The headlines seem to be the problem. If you read down just a little ways, it appears that this is being discussed at a convention as an area for further research. Also, there is some healthy skepticism from scientists regarding the issue:
Not every scientist is convinced that the dimming has been that pronounced. Although radiometers are simple, they do require periodic calibration and care. Dirt on the dome blocks light, leading to erroneous indications. Also, all radiometers have been on land, leaving three-fourths of the earth to supposition.
From reading the actual quotes and information from the scientists in the article, it appears that dimming is viewed as an area of potential investigation. So actually, the scientists are doing there job - they're doing further investigation into an reasonable hypothesis. It's the journalists who are falling down on the job.
One patron asked Dave as he was walking by one day if he had anything to do with the computers. Dave said yes, and the user thanked him for stopping the pop-up ads.
So many people become inured to the nuisances of MS Software that they don't realize that there's an alternative. Also, they don't realize that those alternatives are as good as Microsoft's or better and...free! Now, if they could only get that patron to download Firefox at home...
Open Source projects do handle specification control well. However, most open source projects are written by developers for developers. It's very easy to determine the functions for a piece of software that you are going to use yourself or someone who does a job similar to yours is going to use. The exception to this are projects that are competing against a closed source product - such as Mozilla, GIMP and Open Office. However, in many cases, they tend to join together the better features of their closed source rivals and remove a few annoyances.
If you're building software for a specific business use (ie, managing insurance claims) or a specific technological use (ie, controlling emissions on a car), you have to understand the environment into which you're introducing your software. In those cases, specifications dictate how the software system will interact with the other systems (business or technological).
As a major univerisity in Los Angeles, who do you think some of UCLA's major donors are? They have a school of Theater, Film and TV. And who do you suppose is the biggest supporter of the David Geffen School of Medicine? In addition to the RIAA paying for the system, I'm sure that various supporters have encouraged UCLA's pilot program for ACNS.
Actually, commercial services use a format with digital rights managements built in either AAC (iTunes) or WMA (all the others). On the other hand, if you ripped your files to those formats, you might be less susceptible to detection.
In any event, I don't think they're looking at drive contents as much as they're looking for file sharing behavior. My guess is that you could still sneaker-net a CD-R of mp3s to your buddies on campus.
If you think keeping a fresh ear lobe piercing clean is tough, imagine keeping a skull piercing clean.
...the signals from the chip are carried out of the body by wires coming through the skull. When the system is to be used, a cable will be connected to the wires.... The opening in the skin is permanent and poses a risk of infection...
Infections were rare and treatable, Dr. Mukand said, and the incidence should be even lower in people, who understand the risk...One uncertainty is whether the implants will move around over time or cause scarring. Either could lead to loss of the neuron signal.
Of course, I wonder if someone is working on a socket to which bone and skin will graft. If you can get tissue to seal around the housing for the wires, it would make it even easier for people with the implant to live normally.
As much as MP3 jukeboxes and digital cameras keep getting smaller, they keep becoming better targets for thieves. Someone walking down the street with a 20 GB iPod, a Palm Tungsten C and a Minolta dImage is carrying about $1000 (US) in potential swag. That makes a car stereo system look like chump change. Sure, the fence would have to sell the items without accessories, but you can usually get those for a fraction of the cost of the item.
I remember when I got my first copy of MS Office (for the PC) in 1993. It came with 5 thick manuals - it took up over a foot of shelf space - documenting every minute feature of the program. As a software trainer, the information was pretty useful. However, I also realized that at least $100 of the price of the software was just the printing and distribution costs of the manuals.
As much as I still enjoy learning about all the esoteric features of software, I have to admit that most consumers neither desire nor need that level of documentation. Unfortunately, some third-party manuals are insufficient. On the other hand, good third-party manuals often exceed what you can expect from the software publisher.
