" You vill download zee program and you vill love it!" I for one would not want to be on the end of the help desk phones. "What do you mean you installed SP2?!!? Our company policy specifically prohibits that Service Pack because of incompatibility X"
Seriously though, looking at the list, there are some stunning show stoppers. Photoshop CS!!?! Live Motion! and perhaps the most surprising of all, Microsoft's own Virtual PC.
Yeah, I think I will stick with OS X for my daily productivity which makes me wonder just what Microsoft is planning on doing for those individuals who switch to OS X. Microsoft does not appear to be doing anything to stop the emigrating hoards or doing anything to retain folks on the Windows platform. For instance, our Windows based systems are locked down pretty hard and our students are not allowed to surf the Internet or do anything else on them that does not have to do with the specific tasks they are set up for. We have provided them with OS X boxes that they can do anything with or install anything they want onto. At meetings I attend, there has been a sharp upswing in the numbers of Apple laptops seen in the last couple of years and the resounding response to why has been, "it's just easier after getting tired of dealing with all the crap Windows puts one through". There has been no compelling reason for folks to remain on the platform other than reasons where you might be locked into a particular piece of software or other Microsoft specific needs.
You do recall correctly, however like we have talked about almost ad nauseam on Slashdot, there are all sorts of problems with the current strategies of rescuing vision with bionic (and many biological approaches). My doctoral dissertation work focused on this problem and on what happens to the retina when it has become deafferented. What you refer to is the creation of visual pathways leading to and organizing within the cortex a the critical age. Without these pathways, one could attempt to bypass many of the subcortical structures by wiring the implant directly into the cortex ala Dr. Normann's research. However, for folks that suffer from injury, glaucoma, diabetes, or retinitis pigmentosa, bionic implants will not work until we have reigned in retinal/neuronal remodeling.
The issue is that simply bypassing the diseased cells in the retina is impossible, because all of the neurons in the retina are involved in the degenerative process. What needs to be done is to control the degenerative process before retinal implants/transplants can be successful. Also, these guys are building implants with 50-100 "electrodes", but in reality, they will have to have far more to generate reasonable images, and they will need to be at even higher densities.
So, this is part of the fundamental problem of moving NASA's focus to entirely manned programs. Scientific projects like Hubble, and robotic exploration are getting shorted because the current administration want to put man on Mars. This of course is right in line with their strategy to remove basic science funding from the picture in favor of projects that have immediate payoff. An unfortunate and ignorant way to view things, but in character with the POTUS. Do the analysis and actually look at the potential scientific payoff from basic science research like the Voyager program, Hubble, basic science support of computer science research that is being cut by DARPA, bioscience research that is being cut in favor of military research or moved into weapons research, reduction in NIH funding etc....etc....etc....
This crowd especially will appreciate the payoffs that basic science research provides. Without basic science research, we would not have the Internet as we know it, we would not have personal computers, and for those that like the games, we most certainly would not have computer graphics as much of the pretty graphics you rely on arose out of basic science mathematical research.
It worries me because in many places in American society (including Slashdot), I see an movement away from intellectual pursuit and a devaluation of those who we have relied on to make the United States a pre-eminent force in international science.
Funny....truly funny and an amusing use of corporate cooperation for a joke . However, I will say this: I am always amazed at the things humans will buy. I will betcha $1000 that if these were actual items for sale, they would sell big time. Of course the government would come down hard on the first item, and with the current administrations moves for more religion in government, they may crack down on the iCopulate as well (little spikey things are a bit too.....titillating for some folks), but that pong thing.... Wow, I can think of more than one dumb jock executive that would dump lots of cash into something like that.:-)
I don't think you fully grasp the nature of capitalism.
There is always a market for well engineered products that are designed and built with passion. These companies may not necessarily be McDonalds, but they can certainly be companies like Apple Computer, Porsche, Canon, Oakley, etc...etc...etc....
95 per cent of information technology groups "are not delivering some number of projects on time or to the full satisfaction of the business executive."
