Let's let China and India bring back the Helium 3 and we will buy it from them. -- That's probably the only good reason to go there anyway, but if we go there we might have to use Helium 3/deuterium fusion for our energy. That would really disappointment the coal, gas, and petroleum industry.
Going to Mars via asteroid trips is a good idea because it will spend lots of money without any of those annoying technology returns and society-changing science findings to cope with. Also, nobody else will be pursuing Mars, so we won't be embarrased by our failure when somebody who still has technology and manufacturing resources beats us there.
My cheapie Belkin access point has an option to turn off UPNP in the configuration. In fact, it is the default. That should kill that exploit rather quickly, shouldn't it?
Why are you surprised? We take education, the most important tool for our common man to advance and make it a charity case. Shop at Target so you can have a pittance donated to your school of choice. Buy soup or who knows what else to get donations to your public schools. Send the kids out schlocking over-priced candy bars for money for their extra curricular activities -- you know- the activities that make us think back kindly of our experiences years ago.
Then, after doing all of this, move all your skilled work offshore because it is cheaper this quarter and this FY to buy your "educated resources" offshore than to make them yourself onshore. After all, education takes 12-20 years of investment and who is ready to commit to that? Not good for the bottom line. Nope, not gonna do it.
A Dream --- I for one, welcome the provision of rugged computers to our kids. Ya know, some of those kids will take them, master their nuances, learn linux, and become the geeks of tomorrow. Yeah, it is truly sad that the US has its head buried so firmly up its collective *** but maybe, just maybe, an underpriveliged kid who discovers a knack will be inspired to learn something instead of watching the propaganda box and make something of him or herself. Maybe his or her mom will be able to become a Platinum Seller by finding bargains at yard sales and reselling them on Ebay. That will make it possible for the kids to eat better and maybe not have to huckster on the streets. The kid sets an example for siblings and neighbors and a few people can climb out of poverty.
A dream? Maybe, but probably the best we can expect.
Presidential Primaries are under way -- have you noticed the resounding cries for education for our next generations? Oh, you haven't? Hmmmmm Guess that says it all.
No software since WP5.1 has done as good and obvious a job of indexing, hierarchical sections, cross referencing, and tables of contents. I could do all those things so painlessly in WP and never managed to achieve them proficiently in Word. Throw in simple keystroke access for almost everything you did and it becomes a writer's dream. I have often thought of setting up a DOS PC simply to run WP but now finding a supported printer is quite a feat.
WP was proof that you did not have to invent an abstract and incomprehensible model of a document simply to make a tool to author one.
So - we have lots of people going out to buy boxen that display movies over the Internet. Wonderful. Now, let's have lots of people in my neighborhood download a movie tonite. Do you really think I will be able to read Slashdot or find Google with 1 Gb/s of movies going through my lan segment?
It is a wonderful idea if somebody can build out the bandwidth in cable Internet but somehow I suspect that increasing bandwidth so that people have an alternative to cable movies on demand is not one of the brighter things my cable company could do. Oh, maybe they will offer an extra charge service that includes 4 extra Mb/s of bandwidth for movie downloaders. Makes the Netflix offering not quite so economical.
My cable Internet already crawls for a day or two around Patch Tuesday every month. Maybe with some effort it can crawl even more during evenings.
I have a wonderful idea - how about mailing DVDs to people's houses! Brilliant!
If copyright is limited then every creative product will be accompanied by a license that specifies draconian limitations to be visited on the first and all subsequent buyers. Copyright already has fair use provisions that the media giants wish would disappear. In a contract the media companies can probably visit plagues upon the buyer's progeny unto the seventh generation. The only problem for media companies would be decriminalization of copyright infringements but the RIAA doesn't seem to try to jail people, just destroy their lives. It is better to have the wounded walking around as a reminder to others. If they are jailed, they might be forgotten.
When I heard of the newest date for the transition I determined that it would make sense to fully sever the tie with broadcast/media TV. I am not alone for once... 8 percent said they would just watch DVDs or play video games. And 12 percent said they would simply abandon television altogether. Maybe people can start rating politicians on how annoying their ads, and those of the various interest groups, are. And, simply by doing nothing, a significant number of people can find themselves disenfranchised from TV and begin to experience freedom. What a wonderful change is coming.
But -- there is also a great opportunity for the goverment to watch the population and determine who is no longer connected to the propaganda pipeline. Ya know, with all that time on their hands, those people might start thinking for themselves and destabilize the whole feudal system. Right now, you have to request discount coupons for converter boxes - I will bet that they will give boxes (or TV sets, for that matter) free soon to keep people nursing on their media formula.
I can't answer your question but I can give you things to look at in answering it yourself. I hope these questions help you cut your fix time and make your customer a happy camper.
