts. Its written in DOS, using an extremely old outdated non-relational database, spagetti code, and we charge MAJOR $$ for a complete installation. In addition. our users enjoy $3500 annual license fees for the pleasure. Seriously... this is the perfect illustration of vertical market opportunity!!
It certainly is possible to get into the software biz in today's economy. In fact, if you enter from the proper perspective, the slow economy could be be a money maker itself.
Rather than writing YASP (yet another software package), you should examine vertical markets.
For those that aren't business people, a "vertical market" is one in which your business has an extremely narrow focus. The premise of a vertical market is that a product offering is extremely specialized, in demand, and expensive. Since vertical markets aren't large, vertical market products sell for a lot of money.
I'm going to use a real life vertical market as an example for illustrating my approach. The healthcare medical practice management software market.
Every medical practice, hospital, HMO, etc. need to have highly specialized medical practice management software. This software is produced by hundreds of companies that charge BIG bucks for the pleasure of using it.
So, why NOT write medical practice management software and charge a lot of money for it? Two reasons... the market is flooded with overpriced software, and there's a better approach.
Its the better approach, that becomes really attractive to vertical market customers. In the instance of medical practice management software, practice managers think of the software as a "necessary evil". They don't want to spend big bucks, but they HAVE TO, because there are no realistic alternatives. This becomes even more important in a slow economy, because these people are going to be even less willing to spend big bucks on a new system, when their clunky old systems are still chugging along. After all, its a "necessary evil", and doctors would rather drive new jaguars than buy new billing software.
The better approach would be to develop a competetive software package for whatever vertical market you chose, and then GIVE IT AWAY FOR FREE. Not open source, not "freeware", but a commercially supported, industry standard, software package that they can use for FREE.
So now, I bet you're scratching your head wondering how giving away FREE software will make you money. Well...
The software you design will have built-in services that are of value to the customer. This is the KEY. You charge per use fees for these services!! In the medical practice management example, one valuable service would be statement billing. Imagine the customer's delight, when they could simply press a button in the new software you wrote, and it would communicate with your servers via the internet, resulting in their bills being sent to a printing/mailing clearing house. Bingo!! You just saved them time and money, because preparing bills themselves used to take 2 full days... now it takes 30 seconds, and you've made money because you charged $0.85 per bill you handled.
Not only does the end user get new high quality free software, they also save time, money, and enjoy optimized workflow, all courtesy of your software.
This is the next step in the software industry!! Microsoft is already aiming in this direction with.NET.
The trick to making this work is understanding your vertical market. Verticals are strange domains, and its not going to be simple to enter a vertical market. You'll need a few sales guys that believe in your concept, that are willing to 'pound the pavement' and "sell" your free software. You're also going to have to know what services you can integrate with your software that are of extreme value to end users.
By providing these services in bulk, across a few hundred clients, you should be able to provide these services for less $$ than it would cost for them to do it themselves.
Remember, vertical market software is a "necessary evil". In a slow economy, free (or low cost) software with integrated services is highly desired!! There you have it.
Here we go again! Just like the baloonist flew "around the world", we have another fake world record attempt at "crossing the atlantic".
The "around the world" baloon flight was no more than a circle around antarctica.
Traditionally, I think "crossing the atlantic" means crossing THE WHOLE THING. From US east coast, to Europe's west coast. I'm sorry, but Newfoundland to Iceland doesn't cut it. Granted, flying a model plane over that distance is an admirable feat, but I don't think it would qualify for a world record.
Some vehicles, especially those manufactured during the mid to late 90's already have a black box that *they* neglected to tell us about. If you're curious, its normally located beneath the driver's seat. From what I understand of the hidden black box, is that it only stores retains driving information for a few seconds, but stops recording when a serious event occurs, such as an airbag sensor being triggered. The concept is that law enforcement would then be able to use the black box data to make critical determinations in accident investigations, such as speed, braking, etc.
I'm not 100% sure about why these weren't put into widespread use, but I believe the necessary laws have not been passed, so law enforcement is unable to use the data. Not all vehicles have been equipped.
Its not quite the same issue. I don't know why anybody would want Mozilla and Netscape to coexist anyway, because they're the same thing.
The temporary fix for the profile bug creates a problem with mozilla itself.
The temporary "fix" for the profile bug is a lock file, which if present when the browser is loaded, it will prompt the user to use a different profile. At least, thats the case with Mozilla on Linux. This was intended to prevent the user from opening multiples processes with the same profile, that being the source of reported profile corruption.
This presents a serious real world problem for myself and many others, because I'm not interested in setting up a profile for each browser instance I may want to open! I get URLs from various sources delivered to me via IRC, IM, etc, and it becomes a major pain in the ass when I can't open these URLs directly because mozilla has a silly little bug with profiles!! (Which I have never experienced first hand BTW).
I think the real solution is to take one of the following actions:
1. If mozilla is started and finds a lock file on one of the profiles (assuming its in use), then send a message to the existing mozilla process to open a new window, with URL if specified. This action would be similar to using mozilla -remote.
