So having worked for Nokia previously (actually Symbian and then we got bought) I think the basic problem that they are trying to resolve is the sheer amount of dead weight the have in the organisaiton. There is a reason they have the most expensive and least productive R&D operation on the planet and that is because they get so little out of each employee. Most employees are jobsworths simply doing the minimum they can get away with without being fired.
Think about it, all those employees, and they couldn't be co-ordinated to create a winning platform. Whilst there is definitely a degree of management failure, there is also a severe lack of personal responsibility and accountability at the lowest levels of the organisation. Moreover, with the long running drip feed of redundancies over the last few years, most of the talented, motivated engineers have left.
The net result is that this has left a big soup of shit, that they call an R&D operation. I think that Elop has done the right thing by clearing the decks. Obviously a shame for some of the people, but life moves on. Once most of the existing people have gone, and legal obligations with regards to re-hiring roles you've made redundant have passed, I think Nokia will start re-building their R&D from the ground up to be more dynamic and more responsive to the market.
Jury is still out on weather the MS deal is the right thing, and it certainly has the smell of Elop being exposed to a single ecosystem for so long that he wasn't really able to properly evaluate alternatives, but it is probably worth a try in the face of Android genericism. Although given Microsoft's double-take on Silverlight recently it's already starting to look a bit wonky.
So this is basic project management. In any project you have control over 4 things: Scope, Time, Budget and Quality. In the context of a software project, this basically boils down 1) to the set of requirements or features that you want to implement, the 2) duration of the tasks that are necessary to implement said scope, and 3) the number and quality of the engineers you have available to implement the scope, and 4) how much time you spend on testing the fuck out of whatever it is you created. There is interplay between all 4 axes. Different software engineering approaches deal with these variables in different ways. "Waterfall" methodology basically tries to nail down all 4, but in reality tends to result in variation in quality. You deliver on-time, you deliver the required (as documented) scope on time, but the quality sucks. Agile methodologies favour nailing down time (fixed iterations, time-boxes etc), budget (you have n engineers), and quality (you have a "definition of done", continuous integration etc) but scope can vary.
This isn't anything new.
Sounds to me like the managers (project & engineering) in the gaming industry along with their senior management are a bit retarded, and are living in the 80s as far as programmer heroics are concerned. There's only so much you can keep that up before your developers hate you.
Then again, I used to work at Symbian and the Symbian OS' future does not seem so bright these days so what do I know:-)
Too true. This fits in well with Apple's digital hub theme.
Through Symbian and through the use of standards such as SyncML (that allow syncing of contacts and lots more besides over normal TCP/IP) Apple has a more or less a single partner to work with that enables compatibility with a whole raft of manufacturers including Sony Ericson, Nokia, Panasonic, Siemens and Samsung, who co-own or partner with Symbian.
Furthermore, if they really do not see current phones offering what they expect (and for apple these are mostly UI related shortfalls), then the Symbian OS is the perfect platform for building a Mobile UI on as all the telecoms and networking functionality is already present, and is in fact how Symbian OS is marketed. Partners license the core parts of the OS, then slap a UI on to allow for product differentiation and boom they have a product.
...but it should be possible to imagine a Palm system which actually does some cool multimedia, and with the Metadata part of the filesystem, can make things like document editing/mp3 playing, etc a snap for developers and users.
Remember that devices have limited storage capability. The highend market may be OK, in that you'll have room for a microdrive etc. but in the low to middle end of the scale (were talking mobile phones here) the market is a high-volume low-margin one. This is where all the money is, and every penny counts. I doubt Palm or MS will be able to crack it, especially since Symbian has it all sewn up.
I think Palm in particular has missed the boat, even with Be's technology, it is just to far behind.
I don't know about, others, but from the article, I learnt _way_ more about the Zaurus than from any other article or press release.
I would say, that enough detail was given in the "review" for me to make my own mind up about the pros and cons of the device. Which I think is the basis of good journalism.
An article is never gonna be as good as having an actual device to play with. But kudos to Infosync for the information, and the many, many screenshots!
The problem with basing laws on harm is that it is a passive approach to law-enforcement, which relies on the deterrent to be sufficiently regrettable to persuade would-be criminals to not commit crimes.
