Same thing with Excel, you can save as Excel with formatting or not. This comes from the Excel XML with formatting. Quite simply the article is flamebait.
News Flash: How is this different then in the environment today for experienced people? It isn't! If a CS major wants a VB job, they should probably have some practical experience in VB. Right now my company gets at least 10-12 resumes for each opening. Employers can afford to be picky right now and don't have to let you grow into a position. Businesses can hire someone who does know VB, ASP, C++, Oracle, (insert buzzword here) right now.
BTW, MIS and Entrepreneurship 2001. Went to school with a lot of folks who were working the gravy train "Get Trained and Get Paid by my Employer" people. I despised these individuals just as much as you did, maybe worse. However, I can offer you up just as much reason to be in MIS as you can CS. For me, I did not want to spend the rest of my life programming algorithms. However, I did like business and enjoyed computers and programming. So I did the natural thing and went the MIS route. Could I find my way around in C++, yea but I am not going to programming the kernel anytime soon. I can find my way around a balance sheet: tip Assets = Liabilities + SE, know how to use a variable rate to calculate interest on a loan, and know the fundamentals of running a business. Does it mean a CS major can't learn those things too? Of course not, however, when you choose CS or MIS, you choose a specialty.
Final thought: I did four internships in college. If you want a good internship at the end your college career you better have done some work beforehand. The last thing you should be doing is looking for your first work experience EVER when looking for an internship in your junior year or a job during your senior year.
This is actually a good case and I hope a lot of the groups like the EFF jump into it for this reason. This is much easier case to frame for a judge then a "mod" chip and running games on a system. This is something a judge can get their head around and see "Hmmm, does this law make sense applied in this situation." Common sense dictates that it doesn't and this is such an incredibly powerful case to demonstrate what is so bad about this law.
So would it be fair for Ford to require you to purchase Ford-brand tires and the only thing that distiguishes Ford-brand tires from regular tires is a chip that "authenticates" the tires as being Ford. Also, these tires are $3000 for a change of four. Better yet, only being able to buy engine parts that were only Ford-brand and the only that thing distiguishes them is an authetication chip. This is why this law needs to die a bloody death.
I loved the series. When the "Taken" series comes out on DVD I will have someone buy it for my birthday/Valentine's Day/Chrismas whatever. I thought the film was awesome up till the last three days when Allie was taken by the government. After that point, it seemed as though the film lost its legs and everybody was trying to figure how to end the series and it got sloppy. The final episode was very disappointing especially the charcter of Lisa Clarke. The actress had done an incredible job up to that point but the last episode the emotion was so fake it really took away from the story. Specifically, on the porch bending down trying to keep Allie from going, her expressions looked like she was laughing instead of the hysteria which I would be going through. Overall, Taken was one of the best scifi stories I have seen/read in a long time. I think my favorite episode was the one in which Allie ends up going with the government. The whole episode taking place in the that tiny room and seeing Allie's powers for the first time was amazing. I was extremely touched when Allie showed the dead man's son to him, allowing him to let go. All in all, an excellent series and almost perfect if it did not fade towards the end. Another excellent project from the SciFi channel, let's hope they can continue you bringing us projects of this caliber.
If uncapping your cable modem is a felony because you are denying resources to others then wouldn't the FBI have to step in to look at spammer cases. Using that same logic a spammer denies resources across state and international lines. One step further, wouldn't an ISP that looked the other way with a spammer be AIDING AND ABETTING a known felon! One step futher, cound an ISP suffer the same consequences as the spammers themselves (i.e. the driver in the commission of a crime can be given the same sentence as the perpatrator). Has Buckeye Cable ever looked the other way in similar cases with the use of resources? I think we have some serious ethical issues here that need to be resolved and using analogies while they help understanding don't always frame an issue fairly. We need as society to quit thinking the Internet is just like the Real World and start doing some critical thinking in trying to define the cyber one.
I love reporters and their idiocy sometimes. Some of them have should have skipped one of those journalism classes and taken a stats course. Its called outliers folks, statistical anamolies, all experiments have them. Any program, formula, or experiment that does not compensate for them are worthless in the first place. Yea, this dude could go somewhere else, but their is no such thing as complete randomness; models will always return to some pattern.
I was hoping the two sides would be dumb enough to allow a strike to happen, but I was wrong. Now, will someone please take this sport out back and put a bullet through it. Football season starts in six days.
This post needs to be modded up because it brings a great deal of prospective to the Florida issue. In central Florida, the biggest power broker is the Mouse. If the Mouse doesn't like it, it won't happen in Orlando. Disney Transportation has contemplated the issue of getting people from MCO to LBV including the Maglev project. However, I just don't ever see the project coming to Florida. In much the same way Amtrak never had any usefulness outside the NE corridor, these high-speed rail projects will the do the same. If you want a quick way to Miami from Orlando, jump on the turnpike for a three hour drive. As for I-4 traffic, the worst I ever saw when I lived in Orlando was the rubbernecking tourists trying to figure which exit to get off to get to the Magic Kingdom (please don't follow the large signs mounted). Want real traffic...come to Houston and I will take you up on HWY 59 or I-10 (Katy Freeway) in the afternoon. Then you will see what real traffic is like.
