maybe the medical profession would be better off pushing for linux drivers... at least with a smaller profit motive there is some semblance of stability
why don't they just come clean and call it "bash microsoft and uefi day" so that people won't turn up to these events and wonder what the hell is going on
but i'm also pretty sure that politics, economics and bureaucratic red tape are just as significant in selection of a launch site. there was talk years ago about private launches from Australia, which a lot of people claimed was because of ideal launch conditions, but was actually because it was cheaper for the launch company. insurance is one of the largest costs in launching equipment into space. the united states government makes it very difficult and expensive for companies to even get approval to launch (even harder since 9/11). VA is within the USA so i can't give you a definite answer to your question, but i wouldn't mind betting that politics played a role.
the united states government doesn't want private enterprise to succeed in space because if they make it easy it will promote development of much more cost effective launch systems which will then open the floodgates... ultimately the US military loses the high ground it's held over everyone (except maybe russia) for the past half century
this will probably be waived off as conspiracy (and it is for the most part) but i believe that NASA's private launch initiatives are a ruse... i wouldn't be surprised if there are a few "accidental" launch failures to derail private launches in order to secure more funding for launches by NASA and USAF and slow down private space industry in general, especially as nasa and military budgets become more constrained in future.
err... if xfce 10 isn't in the stable release for wheezy, what makes you think its stable?
it might be stable for rhel or some other distro, but debian is its own beast and software must be tested to work properly in the debian ecosystem
when xfce 10 gets into the stable repos, ONLY THEN will we know that it's stable. maybe check out the debian bug tracker to see what's holding it up, but there must be some kind of functional or policy reason, and maybe debian policy doesn't sit well with some, but it has nourished the oldest and most respected linux distribution that many others depend on, so i'm sure the powers that be know what they're doing.
the physical drives themselves are probably still made in the same factory by the same employees, maybe just with different logos on their shirts (or they probably still work in hitachi city and maybe toshiba, western digital and seagate etc just subcontract to hitachi or whoever else). in this multinational age of consulting, contracting, subcontracting, leasing, etc the functional boundaries of big business get a little blurry
that's what happens when you have a socialist government
what sort of jobs do you think are becoming more prevalent in america? certainly not manufacturing
the only reason why its obvious in china is because they have more than 4 times the population of the united states so despite having huge production capacity, there are plenty of workers left over for the service sector (both government and private). also, you'll probably find that those jobs only exist in certain parts of large cities where fat lazy foreigners frequent.
Asians not only eat differently, but they have a different work ethic; with such a high population the competition for even menial jobs must be enormous so they work their asses off, whereas america is full of self righteous welfare dependent slobs.
ibm isn't preferred merely because of popularity... business decisions as big as mainframe infrastructure are a little more mature and carefully considered than which phone to go with
they are both strong brands with strong followings, but for markedly different reasons... apple is consumer space, but consumer space has different priorities compared to big businesses that purchase mainframes
fanaticism is more religious (akin to apple consumers), whereas ibm must actually deliver on its promise to retain customers because if they fuck up, their big business customers will have no qualms about taking their money elsewhere. if apple fucks up, they just tell their customers they're holding it wrong.
push their crappy Director software down your throat
not trying to defend big blue here but just playing devils advocate; apart from the obvious profit motive, i wonder if IBM perceives the use of their own management software on their hardware platforms as being part of a QC/QA strategy
to use a car analogy... it might be like an engine manufacturer requiring the use of particular software in the engine management computer because freely allowing 3rd party software would introduce risks not only to increased warranty claims from buggy software that they have no control over or threat to the overall brand's image of reliability and performance... i know staff who manage expensive mainframes probably don't fuck around as much as car enthusiasts but it might be possible
Slashdot Mirror
i've got a cool business idea, lets sell computers that require *two* operating systems to use
if they have *real* xp licenses then an IT shop can just build a new machine and install their xp on it
actually they can probably only do this as long as there is new 32-bit hardware, which is dwindling
if they have *real* xp licenses then an IT shop can just build a new machine and install their xp on it
oem isn't the only way
maybe the medical profession would be better off pushing for linux drivers... at least with a smaller profit motive there is some semblance of stability
when you go fishing you may not catch any fish either
it might not work, but is there any harm in someone actually trying it?
surely there are IT shops that these medical people deal with that would have a spare win7 machine laying around
Apple, Google, Nintendo and Valve are the for-profit corporations a Slashdotter is permitted to like
haha you're funny... you're a funny guy
chiropractic is just a politically correct name for a taboo sex dungeon
why don't they just come clean and call it "bash microsoft and uefi day" so that people won't turn up to these events and wonder what the hell is going on
the obvious may be correct, but not always
keep drinking your kool-aid though by all means
I thought launches were supposed to be made as close to the equator as possible
technically you're right...