2. Rather than creating a lock file, the first mozilla window to open would become a "profile server" of sorts. This would be the only process able to make changes (write) to the profile. All other mozilla processes would write to the profile by communicating with the original process. If the original mozilla process is terminated, then one of the other processes would pick up the role of coordinating profile writes.
I think its really great that the mozilla team is making changes to arabic, hebrew, and adding new buttons and things like that, but the profile problem has *SERIOUS* useability consequences and deserves more attention.
Note, the profile locking "fix" was introduced in Moz 1.0 RC3, so if you're like me and interested in a having browser that works, stick with RC2 until they actually fix the real problem.
I'd like to take all my existing regular expressions and run them through regular expressions to turn them into new age regular expressions. Can I do this, or will the universe implode?
Slashdot Mirror
correction... 3rd paragraph... "Its NOT like we're shipping ..."
Anyone know the proper way to dispose of a monitor?
Now thats the dumbest thing I've heard in a while. How do you think those monitors got to china anyway? People improperly dumping them in the woods, and then the monitors get up and walk to china? C'mon!
These montors and other computer junk gets sent to china because its collected properly here in the US at our transfer stations and recycling facilities. This stuff is "recycled", just like scrap metals, plastics, and paper. "Recycling" means that its collected, and sold en mass to bigger companies willing to buy it. Then, those companies sell it to bigger companies, and so on. Apparently, the end of the chain is China, and I'm fine with that.
Its like we're shipping our computer crap over there and forcing it on them. Its bought by companies over there, and shipped. Those companies employ people to process the material. Its not my fault that they don't use respirators! For crying out loud... there's a reason why we're the #1 industrialized nation, and they're a "3rd world" nation, and its not because we've spend hundreds of years feeling guilty for other nations.
Enlightenment has awesome alpha blending capabilities. For example, when moving a window, the entire window can become transparent until you drop it back in place. Although these type of effects are completely gratuitis, they look so darn pretty.
MS Word is not a text editor, friend.
I don't know anybody that uses Vi or Emacs... both are nasty and inhospitable. Personally, I prefer Midnight Commander for all my programming.
Well, wonderful... we can get broadband to the south pole, but tough luck if you live in Cow's Ass, Montana.
... from the blender3d website...
NaN Holding recognizes that, giving all circumstances and the current economic situation, moving on with Blender to this next stage will be the most beneficial thing to do, to protect past investments, but also to respect everything that has been realized until now by the NaN companies and the world-wide user community.
NaN Holding being the current owner of blender, and supposedly seeing open source as the way to go... then what am I missing here? Why does the blender fund exist for the purpose of purchasing a development license from NaN?? Bueller?
How about the obvious for video production... since going out isn't a problem... why not just hook up a recording device (could be digital media) to the video out port of the video card.
Does this really have to be over-engineered?
Perhaps you didn't read my post. Its not about .NET. I'm not a fan of .NET either, but I simply mentioned it ONCE to illustrate the validity of my illustrated business model. After all... the attitude in business is that "if Microsoft is doing it, its the future".
NO... they're paying for it. They receive a monthly bill for services rendered. They simply aren't paying to use the software itself.
In most vertical software markets, the users pay hefty $$ annual fees for the luxury of using the software. This is in addition to the $100,000 they put up for the initial installation.
So, do you see the advantage of my approach from the user's point of view?
I work in the medical industry, and I'm well aware of HIPAA. Thanks.
YES!! These are called "vertical markets". Vertical software markets are plagued by poorly written, outdated, extremely overpriced software.
I just finished another post in this thread about how to approach a vertical market by writing good software with integrated services. Its definetely the way to go, and if you read my post, you'll probably understand my approach.
On a sidenote, I'm employed by a software company to maintain government/non-profit accounting and management software. Its used by municipal governments and school districts. Its written in DOS, using an extremely old outdated non-relational database, spagetti code, and we charge MAJOR $$ for a complete installation. In addition. our users enjoy $3500 annual license fees for the pleasure. Seriously... this is the perfect illustration of vertical market opportunity!!
It certainly is possible to get into the software biz in today's economy. In fact, if you enter from the proper perspective, the slow economy could be be a money maker itself.
.NET.
Rather than writing YASP (yet another software package), you should examine vertical markets.
For those that aren't business people, a "vertical market" is one in which your business has an extremely narrow focus. The premise of a vertical market is that a product offering is extremely specialized, in demand, and expensive. Since vertical markets aren't large, vertical market products sell for a lot of money.
I'm going to use a real life vertical market as an example for illustrating my approach. The healthcare medical practice management software market.
Every medical practice, hospital, HMO, etc. need to have highly specialized medical practice management software. This software is produced by hundreds of companies that charge BIG bucks for the pleasure of using it.
So, why NOT write medical practice management software and charge a lot of money for it? Two reasons... the market is flooded with overpriced software, and there's a better approach.
Its the better approach, that becomes really attractive to vertical market customers. In the instance of medical practice management software, practice managers think of the software as a "necessary evil". They don't want to spend big bucks, but they HAVE TO, because there are no realistic alternatives. This becomes even more important in a slow economy, because these people are going to be even less willing to spend big bucks on a new system, when their clunky old systems are still chugging along. After all, its a "necessary evil", and doctors would rather drive new jaguars than buy new billing software.