Using a word processor just for spelling and grammar checking is the least of its advantages. The other advantage is using it to edit and rewrite. If you know how to use a word processor, you can go from "note cards" to finished paper in one document. You can also improve sentence structure, clarify your ideas and remove redundant words, clauses and phrases. Admittedly, you can do the same thing without a word processor. However, the software lets you avoid a lot of recopying or retyping.
Unfortunately, many teachers don't know how to write that way with a word processor. Not to single out teachers, most business people don't know how to write period - word processor or not. Too often, people only use the word processor for the spell checker and for adding egregious quantities of bullets, fonts and tables.
As far as being able to listen to music in any environment, I'd agree that the iPod is no different from a portable CD player or radio. What's different is that a moderate sized collection lets you pick the music for your down to the song. Obviously, radio gives you very little choice. I can choose what cassette or CD to put into my player, but again, my options are limited; for a commercialy made recording, I can only choose which one to play. If I make my own mix CD or cassette, I can create a specific playlist, but just that.
Once you get into gigabytes of storage, you have far more options. I can pick a series of reggae and jazz tunes for my drive to work. Or I can pick pop songs from when I was in high school as I work. Or if I feel like strolling down the street to my own personal mix of death metal, polka and Tahitian rhythms, I can do that.
While any portable jukebox will give you that ability to some extent, the iPod does two things very well in that regard - smart playlists and the 'on the go' playlist. I use smart playlists to play songs I haven't heard in 60 days. Or, if I want a series of songs, I can pick and choose on the fly from the 5,000 or so that I currently have on my iPod. Initially, I thought the storage for the iPod would just be a convenience - no more carting around CD cases. However, having any song that I own available to me at the twirl of my thumb is even better than I thought.
I'm wondering if the price of the Microsoft OS is causing manufacturers issues. As the prices of PCs are going down, all of the components are getting cheaper - hard drives, RAM, processor's, etc. However, the operating system price is the same - whether you buy a high-end gaming system or a basic desktop. Sure, there's XP Home Edition vs. XP Professional, but the choice there is between expensive and really expensive. The OS may be the one thing that is keeping manufacturers from reducing their costs. By using FreeDOS, they can offer a lower cost system AND perhaps force Microsoft to changes its fee structure.
Motley Fool is pretty bullish on Akamai. Of course, they better be since they're a customer. However, many large companies rely on Akamai, including Best Buy, McAfee and MSNBC. Given that a good caching service can reduce bandwidth usage by 50% or more, any large website that uses a caching service is highly dependent on it. However, it'd be hard to run any type of large site without one - Akamai or whomoever.
Changing a caching provider is relatively easy once a contract is signed. A caching network is largely a DNS configuration change. One shouldn't need to change any telecommunications connections or reconfigure applications.
A big issue for many web programmers is failure to realize that forms and web interfaces that you provide the user aren't the only way to interact with your application. A lot of them pay attention to JavaScript validation and maxlength attributes rather than check the data on the server.
New developers working on applications open to the internet often aren't used to developing in an evironment where programmers that don't work for their employer can access their app. All it takes for one dishonet person who knows slightly more than you to hack your app.
I wonder how Sun will handle production of these desktops if they take off. Given the demand that Wal-Mart can generate, it has often reshaped the product lines of it suppliers - frequently in ways that are not profitable to that supplier. People have noted Sun's declining sales of server hardware. However, I'm not sure that pouring resources into commodity desktops will make Sun more profitable.
There seems to be several stories. Since yesterday, Dell's Indian office said that no jobs are going to be moved out of India. According to Dell Australia, Dell underestimated the demands of moving their corporate support oveseas and is postponing the move.
In short, it seems like all of the newspapers in India are reporting that Dell is not moving out while all of the US press is reporting that they are. The spokesman Jon Weissblatt seems like a pretty reliable source; he's been doing press relations for Dell for at least four years.
are stupid people ever aware that they're behaving stupidly?
The answer is "usually not".