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/spacecraft/q0080.shtml
but i'm also pretty sure that politics, economics and bureaucratic red tape are just as significant in selection of a launch site. there was talk years ago about private launches from Australia, which a lot of people claimed was because of ideal launch conditions, but was actually because it was cheaper for the launch company. insurance is one of the largest costs in launching equipment into space. the united states government makes it very difficult and expensive for companies to even get approval to launch (even harder since 9/11). VA is within the USA so i can't give you a definite answer to your question, but i wouldn't mind betting that politics played a role.
the united states government doesn't want private enterprise to succeed in space because if they make it easy it will promote development of much more cost effective launch systems which will then open the floodgates... ultimately the US military loses the high ground it's held over everyone (except maybe russia) for the past half century
this will probably be waived off as conspiracy (and it is for the most part) but i believe that NASA's private launch initiatives are a ruse... i wouldn't be surprised if there are a few "accidental" launch failures to derail private launches in order to secure more funding for launches by NASA and USAF and slow down private space industry in general, especially as nasa and military budgets become more constrained in future.
http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/the_prospects_for_passenger_space_travel.shtml
http://www.spacefuture.com/archive/space_policy_space_tourism_and_economic_policy.shtml
http://www.spacefuture.com/lists/sf-discuss/December-1999/msg00002.html
err... if xfce 10 isn't in the stable release for wheezy, what makes you think its stable?
it might be stable for rhel or some other distro, but debian is its own beast and software must be tested to work properly in the debian ecosystem
when xfce 10 gets into the stable repos, ONLY THEN will we know that it's stable. maybe check out the debian bug tracker to see what's holding it up, but there must be some kind of functional or policy reason, and maybe debian policy doesn't sit well with some, but it has nourished the oldest and most respected linux distribution that many others depend on, so i'm sure the powers that be know what they're doing.
the physical drives themselves are probably still made in the same factory by the same employees, maybe just with different logos on their shirts (or they probably still work in hitachi city and maybe toshiba, western digital and seagate etc just subcontract to hitachi or whoever else). in this multinational age of consulting, contracting, subcontracting, leasing, etc the functional boundaries of big business get a little blurry
they seem to be just another "me too" company, but at the end of the day its just personal opinion as usual
that's what happens when you have a socialist government
what sort of jobs do you think are becoming more prevalent in america? certainly not manufacturing
the only reason why its obvious in china is because they have more than 4 times the population of the united states so despite having huge production capacity, there are plenty of workers left over for the service sector (both government and private). also, you'll probably find that those jobs only exist in certain parts of large cities where fat lazy foreigners frequent.
Asians not only eat differently, but they have a different work ethic; with such a high population the competition for even menial jobs must be enormous so they work their asses off, whereas america is full of self righteous welfare dependent slobs.
the fanaticism is for different reasons though
ibm isn't preferred merely because of popularity... business decisions as big as mainframe infrastructure are a little more mature and carefully considered than which phone to go with
they are both strong brands with strong followings, but for markedly different reasons... apple is consumer space, but consumer space has different priorities compared to big businesses that purchase mainframes
fanaticism is more religious (akin to apple consumers), whereas ibm must actually deliver on its promise to retain customers because if they fuck up, their big business customers will have no qualms about taking their money elsewhere. if apple fucks up, they just tell their customers they're holding it wrong.
settle... that's why i referred to it as an "urban legend"
zero initialized constant
now there's an oxymoron if ever i heard one
haha i would love to see little blue grover as president
he couldn't possibly be any worse than the monkey in the white house atm
as long as idiot voters keep putting dipshits in office, it doesn't matter what the rules are
planking is dangerous, although in the case of politicians doing it i would make an exception
...a 2"x4" in the back of a politician's head
who is really going to miss their IBM hardware?
if i had the money i would prefer ibm over dell anyday
the problem is that money talks... over everything else
uncle sam has already sold the country to china... ibm is merely going with the flow
agreed... mainframes likely have a different business cycle to most other areas, probably more akin to film studios like pixar maybe?
push their crappy Director software down your throat
not trying to defend big blue here but just playing devils advocate; apart from the obvious profit motive, i wonder if IBM perceives the use of their own management software on their hardware platforms as being part of a QC/QA strategy
to use a car analogy... it might be like an engine manufacturer requiring the use of particular software in the engine management computer because freely allowing 3rd party software would introduce risks not only to increased warranty claims from buggy software that they have no control over or threat to the overall brand's image of reliability and performance... i know staff who manage expensive mainframes probably don't fuck around as much as car enthusiasts but it might be possible