Excellent point and one I intended to make but you beat me to it.:)
This just shows that Glenn (the author) had the mostly proper attitude of finding the root cause of the problem and fixing it. This is fine when:
a. you are working on your own computer and spending your own time b. you are working for a client for free c. your client realizes that you are trying to find the root cause and doesn't mind paying the extra hourly rates for you to find the root cause.
I recently had a new client (mortgage brokerage firm) who neglected to keep their Win2k systems patched and assumed that their av software would fix the worst of the problems. They called me (this is how they became my client) and when I saw how bad the systems were hosed due to spyware and/or MyDoom, I told him that we'd be better off reinstalling since his data was on their server due to the excessive time it would take to root out all the crap.
This is not me being holier-than-thou - simply just a point.
Louisiana is also attempting to force lawyers to license themselves as garbage collectors. Surprisingly, the Louisiana Bar Association, when asked for comment, indicated that they agreed with the decision.
I remember a while back the gang of folks threatening to release hacks for the Xbox unless MS paid up - don't remember hearing what happened there. This seems to be similar but completely different -:)
I have to say that I'm against anything that might harm Tivo as a company; I'm a rabid fan who sees signs on the wall that Tivo may be in trouble within the next few years as the cable companies produce low-grade DVRs that do not give the database-powered juicy goodness that Tivo provides.
Remember though - this story announces that the June 21st flight doesn't qualify them for the X Prize. They'll need to have two trips within two weeks that meet the mass requirements. This trip will not count. I highly doubt that they'll be able to get two more flights that do meet mass requirements within the two weeks prior to 7/4/2004.
PR - is a relatively easy and straight-forward game of market economies that is extremely complex upon examination. There are dozens of strategies to follow and while luck can help a bit, skill is large part of the importance to winning.
Acquire - what can I say about this brilliant and somewhat abstract game that hasn't been said before. Luck is too important to the game in my opinion but it definitely will make the geek mind think about the right strategy and approach to the board at any one time.
Definitely - and I think that a great deal of the public would as well, especially if MS could market this well. Think of it this way - parents are going to buy their kids consoles as well as computers for school anyway. How can MS lose if they combine the two at a price point that beats the combined price?
Other links of interest regarding this issue...
on
Out of Gas
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· Score: 1
There is little doubt that life just two generations removed from ours will bear scant resemblance to the rich lifestyle we currently enjoy. Sobering but as true as tomorrow's sunrise, IMHO.
Excellent review of the book
on
Out of Gas
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I picked this volume up after researching the issue myself over the web. There is an excellent Scientific American article on this issue from 1998 that serves to provide a similar view from the perspective of another geologist. I highly recommend it. After reading these materials in early January of this year, as I watched oil prices rise higher and higher, I couldn't help but think about what I read! The other interesting thing about this book is that it points out how petroleum provides us with benefits far beyond keeping our cars running. Plastics? Herbicides? Fungicides? CD-Rs? Certain medicines? All are dependent on keeping the oil flowing.
I have not jumped in the HDTV water yet out here in the desert of the metropolitan Phoenix, AZ area - but my brother-in-law has. We spent the first three days after installing his beautiful 60+ inch TV just watching the KAET feed. Since then, HD gets used for major football games and that be it, Homer. About fifteen hours of HD programming has been watched in the two years he's had the set.
I told my wife yesterday that if we were to take the plunge - prolly next year - we'd be shortly upgrading our DirectTV subscription to HD programming.
However, I have not heard of this CableCARD thingie you speak of.
. . ..it is the world of IT management that is bringing me down. Take it from me - if you enjoy working with computers/routers/switches/servers/etc and not babysitting employees or playing office politics and so forth - never go into IT management. It sux the proverbial big one.
Going to the moon for helium-3 is the MacGuffin for a book named 'Back to the Moon' by Homer Hickam of 'October Sky' fame. A decent read if a bit implausible. The heroes basically hijack a space shuttle launch and use a special engine that they've designed to go to the moon to get helium-3.