Could it be that marketing is always overselling the product? Seriously. I cannot count how many times I have heard (in the past now I am in science), "oh, yeah....well, you need to include feature X because we told customer Y we already had that feature". This is often followed up by the engineer muttering under his/her breath "Dumb jock.:-) I say that joking, but have seen discussions like this almost erupt into fist fights as the sales staff makes promises to customers that are either 1) blatantly false or 2) concepts under development and are nowhere near "production".
So, this is another example of why pre-announcing products is a baaaaad idea. Treat your customers with honesty and announce the product when it is ready and not before. Again, this is why vaporware only serves to irritate your customers and build expectation of a product that is not always delivered.
I also believe the fundamental problem is that managers these days (in many cases) no longer come from the ranks and are not engineers. So, they do not always understand what is involved in 1) building the codebase 2) testing code base 3) proper interface design 4) end user testing 5) documentation 6) making sure it does not suck.
The last point is where most executives seem to get hung up. More often than not in most companies, executives really have no idea of what makes good code and all too often, what makes a good product. Come on now, a good portion of executives can barely use their personal computers to answer email or browse the Internet. When you have companies run by executives and managers that have come up through the ranks, you are much more likely to get quality which often is much more important than meeting an arbitrary deadline.
Personal data need to be treated as government certification of Secret documents, or at least give it Collateral classification level treatment. When personal data is checked out and allowed to be placed on laptops or other portable devices for removal from the central location where the data is stored, personal responsibility needs to be ensured and access should be confirmed by 1) need to know basis and 2) those who are trained to undergo training with confidential data.
Granted, this will not prevent all leaks as even the State Department, CIA and FBI have had problems with missing laptops, but they are getting better about data confidentiality and security through training and implementation of protocols designed to limit leaks and unauthorized access.
Most people are equipped as standard with two of them.
You do realize that I am a vision scientist, right? You do realize that the lenses in your eyes are crystaline epithelial cells, not water filled sacks?
Yeah. They are way smarter than all those stupid seals, seal lions, sea otters and such.
Sarcasm is not becoming.
Maybe you meant to say "marine mammals" instead of "cetaceans?"
Nope. I meant what I said. Various studies designed to evaluate the intelligence of octopi reveal that they are on par or exceed the intelligence of dogs. The thing you have to remember is that octopi are a little more alien to us than are mammals, so we have to be careful in our evaluation of them. Think about how they can control color, patterning, behavior etc... to become both stealthy and serious predators that at the same time have an innate sense of curiosity and impressive problem solving abilities. The fact that they do not live long likely prevents them from becoming even smarter, otherwise.....
but what sort of applications might this have with "prosthetic" eyes? It seems (to my uneducated mind) that you could have lenses that change shape and adapt to changing conditions much more rapidly. Perhaps an octopus muscle system girdling the eyeball instead of corrective lenses?
You might be closer to reality than you think. It turns out that aqueous lenses are a hot area of research. Principally, cell phone manufacturers are looking at this technology, but the applications to artificial lenses for humans are significant. For instance, when one gets their lens replaced with an artificial one due to cataracts or trauma, you lose the ability to accommodate the lens. An implantable, focusable lens would be a huge leap and it is just this sort of unconventional thinking that is going to move us forward.
Mind you, a large clump of reddish flesh walking along a sandy seabed with greenish water as a background is not what I would call camoflauged.
Ah, but you need to understand the properties of color in sea water. There is considerable color filtering of light as it passes down through the column of water rendering red objects as dark olive or dark colored objects. Blue light penetrates very well as do certain wavelengths of green (why the Navy is so keen on blue and blue/green lasers). Most of the pictures you see of organisms in the ocean are with artificial light rendering them as they would appear to our eyes on the surface.
One other point: Our eyes are fairly poor at discriminating colors compared with most fish. We only have three color channels with which to process color, whereas many fish have four, five, six or more channels to see a much richer world than we could ever appreciate.
Octopus are spooky smart. They are pretty good problem solvers, they have excellent vision and a bizarre sense of curiosity. They will explore just about everything they can access, and have distinct personalities. They are in all likelihood the smartest organisms in the sea second to cetaceans. I wrote in a previous discussion on Slashdot about my pet octopus, Cephus (short for cephalopod), but that was only one instance of amazing behaviors I had witnessed. I have also dived off the Pacific Northwest with giant pacific red octopus (Octopus dofleini) and found them to be quite curious and for the most part docile (this is in contrast to squid which are truly ruthless aliens that would kill you if given the slightest chance) unless you piss em off and which point they usually simply want to get away. However, I have seen them steal items from divers and swim off with them as well.