BTW, Houston is building a rail system thanks to Lee Brown, of course it runs from the Astrodome, where nobody lives to Main Street where you have to walk 10 blocks to get to work. Yea Rail!
I want one thing, a rail system that has multiple stops no farther then 3 to 4 blocks from where I want to get off and no more then 5-10 minute commute to get on. Of course, politics gets in the way until everyone's hand is in the cookie jar and what's left is a system nobody will use./me gets off my soapbox
The Best Online Community for your Electronic Fix
on
Electronic Music 101?
·
· Score: 2
www.cluboxed.co.uk or go straight to the board here http://pub129.ezboard.com/bglobalunderground
This is the home of the GU series along with the rest of Cluboxed series of records. In addition to having all the information about each album it supports a thriving communitity of enthusists who are at the bleeding edge of the scene. Goto the messageboard and you will see what I mean. An extremely diverse communitity dedicated to reviewing the newest and best in the world.
We are now getting down to the nuts and bolts i.e. cost-benefit analysis of copy protection. There will always be an element that will not pay for a product and the large studios know that. However, where 10 years ago people would hook up two VCRs and record the movie they rented, your now casual copier goes out to Kaaza before a movie is even released in theaters and downloads a copy. With the ease of use, proliferation of broadband, and movement of copying forces to another medium no wonder Warner decided to put up a test balloon and ship a product without Macrovision. Besides that five cents maybe spent better elsewhere especially if that five cents doesn't buy you anymore protection against copying then you already have. Be afraid Macrovision...its not the fact that you don't do your job because you do for the most part; its the fact that you have become obsolete in a day of P2P and broadband.
Here in Houston, we have surpassed LA as the worst traffic in the country and I believe it. You can't go anywhere in this town without it taking an hour.
However, we are building a light-rail system. The bad news is Lee Brown our idiot mayor big pushed had it go from downtown to the Astrodome. This is nowhere near a major traffic artery going into downtown and serves only one purpose: get the 2012 Olympics to Houston.
So instead of running this thing down the Katy Freeway/I-10 (most heavily congested highway in the country) we get to goto downtown from proposed "Olympic Village" into downtown. In addition, the Harris County Toll Authority is putting in more lanes into the Katy Freeway which some will be toll, YUCK! As many of the posters have said the planners of these things aren't the people that would use it the most. Its all politics and not solving the serious traffic problem.
As someone who has had to support ATCrap in the past, I just don't recommend the cards to friends. Many a night has been blown trying to get drivers and settings working for ATI cards. Quite frankly, its not worth it. Yes, there are some nice perks to having an AIW, but being able to use it is another matter. Nvidia has eaten them alive at the OEM level due to this. Had a friend that worked in the server group at Dell and told me one of the major reasons Dell does a significant portion of its business through Nvidia now, is because Dell was tired of trying to support ATI video cards.
ATI drivers sucked, suck and will suck for the forceable future and if they don't get off their hands and get them right they will end up exactly like 3DFX.
Preface: Along with my degree in MIS, I received a degree also in Entrepreneurship and engaged in two different and very successful start-ups during my college career, including being named outstanding student in the program.
There is an adage that is accepted wrongly by entrepreneurs that "If I can get 2% of the Chinese market to buy my product, that's a whole lot of money". The second adage is don't try to force the market, let the market come to you.
So let's start at the beginning:
We have a 4 year old high-risk, high reward startup with a backing of $119 million dollars to date and 240 employees.
Management Team: From what I can come up with so far is that Steve Volk was the president of an 8 year-old company called Integral Peripherals before this position. Due to a change in the market the company failed and Steve left to start DataPlay. I like to see management teams that are "A" list and who aren't afraid of new ideas. But executives who don't see the future I have a big problem with.
Consumer Acceptance: The premise of DataPlay repeated throughout the article was portability and archiving capabilities of DataPlay. I would accpet this if indeed it was still 1998. However, you have two sides of the market kicking you in the teeth along with a great number of external factors contributing to a very tough hill to climb.
1. Drop in CF, CD, and Flash memory prices to the point that they all are in the consumer's mind or so inexpensive that there is no need for the format.
2. Passed failure of such products as the Iomega HipZip. While not giving the same amount of space it did have the same idea. A bad idea regurgitated is still a bad idea.
3. No increased value proposition for the consumer. Why would a consumer buy material when they will receive in their own mind that same material just in a different format. I believe this is a SERIOUS miscalculation. The switching costs of going from CD to MP3 is negligible, all you give away is time or if you want to buy one of those rinky pieces of software to do it. Switching to the DataPlay format you have time and also the costs of new media and new hardware. So not only is their no compelling reason to "upgrade" content (ie DVD superior quality and special goodies") it also costs the consumer.