If you are taking several weeks turnaround time I would suggest that somebody look into what is happening during that time. How long from customer finds bug to reporting it? to diagnosis? to approval to fix it? to fix it? to build the package? to test it? to deploy it? How many times do you need to repeat one of those steps because it messes up?
Was the product built in a hurry and filled with spaghetti? When you make changes are there frequent crazy side effects? Do you respond to long release cycles by bunching up lots of fixes so that even though the customer gets a release late they get a big release? Are you making the releases too big?
My bet is that many of those items are taking way too long. For example, if you invest some money in regression testing capabilities then you can cut the testing time by a great deal, not to mention saving repeat bugs. If you automate and streamline builds then maybe you can get a reliable build out the door quicker. Of course, the disciplines of code management require equipment and tools and training/design to be successful.
Now, my next question is why is fix turnaround such a big deal? Is the product buggy? Did it launch without being complete and is now being enhanced? Are the customers extracting a pound of flesh for a late delivery by expanding scope and getting free work? Are you issuing bug fixes that result from the previous bug fixes?
A well funded and streamlined team can turn around fixes in very good time if they have the tools and the support to attack the causes for development delays. Most times managers want to shorten times without investing any effort (money) in methods that will save time. There is a common illusion out there that increased pressure will result in increased outut while in fact it typically results in the opposite.
Human factors - typically programmers, especially good ones, assume that they are the cause for their problems. Many times they are, but when the system is not optimized then no programmer regardless of how good can be productive. So everybody just looks at bad failure rates and is unable to change the situation. Frequently it is the process and methods that need to be fixed, not the programmers. Recognizing that is a major step in creating a highly performing team.
My wife and I got married in 1974 and after looking at our wedding money spent $120+ for a TI SR-10 calculator by mail order from a discounter. I remember thinking that the price couldn't fall much more so it was definitely time to buy it. A wonderful device it was... really cool and useful.
Nobody is selling a $15 decoder box, only high priced TV sets. Plus, nobody in a position of power wants a decoder box because once the signal is analog you can record it to your heart's content. Watch the process - first there will be delays, then cable workarounds, and finally full DRM with digital TV and no recording unless you pay. It will take a while but it will happen. Erosion in rights is almost always a gradual process, like boiling a frog. I am looking forward to a life sans TV because I don't intend to get cable/satellite and I will live too far away from broadcasters so there is no reason to get an HDTV. DVDs do just fine for me.
In the old days, people listened to music in their home with a stereo that could reproduce sound fairly well. Then, CDs came out and improved the dynamic range (level difference between the pop, hiss, and crackle of the media and the loudest sound recorded). People really loved them
Then, the entire generation of early stereo adopters moved on and the next generation listened to music primarily in cars, subways, outdoors next to noisy streets, and on the radio. Soon, any dynamic range in excess of 20 dB was probably totally wasted because quiet passages would disappear. Add in the issue that compression takes more room for more dynamic range, and songs compress better if flattened like a pancake and thrown at the listener
The music industry is wondering how to sell their product - they could restore the dynamic range and sell real copies of the music to people who like real music - as an art and not as a distraction.
Colonizing the universe seems just an extension of our famous Manifest Destiny. Seems a lot of indigenous people didn't like it all that well. Also seems that we have made a rather good mess of the planet we have. Maybe lifeforms that get the ability to travel astounding distances figure out that they ought to respect the places they see, not conquer them. In fact, maybe only lifeforms that get past aggressive colonization survive long enough to travel and see the universe. If you think the humanity has serious problems now, just wait until you are on a teraformed planet light years from home. Before you could survive there you would need to develop the behavioral maturity that would show you how pointless it was to colonize it in the first place. It is quite obvious that mankind should get some colonies living off the planet in case some catastrophe occurs. But, that does not mean necessarily leaving the solar system or the neighborhood. Supernovas can occur but it is also possible to live inside rock.
I think the reason that we don't see lots of ETs is that they figure out that:
There is no place like home No matter where you go, there you are Leave No Trace and a few other things we already know.
I leave it to you to finish the list. We already know what we need to survive on this planet and probably to hollow out an asteroid and set up nice secure colonies. There's just that pesky problem that while we know all this stuff we don't seem to practice it very well.
I agree, DRM for media is not just a MS problem - but it will only be launched on tightly controlled platforms so will probably never be launched in Linux. DRM can also control rights to documents, software, etc. to either control circulation or to make sure the document is opened in a legit up to date copy of the software. Thus, DRM can deprive people of their work if they don't pay for an update, should any software creator choose. Once there is an effective control there is a considerable risk of misuse in addition to legitimate uses. That is ultimately why IMHO DRM will hold Windows and its licensing model back as a serious computing platform in the future. People who actually use their PC to do more than surf the web and play media/games will adopt a more open platform. Virtualization makes that easier to achieve with one machine, which is why MS is worried. Virtualization means they can readily lose Office and other software sales to Linux or Apple while people still can watch movies and video on demand in the Windows instance.