By moving up the action chain of a crime (think-prepare-do), in this case outlawing the tools to knock out the prepare phase, makes it possible to preempt the crime, and prevent any harm from occuring.
In the current political atmosphere, 2 trends are emerging:
The populace of many developed countries (not just the US) are demanding active prevention of crime. They prefer to not hear about crime, because it makes them feel the streets/net/<insert medium here> are dangerous. And danger or even moderate risk is unacceptable. They are actively giving up their rights and responisibilites for safety and comfort.
Corporate Entities are getting very greedy. They feel that just because they are making money using some particular method at present, they feel they have a right to maintain that method in perpetuity. To secure this right they are lobbying and generally buying out government to get their way. Even in countries with political processes not as warped as the US, governments frequently (this story being an exception) turn to the commercial sector for advice on policy. In doing this they get professionals in from all the big companies, who then twist the process to further their company's aims.
The corporates are lobbying to ensure laws are moved up the action chain, and since the spin on the ultimate crime that is being committed is branded as theft, piracy, etc people are more than willing to accept it, and probably don't understand the real issues anyway.
For government to resolve the situation they need to 1) Stop getting bought by lobbyists/campaign contributions. 2) Turn more frequently to other sources for advice, particularly academia. 3) Take account and recognise the apathy, complacency, and submissiveness of the governed in law making, and realise that just because they don't make a fuss when a particular law goes through Congress/Parliament doesn't mean that it is good for them or that they like it.
See This Story
for details. The New Scientist link is now dead
look here instead.
If I am reading things correctly it would seem, that both the "Squalid Staters" and Chaitin are coming from the same angle. Both reckon that any maths we can derive to describe the physical world are almost fluke, and that underlying everything is sheer randomness. Fascinating Stuff. Can anyone offer a more qualified comparison of these two areas?
Shit. Can some people really do as you describe? I've always had to sing the ABC song when it comes
to sorting things alpabetically. Sometimes I'm amazed by things that some people can do automatically, while others have to think and work it out, regardless of intelligence level.
For example it still takes me a good few seconds to tell the time on analogue watch. Since I've had a digital from age 5+, I missed that crucial period where that kind of thing installs itself as an automatic reflex.
Bad form and all that, but I forgot about storage:
The ram should be static, such that when the power
goes down, the data doesn't. 32 *64 Gives us 2GB of memory. Perhaps a 100GB microdrive style disk would be apt for Films, Music and Pr0n. Along with the option of streaming data over the air, via a secure connection to my personally administered
server (none of that.net rubbish, but if makes sense e.g. in the case of locality, nothing will be placed on the local server, unless it is encrypted by me first!)
Power:
Methane powered fuel cell, which provides for at least
a months worth of continuous use.
The Screen:
Light emitting polymer screen is good here. Nice choice.
The screen should also have some mechanism for eliminating
finger grease automatically.
Form Factor:
A6, there should be no border, so that the screen takes up the
entire front. Perhaps with fanned screens like the Psion Protoypes. (can't find a link)
Communications:
An array of Software Defined Radios,
allows the device to keep in touch with the outside world. Depending
on your current usage, they may be configured for
Wireless Ethernet, BlueTooth, 3G+, TV, Radio etc.
No need for multiple cards and slots. When a bug or
security risk is found in any of the protocols, a simple
software patch will fix the problem.
When data is huge, perhaps something like
Infiniband over fibre optic would be useful.
Input:
Touch screen will be supported, along with a slide-out or otherwise concealed
keyboard for when you actually want to enter some data. Voice recognition
would also be nice, but only when your on your own.
CPU
Since were obviously way off into the future here, I would like a
micro-distributed memory architecture, with approx 32 CPUs, each
with at least 64 MB of memory. The CPU should probably be something like a
64bit ARM, running at whatever clockspeed is fashionable at the time.
See this
for similar stuff. The interconnects between CPU modules should use
something like AMD's HyperTransport
OS
For linux fans, the CPU the architecture would support a micro-Beowulf
style mode of operation.
For me, I'll roll my own Actor Model based system, running on a microkernel, like
L4 but with better real-time
response. Built in cryptography will keep ALL comms secure.
Slashdot Mirror
So having worked for Nokia previously (actually Symbian and then we got bought) I think the basic problem that they are trying to resolve is the sheer amount of dead weight the have in the organisaiton. There is a reason they have the most expensive and least productive R&D operation on the planet and that is because they get so little out of each employee. Most employees are jobsworths simply doing the minimum they can get away with without being fired.
