You finally figured out the Profit formula!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you realized these warranties were HALF of Best Buy's TOTAL profit....you might have a chasing program out of the corporate offices as well.
The BB formula goes something like this....
1) Lure People in with crap 2) Annoy the crap out of them until they buy some low prices electronic item 3) Coerce / dupe buyers in crappy extended warranties 4) Profit !!!!!!!!!!!
Congradulations my friend, you're one of the few on the Internet that have cracked the code.....
I heartily agree with the intentions behind all those controls. They exist for a good reasons. In practice they have not prevented serious fraud and abuse, even among the big boys. Ask Boeing.
At the end of the day it comes down to honest people. That's a hard commodity to find these days. It makes a higher barrier to entry on the overall market for the honest people / companies, which goes back to a companies SG&A and ultimately drives prices higher.
Just my 2.
In general, I dont think we as a country have done a cost / risk analysis on the controls. My goal is not to do away with them, but to focus on the controls that provide the most protection for the least amount of cash. SARBOX is a perfect example, out of the hundreds of pages of financial controls, which ones provide the most bang for the buck and which ones waste corporate / taxpayer dollars.
It's a simple question that should be answered when the laws are passed.
Although I agree with the basic premise that government can learn a lot from start ups small businesses, here's what life's like around the beltway.
Note: I work for a consulting firm based out of the DC area. We have a combination of commercial and Federal / Public sector clients
From the small business side:
You can't imagine the procurement requirements and overhead costs to do business in the Federal sector. Here are some examples:
1) FSO - Security officer to manage the clearances of your employees and company. Can't live with out it 2) Contract Vehicles - GSA Schedules are expensive to maintain or outsource. 3) Contracting Officers - Specialist who deal with government Contracting Officers. 4) Low Rates - Combined with the large overhead requirements above, is a problem. Trying finding competent technical help in DC. 5) Accounts Receivable that can stretch to 180 days without blinking. 6) Can't leverage commerical sales, must hire a dedicated sales force that understands the market.
Again for the big beltway bandits, these are small overhead items, but for a 150 person company, these are significant line items.
From the Government Side:
1) Risk adverse. If you screw up a small project or procurement, you could wind up on the cover of the Washington post. Not a good place to be if you're a GS12 bureaucrat waiting for your GS13. 2) Insane Budget Cycles: If you don't use it you lose it. There's a reason why so much gets done in late August / September around DC. 3) Preference for the "usual suspects" like Lockheed, Booz Allen, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Unisys, Titan etc. With items one and two, why try a new small untested company. Many companies around the beltway have gone out of business and screwed the gov. At least you know they are not going any where. 4) Compliance requirements that make SarbOX look like child's play.
That's just a small hint at the problems with doing business with the federal governement. I sure the UK or other Western Countries have the same issues....... but......why might you ask do companies invest at the end of the day....?
There are not too many super enterprises that release contracts on a multi-year basis. Once you get over the moat, you are in.
Oblivion is amazing. check it out in HD with surround sound. I've lost my wife for the last three weeks due to that game.
I'm actually not sure about the PS3. Xbox is here now and it works great. Sure we all want more software, but the 30 or so titles they have out is enough for a start.
I'm curious how the PS3 looks. I have a 1080i Sony and the xbox rocks.
Agreed.. That is why I use Consumer Reports where applicable. It does not cover technology in depth, but will give you a good idea for things such as digital cameras etc. Nothing replaces good old fashion research. One of the best skills I learned in college. Who said I'd never use my history degree.
Use common sense. here's what I tell everyone that asks.
1) only buy from reputable sites. this has been going on since computer shopper days. its even more true today.
2) I only use my American Express (AMEX). I can't tell you how many times AMEX has helped with fraudulent charges, merchants that don't deliver etc. AMEX is expensive and a pain in the ass for mechants to sign up. If they are not willing to do that, than I won't buy. I will pay a slight premium for sights that take AMEX. It's worth it.
