Or maybe not, holes are bound to be found in Apache, and the same Admins who didn't install the IIS fix and have since moved to Linux will probably fail to install the update for Apache.
But then, look at the number of IIS exploits and the ones on Apache, even though Apache has more then double the market share of IIS.
Add to that, that most exploits on Apache where due to vulnerable CGI scripts.
Apache actually has quite a good track record, regarding security and admins installing Apache are more likely that they know what they do
Now, what bugs me about Microsofts WDI (worms deployment engine) is that a lot of NT/W2K user don't even know that they have a web server running. It installed by default, with all its glorious vulnerabilities...
After blasting away some $5 billion of corporate value by announcing an utterly senseless merger, miss Fiorino and her board apologists have to look tough and decisive.
Oh, it wasn't the CEOs direct decision? Well, it's her responsibility if HP loses 100 of its best skilled people.
HP will be down the hill in three years (mark my words), but Miss Fiorino will be playing golf in Pebble Beach with her ex-board apologists and a cushy severence package.
Given the fact, that she not only missed three announced quarterly goals and heads full blast for a merger, which will be a major disaster (3 major - and 1 minor OS lines, different architectures and quite different cultures), I don't think this assessment is overly harsh.
Do I sound bitter? You bet, and I don't even work for HP. I did work for DEC however from 90 through 94, that was about the time when the big downward spiral gained momentum. I saw in real life how the tech company with the bloody best engineering* was killed by slick talking MBAs in expensive suits (agreed that Ken Olson also has his share, but he wasn't the one that ultimately killed DEC [arguably]). Oh, and Mr. Palmer in his white Porsche didn't really offer much more to the company then a slick hairdo.
Don't even get me started what happened after the sale to Compaq. A company who knows (or knew) how to assemble and market boxes, period. After buying DEC for it's enterprise services and customer base in short order they killed VMS (that started already at DEC; but Compaq didn't have a clue about what to do with it), the engineering departments, the Alpha chip and of course, allienated a fiercly loyal customer base...
I totally agree with your post, I was not ranting against it, my rant is directed to people who - for their own personal gain and ego - kill the finest companies in their industry.
* You can argue that of course, but when you look at things like DECnet, the Alpha chip or clustering, DEC sure as hell had a 5-10 year lead technologically.
Invading Switzerland might have caused an outcry, under normal times. But if the US successfully overthrows at least two other countries first, I suspect that nobody will really notice or care. The endless war will be "part of life" and "the way things are".
You're wrong here: dead wrong!:
You will regret ever having considered that after we send in our bicycle troops...
Until I attended Professor Lessings speech at the San Francisco LinuxWorld upon which I immediately enrolled.
It doesn't really matter if you're European or not; currently trends are set in the US which won't only affect the rest of the world, but which are damn frightening in their consequences.
I mean, really. Are they putting a gun to your head and saying "buy our next round of products or die Scum!"?
Nah, of course they're not.
Actually you get a bonus when they provide you with a "free" software audit, for which you'll have to cough up the resources. If you don't want to go for their new and improved licensing plan, that is.
This might be a bit costly and it might really drag on your nerves, but at least you're sure to be in full compliance with your license.
Of course, as per your corporate license agreement, they can repeat that ad nauseum, or at least 'til you sign up for the new and improved plan.
Changing from a 17" monster-monitor to a flat screen made a hellova difference. Theres's just so much more clutter space now.
A word on chairs: Don't go cheap. My 100$ IKEA chair was a nuisance and literally a pain. I found 4 used Eames Aluminium Frame chairs (the conference table model, not the highback) and it's an unbelievable difference.
As a web developer for 5+ years, customers don't want to fill out the same crap each time they visit a site
So you're telling me, that you'd be willing to render control of your very private data to one single company, located in a country with probably the piss-porest privacy protection laws in the Western hemisphere, just for the sake of convenience ?
We're not talking about CC # here, but about everything surrounding your person, including potentially medical data.