The interesting thing about robotics and control of complex systems like this is the computational control required of such structures. Octopus can almost seemingly turn themselves to liquid and fit through the most amazingly small spaces, yet their strength would amaze (and I suspect scare) you. Even my pet octopus (Octopus bimaculoides) who was about a foot long could generate incredible forces from very muscular arms. The giant octopus would be so strong, they could likely (literally) tear you apart if they were not so docile. Here is the deal though: They need an aqueous environment to move effectively. I suspect that for robotics teams, some combination of hydrostatic muscles and exoskeletons would be necessary, which now that I am thinking about it could be huge for artificial limbs for amputees. Right now the most advanced artificial limbs have internally driven servos that have limits on torque that are quite low. This technology could open the door for more capable artificial limbs and exoskeletons to enhance human movement as well as robotics.
Oh, other links of interest to the original Science paper are here, but you need a subscription to see the full text article. The movies linked there though are free.
Last I checked, apple pays 60c per song and resells them for 99c. That is approximately a 40% margin.
Where did you check? Because the numbers I have (as a shareholder) reveal that margins are closer to 6%. Analysts such as Piper Jaffray estimate its anywhere from %5 to 10% and some analysts have suggested that Apple has actually lost some money in the first year on iTunes.
You obviously have no concept of margins in e-commerce. Otherwise you wouldn't be saying that.
My investment portfolio says otherwise.
Next time try to make your argument stick in real world scenerios......
What is it that we are talking about here? In case you did not know, the iTMS is a real world investment.
rather than make believe BS you want to spout off to try to look smart
I'll let the Ph.D. and my publications speak to that. Look, there is no need to be rude on this forum as there are many here that are trying to keep Slashdot an informative place to go. What exactly is it that you are trying to say?
But it is of course dishonest to both your customers and shareholders. For companies that want to build quality relationships with their customers, this is bad policy. You've heard of vaporware? Yeah, that's what your customers begin to expect and why companies like Microsoft, HP (under Carly) and others have lost the respect of many of their customers. Concept products are one thing, in that they are designed to get a feeling for how your customer base would react to such a product, but there is no expectation of that concept being actually produced in its current form. Pre-announcing is simply dishonest.
At the New Orleans confab, a frustrated Edward Zander, Motorola's chief executive, stood before a roomful of analysts and reporters and said the handset's debut would have to wait. "
Showing precisely why pre-announcement of products only leads to problems, frustrations, and customer dissatisfaction.
Only announce products when they are done and ready to ship and you avoid this sort of garbage. Everybody is speculating on just what the hold-up is. It could be that the phone is not ready or that the wireless carriers are trying to extract every last cent out of somebody else's (Apple and Motorola) hard earned work. But the point is that there is now a consumer expectation and they are complaining to Apple and Motorola saying "why can't you get your $#!t together and release the product?" when it may actually be the fault of Verizon, Cingular et. al. The problem of course is that on sales of the songs themselves, Apple's profit is next to nothing. So having other companies try and muscle in on very thin margins means 1) either somebody has to take it in the shorts or 2) we all lose. Of course if the record labels would allow more access to the music for Internet delivery, it would be treated as the commodity it really is and there would be more room for profits from higher volume, but that is another post.
Oh, and it would be nice if people who are submitting articles would actually summarize the story rather than posting verbatim what the writer of the referenced article says.
This is not the first identification of soft protein laden tissue that has been extracted from dinosaur tissue as Mary Schweitzer at North Carolina State University has extracted these tissues from other tissues as well, so there is a precedent.
Of course getting actual DNA from these tissues will be a long shot due to its fragile nature, but protein sequence may prove very informative in letting us define exactly where genetic lineages have gone over evolution.
It's nice to see the Macs, but Yo Steve! When are you gonna replace the rendering farm with Xserves? We want our films rendered even faster!