I found this comment extremely amusing considering it came from a VC
"Portability and price will draw in the 18-34 age group first, predicts Bob Higgins, chairman and CEO of Albany, N.Y.-based Trans World Entertainment. The company invested in DataPlay last year, and Higgins sits on its board of directors."
The market did react to these two pieces in 2000. You can now buy MP3 CD Players, In-Car stereos, MP3 players. Indeed every major electronics major now produces one or all three of these, and DataPlay is expecting these companies to "Jump on the Bandwagon". While many of the content companies are there, (it cost them little) it does cost hardware makers a great deal to tool up (remember Divx).
Personally, I should go research this a little more but these are just some of the failings I see at the moment. I actually might write a case on this company (it intrigues me now) and send it back to the school.
Good point as well. I think it would be very easy to find out who is contributing the most. Take the sum of moderation points over a certain amount and divide it by the number of submissions and you get the Quality of a contributer. Also, you could look at different categories as I spoke about in a prior discussions and find subject matter experts and they get free subscriptions
I would not mind paying for a subscription, but I will not pay a subscription just not to see ads. Personally, I can tune them out for $20. You boys and girls need to start your reading here at this article. It represents my views exactly. BTW, do not think about features individually to much, but in the aggregate. Features in the subscription will be the sum greater then the parts. Of course, if one feature costs more then the whole subscription base, then I wouldn't implement it but you get my point.
HT
DotComScoop Last Friday Slashdot launched its long threatened ad free subscription service.
My first reaction was one of utter amazement; the complexity of the system is absolutely staggering.
'Slashdot subscriptions will essentially let you buy a thousand pages to be viewed without banner ads. And you will have some flexibility to decide what types of pages (Comments, Articles, The Homepage) you want ads removed from, and what types of pages you just want to see the ads.'
Companies such as Salon offer ad free viewing as part of their subscription service, but never has anyone introduced an ad free service that creates a direct link between the level of usage and the cost. Slashdot claims that this is the fairest way to do it, which at first glance may appear to be the case. However, as one reader points out:
'The problem that I see is that under this model, those who contribute to slashdot the most, and make the site what it is, are forced to pay the most.'
To my mind he has hit the nail squarely on the head. A community discussion site is by definition primarily only as valuable as the contributions that are made to it. By tying payment to usage Slashdot has created a barrier to participation. Such a policy isn't community centric.
It is widely accepted that people prefer not to be 'nickel and dimed.' Internet Service Providers charge flat fees, 99% of online subscription services are flat fee based, as are the majority of cable subscription services. Why? Because forcing people to monitor their consumption detracts from the overall user experience.
One thing that you can be absolutely certain of is that Slashdot's new model is not designed from a perspective of how best to serve their readership.
On top of that, there is also the factor that ads can be blocked. Such a painful system can only further encourage the user base to do so.
What I don't understand is why they are being so incredibly negative? This subscription service is lose, lose, lose with no win in sight. Even Salon, whose business model I obsessively criticize, did at least offer something of additional value, if not much, on launching their subscription service.
Slashdot is not the first website to introduce a subscription service in an apologetic, negative, half-hearted, and bribing way. However, they are the only company that I can think of who have launched a service that doesn't add anything to the overall experience.
It is odd to me that many online companies seem to think that the only way to introduce subscription is to take something away from the user. As controversial as this may sound - it doesn't have to be that way.
Slashdot informs us that:
'We are doing our best to learn from the mistakes made by other sites that have started charging for subscriptions. We won't create subscriber only features that cost more to maintain than they generate.'
Why focus on that as the primary mistake that can be made? I'd suggest that alienating your readership is the ultimate sin. Furthermore, whether they like it or not, companies have to invest to gain return. You can't expect people to hand over cash unless you are prepared to create something that is worth paying for.
Slashdot is in a unique position, and one that they should be able to build upon in a positive way. What is shocking to me is that they appear to realize this, yet still insist on acting in this lame manner.
'Eventually we intend to offer additional features to subscribers. Exactly what those plums are remains to be decided: Access to the rejected submissions bin? A 'Gold Star' in your comments header? Karma? (I think that would be hilarious) We really don't know. We'll decide and implement what makes sense as we have time to do it.'
Translated: We have introduced this system as it appeared to be the easiest way to milk our cash cow, and will at a later stage introduce a proper subscription model if and when we can be bothered.
I'm sorry, but my respect for these guys plummeted substantially when I read that. They have a golden opportunity to create a viable business but instead insist on acting like a bunch of amateurs.
Let me make my position absolutely clear. There is nothing wrong with introducing a subscription service, but for god sake if you are going to do so, offer something of additional value. Slashdot's service is stick, stick, stick, and perhaps a carrot later, if you're lucky. You just can't behave like that and expect to be successful. This whole thing is just a mess; poorly conceived, unnecessarily complex, badly presented, and will almost certainly do them more damage than good.
My recommendation: Go back to the drawing board immediately.
