Interesting point, but could we really generate an artifical magnetic field THAT powerful? What would the energy requirement be to shift a planet out of orbit?
My concern is more the havoc it would wreak with our satellites. Heck, what about its own internal computer systems?
It has been determined that we cannot visit jupiter or saturn because the density of their magnetic fields would kill us. What would be interesting reading is how the probes sent to these planets and passed within close proximity were designed not to be affected.
And what of those poor army lads who stood there gazing into the light of a million suns and standing but a few mere miles away from the nuclear blasts? You know, just like the guys on the navy boats who drank fallout until they got home? I can see something similar happening here.
A story was related to me by a friend:
His father was working a classified site back in the 40's where several technicians, engineers and so on, were working on things in a lab. At a desk was an engineer, poking at a small pile of uranium in granuals with a pencil. Suddenly there was a brilliant flash as if a photo flash went off. The pressure or friction of prodding the granuals had caused some of it to go critical.
A security guard was sent to get my friend's father who came in (I don't honestly know what his position was) and he asked everyone who had been in the room when it happened to go to the exact position they were standing when it happened. Their shoes were spray painted to create a silhouette and their location and distance from the desk were noted. These people were all tracked and died within two years of the event. Those closest to the desk died within weeks, including the engineer who had been pushing the dust around, those furthest died later. It's probably in a declassified study somewhere but I wouldn't have the first idea where to look.
It reminds me of the experiments with the first atomic bombs: they didn't know
that the chain reaction wouldn't ignite the atmosphere. Who knows what considerations they've given it. Will it jerk the earth out of it's orbit? Will it open a wormhole that sucks out the earth's atmosphere? Will it end life as we know it? I was under the impression that extreme magnetic fields were fatal to humans, to say nothing of throwing birds off of their migration patterns.
I wonder who they will bestow the honor of first flight on...
Like the WB Gophers:
"After you!"
"I wouldn't think of it, after you!"
"Oh, but I insist you go first!"
"I am most undeserving of that honour, you go first!"
"I couldn't live with myself it I did, you first!"
etc.
Latest news: Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott still dead.
You and others here misunderstand MS's primary role. It it not to advance the state of technology or improve consumer's lives. Those are two potential paths to the goal, which is to optimize the financial return to it's stockholders. On that count they are extremely successfull. If you've been holding MS stock for a number of years you got huge stock price run-ups followed by record setting dividends.
You don't know Bill.
Bill is like the world's most competitive businessman. He doesn't just sit on his laurels and secure his market, he attacks every other market in sight. Now Microsoft wants to be the technology behind everything, cars, cell phones, PDAs, workstations, television, music, movies, medical devices, etc. If there's software and a processor doing some work somewhere then it is in a market Microsoft wants to move into. Why? Because it's there and therefore can be taken.
Bill already has everything anyone could ever want. Ask yourself, what drives some like that onward? I have an Ex-Brother-in-law who started on a shoe-string. Today he's a millionaire, but somewhere along the way to financial success he already had home, financial security, family, etc., but couldn't take a rest and delegate, he kept on driving. It cost him his wife, my sister, because she was fed up with his relentless drive for success over time at home with the family. Obsessive/Compulsive something, but Bill strikes me as nearly the same thing. He doesn't need the money, now he just drives the thing along because he likes to and if he's going to keep driving the business then it needs new directions to go.
So Bill identifying IBM as his chief competitor is really a part of a smoke and mirrors game? Yeah, that's consistent with his past behavior.
I think 80% of what he says at a CES is just that. That's why you have to listen carefully, because there are hints in what he says about where they really are going tomorrow.
So who IS Microsoft's most significant competitor?
Like I said, they are their own greatest threat. All the things you mentioned are now serious threats to them because of the way they have done business. Why did Munich, Germany move to Linux/Open Source? Why do entire countries move to Open Source for goverment applications? Why is it so hard for Microsoft to break into the Chinese government as a vendor? Why does Massachusetts insist upon Open Source for state government? It has a lot to do with how responsive Microsoft actually is, who they are and what they are. The blush is off the rose and now Microsoft has to prove they can deliver the goods and protect their customers rather than, in a very RIAA-ish practice, blame their poor security on those banditos out there.
Microsoft never had to work hard for the money. Everyone jumped on the Windows/Office bandwagon.