Seriously though, given that one can easily approach #3 on the supercomputing list with a bunch of out of the box Xserves, one would expect this to happen at some point after the initial render farm has paid for itself.
You should also know that every individual that serves in the armed forces is required to submit a blood sample for DNA isolation and data warehousing. Of course these databases are supposed to be used principally for identification of remains, there are other more insidious plans that some individuals have proposed and acted upon with these data. i.e. using the data to test database systems and index them to criminal records. The problem of course like I have said before is that once these databases are created, it is very difficult to put the djinni back in the bottle. People will access them and include them in other projects.
The time to buy Apple stock was 7 years ago at $12.00 before the split:P
Apple stock has split three times total with the last two being last February 28th and June 21st 2000. The first split was back in 1987, so in terms of stock splits it has not been the best investment. However, I am quite happy with the investments and additional purchases I made a couple of years ago with Apple. The iPod and iTunes have certainly been a driving force for the increase in stock value as well as the halo effect that everybody is talking about. However, I see another big spike in the number of Mac users as they get out of universities. Specifically, Apple has been making huge strides in getting higher education users back into the Apple fold with many folks making the switch. From my perspective, I know that there have been at least a dozen folks who have started using Macintosh computers after coming through our lab in the last two years who previously were Windows users.
It'll be interestin to see how publishers deal with this if demand for these books declines. In the meantime, would anyone like to point out any good books?"
Here is a hint that will help and not hurt the publishers. Put online out of print books. I would like to make the same argument for out of print music and movies and scientific journals as well which ironically, could hold huge profits for studios and publishing houses. After all, this is the ideal for long tail businesses, right? if these businesses could release for nominal fees all of the movies, music and books that have already paid for themselves, Google (or iTunes or iMovie or iPub or whatever) could serve as the front end which would allow for the finding of said information and then the publishing houses could make money on products that long ago had paid for themselves and created profits. This is almost like free (as in beer) money for them and low cost media for us.
From what little I knew of you [and I could have mistaken you for some other fellow from the slashdot journal circle],
Could be me...... Look at the Slashdot ID.
I never knew you to be religous. I'm not saying that you aren't. I'm just surprised to hear you say that.
Religion is an intensely private issue for me and I do not generally talk about it unless it directly comes up. I am a scientist whose job it is to discover the truth, but I can also have personal truths that I keep to myself, in part making me who I am. That said, since they *are* personal beliefs, I would not force those beliefs on others and I do not believe they have a place in politics given the diverse population in our country.
That being said, you comment as if science is immune from politics, the love of money, or selfishness.
I would never be that ignorant. Rather, I am saying we need to fight to prevent politics from taking over science and society. Politics are like tools in that they are used for a purpose, but like most other things, moderation of use is important.
Look at it from another point of view: is the movie company obligated to show something that your enemies dislike?
I do not consider that people of different beliefs are enemies of mine. I rather dislike that term and would desire to have less animosity and more embracing of differences. Here is the deal though.....I will fight for a society that does not ignore science and truth because it somehow conflicts with the way somebody believes the world should work. To ignore science and participate in a blind obedience to politicians and others that would have your loyalty begs for another dark ages where science and art disappear into the dark reaches of history only to be rediscovered by others who have embraced illumination of the minds that God has so graciously given us.
It really is sad that the documentation of the search for truth is so dangerous to some people. I understand in the need for belief and am a scientist that considers myself religious. However, I also believe that there are truths in the universe that need to be revealed and understand that those truths threaten some people and institutions. The task of the documentary film maker in many ways is similar to that of the scientist, and censorship or concealment of truth harms both of our missions. I also understand that businesses are in the business to make money, but it would be nice if businesses could have enough faith in what they do to stand up and be honest about it. That is unless money is your god, but if that is the case, be honest about it. The unfortunate truth is that money is the most important thing to some folks and they also know that if they revealed it, then they might lose business. You are known by your actions and I would encourage those potential patrons of these theaters who are refusing to show these films to boycott those IMAX theaters who are too scared to show a film that documents scientific discovery.
