Is to get you to buy stuff. The initial intent was good - to save on candles and kerosene. These days DST simply doesn't make sense and the only reason it exists is because retail lobby wants it to exist. See, you're less likely to go out shopping when it's dark outside. So they make you adjust the clock, so you'd go shopping in the evening.
It just doesn't favor paying for it when you can run it for free. I think if recession really kicks in, RHAT will be much more fucked than MSFT, because CTO's will drop those support contracts for a year or two hoping nothing will blow up too dramatically.
These folks usually need a near death experience to change their mind. You won't change it. It's only when competitors are closing in, that's when folks like these give up their superiority complex and do what the engineers say. But by then it's already too late.
It's "visas", "mins" and "employees". It really is a shame that you don't know your native language. People would probably take you seriously if you did.
But one thing is not even up for debate - Apple designs gorgeous, high quality hardware, and then also kicks ass in customer service if something goes wrong. They're willing to go the extra mile, I'm willing to pay more for it, because no other hardware manufacturer seems to really give a shit about their products. I spend several hours a day, each and every day, using my laptop. Quality matters in this case.
Why am I paying my tax money for this? Can someone explain? They rip off the taxpayer to the tune of $500 billion every year (although only a fraction of that is DARPA) and then build something ridiculous with no prospect of adoption, ever, or wage wars under false pretenses.
The current crop of SD-card based AVCHD camcorders fills up a 16GB card in about 2 hours. As an added bonus, those files do not require any conversion to be viewed on a BluRay player.
People buy them and then try to install Windows software. This works on XP, but doesn't work on Linux (of course). Dismayed, customers return their Linux netbooks.
It's a better user experience as well - I'd much rather tell the server where all the cats are instead of trying to parse out barely recognizable characters.
And I'm pretty sure it doesn't have a BibTeX substitute. I use LaTeX myself, but I see a lot of researchers using Word and output looks great. You can now export the document into PDF directly from Word 2007.
I prefer LaTeX myself because of better bibliorgaphy support, cross-references and because it makes it easy to globally redefine the way the document looks by tweaking a few styles. Styles and xrefs have traditionally been a pain in Word and than hasn't changed with 2007.
But it seems you have not seen Word 2007 equation editor. It's close, in both capabilities, and output quality, to LaTeX. Too bad the rest of Word sucks ass.
>> that would have been a nightmare to build with any other tools
I saw some BRILLIANT people come from tech support. This is not the kind of support Joe Sixpack would be able to call up on the phone, though. This is what they charge enterprises for. There was one dude who knew Active Directory inside and out, and then some. He very quickly moved through the ranks, since it helps when you know the product better than the developers who wrote it (developers have limited visibility into other people's code, since they're constantly in "nose to the grindstone" mode).
So there's tech support and then there's tech support. Perhaps you should first target a more technical support role and then work your way up from there.
The "secretary" example is doable with technologies we have today. It does not, strictly speaking, require "strong AI". It would be ridiculously hard to build and ridiculously expensive though, if built using today's technologies.
But not in the next 50 years. I would love if my computer could serve as an omniscient "super secretary". If I could, for example, just say to it "I want to go to Chicago on Friday, book airline tickets, coach, no connections, in the evening, lowest cost. Return flight next Friday around the same time. Also reserve taxi to and from the airport, and a room the same hotel as last time I went there." Or let it find you a new job, given your experience and a list of available positions. Or ask for a concise summary on relative merits of top 7.1 home theater sound systems under $1K. Etc, etc. The list is endless.
This is not to say that Mundie has a "vision" - my impression of him is that he will tell you anything to justify Microsoft paying him $1M a year in combined compensation. However, you can't deny the appeal of a truly natural user interface.
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Is to get you to buy stuff. The initial intent was good - to save on candles and kerosene. These days DST simply doesn't make sense and the only reason it exists is because retail lobby wants it to exist. See, you're less likely to go out shopping when it's dark outside. So they make you adjust the clock, so you'd go shopping in the evening.
Personally, I prefer downwards of women, but if only upwards are available, that's fine, too.
It just doesn't favor paying for it when you can run it for free. I think if recession really kicks in, RHAT will be much more fucked than MSFT, because CTO's will drop those support contracts for a year or two hoping nothing will blow up too dramatically.