That's just simply not true. Microsoft has worked it ass off to convince the public it needs what its selling.... So in summary, Microsoft may be a lot of things. But lazy isn't one of them. Always give the devil his due, or you may get complacent.
I never said they were lazy, I said they never had to work hard for what they got. They issued Windows 95 and the rest is history.
"you make a grown man cry"
Indeed they did. They said it would work fine on 4MB of memory, which was just enough to start it up but realistically a user had to have a minimum of 12MB to actually do anything otherwise paging to disk brought it to its knees. With (comparatively) less expensive memory the Windows PC market grew by leaps and bounds. Microsoft may have spent a lot of advertising dollars, but it was a pittance compared to what they raked in.
Keep in mind, to get and hold 1,000 minicomputer/mainframe customers DEC alone had an army of software and field service people, whose salaries, fringes, office space, transportation, etc. the company had to foot. Along come PC's which you could put DBase or RBase or any of the latter database servers on and you suddenly cut $100,000 a year in support to a couple thousand. Microsoft didn't even send us sales reps. People where I worked ordered PCs from the local clonemakers, RadioShack, some startup by a couple college students in Austin, TX, etc. When we had problems we, as the first line of tech support sat and listened to elevator music as Microsoft was swamped by calls and we could spend up to 4 hours waiting to talk to a trained parrot.
Success came so fast to Microsoft on the heels of Windows 95 they were ill equipped to support their rapidly growing customer base. Customers which DEC, IBM, Sperry/Univac, Burroghs, etc. all worked dilligently (well, maybe not in the case of Burroghs) to keep and fully support were leaving them for a bunch of businessmen in Redmond who couldn't believe their luck.
Microsoft, now is having to work for success. Further, they have to work hard to mop up the mess they have created on their way to today. Much of it is simply swept under the carpet. Burroghs was
regularly the target of lawsuits when their systems failed to deliver on promises in contracts. Microsoft just points to the EULA.
Microsoft never had to work hard for the money. Everyone jumped on the Windows/Office bandwagon. Not necessarily the best product, but everyone else was doing it, like a bunch of lemmings.
Look at Windows. How it is set up, how you install software, what safeguards there are. If you ever had worked on a mainframe computer and knew the kernel inside out, and knew good shop practices, you would be shocked and appalled that businesses have so readily adopted this ridiculous platfrom which is effectively a black box. All the security flaws and exploits are just a symptom of what an absurd aggregate the Kernel/OS/UserInterface/Environment has become. Perhaps Vista will be better, but I don't hold my breath.
The core problem at Microsoft is the market and the money all came easily. Where giants Unisys, IBM, DEC et al used to slug it out week to week for market share, support contracts, etc. some outfit just threw the stuff on store shelves and everyone bought it. Do you think they learned anything this way? There may be some very bright people up there in Redmond, but to constantly expect they can just waltz into new markets and own them or expect a T. Rex like IBM to just whither away is naive at best.
Sure Bill, we're all going to listen to you. *rolls eyes*
That's the thing. When Bill speaks at these shindigs, everyone listens. I was lucky to get a seat when I was there. I don't think people go to see what great marvels he and his people behind the curtain have rigged up (and whether or not it will fail most spectacularly at the worst moment [blame it on cell phones, nobody in a real business environment is going to have those] *snicker*) They go to hear whether or not Microsoft is going to make a move on their turf.
So look over that way. And pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Yes, because the man behind the curtain has a chair and he's going to f**king kill you!
Begging Bill's pardon, but Microsoft's attitudes and practices are their own biggest threat.
Over the years, Microsoft's biggest threats have been:
Apple Computer
Sun
Java
Netscape
Anyone who knows of a security hole in one of their operating systems.
Oracle/Larry Ellison
U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson
Linux
The European Commission
Sony Playstation
Google
I've heard Bill talk at a CES a few years ago and between the words, you could most definitely
hear him placing Microsoft as not a technology partner to consumer electronics firms, but as
a direct or indirect threat to their product lines and/or ways of doing business. While he waxed enthusiastic
about how Windows CE would be some great enabling force, you could almost hear people break out
in a sweat wondering what "Microsoft-tax" they would encounter to hop on or compete with the Redmond
bandwagon, whether it actually added anything truly positive.
I'm positive more than a few
show exhibitors could
almost see him in a pinstripe suit with a couple gunsels behind him and a moll on his arm.