If I'd done both these when I first got online in the 90s I would have saved myself a lot of grief.
Ahhhhh..... but very few slashdotters live in the world of productivity outside vi. People want to get work done, and if cost 300, so be it. The math even works out for low office drone, let alone the lawyers / accountants you suggest.
You could have easily just described late 19th century New York, London, Paris etc... India is catching up to western standards very quickly. This speed is also the major contribution to pollution, water problems etc. We take a lot for granted in the US, fresh water, access to health care (at least an emergency room) and public schools. It was not always so in the US. For many parts of the US, these have only come fairly recently ( 50 years).
My in-laws told me the India of the south is very different than the north. We So I have not seen the extreme poverty in the cities in the north.
I guess I'm just an optimist, I think India's own people will force the changes in labor, environment etc, much like we did over here. It will be a difficult fight, but there is nothing inherently different about India that she won't be able to suceceed, much like we have. Again, it might not be pretty, but it will get done.
I took a trip to the south of India (Kerala, Banglore, and Channai (Madras). I spent a month and for the most parts avoided the tourist areas. My inlaws live far away from the nearest town in Kerala.
discoslure:
I'm a 31 year old white male whose worked in the computer industry since I graduated from college.
A few General Observations:
What India has going for them....
1) I've never seen a country so utterly focused on education (remember I spent my time in the South). Education is the only way out for Indians. The pressure is unbelievable for young people to perform in school. Everywhere you go you see signs for schools / education
2) English is spoken fluently among the college educated. English is the language of business in the south (in major cities, white collar type of work) b/c there are 19 "official" languages with an unbelievable number of dialects. Combine with the business process outsourcing (BPO), and you get a lot of focus around English language skills. I tried to learn the local dialect, but everyone wanted to practice English...
3) India graduates over 1 M engineers a year. There schools are extremely competitive. Areas such as Kerala have a 100% literacy rate, this meets or exceeds any Western country...
4) Motivation and drive. It's amazing what people will do to better themselves. This motivation and drive provides the foundation for the above. Spending a week in Bangalore was absolutely refreshing (and the food was great). To see all the young people full of life and excited was contagious... I can't wait to go back. I love seeing all the tech companies signs....
5) Economics. The largest middle class in the World, in sheer numbers. In India, it takes 2,000 USD a year to achieve a middle class lifestyle, that's ~1,500 EUR and ~1200 UK sterling. This middle class will drive the world's manufacturers to provide low priced quality goods, and the whole world will benefit.
6) Politics. Democracy works, although its not neccessarliy the kind the US imagines. A diverse group of cultures / languages get a long in a basic sense. Is it perfect no, but it gives me hope for places like Iraq.
What Challenges are ahead for India
1) Education: The focus on engineering has led to a culture that is not entrepreneur focused. It takes a diverse set of skills to move out of the BPO / Manufacturing mindset. Take Apple's IPOD. It took American design and a world wide supply chain to make this happen. The key is the design. That's what makes a product sell, manufacturing is important, but if you don't move up the chain, you will always have difficultly. Note to engineers: Get jobs that are customer facing and can't be outsourced...
2) Gaps There are 100's of Millions still in dire poverty and extreme education. If the middle class and the rich get too far ahead of the rest of the country, I think there will be a lot of social unrest.
3) Environment. India is a shit hole to put it nicely. If they don't clean up sooner rather than later, India will face a lot of health care cost for the population. Also, in Kerala, fresh water is an issue.
It's the old problem of changing mindsets. The tech version is a company that sold hardware and now wants to sell software or services only. Its huge change and most fail.
That's it I look forward to replies to others who have been to the south and I'm curious what your opinions are...
any good websites to get VNC to work through a firewall router / dsl modem? It's a pain in the ass and I see my gotomypc charges 20 / month.. can you believe that..
It worked for me under Fedora Core 2 (although my ATI card did not, 9600 xt) also, SATA worked under unbunto (sp) distro. Actually like that desktop distro...