When "trustworthy computing" is finally in control I plan to buy a cheap DRM controlled system to do whatever it is that is DRM restricted and use Linux to do everything else. Probably a little hand-held unit or win-phone will do the job.
Virtualization, particularly when the virtualization is not terribly obvious, is a great threat to MS. I have a Windows box sitting in the corner to do those things for which Linux software does not exist. I fire it up after Patch Tuesday and then once in a while to run whatever it is I need. If I could have VMs (hardware is too limnited) then the same box would support my primary environment and Windows as a rarely used secondary. Not a pleasant place for MS to be when on other fronts they are wringing all the money they can from their products.
Imagine if you will...
People using Open Office in Linux as their primary suite and resentfully starting up the non-standard MS Office to comply with a customer who hasn't seen the light... Cleaning up the Windows instance from some attack while their Linux instance runs happily along... Using Linux applications to create anything of lasting importance (without any trusted computing and DRM games) while using Windows for quickie throw-away stuff and interaction to comply with companies who are stuck in Windows environment... People would begin to see Windows as an added cost instead of a part of overhead.
With its DRM, cost, and licensing restrictions, Windows might quickly be relegated to a media player and other envronments would take their place as serious applications. People would acquire the minimum MS they need to use proprietary stuff (some banks, employer systems, etc) and that is it. Even worse, imagine a system vendor being able to sell you a VM box with a diagnostic instance, linux, and optionally Windows. Suddenly there is no stranglehold on support environments. Manufacturers would tend to virtualize their hardware so that it could be used from Windows as well as other OSs. Compatibility would be a major driver of hardware sales. MS would lose the lock on hardware support.
So, in short, they have a big risk from virtualization and we can expect them to resist it as long as they can.
I use the Belkin adapter with my laptop and really good sounding FM radio to provide audio from DVDs. Sounds better than computer speakers and outside a car its range is OK.
Does Google have Stupid written on its forehead?
on
The Final Days of Google
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· Score: 3, Insightful
The reasoning in this article is badly flawed. While nobody knows, or if they know, can't say what is in agreements, policies, and procedures within Google, one thing we can assume is that Google is not stupid. Their ideas have to be protected, developed or not. They were smart -- rather than have undocumented ideas developed in spare time, Google made it part of the job. So, there have to be the documents that describe the ideas for, if nothing else, the review that selects the best. Why should Google throw away those documents? -- they don't throw away my email.
So, my bet is that Google is or will become a resume stain for anybody who was in a development role there. Venture capitalists will be unsure whether Google would come down on them if they developed the idea. Why go with that risk when there are plenty of other ideas clamoring for support? If somebody does pitch and develop an idea, Google can sue them and there are no pockets deeper than their's. If you carry it farther, how would one prove that the idea didn't originate from Google, since obviously you can't appeal to them for proof. So, I think Google is safe and probably they have better control of their IP than most any other company.
Ultimate favorite is the Toddy Coffee Maker. Google lists lots of sites. It cold brews coffee into a coffee concentrate over a period of 24 hours. Then to make a cup of coffee you add a shot of the concentrate to a cup of hot water/zap it and drink. Very smooth especially with Columbian coffee, minimal acids and LOTS of caffeine. Cold brewing preserves lots of flavors and oils too. Downside is that the concentrate needs refrigeration as does the reusable filter for the coffee maker. Without refrigeration, or after a while even with it, the concentrate ferments/gets rancid sort of like old iced tea so you have to drink enough to keep it fresh. Somewhat inconvenient but really really good.
Drip brewed using the fine screen rather than filter paper is the 2nd best, particularly with lots of finely ground coffee. I like it best about halfway in strength between regular drip and expresso. Unlike a paper filter, the screen does not perform chromatography on all of the tasty oils in the coffee so more flavor gets to the coffee.
I spend a lot of time in the wilderness and my choice there is a stainless steel percolator on a gas burner with very low flame. If the flame is too high the coffee tastes scorched and bitter, but if it is just enough to perc every 1-3 seconds it produces really strong full flavored coffee. I wait about 15 minutes of percolating. More boils off too much flavor, less makes it weak. YMMV I don't know whether electric percolators work as well, my recollection of electrically percolators is that the coffee tasted bitter but it was decades ago. I have looked longingly at the backpacking expresso maker sold at backpacking stores, and wonder if it really works. Maybe somebody here has used one and could comment.
