For those that wonder, Voyager at 125 AU is about.002 light year distant. The star was 400 times further out. Likewise, if we to launch our currently fastest spacecraft New Horizons (that is reaching Pluto soon in July 2015 at 33.77 AU) towards the star (when it was closest), it would take about 14,000 years to reach that star. There have been a number of nuclear rockets proposed, with the latest version from NASA in 2011 (the Magneto-Inertial Fusion planned for Mars missions). If that rocket reached its technological goals (by 2030), it would take roughly 110 years to reach Scholz when it was at its closest. These numbers are merely back of the envelope two digit accuracy, and are not meant to be precise but give ballpark figures.
They were able to stay in business longer because of cell phones, which hit a peak in the nineties. In fact, their stores that will stay open will be owned by a cell phone carrier and branded as such.
No matter what, they were myopic to their original business model and their employees. Otherwise, they could have been a Digikey or Mouser when it came to components. But I did know that this day was inevitable, if not predicted.
Speak for yourself - where are you living? Perhaps this depends on geography, because where I'm living plumbers and electricians do better than $12-$15/hr lowly tech workers. And those tech workers are competing with engineers that don't have jobs.
This is quite disingenuous. The way he phrased his 'tweet' was purposeful. I personally don't care about what Tyson says or what other people think about what he says. I doubt that I am in the minority either. Even if thousands responded to him negatively (and was he that dumb that he thought that no one would? Really??) the reaction would still amount to a small minority of twitter users, which according to the company's last year numbers they had 232 million users.
Yes, it was flamebait.
The problem is the religious right is embracing a culture of victimhood to compete with the left
The bigger problem is people who are responsible for representing a scientific message not being culturally sensitive to have enough tact, even if they disagree with that culture. For example the importance of teaching people the science of climate change should lead to a degree of restraint in other not very related public arenas such as holidays.
Sounds like the guy worked hard and had his shit together financially.
Or taking advantage of a forced captive audience by charging crushing $250+ USD prices for a math textbook. Hard to swallow when Dover can manage to charge $20 for a text.
My guess is that they have a truckload in storage already made. It would not make sense for them to not make them available for sale in exotic applications. It's a proven design being (that can use a minimum of other expensive rad hardened parts) used in other proven designs so they can pull them off the shelf and have something ready to fly quickly. As parent poster noted, for many applications 64 bits can be overkill. They could also being used for repair for things like military aircraft that used them in their manufacture in that era and are still flying.
The end user would see it as part of an operating system - which it does become. All I'm seeing here on Slashdot is what must be a bunch of Groupon employees trolling Slashdot trying to defend their company. But they will lose this trademark case.
The GNOME desktop guys need to stop acting like they own the word "gnome".
Said the poster quoting executives inside Groupon!
As far as operating systems are concerned, they do in fact "own" the word "gnome." That is by definition of what a trademark is.
The gnome foundation does have a right to be concerned. With an point of sale system that offers a "gnome" operating environment, end users could easily confuse the two. And it seriously could affect the Gnome Foundation's ability to conduct any business in the future as their mark would be seriously diluted.
What is also disturbing is the hubris behind this. Clearly Groupon thought that they could steamroll over the Gnome Foundation!
I am not a user of gnome, and I know that developers and users have had disagreements with Gnome in the past, but that doesn't mean that users of open source software shouldn't stand behind the Gnome Foundation on this issue. As they have made significant contributions to GPL code and promoting open source software. This really is a no-brainer.
You'll notice that the US spends more than practically any country, and gets among the worst results.
You need to include those on the hardware end as well. Otherwise companies would just end up shafting a different type of tech worker. So not just programmers but tech workers in general.
Any BOM that passes through my hands will get FTDI crossed off. I'm sorry they have a counterfeit problem. They need to improve anti counterfeiting measures instead of inflicting collateral damage. Their abrupt decision is smelly no matter how you look at it.
You get what you pay for. Unless good counterfeits are a high percentage of the market you will know the price. You KNOW the real price. Those discounts are "too good to be true".
Except that the end consumer has zero knowledge about these counterfeit chips inside whatever they bought. And my guess is a most slashdotters do not either, until it stops working because of FTDI.
Could you be a little more specific about the kind of software this is about? That might reveal why people shy away from the project.
Tangentially, you manage to bring up a very good point. One huge problem is the software projects might be using. A number of companies open sourced their software before the notion of a 'standardized' license method became prevalent. If a project is not Mozilla, GPL, or BSD compatible then it will have a very hard time attracting new developers. I know would not want to work on something that did not have a useful open source license. I would encourage the submitter to make sure whatever he is working on have a standard, permissive as possible license (if possible) before he closes shop.
I know one interesting project (from a historical perspective) that suffers from this is the Open Watcom compiler with its non-compatible Sybase Public License. This project fits the submitter's description to a tee. I bet there are others like this. At least POV-Ray got around to fixing their license finally.
This was asked back on Slashdot 14 years ago in 2000. As you can see, most of the websites mentioned that archived "ummaintained" software have since evaporated and are unmaintained themselves!