These folks usually need a near death experience to change their mind. You won't change it. It's only when competitors are closing in, that's when folks like these give up their superiority complex and do what the engineers say. But by then it's already too late.
Can't they just use iChat or something?
It's "visas", "mins" and "employees". It really is a shame that you don't know your native language. People would probably take you seriously if you did.
But one thing is not even up for debate - Apple designs gorgeous, high quality hardware, and then also kicks ass in customer service if something goes wrong. They're willing to go the extra mile, I'm willing to pay more for it, because no other hardware manufacturer seems to really give a shit about their products. I spend several hours a day, each and every day, using my laptop. Quality matters in this case.
Does your service support encrypted protocols?
Does your service support a standards based access for sending and receiving email (IMAP, POP3, SMTP)?
Hint: only GMail supports these two crucial features.
...only if you don't mind an occasional cavity search. Use DHL otherwise.
Those had a clear application in the real world back when they were invented. Underwater plane sounds like a complete waste of money, however.
and I could live without Tasers. My issue is when they spend my money on ridiculous crap like this.
Why am I paying my tax money for this? Can someone explain? They rip off the taxpayer to the tune of $500 billion every year (although only a fraction of that is DARPA) and then build something ridiculous with no prospect of adoption, ever, or wage wars under false pretenses.
The current crop of SD-card based AVCHD camcorders fills up a 16GB card in about 2 hours. As an added bonus, those files do not require any conversion to be viewed on a BluRay player.
People buy them and then try to install Windows software. This works on XP, but doesn't work on Linux (of course). Dismayed, customers return their Linux netbooks.
*.docx is essentially a gzipped XML file, from what I understand.
Check out ASIRRA: http://research.microsoft.com/asirra/
It's a better user experience as well - I'd much rather tell the server where all the cats are instead of trying to parse out barely recognizable characters.
Check it out. You'll be surprised.
And I'm pretty sure it doesn't have a BibTeX substitute. I use LaTeX myself, but I see a lot of researchers using Word and output looks great. You can now export the document into PDF directly from Word 2007.
I prefer LaTeX myself because of better bibliorgaphy support, cross-references and because it makes it easy to globally redefine the way the document looks by tweaking a few styles. Styles and xrefs have traditionally been a pain in Word and than hasn't changed with 2007.
>> point and click system will always be inferior to
>> LaTeX when it comes to equations
You can use LaTeX-like syntax now to enter equations.
But it seems you have not seen Word 2007 equation editor. It's close, in both capabilities, and output quality, to LaTeX. Too bad the rest of Word sucks ass.
>> that would have been a nightmare to build with any other tools
Here's the translation from the corporate speak:
"We've released it and no one bit. We have no idea what to do with it, so let us see if we can use other people's ideas for free."
I saw some BRILLIANT people come from tech support. This is not the kind of support Joe Sixpack would be able to call up on the phone, though. This is what they charge enterprises for. There was one dude who knew Active Directory inside and out, and then some. He very quickly moved through the ranks, since it helps when you know the product better than the developers who wrote it (developers have limited visibility into other people's code, since they're constantly in "nose to the grindstone" mode).
So there's tech support and then there's tech support. Perhaps you should first target a more technical support role and then work your way up from there.
Here's a picture of world's oldest stones
The "secretary" example is doable with technologies we have today. It does not, strictly speaking, require "strong AI". It would be ridiculously hard to build and ridiculously expensive though, if built using today's technologies.
But not in the next 50 years. I would love if my computer could serve as an omniscient "super secretary". If I could, for example, just say to it "I want to go to Chicago on Friday, book airline tickets, coach, no connections, in the evening, lowest cost. Return flight next Friday around the same time. Also reserve taxi to and from the airport, and a room the same hotel as last time I went there." Or let it find you a new job, given your experience and a list of available positions. Or ask for a concise summary on relative merits of top 7.1 home theater sound systems under $1K. Etc, etc. The list is endless.
This is not to say that Mundie has a "vision" - my impression of him is that he will tell you anything to justify Microsoft paying him $1M a year in combined compensation. However, you can't deny the appeal of a truly natural user interface.