Now, for the beans vs. ground topic. I have long been a fan of grinding beans but the Costco Columbian ground coffee is so good that it is hard to tell from fresh ground beans. There are good beans and poor beans and maybe I hit a run of poor beans, I think.
The spring 2007 release of Mandriva came with Open Source Compiere that is a combined Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management product. If you look it up in Google you will find lots of info. Wikipedia has an article on it, and several discussions are going on whether it is going to fork into private and open source versions. I looked at it, it appeared to have promise, but did not need it immediately so have not done a deep dive. I liked the fact that it could work with any database you want (including Postgresql, my favorite) but cannot speak to its complete functionality.
I don't think anybody could recommend a product such as that for you, serious investigation is needed. But, I would give Compiere a look and maybe it will be the closest thing to what you need.
The commentors to this statement have it pretty right, but let me add my.02 worth. None of these are critical of you or your ideas, they are just good advice for many people in your situation.
1. Keep your job - stability is fleeting and you will be glad you stayed with it when you are finally outsourced or laid off 2. Start paying yourself from the nice salary you are making -
a. if you are in debt, pay it down asap
b. if you are not in debt, save money as much as you can
1. set up a fund to go around the world and fund it decently - 15K or so should do the trick
2. put everything in your 401K that you can... the more the better... when you are 59.5 you will be amazed how wise you were years ago
3. pay down your house so you can save even more
c. whenever you start feeling that everything is pointless, look at the progress you've made and congratulate yourself 3. Learn something new, maybe even pay for your own certs / classes -- once you have certs note how much better you are treated when they realize you are secure in your skills and knowlege and marketability 4. Focus on your family and spend quality time with them. They are really the reason you are working anyway. enjoy them - they are your reward for putting up with the crap 5. Remeber to look around and appreciate at least one thing each day. Whatever it is, it didn't have to happen and if you count your blessings you will find you have more than if you grump around expecting the world to conform to your perspective du jour.
Last night I watched my first movie via download. I have 4MB/s cable and I took 2MB/s for about 2.5 hours to watch my 90 minute movie. I can see that as soon as my neighbors find out how wonderful this is, my web surfing, IM, and other real Internet activities will suffer. Not to mention, I doubt that movies will be rewarding in the slightest unless I choose to download at some practical hour, like 3AM.
I am currently only thinking about my local cable provider, it doesn't include the interconnection which accumulates a lot more users than my neighbors. If I had to pay a transit fee for every download, I am pretty sure I wouldn't and would just get a DVD and watch it. After all, my station wagon full of DVDs has one heck of a lot of bandwidth. So, as in all really tough problems, we have the tragedy of the commons to deal with. IMHO, I would rather see some sort of surcharge for spurious internet usage like movie downloads and let the commons support what they do best which is the web and associated traditional applications.
If you want bandwidth, pay for it. If not, don't use it. Maybe if everybody paid per GB for bandwidth usage it would solve the problem. I would still be able to download my linux distros occasionally and surf the web.
I seem to remember on SciFi channel some programs in which streaks were found in sunlight with a camera in a shadow. Now, If the aliens were using nanoparticles to research earth, the data presented would have a very good explanation = the aliens were researching earth with dust particles. The fact that they appeared to move in intelligent ways is further evidence. So, don't try to patent these nano explorers because there is prior art in UFO videos.
Most of the phishing scams I have seen use either the IP address or the domain of the phishing webpage itself. Having the banks use.safe would be as effective as having banks not use their IP addresses,.nl,.kr,.ru, and a few other domains that phishers use. People already give away their information to totally bogus addresses, so how does using.safe make one iota of difference?
We are at the bottom of the sunspot cycle right now. That means we are at a local minimum in the sun's output. We can expect the sun's output to increase over the next 5-6 years so this record warm period we have been experiencing will finally warm up a bit. Watch for all the anti-global-warming interests (who also happen to make lots of money producing CO2) to attribute all of the wonderful warming events to the sun.
It is always easier to minimize the accountability for one's actions by shifting the focus to something else. So, we face a dramatically warming sun AND a greenhouse to make the most of the extra energy. Sounds like a good time to start cutting back on the greenhouse. Or, maybe, we just wait for the sun to cool off. Yeah, that sounds like a plan! I even ran across stories that the climate is known to shift quickly now and again. So, maybe this is just one of those quick change periods. If we wait a decade or so, it might fix itself. Yeah, that sounds like a plan!
The news came out on how much money the presidential candidates raised, as if that were a measure of fitness. Let's see how many candidates take money from the anti-global-warming interests, how many jump on the media bandwagon of sound bite ignorance, and how many vote against controls on lobbyists, PACs, and other big money influences on our government. I have little confidence that we will be able to do anything about global warming because anything we do now will be reflected only decades from now. My mind may change if some politicians step up to the first step, which is to control lobbyists and special interests and start paying attention to the interests of the people.