Submitter, what I suggest you do is include a text file that describes the history of the project (If it was me - I think it would be nice to thank those by name who made significant contributions), known issues, ideas for direction of the project (if any), and then post it to Github and Sourceforge as an 'ummaintained' software. With as permissive as a license as you can give it, which will encourage it's use down the road. Also, I would post links, notices, and intentions to any associated forums. And give the community as much time to as possible before closing the website down. Maybe someone or some company will have the where with all to continue the project. If it is reasonable to do so and they seem to be reputable and serious, you might let them. Otherwise, when finished, make sure that archive.org has browsed the website for their archives. Also, post a copy the final software there. If it has a domain name, if you can, I'd give it a ten year renewal date and give it a notice of closure and a link to the project on Github.
But the larger issue for me, is that you, your colleagues, and friends spent time and effort on this project. That should be recognized. At least by acknowledging that support is ceasing for this project, it can hopefully move on to other hands in the future. It does happen.
I wish more more programmers were as thoughtful as you. And I wish there were better ways (i.e. more permanent and standardized) of dealing with orphanware.
With congress in reckless cut everything sequestration mode, this will help NASA hold onto the infrastructure and programs that they already have. Even though it involves mixing NASA with the military once again.
Truth of the matter is, in the SF Bay Area, it is hard to be unemployed if you're a properly skilled tech worker, citizen, green-card holder or otherwise.
This is real humorous. One company offered a degreed Electrical Engineer $15 an hour in the SF Bay Area. I kid you not. (read the thread) This is not an isolated case, and I know of other examples. Why do people bother to get college degrees again??
This is what the H1B program has bought us folks. People with degrees working for slave wages that won't even enable them to pay back their student loans. In my book, that's going backwards. It's time to stop being fooled by the H1B folly.
Slashdot Mirror
For those that wonder, Voyager at 125 AU is about .002 light year distant. The star was 400 times further out. Likewise, if we to launch our currently fastest spacecraft New Horizons (that is reaching Pluto soon in July 2015 at 33.77 AU) towards the star (when it was closest), it would take about 14,000 years to reach that star. There have been a number of nuclear rockets proposed, with the latest version from NASA in 2011 (the Magneto-Inertial Fusion planned for Mars missions). If that rocket reached its technological goals (by 2030), it would take roughly 110 years to reach Scholz when it was at its closest. These numbers are merely back of the envelope two digit accuracy, and are not meant to be precise but give ballpark figures.
I keep my code undeadable with a liberal use of goto [slashdot.org] statements.
Or simply use a language made out of gotos - Forth.
It'll never be "decrypted."
They were able to stay in business longer because of cell phones, which hit a peak in the nineties. In fact, their stores that will stay open will be owned by a cell phone carrier and branded as such.
No matter what, they were myopic to their original business model and their employees. Otherwise, they could have been a Digikey or Mouser when it came to components. But I did know that this day was inevitable, if not predicted.
I saw this day coming after I worked there for a period. Treating their employees poorly was part of their business plan. I am surprised that it took so long though. Kornfield isn't around to see this, but he must have seen it on the horizon as well.
Speak for yourself - where are you living? Perhaps this depends on geography, because where I'm living plumbers and electricians do better than $12-$15/hr lowly tech workers. And those tech workers are competing with engineers that don't have jobs.
I could see this as a growth industry for hospitals (hey, we need the money)
Not really, according to 60 minutes. Hospitals have no problem getting money. They're rolling in the dough and can afford to pay their CEOs millions of dollars. So called non-profit hospitals mark up prices many times. Really, don't fool yourself with a statement like that.
Except he never intended it to be flamebait.
This is quite disingenuous. The way he phrased his 'tweet' was purposeful. I personally don't care about what Tyson says or what other people think about what he says. I doubt that I am in the minority either. Even if thousands responded to him negatively (and was he that dumb that he thought that no one would? Really??) the reaction would still amount to a small minority of twitter users, which according to the company's last year numbers they had 232 million users.
Yes, it was flamebait.
The problem is the religious right is embracing a culture of victimhood to compete with the left
The bigger problem is people who are responsible for representing a scientific message not being culturally sensitive to have enough tact, even if they disagree with that culture. For example the importance of teaching people the science of climate change should lead to a degree of restraint in other not very related public arenas such as holidays.
Sounds like the guy worked hard and had his shit together financially.
Or taking advantage of a forced captive audience by charging crushing $250+ USD prices for a math textbook. Hard to swallow when Dover can manage to charge $20 for a text.
My guess is that they have a truckload in storage already made. It would not make sense for them to not make them available for sale in exotic applications. It's a proven design being (that can use a minimum of other expensive rad hardened parts) used in other proven designs so they can pull them off the shelf and have something ready to fly quickly. As parent poster noted, for many applications 64 bits can be overkill. They could also being used for repair for things like military aircraft that used them in their manufacture in that era and are still flying.
I agree. It's time all the underlings stop fighting their destiny!!
The end user would see it as part of an operating system - which it does become. All I'm seeing here on Slashdot is what must be a bunch of Groupon employees trolling Slashdot trying to defend their company. But they will lose this trademark case.