Now, it's up to us to come do the social and technological engineering to make this happen safely, and securely.
See, I agree that it's up to society to define the sidelines. It's however not society that controls Passport. It's the Microsoft Corporation, which I personally woudn't entrust with my cell phone number.
I wonder how much money they shoved down the throats of web sites like slashdot in order to get them heavily promoted with nerds.
Just because you don't especially like it, doesn't mean that Google is so damn successful, by bribing GeekZines.
You are either extremely paranoid or rather arrogant, my friend.
Personally, I'd never shove it down anybodies throat, but what I really like about Google (besides the sleek interface and the cache), is the fact that the first 30 results on a query, like "gcc usages nuclear physics linux", aren't something like:
Atomic chicks to blow away your gcc-perverted brain by playing with their Linux PDAs or some such shit.
The law is clear. If you traffic in anticircumvention devices for profit, you have committed a federal crime that might cost you up to $500,000 and five years in prison. So the FBI and federal attorneys had no choice. Adobe wanted this man arrested. So they had to arrest him.
is the really chilling part.
It's refreshing to read a clue ladden article on MSNBC, really
Oh nos! You've called me a dumbass. My penis will now shrink, and I'll forever be a hollow shell of a man.
Fear not ol' Darwin. I just put your e-mail address on every known spammers list. Now just sit back, relax and wait 'til the penis extension offers come in.
Rats! I hate replying to an AC, since I'm never sure that it's read.
Nevermind, I heard the story differently:
Basically, DEC hat a 64bit project (that was before Alpha) in the pipeline and Cutler, who was the principal architect for VMS, had quite a stake in that project. I think it was called cairo, but I could be off.
That project was killed and that pissed Cutler pretty much off and during that time Microsoft hired him and a few of the core VMS engineers to work on NT.
VMS can stay up an running for 10 to 20 years of 100% uptime, and has had clustering and distributed lock management since VAXclusters were introduced in 1982. The comparisons between VMS and NT are largley market-droids trying to sound technical.
Oh man, each word's a beat of my heart! I worked for DEC in the first half of the nineties and it was a physically painful to experience how this marvel of quality and engineering went down on its knees. And it hurt, to see the digital logo replaced by the Q of a market droid box assembling conglomerate.
DEC was eight years ahead (as you say clustering, and 64 bit) of everybody, but they had a dreadful sales and marketing organization. Besides that, it was an honest company and in todays business environment this is deadly.
I'd just a soon have a top of the line non-Cuban and a fine glass of Port.
Hallelujah brother! I think I go out and do just that and toast on civilized discussions. Virtual or real. (Might substitute the port for a glass of red wine, though)
I wasn't very clear - I'm surprised that Europe doesn't have the equivalent of the US' no roam plans - you're still paying roaming fees throughout Europe?
Sure, you must understand that, else then in the US, Europe is composed of umpteen different coutries, each and every one quite sovereign in its actions, different languages and partially very different cultures. Although the EU does provide an umbrella (for better and for worse), this doesn't mean that it can just mandate flat roaming charges on all Europena carriers. It also shouldn't be able to do that. What it does for example, is getting carriers by the balls that enter into price fixing and other monopolistic shit and I think that's a good thing. Right now 9 German and UK carriers are under investigation for competition rigging and yeah, I agree that somebody should step in hard if anticompetitive tactics are applied.
Actually, I'm not all that surprised - even in the EU, each country has done a pretty good job of protecting its companies. It's not a bad deal for the companies, either, given the amount of cross border travel in Europe.
You're right, it didn't do much good to the consumer. On the other hand that's rapidly changing now. While in the middle of the nineties I payed 1.20$ a minute for a call to the US, this is available for 4 cents nowadays. And yeah, the ex monopolists are the ones with the rotten service too (they charge 7 cents now).
In Europe, it appears that consumers don't get all the benefits a single GSM standard can provide.