<James Cagney Voice> "We're the new business men in town, see? And
you're going to like doing business with us, see? Because when you do business with
us nobody gets hurt, see? Yeah. I think you do see. That's very good. Very good for business."
</James Cagney Voice>
Bill
most likely sees threats to his company because he cultivates them. Microsoft has profited at IBM's
expense for the past 20 years. Why shouldn't IBM be competing with Microsoft?
Of course Microsoft isn't going to admit to vulnerabilities if they can fix them quickly and quietly. But how will Microsoft know their vulnerabilities exist?
Seems there was something about Microsoft and bugtraq a couple years back. The flurry of bugs reported was uncomplimentary, to say the least. Damning to say the most. Microsoft pulled out of any involvement in the venture.
This of course is the joy of the web. Since it's device-independent, and the current trend among those in the know is to use CSS while avoiding absolute positioning, you don't have this problem.
Look around, you'll find even for the web they write articles to fit on many sites. Some websites are quite structured around the advertising placements.
It's because most *ix vulnerabilities are reported (and usually fixed rather quickly, particularly in the
case of Linux distros.)
Who knows how many Windows vulnerabilities there are known to Microsoft? Can you say "Vested Interest"? They certainly have
tried to have divulging them criminalized as an act against national security, never mind warning
customers of all sizes that they may have been compromised while Microsoft fiddled away at a patch for the past
six months.
I take this sort of revelation with a grain of salt and give it as much weight.
many eyes only make for strong code when the code can be seen
Sometimes, in the case of newspapers, it's not even the editor, but the printer. Ever notice how you can be reading an article and they seem to repeat details? The authors are filling space ("inches") and have no idea how much will be lopped off the end to make it fit, hence "All The News That Fits, In Print" is often very true.
I once wrote a column and was furious that my summary was missing. The editor explained the practice to me. I don't write columns anymore.
After all, reporters are held accountable when they get something wrong,
In my personal experience this only happens when, within the industry, competitors jump at an exposed flank. If you listen to or read news regularly you can find a great number of inaccuracies because when some writers don't know and don't have time to verify, they just make stuff up. I know this from personal experience, which is why I never give interviews anymore. I've got rather fed up with the misquotes, out-of-contexts and pure bull. Keep in mind, media has a bent, to sell itself. If it was only interesting in accuracy then you would see a page of corrections a day. Why don't you? Who's going to buy media that admits to making that many mistakes.
The media were implicitly contrasting
Wikipedia's credibility to their own. Ironically, some of the media
got the story fundamentally wrong, in tone and sometimes in substance
Which the mainstream media takes with a sly wink -- getting things wrong and then burying retractions or simply moving on to the next big scoop is a time honoured tradition. Wikipedia would do well to learn from the example, it is InfoTainment, after all. "Coming up, a hard look at the pharmaceutical industry, brought to you by the makers of Damitol"
The installation is simple and with the new release, Linux Netwosix 2.0-rc1
Meanwhile, charges that Linux naming convention is too arcane for the common clod abound. Why not call it View?
disgraced stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-suk recently defended himself insisting he has the technology to produce patient-specific stem cells and that he had been the victim of a "long-planned" conspiracy.
Senator Hillary Clinton on line One.
[Plasma thruster verified by the ESA] Their design was recently verified by the European Space Agency and will go into full-scale testing next year.
Alas, no Engineering Officer Montgomery Scott to man them.
This is not useful untill/unless it is connected to a computer. With a connection to a laptop it would kick arse, but WiMAX or similar is probably more suited to that market. There is just no use for that much data on a phone.
Just imagine what you can send in the way of text messages, photographs, audio content, etc.
The big hurdle for the phone companies is going to be working out how best to suck huge amounts of money out of the customer for this high-speed service. I'm sure we're all behind them in this effort...
I read this last year. It was neat, sorta, but a bit overrated.
What was more interesting from the article, was the toxicity of Moon Dust and the fact that it's highly abrasive, sticks to everything and gets into everything because it's so light.
Seems back when the contest was announced for an autonomous robot to pick up regolite having to contend with the dust should be the greatest consideration.
In organic gardening, I used fossilized diatoms (diatomaceous earth, often used in pool filters) to fight worms, as it is to them like rolling around in broken glass.
Just how good do you expect the sound to be in a convertible? What's the point of getting anything other than the cheapest stuff when engine and wind noise make it pointless and anything good will just get ripped off anyway? My crap car stereo and iPod cassette adapter are good enough.