I have to admit I did not kick the tires too hard by running oracle or anything else like that.
Ahhh business logic at the database... why should you do it? Let's start with some open source examples: Compiere. This is one of the most successfuly opensource products based on Oracle in the market place.... but did you ever read the mailing list for database independance? Yup it's a year's worth of mail, but no significant movement. I honestly don't thing there will be. Think about the steps it would take to change:
1) Develop Business Logic Tier (Jboss like tier). Any ever do this? Yup. Lot's of effort. 2) Convert all SQL to standard SQL (hmmm much easier to start this way. This ain't easy either) 3) Test againts all major DBs
Hmmm sounds like a lot of work. So class.. the lesson is:
Do you want to have an OPEN application that is platform independant? Do you want a product that can participate in the enterprise? Do you want to avoid the DB / OS religion wars?
Great then seperate your logic from your data from presentation tiers.. it's simple design and I've made a lot of money off of other people's lazy code
(On the other hand if you have a small app that no one out side your department will use, break out the MS Access. Funny story, I know a federal government agency that has 1200 (yes you read that correctly) Access dbs in production... BTW.. they fear centralization... surprise...
Only one crazy line stood out: "Science doesn't know politics"
Hmmm.. Have you ever worked in the beltway at organizations like CDC, HHS, NIH? Remember scientist need money to do R&D, where does money come from: budgets. Regardless if you are public or private, the budget cycle is the most politizied process. Remember a common definition of politics is who gets what when and where.
You're dead on about the division in America. We're exactly 50 / 50 between the sides. I actually think it is a good thing, but that is another post.
So, I'm supposed to get excited over trials? hmm that's a hard sell. Do you think the merger will speed the rollout up? hmmm... Have you ever worked in telecom?
I agree with the author, Verizon Wireless will not have any competition for a long time. 12 months is a significant lead over the competition. ---------- Well, until Cingular rolls something out, Verizon will continue to expand the service. Making in work in trials / labs and making a service that you can rely on is not comparable.
C'mon, you know Verizon Wireless is looking to merge....
As someone mentioned: Business Continuance Volumes is local copy within the storage array. Sync times depend on data change rate(dirty tracks). Host does not see any performance degradation. Copies are consistent from app level down, if done right.
SRDF = Symmetrix remote data facility. is a bcv copy across a link (network, fiber, DS3/1, OCs etc...fill in the blank). Again it only copies any changed tracks....
Good stuff, this is how most of the Fininacials recovered from 9/11 so quickly...
The databases then are put to tape using the copies. when the db exceed 24 hour backup time, you use multiple copies in rotation. Usually there's a regulatory reason to go to tape, otherwise people just use disk.
I'll ask slashdot to come up with my answers. The complete and utter lack of understanding of business / management on Slashdot has always amused me. I can't
When an Internet provider charges someone hundreds of dollars in bandwidth costs because they were Slashdotted (or Farked) and their bandwidth use shot up, what costs have the Internet provider incurred, and why does it cost them what it does?
Well you probably violated your agreement / contract / and that triggered a cost. That's all that matters. It may not cost them a penny, but you broke your agreement on bandwitdth....
Is there usually any sort of markup going on along the line, or are people just passing along their own expenses down the line to the end user?
I love this one. Are people trying to make money? NO WAY I CAN'T BELIEVE IT.
Do you see my engineers don't run the show and will never run the show. I've been to a few companies where they do, and it's ugly.
Reply and I'll be happy to chat about this....
I give cliff some credit, he summed up the poster in a sentence....
Slashdot Mirror
check this out... i think you are talking out of your arse
http://vmware.com/pdf/GuestOS_guide.pdf
You finally figured out the Profit formula!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you realized these warranties were HALF of Best Buy's TOTAL profit....you might have a chasing program out of the corporate offices as well.
The BB formula goes something like this....