Yes they do; they can also extend those benefits to Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand and several other countries. The thing works unobtrusive and just fine in a Sicilly mountain village. Of course we pay for that privilege. I don't have a problem with that (as long as it's not rip-off, see previous posts).
As for SMS, the Blackberry is very popular here, and personally, I think it's a better form factor for messaging than a phone. I've sent exactly one email on my phone, an dits easier to use my Palm and a modem at the airport than sending stuff from the phone.
Not that I necessarily disagree. SMS is not e-mail however, it's really firing off a brief, sensible (well, sometimes anyway) message (160 chars max, usually much less) to somebody; it can be a very convenient communication tool, in an asynchronous yet instantenous way.
Still - it comes down to price. Calling Switzerland is not worth $2.50/minute to you, as you stated in your phonecard example.
Sure, to a certain extent every service/product comes down to price. But that price musn't necessarily be cheap.
I give you an example: One of my vices are cigars, preferrably (but not necessary) Cuban cigars, which are readily available in most European countries. Not cheap, mind you, but worth the price.
Now, what happens, when you are in a place, where US territory is near (i.e. British Virgin Islands) you only get Cuban cigars at extorcionist prices. What I do then is, I stock up on Domenican/Honduran/Nicaraguan cigars when on US territory. Those are fine, well made smokes, with the advantage of being reasonable priced. It really pees me off when a vendor charges 30$ for a Montecristo #4, which is probably a fake in the first place. See, he tries to take advantage of a situation and apparently folks that usually don't have ready access to the product are willing to pay extortionist prices. I rather quit smoking for a week (you can do that with cigars), then getting ripped-off and blackmailed.
And the behavior of some carriers is not really different, then the one of a seedy cigar pusher.
I don't understand why you can't have a plan like I have in the US - less than 10cents/minute, no roaming fees in the US.
A matter of standards for the most case. You can get GSM, but only in very selected (mostly urban) areas and as mentioned at extorcionist prices.
Plus, you need a tri-band phone, which I wouldn't bother getting, given my calling patterns.
It's probably simply not worth the phone companies effort to try to offer true international roaming
It seems to be worth it in Europe. Roaming and SMS are probably the biggest cash cows for the phone companies. As with every product the price is a sensitive issue and they try to make it as high, that it generates nice profits, but not that high, that people don't roam. After all, the infrastructure and the (exorbitant expensive) billing systems are in place anyhow. So in essence, a call not made is lost revenue to them (at least until the network is saturated).
It's like the hotels in Europe with their phone surcharges (which US hotels are starting to do as well)- they're betting the business traveler will want the privacy of an in-room phone instead of going to the PTT.
On a sidenote, my most shocking experience was in the Berkeley Marriot. The phone information stated that calls are charged at AT&T rates, with a 55% markup. This is acceptable to me, since the hotel has to invest a lot into the infrastructure. What the brochure didn't mention however, was that (although you had IDD of course) calls where charged at AT&Ts operater assisted call rates, which makes a hell of a difference. Ahh, you live and learn.
Also, European hotels are learning a painful lesson: Nobody (at least not European business travellers) use their phones anymore. Why should they ? They have a GSM phone, which is cheaper, mobile and as reliable as a hotel phone, so why would you want to get ripped off ?
I wasn't able to read the whole story. It's built on very flawed assumptions. But here's my take anyway:
When that guy uses Lotus Notes, Oracle, or Windows NT, which is apparently only ready after 10plus years, this is a bunch of crock.
First, those are inherently bad example for his theory. OK, let's look at them seperately:
Lotus (IBM) intended to develop the everything-encompassing-can-do-it-all groupware solution. This, I believe, is a flawed concept for software in general. The more you create a monster, the worse it gets to maintain it. Probably far more energy was invested into wondering how this part of the software could be affected by a change in a completely different part, then actually improving it.