Think about it, all those employees, and they couldn't be co-ordinated to create a winning platform. Whilst there is definitely a degree of management failure, there is also a severe lack of personal responsibility and accountability at the lowest levels of the organisation. Moreover, with the long running drip feed of redundancies over the last few years, most of the talented, motivated engineers have left.
The net result is that this has left a big soup of shit, that they call an R&D operation. I think that Elop has done the right thing by clearing the decks. Obviously a shame for some of the people, but life moves on. Once most of the existing people have gone, and legal obligations with regards to re-hiring roles you've made redundant have passed, I think Nokia will start re-building their R&D from the ground up to be more dynamic and more responsive to the market.
Jury is still out on weather the MS deal is the right thing, and it certainly has the smell of Elop being exposed to a single ecosystem for so long that he wasn't really able to properly evaluate alternatives, but it is probably worth a try in the face of Android genericism. Although given Microsoft's double-take on Silverlight recently it's already starting to look a bit wonky.
Interesting times.
Of course. Though budget buys time, which buys patience and 911 pretty much secured interest. Oh look: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/10/28/US-intelligence-budget-tops-80-billion/UPI-37231288307113/
So this is basic project management. In any project you have control over 4 things: Scope, Time, Budget and Quality. In the context of a software project, this basically boils down 1) to the set of requirements or features that you want to implement, the 2) duration of the tasks that are necessary to implement said scope, and 3) the number and quality of the engineers you have available to implement the scope, and 4) how much time you spend on testing the fuck out of whatever it is you created. There is interplay between all 4 axes.
Different software engineering approaches deal with these variables in different ways. "Waterfall" methodology basically tries to nail down all 4, but in reality tends to result in variation in quality. You deliver on-time, you deliver the required (as documented) scope on time, but the quality sucks. Agile methodologies favour nailing down time (fixed iterations, time-boxes etc), budget (you have n engineers), and quality (you have a "definition of done", continuous integration etc) but scope can vary.
This isn't anything new.
Sounds to me like the managers (project & engineering) in the gaming industry along with their senior management are a bit retarded, and are living in the 80s as far as programmer heroics are concerned. There's only so much you can keep that up before your developers hate you.
Then again, I used to work at Symbian and the Symbian OS' future does not seem so bright these days so what do I know :-)
They also made Wellington Boots. This gives them +1 shit wading capability. Apple are screwed.
Of course.
It seems that finally my desktop wallpaper will become a reality - see:
http://www.povcomp.com/entries/128.php
A work of pure genius!
729 UOW = ???
2187 UOW = profit!
Through Symbian and through the use of standards such as SyncML (that allow syncing of contacts and lots more besides over normal TCP/IP) Apple has a more or less a single partner to work with that enables compatibility with a whole raft of manufacturers including Sony Ericson, Nokia, Panasonic, Siemens and Samsung, who co-own or partner with Symbian.
Furthermore, if they really do not see current phones offering what they expect (and for apple these are mostly UI related shortfalls), then the Symbian OS is the perfect platform for building a Mobile UI on as all the telecoms and networking functionality is already present, and is in fact how Symbian OS is marketed. Partners license the core parts of the OS, then slap a UI on to allow for product differentiation and boom they have a product.
> Java, so that one could have full generality
> without a performance penalty.
Except you still have the added assertion no?
Ectasy...and I had an excellent time :)
It also appears to function nominally while caked in dust. ;-)
Funniest Thing Said. Ever. Period.
Remember that devices have limited storage capability. The highend market may be OK, in that you'll have room for a microdrive etc. but in the low to middle end of the scale (were talking mobile phones here) the market is a high-volume low-margin one. This is where all the money is, and every penny counts. I doubt Palm or MS will be able to crack it, especially since Symbian has it all sewn up.
I think Palm in particular has missed the boat, even with Be's technology, it is just to far behind.
...No More VAXes
What are you? Some kind of freak? ;-)
I'm with you on the smells man. I haven't smelt an iPod yet, but I can recommend Psions for a good sniff.
I would say, that enough detail was given in the "review" for me to make my own mind up about the pros and cons of the device. Which I think is the basis of good journalism.