However, smart (not stupid) people may still benefit from the book. Even generally smart people occasionally behave in stupid ways. Also, something often intuitively appears stupid, but you can't quite say why. Essentially, it looks like an Anti-Patterns book for business.
Ultimately, the difference between smart and stupid is whether or not you make mistakes. It's whether or not you learn from your own mistakes - or better still from the mistakes of other.
When Henrico County near Richmond, Virginia did this, they initially had considerable problems with systems breaking. Part of that was educating students in how to handle the systems properly. Part of it was underestimating the support needs of 25,000 laptop users. Even if 1% of the systems break each year, that's still 250 repairs a year. Initially, the county didn't have an on-site repair shop; machines had to be shipped to DC to be fixed.
It's no worse than the thousands of amateur musicians who cut demo tapes on their four-tracks so they can play them in their car and maybe distribute a few copies to their friends.
Musicians swapping tapes is actually a good example of people exchanging ideas. Most innovators thrive in an environment filled with other people pursuing the same interest. While Mozart was clearly a musical prodigy, I'm sure he would never have been as well known if his father hadn't brought him to Vienna, a city filled with musicians and composers from around the world.
Clearly, a lot of personal home pages are failed experiments. However, the value of the successes far outweighs the failures. Also, software like Google and Slashdot allows people to find the diamonds in the trash.
Actually, record contracts are geographically specific. Contractually, a record label gets the rights to sell recordings on behalf an artist in one specific country or group of countries. For example, the rapper Dizzee Rascal is on XL Records in the UK, but will be on Matador in the US. Since labels are responsible for promoting and manufacturing records, they usually limit themselves to a certain region. It makes sense in terms of physical recordings being sold through shops. I have to agree that such a system doesn't make sense online. However, you run into the same issues with books and electronics as well.
This doesn't make the U.S. the hub for all music. In fact, there is a considerable amount of international music that never makes it to the States. There are even bands from Canada that don't make it to the U.S.
Currently, the Google.com site has nearly a 40% share of search query traffic. They're very close to the share level of an industry (search engine advertising) that starts to interest government regulators. With Microsoft already in trouble for anti-competitive behavior, they may get into trouble buying another near-monopoly.
Microsoft often hasn't been a good deal for people it's bought. Online maps are mostly a duopoly between mapquest.com and velocity.com. Velocity was bought last year by Microsoft and, frankly, hasn't done so well with MS techology.
Slashdot Mirror
Or better still, the My Dinner with Andre game -
"Dude, my introspection dominates your glib anecdotes!"
So many people become inured to the nuisances of MS Software that they don't realize that there's an alternative. Also, they don't realize that those alternatives are as good as Microsoft's or better and
Now, if they could only get that patron to download Firefox at home...
Open Source projects do handle specification control well. However, most open source projects are written by developers for developers. It's very easy to determine the functions for a piece of software that you are going to use yourself or someone who does a job similar to yours is going to use. The exception to this are projects that are competing against a closed source product - such as Mozilla, GIMP and Open Office. However, in many cases, they tend to join together the better features of their closed source rivals and remove a few annoyances.
If you're building software for a specific business use (ie, managing insurance claims) or a specific technological use (ie, controlling emissions on a car), you have to understand the environment into which you're introducing your software. In those cases, specifications dictate how the software system will interact with the other systems (business or technological).
As a major univerisity in Los Angeles, who do you think some of UCLA's major donors are? They have a school of Theater, Film and TV. And who do you suppose is the biggest supporter of the David Geffen School of Medicine? In addition to the RIAA paying for the system, I'm sure that various supporters have encouraged UCLA's pilot program for ACNS.
Actually, commercial services use a format with digital rights managements built in either AAC (iTunes) or WMA (all the others). On the other hand, if you ripped your files to those formats, you might be less susceptible to detection.
In any event, I don't think they're looking at drive contents as much as they're looking for file sharing behavior. My guess is that you could still sneaker-net a CD-R of mp3s to your buddies on campus.