NT, nowadays has 35, or so, million lines of code. Isn't it? It was based on the VMS kernel, after Micro$haft hired Dave Cutler and the entire VMS core crew? Well, from what I gather Dave and his team are (where) quite brilliant guys. But wasn't it, that Digital actually was an engineering driven company, while M$ doesn't really care about technology and fine engineering, but more about marketing and killing of the competition. So, I wouldn't argue that it takes long to write 35million lines of complex code. But how much of that code was really written to actually improve the OS kernel and how much of it is snake oil, dictated by M$ marketing ?
Oracle, now don't even get me started on that. Compared to other more modern databases Oracle appears to be a big chunk of files scattered around various disks. From what I know about Oracle (granted, I know far more about other databases), it's a rotten design, they always tried to improve upon. So, how much energy was wasted, just to keep this whole bad blob somewhat functional, within the development cycle ? Oh yes, and those remembering Oracle 6 realize, that this keeping up wasn't always successful.
So, in essence; what this guy is doing is taking the worst examples to prove an entirely flawed theory. Sort of, as if I state that every cop is a corrupt crook and take isolated incidents from the LAPD and the NYPD as shining example.
SO it's not really interoperablity that people want, but cheap interoperablity
You're implying here and you are dead wrong. (alas I can only speak for myself)
Roaming is expensive, but since I travel a lot and depend on this feature, it's well worth the price and I'm willing to pay for it.
If however a company tries to extort me, they'll lose my business and I sure as hell find alternatives.
For example: Whenever possible I will avoid AT&T products and services at all costs. Why ? I bought one of their calling cards at MIA airport for 10$, which gave me all of 4 minutes worth of calls to Switzerland. Although this is perfectly legal of course, I consider it corporate extortion of people that wouldn't / can't know better. Maybe AT&T made a 3000% profit on those ten bucks, but it's sure as hell the last money they get from me, if I can avoid it.
I'm willing to pay a price for a good service (and leaving the plane in Barcelona and having instant access and huge coverage on three mobile network is an excellent service and it is worth it's price); ripping off ignorant customers (or worse customers in dire need of a service) is a legalized form of theft, which I will not tolerate.
Just for a historical note, GSM is in use in the US, so you should be able to use your phone here in teh (few) areas that have GSM service.
In theory, you are. I never bother with cell phones, when in the US, since prices are OUTRAGEOUS. In Europe, depending on the country, I pay between 40 and 90 cents for outgoing calls and 20-30 cents for incoming calls per minute.
All US Carriers with roaming agreements charge 1$ for incoming and 2-3.50$ for outgoing calls, per minute. I'm much better served with a 10$ phone card, since public phones are plentyful and it's dirt cheap.
I'm not real familar with Euopean cell phones (other than using one when I'm there, but I don't pay the bill nor do I roam) - do you pay a flat rate fro calls anywhere in europe - i.e. if I have a Portuguese provider does it cost m ethe same if I call from/to Lisbon or Berlin?
It really varies from country to country and within the country it can vary between operators (up to 40%). So it can be really worthwhile, to get the pricing information before you leave and manually select the cheapest carrier, when roaming.
I think I'll go file my patent for "buying stuff from a store"
And how sir, do you think you get to that store?
I own patent 4711/12345 "A method of movement by moving one foot in front of the other to get from a place to another place, regardless of the pace with which this method is applied".
So don't you dare to even walk(tm) to your car without transferring a lot of $$$ into my general direction.
walk(tm), walking(tm), jogging(tm), running(tm) and feet(tm) are trademarks owned and controlled by CaptainZapp enterprises
This should provide all of us with a good reason to resent corporate sponsoring of the education system, with a vengeance.
Does anybody really believe that a school system, which is notoriously underfunded, cooks up some braindead plan like this one, instead of focusing on the more important aspects of the education curriculum (you know, things like reading & writing, or math - which is hard - and such). Without being influenced, not to say bribed by the entertainment industry in this case and the corporate world in general? Not bloody likely.