Action now costs money and effort and pays off in decades. Procrastination pays off immediately. Guess which we will choose.
Slashdot Mirror
Let's let China and India bring back the Helium 3 and we will buy it from them. -- That's probably the only good reason to go there anyway, but if we go there we might have to use Helium 3/deuterium fusion for our energy. That would really disappointment the coal, gas, and petroleum industry.
Going to Mars via asteroid trips is a good idea because it will spend lots of money without any of those annoying technology returns and society-changing science findings to cope with. Also, nobody else will be pursuing Mars, so we won't be embarrased by our failure when somebody who still has technology and manufacturing resources beats us there.
Why does this topic remind me of a certain philosopher's strike?
My cheapie Belkin access point has an option to turn off UPNP in the configuration. In fact, it is the default. That should kill that exploit rather quickly, shouldn't it?
Why are you surprised? We take education, the most important tool for our common man to advance and make it a charity case. Shop at Target so you can have a pittance donated to your school of choice. Buy soup or who knows what else to get donations to your public schools. Send the kids out schlocking over-priced candy bars for money for their extra curricular activities -- you know- the activities that make us think back kindly of our experiences years ago.
Then, after doing all of this, move all your skilled work offshore because it is cheaper this quarter and this FY to buy your "educated resources" offshore than to make them yourself onshore. After all, education takes 12-20 years of investment and who is ready to commit to that? Not good for the bottom line. Nope, not gonna do it.
A Dream ---
I for one, welcome the provision of rugged computers to our kids. Ya know, some of those kids will take them, master their nuances, learn linux, and become the geeks of tomorrow. Yeah, it is truly sad that the US has its head buried so firmly up its collective *** but maybe, just maybe, an underpriveliged kid who discovers a knack will be inspired to learn something instead of watching the propaganda box and make something of him or herself. Maybe his or her mom will be able to become a Platinum Seller by finding bargains at yard sales and reselling them on Ebay. That will make it possible for the kids to eat better and maybe not have to huckster on the streets. The kid sets an example for siblings and neighbors and a few people can climb out of poverty.
A dream? Maybe, but probably the best we can expect.
Presidential Primaries are under way -- have you noticed the resounding cries for education for our next generations? Oh, you haven't? Hmmmmm Guess that says it all.
No software since WP5.1 has done as good and obvious a job of indexing, hierarchical sections, cross referencing, and tables of contents. I could do all those things so painlessly in WP and never managed to achieve them proficiently in Word. Throw in simple keystroke access for almost everything you did and it becomes a writer's dream. I have often thought of setting up a DOS PC simply to run WP but now finding a supported printer is quite a feat.
WP was proof that you did not have to invent an abstract and incomprehensible model of a document simply to make a tool to author one.
So - we have lots of people going out to buy boxen that display movies over the Internet. Wonderful. Now, let's have lots of people in my neighborhood download a movie tonite. Do you really think I will be able to read Slashdot or find Google with 1 Gb/s of movies going through my lan segment?
It is a wonderful idea if somebody can build out the bandwidth in cable Internet but somehow I suspect that increasing bandwidth so that people have an alternative to cable movies on demand is not one of the brighter things my cable company could do. Oh, maybe they will offer an extra charge service that includes 4 extra Mb/s of bandwidth for movie downloaders. Makes the Netflix offering not quite so economical.
My cable Internet already crawls for a day or two around Patch Tuesday every month. Maybe with some effort it can crawl even more during evenings.
I have a wonderful idea - how about mailing DVDs to people's houses! Brilliant!
If copyright is limited then every creative product will be accompanied by a license that specifies draconian limitations to be visited on the first and all subsequent buyers. Copyright already has fair use provisions that the media giants wish would disappear. In a contract the media companies can probably visit plagues upon the buyer's progeny unto the seventh generation. The only problem for media companies would be decriminalization of copyright infringements but the RIAA doesn't seem to try to jail people, just destroy their lives. It is better to have the wounded walking around as a reminder to others. If they are jailed, they might be forgotten.
When I heard of the newest date for the transition I determined that it would make sense to fully sever the tie with broadcast/media TV. I am not alone for once ... 8 percent said they would just watch DVDs or play video games. And 12 percent said they would simply abandon television altogether. Maybe people can start rating politicians on how annoying their ads, and those of the various interest groups, are. And, simply by doing nothing, a significant number of people can find themselves disenfranchised from TV and begin to experience freedom. What a wonderful change is coming.