I'm referring to typical commuter fare, such as well aged Honda Accords, Toyota Camrays, small pickups, etc.
Bose engineers went at the interiors of some cars to determine the accoustics, which are nothing short of ultra-complex. They designed some very impressive car audio systems. What you have around town is people who consider the installers at Circuit City "factory trained experts", whereas most of these minimum (or slightly above) wage wire jockeys are on a mission to get int hooked up and you and your car out of the way for the next customer. They aren't going around with all manner of reflective sound analyzing equipment, accoustic dampening panels and wot. You can certainly find people who do this, but they likely do it by appointment and charge a pretty penny (and quite a lot of ugly ones, too.)
Audio Fidelity is left to the bass range, which being rather omnidirectional is very forgiving. The rest of the range is probably beyond the tin ears of most drivers, especially those with those exhaust systems which sound like flatulence.
Google News is still Beta! And AFP (l'Agence France-Presse) sued them over content, despite their argument that it was Beta and "still under development".
I suggest you start investigating new business models, as the old ones ride off into the sunset.
Like that's going to work! People who crank out flawed, bombastic, and ultimately wrong business models are trying
to keep a job. If any business sat on its hands and coasted along on a simple and functional business model they'd
ultimately be defeated by someone with an angle on wedging new business between them and their traditional customers.
Take iTunes for instance. Wildly successful in the face of its predecessors and competitors. The RIAA doesn't like
it because it undercuts their old business model (and these people have worked that one a long time to their great
profit) Apple's frisky little model says, "give it to them on a flashy little toy and keep it cheap." CD sales plummet. (RIAA
biz model sez: Any flattening of growth or dip in sales is due to piracy!) Reminds me of when Detroit, back in the
70's thought they could continue to do business as usual as those japanese cars started to sell particularly well ("after the
price of oil drops again we'll go right back to 454 blown dual carb thingamajigs") Funny they repeated the same erroneous
reasoning with 4WD's in the late 90's and into the next century and are now closing plants left and right.
While high-definition video and the PC may be natural bedfellows, the content providers and studios are not exactly making nice with the tech industry. The studios are deathly afraid that high-definition content will become widely pirated, adversely affecting an already creaky business model. ...
The iPod and its camp followers in the digital audio player business seem to be the modern incarnation of the 1960s transistor radio. Way back then, audiophiles complained vociferously about how the transistor radio was creating a generation of consumers who couldn't appreciate quality audio. That lament is echoed by industry pundits (me included) who yearn for even higher-fidelity sound than current CD technology can deliver.
High def video and audio. What's funny is people are fine with the crap we have now. Heck, there's people driving around
town with self-installed audio systems in their cars which not only sound awful, but bring Lo-Fi to an all new low -- and they're
actually happy with it.
64 bit OS, only when you've got apps or a killer must-have game will 64 bit OS be all the rage, even drivers will follow. Until then, like hi-def video and hi-fi audio, it's only
in the realm of those who really must have for practical or fashionable reasons.
Digital home: Right. When I was a kid we had this great intercom system that came with our new house, all rooms
connected to one main spot, could pipe radio into any room or page anyone. That lasted about a month. After that it
was mom shouting up the stairs that supper was ready, someone at the door, etc. Evolution of technology doesn't guarantee
it will be any more necessary, but it looks flash and shiny if you've never seen before and might impress the
uninitiated. Up to me, I'd worry more about noisy water pipes and insulation in the walls.
"it even comes with high definition squirrels in the attic!"
"As a prerequisite for FBI employment, you must be a U.S. citizen and consent to a complete background investigation, drug test, and polygraph."
I didn't see anything about giving up your first born though so thats good.
Yeah, but for some of us collecting and maintaining all the 'background data' on us would require our own dedicated FBI agent.;)
So this is a solution, is it?
"there it goes again, that's the third polygraph machine which has gone up in smoke."
after i invented the game of baseball, i hit the first homerun! yeah, that's the ticket!
Slashdot Mirror
My concern is more the havoc it would wreak with our satellites. Heck, what about its own internal computer systems?
It has been determined that we cannot visit jupiter or saturn because the density of their magnetic fields would kill us. What would be interesting reading is how the probes sent to these planets and passed within close proximity were designed not to be affected.
