They do this so they can stroke their egos when some other company develops a product that uses some sort of technology that IBM did some research on in the past.
It makes them feel like they are a super tech think tank ala PARC...
They do come up with some great stuff and I would bet that if IBM were a japanese company the entire tech industry would look totally different.
heres a question regarding space elevators. If you have a space elevator - regardless of what its made out of - and the ground point of the elevator becomes un-teathered (e.g. no longer attached to earth) what happens?
Does the whole huge ass thing fall to earth causing major scale damage (given there is a lot of civilization near by) - does it flap around like a hose with nobody at the end - or does it float off into space?
So - if there is a major catastrophic event which requires the evacuation of earth via our space elevators - do you really think that the elevators bases would be stable enough (or even flexible enough) to withstand some sort of event that would assumably be coupled with earth shaking upheaval (sp) to such a degree as to make the elevators skyscraping towers of death?
Does anyone seriously know? what considerations have been given towards this issue?
(Not to mention the possibilities for terrorist attacks. For god's sake wont somebody please think of the children!)
When a company creates a product and the product's files are saved in whatever format - what are the standards/rules/guidlines/whatever regarding the extension.
Is the.XXX extension a trademark? patentable?
Is it illegal for any program to save its documents with.doc?.psd pdf.wrd what?
Does microsoft or any other company for that matter *own*.[file extension of their choosing here] whenever they make a program that saves a file?
how is this controlled - or what has the industry agreed upon??
I was talking to this guy who was a highway patrol officer - and had been one since the early sixties.
He was telling me about our records - and how they are "cleared" after a certain amount of time. Some things go away after you meet court stipulations, others after 3 years, others 7 & 10.
But that regardless of any "clearing" everything about you is permanently held in a NCIC (National Crime Information Center) Database. And this thing holds a ton of info on you. I was asking about acessing your own personal records. He said "No Way. This data is *only* available to federal law enforcment. There is no way for the public to get their records."
I think this is BS. I think that there must be some way you should be able to get to these records to ensure 1) they are correct 2) they dont contain data that isn't pertinent to actual law enforcment....
anyway - if anyone knows how to get this info (like can you hire a PI to get it for you?) let me know.
Well - I dont spend to much time around goats, however here on slashdot you may be frequently exposed to goatse.cx - in which case I want to keep my brain, dvd or otherwise, as shielded as possible.
back in '99 when all the VC money was flying to anyone with a pulse I tried to start eHobo.com
This was where you could go and get accessories for your carts, get corporate sponsored cardboard housing etc...
We would sell luxury collapsable cardboard condos, a tow strap for your shopping cart that you wore like a backpack (which allowed for hands free mobility!)
1) Make Simputer 2) Get some investor to give us millions 3) Try to sell is to poverty stricken indian farmers 4) ??? 5) Profit (AKA Spend the millions invested on inflated salaries to me and my buddies - rinse, repeat)
So in 5 years we will see that (if) the Simputer is a success in getting these people online (which is so much more inmportant than making sure they can eat) - it wont really matter all that much because they will all be sick by the billions of AAA betteries that litter their water supplies, farming fields, streams etc...
I just dont think that getting poor people online is really that important. I mean the article says that a farmer can use the device to check the latest prices on cotton, allowing him to strike a better deal on selling his crops. I just dont really see this happening. I really see his cotton fields being worthless after some time due to all the battery acid leaked into the ground.
Slashdot Mirror
...Who's going to archive the archive?
and it also has 8k of storage! You could store all of "Hel" on that thing
They do this so they can stroke their egos when some other company develops a product that uses some sort of technology that IBM did some research on in the past.
It makes them feel like they are a super tech think tank ala PARC...
They do come up with some great stuff and I would bet that if IBM were a japanese company the entire tech industry would look totally different.
All i could think of (and was hoping to see) was Xenia Seeberg from Lexx - when she does that commercail "This is Sci-Fi"
Jeebus this girl is hot.
heres a question regarding space elevators. If you have a space elevator - regardless of what its made out of - and the ground point of the elevator becomes un-teathered (e.g. no longer attached to earth) what happens?