Of course, I wonder if someone is working on a socket to which bone and skin will graft. If you can get tissue to seal around the housing for the wires, it would make it even easier for people with the implant to live normally.
As much as MP3 jukeboxes and digital cameras keep getting smaller, they keep becoming better targets for thieves. Someone walking down the street with a 20 GB iPod, a Palm Tungsten C and a Minolta dImage is carrying about $1000 (US) in potential swag. That makes a car stereo system look like chump change. Sure, the fence would have to sell the items without accessories, but you can usually get those for a fraction of the cost of the item.
I remember when I got my first copy of MS Office (for the PC) in 1993. It came with 5 thick manuals - it took up over a foot of shelf space - documenting every minute feature of the program. As a software trainer, the information was pretty useful. However, I also realized that at least $100 of the price of the software was just the printing and distribution costs of the manuals.
As much as I still enjoy learning about all the esoteric features of software, I have to admit that most consumers neither desire nor need that level of documentation. Unfortunately, some third-party manuals are insufficient. On the other hand, good third-party manuals often exceed what you can expect from the software publisher.
Using a word processor just for spelling and grammar checking is the least of its advantages. The other advantage is using it to edit and rewrite. If you know how to use a word processor, you can go from "note cards" to finished paper in one document. You can also improve sentence structure, clarify your ideas and remove redundant words, clauses and phrases. Admittedly, you can do the same thing without a word processor. However, the software lets you avoid a lot of recopying or retyping.
Unfortunately, many teachers don't know how to write that way with a word processor. Not to single out teachers, most business people don't know how to write period - word processor or not. Too often, people only use the word processor for the spell checker and for adding egregious quantities of bullets, fonts and tables.
As far as being able to listen to music in any environment, I'd agree that the iPod is no different from a portable CD player or radio. What's different is that a moderate sized collection lets you pick the music for your down to the song. Obviously, radio gives you very little choice. I can choose what cassette or CD to put into my player, but again, my options are limited; for a commercialy made recording, I can only choose which one to play. If I make my own mix CD or cassette, I can create a specific playlist, but just that.
Once you get into gigabytes of storage, you have far more options. I can pick a series of reggae and jazz tunes for my drive to work. Or I can pick pop songs from when I was in high school as I work. Or if I feel like strolling down the street to my own personal mix of death metal, polka and Tahitian rhythms, I can do that.
While any portable jukebox will give you that ability to some extent, the iPod does two things very well in that regard - smart playlists and the 'on the go' playlist. I use smart playlists to play songs I haven't heard in 60 days. Or, if I want a series of songs, I can pick and choose on the fly from the 5,000 or so that I currently have on my iPod. Initially, I thought the storage for the iPod would just be a convenience - no more carting around CD cases. However, having any song that I own available to me at the twirl of my thumb is even better than I thought.
And lawyers! Three cheers for lawyers everyone - specifically, state attorney's in New York and Florida as well as the Federal Trade Commission.
Geeks and Attorneys! Together, we're unstoppable.
I'm wondering if the price of the Microsoft OS is causing manufacturers issues. As the prices of PCs are going down, all of the components are getting cheaper - hard drives, RAM, processor's, etc. However, the operating system price is the same - whether you buy a high-end gaming system or a basic desktop. Sure, there's XP Home Edition vs. XP Professional, but the choice there is between expensive and really expensive. The OS may be the one thing that is keeping manufacturers from reducing their costs. By using FreeDOS, they can offer a lower cost system AND perhaps force Microsoft to changes its fee structure.
Motley Fool is pretty bullish on Akamai. Of course, they better be since they're a customer. However, many large companies rely on Akamai, including Best Buy, McAfee and MSNBC. Given that a good caching service can reduce bandwidth usage by 50% or more, any large website that uses a caching service is highly dependent on it. However, it'd be hard to run any type of large site without one - Akamai or whomoever.
Changing a caching provider is relatively easy once a contract is signed. A caching network is largely a DNS configuration change. One shouldn't need to change any telecommunications connections or reconfigure applications.