I can see why a school, ill-funded and always under attack - might resort to corporate "sponsorship", but beware of the ghosts you might call into action by taking the easy route.
Add to that United Fruit, now United Brand (Chiquita), whhich provoked wars in Latin America, which left 1000s of dead inhabitants. Just to facilitate growing their fucking bananas.
I agree, that compared to those scumbags, Micro$oft, despite their lies and their depictable business practices are a bunch of choir boys.
However, a company - especially one with the symbolic value like Disney - getting rich on brainwashing kids, is pretty high on the evil scale in my book.
Slashdot Mirror
But then, look at the number of IIS exploits and the ones on Apache, even though Apache has more then double the market share of IIS.
Add to that, that most exploits on Apache where due to vulnerable CGI scripts.
Apache actually has quite a good track record, regarding security and admins installing Apache are more likely that they know what they do
Now, what bugs me about Microsofts WDI (worms deployment engine) is that a lot of NT/W2K user don't even know that they have a web server running. It installed by default, with all its glorious vulnerabilities...
Oh, it wasn't the CEOs direct decision? Well, it's her responsibility if HP loses 100 of its best skilled people.
HP will be down the hill in three years (mark my words), but Miss Fiorino will be playing golf in Pebble Beach with her ex-board apologists and a cushy severence package.
Given the fact, that she not only missed three announced quarterly goals and heads full blast for a merger, which will be a major disaster (3 major - and 1 minor OS lines, different architectures and quite different cultures), I don't think this assessment is overly harsh.
Do I sound bitter? You bet, and I don't even work for HP. I did work for DEC however from 90 through 94, that was about the time when the big downward spiral gained momentum. I saw in real life how the tech company with the bloody best engineering* was killed by slick talking MBAs in expensive suits (agreed that Ken Olson also has his share, but he wasn't the one that ultimately killed DEC [arguably]). Oh, and Mr. Palmer in his white Porsche didn't really offer much more to the company then a slick hairdo.
Don't even get me started what happened after the sale to Compaq. A company who knows (or knew) how to assemble and market boxes, period. After buying DEC for it's enterprise services and customer base in short order they killed VMS (that started already at DEC; but Compaq didn't have a clue about what to do with it), the engineering departments, the Alpha chip and of course, allienated a fiercly loyal customer base...
I totally agree with your post, I was not ranting against it, my rant is directed to people who - for their own personal gain and ego - kill the finest companies in their industry.
* You can argue that of course, but when you look at things like DECnet, the Alpha chip or clustering, DEC sure as hell had a 5-10 year lead technologically.
You're wrong here: dead wrong!:
You will regret ever having considered that after we send in our bicycle troops...
Well, that's what I always figured.
Until I attended Professor Lessings speech at the San Francisco LinuxWorld upon which I immediately enrolled.
It doesn't really matter if you're European or not; currently trends are set in the US which won't only affect the rest of the world, but which are damn frightening in their consequences.
Nah, of course they're not.
Actually you get a bonus when they provide you with a "free" software audit, for which you'll have to cough up the resources. If you don't want to go for their new and improved licensing plan, that is.
This might be a bit costly and it might really drag on your nerves, but at least you're sure to be in full compliance with your license.
Of course, as per your corporate license agreement, they can repeat that ad nauseum, or at least 'til you sign up for the new and improved plan.
No need to thank me
A word on chairs: Don't go cheap. My 100$ IKEA chair was a nuisance and literally a pain. I found 4 used Eames Aluminium Frame chairs (the conference table model, not the highback) and it's an unbelievable difference.
So you're telling me, that you'd be willing to render control of your very private data to one single company, located in a country with probably the piss-porest privacy protection laws in the Western hemisphere, just for the sake of convenience ?
We're not talking about CC # here, but about everything surrounding your person, including potentially medical data.
See, I agree that it's up to society to define the sidelines. It's however not society that controls Passport. It's the Microsoft Corporation, which I personally woudn't entrust with my cell phone number.
since I normally use Google, unfortunatley not...