1) Lure People in with crap
2) Annoy the crap out of them until they buy some low prices electronic item
3) Coerce / dupe buyers in crappy extended warranties
4) Profit !!!!!!!!!!!
Congradulations my friend, you're one of the few on the Internet that have cracked the code.....
I heartily agree with the intentions behind all those controls. They exist for a good reasons. In practice they have not prevented serious fraud and abuse, even among the big boys. Ask Boeing.
At the end of the day it comes down to honest people. That's a hard commodity to find these days. It makes a higher barrier to entry on the overall market for the honest people / companies, which goes back to a companies SG&A and ultimately drives prices higher.
Just my 2.
In general, I dont think we as a country have done a cost / risk analysis on the controls. My goal is not to do away with them, but to focus on the controls that provide the most protection for the least amount of cash. SARBOX is a perfect example, out of the hundreds of pages of financial controls, which ones provide the most bang for the buck and which ones waste corporate / taxpayer dollars.
It's a simple question that should be answered when the laws are passed.
Enterprise Storage and Backup, both consulting and engineering.
I stand corrected. If you know anyone that's looking.............
Although I agree with the basic premise that government can learn a lot from start ups small businesses, here's what life's like around the beltway.
...... but......why might you ask do companies invest at the end of the day....?
Note: I work for a consulting firm based out of the DC area. We have a combination of commercial and Federal / Public sector clients
From the small business side:
You can't imagine the procurement requirements and overhead costs to do business in the Federal sector. Here are some examples:
1) FSO - Security officer to manage the clearances of your employees and company. Can't live with out it
2) Contract Vehicles - GSA Schedules are expensive to maintain or outsource.
3) Contracting Officers - Specialist who deal with government Contracting Officers.
4) Low Rates - Combined with the large overhead requirements above, is a problem. Trying finding competent technical help in DC.
5) Accounts Receivable that can stretch to 180 days without blinking.
6) Can't leverage commerical sales, must hire a dedicated sales force that understands the market.
Again for the big beltway bandits, these are small overhead items, but for a 150 person company, these are significant line items.
From the Government Side:
1) Risk adverse. If you screw up a small project or procurement, you could wind up on the cover of the Washington post. Not a good place to be if you're a GS12 bureaucrat waiting for your GS13.
2) Insane Budget Cycles: If you don't use it you lose it. There's a reason why so much gets done in late August / September around DC.
3) Preference for the "usual suspects" like Lockheed, Booz Allen, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Unisys, Titan etc. With items one and two, why try a new small untested company. Many companies around the beltway have gone out of business and screwed the gov. At least you know they are not going any where.
4) Compliance requirements that make SarbOX look like child's play.
That's just a small hint at the problems with doing business with the federal governement. I sure the UK or other Western Countries have the same issues.
There are not too many super enterprises that release contracts on a multi-year basis. Once you get over the moat, you are in.
Oblivion is amazing. check it out in HD with surround sound. I've lost my wife for the last three weeks due to that game.
I'm actually not sure about the PS3. Xbox is here now and it works great. Sure we all want more software, but the 30 or so titles they have out is enough for a start.
I'm curious how the PS3 looks. I have a 1080i Sony and the xbox rocks.
Agreed.. That is why I use Consumer Reports where applicable. It does not cover technology in depth, but will give you a good idea for things such as digital cameras etc. Nothing replaces good old fashion research. One of the best skills I learned in college. Who said I'd never use my history degree.
Use common sense. here's what I tell everyone that asks.
1) only buy from reputable sites. this has been going on since computer shopper days. its even more true today.
2) I only use my American Express (AMEX). I can't tell you how many times AMEX has helped with fraudulent charges, merchants that don't deliver etc. AMEX is expensive and a pain in the ass for mechants to sign up. If they are not willing to do that, than I won't buy. I will pay a slight premium for sights that take AMEX. It's worth it.
If I'd done both these when I first got online in the 90s I would have saved myself a lot of grief.
that is one of the best lines I've seen in a while on slashdot. I wish I had a few points to give you...