Does the whole huge ass thing fall to earth causing major scale damage (given there is a lot of civilization near by) - does it flap around like a hose with nobody at the end - or does it float off into space?
So - if there is a major catastrophic event which requires the evacuation of earth via our space elevators - do you really think that the elevators bases would be stable enough (or even flexible enough) to withstand some sort of event that would assumably be coupled with earth shaking upheaval (sp) to such a degree as to make the elevators skyscraping towers of death?
Does anyone seriously know? what considerations have been given towards this issue?
(Not to mention the possibilities for terrorist attacks. For god's sake wont somebody please think of the children!)
whats the reference to disco stu? i know the name - but cant remember where from.....
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a space bound life boat full of backup tapes and singularists.
HAHAHA
That was great!!
Play this game, I will.
but not a lot of time have I
too expensive for me it may prove.
so then who cares if MS feels like giving up the ".doc" extension or not.
If thats what they want to call the new XML standard, why not let them?
When a company creates a product and the product's files are saved in whatever format - what are the standards/rules/guidlines/whatever regarding the extension.
.XXX extension a trademark? patentable?
.doc? .psd pdf .wrd what?
.[file extension of their choosing here] whenever they make a program that saves a file?
Is the
Is it illegal for any program to save its documents with
Does microsoft or any other company for that matter *own*
how is this controlled - or what has the industry agreed upon??
Interesting that you brought this up.
I was talking to this guy who was a highway patrol officer - and had been one since the early sixties.
He was telling me about our records - and how they are "cleared" after a certain amount of time. Some things go away after you meet court stipulations, others after 3 years, others 7 & 10.
But that regardless of any "clearing" everything about you is permanently held in a NCIC (National Crime Information Center) Database. And this thing holds a ton of info on you. I was asking about acessing your own personal records. He said "No Way. This data is *only* available to federal law enforcment. There is no way for the public to get their records."
I think this is BS. I think that there must be some way you should be able to get to these records to ensure 1) they are correct 2) they dont contain data that isn't pertinent to actual law enforcment....
anyway - if anyone knows how to get this info (like can you hire a PI to get it for you?) let me know.
Well - I dont spend to much time around goats, however here on slashdot you may be frequently exposed to goatse.cx - in which case I want to keep my brain, dvd or otherwise, as shielded as possible.
McCoy: The server's dead Jim.
have you watched any of the Star Wreck Episodes... they are rather funny.
They evolved over time - so the newest ones are the best. Another thing by some crazy Fin.
Star Wreck!
I am still waiting for my own holographic doctor.
Yes, Mr. President, I did find it Ironic as well. Seriously.
also, since they were removing his kidney - how did they manage to cut his aorta?
back in '99 when all the VC money was flying to anyone with a pulse I tried to start eHobo.com
This was where you could go and get accessories for your carts, get corporate sponsored cardboard housing etc...
We would sell luxury collapsable cardboard condos, a tow strap for your shopping cart that you wore like a backpack (which allowed for hands free mobility!)
for some reason - I couldnt get funding.
They did this ten years ago at a grocery store I worked at in high school. that was is '93.
It didnt last very long at all...
I think their model is more like this:
1) Make Simputer
2) Get some investor to give us millions
3) Try to sell is to poverty stricken indian farmers
4) ???
5) Profit (AKA Spend the millions invested on inflated salaries to me and my buddies - rinse, repeat)
The thing will run on 3 triple A batteries.
So in 5 years we will see that (if) the Simputer is a success in getting these people online (which is so much more inmportant than making sure they can eat) - it wont really matter all that much because they will all be sick by the billions of AAA betteries that litter their water supplies, farming fields, streams etc...
I just dont think that getting poor people online is really that important. I mean the article says that a farmer can use the device to check the latest prices on cotton, allowing him to strike a better deal on selling his crops. I just dont really see this happening. I really see his cotton fields being worthless after some time due to all the battery acid leaked into the ground.
Did any of you read about the pollution that computer parts are causing in poor chinese villages? You think third world villages a really aware or concerned with the dangers high tech litter has?
....is Pussy Galore!
send this to people with the subject:
Want to take a break? Click here - and see how you can have a much deserved break from work right now!
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