Sawtooth is a codename for a particular motherboard that Apple used for certain PowerMacs. There were different G4 500mhz motherboards that had different capabilties, i.e. bus types, etc.
I COMPLETELY agree that CEOs and the folks who make their pots of gold get too many of those pots.:)
However, on a macro scale, the boards that the shareholders of these major companies elect have determined that a high salary is justified for CEOs. Otherwise, these boards argue, they wouldn't be able to attract the more qualifed candidates for these types of positions. Absolutely nothing - save a massive shift in our economy - is going to make the oligarchical nature of business go away. You are always going to have highly compensated executives controlling these big companies.
The only way to truly affect change in this system is massive shareholder activity. As long as those shareholders are "Happy" enough, though, this massive activity won't take place.
End of story means if you can't take the heat of the tech industry, get out of the kitchen or find a way to compete. Lower your asking salary, sell your high-priced car or home, or find a way to make ends meet.
How is wanting to get the most bang for your buck greedy? Apple releases a 4GB iPod mini for $249 while they have a 15GB iPod for $299. Which are you going to buy?
At the same time, a firm does a detailed analysis of development talent in Silicon Valley, Austin, & Bangalore. They find that they can get 90% of the work done for 50% of the price by putting a center in Bangalore. You would be doing your shareholders an injustice if you go with the higher priced solution just to 'stay American'.
Therefore, industries where American produced merchandise isn't a competitive advantage will shift employees overseas where they can get an advatage doing so. This doesn't make a company greedy - it makes them competitive.
True - this does suck for you. I can't argue that on a micro scale, outsourcing is not good for us right now. On a macro scale, I believe that we're going to see a massive shift in the next 20 years in terms of living expenses, tech job distribution, and economic power based on what areas of the world can provide jobs to a particular group of people. This could be good or bad - we won't know for some time.
As a fairly involved middle manager in an IT shop, I've successfully fought off two attempts to outsource my techs. However, I lost in the battle to outsource my call center.
When I looked at the cost savings, however, I couldn't argue. My company saves literally $30 grand a year by routing calls to Asia. The quality of the service is slightly lower than a local call and I will always have closed minded customers who don't want to speak to someone with an Oriental accent. However, given that my customers are in-house employees, I don't have to "compete" with rival tech supports providers by providing non-Oriental accents. This means that the $30 grand I'd spend for a local call desk is not worth it to my employers.
At the end of the day, I truly believe that the cost competition is going to drive down salaries in the US or we're going to not have ANY money in IT or tech. After all, isn't less money better than no money?
I was amazed at the cost/performance ratio that they were able to achieve with Big Mac. Over at Barefeats.com, they point out that a Dual 2ghz G5 is roughly 17% faster AND more expensive than a Dual 1.8 G5 - keeping the cost/performance ratio fairly equal. Taking this out to supercomputer levels, the #1 supercomputer is three and a half times faster than Big Mac but cost 60x as much money!!! Amazing.
Please - not another 'Tivo is just a VCR' Luddite.:) Tivo's patents (specifically 6,233,389) uniquely describe a process that they were first to bring to market. For example, the patent I cite describes pretty much the entire Tivo experience. It describes using MPEG2 technology to replace the tape mechanism in a VCR. They were the first to patent this and the first to truly bring it to market. They beat Replay devices to the mainstream market and put a friendly face on what is a slightly tricky technology to describe to non-Tivo experienced folks who don't "get it". My wife was incensed when I bought our first Tivo because she thought it was "just a fancy VCR" - now you'd have to pry it out of her cold dead hands!
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Peter Hyams is the director. End of Days certainly applied to Arnold's film career....
Excellent point and one I intended to make but you beat me to it. :)
This just shows that Glenn (the author) had the mostly proper attitude of finding the root cause of the problem and fixing it. This is fine when:
a. you are working on your own computer and spending your own time
b. you are working for a client for free
c. your client realizes that you are trying to find the root cause and doesn't mind paying the extra hourly rates for you to find the root cause.