Slashdot Mirror
" You vill download zee program and you vill love it!" I for one would not want to be on the end of the help desk phones. "What do you mean you installed SP2?!!? Our company policy specifically prohibits that Service Pack because of incompatibility X"
Seriously though, looking at the list, there are some stunning show stoppers. Photoshop CS!!?! Live Motion! and perhaps the most surprising of all, Microsoft's own Virtual PC.
Yeah, I think I will stick with OS X for my daily productivity which makes me wonder just what Microsoft is planning on doing for those individuals who switch to OS X. Microsoft does not appear to be doing anything to stop the emigrating hoards or doing anything to retain folks on the Windows platform. For instance, our Windows based systems are locked down pretty hard and our students are not allowed to surf the Internet or do anything else on them that does not have to do with the specific tasks they are set up for. We have provided them with OS X boxes that they can do anything with or install anything they want onto. At meetings I attend, there has been a sharp upswing in the numbers of Apple laptops seen in the last couple of years and the resounding response to why has been, "it's just easier after getting tired of dealing with all the crap Windows puts one through". There has been no compelling reason for folks to remain on the platform other than reasons where you might be locked into a particular piece of software or other Microsoft specific needs.
You do recall correctly, however like we have talked about almost ad nauseam on Slashdot, there are all sorts of problems with the current strategies of rescuing vision with bionic (and many biological approaches). My doctoral dissertation work focused on this problem and on what happens to the retina when it has become deafferented. What you refer to is the creation of visual pathways leading to and organizing within the cortex a the critical age. Without these pathways, one could attempt to bypass many of the subcortical structures by wiring the implant directly into the cortex ala Dr. Normann's research. However, for folks that suffer from injury, glaucoma, diabetes, or retinitis pigmentosa, bionic implants will not work until we have reigned in retinal/neuronal remodeling.
The issue is that simply bypassing the diseased cells in the retina is impossible, because all of the neurons in the retina are involved in the degenerative process. What needs to be done is to control the degenerative process before retinal implants/transplants can be successful. Also, these guys are building implants with 50-100 "electrodes", but in reality, they will have to have far more to generate reasonable images, and they will need to be at even higher densities.
So, this is part of the fundamental problem of moving NASA's focus to entirely manned programs. Scientific projects like Hubble, and robotic exploration are getting shorted because the current administration want to put man on Mars. This of course is right in line with their strategy to remove basic science funding from the picture in favor of projects that have immediate payoff. An unfortunate and ignorant way to view things, but in character with the POTUS. Do the analysis and actually look at the potential scientific payoff from basic science research like the Voyager program, Hubble, basic science support of computer science research that is being cut by DARPA, bioscience research that is being cut in favor of military research or moved into weapons research, reduction in NIH funding etc....etc....etc....
This crowd especially will appreciate the payoffs that basic science research provides. Without basic science research, we would not have the Internet as we know it, we would not have personal computers, and for those that like the games, we most certainly would not have computer graphics as much of the pretty graphics you rely on arose out of basic science mathematical research.
It worries me because in many places in American society (including Slashdot), I see an movement away from intellectual pursuit and a devaluation of those who we have relied on to make the United States a pre-eminent force in international science.
Funny....truly funny and an amusing use of corporate cooperation for a joke . However, I will say this: I am always amazed at the things humans will buy. I will betcha $1000 that if these were actual items for sale, they would sell big time. Of course the government would come down hard on the first item, and with the current administrations moves for more religion in government, they may crack down on the iCopulate as well (little spikey things are a bit too.....titillating for some folks), but that pong thing.... Wow, I can think of more than one dumb jock executive that would dump lots of cash into something like that. :-)
Wow, the Google story first non April Fools post of the day on Slashdot. Now all we need is a true to life post on the new Apple PDA.
I don't think you fully grasp the nature of capitalism.
There is always a market for well engineered products that are designed and built with passion. These companies may not necessarily be McDonalds, but they can certainly be companies like Apple Computer, Porsche, Canon, Oakley, etc...etc...etc....
JeanBaptiste Emanuel.....Zorg?
:-)
95 per cent of information technology groups "are not delivering some number of projects on time or to the full satisfaction of the business executive."
:-) I say that joking, but have seen discussions like this almost erupt into fist fights as the sales staff makes promises to customers that are either 1) blatantly false or 2) concepts under development and are nowhere near "production".