Just because you don't especially like it, doesn't mean that Google is so damn successful, by bribing GeekZines.
You are either extremely paranoid or rather arrogant, my friend.
Personally, I'd never shove it down anybodies throat, but what I really like about Google (besides the sleek interface and the cache), is the fact that the first 30 results on a query, like "gcc usages nuclear physics linux", aren't something like:
Atomic chicks to blow away your gcc-perverted brain by playing with their Linux PDAs or some such shit.
The law is clear. If you traffic in anticircumvention devices for profit, you have committed a federal crime that might cost you up to $500,000 and five years in prison. So the FBI and federal attorneys had no choice. Adobe wanted this man arrested. So they had to arrest him.
is the really chilling part.
It's refreshing to read a clue ladden article on MSNBC, really
Fear not ol' Darwin. I just put your e-mail address on every known spammers list. Now just sit back, relax and wait 'til the penis extension offers come in.
No need to thank me...
Yeah! Has about the credibility of an average, corporate press release
Nevermind, I heard the story differently:
Basically, DEC hat a 64bit project (that was before Alpha) in the pipeline and Cutler, who was the principal architect for VMS, had quite a stake in that project. I think it was called cairo, but I could be off.
That project was killed and that pissed Cutler pretty much off and during that time Microsoft hired him and a few of the core VMS engineers to work on NT.
VMS can stay up an running for 10 to 20 years of 100% uptime, and has had clustering and distributed lock management since VAXclusters were introduced in 1982. The comparisons between VMS and NT are largley market-droids trying to sound technical.
Oh man, each word's a beat of my heart! I worked for DEC in the first half of the nineties and it was a physically painful to experience how this marvel of quality and engineering went down on its knees. And it hurt, to see the digital logo replaced by the Q of a market droid box assembling conglomerate.
DEC was eight years ahead (as you say clustering, and 64 bit) of everybody, but they had a dreadful sales and marketing organization. Besides that, it was an honest company and in todays business environment this is deadly.
Hallelujah brother! I think I go out and do just that and toast on civilized discussions. Virtual or real. (Might substitute the port for a glass of red wine, though)
I wasn't very clear - I'm surprised that Europe doesn't have the equivalent of the US' no roam plans - you're still paying roaming fees throughout Europe?
Sure, you must understand that, else then in the US, Europe is composed of umpteen different coutries, each and every one quite sovereign in its actions, different languages and partially very different cultures. Although the EU does provide an umbrella (for better and for worse), this doesn't mean that it can just mandate flat roaming charges on all Europena carriers. It also shouldn't be able to do that. What it does for example, is getting carriers by the balls that enter into price fixing and other monopolistic shit and I think that's a good thing. Right now 9 German and UK carriers are under investigation for competition rigging and yeah, I agree that somebody should step in hard if anticompetitive tactics are applied.
Actually, I'm not all that surprised - even in the EU, each country has done a pretty good job of protecting its companies. It's not a bad deal for the companies, either, given the amount of cross border travel in Europe.
You're right, it didn't do much good to the consumer. On the other hand that's rapidly changing now. While in the middle of the nineties I payed 1.20$ a minute for a call to the US, this is available for 4 cents nowadays. And yeah, the ex monopolists are the ones with the rotten service too (they charge 7 cents now).
In Europe, it appears that consumers don't get all the benefits a single GSM standard can provide.
Yes they do; they can also extend those benefits to Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand and several other countries. The thing works unobtrusive and just fine in a Sicilly mountain village. Of course we pay for that privilege. I don't have a problem with that (as long as it's not rip-off, see previous posts).
As for SMS, the Blackberry is very popular here, and personally, I think it's a better form factor for messaging than a phone. I've sent exactly one email on my phone, an dits easier to use my Palm and a modem at the airport than sending stuff from the phone.