But -- there is also a great opportunity for the goverment to watch the population and determine who is no longer connected to the propaganda pipeline. Ya know, with all that time on their hands, those people might start thinking for themselves and destabilize the whole feudal system. Right now, you have to request discount coupons for converter boxes - I will bet that they will give boxes (or TV sets, for that matter) free soon to keep people nursing on their media formula.
I can't answer your question but I can give you things to look at in answering it yourself. I hope these questions help you cut your fix time and make your customer a happy camper.
If you are taking several weeks turnaround time I would suggest that somebody look into what is happening during that time. How long from customer finds bug to reporting it? to diagnosis? to approval to fix it? to fix it? to build the package? to test it? to deploy it? How many times do you need to repeat one of those steps because it messes up?
Was the product built in a hurry and filled with spaghetti? When you make changes are there frequent crazy side effects? Do you respond to long release cycles by bunching up lots of fixes so that even though the customer gets a release late they get a big release? Are you making the releases too big?
My bet is that many of those items are taking way too long. For example, if you invest some money in regression testing capabilities then you can cut the testing time by a great deal, not to mention saving repeat bugs. If you automate and streamline builds then maybe you can get a reliable build out the door quicker. Of course, the disciplines of code management require equipment and tools and training/design to be successful.
Now, my next question is why is fix turnaround such a big deal? Is the product buggy? Did it launch without being complete and is now being enhanced? Are the customers extracting a pound of flesh for a late delivery by expanding scope and getting free work? Are you issuing bug fixes that result from the previous bug fixes?
A well funded and streamlined team can turn around fixes in very good time if they have the tools and the support to attack the causes for development delays. Most times managers want to shorten times without investing any effort (money) in methods that will save time. There is a common illusion out there that increased pressure will result in increased outut while in fact it typically results in the opposite.
Human factors - typically programmers, especially good ones, assume that they are the cause for their problems. Many times they are, but when the system is not optimized then no programmer regardless of how good can be productive. So everybody just looks at bad failure rates and is unable to change the situation. Frequently it is the process and methods that need to be fixed, not the programmers. Recognizing that is a major step in creating a highly performing team.
My wife and I got married in 1974 and after looking at our wedding money spent $120+ for a TI SR-10 calculator by mail order from a discounter. I remember thinking that the price couldn't fall much more so it was definitely time to buy it. A wonderful device it was ... really cool and useful.
Nobody is selling a $15 decoder box, only high priced TV sets. Plus, nobody in a position of power wants a decoder box because once the signal is analog you can record it to your heart's content. Watch the process - first there will be delays, then cable workarounds, and finally full DRM with digital TV and no recording unless you pay. It will take a while but it will happen. Erosion in rights is almost always a gradual process, like boiling a frog. I am looking forward to a life sans TV because I don't intend to get cable/satellite and I will live too far away from broadcasters so there is no reason to get an HDTV. DVDs do just fine for me.
In the old days, people listened to music in their home with a stereo that could reproduce sound fairly well. Then, CDs came out and improved the dynamic range (level difference between the pop, hiss, and crackle of the media and the loudest sound recorded). People really loved them
Then, the entire generation of early stereo adopters moved on and the next generation listened to music primarily in cars, subways, outdoors next to noisy streets, and on the radio. Soon, any dynamic range in excess of 20 dB was probably totally wasted because quiet passages would disappear. Add in the issue that compression takes more room for more dynamic range, and songs compress better if flattened like a pancake and thrown at the listener
The music industry is wondering how to sell their product - they could restore the dynamic range and sell real copies of the music to people who like real music - as an art and not as a distraction.
Colonizing the universe seems just an extension of our famous Manifest Destiny. Seems a lot of indigenous people didn't like it all that well. Also seems that we have made a rather good mess of the planet we have. Maybe lifeforms that get the ability to travel astounding distances figure out that they ought to respect the places they see, not conquer them. In fact, maybe only lifeforms that get past aggressive colonization survive long enough to travel and see the universe. If you think the humanity has serious problems now, just wait until you are on a teraformed planet light years from home. Before you could survive there you would need to develop the behavioral maturity that would show you how pointless it was to colonize it in the first place. It is quite obvious that mankind should get some colonies living off the planet in case some catastrophe occurs. But, that does not mean necessarily leaving the solar system or the neighborhood. Supernovas can occur but it is also possible to live inside rock.
I think the reason that we don't see lots of ETs is that they figure out that:
There is no place like home
No matter where you go, there you are
Leave No Trace
and a few other things we already know.
I leave it to you to finish the list. We already know what we need to survive on this planet and probably to hollow out an asteroid and set up nice secure colonies. There's just that pesky problem that while we know all this stuff we don't seem to practice it very well.