A story was related to me by a friend:
His father was working a classified site back in the 40's where several technicians, engineers and so on, were working on things in a lab. At a desk was an engineer, poking at a small pile of uranium in granuals with a pencil. Suddenly there was a brilliant flash as if a photo flash went off. The pressure or friction of prodding the granuals had caused some of it to go critical.
A security guard was sent to get my friend's father who came in (I don't honestly know what his position was) and he asked everyone who had been in the room when it happened to go to the exact position they were standing when it happened. Their shoes were spray painted to create a silhouette and their location and distance from the desk were noted. These people were all tracked and died within two years of the event. Those closest to the desk died within weeks, including the engineer who had been pushing the dust around, those furthest died later. It's probably in a declassified study somewhere but I wouldn't have the first idea where to look.
It reminds me of the experiments with the first atomic bombs: they didn't know that the chain reaction wouldn't ignite the atmosphere. Who knows what considerations they've given it. Will it jerk the earth out of it's orbit? Will it open a wormhole that sucks out the earth's atmosphere? Will it end life as we know it? I was under the impression that extreme magnetic fields were fatal to humans, to say nothing of throwing birds off of their migration patterns.
I wonder who they will bestow the honor of first flight on...
Like the WB Gophers:
Latest news: Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott still dead.wwgd: what would google do?
You don't know Bill.
Bill is like the world's most competitive businessman. He doesn't just sit on his laurels and secure his market, he attacks every other market in sight. Now Microsoft wants to be the technology behind everything, cars, cell phones, PDAs, workstations, television, music, movies, medical devices, etc. If there's software and a processor doing some work somewhere then it is in a market Microsoft wants to move into. Why? Because it's there and therefore can be taken.
Bill already has everything anyone could ever want. Ask yourself, what drives some like that onward? I have an Ex-Brother-in-law who started on a shoe-string. Today he's a millionaire, but somewhere along the way to financial success he already had home, financial security, family, etc., but couldn't take a rest and delegate, he kept on driving. It cost him his wife, my sister, because she was fed up with his relentless drive for success over time at home with the family. Obsessive/Compulsive something, but Bill strikes me as nearly the same thing. He doesn't need the money, now he just drives the thing along because he likes to and if he's going to keep driving the business then it needs new directions to go.
I think 80% of what he says at a CES is just that. That's why you have to listen carefully, because there are hints in what he says about where they really are going tomorrow.
So who IS Microsoft's most significant competitor?
Like I said, they are their own greatest threat. All the things you mentioned are now serious threats to them because of the way they have done business. Why did Munich, Germany move to Linux/Open Source? Why do entire countries move to Open Source for goverment applications? Why is it so hard for Microsoft to break into the Chinese government as a vendor? Why does Massachusetts insist upon Open Source for state government? It has a lot to do with how responsive Microsoft actually is, who they are and what they are. The blush is off the rose and now Microsoft has to prove they can deliver the goods and protect their customers rather than, in a very RIAA-ish practice, blame their poor security on those banditos out there.
I never said they were lazy, I said they never had to work hard for what they got. They issued Windows 95 and the rest is history.
"you make a grown man cry"
Indeed they did. They said it would work fine on 4MB of memory, which was just enough to start it up but realistically a user had to have a minimum of 12MB to actually do anything otherwise paging to disk brought it to its knees. With (comparatively) less expensive memory the Windows PC market grew by leaps and bounds. Microsoft may have spent a lot of advertising dollars, but it was a pittance compared to what they raked in.
Keep in mind, to get and hold 1,000 minicomputer/mainframe customers DEC alone had an army of software and field service people, whose salaries, fringes, office space, transportation, etc. the company had to foot. Along come PC's which you could put DBase or RBase or any of the latter database servers on and you suddenly cut $100,000 a year in support to a couple thousand. Microsoft didn't even send us sales reps. People where I worked ordered PCs from the local clonemakers, RadioShack, some startup by a couple college students in Austin, TX, etc. When we had problems we, as the first line of tech support sat and listened to elevator music as Microsoft was swamped by calls and we could spend up to 4 hours waiting to talk to a trained parrot.
Success came so fast to Microsoft on the heels of Windows 95 they were ill equipped to support their rapidly growing customer base. Customers which DEC, IBM, Sperry/Univac, Burroghs, etc. all worked dilligently (well, maybe not in the case of Burroghs) to keep and fully support were leaving them for a bunch of businessmen in Redmond who couldn't believe their luck.