I would moderate this whole thread down. I orginally took a look at Flash back in '98 when it was at Version 3. I thought Flash was interesting and saw you could do some pretty cool stuff with it. What I have always thought though was Macromedia missed the point. Flash should have never been marketed for the Web stuff as much as a PRESENTATION tool.
The best use of Flash I ever saw was looking through the FAQ for my printer (Epson 1280) and seeing an animation of someone setting the printer to banner mode. That's what Flash is good at, any and all other uses quite frankly suck. I will say the Flash ads are a little nicer in that if I am "TRULY" interested in something it will give me more info. However, Flash sucks for navigation, for intros, for whole sites and everything in between.
Everyone was expounding about the Google analogy today so I thought I would take it a little further. Slashdot already categorizes its articles by content...so smack some sense into your VA salesforce and sale based upon that. Have a couple of links that appear on the side "SPECIFICALLY" related to the article and you have a real winner. I have already taken the first step if I am clicked into an article plus advertisers aren't paying for untargeted. If wanted to get even more specific, search on keywords inside the comments of each user and if they mention something have it pop an unintrusive text link out to the side. There is a load of ways to think about this. Slice and Dice it. Even if you wanted to get creepy those UINs who were not paying for the site begin a collecting ONLY clickthough on articles. I would think in a pretty short time you could gather what they liked to read and serve better targeted ads that way WITHOUT intruding to much into personal privacy.
One last thing about content moderation...meta moderate for Karma Whoring and allow for moderation of "Good Link of Info". It would keep the karma whoring to a minimum and would also allow you to give breaks on pricing for people who actually take the time to write an informative article. The question becomes should a +5 funny posted early in a conversation be worth as much as an +4 Insightful...my thought is no. We have some damn smart people that read this sight, physicist, lawyers, wannabe lawyers;), scientist. I LOVE reading explanations in the cryptographic articles. I have nowhere near the comprehension of high-order mathematics but I always know where I can read an intelligent rebuttal to a fluff piece on CNN or Wired and that's right here. Hell give these people a break on pricing...perhaps even bring them into the fold and require them to comment on specific conversations. You trade a subject matter expert's expertise for a free year of Slashdot. It's a real win-win.
Rob, you and the boys need to go through this entire article and read some comments. Stay away from the wars of whether or not to do this and focus on those of us who want to help you. I am not adverse to paying just make it worth my while. Slashdot is great right now, but with some tweaks and enhancements its going to get that much better.
* Ability to filter on comments based upon moderation...(All responses "Funny")
* Access to the reject bin
* Track specific user comments (There are a couple of people who put thought in and I would like to be able highlight there comments or have them return in my sort no matter there moderated comment value)
BG: Nextwave was the company who bought the spectrum many of the cellular companies are deploying new services on. Well they didn't pay their bills and the FCC took back the spectrum and reauctioned it. Nextwave sued the FCC for taking it away and it dragged through court for about three years and Nextwave won. Now their worth a TON of money because, the Cingulars and Verizon's of the world already have service. Guess who the FCC has to buy from to get the spectrum back.
Now let's apply this to the current situation. Be is currently worth about 4.4 million total right now in stock. Since the company doesn't really have any debt anymore roughly $1.5 million with most of that in current liabilities so the company is close to $3 million total.
Roughly 130 million computers (got this off a CNN article correct if wrong) were sold last year. Now watch this. Judge finds that Be was killed by Microsoft. Take the previous two years of sales will say 225 million PCs. Judge says 150 million (round ball) were shipped by OEMs and Be considering its size would not be have penetrated no more then 2% of the market. That means they could have put their OS on 3 million computers. Ok, let's now say Be charged $25 for each copy (below MS because they are trying to gain market share and they will be considered an inferior product to most of the marketplace). Now we have at least a verdict of $75 million or roughly a 17x the current stock price. Of course Be is a penny stock at 12 cents and they very well could lose the case but if you got money that you would take to Vegas it might be worth a shot.
BTW, we haven't even talked about the chance for punitive damages and if MS lost the case and decided to settle you could be looking at handsome pay day.
there. We were all on Exchange Servers so email retention went like this. Anything in the Inbox was deleted in 30 days. Any messages saved in other folders was deleted in one year regardless. You did have the option of saving off to your hard drive but PST files were a no-no. In addition, no external storage devices could be used without a senior VPs approval and an act of Congress. As far as when things started hitting the fan, we were inundated with emails to send any conversations, voice mails, correspondence, etc to the legal counsel's office. Of course, I'm sure that was taken care of in a very professional and ethical manner. So these days I apply for jobs and read slashdot and watch the Enron blaze grow larger and hotter. Al Sharpton was in yesterday, Jesse Jackson will be speaking tomorrow! Oh boy, the circus has come to Houston and it looks like its going to stay awhile.
Slashdot Mirror
Is a dead Flash site!
Same thing with Excel, you can save as Excel with formatting or not. This comes from the Excel XML with formatting. Quite simply the article is flamebait.