Could it be that marketing is always overselling the product? Seriously. I cannot count how many times I have heard (in the past now I am in science), "oh, yeah....well, you need to include feature X because we told customer Y we already had that feature". This is often followed up by the engineer muttering under his/her breath "Dumb jock.
So, this is another example of why pre-announcing products is a baaaaad idea. Treat your customers with honesty and announce the product when it is ready and not before. Again, this is why vaporware only serves to irritate your customers and build expectation of a product that is not always delivered.
I also believe the fundamental problem is that managers these days (in many cases) no longer come from the ranks and are not engineers. So, they do not always understand what is involved in 1) building the codebase 2) testing code base 3) proper interface design 4) end user testing 5) documentation 6) making sure it does not suck.
The last point is where most executives seem to get hung up. More often than not in most companies, executives really have no idea of what makes good code and all too often, what makes a good product. Come on now, a good portion of executives can barely use their personal computers to answer email or browse the Internet. When you have companies run by executives and managers that have come up through the ranks, you are much more likely to get quality which often is much more important than meeting an arbitrary deadline.
Personal data need to be treated as government certification of Secret documents, or at least give it Collateral classification level treatment. When personal data is checked out and allowed to be placed on laptops or other portable devices for removal from the central location where the data is stored, personal responsibility needs to be ensured and access should be confirmed by 1) need to know basis and 2) those who are trained to undergo training with confidential data.
Granted, this will not prevent all leaks as even the State Department, CIA and FBI have had problems with missing laptops, but they are getting better about data confidentiality and security through training and implementation of protocols designed to limit leaks and unauthorized access.
Most people are equipped as standard with two of them.
You do realize that I am a vision scientist, right? You do realize that the lenses in your eyes are crystaline epithelial cells, not water filled sacks?
Yeah. They are way smarter than all those stupid seals, seal lions, sea otters and such.
Sarcasm is not becoming.
Maybe you meant to say "marine mammals" instead of "cetaceans?"
Nope. I meant what I said. Various studies designed to evaluate the intelligence of octopi reveal that they are on par or exceed the intelligence of dogs. The thing you have to remember is that octopi are a little more alien to us than are mammals, so we have to be careful in our evaluation of them. Think about how they can control color, patterning, behavior etc... to become both stealthy and serious predators that at the same time have an innate sense of curiosity and impressive problem solving abilities. The fact that they do not live long likely prevents them from becoming even smarter, otherwise.....
but what sort of applications might this have with "prosthetic" eyes? It seems (to my uneducated mind) that you could have lenses that change shape and adapt to changing conditions much more rapidly. Perhaps an octopus muscle system girdling the eyeball instead of corrective lenses?
You might be closer to reality than you think. It turns out that aqueous lenses are a hot area of research. Principally, cell phone manufacturers are looking at this technology, but the applications to artificial lenses for humans are significant. For instance, when one gets their lens replaced with an artificial one due to cataracts or trauma, you lose the ability to accommodate the lens. An implantable, focusable lens would be a huge leap and it is just this sort of unconventional thinking that is going to move us forward.
Mind you, a large clump of reddish flesh walking along a sandy seabed with greenish water as a background is not what I would call camoflauged.
Ah, but you need to understand the properties of color in sea water. There is considerable color filtering of light as it passes down through the column of water rendering red objects as dark olive or dark colored objects. Blue light penetrates very well as do certain wavelengths of green (why the Navy is so keen on blue and blue/green lasers). Most of the pictures you see of organisms in the ocean are with artificial light rendering them as they would appear to our eyes on the surface.
One other point: Our eyes are fairly poor at discriminating colors compared with most fish. We only have three color channels with which to process color, whereas many fish have four, five, six or more channels to see a much richer world than we could ever appreciate.
And I for one welcome our new mollusk overlords.
Octopus are spooky smart. They are pretty good problem solvers, they have excellent vision and a bizarre sense of curiosity. They will explore just about everything they can access, and have distinct personalities. They are in all likelihood the smartest organisms in the sea second to cetaceans. I wrote in a previous discussion on Slashdot about my pet octopus, Cephus (short for cephalopod), but that was only one instance of amazing behaviors I had witnessed. I have also dived off the Pacific Northwest with giant pacific red octopus (Octopus dofleini) and found them to be quite curious and for the most part docile (this is in contrast to squid which are truly ruthless aliens that would kill you if given the slightest chance) unless you piss em off and which point they usually simply want to get away. However, I have seen them steal items from divers and swim off with them as well.