An article is never gonna be as good as having an actual device to play with. But kudos to Infosync for the information, and the many, many screenshots!
By moving up the action chain of a crime (think-prepare-do), in this case outlawing the tools to knock out the prepare phase, makes it possible to preempt the crime, and prevent any harm from occuring.
In the current political atmosphere, 2 trends are emerging:
The populace of many developed countries (not just the US) are demanding active prevention of crime. They prefer to not hear about crime, because it makes them feel the streets/net/<insert medium here> are dangerous. And danger or even moderate risk is unacceptable. They are actively giving up their rights and responisibilites for safety and comfort.
Corporate Entities are getting very greedy. They feel that just because they are making money using some particular method at present, they feel they have a right to maintain that method in perpetuity. To secure this right they are lobbying and generally buying out government to get their way. Even in countries with political processes not as warped as the US, governments frequently (this story being an exception) turn to the commercial sector for advice on policy. In doing this they get professionals in from all the big companies, who then twist the process to further their company's aims.
The corporates are lobbying to ensure laws are moved up the action chain, and since the spin on the ultimate crime that is being committed is branded as theft, piracy, etc people are more than willing to accept it, and probably don't understand the real issues anyway.
For government to resolve the situation they need to 1) Stop getting bought by lobbyists/campaign contributions. 2) Turn more frequently to other sources for advice, particularly academia. 3) Take account and recognise the apathy, complacency, and submissiveness of the governed in law making, and realise that just because they don't make a fuss when a particular law goes through Congress/Parliament doesn't mean that it is good for them or that they like it.
If I am reading things correctly it would seem, that both the "Squalid Staters" and Chaitin are coming from the same angle. Both reckon that any maths we can derive to describe the physical world are almost fluke, and that underlying everything is sheer randomness. Fascinating Stuff. Can anyone offer a more qualified comparison of these two areas?
For example it still takes me a good few seconds to tell the time on analogue watch. Since I've had a digital from age 5+, I missed that crucial period where that kind of thing installs itself as an automatic reflex.
sb> Go fuck yourself
"I don't know how to fuck"
Hahahahahahaha....ROFLMAO (when I was 13...)
Bad form and all that, but I forgot about storage: .net rubbish, but if makes sense e.g. in the case of locality, nothing will be placed on the local server, unless it is encrypted by me first!)
The ram should be static, such that when the power
goes down, the data doesn't. 32 *64 Gives us 2GB of memory. Perhaps a 100GB microdrive style disk would be apt for Films, Music and Pr0n. Along with the option of streaming data over the air, via a secure connection to my personally administered
server (none of that
Power:
Methane powered fuel cell, which provides for at least a months worth of continuous use.
The Screen:
Light emitting polymer screen is good here. Nice choice. The screen should also have some mechanism for eliminating finger grease automatically.
Form Factor:
A6, there should be no border, so that the screen takes up the entire front. Perhaps with fanned screens like the Psion Protoypes. (can't find a link)
Communications:
An array of Software Defined Radios, allows the device to keep in touch with the outside world. Depending on your current usage, they may be configured for Wireless Ethernet, BlueTooth, 3G+, TV, Radio etc. No need for multiple cards and slots. When a bug or security risk is found in any of the protocols, a simple software patch will fix the problem.
When data is huge, perhaps something like Infiniband over fibre optic would be useful.
Input:
Touch screen will be supported, along with a slide-out or otherwise concealed keyboard for when you actually want to enter some data. Voice recognition would also be nice, but only when your on your own.
CPU
Since were obviously way off into the future here, I would like a micro-distributed memory architecture, with approx 32 CPUs, each with at least 64 MB of memory. The CPU should probably be something like a 64bit ARM, running at whatever clockspeed is fashionable at the time. See this for similar stuff. The interconnects between CPU modules should use something like AMD's HyperTransport
OS
For linux fans, the CPU the architecture would support a micro-Beowulf style mode of operation.
For me, I'll roll my own Actor Model based system, running on a microkernel, like L4 but with better real-time response. Built in cryptography will keep ALL comms secure.
Someone please mod this racist asshole down.
The British are launching cruise missiles from submarines, air support is to follow in the next few days.
No...it will become a war on the Taliban, NOT the Afghan people.