Not that I necessarily disagree. SMS is not e-mail however, it's really firing off a brief, sensible (well, sometimes anyway) message (160 chars max, usually much less) to somebody; it can be a very convenient communication tool, in an asynchronous yet instantenous way.
I toast into your general direction...
In driving me to other websites for good.
But then again, maybe I'm not their target audience in the first place.
Sure, to a certain extent every service/product comes down to price. But that price musn't necessarily be cheap.
I give you an example: One of my vices are cigars, preferrably (but not necessary) Cuban cigars, which are readily available in most European countries. Not cheap, mind you, but worth the price.
Now, what happens, when you are in a place, where US territory is near (i.e. British Virgin Islands) you only get Cuban cigars at extorcionist prices. What I do then is, I stock up on Domenican/Honduran/Nicaraguan cigars when on US territory. Those are fine, well made smokes, with the advantage of being reasonable priced. It really pees me off when a vendor charges 30$ for a Montecristo #4, which is probably a fake in the first place. See, he tries to take advantage of a situation and apparently folks that usually don't have ready access to the product are willing to pay extortionist prices. I rather quit smoking for a week (you can do that with cigars), then getting ripped-off and blackmailed. And the behavior of some carriers is not really different, then the one of a seedy cigar pusher.
I don't understand why you can't have a plan like I have in the US - less than 10cents/minute, no roaming fees in the US.
A matter of standards for the most case. You can get GSM, but only in very selected (mostly urban) areas and as mentioned at extorcionist prices. Plus, you need a tri-band phone, which I wouldn't bother getting, given my calling patterns.
It's probably simply not worth the phone companies effort to try to offer true international roaming
It seems to be worth it in Europe. Roaming and SMS are probably the biggest cash cows for the phone companies. As with every product the price is a sensitive issue and they try to make it as high, that it generates nice profits, but not that high, that people don't roam. After all, the infrastructure and the (exorbitant expensive) billing systems are in place anyhow. So in essence, a call not made is lost revenue to them (at least until the network is saturated).
It's like the hotels in Europe with their phone surcharges (which US hotels are starting to do as well)- they're betting the business traveler will want the privacy of an in-room phone instead of going to the PTT.
On a sidenote, my most shocking experience was in the Berkeley Marriot. The phone information stated that calls are charged at AT&T rates, with a 55% markup. This is acceptable to me, since the hotel has to invest a lot into the infrastructure. What the brochure didn't mention however, was that (although you had IDD of course) calls where charged at AT&Ts operater assisted call rates, which makes a hell of a difference. Ahh, you live and learn.
Also, European hotels are learning a painful lesson: Nobody (at least not European business travellers) use their phones anymore. Why should they ? They have a GSM phone, which is cheaper, mobile and as reliable as a hotel phone, so why would you want to get ripped off ?
When that guy uses Lotus Notes, Oracle, or Windows NT, which is apparently only ready after 10plus years, this is a bunch of crock.
First, those are inherently bad example for his theory. OK, let's look at them seperately:
Lotus (IBM) intended to develop the everything-encompassing-can-do-it-all groupware solution. This, I believe, is a flawed concept for software in general. The more you create a monster, the worse it gets to maintain it. Probably far more energy was invested into wondering how this part of the software could be affected by a change in a completely different part, then actually improving it.
NT, nowadays has 35, or so, million lines of code. Isn't it? It was based on the VMS kernel, after Micro$haft hired Dave Cutler and the entire VMS core crew? Well, from what I gather Dave and his team are (where) quite brilliant guys. But wasn't it, that Digital actually was an engineering driven company, while M$ doesn't really care about technology and fine engineering, but more about marketing and killing of the competition. So, I wouldn't argue that it takes long to write 35million lines of complex code. But how much of that code was really written to actually improve the OS kernel and how much of it is snake oil, dictated by M$ marketing ?