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News Flash:
How is this different then in the environment today for experienced people? It isn't! If a CS major wants a VB job, they should probably have some practical experience in VB. Right now my company gets at least 10-12 resumes for each opening. Employers can afford to be picky right now and don't have to let you grow into a position. Businesses can hire someone who does know VB, ASP, C++, Oracle, (insert buzzword here) right now.
BTW, MIS and Entrepreneurship 2001. Went to school with a lot of folks who were working the gravy train "Get Trained and Get Paid by my Employer" people. I despised these individuals just as much as you did, maybe worse. However, I can offer you up just as much reason to be in MIS as you can CS. For me, I did not want to spend the rest of my life programming algorithms. However, I did like business and enjoyed computers and programming. So I did the natural thing and went the MIS route. Could I find my way around in C++, yea but I am not going to programming the kernel anytime soon. I can find my way around a balance sheet: tip Assets = Liabilities + SE, know how to use a variable rate to calculate interest on a loan, and know the fundamentals of running a business. Does it mean a CS major can't learn those things too? Of course not, however, when you choose CS or MIS, you choose a specialty.
Final thought:
I did four internships in college. If you want a good internship at the end your college career you better have done some work beforehand. The last thing you should be doing is looking for your first work experience EVER when looking for an internship in your junior year or a job during your senior year.
This is actually a good case and I hope a lot of the groups like the EFF jump into it for this reason. This is much easier case to frame for a judge then a "mod" chip and running games on a system. This is something a judge can get their head around and see "Hmmm, does this law make sense applied in this situation." Common sense dictates that it doesn't and this is such an incredibly powerful case to demonstrate what is so bad about this law.
So would it be fair for Ford to require you to purchase Ford-brand tires and the only thing that distiguishes Ford-brand tires from regular tires is a chip that "authenticates" the tires as being Ford. Also, these tires are $3000 for a change of four. Better yet, only being able to buy engine parts that were only Ford-brand and the only that thing distiguishes them is an authetication chip. This is why this law needs to die a bloody death.
HT
I loved the series. When the "Taken" series comes out on DVD I will have someone buy it for my birthday/Valentine's Day/Chrismas whatever. I thought the film was awesome up till the last three days when Allie was taken by the government. After that point, it seemed as though the film lost its legs and everybody was trying to figure how to end the series and it got sloppy. The final episode was very disappointing especially the charcter of Lisa Clarke. The actress had done an incredible job up to that point but the last episode the emotion was so fake it really took away from the story. Specifically, on the porch bending down trying to keep Allie from going, her expressions looked like she was laughing instead of the hysteria which I would be going through. Overall, Taken was one of the best scifi stories I have seen/read in a long time. I think my favorite episode was the one in which Allie ends up going with the government. The whole episode taking place in the that tiny room and seeing Allie's powers for the first time was amazing. I was extremely touched when Allie showed the dead man's son to him, allowing him to let go. All in all, an excellent series and almost perfect if it did not fade towards the end. Another excellent project from the SciFi channel, let's hope they can continue you bringing us projects of this caliber.
If uncapping your cable modem is a felony because you are denying resources to others then wouldn't the FBI have to step in to look at spammer cases. Using that same logic a spammer denies resources across state and international lines. One step further, wouldn't an ISP that looked the other way with a spammer be AIDING AND ABETTING a known felon! One step futher, cound an ISP suffer the same consequences as the spammers themselves (i.e. the driver in the commission of a crime can be given the same sentence as the perpatrator). Has Buckeye Cable ever looked the other way in similar cases with the use of resources? I think we have some serious ethical issues here that need to be resolved and using analogies while they help understanding don't always frame an issue fairly. We need as society to quit thinking the Internet is just like the Real World and start doing some critical thinking in trying to define the cyber one.
HT
I love reporters and their idiocy sometimes. Some of them have should have skipped one of those journalism classes and taken a stats course. Its called outliers folks, statistical anamolies, all experiments have them. Any program, formula, or experiment that does not compensate for them are worthless in the first place. Yea, this dude could go somewhere else, but their is no such thing as complete randomness; models will always return to some pattern.
I was hoping the two sides would be dumb enough to allow a strike to happen, but I was wrong. Now, will someone please take this sport out back and put a bullet through it. Football season starts in six days.
This post needs to be modded up because it brings a great deal of prospective to the Florida issue. In central Florida, the biggest power broker is the Mouse. If the Mouse doesn't like it, it won't happen in Orlando. Disney Transportation has contemplated the issue of getting people from MCO to LBV including the Maglev project. However, I just don't ever see the project coming to Florida. In much the same way Amtrak never had any usefulness outside the NE corridor, these high-speed rail projects will the do the same. If you want a quick way to Miami from Orlando, jump on the turnpike for a three hour drive. As for I-4 traffic, the worst I ever saw when I lived in Orlando was the rubbernecking tourists trying to figure which exit to get off to get to the Magic Kingdom (please don't follow the large signs mounted). Want real traffic...come to Houston and I will take you up on HWY 59 or I-10 (Katy Freeway) in the afternoon. Then you will see what real traffic is like.