Ahhhhh..... but very few slashdotters live in the world of productivity outside vi. People want to get work done, and if cost 300, so be it. The math even works out for low office drone, let alone the lawyers / accountants you suggest.
You could have easily just described late 19th century New York, London, Paris etc... India is catching up to western standards very quickly. This speed is also the major contribution to pollution, water problems etc. We take a lot for granted in the US, fresh water, access to health care (at least an emergency room) and public schools. It was not always so in the US. For many parts of the US, these have only come fairly recently ( 50 years).
My in-laws told me the India of the south is very different than the north. We So I have not seen the extreme poverty in the cities in the north.
I guess I'm just an optimist, I think India's own people will force the changes in labor, environment etc, much like we did over here. It will be a difficult fight, but there is nothing inherently different about India that she won't be able to suceceed, much like we have. Again, it might not be pretty, but it will get done.
I do have a special place in my heart for Indian woman.... I married one...
I took a trip to the south of India (Kerala, Banglore, and Channai (Madras). I spent a month and for the most parts avoided the tourist areas. My inlaws live far away from the nearest town in Kerala.
discoslure:
I'm a 31 year old white male whose worked in the computer industry since I graduated from college.
A few General Observations:
What India has going for them....
1) I've never seen a country so utterly focused on education (remember I spent my time in the South). Education is the only way out for Indians. The pressure is unbelievable for young people to perform in school. Everywhere you go you see signs for schools / education
2) English is spoken fluently among the college educated. English is the language of business in the south (in major cities, white collar type of work) b/c there are 19 "official" languages with an unbelievable number of dialects. Combine with the business process outsourcing (BPO), and you get a lot of focus around English language skills. I tried to learn the local dialect, but everyone wanted to practice English...
3) India graduates over 1 M engineers a year. There schools are extremely competitive. Areas such as Kerala have a 100% literacy rate, this meets or exceeds any Western country...
4) Motivation and drive. It's amazing what people will do to better themselves. This motivation and drive provides the foundation for the above. Spending a week in Bangalore was absolutely refreshing (and the food was great). To see all the young people full of life and excited was contagious... I can't wait to go back. I love seeing all the tech companies signs....
5) Economics. The largest middle class in the World, in sheer numbers. In India, it takes 2,000 USD a year to achieve a middle class lifestyle, that's ~1,500 EUR and ~1200 UK sterling. This middle class will drive the world's manufacturers to provide low priced quality goods, and the whole world will benefit.
6) Politics. Democracy works, although its not neccessarliy the kind the US imagines. A diverse group of cultures / languages get a long in a basic sense. Is it perfect no, but it gives me hope for places like Iraq.
What Challenges are ahead for India
1) Education: The focus on engineering has led to a culture that is not entrepreneur focused. It takes a diverse set of skills to move out of the BPO / Manufacturing mindset. Take Apple's IPOD. It took American design and a world wide supply chain to make this happen. The key is the design. That's what makes a product sell, manufacturing is important, but if you don't move up the chain, you will always have difficultly. Note to engineers: Get jobs that are customer facing and can't be outsourced...
2) Gaps There are 100's of Millions still in dire poverty and extreme education. If the middle class and the rich get too far ahead of the rest of the country, I think there will be a lot of social unrest.
3) Environment. India is a shit hole to put it nicely. If they don't clean up sooner rather than later, India will face a lot of health care cost for the population. Also, in Kerala, fresh water is an issue.
It's the old problem of changing mindsets. The tech version is a company that sold hardware and now wants to sell software or services only. Its huge change and most fail.
That's it I look forward to replies to others who have been to the south and I'm curious what your opinions are...
I loved it and I can't wait to go back......
WTF.. this got modded up to insightful... what a bunch of crap..
any good websites to get VNC to work through a firewall router / dsl modem? It's a pain in the ass and I see my gotomypc charges 20 / month.. can you believe that..
so did you go into sales?