I recently had a new client (mortgage brokerage firm) who neglected to keep their Win2k systems patched and assumed that their av software would fix the worst of the problems. They called me (this is how they became my client) and when I saw how bad the systems were hosed due to spyware and/or MyDoom, I told him that we'd be better off reinstalling since his data was on their server due to the excessive time it would take to root out all the crap.
This is not me being holier-than-thou - simply just a point.
. . . they didn't even mention the fifth level, entitled "Busted Balls".
Louisiana is also attempting to force lawyers to license themselves as garbage collectors. Surprisingly, the Louisiana Bar Association, when asked for comment, indicated that they agreed with the decision.
I remember a while back the gang of folks threatening to release hacks for the Xbox unless MS paid up - don't remember hearing what happened there. This seems to be similar but completely different - :)
I have to say that I'm against anything that might harm Tivo as a company; I'm a rabid fan who sees signs on the wall that Tivo may be in trouble within the next few years as the cable companies produce low-grade DVRs that do not give the database-powered juicy goodness that Tivo provides.
Just my two cents.
Here's a screenshot of the phpserver results. Pretty cool stuff.
Remember though - this story announces that the June 21st flight doesn't qualify them for the X Prize. They'll need to have two trips within two weeks that meet the mass requirements. This trip will not count. I highly doubt that they'll be able to get two more flights that do meet mass requirements within the two weeks prior to 7/4/2004.
PR - is a relatively easy and straight-forward game of market economies that is extremely complex upon examination. There are dozens of strategies to follow and while luck can help a bit, skill is large part of the importance to winning.
Acquire - what can I say about this brilliant and somewhat abstract game that hasn't been said before. Luck is too important to the game in my opinion but it definitely will make the geek mind think about the right strategy and approach to the board at any one time.
Both are GREAT games.
Definitely - and I think that a great deal of the public would as well, especially if MS could market this well. Think of it this way - parents are going to buy their kids consoles as well as computers for school anyway. How can MS lose if they combine the two at a price point that beats the combined price?
I don't mean to attract flamebaiting or troll mod points - just take a look at these with a fairly open mind.
An aggressively liberal and unfortunately, anti-Bush viewpoint It still manages to raise interesting points.
Basic Education about the concept of Hubbert's Peak
A Dim View of what this change will mean
There is little doubt that life just two generations removed from ours will bear scant resemblance to the rich lifestyle we currently enjoy. Sobering but as true as tomorrow's sunrise, IMHO.
I picked this volume up after researching the issue myself over the web. There is an excellent Scientific American article on this issue from 1998 that serves to provide a similar view from the perspective of another geologist. I highly recommend it.
After reading these materials in early January of this year, as I watched oil prices rise higher and higher, I couldn't help but think about what I read!
The other interesting thing about this book is that it points out how petroleum provides us with benefits far beyond keeping our cars running. Plastics? Herbicides? Fungicides? CD-Rs? Certain medicines? All are dependent on keeping the oil flowing.
I'm going to be in line on day one. It almost makes you feel sorry for Nintendo with that dual-screen monstrousity of theirs.
I have not jumped in the HDTV water yet out here in the desert of the metropolitan Phoenix, AZ area - but my brother-in-law has. We spent the first three days after installing his beautiful 60+ inch TV just watching the KAET feed. Since then, HD gets used for major football games and that be it, Homer. About fifteen hours of HD programming has been watched in the two years he's had the set.
I told my wife yesterday that if we were to take the plunge - prolly next year - we'd be shortly upgrading our DirectTV subscription to HD programming.
However, I have not heard of this CableCARD thingie you speak of.
. . . is a combo 'EZ-Bake Hamster Oven'. Imagine the possibilities!
PARTYGOER : "Drew, this dish is wonderiffic!!! I must have the recipe!"