/me gets off my soapbox
BTW, Houston is building a rail system thanks to Lee Brown, of course it runs from the Astrodome, where nobody lives to Main Street where you have to walk 10 blocks to get to work. Yea Rail!
I want one thing, a rail system that has multiple stops no farther then 3 to 4 blocks from where I want to get off and no more then 5-10 minute commute to get on. Of course, politics gets in the way until everyone's hand is in the cookie jar and what's left is a system nobody will use.
www.cluboxed.co.ukd
or go straight to the board here
http://pub129.ezboard.com/bglobalundergroun
This is the home of the GU series along with the rest of Cluboxed series of records. In addition to having all the information about each album it supports a thriving communitity of enthusists who are at the bleeding edge of the scene. Goto the messageboard and you will see what I mean. An extremely diverse communitity dedicated to reviewing the newest and best in the world.
HT
We are now getting down to the nuts and bolts i.e. cost-benefit analysis of copy protection. There will always be an element that will not pay for a product and the large studios know that. However, where 10 years ago people would hook up two VCRs and record the movie they rented, your now casual copier goes out to Kaaza before a movie is even released in theaters and downloads a copy. With the ease of use, proliferation of broadband, and movement of copying forces to another medium no wonder Warner decided to put up a test balloon and ship a product without Macrovision. Besides that five cents maybe spent better elsewhere especially if that five cents doesn't buy you anymore protection against copying then you already have. Be afraid Macrovision...its not the fact that you don't do your job because you do for the most part; its the fact that you have become obsolete in a day of P2P and broadband.
HT
"You may remeber me from such films as 'Today we live...Tomorrow we die!' and 'Glady's the Groovy Mule'.
Here in Houston, we have surpassed LA as the worst traffic in the country and I believe it. You can't go anywhere in this town without it taking an hour.
However, we are building a light-rail system. The bad news is Lee Brown our idiot mayor big pushed had it go from downtown to the Astrodome. This is nowhere near a major traffic artery going into downtown and serves only one purpose: get the 2012 Olympics to Houston.
So instead of running this thing down the Katy Freeway/I-10 (most heavily congested highway in the country) we get to goto downtown from proposed "Olympic Village" into downtown. In addition, the Harris County Toll Authority is putting in more lanes into the Katy Freeway which some will be toll, YUCK! As many of the posters have said the planners of these things aren't the people that would use it the most. Its all politics and not solving the serious traffic problem.
As someone who has had to support ATCrap in the past, I just don't recommend the cards to friends. Many a night has been blown trying to get drivers and settings working for ATI cards. Quite frankly, its not worth it. Yes, there are some nice perks to having an AIW, but being able to use it is another matter. Nvidia has eaten them alive at the OEM level due to this. Had a friend that worked in the server group at Dell and told me one of the major reasons Dell does a significant portion of its business through Nvidia now, is because Dell was tired of trying to support ATI video cards.
ATI drivers sucked, suck and will suck for the forceable future and if they don't get off their hands and get them right they will end up exactly like 3DFX.
Preface: Along with my degree in MIS, I received a degree also in Entrepreneurship and engaged in two different and very successful start-ups during my college career, including being named outstanding student in the program.
There is an adage that is accepted wrongly by entrepreneurs that "If I can get 2% of the Chinese market to buy my product, that's a whole lot of money". The second adage is don't try to force the market, let the market come to you.
So let's start at the beginning:
We have a 4 year old high-risk, high reward startup with a backing of $119 million dollars to date and 240 employees.
Management Team: From what I can come up with so far is that Steve Volk was the president of an 8 year-old company called Integral Peripherals before this position. Due to a change in the market the company failed and Steve left to start DataPlay. I like to see management teams that are "A" list and who aren't afraid of new ideas. But executives who don't see the future I have a big problem with.
Consumer Acceptance: The premise of DataPlay repeated throughout the article was portability and archiving capabilities of DataPlay. I would accpet this if indeed it was still 1998. However, you have two sides of the market kicking you in the teeth along with a great number of external factors contributing to a very tough hill to climb.
1. Drop in CF, CD, and Flash memory prices to the point that they all are in the consumer's mind or so inexpensive that there is no need for the format.
2. Passed failure of such products as the Iomega HipZip. While not giving the same amount of space it did have the same idea. A bad idea regurgitated is still a bad idea.
3. No increased value proposition for the consumer. Why would a consumer buy material when they will receive in their own mind that same material just in a different format. I believe this is a SERIOUS miscalculation. The switching costs of going from CD to MP3 is negligible, all you give away is time or if you want to buy one of those rinky pieces of software to do it. Switching to the DataPlay format you have time and also the costs of new media and new hardware. So not only is their no compelling reason to "upgrade" content (ie DVD superior quality and special goodies") it also costs the consumer.
I found this comment extremely amusing considering it came from a VC
"Portability and price will draw in the 18-34 age group first, predicts Bob Higgins, chairman and CEO of Albany, N.Y.-based Trans World Entertainment. The company invested in DataPlay last year, and Higgins sits on its board of directors."