The better approach would be to develop a competetive software package for whatever vertical market you chose, and then GIVE IT AWAY FOR FREE. Not open source, not "freeware", but a commercially supported, industry standard, software package that they can use for FREE.
So now, I bet you're scratching your head wondering how giving away FREE software will make you money. Well...
The software you design will have built-in services that are of value to the customer. This is the KEY. You charge per use fees for these services!! In the medical practice management example, one valuable service would be statement billing. Imagine the customer's delight, when they could simply press a button in the new software you wrote, and it would communicate with your servers via the internet, resulting in their bills being sent to a printing/mailing clearing house. Bingo!! You just saved them time and money, because preparing bills themselves used to take 2 full days... now it takes 30 seconds, and you've made money because you charged $0.85 per bill you handled.
Not only does the end user get new high quality free software, they also save time, money, and enjoy optimized workflow, all courtesy of your software.
This is the next step in the software industry!! Microsoft is already aiming in this direction with
The trick to making this work is understanding your vertical market. Verticals are strange domains, and its not going to be simple to enter a vertical market. You'll need a few sales guys that believe in your concept, that are willing to 'pound the pavement' and "sell" your free software. You're also going to have to know what services you can integrate with your software that are of extreme value to end users.
By providing these services in bulk, across a few hundred clients, you should be able to provide these services for less $$ than it would cost for them to do it themselves.
Remember, vertical market software is a "necessary evil". In a slow economy, free (or low cost) software with integrated services is highly desired!! There you have it.
Doesn't matter, because US universities have been communist for quite some time now. I doubt microsoft will make a difference.
...TV-cum-Internet.
Come again?
Here's a mirror of the essay, because penguin airlines' own site is kinda DOS'd for a while
1 6. html
http://www.desktoplinux.com/articles/AT80154847
Here we go again! Just like the baloonist flew "around the world", we have another fake world record attempt at "crossing the atlantic".
The "around the world" baloon flight was no more than a circle around antarctica.
Traditionally, I think "crossing the atlantic" means crossing THE WHOLE THING. From US east coast, to Europe's west coast. I'm sorry, but Newfoundland to Iceland doesn't cut it. Granted, flying a model plane over that distance is an admirable feat, but I don't think it would qualify for a world record.
ALS is commonly known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease", not "Stephen Hawking's Ailment".
41 hz ... ouch! That thing must look like a strobe light.
good idea! Public libraries have been operating like this for centuries.
"I think the MPAA stole a copywritten song from me"
I owned a used vehicle with a black box, but was never informed of its existence until I started working in rescue
... more information at this URL...
http://www.harristechnical.com/cdr.htm
Some vehicles, especially those manufactured during the mid to late 90's already have a black box that *they* neglected to tell us about. If you're curious, its normally located beneath the driver's seat. From what I understand of the hidden black box, is that it only stores retains driving information for a few seconds, but stops recording when a serious event occurs, such as an airbag sensor being triggered. The concept is that law enforcement would then be able to use the black box data to make critical determinations in accident investigations, such as speed, braking, etc.
I'm not 100% sure about why these weren't put into widespread use, but I believe the necessary laws have not been passed, so law enforcement is unable to use the data. Not all vehicles have been equipped.
Its not quite the same issue. I don't know why anybody would want Mozilla and Netscape to coexist anyway, because they're the same thing.
The temporary fix for the profile bug creates a problem with mozilla itself.
The temporary "fix" for the profile bug is a lock file, which if present when the browser is loaded, it will prompt the user to use a different profile. At least, thats the case with Mozilla on Linux. This was intended to prevent the user from opening multiples processes with the same profile, that being the source of reported profile corruption.
This presents a serious real world problem for myself and many others, because I'm not interested in setting up a profile for each browser instance I may want to open! I get URLs from various sources delivered to me via IRC, IM, etc, and it becomes a major pain in the ass when I can't open these URLs directly because mozilla has a silly little bug with profiles!! (Which I have never experienced first hand BTW).
I think the real solution is to take one of the following actions:
1. If mozilla is started and finds a lock file on one of the profiles (assuming its in use), then send a message to the existing mozilla process to open a new window, with URL if specified. This action would be similar to using mozilla -remote.
2. Rather than creating a lock file, the first mozilla window to open would become a "profile server" of sorts. This would be the only process able to make changes (write) to the profile. All other mozilla processes would write to the profile by communicating with the original process. If the original mozilla process is terminated, then one of the other processes would pick up the role of coordinating profile writes.
I think its really great that the mozilla team is making changes to arabic, hebrew, and adding new buttons and things like that, but the profile problem has *SERIOUS* useability consequences and deserves more attention.
Note, the profile locking "fix" was introduced in Moz 1.0 RC3, so if you're like me and interested in a having browser that works, stick with RC2 until they actually fix the real problem.
I'd like to take all my existing regular expressions and run them through regular expressions to turn them into new age regular expressions. Can I do this, or will the universe implode?