The interesting thing about robotics and control of complex systems like this is the computational control required of such structures. Octopus can almost seemingly turn themselves to liquid and fit through the most amazingly small spaces, yet their strength would amaze (and I suspect scare) you. Even my pet octopus (Octopus bimaculoides) who was about a foot long could generate incredible forces from very muscular arms. The giant octopus would be so strong, they could likely (literally) tear you apart if they were not so docile. Here is the deal though: They need an aqueous environment to move effectively. I suspect that for robotics teams, some combination of hydrostatic muscles and exoskeletons would be necessary, which now that I am thinking about it could be huge for artificial limbs for amputees. Right now the most advanced artificial limbs have internally driven servos that have limits on torque that are quite low. This technology could open the door for more capable artificial limbs and exoskeletons to enhance human movement as well as robotics.
Oh, other links of interest to the original Science paper are here, but you need a subscription to see the full text article. The movies linked there though are free.
Last I checked, apple pays 60c per song and resells them for 99c. That is approximately a 40% margin.
Where did you check? Because the numbers I have (as a shareholder) reveal that margins are closer to 6%. Analysts such as Piper Jaffray estimate its anywhere from %5 to 10% and some analysts have suggested that Apple has actually lost some money in the first year on iTunes.
You obviously have no concept of margins in e-commerce. Otherwise you wouldn't be saying that.
My investment portfolio says otherwise.
Next time try to make your argument stick in real world scenerios......
What is it that we are talking about here? In case you did not know, the iTMS is a real world investment.
rather than make believe BS you want to spout off to try to look smart
I'll let the Ph.D. and my publications speak to that. Look, there is no need to be rude on this forum as there are many here that are trying to keep Slashdot an informative place to go. What exactly is it that you are trying to say?
Nobody gets hurt...
But it is of course dishonest to both your customers and shareholders. For companies that want to build quality relationships with their customers, this is bad policy. You've heard of vaporware? Yeah, that's what your customers begin to expect and why companies like Microsoft, HP (under Carly) and others have lost the respect of many of their customers. Concept products are one thing, in that they are designed to get a feeling for how your customer base would react to such a product, but there is no expectation of that concept being actually produced in its current form. Pre-announcing is simply dishonest.
At the New Orleans confab, a frustrated Edward Zander, Motorola's chief executive, stood before a roomful of analysts and reporters and said the handset's debut would have to wait. "
Showing precisely why pre-announcement of products only leads to problems, frustrations, and customer dissatisfaction.
Only announce products when they are done and ready to ship and you avoid this sort of garbage. Everybody is speculating on just what the hold-up is. It could be that the phone is not ready or that the wireless carriers are trying to extract every last cent out of somebody else's (Apple and Motorola) hard earned work. But the point is that there is now a consumer expectation and they are complaining to Apple and Motorola saying "why can't you get your $#!t together and release the product?" when it may actually be the fault of Verizon, Cingular et. al. The problem of course is that on sales of the songs themselves, Apple's profit is next to nothing. So having other companies try and muscle in on very thin margins means 1) either somebody has to take it in the shorts or 2) we all lose. Of course if the record labels would allow more access to the music for Internet delivery, it would be treated as the commodity it really is and there would be more room for profits from higher volume, but that is another post.
Oh, and it would be nice if people who are submitting articles would actually summarize the story rather than posting verbatim what the writer of the referenced article says.
This is not the first identification of soft protein laden tissue that has been extracted from dinosaur tissue as Mary Schweitzer at North Carolina State University has extracted these tissues from other tissues as well, so there is a precedent.
Of course getting actual DNA from these tissues will be a long shot due to its fragile nature, but protein sequence may prove very informative in letting us define exactly where genetic lineages have gone over evolution.
It's nice to see the Macs, but Yo Steve! When are you gonna replace the rendering farm with Xserves? We want our films rendered even faster!