The market did react to these two pieces in 2000. You can now buy MP3 CD Players, In-Car stereos, MP3 players. Indeed every major electronics major now produces one or all three of these, and DataPlay is expecting these companies to "Jump on the Bandwagon". While many of the content companies are there, (it cost them little) it does cost hardware makers a great deal to tool up (remember Divx).
Personally, I should go research this a little more but these are just some of the failings I see at the moment. I actually might write a case on this company (it intrigues me now) and send it back to the school.
Good point as well. I think it would be very easy to find out who is contributing the most. Take the sum of moderation points over a certain amount and divide it by the number of submissions and you get the Quality of a contributer. Also, you could look at different categories as I spoke about in a prior discussions and find subject matter experts and they get free subscriptions
Rob and Gang,
I would not mind paying for a subscription, but I will not pay a subscription just not to see ads. Personally, I can tune them out for $20. You boys and girls need to start your reading here at this article. It represents my views exactly. BTW, do not think about features individually to much, but in the aggregate. Features in the subscription will be the sum greater then the parts. Of course, if one feature costs more then the whole subscription base, then I wouldn't implement it but you get my point.
HT
DotComScoop
Last Friday Slashdot launched its long threatened ad free subscription service.
My first reaction was one of utter amazement; the complexity of the system is absolutely staggering.
'Slashdot subscriptions will essentially let you buy a thousand pages to be viewed without banner ads. And you will have some flexibility to decide what types of pages (Comments, Articles, The Homepage) you want ads removed from, and what types of pages you just want to see the ads.'
Companies such as Salon offer ad free viewing as part of their subscription service, but never has anyone introduced an ad free service that creates a direct link between the level of usage and the cost. Slashdot claims that this is the fairest way to do it, which at first glance may appear to be the case. However, as one reader points out:
'The problem that I see is that under this model, those who contribute to slashdot the most, and make the site what it is, are forced to pay the most.'
To my mind he has hit the nail squarely on the head. A community discussion site is by definition primarily only as valuable as the contributions that are made to it. By tying payment to usage Slashdot has created a barrier to participation. Such a policy isn't community centric.
It is widely accepted that people prefer not to be 'nickel and dimed.' Internet Service Providers charge flat fees, 99% of online subscription services are flat fee based, as are the majority of cable subscription services. Why? Because forcing people to monitor their consumption detracts from the overall user experience.
One thing that you can be absolutely certain of is that Slashdot's new model is not designed from a perspective of how best to serve their readership.
On top of that, there is also the factor that ads can be blocked. Such a painful system can only further encourage the user base to do so.
What I don't understand is why they are being so incredibly negative? This subscription service is lose, lose, lose with no win in sight. Even Salon, whose business model I obsessively criticize, did at least offer something of additional value, if not much, on launching their subscription service.
Slashdot is not the first website to introduce a subscription service in an apologetic, negative, half-hearted, and bribing way. However, they are the only company that I can think of who have launched a service that doesn't add anything to the overall experience.
It is odd to me that many online companies seem to think that the only way to introduce subscription is to take something away from the user. As controversial as this may sound - it doesn't have to be that way.
Slashdot informs us that:
'We are doing our best to learn from the mistakes made by other sites that have started charging for subscriptions. We won't create subscriber only features that cost more to maintain than they generate.'
Why focus on that as the primary mistake that can be made? I'd suggest that alienating your readership is the ultimate sin. Furthermore, whether they like it or not, companies have to invest to gain return. You can't expect people to hand over cash unless you are prepared to create something that is worth paying for.
Slashdot is in a unique position, and one that they should be able to build upon in a positive way. What is shocking to me is that they appear to realize this, yet still insist on acting in this lame manner.
'Eventually we intend to offer additional features to subscribers. Exactly what those plums are remains to be decided: Access to the rejected submissions bin? A 'Gold Star' in your comments header? Karma? (I think that would be hilarious) We really don't know. We'll decide and implement what makes sense as we have time to do it.'
Translated: We have introduced this system as it appeared to be the easiest way to milk our cash cow, and will at a later stage introduce a proper subscription model if and when we can be bothered.
I'm sorry, but my respect for these guys plummeted substantially when I read that. They have a golden opportunity to create a viable business but instead insist on acting like a bunch of amateurs.
Let me make my position absolutely clear. There is nothing wrong with introducing a subscription service, but for god sake if you are going to do so, offer something of additional value. Slashdot's service is stick, stick, stick, and perhaps a carrot later, if you're lucky. You just can't behave like that and expect to be successful. This whole thing is just a mess; poorly conceived, unnecessarily complex, badly presented, and will almost certainly do them more damage than good.
My recommendation: Go back to the drawing board immediately.
I would moderate this whole thread down. I orginally took a look at Flash back in '98 when it was at Version 3. I thought Flash was interesting and saw you could do some pretty cool stuff with it. What I have always thought though was Macromedia missed the point. Flash should have never been marketed for the Web stuff as much as a PRESENTATION tool.