The GNOME desktop guys need to stop acting like they own the word "gnome".
Said the poster quoting executives inside Groupon!
As far as operating systems are concerned, they do in fact "own" the word "gnome." That is by definition of what a trademark is.
The gnome foundation does have a right to be concerned. With an point of sale system that offers a "gnome" operating environment, end users could easily confuse the two. And it seriously could affect the Gnome Foundation's ability to conduct any business in the future as their mark would be seriously diluted.
What is also disturbing is the hubris behind this. Clearly Groupon thought that they could steamroll over the Gnome Foundation!
I am not a user of gnome, and I know that developers and users have had disagreements with Gnome in the past, but that doesn't mean that users of open source software shouldn't stand behind the Gnome Foundation on this issue. As they have made significant contributions to GPL code and promoting open source software. This really is a no-brainer.
What computing system was used to render the video, and is there a paper available which describes some of the math behind the simulation?
You'll notice that the US spends more than practically any country, and gets among the worst results.
You need to include those on the hardware end as well. Otherwise companies would just end up shafting a different type of tech worker. So not just programmers but tech workers in general.
Title of my upcoming book "Why Johnny can't use a Surface tablet" in bookstores everywhere.
You'll notice that the US spends more than practically any country, and gets among the worst results.
your normal SOC and microprocessors will go apeshit in a rad environment
And why you would lead shield the SOC heavily.
So the better question is how can we improve the system to ensure that counterfeit chips aren't being secretly swapped into our products.
And here we have the question FTDI needed to ask before nuking people's equipment to deal with a crime that already took place.
Any BOM that passes through my hands will get FTDI crossed off. I'm sorry they have a counterfeit problem. They need to improve anti counterfeiting measures instead of inflicting collateral damage. Their abrupt decision is smelly no matter how you look at it.
This is exactly what I was looking at. Are the USB chips covered by FTDI patents? What process are they assigned a PID?
In other words, why not just give it your own Chinese trademark and move on?
You get what you pay for. Unless good counterfeits are a high percentage of the market you will know the price. You KNOW the real price. Those discounts are "too good to be true".
Except that the end consumer has zero knowledge about these counterfeit chips inside whatever they bought. And my guess is a most slashdotters do not either, until it stops working because of FTDI.
Could you be a little more specific about the kind of software this is about?
That might reveal why people shy away from the project.
Tangentially, you manage to bring up a very good point. One huge problem is the software projects might be using. A number of companies open sourced their software before the notion of a 'standardized' license method became prevalent. If a project is not Mozilla, GPL, or BSD compatible then it will have a very hard time attracting new developers. I know would not want to work on something that did not have a useful open source license. I would encourage the submitter to make sure whatever he is working on have a standard, permissive as possible license (if possible) before he closes shop.
I know one interesting project (from a historical perspective) that suffers from this is the Open Watcom compiler with its non-compatible Sybase Public License. This project fits the submitter's description to a tee. I bet there are others like this. At least POV-Ray got around to fixing their license finally.
This was asked back on Slashdot 14 years ago in 2000. As you can see, most of the websites mentioned that archived "ummaintained" software have since evaporated and are unmaintained themselves!
Then it was talked about briefly on stackoverflow in 2009.
Submitter, what I suggest you do is include a text file that describes the history of the project (If it was me - I think it would be nice to thank those by name who made significant contributions), known issues, ideas for direction of the project (if any), and then post it to Github and Sourceforge as an 'ummaintained' software. With as permissive as a license as you can give it, which will encourage it's use down the road. Also, I would post links, notices, and intentions to any associated forums. And give the community as much time to as possible before closing the website down. Maybe someone or some company will have the where with all to continue the project. If it is reasonable to do so and they seem to be reputable and serious, you might let them. Otherwise, when finished, make sure that archive.org has browsed the website for their archives. Also, post a copy the final software there. If it has a domain name, if you can, I'd give it a ten year renewal date and give it a notice of closure and a link to the project on Github.
But the larger issue for me, is that you, your colleagues, and friends spent time and effort on this project. That should be recognized. At least by acknowledging that support is ceasing for this project, it can hopefully move on to other hands in the future. It does happen.
I wish more more programmers were as thoughtful as you. And I wish there were better ways (i.e. more permanent and standardized) of dealing with orphanware.
Kill some more jobs.
With congress in reckless cut everything sequestration mode, this will help NASA hold onto the infrastructure and programs that they already have. Even though it involves mixing NASA with the military once again.
Truth of the matter is, in the SF Bay Area, it is hard to be unemployed if you're a properly skilled tech worker, citizen, green-card holder or otherwise.
This is real humorous. One company offered a degreed Electrical Engineer $15 an hour in the SF Bay Area. I kid you not. (read the thread) This is not an isolated case, and I know of other examples. Why do people bother to get college degrees again??
This is what the H1B program has bought us folks. People with degrees working for slave wages that won't even enable them to pay back their student loans. In my book, that's going backwards. It's time to stop being fooled by the H1B folly.