Seriously though, given that one can easily approach #3 on the supercomputing list with a bunch of out of the box Xserves, one would expect this to happen at some point after the initial render farm has paid for itself.
You should also know that every individual that serves in the armed forces is required to submit a blood sample for DNA isolation and data warehousing. Of course these databases are supposed to be used principally for identification of remains, there are other more insidious plans that some individuals have proposed and acted upon with these data. i.e. using the data to test database systems and index them to criminal records. The problem of course like I have said before is that once these databases are created, it is very difficult to put the djinni back in the bottle. People will access them and include them in other projects.
The time to buy Apple stock was 7 years ago at $12.00 before the split :P
Apple stock has split three times total with the last two being last February 28th and June 21st 2000. The first split was back in 1987, so in terms of stock splits it has not been the best investment. However, I am quite happy with the investments and additional purchases I made a couple of years ago with Apple. The iPod and iTunes have certainly been a driving force for the increase in stock value as well as the halo effect that everybody is talking about. However, I see another big spike in the number of Mac users as they get out of universities. Specifically, Apple has been making huge strides in getting higher education users back into the Apple fold with many folks making the switch. From my perspective, I know that there have been at least a dozen folks who have started using Macintosh computers after coming through our lab in the last two years who previously were Windows users.
It'll be interestin to see how publishers deal with this if demand for these books declines. In the meantime, would anyone like to point out any good books?"
Here is a hint that will help and not hurt the publishers. Put online out of print books. I would like to make the same argument for out of print music and movies and scientific journals as well which ironically, could hold huge profits for studios and publishing houses. After all, this is the ideal for long tail businesses, right? if these businesses could release for nominal fees all of the movies, music and books that have already paid for themselves, Google (or iTunes or iMovie or iPub or whatever) could serve as the front end which would allow for the finding of said information and then the publishing houses could make money on products that long ago had paid for themselves and created profits. This is almost like free (as in beer) money for them and low cost media for us.
From what little I knew of you [and I could have mistaken you for some other fellow from the slashdot journal circle],
Could be me...... Look at the Slashdot ID.
I never knew you to be religous. I'm not saying that you aren't. I'm just surprised to hear you say that.
Religion is an intensely private issue for me and I do not generally talk about it unless it directly comes up. I am a scientist whose job it is to discover the truth, but I can also have personal truths that I keep to myself, in part making me who I am. That said, since they *are* personal beliefs, I would not force those beliefs on others and I do not believe they have a place in politics given the diverse population in our country.
That being said, you comment as if science is immune from politics, the love of money, or selfishness.
I would never be that ignorant. Rather, I am saying we need to fight to prevent politics from taking over science and society. Politics are like tools in that they are used for a purpose, but like most other things, moderation of use is important.
Look at it from another point of view: is the movie company obligated to show something that your enemies dislike?
I do not consider that people of different beliefs are enemies of mine. I rather dislike that term and would desire to have less animosity and more embracing of differences. Here is the deal though.....I will fight for a society that does not ignore science and truth because it somehow conflicts with the way somebody believes the world should work. To ignore science and participate in a blind obedience to politicians and others that would have your loyalty begs for another dark ages where science and art disappear into the dark reaches of history only to be rediscovered by others who have embraced illumination of the minds that God has so graciously given us.
It really is sad that the documentation of the search for truth is so dangerous to some people. I understand in the need for belief and am a scientist that considers myself religious. However, I also believe that there are truths in the universe that need to be revealed and understand that those truths threaten some people and institutions. The task of the documentary film maker in many ways is similar to that of the scientist, and censorship or concealment of truth harms both of our missions. I also understand that businesses are in the business to make money, but it would be nice if businesses could have enough faith in what they do to stand up and be honest about it. That is unless money is your god, but if that is the case, be honest about it. The unfortunate truth is that money is the most important thing to some folks and they also know that if they revealed it, then they might lose business. You are known by your actions and I would encourage those potential patrons of these theaters who are refusing to show these films to boycott those IMAX theaters who are too scared to show a film that documents scientific discovery.
John Gruber has good commentary on this here and here that cuts through the marketing to point out the small print.