Oracle, now don't even get me started on that. Compared to other more modern databases Oracle appears to be a big chunk of files scattered around various disks. From what I know about Oracle (granted, I know far more about other databases), it's a rotten design, they always tried to improve upon. So, how much energy was wasted, just to keep this whole bad blob somewhat functional, within the development cycle ? Oh yes, and those remembering Oracle 6 realize, that this keeping up wasn't always successful.
So, in essence; what this guy is doing is taking the worst examples to prove an entirely flawed theory. Sort of, as if I state that every cop is a corrupt crook and take isolated incidents from the LAPD and the NYPD as shining example.
You're implying here and you are dead wrong. (alas I can only speak for myself)
Roaming is expensive, but since I travel a lot and depend on this feature, it's well worth the price and I'm willing to pay for it.
If however a company tries to extort me, they'll lose my business and I sure as hell find alternatives.
For example: Whenever possible I will avoid AT&T products and services at all costs. Why ? I bought one of their calling cards at MIA airport for 10$, which gave me all of 4 minutes worth of calls to Switzerland. Although this is perfectly legal of course, I consider it corporate extortion of people that wouldn't / can't know better. Maybe AT&T made a 3000% profit on those ten bucks, but it's sure as hell the last money they get from me, if I can avoid it.
I'm willing to pay a price for a good service (and leaving the plane in Barcelona and having instant access and huge coverage on three mobile network is an excellent service and it is worth it's price); ripping off ignorant customers (or worse customers in dire need of a service) is a legalized form of theft, which I will not tolerate.
In theory, you are. I never bother with cell phones, when in the US, since prices are OUTRAGEOUS. In Europe, depending on the country, I pay between 40 and 90 cents for outgoing calls and 20-30 cents for incoming calls per minute.
All US Carriers with roaming agreements charge 1$ for incoming and 2-3.50$ for outgoing calls, per minute. I'm much better served with a 10$ phone card, since public phones are plentyful and it's dirt cheap.
I'm not real familar with Euopean cell phones (other than using one when I'm there, but I don't pay the bill nor do I roam) - do you pay a flat rate fro calls anywhere in europe - i.e. if I have a Portuguese provider does it cost m ethe same if I call from/to Lisbon or Berlin?
It really varies from country to country and within the country it can vary between operators (up to 40%). So it can be really worthwhile, to get the pricing information before you leave and manually select the cheapest carrier, when roaming.
Otherwise I can't rip it off legally to embrace and extend it and have to steal it.
A substance to be inhaled, which reaches the lung from which it enters into the bloodstream and affects the brain
Nah! It's not Marihuana, we're talking about air(tm) and the patent is applicable for breathing(tm)
And how sir, do you think you get to that store?
I own patent 4711/12345 "A method of movement by moving one foot in front of the other to get from a place to another place, regardless of the pace with which this method is applied".
So don't you dare to even walk(tm) to your car without transferring a lot of $$$ into my general direction.
walk(tm), walking(tm), jogging(tm), running(tm) and feet(tm) are trademarks owned and controlled by CaptainZapp enterprises
Does anybody really believe that a school system, which is notoriously underfunded, cooks up some braindead plan like this one, instead of focusing on the more important aspects of the education curriculum (you know, things like reading & writing, or math - which is hard - and such). Without being influenced, not to say bribed by the entertainment industry in this case and the corporate world in general? Not bloody likely.
I can see why a school, ill-funded and always under attack - might resort to corporate "sponsorship", but beware of the ghosts you might call into action by taking the easy route.
There's no such thing as a free lunch.
Actually it's gross negligence.
I know it happens over and over in big banks and large telco outfits. Still:
Save for 15 minute perl-hacks, productive source code (including DDL SQL scripts) should never get lost. Period.
I agree, that compared to those scumbags, Micro$oft, despite their lies and their depictable business practices are a bunch of choir boys.
However, a company - especially one with the symbolic value like Disney - getting rich on brainwashing kids, is pretty high on the evil scale in my book.