I agree, DRM for media is not just a MS problem - but it will only be launched on tightly controlled platforms so will probably never be launched in Linux. DRM can also control rights to documents, software, etc. to either control circulation or to make sure the document is opened in a legit up to date copy of the software. Thus, DRM can deprive people of their work if they don't pay for an update, should any software creator choose. Once there is an effective control there is a considerable risk of misuse in addition to legitimate uses. That is ultimately why IMHO DRM will hold Windows and its licensing model back as a serious computing platform in the future. People who actually use their PC to do more than surf the web and play media/games will adopt a more open platform. Virtualization makes that easier to achieve with one machine, which is why MS is worried. Virtualization means they can readily lose Office and other software sales to Linux or Apple while people still can watch movies and video on demand in the Windows instance.
When "trustworthy computing" is finally in control I plan to buy a cheap DRM controlled system to do whatever it is that is DRM restricted and use Linux to do everything else. Probably a little hand-held unit or win-phone will do the job.
Virtualization, particularly when the virtualization is not terribly obvious, is a great threat to MS. I have a Windows box sitting in the corner to do those things for which Linux software does not exist. I fire it up after Patch Tuesday and then once in a while to run whatever it is I need. If I could have VMs (hardware is too limnited) then the same box would support my primary environment and Windows as a rarely used secondary. Not a pleasant place for MS to be when on other fronts they are wringing all the money they can from their products.
Imagine if you will ...
People using Open Office in Linux as their primary suite and resentfully starting up the non-standard MS Office to comply with a customer who hasn't seen the light ... Cleaning up the Windows instance from some attack while their Linux instance runs happily along ... Using Linux applications to create anything of lasting importance (without any trusted computing and DRM games) while using Windows for quickie throw-away stuff and interaction to comply with companies who are stuck in Windows environment ... People would begin to see Windows as an added cost instead of a part of overhead.
With its DRM, cost, and licensing restrictions, Windows might quickly be relegated to a media player and other envronments would take their place as serious applications. People would acquire the minimum MS they need to use proprietary stuff (some banks, employer systems, etc) and that is it. Even worse, imagine a system vendor being able to sell you a VM box with a diagnostic instance, linux, and optionally Windows. Suddenly there is no stranglehold on support environments. Manufacturers would tend to virtualize their hardware so that it could be used from Windows as well as other OSs. Compatibility would be a major driver of hardware sales. MS would lose the lock on hardware support.
So, in short, they have a big risk from virtualization and we can expect them to resist it as long as they can.I use the Belkin adapter with my laptop and really good sounding FM radio to provide audio from DVDs. Sounds better than computer speakers and outside a car its range is OK.
The reasoning in this article is badly flawed. While nobody knows, or if they know, can't say what is in agreements, policies, and procedures within Google, one thing we can assume is that Google is not stupid. Their ideas have to be protected, developed or not. They were smart -- rather than have undocumented ideas developed in spare time, Google made it part of the job. So, there have to be the documents that describe the ideas for, if nothing else, the review that selects the best. Why should Google throw away those documents? -- they don't throw away my email.
So, my bet is that Google is or will become a resume stain for anybody who was in a development role there. Venture capitalists will be unsure whether Google would come down on them if they developed the idea. Why go with that risk when there are plenty of other ideas clamoring for support? If somebody does pitch and develop an idea, Google can sue them and there are no pockets deeper than their's. If you carry it farther, how would one prove that the idea didn't originate from Google, since obviously you can't appeal to them for proof. So, I think Google is safe and probably they have better control of their IP than most any other company.
Ultimate favorite is the Toddy Coffee Maker. Google lists lots of sites. It cold brews coffee into a coffee concentrate over a period of 24 hours. Then to make a cup of coffee you add a shot of the concentrate to a cup of hot water/zap it and drink. Very smooth especially with Columbian coffee, minimal acids and LOTS of caffeine. Cold brewing preserves lots of flavors and oils too. Downside is that the concentrate needs refrigeration as does the reusable filter for the coffee maker. Without refrigeration, or after a while even with it, the concentrate ferments/gets rancid sort of like old iced tea so you have to drink enough to keep it fresh. Somewhat inconvenient but really really good.
Drip brewed using the fine screen rather than filter paper is the 2nd best, particularly with lots of finely ground coffee. I like it best about halfway in strength between regular drip and expresso. Unlike a paper filter, the screen does not perform chromatography on all of the tasty oils in the coffee so more flavor gets to the coffee.
I spend a lot of time in the wilderness and my choice there is a stainless steel percolator on a gas burner with very low flame. If the flame is too high the coffee tastes scorched and bitter, but if it is just enough to perc every 1-3 seconds it produces really strong full flavored coffee. I wait about 15 minutes of percolating. More boils off too much flavor, less makes it weak. YMMV I don't know whether electric percolators work as well, my recollection of electrically percolators is that the coffee tasted bitter but it was decades ago. I have looked longingly at the backpacking expresso maker sold at backpacking stores, and wonder if it really works. Maybe somebody here has used one and could comment.