It worked for me under Fedora Core 2 (although my ATI card did not, 9600 xt)
also, SATA worked under unbunto (sp) distro. Actually like that desktop distro...
I have to admit I did not kick the tires too hard by running oracle or anything else like that.
SPP
Ahhh business logic at the database... why should you do it? Let's start with some open source examples: Compiere. This is one of the most successfuly opensource products based on Oracle in the market place.... but did you ever read the mailing list for database independance? Yup it's a year's worth of mail, but no significant movement. I honestly don't thing there will be. Think about the steps it would take to change:
1) Develop Business Logic Tier (Jboss like tier). Any ever do this? Yup. Lot's of effort.
2) Convert all SQL to standard SQL (hmmm much easier to start this way. This ain't easy either)
3) Test againts all major DBs
Hmmm sounds like a lot of work. So class.. the lesson is:
Do you want to have an OPEN application that is platform independant? Do you want a product that can participate in the enterprise? Do you want to avoid the DB / OS religion wars?
Great then seperate your logic from your data from presentation tiers.. it's simple design and I've made a lot of money off of other people's lazy code
(On the other hand if you have a small app that no one out side your department will use, break out the MS Access. Funny story, I know a federal government agency that has 1200 (yes you read that correctly) Access dbs in production... BTW.. they fear centralization... surprise...
Only one crazy line stood out: "Science doesn't know politics"
Hmmm.. Have you ever worked in the beltway at organizations like CDC, HHS, NIH? Remember scientist need money to do R&D, where does money come from: budgets. Regardless if you are public or private, the budget cycle is the most politizied process. Remember a common definition of politics is who gets what when and where.
You're dead on about the division in America. We're exactly 50 / 50 between the sides. I actually think it is a good thing, but that is another post.
So, I'm supposed to get excited over trials? hmm that's a hard sell. Do you think the merger will speed the rollout up? hmmm... Have you ever worked in telecom?
I agree with the author, Verizon Wireless will not have any competition for a long time. 12 months is a significant lead over the competition.
----------
Well, until Cingular rolls something out, Verizon will continue to expand the service. Making in work in trials / labs and making a service that you can rely on is not comparable.
C'mon, you know Verizon Wireless is looking to merge....
Everyone I know (geeks) swears by the service.
As someone mentioned: Business Continuance Volumes is local copy within the storage array. Sync times depend on data change rate(dirty tracks). Host does not see any performance degradation. Copies are consistent from app level down, if done right.
SRDF = Symmetrix remote data facility. is a bcv copy across a link (network, fiber, DS3/1, OCs etc...fill in the blank). Again it only copies any changed tracks....
Good stuff, this is how most of the Fininacials recovered from 9/11 so quickly...
The databases then are put to tape using the copies. when the db exceed 24 hour backup time, you use multiple copies in rotation. Usually there's a regulatory reason to go to tape, otherwise people just use disk.
Do you see my engineers =
Do you see why engineers don't run the show....
Sorry about that. Should have hit preview...
SPP
I'll ask slashdot to come up with my answers. The complete and utter lack of understanding of business / management on Slashdot has always amused me. I can't
When an Internet provider charges someone hundreds of dollars in bandwidth costs because they were Slashdotted (or Farked) and their bandwidth use shot up, what costs have the Internet provider incurred, and why does it cost them what it does?
Well you probably violated your agreement / contract / and that triggered a cost. That's all that matters. It may not cost them a penny, but you broke your agreement on bandwitdth....
Is there usually any sort of markup going on along the line, or are people just passing along their own expenses down the line to the end user?
I love this one. Are people trying to make money? NO WAY I CAN'T BELIEVE IT.
Do you see my engineers don't run the show and will never run the show. I've been to a few companies where they do, and it's ugly.
Reply and I'll be happy to chat about this....
I give cliff some credit, he summed up the poster in a sentence....
It was pretty good. 2:40 min show, I was impressed for a bunch of old geezers.