Microsoft, now is having to work for success. Further, they have to work hard to mop up the mess they have created on their way to today. Much of it is simply swept under the carpet. Burroghs was regularly the target of lawsuits when their systems failed to deliver on promises in contracts. Microsoft just points to the EULA.
Microsoft never had to work hard for the money. Everyone jumped on the Windows/Office bandwagon. Not necessarily the best product, but everyone else was doing it, like a bunch of lemmings.
Look at Windows. How it is set up, how you install software, what safeguards there are. If you ever had worked on a mainframe computer and knew the kernel inside out, and knew good shop practices, you would be shocked and appalled that businesses have so readily adopted this ridiculous platfrom which is effectively a black box. All the security flaws and exploits are just a symptom of what an absurd aggregate the Kernel/OS/UserInterface/Environment has become. Perhaps Vista will be better, but I don't hold my breath.
The core problem at Microsoft is the market and the money all came easily. Where giants Unisys, IBM, DEC et al used to slug it out week to week for market share, support contracts, etc. some outfit just threw the stuff on store shelves and everyone bought it. Do you think they learned anything this way? There may be some very bright people up there in Redmond, but to constantly expect they can just waltz into new markets and own them or expect a T. Rex like IBM to just whither away is naive at best.
Is there such a thing as a Microsoft Fellow?
That's the thing. When Bill speaks at these shindigs, everyone listens. I was lucky to get a seat when I was there. I don't think people go to see what great marvels he and his people behind the curtain have rigged up (and whether or not it will fail most spectacularly at the worst moment [blame it on cell phones, nobody in a real business environment is going to have those] *snicker*) They go to hear whether or not Microsoft is going to make a move on their turf.
So look over that way. And pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
Yes, because the man behind the curtain has a chair and he's going to f**king kill you!
Begging Bill's pardon, but Microsoft's attitudes and practices are their own biggest threat.
Over the years, Microsoft's biggest threats have been:
I've heard Bill talk at a CES a few years ago and between the words, you could most definitely hear him placing Microsoft as not a technology partner to consumer electronics firms, but as a direct or indirect threat to their product lines and/or ways of doing business. While he waxed enthusiastic about how Windows CE would be some great enabling force, you could almost hear people break out in a sweat wondering what "Microsoft-tax" they would encounter to hop on or compete with the Redmond bandwagon, whether it actually added anything truly positive. I'm positive more than a few show exhibitors could almost see him in a pinstripe suit with a couple gunsels behind him and a moll on his arm.
<James Cagney Voice>
"We're the new business men in town, see? And you're going to like doing business with us, see? Because when you do business with us nobody gets hurt, see? Yeah. I think you do see. That's very good. Very good for business."
</James Cagney Voice>
Bill most likely sees threats to his company because he cultivates them. Microsoft has profited at IBM's expense for the past 20 years. Why shouldn't IBM be competing with Microsoft?
"We have met the enemy and he is us." -- Pogo
Seems there was something about Microsoft and bugtraq a couple years back. The flurry of bugs reported was uncomplimentary, to say the least. Damning to say the most. Microsoft pulled out of any involvement in the venture.
Look around, you'll find even for the web they write articles to fit on many sites. Some websites are quite structured around the advertising placements.
Who knows how many Windows vulnerabilities there are known to Microsoft? Can you say "Vested Interest"? They certainly have tried to have divulging them criminalized as an act against national security, never mind warning customers of all sizes that they may have been compromised while Microsoft fiddled away at a patch for the past six months.
I take this sort of revelation with a grain of salt and give it as much weight.
many eyes only make for strong code when the code can be seen
Sometimes, in the case of newspapers, it's not even the editor, but the printer. Ever notice how you can be reading an article and they seem to repeat details? The authors are filling space ("inches") and have no idea how much will be lopped off the end to make it fit, hence "All The News That Fits, In Print" is often very true.
I once wrote a column and was furious that my summary was missing. The editor explained the practice to me. I don't write columns anymore.
i just babble away on /. now.
In my personal experience this only happens when, within the industry, competitors jump at an exposed flank. If you listen to or read news regularly you can find a great number of inaccuracies because when some writers don't know and don't have time to verify, they just make stuff up. I know this from personal experience, which is why I never give interviews anymore. I've got rather fed up with the misquotes, out-of-contexts and pure bull. Keep in mind, media has a bent, to sell itself. If it was only interesting in accuracy then you would see a page of corrections a day. Why don't you? Who's going to buy media that admits to making that many mistakes.