The best use of Flash I ever saw was looking through the FAQ for my printer (Epson 1280) and seeing an animation of someone setting the printer to banner mode. That's what Flash is good at, any and all other uses quite frankly suck. I will say the Flash ads are a little nicer in that if I am "TRULY" interested in something it will give me more info. However, Flash sucks for navigation, for intros, for whole sites and everything in between.
In other words...I'm not a fan.
Everyone was expounding about the Google analogy today so I thought I would take it a little further. Slashdot already categorizes its articles by content...so smack some sense into your VA salesforce and sale based upon that. Have a couple of links that appear on the side "SPECIFICALLY" related to the article and you have a real winner. I have already taken the first step if I am clicked into an article plus advertisers aren't paying for untargeted. If wanted to get even more specific, search on keywords inside the comments of each user and if they mention something have it pop an unintrusive text link out to the side. There is a load of ways to think about this. Slice and Dice it. Even if you wanted to get creepy those UINs who were not paying for the site begin a collecting ONLY clickthough on articles. I would think in a pretty short time you could gather what they liked to read and serve better targeted ads that way WITHOUT intruding to much into personal privacy.
;), scientist. I LOVE reading explanations in the cryptographic articles. I have nowhere near the comprehension of high-order mathematics but I always know where I can read an intelligent rebuttal to a fluff piece on CNN or Wired and that's right here. Hell give these people a break on pricing...perhaps even bring them into the fold and require them to comment on specific conversations. You trade a subject matter expert's expertise for a free year of Slashdot. It's a real win-win.
One last thing about content moderation...meta moderate for Karma Whoring and allow for moderation of "Good Link of Info". It would keep the karma whoring to a minimum and would also allow you to give breaks on pricing for people who actually take the time to write an informative article. The question becomes should a +5 funny posted early in a conversation be worth as much as an +4 Insightful...my thought is no. We have some damn smart people that read this sight, physicist, lawyers, wannabe lawyers
Rob, you and the boys need to go through this entire article and read some comments. Stay away from the wars of whether or not to do this and focus on those of us who want to help you. I am not adverse to paying just make it worth my while. Slashdot is great right now, but with some tweaks and enhancements its going to get that much better.
HT
* Ability to filter on comments based upon moderation...(All responses "Funny")
* Access to the reject bin
* Track specific user comments (There are a couple of people who put thought in and I would like to be able highlight there comments or have them return in my sort no matter there moderated comment value)
....More to come
Exactly three people will be using the free version on Solaris and no one of the Linux and Windwos versions.
This reminds me of Nextwave in a lot of ways.
BG: Nextwave was the company who bought the spectrum many of the cellular companies are deploying new services on. Well they didn't pay their bills and the FCC took back the spectrum and reauctioned it. Nextwave sued the FCC for taking it away and it dragged through court for about three years and Nextwave won. Now their worth a TON of money because, the Cingulars and Verizon's of the world already have service. Guess who the FCC has to buy from to get the spectrum back.
Now let's apply this to the current situation. Be is currently worth about 4.4 million total right now in stock. Since the company doesn't really have any debt anymore roughly $1.5 million with most of that in current liabilities so the company is close to $3 million total.
Roughly 130 million computers (got this off a CNN article correct if wrong) were sold last year. Now watch this. Judge finds that Be was killed by Microsoft. Take the previous two years of sales will say 225 million PCs. Judge says 150 million (round ball) were shipped by OEMs and Be considering its size would not be have penetrated no more then 2% of the market. That means they could have put their OS on 3 million computers. Ok, let's now say Be charged $25 for each copy (below MS because they are trying to gain market share and they will be considered an inferior product to most of the marketplace). Now we have at least a verdict of $75 million or roughly a 17x the current stock price. Of course Be is a penny stock at 12 cents and they very well could lose the case but if you got money that you would take to Vegas it might be worth a shot.
BTW, we haven't even talked about the chance for punitive damages and if MS lost the case and decided to settle you could be looking at handsome pay day.
HT
...exciting shots of Saturn
The first few are free, but if you want more goto Saturn's website and pay $19.95 a month and see all of Saturn.
Sorry couldn't help myself.
=)
there. We were all on Exchange Servers so email retention went like this. Anything in the Inbox was deleted in 30 days. Any messages saved in other folders was deleted in one year regardless. You did have the option of saving off to your hard drive but PST files were a no-no. In addition, no external storage devices could be used without a senior VPs approval and an act of Congress. As far as when things started hitting the fan, we were inundated with emails to send any conversations, voice mails, correspondence, etc to the legal counsel's office. Of course, I'm sure that was taken care of in a very professional and ethical manner. So these days I apply for jobs and read slashdot and watch the Enron blaze grow larger and hotter. Al Sharpton was in yesterday, Jesse Jackson will be speaking tomorrow! Oh boy, the circus has come to Houston and it looks like its going to stay awhile.
HT