DREW: "Why, those are hamster tarts I made with my computer!"
PARTYGOER: "Mmmmmmmm - that's great hamster!"
Evil Dead 2 - the commentary rocks harder than Brad Pitt's trailer pre-Jennifer Anniston.
. . . .it is the world of IT management that is bringing me down. Take it from me - if you enjoy working with computers/routers/switches/servers/etc and not babysitting employees or playing office politics and so forth - never go into IT management. It sux the proverbial big one.
Going to the moon for helium-3 is the MacGuffin for a book named 'Back to the Moon' by Homer Hickam of 'October Sky' fame. A decent read if a bit implausible. The heroes basically hijack a space shuttle launch and use a special engine that they've designed to go to the moon to get helium-3.
Sawtooth is a codename for a particular motherboard that Apple used for certain PowerMacs. There were different G4 500mhz motherboards that had different capabilties, i.e. bus types, etc.
However, on a macro scale, the boards that the shareholders of these major companies elect have determined that a high salary is justified for CEOs. Otherwise, these boards argue, they wouldn't be able to attract the more qualifed candidates for these types of positions. Absolutely nothing - save a massive shift in our economy - is going to make the oligarchical nature of business go away. You are always going to have highly compensated executives controlling these big companies.
The only way to truly affect change in this system is massive shareholder activity. As long as those shareholders are "Happy" enough, though, this massive activity won't take place.
End of story means if you can't take the heat of the tech industry, get out of the kitchen or find a way to compete. Lower your asking salary, sell your high-priced car or home, or find a way to make ends meet.
At the same time, a firm does a detailed analysis of development talent in Silicon Valley, Austin, & Bangalore. They find that they can get 90% of the work done for 50% of the price by putting a center in Bangalore. You would be doing your shareholders an injustice if you go with the higher priced solution just to 'stay American'.
Therefore, industries where American produced merchandise isn't a competitive advantage will shift employees overseas where they can get an advatage doing so. This doesn't make a company greedy - it makes them competitive.
True - this does suck for you. I can't argue that on a micro scale, outsourcing is not good for us right now. On a macro scale, I believe that we're going to see a massive shift in the next 20 years in terms of living expenses, tech job distribution, and economic power based on what areas of the world can provide jobs to a particular group of people. This could be good or bad - we won't know for some time.
When I looked at the cost savings, however, I couldn't argue. My company saves literally $30 grand a year by routing calls to Asia. The quality of the service is slightly lower than a local call and I will always have closed minded customers who don't want to speak to someone with an Oriental accent. However, given that my customers are in-house employees, I don't have to "compete" with rival tech supports providers by providing non-Oriental accents. This means that the $30 grand I'd spend for a local call desk is not worth it to my employers.
At the end of the day, I truly believe that the cost competition is going to drive down salaries in the US or we're going to not have ANY money in IT or tech. After all, isn't less money better than no money?
I was amazed at the cost/performance ratio that they were able to achieve with Big Mac. Over at Barefeats.com, they point out that a Dual 2ghz G5 is roughly 17% faster AND more expensive than a Dual 1.8 G5 - keeping the cost/performance ratio fairly equal. Taking this out to supercomputer levels, the #1 supercomputer is three and a half times faster than Big Mac but cost 60x as much money!!! Amazing.
Please - not another 'Tivo is just a VCR' Luddite. :) Tivo's patents (specifically 6,233,389) uniquely describe a process that they were first to bring to market. For example, the patent I cite describes pretty much the entire Tivo experience. It describes using MPEG2 technology to replace the tape mechanism in a VCR. They were the first to patent this and the first to truly bring it to market. They beat Replay devices to the mainstream market and put a friendly face on what is a slightly tricky technology to describe to non-Tivo experienced folks who don't "get it". My wife was incensed when I bought our first Tivo because she thought it was "just a fancy VCR" - now you'd have to pry it out of her cold dead hands!
. . . this thing made a good cup of coffee. Then we might be able to talk . . .