A big issue for many web programmers is failure to realize that forms and web interfaces that you provide the user aren't the only way to interact with your application. A lot of them pay attention to JavaScript validation and maxlength attributes rather than check the data on the server.
New developers working on applications open to the internet often aren't used to developing in an evironment where programmers that don't work for their employer can access their app. All it takes for one dishonet person who knows slightly more than you to hack your app.
One lawyer in a small town can starve to death.
Two lawyers in a small town can make a pretty good living.
I wonder how Sun will handle production of these desktops if they take off. Given the demand that Wal-Mart can generate, it has often reshaped the product lines of it suppliers - frequently in ways that are not profitable to that supplier. People have noted Sun's declining sales of server hardware. However, I'm not sure that pouring resources into commodity desktops will make Sun more profitable.
I'm not sure I agree, but I can't wait for the Ars Technica article on shooting game systems.
There seems to be several stories. Since yesterday, Dell's Indian office said that no jobs are going to be moved out of India. According to Dell Australia, Dell underestimated the demands of moving their corporate support oveseas and is postponing the move.
In short, it seems like all of the newspapers in India are reporting that Dell is not moving out while all of the US press is reporting that they are. The spokesman Jon Weissblatt seems like a pretty reliable source; he's been doing press relations for Dell for at least four years.
Because if George W. Bush does not become re-elected, they can send Governor Schwarzenegger back in time to terminate the Democrat president.
are stupid people ever aware that they're behaving stupidly?
The answer is "usually not".
However, smart (not stupid) people may still benefit from the book. Even generally smart people occasionally behave in stupid ways. Also, something often intuitively appears stupid, but you can't quite say why. Essentially, it looks like an Anti-Patterns book for business.
Ultimately, the difference between smart and stupid is whether or not you make mistakes. It's whether or not you learn from your own mistakes - or better still from the mistakes of other.
When Henrico County near Richmond, Virginia did this, they initially had considerable problems with systems breaking. Part of that was educating students in how to handle the systems properly. Part of it was underestimating the support needs of 25,000 laptop users. Even if 1% of the systems break each year, that's still 250 repairs a year. Initially, the county didn't have an on-site repair shop; machines had to be shipped to DC to be fixed.
Interestingly, after two years of iBooks in schools, the issue has generated enough controversy to be an issue in school board elections. The results? Two incumbents were voted out - including the chairman.
Musicians swapping tapes is actually a good example of people exchanging ideas. Most innovators thrive in an environment filled with other people pursuing the same interest. While Mozart was clearly a musical prodigy, I'm sure he would never have been as well known if his father hadn't brought him to Vienna, a city filled with musicians and composers from around the world.
Clearly, a lot of personal home pages are failed experiments. However, the value of the successes far outweighs the failures. Also, software like Google and Slashdot allows people to find the diamonds in the trash.
Actually, record contracts are geographically specific. Contractually, a record label gets the rights to sell recordings on behalf an artist in one specific country or group of countries. For example, the rapper Dizzee Rascal is on XL Records in the UK, but will be on Matador in the US. Since labels are responsible for promoting and manufacturing records, they usually limit themselves to a certain region. It makes sense in terms of physical recordings being sold through shops. I have to agree that such a system doesn't make sense online. However, you run into the same issues with books and electronics as well.
This doesn't make the U.S. the hub for all music. In fact, there is a considerable amount of international music that never makes it to the States. There are even bands from Canada that don't make it to the U.S.
Currently, the Google.com site has nearly a 40% share of search query traffic. They're very close to the share level of an industry (search engine advertising) that starts to interest government regulators. With Microsoft already in trouble for anti-competitive behavior, they may get into trouble buying another near-monopoly.
Microsoft often hasn't been a good deal for people it's bought. Online maps are mostly a duopoly between mapquest.com and velocity.com. Velocity was bought last year by Microsoft and, frankly, hasn't done so well with MS techology.