Ah, grasshopper, you have to master the deja view to see them in this life.
"Coming up, a hard look at the pharmaceutical industry, brought to you by the makers of Damitol" Meanwhile, charges that Linux naming convention is too arcane for the common clod abound. Why not call it View? Senator Hillary Clinton on line One. Alas, no Engineering Officer Montgomery Scott to man them. In the meantime they'll partner with AOL.
What? No 'Act Locally, Impact Globally'?
Just imagine what you can send in the way of text messages, photographs, audio content, etc.
The big hurdle for the phone companies is going to be working out how best to suck huge amounts of money out of the customer for this high-speed service. I'm sure we're all behind them in this effort...
What was more interesting from the article, was the toxicity of Moon Dust and the fact that it's highly abrasive, sticks to everything and gets into everything because it's so light.
Seems back when the contest was announced for an autonomous robot to pick up regolite having to contend with the dust should be the greatest consideration.
In organic gardening, I used fossilized diatoms (diatomaceous earth, often used in pool filters) to fight worms, as it is to them like rolling around in broken glass.
I'm referring to typical commuter fare, such as well aged Honda Accords, Toyota Camrays, small pickups, etc.
Bose engineers went at the interiors of some cars to determine the accoustics, which are nothing short of ultra-complex. They designed some very impressive car audio systems. What you have around town is people who consider the installers at Circuit City "factory trained experts", whereas most of these minimum (or slightly above) wage wire jockeys are on a mission to get int hooked up and you and your car out of the way for the next customer. They aren't going around with all manner of reflective sound analyzing equipment, accoustic dampening panels and wot. You can certainly find people who do this, but they likely do it by appointment and charge a pretty penny (and quite a lot of ugly ones, too.)
Audio Fidelity is left to the bass range, which being rather omnidirectional is very forgiving. The rest of the range is probably beyond the tin ears of most drivers, especially those with those exhaust systems which sound like flatulence.
Google News is still Beta! And AFP (l'Agence France-Presse) sued them over content, despite their argument that it was Beta and "still under development".
Take iTunes for instance. Wildly successful in the face of its predecessors and competitors. The RIAA doesn't like it because it undercuts their old business model (and these people have worked that one a long time to their great profit) Apple's frisky little model says, "give it to them on a flashy little toy and keep it cheap." CD sales plummet. (RIAA biz model sez: Any flattening of growth or dip in sales is due to piracy!) Reminds me of when Detroit, back in the 70's thought they could continue to do business as usual as those japanese cars started to sell particularly well ("after the price of oil drops again we'll go right back to 454 blown dual carb thingamajigs") Funny they repeated the same erroneous reasoning with 4WD's in the late 90's and into the next century and are now closing plants left and right.
High def video and audio. What's funny is people are fine with the crap we have now. Heck, there's people driving around town with self-installed audio systems in their cars which not only sound awful, but bring Lo-Fi to an all new low -- and they're actually happy with it.64 bit OS, only when you've got apps or a killer must-have game will 64 bit OS be all the rage, even drivers will follow. Until then, like hi-def video and hi-fi audio, it's only in the realm of those who really must have for practical or fashionable reasons.
Digital home: Right. When I was a kid we had this great intercom system that came with our new house, all rooms connected to one main spot, could pipe radio into any room or page anyone. That lasted about a month. After that it was mom shouting up the stairs that supper was ready, someone at the door, etc. Evolution of technology doesn't guarantee it will be any more necessary, but it looks flash and shiny if you've never seen before and might impress the uninitiated. Up to me, I'd worry more about noisy water pipes and insulation in the walls.
"it even comes with high definition squirrels in the attic!"
Everything you need to know you can find out right here.
Yeah, but for some of us collecting and maintaining all the 'background data' on us would require our own dedicated FBI agent. ;)
So this is a solution, is it?
"there it goes again, that's the third polygraph machine which has gone up in smoke."
after i invented the game of baseball, i hit the first homerun! yeah, that's the ticket!
Yeah, just what we need, a search engine for criminal activity.
the fact that so much fraud happens on eBay on a daily basis is kinda reassuring that these people don't know thier arse from a hole in the ground