Now, for the beans vs. ground topic. I have long been a fan of grinding beans but the Costco Columbian ground coffee is so good that it is hard to tell from fresh ground beans. There are good beans and poor beans and maybe I hit a run of poor beans, I think.
The spring 2007 release of Mandriva came with Open Source Compiere that is a combined Enterprise Resource Planning and Customer Relationship Management product. If you look it up in Google you will find lots of info. Wikipedia has an article on it, and several discussions are going on whether it is going to fork into private and open source versions. I looked at it, it appeared to have promise, but did not need it immediately so have not done a deep dive. I liked the fact that it could work with any database you want (including Postgresql, my favorite) but cannot speak to its complete functionality.
I don't think anybody could recommend a product such as that for you, serious investigation is needed. But, I would give Compiere a look and maybe it will be the closest thing to what you need.
The commentors to this statement have it pretty right, but let me add my .02 worth. None of these are critical of you or your ideas, they are just good advice for many people in your situation.
... the more the better ... when you are 59.5 you will be amazed how wise you were years ago
1. Keep your job - stability is fleeting and you will be glad you stayed with it when you are finally outsourced or laid off
2. Start paying yourself from the nice salary you are making -
a. if you are in debt, pay it down asap
b. if you are not in debt, save money as much as you can
1. set up a fund to go around the world and fund it decently - 15K or so should do the trick
2. put everything in your 401K that you can
3. pay down your house so you can save even more
c. whenever you start feeling that everything is pointless, look at the progress you've made and congratulate yourself
3. Learn something new, maybe even pay for your own certs / classes -- once you have certs note how much better you are treated when they realize you are secure in your skills and knowlege and marketability
4. Focus on your family and spend quality time with them. They are really the reason you are working anyway. enjoy them - they are your reward for putting up with the crap
5. Remeber to look around and appreciate at least one thing each day. Whatever it is, it didn't have to happen and if you count your blessings you will find you have more than if you grump around expecting the world to conform to your perspective du jour.
I am currently only thinking about my local cable provider, it doesn't include the interconnection which accumulates a lot more users than my neighbors. If I had to pay a transit fee for every download, I am pretty sure I wouldn't and would just get a DVD and watch it. After all, my station wagon full of DVDs has one heck of a lot of bandwidth. So, as in all really tough problems, we have the tragedy of the commons to deal with. IMHO, I would rather see some sort of surcharge for spurious internet usage like movie downloads and let the commons support what they do best which is the web and associated traditional applications.
If you want bandwidth, pay for it. If not, don't use it. Maybe if everybody paid per GB for bandwidth usage it would solve the problem. I would still be able to download my linux distros occasionally and surf the web.I seem to remember on SciFi channel some programs in which streaks were found in sunlight with a camera in a shadow. Now, If the aliens were using nanoparticles to research earth, the data presented would have a very good explanation = the aliens were researching earth with dust particles. The fact that they appeared to move in intelligent ways is further evidence. So, don't try to patent these nano explorers because there is prior art in UFO videos.
Most of the phishing scams I have seen use either the IP address or the domain of the phishing webpage itself. Having the banks use .safe would be as effective as having banks not use their IP addresses, .nl, .kr, .ru, and a few other domains that phishers use. People already give away their information to totally bogus addresses, so how does using .safe make one iota of difference?
It is always easier to minimize the accountability for one's actions by shifting the focus to something else. So, we face a dramatically warming sun AND a greenhouse to make the most of the extra energy. Sounds like a good time to start cutting back on the greenhouse. Or, maybe, we just wait for the sun to cool off. Yeah, that sounds like a plan! I even ran across stories that the climate is known to shift quickly now and again. So, maybe this is just one of those quick change periods. If we wait a decade or so, it might fix itself. Yeah, that sounds like a plan!
The news came out on how much money the presidential candidates raised, as if that were a measure of fitness. Let's see how many candidates take money from the anti-global-warming interests, how many jump on the media bandwagon of sound bite ignorance, and how many vote against controls on lobbyists, PACs, and other big money influences on our government. I have little confidence that we will be able to do anything about global warming because anything we do now will be reflected only decades from now. My mind may change if some politicians step up to the first step, which is to control lobbyists and special interests and start paying attention to the interests of the people.
Action now costs money and effort and pays off in decades. Procrastination pays off immediately. Guess which we will choose.
You are most certainly a programmer and probably a very good one!
The buffer overflow I mentioned was in a Motorola 6801 before I started chasing the MS rainbow.